Thursday, June 21, 2007

Gitmo Poetry Preview II

Our sampling of the anxiously-awaited Guantanamo Anthology continues with one of the more paradoxical portraits of Gitmo itself. Buoyed up by a sense of literary triumph over Neocon-induced adversity, the poet pictures the prison as a "happy hoosegow place" and even a "blessed cage":

This poet warehouse, this abode of bards,
Of literary plowshares, lately swords,
Semtex quatrains, martyrdom denied,
This fortress built by Cheney for himself
That he might better wield the hand of war,
This happy hoosegow place, this little world,
This holstered sidearm worn with green fatigues
A prop for UN oratory bursts
To bang the lectern with and wave around
And thus dispel the vile Imperialist plots--
This blessed cage, this hole, this clink, this Gitmo

Indeed, many of the tear-stained letters of the inmates have expressed this sense of joyful literary triumph overcoming the misery of unjust incarceration. The inmates spend their time in lively aesthetic discussions. (And if you don't think that's impressive, you try convincing a Takfirist that Alexandrine couplets went out with Chapman.) The Al-Buraq Bard Brigade Anthology will undoubtedly require multiple volumes since many of the more ambitious poetic projects were not completed in time for Volume One. One epic poem, reportedly, began "Arms and the Muhjadeen I sing . . ."

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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