Sam Hamill

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."

I am proud to say I gave Sam and his crew my two-cents worth, though we all know poets don't count for shit among the "Masters of War."


i met a woman yesterday

who informed
me "there will
always be war"

who informed me
"they are all
bad people"

who grew angry
at my protestations
and walked away

who did not want
to hear me or see me
or make love

who made me see
we are chained to
this brutal thing


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About My Reserves

I'm driving along an empty highway
I feel good about it
No enemy
No impediments
My moment of Dada

I'm filling my tank with a blank history
I feel the empty space
No Baghdad
No poor people
Crying for Mama

I'm drilling my own in antiquity
I feel my own face
No inertia
No soldiering for
The artiste democratica

I'm making my peace with tragedy
I feel its etched traces
No gangstas
No rapping for
Corporate America

I'm digging my quest for levity
I feel comfortable with my race
No discontentment
No forgetting my
Past or future place

I'm drinking with the young progeny
I feel their drunken disgrace
No resentment
No denying
Them this awakening taste


TS