Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Phillip Levine
53 years old
Phillip Levine is a poet, editor, educator, and performer. He is the poetry editor for the Mid-Hudson Valley magazine "Chronogram" (www.chronogram.com), and president of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival (www.woodstockpoetry.com). From 2001-2008, he hosted a popular weekly reading series at The Colony, one of the most storied venues for poets and musicians in Woodstock, NY. He is a five-year alumnus of the Chenango Valley Writers' Conference and was an invited reader in 2002 and 2005. Phillip was a featured poet at Woodstock Poetry Festival in 2001, 2002 and 2005 and coordinated a workshop for young poets at the festival in 2003 and 2005. He has organized a number of Poets for Peace events in the Woodstock/mid-Hudson Valley.
Through a grant from Poets & Writers, and Incisions, Inc. (a non-profit dedicated to bringing poetry into the prisons), Phillip created a semester long poetry class for incarcerated youth, at the Highland Correctional Facility in Highland, NY.
Rivers & Gardens
Rivers & Gardens
the strongest argument against war is the nature of war the strongest argument against war is the nature of war
The river is Jordan and the Garden is wild a burst of flowers and the rupture of seed the sky bleeds and blows clouds and people to pieces these are not pretty petals with their sudden bloom in crowded places these tulips have no sweet these roses have no name the wine has turned the bread has mold the birthplace of the 3 may now bury a million and here is a boy who has lost his shoes below the knees
The river is Tigris and the Garden is wild roses torn from stem who wears these thorns? who cut these palms? who parted these sands? who razed this mecca? Eden boils a failure of seed the apple is cut and rots roots are ripped ivy tangles here is a boy who has lost his shoes below the knees and a father with no sons
The river is Euphrates and the Garden is wild armed and fertile with something new and cruel the pin is pulled and ready for seed the soil is plowed open with pits green bolts to red what bounty? what harvest? war is a crop for fattening a few and feeding no one rain cuts a man into parts this piece was his leg, here lies his arm these things used to belong to him the bloom is off the rose and in the powder what tills this soil? what waters these wounds? here is a boy who has lost his shoes below the knees and a father with no sons
the strongest argument against war is the nature of war
The river is Hudson and the Garden is wild Here is a boy who's lost his shoes below the knees And a father with no sons this is the season of bolt and ruin and the bruising of fruit here is the shrinking vine the drift root and the idle rain where is the spring sprout? how is this harvest fall?
The river is Potomac and the Garden is wild Here, everywhere, are boys who have lost their shoes below the knees.
