As political brutality descends, American poets raise their voices for peace and justice

Federal agents in fatigues gather near the scene of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man Jan. 24, 2026, the third shooting in as many weeks. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Given the brutish activity of masked federal, armed immigration agents in many of our cities — their disregard for the rule of law, process, and human dignity — and given also that I never thought anyone living in America would be required to show “papers” in the street while going about the normal business of life, my thoughts have been focused on the extraordinary generation of politically outspoken poets that came before me: Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Amiri Baraka, David Ray, Sonia Sanchez, Grace Paley, Denise Levertov, Topeka-born Gwendolyn Brooks and many others.

Some of those poets were friends of mine, some teachers, but all in some way were role models. Not only were they poets of a high order, they were activists on behalf of peace and social justice. The last time I talked to Paley on the phone, she was clearly frustrated with me because I had called to discuss a publishing matter for a magazine I edited, and she was on her way out the door to join a protest in New York City against George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Are you joining the protest? That’s all she wanted to know.

Shortly before the Iraq War, about 2002, Rich came to Kansas City to read poems for the Cockefair Chair speaker series, an event attended by some students and professors but also many of Kansas City’s social elite. Rich spent her first 15 minutes on the podium not reading or talking about poetry but exhorting us to protest the impending war in the gulf.

I could provide many examples of others in that generation, speaking forcefully against war, prejudice, injustice of all kinds. Ray and Bly cofounded the group American Writers Against the Vietnam War and co-edited “A Poetry Reading Against the Vietnam War.” Ray wrote countless letters to newspapers and spoke on radio against war, racial discrimination and other matters.

I am, therefore, questioning my own response to the armed assaults by U.S. Immigration and Enforcement agents against American citizens and legal immigrants. I am horrified by a possible invasion of Greenland, a United States ally, and other countries. The Academy of American Poets just sent a group of poems by Cornelius Eady, Kimiko Hahn, Ed Roberson and Aafa Michael Weaver about the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE forces in Minneapolis.

Notice the ages of those four poets mentioned in the paragraph above. All in their 70s and 80s. Forgive me, poets in your 30s or 50s who might be responding in print, in public; these older poets keep showing up for me.

I know how difficult it is for anyone, much less a poet, to figure out how to respond to this assault on American values coming from inside America. I write nearly every day to the so-far unmovable U.S. Sen. Roger “Doc” Marshall, R-Kansas, and to his partner Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas. I write often to my state representatives or call them. All I can do is seek insight and inspiration from those who came before and met the day.

The least we writers can do is write. Write to everyone you can think of to express your opinions and outrage. Write poems, directly political poems or otherwise sincere and honest on any topic. I just received a note from Kansas poet HC Palmer, a retired physician and Vietnam veteran, as a reminder to us all who might, at these times, lose heart:

“When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truths, which must serve as the touchstone of our judgement.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Robert Stewart edited the literary journal New Letters at The University of Missouri-Kansas City for many years. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.