Poets Against War Are Such A Bore...

The Iconoclast ^ | February 11, 2003 | Murray Soupcoff

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST DAILY NOTEBOOK....

Poets Against War Are Such A Bore...



February 11, 2003: In case you didn't know it, tomorrow is 'Poets Against War' Day. We can't tell you how excited we are around here about the prospect of poets all around America gathering to read their works "as a powerful statement of public and collective resistance to the Bush administration's drive toward war in Iraq." Those nasty warmongers, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, must be quaking in their boots -- especially at the thought of tomorrow's special reading from the Poets Against the War Anthology in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. Serves Dubyah and Rummy right for trying to disarm a rogue dictatorship like Iraq through war.

Indeed, never has the Bush administration been under such a concerted threat than by tomorrow's poetic assault on the politics of war. If the poetry on the Poets Against the War web site is any example, some of the most pretentious, cliche-filled claptrap will be hurled against the purveyors of war in the White House on Wednesday . Forget Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. We're talking about a weapon that's even more terrible, painful and loathsome -- bad modern verse. The equivalent of one long, endless loud whine that seems to never stop. Now that's what we call a real weapon of destruction.

Once the sounds of tomorrow's tortured verse starts wafting into the Pentagon, even stoic Donald Rumsfeld will be frantically searching for the white flag of surrender. And what can we expect from the White House after its warmongering occupants hear the following painful "call to arms" for poets around the world, from Canadian anti-war wordsmith Bonnie Adams:

shame on you who shape our worldviews
through the media to sell air time,
shame on politicians worldwide
who desire to ensure their names in history books,


(sale of FEAR everywhere)

citizens everywhere, this is a call to arms,
arm yourselves with your inner truth,
reach for something beyond yourself,
be still inside & find where love for all can exist,
(all Nations are imagined communities)

Why George W. Bush himself will probably come running out of the White House, screaming: "I give up! I give up! Please stop! I'll call off the war! I'll call Tony Blair and tell him, we gotta have peace. I'll go to the UN and beg for more weapons inspectors, and a few more years to negotiate with Saddam! Anything! But please no more of that terrible, awful poetry of yours. No maas! No maas!"

Or more likely that's the fantasy of all the self-involved, self-promoting 5,300 untalented windbags who will join together tomorrow to "galvanize the country" with a day of poetic protest "to register their opposition to the Bush administration's headlong plunge toward war in Iraq."

After all, who knows least about defanging a sadistic, ruthless demagogue like Saddam Hussein than the beloved poets of our universities and campus coffee houses? Having spent most their existence bitchily critiquing each other's empty narcisstic ravings in insular creative-writing seminars in university classrooms across the nation, and cranking out their empty bluster in "little" literary magazines with big names that no-one ever reads, these bards for peace have accumulated a lifetime of experience that has prepared them for doing absoutely nothing of any practical value, except to apply for more literary grants and whine endlessly.

Indeed, who but a bunch of pampered, subsidized, unworldy poets would really think that only they could "make a difference" in influencing public policy in America? Talk about the irrelevant promoting irrevelance. The opinions of Billy Collins, the sitting U.S. poet laureate, mean as much to the American public as the actual title of U.S. poet laureate -- absolutely nothing.

Ask the average American who Billy Collins is and they'll guess he's a wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, or that he's that nice-looking fella who used to emcee the Miss America pageant. Highlight America's official poet laureate in a TV news clip, and Americans will turn the channel.

Billy Collins may "publicly declare" his "opposition to war" and say he finds it increasingly difficult to keep "politics" out of his "official job as literary advocate." But who cares?

Nobody. And especially no-one of importance, except perhaps Nancy Pelosi, or Senator Patty Murray (aka Senator FruitLoop), or Susan Sarandon. But certainly not the American people.........................

[Apolitical]

Well versed commentary!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Those nasty warmongers, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, must be quaking in their boots

"I've got a rhyming dictionary, and I'm not afraid to use it!"

[Congressman Billybob]

The efforts of the "Poets against the War" recalls for me a classic line from Arlo Guthrie in "Alice's Restaurant." Toward the end of his 25-minute masterpiece is the line,

"If you want to end war'n' things, you gotta sing loud /
So sing out the next time it comes around on the guitar."

"You can get anything thing you want /
At Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice)..."

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column, "Those in Peril on the Sea," also up on FR and UPI.

Latest book(let), "to Restore Trust in America."

[Siouxz]

Anit-war poets they suck.
I wish they'd get hit by a truck.
Each one's a big sissy.
Their fits are so hissy.
Their words are a big cluster f&#*.

[Carolinamom]

I enjoyed Wes Pruden's humorous comments about these poets in his column today. HERE

[driftless]

roses are red
violets are blue
modern commie poetry stinks
and it doesn't rhyme either

[pollwatcher]

Well, you have Babs confusing pablum with the Bard. And Ani (nosed-ring, lesbo hero) DiFranco doing her little post-9/11 anti-W. ditties. These people live only in their fantasy worlds - which is safer for the rest of us in the real one.

[pawdoggie]

The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dylan, et al were better anti-war poets than these clowns (which is to say that their rock and roll "poetry" at least had some innocent, naive charm). No wonder poetry has fallen into such low repute. Who would buy this drivel? These "poets" must have government grants, otherwise I can't see how they make a living.

[HungarianGypsy]

I read about this event on one of my email writing lists. Plus, a few other anti-war bits. My thought was, "I'm really in the wrong profession."
Does this mean I can start crying, "Discrimination because of my views!" whenever I get a rejection?

[skeeter]

Disheveled and reeking
shrill and profane
spittle-spattered poets protest
on the streets of your town
Lets urinate on their sandals.

[HungarianGypsy]

By the way, if I could I would love to go there. Here is what my contribution would be to this effort. Of course I would have to clean it up a bit. It's something I wrote in high school about the Persian Gulf War in response to the weenies who thought everyone should wear black arm bands, since "our troops will die over there anyway". It fits today, as well:
~To America, With Love~



By Leesa (magoch@qwest.net)



All is still in the night beyond.
I hold my breath,
Knowing the fighting is far from done.
Bleakness is all around,
As I shake from what I've seen.
They never really train you
For sights like these,
While in the Marines.
We learn how to fight,
And never to run,
But they never taught us to
Control this fear inside,
Which leaves us undone.
I know this will soon be over.
Our enemies cannot stand forever.
As to the peace loving activists,
Who demonstrate all the while.
To those who wear black ribbons,
Instead of the yellow ones,
So bright.
We hear of your efforts,
Through the grapevine.
But, if you please,
I would appreciate
A pretty yellow ribbon
To take the black one's place.
Just tell me you love me,
And pray this will end.
Your support,
And the memory of me
In your heart
Will keep me fighting all the way.
I am only 18, 19, 20, not even
Old enough to drink. Remember
I volunteered for this war
To help the nation.
I've gone into this fight,
Preparing to die.

We'll win this battle;
Win this war;
Even if it costs my life.
For freedom and remembrance
Means more to me
Than being a coward
Who refused to fight.
To all of you,
Who have your family around,
Bless you for what you have.
For my family is far from me.
For the love of my family,
My country, and the world.
Stay behind me.
I will forever fight,
Until the tyrant is gone.

[BJungNan]

I am a poet against the war,
I really, really protest,
all my friends say its the thing to do,
so I'll rhyme and give it my best.

They say he's a bloody dictator,
killed a bunch of Kurds,
but that's okay, cause Hollywood said,
W is such a nerd.

That's reason enough for me,
I mean, everyone said its so,
now if you will excuse me,
its time I have to go.

I have a government grant proposal to write.

[beckett]

We are the Folk Song Army.
Everyone of us cares.
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice,
Unlike the rest of you squares.

Tom Lehrer

[openotherend]

I think that I would like to see

These peots hanging from a tree

They have no skills to form a rhyme

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

by openotherend

[TontoKowalski]

I'll counter your limerick with a haiku (if I can remember how to write one, it's 5-7-5, right?) Here goes. Ahem...

Left-wing nutcases,
Human shields if they were brave,
Shine asses and whine.

Thank you, thank you. I'll take that grant now.

[EllaMinnow]

Look at This!

http://www.poetsforthewar.org/

[TheMidnightPoet]

Well, maybe you should submit that to Poets for the War (http://www.poetsforthewar.org). I haven't seen any Limericks there, yet.

[TheMidnightPoet]

Most of the Poets Against the War can't make a living. However, there are some of us who use a different business model than going around annoying and insulting people and then expecting them to buy the poetry. Of course, we're Poets for the War!

[TheMidnightPoet]

No, it means you should come over to the dark side, at least that's what the Poets Against the War would call us.