Late at night in Oberlin, hundreds of students — maybe even thousands — curl up in their rooms, writing poems in journals. It is only on rare occasions that the wider community gets to watch these words come to life. Thursday afternoon’s “Poets Against the War” reading was one of these spectacular occasions.

Students, faculty and Oberlin residents gathered in Wilder to share their poetic protests. The poems were reflections not only on the Iraq war, but also on terrorism, politics, the Bush administration, the recent election and of course, Sept. 11. Readers not only shared their own words, but also peace poems by favorite authors such as Charles Bukowski, Yehuda Amichai, Pablo Neruda and Walt Whitman, to name a few.

Erika Kulnys-Brain, who helped organize the event in conjunction with the creative writing department, shared a particularly impassioned poem entitled “November 3, 2004.” Kulnys-Brain explained that she stayed up all night to write the piece after hearing the results of the presidential election. At the end, Kulnys-Brain wrote, “Dare to stay open, don’t concede.”

Other memorable moments included David Young’s reading of a poem by Petrarch, in which the 14th-century Italian spoke out against war and contemplated mortality. Meeko Israel shared slam poems that found new meanings for terms like “Iraq” and “bin Laden” (for instance, “Caught between Iraq and a hard place”).

Poetry instructor Lynn Powell closed the emotional two hours with Mary Oliver’s poem, “A Summer Day,” that ends, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?” While I am still contemplating that question, I look forward to the next opening of journals and of minds.