anti-war poets
Ironywaves
Subject: anti-war poets
I post this article for a couple of reasons
1) dylan intersects with contemporary literature, and as somebody who is a
reader, I feel it is important to post on authors and poets, beyond the
usual
suspects of ginsberg and rimbaud.
2) to point out a vacum in american culture. This is beyond being for or
against or whatever about irax war. Here there are truly great poets, like
Sharon Olds (her volume, Well Spring is simply great literature). And the
poets expected to come were big names, like Pinsky, even Ann Waldman, who
was
in Renaldo & Clara, was anticpated, although I am not sure if the fast
speaking woman showed or not. There was a big blizzard.
Anyway, my point is that none of these great writers seemed to have come
up with anything original. Here they are, poets, at a crucial moment in
history, not to mention the back story, mentioned in the story, about poetry
and politics and the white house not realizing that poets actually are
inspired by politics. And they can't come up with some orginal lines of
verse
to some hour articulate or at least express the feelings in ameirca now,
wounded by 9/11, ambivelant about how bush is selling this war.
And you right wingers out there, don't be saying this is emblamtic of
the
leftist peace niks. Remember in September, the year anniversary of the
Terrorist attacks. How was it commemorated? Politiicans and actors read the
words of others, of famous speeches, like the Gettysburgh Address. Not one
great orator. How about an original speech for our time? How about somebody
summing up how the nation feels at the moment, bring us together with words,
ideas and vision. Like Lincoln did, on that bloody battlefied, one nation
under god, shall not perish from this earth. Where are our great minds?
What's that line from Dylan, anyone has an original thought out there?
Or even a better one, show me someone who is not a parasite, and I 'll
go
out and say a prayer for him. Well, not many prayers are being said.
You know, the only one who did it was Springsteen's the Rising. So,
poetry and speeches have fallen short, but our popular troubadours still
sing
for the people.
And no, I don't want to suggest Dylan do a 9/11 song, and no I don't
think L&T predicted our feelings of that tragedy. I have heard that
suggestion. Quite frankly, L&T, a great album, has kind of silly lyrics,
sort
of under the red sky or nashville skyline type funny aphorisms. Dylan has
done his time already as the social conscience.
Anyway, I have a feeling that the beats, like Ginsberg or Ferlinghetti
would have something pithy to say, especially to revel about an anti war
sentiment. (where are you Gary Snyder?) Didn't the British poet laureate
write some kind of poem? How come these cats, who are great writers, albiet
safe and secure in academic positions, had to read other people's poems?
Sharon Olds reading an Iraqui poet, give me a break. Write a poem from the
heart, Sharon, not just for the Editors of the New Yorker! And we had to
feature Rappers to give contempary poets relevance and valdity.
This is beyond poltics about this war. This is a symptom of our TV
dazzled, anti intellectual culture. Read the dopey signs of the protestors.
Listen to the dopey rhetroic of Bush. IT's not pro war or anti war, it's not
right or left. Al Queda is not in the locomotive of this particular slow
train!!!!!!
POETRY REVIEW
Ambiguity Is a Guest at a Readers' Evening
By KELEFA SANNEH
The event was called "Poems Not Fit for the White House," and the idea
seemed
simple enough: a few dozen poets went to Avery Fisher Hall on Monday night
to
read poems and express their opposition to an attack on Iraq.
This was an entertaining show, well packaged and paced, and the hall was
nearly full, despite the blizzard. But all night an uncomfortable question
hung in the air: Do poets have some sort of special moral authority? And if
so, why?
The event was named in honor of Sam Hamill, who was invited to a White House
poetry reading and responded by soliciting antiwar poems, with the intention
of presenting them to his host, Laura Bush; Ms. Bush responded by postponing
the event. This story (recounted in the program guide) set an odd tone: it
was proof, perhaps, that the most effective poetry reading is the one that
never happens. Faced with the responsibility of speaking as the nation's
moral conscience, most of the poets at Fisher Hall did the only sensible
thing: they ducked. Hardly any of the poets read poems of their own, and as
each new presenter arrived onstage, you could hear the unmistakable sound of
a buck being passed.
Some of the poets relied on the words of children, a familiar strategy and
perhaps not an altogether honest one. You may not love this poem, they
seemed
to say, but you won't dare insult it. Marie Howe read a poem by "a hero of
mine," who turned out to be a fourth grader.
Other poets found inspiration in verse from the Middle East. Sharon Olds
read
a poem by the eighth-century Iraqi poet Rabi'a al-Adawiyya, and Ammiel
Alcalay read a poem by the contemporary Iraqi poet Saadi Yousef. The young
Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad (who currently stars in "Russell
Simmons's Def Poetry Jam on Broadway") read an original piece, but it was a
disappointment, a bit of doggerel that kept returning to an inelegant
refrain: "If war was not an option." Another popular strategy was to pass
the
buck to another poet. Some of the biggest names on the schedule did not
appear, so others read in their places. Wallace Shawn read for Mark Strand,
Ellen McLaughlin read for Robert Pinsky and in a nifty feat of double buck
passing Eli Wallach, reading for Robert Creeley, recited a poem by his own
grandson, Tyler.
A number of presenters read original pieces, although not all of them were
poems. The rapper Mos Def delivered a rambling prose piece called "Shiny New
Nightmare," turning a well-known hip-hop chant into an evocation of terror:
"Somebody, anybody, everybody scream!" Arthur Miller got an even more
enthusiastic response when he asked, "Why can't this wait for a month, or
six
months, or years, or long enough for Saddam Hussein to just die?"
The night's most memorable moment came from Galway Kinnell, who began with
some remarks on the state of the nation. When he declared, "We are the
resistance," the audience gave him a standing ovation. "But that wasn't my
poem," he protested, half-joking. "I just wanted to read this poem about
giving my son Fergus milk in the middle of the night."
