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

Ken Head

64 years old

Ken Head is a poet and a British citizen.  Like millions of others, he is opposed to the invasion of Iraq and to the notion that good international citizenship can be achieved with violence.

But The Child Died

In a small village somewhere that no one
has ever heard of, the child,
who has done nothing wrong, nothing bad,
nothing to anger the powerful men
who sent the bombers, dies.  

It doesn’t take him long, a few minutes,
maybe an hour or so.   Little medical
expense is involved, which is a blessing
despite the pain.  His mother and father
weep, as parents must.

But there were other raids tonight
and many casualties, none of them
unexpected, so these parents are lucky,
they have other children and will build
another house eventually.

Tomorrow morning
in the newspapers of the world
these deaths will detonate
the breakfast news
and be discussed by experts

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