Inclined to Speak on War

I’m interested in the poem written by Lawrence Joseph which the anthology takes it’s name after, Inclined to Speak.  The lines that grab my attention the most is rhetorical,

“...what kinds of times are these

when a poem is a crime because it includes 

what must be made explicit.”

In this stanza there is urgency and a flare of social justice that emanates from the Lebanese/Syrian American writer’s voice.  Joseph alludes to the importance of freedom of speech; the dangers of political censorship raised to question when social inequalities extreme.  He challenges the poet who writes solely on beauty and “pleasure” when there is suffering apparent in society.  In “Inclined to Speak” Joseph holds the writer responsible, including himself, to tell the stories that are difficult or unpleasant, but are held as “truth.”  This philosophical and ethical challenge for writers to be socially responsible is intriguing.  Of course most artists do not want anyone to impose influence in one’s artistic process or choices for content, but one cannot ignore the validity of Joseph’s concern for poets opting to take the less controversial path.

What Joseph is doing is sparking a fire to ignite social change in oneself as writer and/or reader to affect change.  The end of this poem is provocative in nature, challenging us to speak up and become participants in larger society who oppose genocide, war, rape, and other atrocities.  Similarly in the poem “Intifada” Samuel Hazo addresses issues of war, criticizing militia for killing children and spoofing a general’s claim that “...leaders and parents use these children as human shields” with his response,

“After all, who could deny that boys with all their lives

ahead of them would happily

seek execution, that mothers loved 

to see their sons in open

coffins, that choosing a brave

death instead of a life long one

was an opinion for fools?”

Hazo is airing controversial and prevalent sentiments that many conservative Americans hold on to as part of their will to push what many falsely call “the war on terrorism.”  His use of dialogue from militia in battle is something we do not usually see in poetry and Hazo poignantly shapes the devastating loss of humanity in war.  

Also in his poem “For Which it Stands” Hazo uses the American flag as a precarious symbol and metaphor for political viewpoints which criticize the U.S. government.  He exemplifies with the U.S. government’s use of the Christian religion to justify war and it’s support funded by capitalism embedded in our culture, and the dehumanization, little value placed on the lives of people of Arab descent who continue to be casualties of war in Iraq.  The poem ends dramatic and unjust in that the U.S. media only tells one side of the story and it is not from that of an Arab perspective.  He writes strikingly about the casualties,

“Two boys,

their mother and both grandparents,

No names for them...

                            Just Arabs”