On January 30, 2003, First Lady Laura Bush cancelled a poetry symposium scheduled for February 12 at the White House on the grounds that invited participants were planning to use the forum to protest the upcoming US invasion of Iraq. Mrs. Bush's spokesperson had this to say.

While Mrs. Bush respects and believes in the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions, and believes that it would be inappropriate to turn what is intended to be a literary event into a political forum.

Rejecting the idea that literature should not be political, poets around the country held live and broadcast readings and slams of anti-war poems beginning on February 12. Democratic Underground member Plaid Adder planned and hosted the DU POETS AGAINST THE WAR POETRY SLAM!!! thread. This is an archive of the works posted there. These poems are reprinted here with the permission of the authors, and copyright remains with them. If you wish to use any of these poems for any purpose, don't be a wanker - contact the authors for permission.

Thanks to Terwilliger for the use of his protest photo. :)