Documentary poetry
Documentary poems combine primary source material with poetry writing. Myriad sources inspire documentary poetry, including interviews, news articles, letters, photographs, dairies, court transcripts, medical records, and a variety of public records. With the increasing availability of online primary sources, writers can access documents brimming with poetic potential.
Poets may arrange lines or phrases from the source texts to create poems, convey their interpretation of the documents through original poetry, or write poems that fall on the continuum between these approaches. Some poets work solely with text; others mix mediums or collaborate with musicians and visual artists.
Although poets choose diverse sources and forms, many share a common purpose: seeking social change by breaking silences and bearing witness to injustice. My first encounter with docupoetry (before I knew what it was called) was "The Colonel." Philip Metres offers an excellent overview of this pulse within poetry in "From Reznikoff to Public Enemy" (2007) published by the Poetry Foundation.
If this sort of poetry sounds familiar, you may have heard of it - or its kin - before. This poetic inclination shares traits with objectivist poetry (e.g. William Carlos Williams) and investigative poetry (e.g. Edward Sanders), and is sometimes called docupoetry. In a 2011 essay, poet Joseph Harrington declared it a genre of its own: "creative nonpoetry" (Docupoetry).
Poets may arrange lines or phrases from the source texts to create poems, convey their interpretation of the documents through original poetry, or write poems that fall on the continuum between these approaches. Some poets work solely with text; others mix mediums or collaborate with musicians and visual artists.
Although poets choose diverse sources and forms, many share a common purpose: seeking social change by breaking silences and bearing witness to injustice. My first encounter with docupoetry (before I knew what it was called) was "The Colonel." Philip Metres offers an excellent overview of this pulse within poetry in "From Reznikoff to Public Enemy" (2007) published by the Poetry Foundation.
If this sort of poetry sounds familiar, you may have heard of it - or its kin - before. This poetic inclination shares traits with objectivist poetry (e.g. William Carlos Williams) and investigative poetry (e.g. Edward Sanders), and is sometimes called docupoetry. In a 2011 essay, poet Joseph Harrington declared it a genre of its own: "creative nonpoetry" (Docupoetry).
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Docupoetry sampler
Believer (video) - by Natasha Trethewey, a poem based on interviews with residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina excerpt from Blood Dazzler - by Patricia Smith, a collection that personifies Hurricane Katrina Children 3 (audio from the PennSound archives) - from Holocaust by Charles Reznikoff - constructed from transcripts of Nuremberg Trial testimonies In a Field Outside the Town - by Gabriel Spera - about Bosnian army's killing of Muslim men in Srebrenica in July 1995 In the Office of Temporary Assistance - by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett (audio version available from transom web site) Pulsamos: LGBTQ Poets Respond to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting - a special issue of Glass Several poems that became part of the collection Seam by Tarfia Faizullah with photographs by Elizabeth Herman Syncopated Sonnets (video) - by Tyehimba Jess - contrapuntal poems that tell the story of Millie and Christine McCoy |
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Contemporary poets
Docupoetry is one of many poetic modes in which these poets write. Don Mee Choi - DMZ Colony (incl. The End of a Nation), winner of the National Book Award for Poetry - explores Edward Said's notion of "the intertwined and overlapping histories" of South Korea and the United States Tyehimba Jess - leadbelly (incl. martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935) - about blues legend Huddie Ledbetter (1888-1949); and OLIO (incl. Millie and Christine McCoy), winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Marilyn Nelson - Fortune's Bones, A Wreath for Emmett Till, and several more, such as "Worth." Mark Nowak - Shut Up, Shut Down (incl. ACT/SEVEN); Coal Mine Elementary - about industrial crisis and coal mining respectively Arra Lynn Ross - Seedlip and Sweet Apple (incl. Mother Ann Tells Lucy What Gave Her Joy) - about Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) Patricia Smith - Blood Dazzler (incl. Buried and three others published in Poetry) - persona poems about Hurricane Katrina Susan B.A. Somers-Willett - Women of Troy project with photographer Brenda Kenneally - about urban decline and economic struggle in Troy, New York. Poems at VQR Online. Audio versions at transom. Related interview available as well. Natasha Trethewey - Domestic Work (incl. Domestic Work, 1937) - based on photos of African-Americans at work in early 20th c. Divya Victor - Curb (incl. Milestone 1) - "documents how immigrants and Americans navigate the liminal sites of everyday living . . . undergirded by violence but also constantly repaved with new possibilities of belonging" |
Earlier poets
Charles Reznikoff - Testimony; Holocaust Muriel Rukeyser - The Book of the Dead (annotated edition in EMU's Muriel Rukeyser archive) William Carlos Williams - Paterson C.D. Wright - One Big Self project with photographer Deborah Luster - poems based on interviews with inmates in Louisiana prisons. Related essay and recordings available, as well as video about photographer's choice of medium to evoke tin types. Three poems on publisher's site under "read and share a poem from this book." Interviews and Blog Posts
Against Explanation - post by Tarfia Faizullah on Harriet (2015) Natasha Trethewey on NPR's Fresh Air Essays and Research Statements
Common-place: The Interactive Journal of Early American Life - The journal focuses on American history before 1900, and for many years, there was a regular "poetic research" section which now appears a little less regularly. Here are two samples: poems by Shikha Malaviya inspired by the life of Anandibai Joshee and poems by Wendy DeGroat inspired by the life of Grace Evelyn Arents. A site search for poetic research (no quotation marks) reveals additional examples. Joseph Harrington - Docupoetry and Archive Desire (2011) Philip Metres - From Reznikoff to Public Enemy: The Poet as Journalist, Historian, Agitator (2007) Split this Rock 2014 - Workshop Materials
Student Source Articles and Samples
Source article by Eszterhas (scroll down page) from The Plain Dealer (1969) - excerpts in Matt Reichert's poem Source articles by Hunt and Russell from The New York Times (2011) - excerpts in Gowri Buddiga's poem
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