To be Against War is not
Enough: it’s Hardly a Beginning²
Non-Violence: to Divest Passivity
Without arraying in vindictive Force³
The High Ideals for which we Kill One
Another – are Empty & Abstract substitutes
For the Unheeded Miracles that Surround us⁴
We still have bits of Country left in our hands,
So let’s Rest awhile, lest we Lose what Remains⁵
I’ll Fight till I conquer in Myself what Causes War⁶
We shall all their Ammunition and Feats of War
Defeat with plain Heroic magnitude of Mind⁷
I dream I see the Bombers riding Shotgun in
The sky and they are turning into Butterflies⁸
And the people in the streets below Dance
Round and round – and Guns and Swords
And Uniforms Scatter to the ground⁹
Love & Poetry Win Forever: War is
A Great Big Lose – I am a Poet & a
Lover & a Winner, how about you?¹⁰
¹ Jorge Rebelo, Come Brother and Tell Me Your Life
² Muriel Rukeyser, The Life of Poetry
³ Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait
⁴ Alan Watts, This Is It
⁵ Ibrahim Tuqan tr. Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Lest We Lose
⁶ Marianne Moore, In Distrust of Merits
⁷ John Milton, Samson Agonistes
⁸ Joni Mitchell, Woodstock
⁹ Ed McCurdy, Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
¹⁰ Philip Whalen, “Dear Mr. President”