Who let the poets in?
The AP stuns with White House Cancels Poetry Symposium:

The White House postponed a poetry symposium out of concerns it would be politicized after some poets said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq.

The symposium on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman had been scheduled for Feb. 12. No future date has been announced for the event, to be held by first lady Laura Bush.

"While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum," Noelia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the first lady, said Wednesday.But the poetry symposium quickly inspired a nationwide protest.
...
Sam Hamill, a poet and editor of the highly regarded Copper Canyon Press, declined the invitation and e-mailed friends asking for antiwar poems or statements.

"Make February 12 a day of Poetry Against the War. We will compile an anthology of protest to be presented to the White House on that afternoon," the e-mail reads.

He had expected about 50 responses; he's gotten more than 1,500, including contributions from W.S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Hamill will post all the submissions on a Web site he expects to have ready early next week.

I wonder if he will publish Tim Blair's epic work?

If I could meet Osama
I'd ask if it was brave
To kill so many people
And why he lives inside a cave

If I could meet Osama
I'd say, "Please be nice instead."
Then I'd whip out my revolver
And shoot the motherfucker dead

-- by Timmy T. Timson, age 5

And we didn't just miss out on poetry!

Marilyn Nelson, Connecticut's poet laureate, said Wednesday she had accepted her invitation to the poetry symposium and criticized the White House for trying to silence the voice of American artists.

"I had decided to go because I felt my presence would promote peace," she said. "I had commissioned a fabric artist for a silk scarf with peace signs painted on it. I thought just by going there and shaking Mrs. Bush's hand and being available for the photo ops, my scarf would make a statement."

Might be hard to spot the scarf with your head up your butt that way, Marilyn!

Laura, I don't know how you folks in Texas do it, but around here we don't let dogs and poets inside the house. They have fleas and tend to soil the carpet.