Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Lettera aperta di una poetessa statunitense  a Laura Bush

Fra le innumerevoli critiche alla presente amministrazione Bush, fa spicco
questa lettera aperta della poestessa Sharon Olds in risposta ad un invito,
della Prima Lady, alla lettura e commento del suo libro al National Book
Critics Circle Award in Washington, DC.
Sharon Olds e` una delle scrittrici/poetesse piu`lette e acclamate viventi
in USA.
Rimarchevole e`la sua eloquenza nella parte conclusiva della lettera.
Giano
----
Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House
Dear Mrs. Bush,
I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind
invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on September
24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the breakfast at
the White House.
In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a
festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of finding
new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms of the
desire that poetry serve its constituents--all of us who need the pleasure,
and the inner and outer news, it delivers.
And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear to
my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of a
major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent
outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers. Over
the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women's prison,
several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for children.
Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely physically
challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating along the way
lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and their
students--long-term residents at the hospital who, in their humor, courage
and wisdom, become our teachers.
When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell out,
with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his new poem,
you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of writing.
When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who is
completely nonspeaking and non moving (except for the eyes), and pointed
first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to the first
letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has been
composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that letter is
touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human drive for
creation,self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit--and the importance of
writing, which celebrates the value of each person's unique story and song.
So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought of
the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I thought
of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of the
citizens of Washington , DC. I thought that I could try to find a way, even
as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we should
not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade
another culture andanother country--with the resultant loss of life and limb
for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain--did
not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made "at the top"
and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to
express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and
religious chauvinism--the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity
our nation aspires to.
I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear
witness--as an American who loves her country and its principles and its
writing--against this undeclared and devastating war. But I could not face
the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down to eat with
you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be the wild,
highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.
What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food from
the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that unleashed
this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of permitting
"extraordinaryrendition": flying people to other countries where they will
be tortured for us.
So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and
shame for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the
clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the
candles, and I could not stomach it.
Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS

 our nation aspires to.
Eh...  Se la democrazia non e' una vuota parola, anche i poeti insorgono...
Am.
PS miei asterischi

"amalric" <ama...@TOGLIMIalice.it> wrote in message
news:43960ab9$0$13262$4faf...@reader2.news.tin.it...

#_Saro`vecchiotto; fuori moda; prevedibile; stantio... ma benedetta
libbbberta`tartassata : "m'imbevo e m'inebrio di Neruda e
Picasso".(asterischi miei)
Giano
Giano