It puts his or her art at a disadvantage, and creates waves in the mainstream. Reconstruction, democraticization, and the host of other social initiatives, demand programs. They call for projects and five year plans. Here, poetry is at a loss for words. When it does find them it often does so as propoganda, sounding more like public service annoucements than lyrical compositions.
Danger abounds when aritsts turn activists.
And their art, along with their cause, may suffer for it. Even in the rare cases where a poet weaves both together successfully, one senses another kind of limbo. If so, one might have to swim against the current of mainstream sentiment. By defenition advocacy requires a poet stand outside the center. Both instances, bad poetry and taking one side or another, diminish the poet's star appeal as a national figure.