UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology FALL 2023 - Flipbook - Page 28
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
be judged solely on the worst thing they’ve ever done. And, since poetry and politics had been
intertwined for Aiken, he began to use poetry as a vehicle to explore “a truism of Black life
in America: what walls you must put up to feel remotely safe and what devastations can you
allow yourself awareness of and still survive.” His poem, “The Trouble with Angels,” sings with
internal rhyme and is almost an incantation to unknot the wrongs of the past into a future
where one might “kiss everything you are / told to kill.”
“Poetry,” Aiken told me, “is not an answer-giving genre; it asks better questions.” While
studying at Oxford, he moved away from the artificial boundary he had learned to make
between “slam poetry” and being a “page poet.” He began “collapsing any distinction between
those worlds,” as he recognized that the oral tradition of poetry meant that the musicality
inherent in slam also needs to exist on the page. “I wanted to wedge open the door between
the two and remind the reader that each poem can be an event.”
He began taking more time, exacting his use of language to support the agency of the intent
or speaker of the poem. “Poetry forces us to think about what language does and is doing—
not just whose stories get told but the consequences of whose stories get told.” This means
examining how politicians and lawmakers use language to manage or control narratives or to
marginalize communities, such as using a passive voice to sound less guilty, and how poetry
can spotlight agency or lack thereof.
And, as a Black poet, he feels it is imperative that he incorporate sound, rhythm, and
musicality as part of a very important Black tradition. “The legacy of the transatlantic trade is
you have folks who might speak a dozen different languages on the same boat, and they are all
supposed to just now be one, an undistinguishable amalgamation of cargo. And with music,
sound, rhythm... languages are created and communication takes place. So, there is this
really important Black inheritance that is historically specific to the experience of Blackness
in the modern world, but that also tells us something about what every embodied creature is
working with in terms of being alive and on this planet.”
His first chapbook, to be in & of, was released last month with Palette Poetry. The 21 stunning
poems that comprise this debut are vital to both poetry and politics. His poems do not shy
away from loss, but they also do not dwell there. From the parable-like “As the Prairie Burns”
to the 3-poem series, “Leftovers,” Aiken invites the reader to explore with him what love
and loss and freedom could mean. “'History Never Repeats Itself—But It Damn Sure Can
Rhyme'” ends, “freedom as what keeps you up at / night; freedom, as the risk of knowing /
that which never, we always, can choose.” He is choosing not to disappear or be disappeared.
He is choosing to never judge another on the worst thing they’ve done. He is inviting us to
join him. And this is precisely why you’ll be hearing about and reading work from Joshua
Aiken for decades to come. https://joshua-aiken.com / https://www.palettepoetry.
com/2023/08/07/2022-chapbook-prize-winner-joshua-aiken/
Contributed by: Ciara Shuttleworth
Ciara Shuttleworth is an alumnus of the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute. She has worked for three prominent San Francisco
fine art galleries. Additionally, she has provided art consulting for private and corporate collections, including Google. She is also
a published writer with works in the Norton Introduction to Literature and The New Yorker. Her most recent book is the poetry
collection, Rabbit Heart.
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