Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

Hugh McFadden

60 years old
Dublin, Ireland

Tutor in History & Tutor in Political Science at U.C.D.  Reviewed for many Irish literary magazines & journals. Verse published widely in Ireland (Poetry Ireland Review, Irish University Review, Cyphers, Broadsheet etc.) Also in England (Aquarius). Broadcast on RTE Radio 1. A collection, Cities of Mirrors, published by Beaver Row Press, Dublin, in 1984. Has published two further collections of poems in recent years: Pieces of Time (Lapwing Press, Belfast, 2004) and Elegies & Epiphanies (Lagan Press, Belfast, 2005).

War Rhetoric and Rock'n'Roll

   I'm listening to the story
   of Sun Records on the BBC,
   the evergreen sound of the young
   Elvis before he became famous.
   The television is turned on
   with the sound down: some so-called expert
   is discussing Turkey and the Gulf
   and George Bush's plans to make war.
   For one brief moment I consider
   turning up the sound of the TV
   and turning off Elvis: just for one
   moment: then I reconsider.
   No, I'm much too old now to listen
   to the same old lies about war.
   Don't listen to Bush: listen to Elvis;
   "I Forgot To Remember To Forget".    

A Message To A Fearful America

   Don't listen to Bush
   listen to Elvis:
   don't listen to Bush
   he's a warmonger.

   Don't listen to Bush
   and his sounds of war:
   listen to Lennon
   and his sounds of peace
  
   give peace a chance.
  
   Don't listen to the war drum
   listen to your own heart drum:
   don't listen to the war drum
   listen to your own heart drum

   give peace a chance.

   Listen to the beat
   listen to the beat
   listen to the beat
   of your own heart.

   Don't listen to Bush
   listen to Elvis:
   don't listen to Bush
   listen to John Lennon

   give peace a chance.

   All we are saying
   is give peace a chance:
   all we are saying
   is give peace a chance.

   War is not the answer.            

Soft Machines in Iraq

And the Sky News announcer asks:
"Is there a risk in this war
to the soft-skinned vehicles?"
There sure is. Saw some of them
lying on the bloodied ground,
their soft skins burnt to a cinder:
arms, legs, skulls...all just carbon.
            

                                                                                                                                      




                                                                              

Hiroshima Fragment

Hiroshima Fragment
------------------                                                The shadows on the wall
                                                of our atomic age
                                                are sacred: they reflect
                                                the irradiated
                                                light
                                                that we have fractured.

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