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		Points of View Bob Olsgard February 12, 2003 Guest Column © 2003 Bob Olsgard Published with Permission

A "Pilgrimage" for National Day of Poetry Against the War

Friends of peace and freedom,

Thanks to the ideological rigidity of first lady Laura Bush, a pretty much forgettable poetry reading at the White House scheduled for Wednesday, February 12, has become a national day of poetry against the war. The White House reading was to have honored the likes of Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. Poets who were to have been at the White House on this day decided they ought to be speaking out about the war. Not to be outdone by a bunch of scheming, near-do-well poets laureate, our nation's matron-in-chief stood up for the war and cancelled the reading.

So thanks to Laura (or perhaps the deeper understanding of what Whitman and Hughes had in mind for America) we have a real national day of poetry against the war. In honor of this, I'm sending you all a poem I wrote about what it was like for me and my daughter Eva to join half a million people who marched in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2003.

Every so often, I have to rediscover my own fundamental need to be a part of the continuing affirmation of freedom which constitutes this incredibly fragile experiment we call America.

Thanks to the folks at Anathoth for setting up the bus ride to Washington and for their steadfast devotion to organizing the rest of us for peace and justice. And especially, thanks to the folks in the White House for making it very clear their doors, ears and eyes are shut up tight. 

Happy national day of poetry against the war!

Pilgrimage

Drowning
In a torrent of death
I am struggling back up to the light
The light of freedom
And peace 
I am one
I am

Struggling 
Mired in a slough of senselessness
I am straining for sense about why
we stand not for freedom
and peace
I am one
I am

Standing
In a hole made of marble and names of the dead
I am looking to see a reflection of life
A life of freedom
A life at peace
I am one
I am

Floating
On a river of voices
I am flowing towards freedom
And peace
I am one of the voices
I am one 
I am 

Marching 
In a river of feet
I am trudging and running and dancing for freedom
and peace
I am one
I am

Bob Olsgard

Read more about the author of this article and poem, Bob Olsgard, coordinator of the Lake Superior Alliance.

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