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But the poetry community has been attacking this President since he got started. _100 Days_ was its preeminent attack. Poetry, now, operates in current history. Unlike Blake, many current poets stand, it seems, with the enemies of the United States. I await the moment with the writers in _100 Days_ declare their allegiance with Bin Lauden. It would be an honest thing to do. >Here in Cork, Ireland, I happened to be watching a 24-hour news channel >when the reports started coming in, and watched disbelievingly the live >footage as the second tower was hit. I remember my reaction on seeing the >second and third car bombs go off in Dublin, in the early seventies, one of >them on a street I should have been walking down. I felt the same sense of >helplessness and disgust. > >Frank's echoing of Blake displays a compassion which I expect many >individual poets will feel, but I know that I, for one, would not find it >possible to rally round any politicians or factions on either side of these >actions. Already, I despair on hearing a former diplomat concentrating on >how these attacks are 'cowardly' and an attack on all civilization and >democracy. While I don't see how a suicide bomber can be described as >'cowardly', neither do I see how either the cowardly or the courageous is >any guarantor of right. > >Nobody appropriates my response, or can claim to speak for me at times like >this. I'm sick of the dishonesty that passes for diplomacy in our >democracies. Grief and compassion strike me as the only appropriate >response right now. > >Trevor Joyce > >>Thank you, Frank, for your kindness. >> >>Yes, it is an attack - and on more than the New York targets. Camp >>David, the Presidential Retreat in Maryland, was targeted by a >>hijacked plane. >> >>This day in American history will be cited as another Pearl Harbor. >> >>USA will rally around President Bush. Will the poetry community? >> >>Richard Dillon >> >> >> >> >>>I awoke to a phone call from my mother telling me that the USA was under >>>terrorist attack. Astonished I turned on my television in time to watch >>>one of the towers (100 stories) of the World Trade Center in New York >>>City collapse as its twin burns. >>> >>>The Pentagon in Washington, DC, burns at this moment too. >>> >>>Can I see anothers woe, >>>And not be in sorrow too. >>>Can I see anothers grief, >>>And not seek for kind relief. >>> >>>-- William Blake > >> > >>*************** > >>Frank Parker > >>[log in to unmask] > >>http://now.at/frankshome > > > > > >-- --