-----Original Message-----
From: pmetres [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 2:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: poets and war resistance
Fellow poets,
I am currently engaged in a research project concerned with tracking the
interactions between American poets and the peace movement; how poets worked
in activism and through symbolic actions (poetry and other language-actions)
in resisting war and forging a vision of peace.
Background
(I wrote my dissertation on American poets and war resistance from 1940 to the
present; some of the people who figured prominently were: Robert Lowell,
William Stafford, Jackson Mac Low, and William Everson (WWII); Denise
Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Berrigan, Robert Bly and John Balaban (among
others during the Vietnam War era); and more recent living poets including
June Jordan, Barrett Watten, and others (Persian Gulf War)--many mainstream
poets, some experimental--but all participating in the project of war
resistance.
The Call
In particular, I am asking for poems that were written on/during/ the Persian
Gulf War and a short prose commentary (from the sender) regarding how those
poems/symbolic actions/language events were implemented as part of war
resistance. I am interested in details regarding public spheres in which
these pieces were occurring, the response to them, and reflections on the
efficacy of such actions against other modes of "political activism." These
will form, at the very least, a mini-archive of possible poetry actions for
the future (perhaps to be published online, perhaps on paper--to be
determined).
I thank you in advance for your poems/commentaries. If there are other lists
that may also have poets interested in participating, feel free to let me know
or post this message directly to them. Please send your poems offlist to me,
Phil Metres at [log in to unmask]
"Don't use such an expression as 'dim lands of peace.' It dulls the image"
(Ezra Pound)
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