Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

Kelli Russell Agodon

Kelli Russell Agodon’s poems have appeared in the Rattapallax, Seattle Review, Parnassus, Crab Creek Review, The Adirondack Review, and other publications. Recently, she was nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and awarded a writing residency at Soapstone Writers Retreat in Oregon. Kelli is an Artist Trust GAP recipient for her manuscript “Beginning to Speak.” Currently, she is the Poetry Editor for the online literary journal Margin and a Regional Coordinator for the United Poetry Coalition formerly Poets for Peace. She lives in a small seaside community outside of Seattle with her husband and daughter.

Of a Forgetful Sea

Sometimes, I forget the sun
sinking into ocean.

Desert is only a handful of sand
held by my daughter.

In her palm,
she holds small creatures,
tracks an ant, a flea
moving over each grain.

She brings them to places
she thinks are safe:

an island of driftwood,
the knot of a blackberry bush,
a continent of grass.

Fire ants carried on sticks,
potato bugs scooped
into the crease of a newspaper.

She tries to help them
before the patterns of tides
reach their lives.

She knows about families
who fold together like hands,
a horizon of tanks moving forward.

Here war is only newsprint.

How easy it is not to think about it
as we sleep beneath our quiet sky,
slip ourselves into foam, neglectful
waves appearing endless.

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