"Politics is there the way men and women are there, the way the Atlantic Ocean is there. Sometimes I've written about politics specifically, I mean about politics as it's understood on television and in newspapers"

Kenneth Koch’s reflection on politics places it in the realm of the inevitable, as much a part of human experience as the very presence of men and women or the undeniable existence of the Atlantic Ocean. By grouping politics with such fundamental and incontrovertible realities, Koch suggests that politics is not a remote institution or mere abstraction, but rather an integral, inescapable facet of life. Its ‘thereness’ implies politics is woven into the fabric of existence, something one cannot choose to ignore, just as one cannot ignore humanity itself or the natural world.

Further, Koch distinguishes between politics in the broad, existential sense and politics as it is popularly recognized: the politics filtered through media, televised debates, and newspaper articles. This distinction highlights the difference between the omnipresence of political relations in all interactions and decisions, family dynamics, friendships, artistic communities, and the more formalized, often polarized politics on public display. He acknowledges that sometimes his writing engages directly with this latter, media-centric understanding, but his main awareness is of politics as a pervasive condition.

Koch’s approach reveals an understanding that politics extends well beyond governmental systems or party conflicts; it pulses through daily life, dynamic and persistent. It can manifest in personal relationships, social hierarchies, or even internal conflicts. The idea that politics is as real as the Atlantic Ocean invites readers to accept its constancy, to notice its undercurrents, ebbs and flows, and to recognize its power to shape lives. Rather than seeing politics as something apart or external, Koch invites a recognition of its omnipresence and complexity, with the media portrayal being only one small, sometimes superficial layer atop deeper realities, as vast and profound as the ocean he invokes.

Therefore, Koch’s stance is at once matter-of-fact and expansive, encouraging an understanding of politics as both a daily, lived encounter and a universal, enduring presence.