Occasionally, someone comes along with a show of courage to stand up and speak up for what they believe in. Sharon Olds, known as one of the most gifted and widely read poets of our time, did just that as she searched her conscience.
Sharon Olds received an invitation from First Lady Laura Bush to attend, present and read poetry at the pretigious National Book Festival, including attending a dinner at the Library of Congress or breakfast at the White House. An invitation many could not resist. But Sharon's truth obviously had a more compelling call for her. Below is her response. Be sure to read the ending to experience to fully experience her restrained, chilling eloquence:
Open Letter from the poet, Sharon Olds to Laura Bush
declining the invitation to read and speak at the National Book Critics
Circle Award in Washington, DC.
___________________________________________________
Laura Bush
First Lady, The White House
Dear Mrs. Bush,
I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind
invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on
September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or
the breakfast at the White House.
In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at
a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of
finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in
terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents--all of us who
need the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.
And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been
dear to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate
school of a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of
some magnificent outreach writing workshops in which our students have
become teachers. Over the years, they have taught in a variety of
settings: a women's prison, several New York City public high schools,
an oncology ward for children.
Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the severely
physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years, creating
along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates and
their students - long-term residents at the hospital who, in their
humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.
When you have witnessed someone non-speaking and almost nonmoving
spell out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by
letter, his new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and
essentialness of writing.
When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a writer who
is completely non-speaking and nonmoving (except for the eyes), and
pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to
the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she
has been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when
that letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the
human drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit -
and the importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each
person's unique story and song.
So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I
thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach
program. I thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books
and meet some of the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could
try to find a way, even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my
deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my
belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country -
with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and
for the noncombatants in their home terrain - did not come out of our
democracy but was instead a decision made "at the top" and forced on
the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express
the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and
religious chauvinism - the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and
diversity our nation aspires to.
I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear
witness - as an American who loves her country and its principles and
its writing - against this undeclared and devastating war.
But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that
if I sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were
condoning what I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush
Administration.
What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking
food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration
that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the
extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other
countries where they will be tortured for us.
So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish
and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought
of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of
the candles, and I could not stomach it.
Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS
_______________________________________
When have you been so courageous? I leave you asking myself the same question.
Debbe
Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the LEAD
