(Ten thousand men and boys twist on their bodies in a red soak along a river edge, / Gasping of wounds, calling for water, some rattling death in their throats.) / Who by Christ would guess what it cost to move two buttons one inch on the war map here in front of / the newspaper office where the freckle face young man is laughing at us?
— Carl Sandburg, “Buttons” Chicago Poems, 1916

As long as there have been wars there have been poets speaking out against them, capturing and exposing the deeper sentiments and images of conflict. To browse through the work contained in one of the most comprehensive anthologies of social protest literature, Upton Sinclair’s The Cry for Justice is to be stirred with the emotion of not just one unfairness but of injustice itself.

Before and during the war against Iraq, we witnessed writers mobilizing for peace: getting angry and getting organized, reading and rallying against the war. In Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the United States, moments of action and reaction like the poetry community’s response to First Lady Laura Bush’s cancelled poetry symposium, the procession of 10,000 poems to 10 Downing Street and the massive consumption of Nthposition.com’s 100 Poets Against the War (perhaps the Internet’s most recognized poetry anthology) have established the poetic peace movement as an artistic faction to be taken seriously — and one that didn’t end with the peace-promoting poets of the 60s and 70s.

As did poets for centuries before them, the writers against this war have served to document and preserve the energy of protest and voices of dissent that run contrary to the mainstream. And given that April is National Poetry Month in Canada, perhaps it’s time to have a look at some of the work done by some of the most vocal writers of verse. Here, rabble.ca survey’s of some sites to get you started:

Poetsagainstthewar.org, U.S.
Inaugurated in response to Laura Bush’s cancellation of the White House symposium on the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman, this site has become a central spot for a regular dose of anti-war poetry. With four to five new poems posted daily, leading up to and during the war and links to coverage of the artistic peace movement, it is a good site to bookmark.

Nthposition.com
The first literary site to really make the news thanks to its instant 100 Poets Against the War anthology (already in its third edition), nthposition.com is a European e-zine that was shortlisted for a 2002 European Online Journalism award even before it became renowned for its pacifist attitudes. And it features some CanCon to boot: the site’s poetry editor Todd Swift is an ex-pat Montrealer living in Paris.

Poetsagainstwar.org, U.K.
Visit this site for more info on the 10,000 poems for peace delivered to 10 Downing Street. (Be sure to check out the contribution by Harold Pinter.)You can also find info on other U.K.-based poets and events, as well as links to the other anti-war poetry sites.

Poetescontrelaguerre.com
Unlike some of the more comprehensive sites, this one features French poetry against the war without much else in the way of links or resources. Still a good read, particularly if you’re looking to brush up on your French skills.

Dialoguepoetry.org
The UN’s poetry site features information about poetry conferences, readings and literary activity around the world. Not so much an anti-war poetry site as one that shows poetry as an international medium in the world. Who knew there was so much great literary activity at the United Nations?

Writers Against War
Back at home, Writers Against War is a good spot to check for the latest readings and events happening here in Canada. The last listed event is on tonight so check it out now!

Three Squares Press
Finally if you’re looking for a more concrete read, a quickly mounted anthology by Three Squares Press — The Common Sky — is now out. It features work by Margaret Atwood, Robert Kroetsch, Christian Bök, Canada’s Poet Laureate George Bowering, Fred Wah, Nicole Brossard, Daphne Marlatt, Steven Heighton, Gerry Shikatani, Maggie Helwig and more, with a foreword by Alistair MacLeod.