[lit-ideas] Re: Poetry at the White House
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 12:46:35 EDT
Sharon is a wonderful poet -- I have loved her work for a long time. Now I
love her integrity.
Julie Krueger
========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Poetry at the White
House Date: 9/22/05 11:35:43 A.M. Central Daylight Time From:
_andreas@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx) To:
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For reasons spelled out below, the poet Sharon Olds has declined to attend
the National Book
Festival in Washington, which, coincidentally or not, takes place September
24, the day of
an antiwar mobilization in the capital. Olds, winner of a National Book
Critics Circle Award
and professor of creative writing at New York University, was invited along
with a number of
other writers by First Lady Laura Bush to read from their works. Three years
ago artist
Jules Feiffer declined to attend the festival's White House breakfast as a
protest against
the Iraq War ("Mr. Feiffer Regrets," November 11, 2002). We suggest that
invitees to this
year's event consider following their example. --The editors at The Nation.
---------
Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House
Dear Mrs. Bush,
I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind
invitation to give a
presentation at the National Book Festival on September 24, or to attend
your dinner at the
Library of Congress or the breakfast at the White House.
In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a
festival attended by
85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding new readers is
exciting for a poet in
personal terms, and in terms of the desire that poetry serve its
constituents--all of us who
need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.
And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to
my heart. As a
professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a major university,
I have had the
chance to be a part of some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which
our students
have become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of
settings: a women's
prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for
children. Our
initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically
challenged, has
been running now for twenty years, creating along the way lasting
friendships between young
MFA candidates and their students--long-term residents at the hospital who,
in their humor,
courage and wisdom, become our teachers.
When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell out,
with a toe, on a
big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem, you have
experienced, close up,
the passion and essentialness of writing. When you have held up a small
cardboard alphabet
card for a writer who is completely nonspeaking and nonmoving (except for
the eyes), and
pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the
first letter of the
first word of the first line of the poem she has been composing in her head
all week, and
she lifts her eyes when that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a
fresh immediacy
the human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and
wit--and the importance
of writing, which celebrates the value of each person's unique story and
song.
So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of
the opportunity
to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought of the chance
to sell some
books, sign some books and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I
thought that I
could try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my
deep feeling
that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish
to invade
another culture and another country--with the resultant loss of life and
limb for our brave
soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain--did not come out
of our democracy
but was instead a decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by
distorted language,
and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in
the shadows of
tyranny and religious chauvinism--the opposites of the liberty, tolerance
and diversity our
nation aspires to.
I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear
witness--as an American
who loves her country and its principles and its writing--against this
undeclared and
devastating war.
But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I
sat down to eat
with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the
wild, highhanded
actions of the Bush Administration.
What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from
the hand of the
First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed this war and
that wills its
continuation, even to the extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition":
flying people to
other countries where they will be tortured for us.
So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and
shame, for the
current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at
your table, the
shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.
Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS
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