Bush Afraid of Poetry

[subgenius]

NEW YORK (AP) - The White House said Wednesday it postponed a poetry symposium because of concerns that the event would be politicized. Some poets had said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2362176,00.html

[Nova Land]

"I'm not afraid of anything," said Kruschev,
"And they know it!
I'm not afraid of anything
Except, perhaps, a poet."

-- E Y Harburg, "Yevtushenko?", from Rhymes for the Irreverent, 1965

(This verse, and a half dozen other of Harburgs' pointed poems, can be heard on the Mitchell Trio album "The Slightly Irreverent Mitchell Trio".)

[LucienVanImpe]

I'm really shocked to learn that there are poets who oppose a war on Iraq! Who on earth would have predicted that.

[subgenius]

Originally posted by Nova Land
"I'm not afraid of anything," said Kruschev,
"And they know it!
I'm not afraid of anything
Except, perhaps, a poet."

-- E Y Harburg, "Yevtushenko?", from Rhymes for the Irreverent, 1965

(This verse, and a half dozen other of Harburgs' pointed poems, can be heard on the Mitchell Trio album "The Slightly Irreverent Mitchell Trio".)
Fabulous lines, and rather relevent....thanks for sharing.

[subgenius]

U.S. poet laureate opposes war with Iraq
HILLEL ITALIE
Associated Press

NEW YORK - The threatened war with Iraq has politicized the nation's poets, starting at the very top.

In comments rarely heard from a sitting U.S. poet laureate, Billy Collins has publicly declared his opposition to war and says he finds it increasingly difficult to keep politics out of his official job as literary advocate.

While at least three of Collins' predecessors also have stated their opposition to war, an incumbent laureate usually sticks to art for art's sake. Poets laureate are not political appointees; the selection is made by the Librarian of Congress, a post currently held by James H. Billington. Collins, who receives an annual stipend of $35,000, is serving his second one-year term.

A spokeswoman for the Library of Congress said Tuesday that "Mr. Collins is free to express his own opinions on any subject."

Collins, whose books include "Questions About Angels" and "Nine Horses," is a mostly introspective poet who doesn't have a history of political activism. But he defended anti-war poets who last week caused the White House to postpone a symposium sponsored by first lady Laura Bush.

"If political protest is urgent, I don't think it needs to wait for an appropriate scene and setting and should be as disruptive as it wants to be," Collins said in a recent e-mail to The Associated Press .

"I have tried to keep the West Wing and the East Wing of the White House as separate as possible because I support what Mrs. Bush has done for the causes of literacy and reading. But as this country is being pushed into a violent confrontation, I find it increasingly difficult to maintain that separation."

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/entertainment/5112907.htm