In 2003 I was so fortunate to hear of a poetry reading of Poets Against the War and then later to attend this poetry reading in downtown St. Paul. In attendance among others was Robert Bly. This reading convened poets to read poems of their own, or another, against the war mongering which was rampant in the run up to the Iraq War. Similar readings were held elsewhere in our country for the same purpose. I subsequently purchased Samuel Hamill's collection of the poetry he anthologized at that time by Poets against the war.
The country seemed caught up in jingoism at the time but not everyone bought into that popular sentiment to go invade Iraq. I recall first lady Laura Bush disinvited poets to the White House when she learned of anti-war sentiments that were rife in the literary community.
One observation I would make is that poets, even the most political of us, are unlikely to set out to write anti-war poems. I remember writing an anti-war poem as a young man as a language experiment. It is the least successful of poems except as an experiment but even that contains concern for the youth offered up as cannon fodder.
Poets of anti-war verse more likely are caught up in the moment by an underlying concern or passion about our fellow humans. Poems I wrote later in life that can be characterized as anti-war are a product of concern for my country and the human race. These poems ended up in a collection of my own anti-war poems (available upon email request to this blogger).
The country seemed caught up in jingoism at the time but not everyone bought into that popular sentiment to go invade Iraq. I recall first lady Laura Bush disinvited poets to the White House when she learned of anti-war sentiments that were rife in the literary community.
One observation I would make is that poets, even the most political of us, are unlikely to set out to write anti-war poems. I remember writing an anti-war poem as a young man as a language experiment. It is the least successful of poems except as an experiment but even that contains concern for the youth offered up as cannon fodder.
Poets of anti-war verse more likely are caught up in the moment by an underlying concern or passion about our fellow humans. Poems I wrote later in life that can be characterized as anti-war are a product of concern for my country and the human race. These poems ended up in a collection of my own anti-war poems (available upon email request to this blogger).
A poet who was at the coffee house Poets Against the War that night I went to listen was named Poet Laureate of Minnesota in 2011. Read about Joyce Sutphen's appointment at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/23/state-poet-laureate/
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