(Please forward - apologies for cross-posting)
January 27, 2004
Fellow friends and poets,
It was one year ago today - the day of the then-infamous Blix report - that www.nthposition.com published the first Internet anti-war poetry, in book form, 100 Poets Against The War. A week earlier, our first call for poems against war had gone out. A year later, Iraq is still in the news, and tomorrow sees the Hutton report; less has changed than we hoped.
Still, with the help of tens of thousands of poets, readers, peace protesters and other cultural activists, and in tandem with like-minded organizations around the world, the peace-poetry-protest grassroots movement of 2003 made history. We did not stop the war, but we made certain that the alternative voice, that of humanity at its best, was also heard. To bear witness in dark times is not enough, perhaps, but is preferable to accepting illegal aggression.
I am writing today to thank you for all you did in 2003; and to remind you that it is not too late to get your own personal record of this remarkable moment in culture, politics, and global awareness. Free ebook versions can still be downloaded at nthposition. Perhaps more importantly, the Salt (Cambridge) version -published and launched in London, March 5, 2003 - is available at Amazon (UK and in America and Canada) for order; profits go to Amnesty.
Salt was the first publisher in the world to put their money, time and energy behind the poetry peace initiative, and their anthology deserves your support, now as much as then. If you haven't already done so, please place an order today; or share a free ecopy with a friend.
Most of all, I wish to express my appreciation for the work you have done over the year, and to wish you - and the world in general - a better, and more peaceful 2004.
Yours,
Todd Swift
editor
100 Poets Against The War
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