U.S. poet laureate speaks out against war

January 18, 2006 Collins is following in the footsteps of at least three of his predecessors, former poets laureate Stanley Kunitz, Rita Dove and Richard Wilbur, who in the past days have also publicly stated their opposition to war. It is highly unusual for a sitting U.S. poet laureate to make a political statement. Collins is not known as a political poet.

As was revealed by The Associated Press, Collins signed an anti-war petition last month, together with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, Richard Wilbur, John Ashbery, Robert Creeley, Charles Simic, James Tate, and many other members of the literary establishment, condemning "an aggressive first strike against Iraq". Over the last few days he has also declared his support for the Poets against the war initiative of Sam Hamill, which caused the White House to {id="341" title="cancel a literary symposium"} hosted by Laura Bush.

"If political protest is urgent, I don't think it needs to wait for an appropriate scene and setting and should be as disruptive as it wants to be,'' Collins told AP. "I have tried to keep the West Wing and the East Wing of the White House as separate as possible because I support what Mrs. Bush has done for the causes of literacy and reading. But as this country is being pushed into a violent confrontation, I find it increasingly difficult to maintain that separation.''

A spokeswoman for the Library of Congress, the body that selects the American poet laureate, said that "Mr. Collins is free to express his own opinions on any subject."

British poet laureate Andrew Motion {id="290" title="published an anti-war quatrain"} last month, stating as the real reasons behind a war against Iraq "elections, money, empire, oil and Dad''.