Poets Against the War USA

A Solemn Anniversary
Five years ago this week, Poets Against War was born as the poets of the United States, almost unanimously, made the decision to stand together to speak publicly against the murderous intentions of our government.

But this is, alas, an anniversary for which there is little reason to celebrate.

Over the past five years we remained nearly impotent as we witnessed the greatest assault on our civil liberties since the Civil War; we have been nearly impotent in the face of mass murder in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, almostimpotent in our opposition to the exploitation of fear as our government’s primary political tool of expediency, impotent in our opposition to torture.

As any reasonable student of history must admit, the United States government is, and for more than a century has been, the world’s most accomplished terrorist organization.

The great nineteenth century historian, Frederick Jackson Turner, observed in 1893, “For nearly three centuries the dominant fact in American life has been expansion,” predicting those policies, born in the genocidal solution to “the Indian problem,” would force overseas expansionism.

The U.S. struggle for world dominance began with the Spanish-American War, where our government betrayed the trust of Cuban patriots struggling for democracy and our soldiers learned, in the Philippines, to pump salt water down the throats of people to make them talk. Whole towns and villages were razed, often with our soldiers killing every man, woman and child over the age of ten.

In 1902, when President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua refused to turn his country over to American businessmen wanting to built a canal between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, his government was overthrown by our government.

In 1903, when Colombia refused to cater to the whims of Washington, our government invented modern “gun-boat diplomacy,” and carved a new country, Panama, out of Colombian soil. And from those years of carnage, the “American century” was born.

And for more than one hundred years we have propped up murderous dictators and sabotaged democracies to make the world safe for U.S. corporate murderers and thieves. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Smedley Butler, who twice received the Medal of Honor for his work in Central and South American, compared his work to that of Al Capone.

Stephen Kinzer’s remarkable and thoroughly documented history of our corporate-government collaboration in worldwide terrorism throughout the 20th century, Overthrow, is chilling and compelling reading. It should be in every high school and college curriculum in our country.

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A Puerto Rican Poet’s Fight With Alzheimer’s
Lord, on 8th Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway, there are enough shoe stores with enough shoes to make me wonder, "why there are shoeless peopleon the Earth."

Lord,You have to fire the Angel in charge of distribution.
– “Psalm For Distribution” from Jack Agüeros,
“Lord, Is This a Psalm?” (Hanging Loose Press, 2002)

It should not come as a surprise that Jack Agüeros loves writing psalms. He is, at 73 years old, silver-haired royalty who has inspired, encouraged and defended several generations of poets, artists and all-around dreamers. Like another famous psalmist, he took on Goliath — in his case the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay, going on a hunger strike to protest the lack of Puerto Ricans in city and state government.

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Poets Against War (India) and the Problem of Languages
India is a land of various cultures and distinctly different language-speaking people. Broadly the land is divided into four regions, East-West-North-South, although within each region again there are a number of States with diverse cultures and languages. Officially, India has 25 approved languages, including English. There are innumerable sub languages and dialects which are not taken into official account.

We started the Poets Against War (India) activity under guidelines provided by Poets Against War in the U.S., especially Sam Hamill .We formed a small team and to generate awareness and started writing articles about PAW in various journals. This was done mostly in Bengali journals, as we write predominantly in Bengali, one of the major languages. Articles were also published in certain national level journals in English.

Once this was done we appealed to almost 200 poets throughout India requesting their poems for PAW. The initial response and enthusiasm was overwhelming. Poets contacted us from all over India, expressing their willingness to be part of us. But when it came to posting poetry for the web site, we found the response was poor, and we realized the reality was not so inspiring.

Although some of the poets do write in English, the majority of the Indian poets write in their regional language. The poems which sent for the website had to be translated into English first. In India there are very few good translators and most of the poets are reclusive, not in touch with the translators. The poets themselves seldom translate their own poetry here.

India is no exception: oppression and atrocities perpetrated against weaker sections are rampant. The intellectuals and also the common people are quite aware and we often see them taking to the roads to protest. Poems and songs are written at demonstrations.
Artists often present paintings condemning police action or other state atrocities. But to contribute to the PAW web site we require translated versions of their protests. Sadly, those works in protest still remain, for the most part, confined to their own particular languages. The echo is palpable but without resonance .

Prabal Kumar Basu: Poets Against War, India
Poems in Translation
COLD-BLOODED MURDER
-Priyanka Kalpit
A tumultous war with caste and Self wages within me. So many arteries are severed in the massacre, fountains of blood ensue.The face is smashed and distorted. On an island of blood I sit and watch, steadily, murders done in cold blood.Turbulence fills me and suddenlyI hear myself mutter“Enough, that is enough. "BASTA YA" (editorial)
- Translated from Gujarati by Rupalee Burke

More poems...
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.

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