Poets read in protest of possible war

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The anti-war movement came to CMU’s Clarke Historical Library Auditorium Wednesday night when student and faculty poets read poems that explored war, peace and the responsibilities of people.

English Assistant Professor Donna de la Perriere, Poets Against the War in Iraq organizer, said the turn-out was better than she expected.

“We expected a small meeting, but I did a quick count while I was standing in the back of the auditorium, and counted over 100 people,” she said. “So, yay us.”

Michael Sikkema, creative writing graduate student, agreed that the turnout was better than expected.

“I didn’t see all faces that I recognized, so we weren’t preaching to the choir,” Sikkema said.

The chosen works weren’t faculty or student’s original works about the war, but historical and important poems that spoke volumes about the human character, de la Perriere said.

“We chose to have both faculty and student poets read other poets’ work not only in order to take the focus off of the individual and place it squarely on the issue,” she said. “We also wanted to explore the rich and varied history of patriotic and poetic dissent in America.”

Sikkema said poetry is a strong voice that is seldom heard.

“Readings like this offer exposure to a lot of intelligent voices,” the Marion native said. “It’s a very specific and powerful language people don’t hear every day.”

After the reading, de la Perriere said she hoped those in attendance took from the gathering more than just a chance to hear poetry.

“Poetry is very large, and it’s not some dry, dead, academic thing,” she said. “It’s very much alive, and it speaks to us every day.”

De la Perriere said the United States has “an extraordinarily rich tradition of poetic and artistic dissent,” and poetry is a means to remind us of that tradition.

“In February, at one of the Vermont Poets Against the War readings, poet Galway Kinnell noted that (Walt) Whitman exhorted all citizens to ‘resist much, obey little’ in times of crisis,’” de la Perriere said.

She said people have a responsibility to mend the broken wings of the world.

“‘Tikkun’ means to heal the broken world,” she said. “Our jobs as human beings to heal the world, and that’s what we are out to do.”