WHAT RHYMES WITH HALABJA?:

Poet laureates rip White House over symposium (HILLEL ITALIE, February 1, 2003, AP)

Two former U.S. poet laureates Thursday criticized the White House for postponing a literary symposium that it believed would be politicized. Stanley Kunitz, 2000-2001 poet laureate, and Rita Dove, 1993-95 poet laureate, characterized the decision as an example of the Bush administration's hostility toward dissenting or creative voices.

The Feb. 12 symposium on ''Poetry and the American Voice'' was to have featured the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. The postponement was announced Wednesday, and no future date has been set for the event, to be hosted by first lady Laura Bush.

''I think there was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the center of the poetic impulse,'' Kunitz said.

In a statement, Dove said the postponement confirmed her suspicion that ''this White House does not wish to open its doors to an 'American voice' that does not echo the administration's misguided policies.''

Do it on your own dime, not ours. Maybe you could do it from Baghdad and explain to the Iraqi people how supporting their oppression by Saddam is your idea of poetic humanitarianism. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 1, 2003 11:47 PM