Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Chad Parenteau
29 years old
South Boston
Chad Parenteau's poetry has appeared in Meanie as well as the online magazines Shampoo and can we have our ball back. He has reported on various activists and protest events for Boston's local press.
For The Cheerleaders of War, Halftime in Iraq, 2003
I can hear you mocking me, condemning all unread poetic cyberpeace geeks. But I’m too depressed to jeer back as I watch you floating around in opaque bubbles--gray like soap dirtied by hands cleaned too quickly-- and hear each of you profess your one voice of reason amongst savages in a world of your making that you still can’t stand. And though unable to see your airborne brothers, your tirades, so similar, make their way through all your tinted shields. And instead of feeling terror, you fancy them otherworldly echoes, as endlessly everywhere as words shouted from mountain ranges, buildings, or anything else majestic, part of a God you’re sure is yours. And if you close your eyes, you can see him rallying an archangel unit at the gates of hell, but not to send them toppling, as some things are still needed to keep other things relevant. And after disciplined swaying to your own melody, a few of you fancy that you heard something holy and ought to write a poem to refute those other voices you keep hearing about. And more of you dismiss it, thinking that no one will care, that all anyone expects from you is your enthusiastic countdown. And you’re right.
