Jacqueline Blais, USA Today, May 15, 2003
"Remarkable, lively collection . . . proof this genre is not relegated to spidery book shelves."


Book Description
Led by poet Sam Hamill, February 12, 2003 became a day of Poetry Against the War conducted as a reading at the White House gates in addition to over 160 public readings in many different countries and almost all of the 50 states. Since then, over 9,000 poets have joined this grassroots peace movement by submitting poems and statements to Poetsagainstthewar.org, registering their opposition to the Bush administration's headlong plunge toward war in Iraq. Poets Against the War features a selection of the best poems that were submitted to the website. Contributors include: Adrienne Rich, W.S. Merwin, Galway Kinnell, Robert Bly, Marilyn Hacker, Grace Schulman, Shirley Kaufman, Wanda Coleman, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hayden Carruth, Jane Hirshfield, Tess Gallagher, Sandra Cisneros, former Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and many others.

ANNOTATION

Led by poet Sam Hamill, February 12, 2003 became a day of Poetry Against the War conducted as a reading at the White House gates in addition to over 160 public readings in many different countries and almost all of the 50 states. Since then, over 9,000 poets have joined this grassroots peace movement by submitting poems and statements to www.poetsagainstthewar.org, registering their opposition to the Bush administration's headlong plunge toward war in Iraq. Poets Against the War features a selection of the best poems that were submitted to the website. Contributors include%>Adrienne Rich, W.S. Merwin, Galway Kinnell, Robert Bly, Marilyn Hacker, Grace Schulman, Shirley Kaufman, Wanda Coleman, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hayden Carruth, Jane Hirshfield, Tess Gallagher, Sandra Cisneros, former Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and many others.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Poets Against the War is a landmark anthology - a collection of original poetry that registers each author's opposition to war with Iraq. Its origin can be traced back to the day when Sam Hamill received an invitation from Laura Bush to a White House Symposium on "Poetry and the American Voice." Upon opening her letter he was overcome by a sense of nausea and disgust, having only recently read George Bush's proposed "Shock and Awe" attack plan for Iraq, which called for saturation bombing.

Hamill's response was to compose a letter addressed to "Friends and Fellow Poets" in which he called upon writers to "reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam." He asked each writer "to speak up for the conscience of our country and lend his or her name to our potition against this war" by submitting "a poem or statement of conscience to the Poets Against the War web site."

Poets Against the War is an anthology of the best poems submitted to the website. This collection is both a cry against impending war and a celebration of the long and rich tradition of moral opposition and dissent by American writers and artists.

SYNOPSIS