According to this:

The White House's postponement of a literary symposium it believed was becoming politicized led two former U.S. poets laureate to characterize the decision as an example of the Bush administration's hostility to dissenting or creative voices.

"I think there was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the center of the poetic impulse," Stanley Kunitz, the 2000-2001 poet laureate, said Thursday.

Yes, but:

The Feb. 12 symposium on "Poetry and the American Voice" was to have featured the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman...."While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum.".

I have to agree. It was supposed to be a literary event; instead, they attempted to turn it into a mamby-pamby anti-Bush political event. Think they just wanted to read some poems? Read their website poetsagainstthewar.org. If you want to protest the war, fine. Just do it on your own time and dime. Perhaps this whole thing was planned from the beginning: they made their intentions clear from the beginning, knowing that the event would be cancelled and they'd get all the resulting publicity.

Even the Sheryl Crow of the Poetry World was going to be there:

Marilyn Nelson... commissioned a fabric artist for a silk scarf with peace signs painted on it," she said. "I thought just by going there and shaking Mrs. Bush's hand and being available for the photo ops, my scarf would make a statement."

Maybe next time Marilyn should join Naked Geriatrics for Peace.