Speaking for Everyone: An Anthology of “We” Poems, Edited by Eric Grienke, Independently Published, Middletown, DE, 2024, ISBN: 979-8332054433, $15.99
Eric Greinke’s anthology, Speaking for Everyone, is a self-described exploration of “poems that express collective consciousness through the use of the first person plural persona ‘we’.” Except for select poems written by the quintessential American poet Walt Whitman, every poem in this anthology was written within the last 60 years. His poetry, Greinke argues, foreshadows the universal themes contained within the other selected poems. The inclusion of Whitman’s poetry serves as an acknowledgement of the conceptual basis for the anthology itself, and the focus on more modern poetry creates a moving examination of modern society and humanity.
A poetic exploration of this nature is ambitious. Greinke included an introduction explaining his intentions, clearly defining “collective consciousness” and providing context for his venture. “Collective” here is used to describe poetry that transcends personal concerns (an egocentric approach to poetry, and by far the most common) and attempts to speak for others. This can be achieved by describing an experience shared by two people or by taking a more philosophical examination of human nature. Such poetry is described by Greinke as “anthropocentric.” Strangely enough, it can be difficult to find effective anthropocentric poetry. By its very nature, poetry tends to be personal, and many poets shy away from using the first person plural “we” in their writings. No one experience can truly be considered “universal,” and so poetic attempts to capture a universal human experience can come across as arrogant, out-of-touch, or ill-conceived. When done well, however – as was done historically by the likes of Whitman and Maya Angelou, among others – anthropocentric poetry can provide invaluable insight into human nature, society, and our “collective consciousness.”
Suffice it to say, the poems selected for this anthology by Greinke and his contributing editors, Alan Britt, Peter Krok, and Gary Metras, are all done effectively.
Many of the poems, such as Desirée Alvarez’s “Primero Sueño, First Dream: On Crossing, a Whitmanesque,” Grace Cavalieri’s “Through the Centuries,” Carol Hamilton’s “Adaptation,” W.D. Ehrhart’s “The Cradle of Civilization,” and others, explore collective consciousness through retrospection, relating history to modern society. Finding commonalities with ancient civilizations can be a humbling way to make sense of the modern world, as Jody Azzouni observed in “Recollections in Twilight”:
Long ago, we tamed fire,
and we have fed it everything,
we have darkened our safety.
Now buildings fall in unison,
now they collapse brown and green,
like moments passing,
each one furious to die.
And we are homeless again,
hungry again,
sitting moment by moment on intolerant
benches
wandering each day into whatever we’ve found.
In this same poem, Azzouni contemplates humanity’s place and history within the natural world:
Barely remembering
our dirt past
when we were knotted like seed,
pinconing in groups,
when we looked forward to sprouting,
when plenty was everywhere,
and we sang our friendships together,
bricked one another into haven.
He is hardly the only poet in the anthology to meditate on humanity’s relationship with nature. Many poems, such as David Chorlton’s “Lost” and “A Brief History of Trees,” consider the ways humanity has reshaped the natural world. Other poems, such as Steve Barfield’s “The Grave Stone” and “A Question of Immortality,” consider the role art and poetry play in the totality of human history, asking what future generations will think of our modern world:
A thousand years from now,
when they will curse,
how we have used the earth
will they also remember my grandfather?
He was the last Custodian
that Grand Keeper
of that last elm.
In that future time
when all memory is magnetic
they will turn to the poets
for accounting.
But after the pragmatic plague
has had its way
with even our culture
there will be a general call
to bring out the dead.
Then surely poetry
will be the first body
on that cart.
Quite a few poems in the anthology explore the nature of human relationships, be it between two people, between two nations, or on a holistic level. Thomas Lux’s “The People of the Other Village,” Ann E. Michael’s “Distance,” Patty Dickinson Pieczka’s “Refugees,” and Carl Watson’s “foreign born” all effectively examine how societal differences can complicate relationships and cause misunderstanding and alienation. Greinke himself captures this existential and seemingly universal loneliness best in one of his own contributions to the anthology, “Flood Tide”:
Another day surges over
the horizon, flotsam
sloshing through its dark
sluice. Loose pages
drift in pools, like
travelers, asleep beneath
the hills. There is no
bowl to contain our
tears, just flooded floors in
a hastily abandoned factory.
Though pleasure pours
like rain, we swim
on until dark, emerging
from the water’s edge smelling
like wet sand. Submerged
beneath our common
respiration, we wonder if
the ocean breeze will
keep us on course or
blow us back into ourselves.
We have thrown down our
breathless waves, arriving
home late but still
somehow hopelessly
adrift. There is no
pail for love. Even though
we’ve wrapped ourselves within
each others arms, each
of us still drowns alone.
Less holistically, some poems explore interpersonal dynamics and more common experiences. Robert K. Johnson’s “When We Meet” does just this, abstractly exploring a vague relationship. The unspecified nature of the relationship is partly what gives this poem a more universal meaning. This could be a poem about friends, lovers, colleagues, or family; the exact relationship is less relevant than the dynamic at play here.
When We Meet
let’s spurn a conversation
that — bland as weak coffee — skims
over the last movies,
fads in food, and the price
of gas. Truthful as heroes
in fairy tales, let’s reveal
some swish we’ve nurtured, but never
divulged before, or describe
some far-off place we’ve imagined
flying to — and even explain
the unexplainable meaning
this place holds for us. Or tell
a deep worry that seizes us
when we rouse from sleep at midnight
and then what fantasy, warm
as a mother’s goodnight kiss,
slides us into a dream
as refreshing as our talk now.
In his introduction, Greinke expands upon the goal of his anthology, explaining that “the type of poems presented… can become a potent force toward greatly improved levels of interpersonal and international understanding.” This is a noble goal, and one that the selected poems would seem to support. Greinke additionally states, “A better understanding of our conflicted nature can be achieved through an international poetry of collective consciousness.” This falls somewhat flat in light of the poets represented within the anthology. All but a scant handful were born and raised in America. Many of the poets who were not born in America ultimately immigrated here. The vast majority of the poets work in academia. While this does not necessarily render the entire anthology “ethnocentric” (which Greinke describes as being poems about “not just me, but others who are like me”), it does cast the explored concept of universality into a rather America-centric light.
A worthy successor to Speaking for Everyone would explore beyond poems written by and for Western societies and delve into themes of collective consciousness in international poetry. Although this could admittedly be complicated through translations muddying some intended meaning, it would better support Greinke’s observation:
As a species, we need to understand and address the war in man, the deeply-seated, built-in conflict that we homo-sapiens have between the selfish, materialistic side and the altruistic, moralistic side of humanity. Our dual nature is the cause of crime, suffering and social conflict… This conflict is species-wide and goes beyond mere cultural differences.
Speaking for Everyone is a powerful and moving observation of human nature and collective consciousness. It is an anthology that is well worth reading more than once, as each poem gains additional meaning and context as they interplay with each other. Art and poetry give additional meaning to life. They are what separate cultures from one another, but ironically, also what unites them. Greinke’s exploration of humanity through poetry and art is a natural response to the globalization of communication and homogenization of cultures through technological advances such as social media, television, and radio. Searching for anthropocentric meaning within poetry can help humanity better understand itself and better relate to one another; Greinke understands this truth, and Speaking for Everyone is a testament to his vision of a common human experience.
© Erick Greinke, Jody Azzouni, Steve Barfield, Robert K. Johnson, and Ginny Phalen
Eric Greinke, b. 1948, has been active in the American small press since the late sixties. He is a graduate of Grand Valley State University and was the editor and founder of GVSU’s national literary magazine, Amaranthus. As editor and publisher of Pilot Press Books from 1972-1977, Greinke published many of the important poets of that period. During the 80s and 90s, he stopped publishing his literary work to devote himself full-time to social work with emotionally and developmentally disabled children and adolescents. His return to the literary scene was marked by the publication of his book Selected Poems 1972- 2005. Greinke has frequently addressed the issues of literary politics and poetic freedom through his essays and his poetry. In addition, he has been a champion of eclecticism, diversity, and tolerance on the too-often divided literary scene. His works have been translated into several languages, including French, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, and Japanese. Greinke is a Ginsberg Award winner and a 2017 recipient of a Pushcart Prize for his poem Lone Bones (in collaboration with Glenna Luschei).
Ginny Phalen graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature. She has had poems and short stories published in magazines such as Connections and Bartleby and has written for various newspapers, including The Retriever and The Enterprise. She currently lives in Arlington, VA, where she writes in her free time.
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