Wake Up is the latest poetry book by David Krieger. He has written four books of peace poetry and also edited four peace poetry anthologies. He continues on his path of writing piercing and thought-provoking peace poetry. His poems are often poems of remembrance, as well as warnings about the dangers of the nuclear age. Wake Up is divided into six sections: Truth Is Beauty; War; Remembering Bush II; Global Hiroshima; Peace; Portraits; and Imperfection. Krieger has received many awards for his work for peace and a nuclear-free world, including three peace writing awards from the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. These poems leave us wanting to do more to build a peaceful world and assure humanity's future. The book has received much praise. Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "There is haunting beauty and truth in this poetry." Doug Rawlings, poet and Vietnam War veteran said of Wake Up that "...it reads like a series of eloquent telegrams sent directly to the heart of a culture, ours..." Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and author of A Coney Island of the Mind, wrote: "Wake Up is accessible and moving writing, setting itself against the dominant murderous culture of our time. Every poem hits home."
Portraits: Peacemakers, Warmongers and People Between is a new book of peace poetry by David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The book begins with an examination of what it means to be human in our time, and ncludes portraits of Albert Einstein, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Robert McNamara, and Emperor Hirohito, among others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes about the book, "Poetry that awakens our deepest humanity. Each poem leaves me wanting another." Perie Longo, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emerita, writes, "In the lessons of these sometimes tough, often poignant, well wrought poems, lies the hope of humanity's survival." An important book to read and share.
The poems in this volume have been written in the shadow of the bomb. They are poems of survival. They challenge the hubris of those who would rely on nuclear arms for their security. They pose the questions: "How shall we react? How shall we resist? How shall we awaken before it is too late?" This book sounds a warning siren, but it is also a book of hope-hope that people everywhere will awaken to the nuclear dangers that confront us; hope that our shared humanity will prevail; hope that the children of the future will thrive; hope that the bomb and its shadow will be resisted and forever banished from our world; and hope that there will be a new era of love, kindness, compassion and peace.
