Poets present anti-war poems to Congress

WASHINGTON -- Poets brought their anti-war verse to Congress on Wednesday, handing lawmakers thousands of poems to protest pending military action in Iraq.\nThe group, "Poets Against the War," is barely a month old, born out of one poet's refusal in January to attend a poetry symposium with first lady Laura Bush.\nSam Hamill later called on other poets to voice their opposition to the war. Many of those slated to appear at the symposium responded, and the White House indefinitely postponed the event.\nA Web site soon went up, collecting more than 13,000 poems and statements from amateur and professional writers opposing the war. A selection of works from almost 200 poets will be published in April and dedicated to the first lady, Hamill said.\nThree former U.S. poet laureates and nine current state poet laureates are among the contributors to the Web site.\nStanley Kunitz, 97, is one of nine Pulitzer Price winners included. In a letter to President Bush, he writes:\n"When they shall paint our sockets gray\nAnd light us like a stinking fuse,\nRemember that we once could say,\nYesterday we had a world to lose."\nHamill said poets will have scored a victory if they start a discussion of poetry's relevance to American life and politics. Keeping the two mutually exclusive was not natural, he suggested.\n"This is the only country in the world in which people can say, 'Why is your poetry political?'" Hamill said.\nPoetry readings against the war were to take place Wednesday around the world, from Italy to Turkey to Hong Kong.\nRep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a presidential hopeful, said, "The work of these poets is in a tradition of poets throughout contemporary history who have used their art to challenge war."\nRep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and other sympathetic lawmakers said they would hand the CD-ROM and some printed versions of the poems to the Library of Congress. Kaptur read Kunitz's poem into the Congressional Record.\nThe White House said the poetry event was postponed because the mix of politics and poetry was inappropriate.\n"My suspicion is they couldn't find enough poets to go to the White House to bring it off," Hamill said. "They're afraid of poets. They're afraid of the truth"