In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Leonard Garment, at one time Nixon White House counsel and now developing the Jazz Museum in Harlem, is incensed at the ‘bad behavior’ of some poets in mixing art and politics which resulted in the cancellation of the Feb. 12th White House poetry symposium (partly because the symposium, he was hoping, would have advanced his current cause):

Such relationships will thrive only if politicians and artists display mutual restraint. Each party must refrain from gratuitously poking a finger in the eye of the other, a principle that the protesting poets flouted. They sought to use for political ends the platform that the White House provided to them for their artistry. They showed no concern for the effect of this on other artists and enterprises. Of course, they were exercising their constitutional rights. But they should not be surprised that Mrs. Bush, exercising her own rights, declined to offer them tea and cake. Let’s call it poetic justice and move on.

He cites numerous examples of such uppity artistic agitation interfering with Federal patronage of the arts throughout the years, including the Maplethorpe and Serrano flaps (although conceding that the current antiwar poets have better manners). Let us hope poets do not heed his plea that ‘poetic justice’ remain ever civil and impotent.

Here’s some ‘bad behavior’: Circulars: poets, artists and critics respond to u.s. global policy.