White House Cuts-And-Runs from Poets

[Ian David]

Don’t Mess With the Poets
By: Peterr

It started in 2003, with a refused invitation.

February 12, 2003 was supposed to have been a symposium at the White House on "Poetry and the American Voice," featuring the works of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. Poet and pacifist Sam Hamill decided he could not in good conscience attend. Instead of simply declining politely and quietly, he emailed about fifty other poets, asking them to send him an anti-war poem and to sign on to a project "Poets Against War," echoing an earlier group railing against an earlier war - Vietnam. The poems, he said, would be sent to the White House.

Within days, he had not fifty but fifteen hundred positive responses.

Laura Bush and her political advisors, seeing the writing on the wall, postponed the event, saying it had been turned from a literary event into a political one. Roger Sutton, writing in The Horn Book Magazine, a magazine that reviews and discusses books published for children and young adults, said in March 2003,

Mrs. Bush — oddly for a librarian — seems not to remember that poets are troublemakers. Surely she hasn’t forgotten her Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, and Eve Merriam so quickly. Making trouble is part of the job description. Through stealth and surprise, poems change the way we think. To invite a bunch of poets to come to the White House and talk about Hughes, Dickinson, and Whitman is, quite literally and in the best of ways, asking for trouble.

In other words, don't mess with the poets.

More:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/13/dont-mess-with-the-poets/

[Benhurst]

1. I would almost feel sorry for the poor, dumb cow if she weren't

a war criminal's enabler.

[tanyev]

2. Gracious. It became a political event.

Every single appearance her husband makes is political theater. When things get really bad for him, then they trot her out in an effort to boost his ratings. Cry me a river.

[Doondoo]

3. K&R

[B3Nut]

4. "Maybe the poet is gay

But he'll be heard anyway

Maybe the poet is drugged
But he won't stay under the rug

Maybe the voice of the spirit
In which case you'd better hear it

Maybe he's a woman
Who can touch you where you're human

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don't let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it

Put him up against the wall
Shoot him up with pentothal

Shoot him up with lead
You won't call back what's been said

Put him in the ground
But one day you'll look around

There'll be a face you don't know
Voicing thoughts you've heard before

Male female slave or free
Peaceful or disorderly
Maybe you and he will not agree
But you need him to show you new ways to see

Don't let the system fool you
All it wants to do is rule you
Pay attention to the poet
You need him and you know it"

Bruce Cockburn, "Maybe The Poet" from Stealing Fire, 1984
--

Todd in Beerbratistan, Cockburn fan

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for this post! nt