[Mb-hair] On Anti-War Poetry by Veterans of War

[Sibley Smith]

From: Sibley Smith <sjsmith at njvvmf.org>
Sent: Thu Jul 21 13:37:10 PDT 2005 

The following is reprinted to the MB-HAIR List with permission of the author, Vietnam veteran poet and peace activist Jan Barry [...]:

12-Jul-2005 Practical Poetry

Another author recently asked for some comments on effects of war resistance poetry. Of course, I can't think of a single war that was stopped by a volley of antiwar poems. [ ... ].

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Hey HAIR Heads,

In reply to Jan Barry's comment above, I sent him the following (he flattered me by asking me "Hey Sib, I like your reply! May I post it on my website's discussion board?"  --Sure enough, it's there! http://www.janbarry.net/disc.htm):

Jan,

You said 
Poetry
Never stopped a war.

I mentioned
My interest
In HAIR.

["The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical" by Rado, Ragni, MacDermot, O'Horgan, and Butler]

Back in the day,
I wore my hair 
Long.  
 
[see pic on this page: http://members.tripod.com/~SibleyJ2/links-1.html]

To be sure,
For many
'Twas mere fashion.

But for me
'Twas more--
Much, much more.

I wore my "colors"--
I let my
"Freak flag fly."

Hair Zen, of then, to me,
Was best expressed 
By another poet:

"We let our hair grow,
"We let our feelings show,
"We let our poets know
"We were listening."

--Jesse Colin Young ("American Dream Suite")
[http://www.jessecolinyoung.com/]

I dare say,
Poetry did
Once stop a war.

We were listening.

--Your Sib


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