Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

GOOD NEWS!

The Poets Against War archive will be permanently housed at Ohio State University. We will also get some much-needed and long overdue technical support.

While this does not alleviate our need for some immediate contributions, it does mean that our huge archive (20,000+ poems along with articles, essays and op/ed pieces) will remain available to all, a permanent record of a time when American poets "spoke for the conscience of our country." A print copy of the mss would stand over 10 feet tall.

But with the war now expanded into Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, 100,000 troops still in Iraq, saber-rattling in the face of Iran and continued support for Israeli aggression, including the use of phosphorus-based weapons on civilian targets, we clearly have much to do at Poets Against War. Please pass the word and help reactivate and motivate our membership now that our enormous technical problems will be overcome fairly soon. And don't forget to make a modest donation. Significant changes are in the works. Be a part of the solution.

Namaste,

Sam Hamill

From the late great Howard Zinn:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Thanks to Chana Bloch & Marilyn Hacker

Dennis Brutus 1924-2009 R.I.P.

Dennis Vincent Brutus, poet and renowned human rights activist, died in Cape Town, South Africa, on 26 December 2009. Born November 28, 1924, his lifetime in the service of human rights is non pareil, from his long struggle against apartheid—-for which he was imprisoned-- to his final days of struggle on behalf of increasing awareness of global warming. He was a model and inspiration for what an engaged poet can accomplish. For his work on behalf of integrating sports, including the Olympics, he would have been inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame, but he refused to be honored by an organization that honored bigots in the past.

For a fuller obituary, see the Independent (London), the NY Times, or Democracy Now.

Martin Espada’s poem, written several years ago, seems especially fitting as a eulogy:

Martín Espada

Stone Hammered to Gravel
             For poet Dennis Brutus, at eighty

The office workers did not know, plodding through 1963
a nd Marshall Square station in Johannesburg,
that you would dart down the street between them, thinking the police would never fire into the crowd. Sargeant Kleingeld did not know, as you escaped
his fumbling hands and the pistol on his hip,
that he would one day be a footnote in the book of your life.

Read the rest of the poem

Short History of Poets Against War

In late January 2003, in response to an invitation to a symposium by Laura Bush to celebrate "Poetry and the American Voice," Sam Hamill declined; a longtime pacifist, he could not in good faith visit the White House following the recent news of George W. Bush's plan for a unilateral "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq. Instead, he asked about 50 fellow poets to "reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam...to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend your names to our petition against this war” by submitting poems of protest that he would send to the White House. When 1,500 poets responded within four days, this web site was created as a means of handling the enormous, unexpected response.

Since then, the "accidental groundswell" grew to include poets from around the world. There are presently more than 20,000 poems in this, the largest poetry anthology ever published. Poems from Poets Against War have been presented in person, by invitation, to several representatives of the U.S. Congress; many of them have since been introduced into the Congressional Record.

We need your help to make a powerful statement against war.

Poets Against war is a volunteer organization dependent upon the financial contributions of friends and members. Please help support our efforts.

USMC Brig. Gen. Smedley Butler, War is a Racket (1933):

After winning the Marine Corps Brevet Medal, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the French Order of the Black Star and two Congressional Medals of Honor, Butler said, "I spent 33 years and four months in active service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

Read his speech here:

ratical.org