Return to "Rich and Poor:" Poems

Photo: Peace of Mind (C) 2006 by Rochelle Ratner.All rights reserved.

RICH and POOR: Introduction to Selected Poems
by Sharon Olinka

Sharon Olinka is a poet and literary critic who lives in New York City. Her latest book is The Good City, from Marsh Hawk Press, 2006. Her poems have been published in journals such as Colorado Review, Onthebus, Poetry New York, Luna, Poetry Wales, and Long Shot. She has edited a feature on Austrailian poets for American Book Review. Her first book of poems, A Face Not My Own, was published by West End Press in 1995. Her writing reflects a belief in the strength of multiculturalism in the United States, and a commitment to a global community of writers. Olinka has traveled extensively in Turkey, Bali and Australia among other places.

 

 

Poverty implies a dearth of opportunities, and narrowing of vision. Yet endurance, and deep connections to one’s heritage, continue to provide strength. For this feature, I’ve chosen poems that insist poverty is not an “Other” to be feared and banished, the dark side of all our dreams of mobility. Whether rich or poor, we carry our Other Half as a shadow, the secret dweller in our glass houses. It is always with us. The wealthy continue to be ridiculed for their excess, but envied. The poor are embraced for political expediency, and prized for their earthiness, but feared as strangers who might tear down social structures.

We’re a bunch of paradoxes, we Americans. We continue to believe a decent, financially comfortable life is possible, despite corporate greed, and think that with our money and our good intentions, the whole world will love us. Not so. Not at all. And with globalization, the stakes are even higher. Where are our leaders? Who are the writers to guide us?


I was influenced, early on, by writers such as Dreiser, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald. They saw America as it really is, with all the hopeless yearning for a better life, the false tinsel. But they loved people for what they also really are: contradictory, passionate, hopeful, and full of endearing flaws.


In homage to those great writers, I’m presenting this feature as a tribute to the human spirit as well… which lives on despite the temptations of wealth, and the cruelties of poverty. The voices here, from Philip Levine to Julie Kane, speak of lives that might seem familiar. They speak of lives on Western ranches, in cities, in countries other than the United States, and by coincidence, there are two guys named Antonio in separate poems. There’s humor and sadness. But not cynicism, saying No to life. Most of all, they are mainly about lives lived with courage, dignity, and honor. And since hurricane Katrina, we cannot look away.

Return to "Rich and Poor" Poems, Selected

by Sharon Olinka

 )