100 poets voice their concern and vision for peace.
Poems of Witness and Elegy, Exhortation and Action, Reconciliation, Shared Humanity,
Wildness and Home, Ritual and Vigil,Meditation and Prayer.
Precedents: Sappho, Whitman, Dickinson, Cavafy, Millay, Patchen, Rexroth, Shapiro,
Lowell, Creeley, Rukeyser, Ginsberg, Levertov, Lorde, Stafford, Jordan, Amichai, Darwish
Contemporaries: Abinader, Ali, Bass, Berry, Bauer, Berrigan, Bly, Bodhrán, Bradley, Brazaitis, Bright, Bryner, Budbill, Cervine, Charara, Cording, Cone, Crooker, Daniels, di Prima, Davis, Dougherty, Ellis, Espada, Estes, Ferlinghetti, Forché, Frost, Gibson, Gundy, Gilberg, Habra, Hague, Hamill, Harter, Hassler, Haven, Heyen, Hirshfield, Hughes, Joudah, Jensen, Karmin, Kendig, Komunyakaa, Kovacik, Kryss, Krysl, LaFemina, Landis, Leslie, Lifshin, Loden, Lovin, Lucas, McCallum, McGuane, Machan, McQuaid, Meek, Metres, Miltner, Montgomery, Norman, Nye, Pankey, Pendarvis, Pinsky, Porterfield, Prevost, Ragain,
Rashid, Rich, Roffman, Rosen, Ross, Rusk, Salinger, Sanders, Seltzer, Schneider, Shabtai, Shannon, Sheffield, Shipley, Shomer, Silano, Sklar, Smith, Snyder, Spahr, Sydlik, Szymborska, Trommer, Twichell, Volkmer, Waters, Weems, Wilson, Zale
Poetry. Anthology. Edited by Ann Smith, Larry Smith, and Philip Metres. With an Introduction by Philip Metres. A grand collection of poetry (seventy poets both past and contemporary) written against war and for peace: poems that sustain us with their vision. "Peace poetry is larger than a moral injunction against war; it is an articulation of the expanse, the horizon where we are one. To adapt a line by the Sufi poet Rumi: beyond the realm of good and evil, there is a field"--from the Introduction by Philip Metres. COME TOGETHER: IMAGINE PEACE was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award 2009.
Group readings planned for Washington D.C., Seattle, Bellingham, Cleveland, Sandusky, Chicago, Pittsburgh...Press releases, promotion through national peace organizations.
Come Together: Imagine Peace
Table of Contents
11... Preface by Larry and Ann Smith
13... Introduction by Philip Metres
Section One: Some Precedents
25...Sappho, "Some say a host of ships..."
26...Walt Whitman, "As I Ponder'd in Silence"
26...Emily Dickinson, Poem #739
27...Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Conscientious Objector"
27...C. P. Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians"
29...Kenneth Patchen, "Creation"
30...Kenneth Rexroth, "August 22, 1939"
83...Karl Shapiro, "The Conscientious Objector"
34...Robert Lowell, "Fall 1961"
35...Robert Creeley, "For No Clear Reason"
35...Muriel Rukeyser, Poem
36...William Stafford, "At the Un-National Monument along
the Canadian Border"
36...William Stafford, "Watching the Jet Planes Dive"
37...William Stafford, "Peace Walk"
37...Denise Levertov, "Making Peace"
38...Denise Levertov, "The Altars in the Street"
39...Allen Ginsberg, from "Wichita Vortex Sutra"
40...Audre Lorde, "A Litany for Survival"
42...June Jordan, "The Bombing of Baghdad"
45...Yehuda Amichai, "Wildpeace"
46...Mahmoud Darwish, from "State of Siege"
Section Two: The Story So Far:
Poems of Witness and Elegy
51...Shara McCallum, "The Story So Far"
52...Karen Kovacik, "Requiem for the Buddhas of Bamiyan"
53...Wislawa Szymborska, "The End and the Beginning"
55...Jon Volkmer, "At the Museum of Archeology"
56...Maj Ragain, "Willow"
57...Jack McGuane, "Bones of a Crow"
58...Lyn Lifshin, "E Mail Message"
59...Sam Hamill, "True Peace"
* 6 *
61...Jeanne Shannon, "Why I Wrote Out by Hand Ronald Johnson's
The Book of the Green Man on an Autumn Evening in 1970"
63...Carolyn Forché, "Because One Is Always Forgotten"
64...John Bradley, "Bosnian Love Poem"
64...David Sklar and Geoffrey A. Landis, "Intelligent War Machine"
65...Steve Wilson, "Ghazal: The Footbridge Over the Somes"
65...Michael Salinger, "911"
66...Joseph Ross, "On a Sign Announcing: Expanding Arlington
National Cemetery"
68...Eric Pankey, "History"
Section Three: Call and Answer:
Poems of Exhortation and Action
71...Robert Bly, "Call and Answer"
71...Adrienne Rich, from "An Atlas of the Difficult World"
73...William Heyen, "(The Truth)"
74...Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Populist Manifesto No. 1"
77...Angele Ellis, "Federal Building"
78...Philip Metres, from "For the Fifty (Who Made PEACE With
Their Bodies)"
79...Robert Pinsky, "Stupid Meditation on Peace"
80...Martín Espada, "The God of the Weather-Beaten Face"
82...Ed Sanders, "July 4, 2008"
82...Enid Shomer, "Passive Resistance"
84...Edwina Pendarvis, "Victory"
85...Rachel Loden, "My Test Market"
86...Diane Kendig, "Spring 1971 Washington D.C."
87...Lauren Rusk, "The People Who Pass By"
88...Edward A. Dougherty, "The Fountain"
89...Liane Ellison Norman, "Maya Weiss Organizes an Anti-War
Rally in January 2007"
90...Susan Rich, "Her Favorite Somali Fable Told to Her by Her
Grandmother"
92...Jim Daniels, "Reincarnation of the Peace Sign"
Section Four: Healing the Breach:
Poems of Reconciliation
95...Robert Cording, "Christmas Soccer Game"
96...Naomi Shihab Nye, "Jerusalem"
* 7 *
97...Diane di Prima, "On the Way Home: A Prayer for the Road"
99....Aharon Shabtai, "The Victory of Beit Jalla"
100...Aharon Shabtai, "Lotem Abdel Shafi"
101...Allen Frost, "Uncle Charley"
101...Mark Brazaitis, "We Need a War"
102...Gail Hosking Gilberg, "Teacups in the Air"
103...Joanne Seltzer, "Making Peace in Jerusalem"
103...Emily K. Bright, "At the State Correctional Facility"
104...Marilyn Krysl, "Cease Fire: Batticaloa, Sri Lanka"
105...Tom Kryss, "Consanguinity"
105...Tom Kryss, "Dag Hammarskjöld"
106...Larry Smith, "A Story of War"
107...Naton Leslie, "You Have the Right to a Cessation of
Hostilities"
108...Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, "The Program"
109...Mike Schneider, "Shock and Awe"
110...Philip Metres, "The Daily Contortions"
112...Sarah Zale, "The Folly of Half"
113...Elmaz Abinader, "The Point We Meet"
115...Taha Muhammad Ali, "Twigs"
Section Five: Savoring the World:
Poems of Shared Humanity
119...Juliana Spahr, from "This Connection of Everyone With
Lungs"
120...Sam Hamill, "The Road to Rama"
122...Susan Azar Porterfield, "Beach Road to Miramar Resort,
Lebanon"
123...Susan Azar Porterfield, "Make-up Lessons"
124...Dane Cervine, "Savoring the World"
125...Joan E. Bauer, "Somewhere"
125...Joan E. Bauer, "Hanoi 1996"
127...Vivian Shipley, "Carolyn Forché's in El Salvador"
127...Marilyn Krysl, "Declaration of War"
128...Gerry LaFemina, "The Sacrosanct"
128...Dora McQuaid, "For Giving"
129...Jim Daniels, "Something Like a Sonnet for Something Like
Peace"
130...Anna Meek, "Res Publica"
* 8 *
Section Six: The Way We Learn to Love the World:
Poems of Wildness and Home
135...Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"
135...Todd Davis, "Trying to Understand the Patriot Act"
136...Jane Hirshfield, "Optimism"
136...Jeff Gundy, "February Report on the Conditions in the
Interior"
137...Jeff Gundy, "Firefly"
138...Rosemary Wahtola Trommer, "And there's plenty to be
unhappy about"
139...Margaret Gibson, "Steadiness"
140...Andrew Sydlik, "Indra and the Ants"
141...Deema K. Shehabi, "Ghazal"
142...Emily K. Bright, "Afternoon"
143...Hayan Charara, "Dandelions"
144...Barbara Crooker, "Hard Bop"
145...Holly J. Hughes, "All Things Falling"
145...Holly J. Hughes, "For the Blue Morpho"
146...Hedy Habra, "Blue Heron"
147...Derek Sheffield, "In the Open Country"
148...Christina Lovin, "This Day in Particular"
149...Martha Silano, "Explaining Current Events to a One-Year-
Old"
150...Chad Prevost, "Landscape in a Time of War"
152...Chase Twichell, "Architecture"
Section Seven: Becoming the Next Thread:
Poems of Ritual and Vigil
155...Angie Estes, "Wrap in Parchment and Also Pink Paper"
156...Yusef Komunyakaa, "Facing It"
157...Judith Montgomery, "Weaving Peace"
158...Robert Cording, "Opening Cans"
159...David Hassler, "Household Gods"
160...Dave Lucas, "The Fourteen Happy Days"
161...Robert Miltner, "How to Draw a Horse"
161...Katharyn Howd Machan, "At the Veterans Hospital"
162...Lisa Rosen, "Turn"
162...Lisa Rosen, "All the Way Up"
163...Jeanne Bryner, "Carving"
164...Alice Cone, "Surrender"
165...Richard Hague, "Firewood"
166...Stephen Haven, "Blue Flame"
167...David Budbill, "If a Boddhisatva"
168...Marilyn Rashid, "Touch Each Letter"
Section Eight: Gentleness that Wears Away Rock:
Poems of Meditation and Prayer
171...Gary Snyder, "For the Children"
171...Ellen Bass, "Pray for Peace"
173...Fady Joudah, "Proposal"
175...Penny Harter, "Turtle Blessing"
176...Jennifer Karmin, "Zazen"
176...Kim Jensen, "Rock Bottom"
177...Karen Kovacik, "Songs for a Belgrade Baker"
179...Mary E. Weems, "Kwansaba for June Jordan"
179...Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, "Wind"
181...Ed Sanders, "A Glyph for Judith Malina"
182...Daniel Berrigan, "Prayer from a Picket Line"
182...Daniel Berrigan, "Prayer for the Morning Headlines"
183...Michael Waters, "The Book of Constellations"
185...The Poets
201...The Editors
203...Acknowledgments