Forums: Share your poetry inspired by the events of the past few months.

Read Americans' poems written in response to 9/11

Robert Pinsky doesn't claim that poetry has the immediacy of television can bring on a day like September 11th. The former U.S. Poet Laureate says poetry can't convey the emotions that Americans felt after the attacks as well as music can. But, according to Pinsky, poetry has an intimacy and physicality that no other art form can boast.

It is that intimacy that gives poetry the amazing consoling power that Americans have relied upon over the past few months. From email forwards of Percy Shelley poems sent among friends to all the amateur poets who took solace in putting their feelings to words, the intimacy of poetry has given it an even greater role in this new era of uncertainty.

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What should be done with the surrendering Taliban troops? Share your thoughts in the forum.

The Ethics of Surrender Listen

The Taliban has approached the United Nations and requested a meeting to negotiate the surrender of their former stronghold Konduz. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been clear that he opposes any negotiation with Taliban leaders or fighters. Because many Taliban fighters are also members of Al Qaeda, Rumsfeld emphatically said yesterday, "My hope is that they will either be killed or taken prisoner."

Negotiating terms of surrender always raises difficult questions. Those dilemmas are even more pronounced in Afghanistan, because the defeated Taliban may present a threat of terrorism if they are allowed to go free. This hour, the ethical and political dilemmas surrounding the surrender of Afghanistan.

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