Dear Petcs - this is why I've been a little quiet. Just thought I'd
send this along fyi -
Best to all
Alison
Dear Poets
First, a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone who has contributed to
this protest. I feel very proud of all of us! This must be the
quickest anthology ever assembled in Australia - five days from go to
whoa. It has been a truly trans-continental effort - poems have been
printed in Sydney and Tasmania, collected in Melbourne and delivered
in Canberra. So people from all over have contributed their work and
time. Special thanks are due to John Bennett, David Falconer and
Peter Minter in Sydney, Ralph Wessman in Tasmania and Hazel Smith and
Anne Edgeworth in Canberra for their help.
The good news is that we have collected 119 poets (with more coming
in after the deadline) - a truly remarkable response. The poems are
presented in alphabetical order, with a full list of poets in the
front. They are in the process of being uploaded to the Poets Union
website, http://www.poetsunion.com , by the hard working David
Falconer. Below I've included the full list of contributing poets
and also the letter to the PM that will be presented with them. I
hope there are no mistakes! and I hope the letter properly represents
the feelings of all involved, I tried to keep it as simple as
possible for that reason. (All objections can be sent to me next week
after I've had some sleep).
We've already had some coverage - articles in the news pages of The
Age and The Australian this morning, and a piece on ABC Radio Sydney.
The Canberra Times is I believe running something tomorrow with a
photograph. So poetry really is news! Let me know if you see
anything so we can keep a full record of the publicity.
Thank you again and best wishes
Alison
1 Robert Adamson 2 David Adès 3 Adam Aitken 4 Karen Attard 5
John Bennett 6 Judith Beveridge 7 Ebony Black 8 Ken Bolton 9
Margaret Bradstock 10 David Brooks 11 Pam Brown 12 Pauline
Brown 13 Peter Boyle 14 Andrew Burke 15 Grant Caldwell 16
Ross Clark 17 Charlotte Clutterbuck 18 Anne Collins 19 Alison
Croggon 20 Zoe Croggon 21 MTC Cronin 22 Ann Davis 23 Kate
Davis 24 Sarah Day 25 Peter Dowe 26 Jane Downing 27 Anne
Edgeworth 28 Kate Fagan 29 Geoff Fox 30 Lesley Fowler 31
Angela Gardner 32 Claire Gaskin 33 Vivienne Glance 34 Tom
Gleeson 35 Gloria 35 Alan Gould 36 Fran Graham 37 Helen
Hagemann 38 Kathryn Hamman 39 Kevin Hart 40 Tim Heffernan 41
Richard Hillman 42 Elizabeth E. Hodgson 43 David Howard 44
Coral Hull 45 Antoni Jach 46 Andy Jackson 47 Terry Jaensch 48
Jeltje 49 Mary Jenkins 50 Jill Jones 51 JFK 22 Daniel Keene
52 S.K. Kelen 53 John Kinsella 54 Nicola Knox 55 Mike Ladd 56
Helen Lambert 57 Anthony Lawrence 58 Jacinta Le Plastrier
Aboukhater 59 Michael Leunig 60 Emma Lew 61 Lish 62 Geraldine
Mackenzie 63 Ian McBryde 64 Sandon Mcleod 65 Gina Mercer 66
Peter Minter 67 Mariana Moonsun 68 Simon Mundy 69 Les Murray
70 Andrea Nield 71 Norm Neill 72 Jenni Nixon 73 Dan O'Donnell
74 Mark O'Flynn 75 Stephen Oliver 76 Louise Oxley 77 Geoff
Page 77 Joyce Parkes 78 Jai Parker 79 Phyllis Perlstone 79
Sheryl Persson 80 Peter Porter 81 Ron Pretty 82 Pat Raison 83
Colin Reeves 84 Mandi Havill Reid 85 Bev Roberts 86 Rachel
Robbins 87 Judith Rodriguez 88 Brendan Ryan 89 Jorie Manefield
Ryan 90 Wadih Sa'adeh 91 Philip Salom 92 Andrew Sant 93
Michael Sariban 94 Benjamin Sawon 95 Barry Scott 96 Tom
Shapcott 97 Henry Sheerwater 98 Jutta Sieverding 99 Paul A.
Skec 100 Steve Smart 101 Ken Smeaton 102 Hazel Smith 103 Tony
Smith 104 Stuart Solman 105 Dan Spielman 106 Marian Spires 107
Jennifer Strauss 108 Patricia Sykes 109 Richard Tipping 110
Thom the World Poet 111 Louise Wakeling 112 Chris Wallace-Crabbe
113 Les Wicks 114 Lauren Williams 115 Jacquie Williams 116
Andy S. Yang 117 Anna Yang 118 Ouyang Yu 119 Harriet Zinnes
To the Prime Minister
The Rt. Hon. John Howard
Parliament House
Canberra
March 5, 2003
Dear Mr Howard
This anthology of poems has been collected in the past five days as a
protest against your Government's policies towards the proposed war
on Iraq. It is part of a much wider international protest sparked by
Sam Hamill, the US poet and publisher, which has gathered 12,000
poems - the largest chorus of poets in history - which are here also
presented to you.
It is a testament to the deep concern and alarm that your policies
have caused in the wider community that so many poets of such widely
differing political beliefs are here gathered in the one cause.
These poets represent every section of the Australian poetic
community: from well known poets to school children, from the rural
to the urban, from conservative to radical political persuasions.
We believe that Australia is a country which desires peace. We
believe that Australian troops have no place in the Gulf. We believe
that our participation in a pre-emptive war in the Middle East will
have disastrous consequences which we and our children will have to
live with for years to come - both for the region itself and for our
nation in the international community. We do not believe that the
world you are currently helping to build will be either more safe or
more just.
We believe, Mr Prime Minister, that you are mistaken. And we urge
you to reconsider your policies in the light of the deep and real
concerns expressed here, and in the wider Australian community.
Yours faithfully
Alison Croggon
On behalf of Poets Against War Australia
--
Alison Croggon
Editor
Masthead Online
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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