Poets Against the War

Rating:
Summary: Revising My Earlier Review
Review: After initially reviewing this compilation last year, I went back and read, or re-read, more of its poems. I confess that I must give the work a slightly higher rating now, because on second reading -- or first reading beyond my earlier sampling -- I found more poems to be better than I thought or expected. Among this category are Joseph Zacardi's 'Search and Rescue,' Michael Wolfe's 'East of New York,' Leonore Wilson's 'Tomoko Uemura is Bathed by Her Mother,' and eight-year old Alexandra Indira Sanyal's untitled poem, all among several evocative and powerful writings. Please keep this in mind as you read my earlier review, written last year:

After enjoying Sam Hamill's excellent introduction to this volume of protest poetry, an insidious impression arose that many of the contributors wrote simply out of an urgent need to say something -- anything, so that what emerges reads like rough drafts, rather than final cuts. This is disappointing considering the outstanding lineup of poets Hamill assembled. Part of the problem is that very often poetry arising from national or international exigencies is written too quickly, producing a kind of flatness. In short, antiwar movements deserve their articulation, but it should not result in a literature of narrative rambling and inartistic polemics of what is already apparent, undergirded by nothing more than languid endings and unimaginative titles. Instead, poets need the tempering discipline of austerity, whether it's imagistic or symbolist; rhythmic or stylistic - and so forth. That is, too much is obvious in these poems, and the more obvious (universal) a particular subject is, such as war, the more effort that must be put into the artistry of the telling as exemplified in other compilations of protest poetry. Compare, for instance, 'Poets Against the War' to the protest poetry of John Bradley's 'Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age' (Coffee House Press 1995) or W.D. Ehrhart's, 'Carrying The Darkness: The Poetry of the Vietnam War' (Texas Tech UP 1989). Ironically, Todd Swift's, '100 Poets Against the War' (Salt Publishing 2003) -- forerunner of the work under review -- contains much more substantive and memorable verse than 'Poets Against the War.'

Still, all is not lost. Hamill's book does contain some worthy poetry. Salam al-Asadi's 'The Clay's Memory' is a magnificently powerful witness to war (15-16), while Eric Pankey's 'History' (170-171), Marvin Bell's 'A Lesson from the Corps' (36-37), Lucille Clifton's 'stones and bones' (50), and Holly Thomas's 'hiapas' (231), are other excellent poems. Several transcend the war in Iraq, such as Jim Pearson's 'kunishi ridge 2nd bn. First marines' (173-174), and John Balaban's 'Collateral Damage' (27-29). Yet, from the wider perspective, perhaps the best feature of the book is simply the reason it came into existence: an outpouring of antiwar sentiment finding voice through the medium of poetry, both here and on the Poets Against the War website.

Having said these things, I admit my review is highly subjective and reflects much of my own personal view of what I like in poetry. I certainly don't own the final word on this book but my hope is that its future readers will provide non-emotive and non-politically motivated reviews. Anything else is simply chaff.


Rating:
Summary: An imperfect necessity.
Review: I agree with the above reviewer that the best poems often come out of a conflicted self, and the best poems in this collection appear to do just that. A couple reviewers here obviously haven't read all the poems, or they wouldn't claim unanimity among the voices gathered in the anthology. Few of the poems, in fact, offer any easy solutions to an obviously difficult geo-political situation, though some statements of conscience come off as a bit too glib for such a complex issue. These aren't seasoned ambassadors, though; if you want to read a policy-changing work on international intervention read Samantha Powers's "A Problem from Hell." If you want to read an historically pertinent creative reaction to the moral inconsistencies and linguistic atrocities of our current administration, then check out Poets Against the War. These artists give a voice to the many outraged citizens of this country and the world. It is the Bush administration that has attempted to oversimplify our reasons for intervention, and its use of words like "democracy," "freedom," "shock and awe" (sounds alot like another definition for terror) are head on assaults on the sanctity of language. It's no wonder the poets needed to defend their turf, and even though doing so didn't create the best that art can, I commend their outrage, a necessity when so many are either asleep or unable find the means of expression.

Rating:
Summary: Required Reading!
Review: Not only is this anthology a must-read collection of who's who in contemporary poetry, it serves to deny Williams' dictum that it "is difficult to get the news from poems." These poets have "news" for you: Compassion, courage, true patriotism, the questioning of authority and the yearning for real peace are alive and burning in our hearts. It can be found here--we need not "die miserably every day..."

Rating:
Summary: Poets Against Democracy
Review: Nothing illustrates the reasons for poetry's marginalization in our culture better than this book. Poetry, luckily, is not to blame (read some--there's plenty out there, just none in this book). The problem is the sanctimony, ethical blindness and blatant intellectual dishonesty of the poets who dashed off these bits of political propaganda. Tired Vietnam-era rhetoric, brainless Bush-bashing (which says more about these poets' arrested adolescence than the liberation of Iraq), and nauseatingly self-congratulatory "statements of conscience" fill this book (as if conscience, to these finger-wagging moralists, can only mean keeping the people of Iraq in the prisons and torture chambers of their beloved Hussein). If anybody's keeping track, there are more purpely described atrocities in these pages than ever took place in Iraq, but the extraordinary and largely successful lengths taken to minimize civilian casualties, or any facts for that matter, could never make a dent in these poets' boiler-plated self-regard. The point of these poems is never to actually weigh moral consequences, but to trumpet oneself as a paragon of virtue and strike weepy poses for like-minded egotists. Newsflash: your freedoms, yes yours Sam Hamill, and yours W.S. Merwin, were paid for in blood. One of those freedoms is to cower behind the front lines, where the real sacrifices are being made, and proclaim your own "bravery" and superiority while churning out inferior books of poetry like this one. There's something Stalinist about the intellectual climate of this book--the set of unquestioned and enforced doctrines, the willful refusal to examine them. Why not include a poem that supports the war? Well, because then there would be a conversation, a debate, instead of a shrill and one-sided rant. And that, ultimately, is the real crime of this book--these poems, as poems, are totally awful. This book is a disgrace.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful stuff - if you're ready to open up to it ;-)
Review: Oh, no, it's not perfect. There are some poems I certainly can't agree with, some I merely don't like... but only a few.
Most of this, however, is very powerful stuff, in its own quiet way.

The book is no more than it purports to be: many voices that happen to agree on one single note - the wish that this war had not broken out (or not this way, or not yet, or not without trying more alternatives first, or...).
Just many voices, that have chosen a peaceful means of voicing their opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Owning this book is owning a part of history...
Review: Poetry doesn't receive much attention these days, but once in awhile, someone makes their mark. Not only did the editor Sam Hamill, make his mark in history, but these poets did as well.

The collection is a marvelous array of styles, voices and energy all moving in one direction. This should be on the shelf of every poetry lover, every historian, and every person who appreciates peace and the right to free speech.

Wonderful poems to be read and to be a part of.

Rating:
Summary: Poetry and Politics
Review: The glaring problem with this collection isn't that these poets are against the war, but with the fact that such sure-fire confidence about any subject (be it war, love, nature, or anything) can rarely deliver interesting poetry. Poetry worth reading tends to come out from a conflicted self trying to navigate difficult ambiguites. These poems, for the most part, don't admit moral or ethical ambiguities (which would have been far more interesting, and frankly, reflective of the dividided feelings many or most of us have about this war). Maybe these poets found it cathartic to let off steam, but preaching to the choir wins you no converts and may alienate those on the fence. I'm afraid that this book plays into the hands of those who'd want to characterize poets, or even those just against the war, as simplistic and shrill. And I agree with the previous poster who thinks the "statements of conscience" were a bad idea--who wants to read some poet's puffed-up moralistic scolding? We have nuns and kindergarten teachers for that. Get back to writing poems.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing outpouring of voices
Review: We got this book as a gift, and I was stunned by its power. Some of the poets and writers were long-time favorites: Adrienne Rich, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, WS Merwin, Mary Oliver, Terry Tempest Williams. Most I'd never had heard of. But what struck me was the humanity of the voices--how much they cut through the political abstractions of our time. And the distinctiveness of their voices.

The critical review posted on this site obviously doesn't like the politics of this anthology--he wants a Poets for the War. But contrary to his assertion, this is the farthest collection imaginable from a single monolithic voice--but yes, the participants don't want this war. This is a great book to dip in and out of, browse through for a quick reflection, and use to anchor our humanity in these difficult times.

Paul Loeb
Author Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time

Rating:
Summary: Love it...with reservations
Review: While I readily admit that this is indeed an amazing collection of poetry (and still, sadly, so topical), I am disppointed about a couple of things.

First of all, I would challenge any reader to divine that some of the poems are about war at all, taken out of the book and examined singly. With submissions of 13,000, surely there were at least 200 obviously about this "war" and of high enough caliber to be included?

The second thing that disappoints somewhat is the inclusion of quite a bit of poetry about the world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War (not to mention going back as far as Troy!), when the alleged purpose of this book is to create outrage over the latest debacle (not really a war at all--more an invasion--although no one really pointed that out). The other "wars" have been memorialized since they began. Again, with 13,000 submissions, were there not enough about THIS war, THIS invasion to choose from those alone?

That said, the poems are mostly amazing, chilling, touching. Over half of them have been dog-eared in my copy.