Austin poets join national anti-
"How many poems does it take to stop a war?" intones Thom Woodruff, better known
in Austin's open-
Appreciative murmurs and applause erupted from the poets crowded into the front of the Hideout on Monday night. After all, the 30 men, and women lounging on sofas and tucked into chairs at the Congress Avenue coffee house were also there to offer poems for peace.
The Austinites are also part of a national grass-
The effort has been gathering steam since late last month, after a symposium organized
by first lady Laura Bush was postponed when some of the invited poets said they planned
to read anti-
It will hit critical mass today, the day the symposium was supposed to be held, with antiwar poetry readings in Austin and more than 50 other locations around the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.
Not since poets organized against the Vietnam War in 1969 has there been such a groundswell of activity," says Tree Swenson, executive director of the Academy of American Poets, the largest organization of poets in the the country and sponsors of National Poetry Month.
"The big difference, and this is very interesting is what the Internet has done in
the way of organizing, making it possible to organize a grass-
In fact, it all started with an email . Sam Hamill, editor and co-
The symposium was designed as a celebration of the works of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson.
"It came to the attention of the First Lady’s office that some invited guests want to turn what is intended to be a literary event into a political forum," the White House said in a statement. "While Mrs Bush understands the right of all Americans to express their political views, this event was designed to celebrate poetry."
Hamill, one of the invited guests, was outraged.
"Of all people, that she would use Hughes and Whitman to say that poetry is not political," Hamill told the Los Angeles Times. "If Whitman were alive right now, this administration wouldn't allow him within 10 miles of the White House." Whitman told of the horrors of the Civil War in "O Captain! My Captain!" Swenson noted, and Hughes, spoke out against racism in "I, Too, Sing America."
So Hamill sent out an e-
"I am asking every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his
or her name to our petition against this war," he wrote in the e-
As of, Tuesday, there were about 5,300 poems posted on the Poets Against the War
site, including submissions from such noted national poets as former U.S. poet laureate
Rita Dove and Pulitzer Prize winner W. S. Merwin, as well as more than 15 from Austin-
"We had no choice, of course. There never is a choice, is there?" concludes "The
Olive Grove," one, of three poems Austinite Sue Littleton submitted. The longtime
area poet's "Regime Change, Begins at Home" was chosen for inclusion in the "100
Poets Against the War” anthology chapbook being distributed nationally as part of
the anti-
"I think poets have finally found a voice through which we can all speak at once about something that we all feel strongly about," Littleton said. "Part of this is discovering what we care very much about is peace, and reacting to what seems to be a politically stupid and irrational act of vengeance."
Littleton will be one of the featured poets at tonight's event at Ruta Maya International,which
will also include Susan Bright, author of "The Layers of Our Seeing," and Ryan Blum-
And if Monday's reading at the Hideout is any indication, there's a lot to say. Rarely
was the open mike actually open, as poet after poet took the makeshift stage, some
reading from spiral-
"The light shined on you today
it prayed for you to open your eyes
so you could only realize
that you are already awake."
svane@statesman.com; 445.3720
by Sharyn Vizda Vane, American Statesman Staff
