Monday, June 4, was supposed to be Maxwell Corydon Wheat’s big day.
The 80-year-old poet, who lives in Nassau County, New York, was to be announced as the county’s first poet laureate. But the announcement never came. Instead, he saw his name sullied, and then his nomination shot down. All because he’s written some poems critical of Bush and the Iraq War.
In Wheat’s book, “Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace,” he has a powerful poem entitled “Coming Home.” The poem, which I’m including at the end, recounts the biographical details of several soldiers killed in the war, with the refrain: “All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with the American flag.”
In his poem “Iraq,” he writes about the “Less-than-Elected-Vice-President Cheney” and the “Less-than-Elected-President Bush” who are contemplating the best time to launch a strike against Iraq to further their imperial desires. He also minces no words in his poem about the desecration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, “Oilman George W. Bush’s Hollow Eye Sockets.” (Those eye sockets “vent black liquid.”) A birdwatcher and nature lover, Wheat writes most of his poems on more bucolic topics that have nothing to do with politics. But it’s his political poems that got him into trouble.
A year ago, the Nassau County board voted to have a poet laureate. Wheat says he was one of 14 who applied. He was among six finalists, and he interviewed before the selection committee the county had appointed. “I felt I did a good job,” he says. “I enjoyed it.” A couple of weeks later, Wheat received the good news. “I got the word that they had made their choice and the choice was I,” he says. “Get that grammar right. I’m an old English teacher.” He was told to show up on June 4 for the announcement, and he had prepared a statement of acceptance. “I’m going to make Nassau County an open classroom for poetry,” the statement said. But he never was able to deliver it. “I got a call from a legislative aide who told me it had been taken off the calendar,” he says. The aide explained that a couple of legislators had complained about his book “Iraq and Other Killing Fields,” though Wheat believes they only saw it that morning.
When twenty other poets showed up anyway at the county board meeting, the board agreed to put it back on the calendar for that afternoon. But it didn’t make a difference. “They said I was condemning the troops,” Wheat recalls. “That hurt. That was scary. To be attacked for that: No way! My whole book is predicated on concern for the troops.” When the vote came, it was 6-1 against him. Wheat says it was difficult “watching your own rejection taking place as they went one by one. You hear that word ‘no,’ and then the next one, ‘no.’ Hearing the ‘no, no, no,’ that hurt.” Wheat says the board members were discriminating against him for his political beliefs and were grandstanding.
Newsday, the Long Island newspaper that broke this story, agrees. In an editorial June 6, it called the county’s decision “exploitative and embarrassing.” Republican Minority Leader Peter Schmitt scoffed at the whole thing, though, and accused the Democrats of a diversion. “I wish they’d spend as much time worrying about the deficit as they spend on things like birds and poet laureates,” he told Newsday. Wheat seems no worse for the wear. “I have received so much loving support from all over that I have really no reason or right to feel badly anymore,” he says. “I am disappointed because I did look forward with excitement about reaching out and telling people to enjoy poetry. I believe in poetry, I believe poetry can move people.”
"Coming Home" by Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. American Service Men and Women Dead - 1355 "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
George W. Bush President of the United States State of the Union Address January 28, 2003 In catacombs of military transports destined for Dover Air Force Base, loves, beliefs, ideals, plans: Hancock Community College, University of Miami, New York Police Academy, weddings, children, barbeques, baseball, bass fishing-All lidded down inside caskets carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag 25-year-old Marine Corps Corporal St. George, Maine. Sailor, rock climber, stargazer. On dance floor, ". . . like a magnet." Loves lobsters, mussels- All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag 30-year-old Army Private First Class Tuba City, Arizona. ". . . young, a single mother and capable." Her boy, 4 - her girl, 3. Woman proud of her Hopi heritage- All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag 20-year-old Marine Corps Corporal La Harpe, Illinois. High school football, basketball player, lifeguard at health club pool, lifts weights, going to be a physical trainer. Joins Marine Corps Reserve to pay for studies at Southern Illinois University- All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag 21-year-old Marine Corps Corporal Gallatin, Tennessee. Nurses dying mother with his humor, dresses in clown costume for nieces' birthdays . History buff, reads fat books about generals, presidents, the Revolutionary War- All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag 24-year-old Coast Guard Petty Officer Northport, New York. Wife, three months pregnant. Wants to be a policeman like his father. ". . . the kind of person that you fall in love with the minute that you meet him," a friend says- All lidded down inside casket carefully, caringly covered with The American Flag A father, a mother grieve for their only son, an Army Specialist. "He wanted to be an engineer," the father remembers. "He wanted to set up his own business when he got out. And I says, 'Amigo, I'm waiting for you to get out so we can put up our own business.' And all that, well, you know, is history." The Major General carefully, caringly folds The American Flag, places the nation's ensign into the mother's hands Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr.
© This poem appears as "Coming Home" in the paperback, "Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace," (Cow Meadow Promotions, 2004), by Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr., of Freeport, New York.