Sharon Olds to Laura Bush

Here is an 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. I don't have a link as I received the letter in email. Sharon Olds is one of most widely read and critically acclaimed poets living in America today. Read to the end of the letter to experience her
restrained, chilling eloquence.

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 nonspeaking 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 nonspeaking 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

--
The truth will out: someone got it at last:
Dogs have masters; cats have staff.

"I could not stomach it"

the fortitude to turn it down because of their values.

It would be easy to be start struck when invited by the White House to attend any event but then this is the bu$h White House and more like a Whore House than White House.

because while I share many of her political views, there is a slightly holier than thou aura in it that disturbs me. Perhaps the open nature of the letter...

And I might get slammed for this, but at least I am honestly expressing myself and not just moving on. I respect those of you who approve and I believe I understand your reasons for approving.

Anyway, like I said, it challenges me because I can't quite put my finger on where I am uncomfortable with it. But I am.

I sincerely know that I could not accept an invitation from her or eat with her based on everything that I know about the Bush Admistration. Personally, I could see my self doing the same thing.

but I'm glad you understand what I mean.

I'm really still pondering it because my reaction is kind of a paradox to me. I've been waiting to get slammed about it, but I guess not yet!