William Wordsworth once said that poetry is “”the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”” Such a flow of feelings was present at the Price Center on the National Day of Poetry Against the War on Feb. 12, when a group of UCSD professors and students recited and listened to poetry as a political statement against the Bush administration’s rally for war in Iraq.
Guardian
This past January, First Lady Laura Bush invited four poets to the White House on Feb. 12 for a poetry lunch. At the lunch, the poets were to recite the works of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickenson, Walt Whitman and other great American poets. However, Sam Hamill, one of the invited poets, decided to use the event as an opportunity to voice opposition to the war. Hamill sent out a letter to some friends, in which he asked “”every poet to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our petition against this war, and to make Feb. 12 a day of Poetry Against the War.”” Thousands of people responded and submitted poems that were to be read at the poetry lunch at the White House.
When Laura Bush received word of the idea, she canceled the event. In response, groups across the nation organized poetry readings at universities, bookstores and coffeehouses on Feb. 12 to express anti-war sentiments.
A diverse selection of works from American, Arab and Middle Eastern poets were recited at the Price Center. The poems were researched and submitted to the professors who were present for the reading. The variety of cultures allowed the audience to hear the perspectives of those in the Middle East.
“”With poetry, you can hear voices of the people who are going to be suffering much of the destruction that the Bush administration is going to take on the entire region,”” said Roddy Reid, a professor of cultural studies and French studies at UCSD. “”That’s why we read many Iraqi poets, Palestinian poets and Israeli poets, and so on. We can hear their voices and their experiences.””
Bill Mohr, a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in literature, agreed with Reid in emphasizing the existence of other cultures. He warned against turning Iraq into some kind of abstraction for bombing.
“”It’s especially important because America has a history of imagining that those we make war on have no culture,”” Mohr said. “”With this, we’re trying to not have to wait until we destroy a country to discover that Iraq has enormous numbers of poetic people who speak in a very profound manner.””
The themes that were presented at the reading ranged from war to cultural issues, to government and politics. Always poignant and heavy with meaning, the lines that were recited spoke out on a variety of perspectives.
Part of a poem titled “”Solos on the Oud,”” by Saaidi Youssef, a Moroccan poet, said: “”Country where I no longer live, / my outcast country, / from you I only gained a traveler’s sails, / a banner ripped by daggers / and fugitive stars.””
Another poem, “”The Peace Game,”” by Yasmine Gooneratne, ended with the lines, “”We called the entertainment ‘Peace’/ or ‘War’ I can’t remember which.””
Hamill felt that a poetry movement similar to the one that had spoken out against the Vietnam War was a good response to the attacks on Iraq. During the Vietnam War, poetry from both the Vietnamese and the Americans were documented and later published in anti-war anthologies.
“”Poetry was the major art form used to protest the Vietnam War and the American involvement [in it],”” Mohr said.
Currently, over 5,300 poems and personal statements have been submitted to Hamill’s call, and these have been posted on http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org. The overwhelming number of works that have been received is a reminder on the impact poetry can have on social movements.
“”People always go out and say stupid things like, ‘Is poetry political?’ It’s like asking, ‘Is poetry sports?’ It’s sort of like whatever you want it to be,”” said Eileen Nylel, a professor of writing at UCSD who played a major role in organizing the campus event. “”Obviously when there’s an occasion for feeling, you don’t have to go and turn on a TV — you can write a poem. So I think poets really shine in a crisis.””
Taking a Stand on Iraq: Speak Out
And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dreams
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is San Francisco’s first poet laureate (1998) and the owner and founder of City Lights Bookstore.
