Ferlinghetti’s new poem and a crtique of it – do you agree?

by meanhippie

Posted to Poetry and Politics on 2003-02-24 10:46:00

Here is a copy of Ferlinghetti’s new poem and a crtique of it – I would love to hear people’s opinions about both the poem and the critique and whether or not you think the critic is right in his review of the Peace Movement or if he is a simple conservative that cannot grasp Ferlinghetti’s overall point of view.

Ferlinghetti’s poem:

And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dreams
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you



The Critique: (I didn’t write this – would love your opinions aboiut whether or not writer is correct)


The Peace Drum Beat

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s new poem exemplifies all that’s wrong with the anti-war movement

by Tim Cavanaugh

It was probably inevitable, once the cavalcade of anti-war stars had reached the ranks of
forgettables like Tyne Daly and Malachy McCourt, that another of history’s great
B-listers would lend his reputation to the movement. No less a figure than Lawrence
Ferlinghetti, founding member and premier entrepreneur of The Beats, has been moved
to break his literary semi-retirement, take up his quill, and howl against “the war with the
Third World.”

Although the once-subversive poet and founder of the legendary City Lights bookstore
in San Francisco continues to plug away, he has not been much in view lately.
Ferlinghetti’s 1997 book “A Far Rockaway of the Heart” strove in vain to recapture the
magic of his classic “A Coney Island of the Mind” and stirred fears that “A Howard
Beach of the Spirit” might be awaiting publication somewhere. The last time he really
made a splash was by circulating an open letter wherein he griped about the declining
quality of U.S. Restaurant in San Francisco’s North Beach. Thus, the publication of his
new piece of anti-war verse, entitled “Speak Out,” has been enough to make the local
papers snap to attention.

Whether “Speak Out” is a substantial poetic achievement is a question we must leave to
future literary critics, but its merits as an anti-war tirade are easily scanned.

“And the terrorists in Washington/Are drafting all the young men,” the poet writes.

Ferlinghetti, who served his country in the Navy during World War II, presumably
knows what it actually means when the government drafts young men, and thus should
understand that this is not even close to happening at the present time. In fact, the current
sponsors of a congressional bill to reinstate mass conscription, Reps. Charles Rangel
(D-N.Y.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), are opponents of the Bush administration, and
their bill is intended as a form of protest. (Before leaving this point, let me note that
Ferlinghetti continues the boys-only ethos of the famously misogynistic Beats by
referring repeatedly to “young men” throughout the work—even the most socially
backward supporters of a war in Iraq now know enough to use the phrase “our men and
women in uniform.”)

On more solid ground, Ferlinghetti indicts the crackdown on Muslims and Middle
Easterners: “And they are rousting out/ All the ones with turbans/And they are flushing
out/All the strange immigrants.”

Lest we go too far in our concern about the very real and very troubling approach
authorities have taken toward ethnic and religious outsiders, however, Ferlinghetti
quickly reminds us who the real victim/heroes of today are: “And when they come to
round up/All the great writers and poets and painters/The National Endowment of the
Arts of Complacency/Will not speak.”

While the actual literary creations of The Beats have mostly faded from memory, the
movement’s real achievements—deft self-promotion and the almost single-handed
creation of aspirational marketing—live on as testaments to free-market capitalism, so
it’s refreshing to see Ferlinghetti’s honest dislike of a federal boondoggle like the NEA.
Still, are we supposed to be stirred by a line about “all the young men…killing all the
young men,” when the horribly distinctive thing about our new reality—from the
unprecedented slaughter of Sept. 11 and Bali to the (accidental but still horrific)
bombing of an Afghan wedding party to what will most likely be a high civilian toll on
the Iraqi population—is the killing of civilians?

And while I’m willing to believe that domestic support for an attack on Iraq is far less
enthusiastic than instant polling has suggested, it flies in the face of some powerful
statistical evidence for the poet to announce, “Now is the time for you to speak/O silent
majority.”

It’s easy, and meaningless, to mock a way-past-his-prime literary runner-up, but “Speak
Out” is indicative of just what makes the anti-war movement in its current form so inept.
Deeply satisfying as it may be to let your freak flags fly at The Man and all his
hang-ups, opposition to a war on Iraq is important enough to attract Americans across a
wide social and political spectrum. This opposition doesn’t (or shouldn’t) have anything
to do with scattershot accusations about a terrorist government, or concerns about a
non-existent military draft, or half-baked claims about American imperialism. (In fact, I
think America’s relative lack of imperial ambitions is one of the main reasons not to start
on a decades-long nation-building process now.)

We will undoubtedly see more worldwide protests against a war on Iraq in coming
weeks, and while I wish all these demonstrations well, I’d feel a lot better if they weren’t
clotted with moribund leftist clichés. The case that we have no alternative to invading
Iraq is one of the flimsiest arguments for war ever presented to the American people, and
there may well be a “silent majority” that would reject that case for practical and
essentially patriotic reasons.

This is all the more reason we don’t need more platitudes that made little sense even
when they were first circulated more than 40 years ago, especially when they don’t even
rhyme.

This story first appeared on Reason.com.