Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
As modern poetry has often been stereotyped as focusing primarily on subjective concerns, this week’s RTF guest lecturer Hall Gardner will lecture briefly on the simple, but seemingly overlooked, fact that geopolitical issues and wars have influenced poets at least since the oral histories of “Homer” and the late Beowolf poet., among many others. He will then read some modern work dealing with geopolitics and war... And will then recite a few of his own geo-poetical protest poems.
Speaker Bio: Hall Gardner's book of poems, Cette nouvelle Grande Lutte des Ténèbres a-t-elle déjà commencé ? translated into French by Marion Winter, will be published by Pantheon Book in the Fall.
Gardner’s first book of poems, The Wake-Up Blast (2008), represents 30 years of poetic protest. hallgardner.com/the-wake-up-blast
In response to the publication of "Transport Craft" (from The Wake Up Blast), Christopher Dickey, the Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief/ Mideast Editor (and son of American poet James Dickey), wrote "Terrific poem... I hope it gets widely anthologized in any and every collection that comes out about our decade of wars." See: narcissuspress.blogspot.com/search?q=dickey&max-results=20&by-date=true See commentary on The Wake-Up Blast: narcissuspublications.com/books.html
A second book of poems, A Sub-Urban Landscape (Un-paisaje-sub-urbano) edition Rocca (2025), has just been translated into Spanish by Camila Rocca Toro. librerianacional.com/un-paisaje-sub-urbano/p?srsltid=AfmBOoro0Sa38kCFMcEtZVJtrWxi9M_bnjDX8_xGUmOgaPNf5bwGzMTz
His poems from that book, “Has yet another Great Battle in Darkness begun?” and “Canto for una Salvadorena” and their translation into Spanish by Camila Rocca Toro were selected for National Translation Month international competition in September 2025
nationaltranslationmonth.substack.com/p/two-poems-by-hall-gardner-translated
His poem “Vincent’s Room,” and its translation into French by Anne Gayet Turner, was selected for National Translation Month international competition in September 2023.
nationaltranslationmonth.substack.com/p/vincents-room-by-hall-gardner
He publishes poetry and short articles on domestic and international affairs on the MEER website. meer.com/en/authors/701-hall-gardner
Books on Geopolitics
Hall Gardner's American Myopia: The Failure of US Global Strategy and the Risks of Major Power War will be published by Bloomsbury in the Fall.
Hall Gardner’s first two books on global geopolitics, Surviving the Millennium (1994) and Dangerous Crossroads (1997) both forewarned of a dangerous Russian backlash, war with Ukraine, and the possibility of major power war if the U.S., NATO, and the European Union could not implement a new system of European Security that incorporated Russian security concerns. Dangerous Crossroads was republished as a paperback by Bloomsbury in early 2025.
His other books on global politics, include Toward an Alternative Transatlantic Strategy (2021) in French and English, published by Ginkgo Press and the Fondation Propective & Innovation (FPI), under the direction of Jean Pierre Raffarin; IR Theory, Historical Analogy and Major Power War (2019); World War Trump: The Risks of America’s New Nationalism (Prometheus Books 2018); Crimea, Global Rivalry and the Vengeance of History (2015); NATO Expansion and the U.S. Strategy in Asia (2013); Averting Global War: Regional Challenges, Overextension and Options for American Strategy (2007), and American Global Strategy and the “War on Terrorism” (2005).
Gardner’s book, The Failure to Prevent World War I (2015), explored the causes of the so-called “War to End all Wars,” with a focus on long erm French strategy since the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.
Jonathan Power, former editorialist of International Herald tribune, is his book review of World War Trump in the New York Journal of Books (March 6, 2018) stated, “Not even Zbigniew Brzezinski or Henry Kissinger have written such a book.... Every foreign affairs student, journalist, academic and policy maker should make reading it a priority."
Gardner’s edited book, The Ashgate Research Companion to War: Origins and Prevention (2013) researched the origins of global wars in history. In this book, Gardner develops a theory of polemology and critiques long cycle theory.
As modern poetry has often been stereotyped as focusing primarily on subjective concerns, this week’s RTF guest lecturer Hall Gardner will lecture briefly on the simple, but seemingly overlooked, fact that geopolitical issues and wars have influenced poets at least since the oral histories of “Homer” and the late Beowolf poet., among many others. He will then read some modern work dealing with geopolitics and war... And will then recite a few of his own geo-poetical protest poems.
Speaker Bio: Hall Gardner's book of poems, Cette nouvelle Grande Lutte des Ténèbres a-t-elle déjà commencé ? translated into French by Marion Winter, will be published by Pantheon Book in the Fall.
Gardner’s first book of poems, The Wake-Up Blast (2008), represents 30 years of poetic protest. hallgardner.com/the-wake-up-blast
In response to the publication of "Transport Craft" (from The Wake Up Blast), Christopher Dickey, the Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief/ Mideast Editor (and son of American poet James Dickey), wrote "Terrific poem... I hope it gets widely anthologized in any and every collection that comes out about our decade of wars." See: narcissuspress.blogspot.com/search?q=dickey&max-results=20&by-date=true See commentary on The Wake-Up Blast: narcissuspublications.com/books.html
A second book of poems, A Sub-Urban Landscape (Un-paisaje-sub-urbano) edition Rocca (2025), has just been translated into Spanish by Camila Rocca Toro. librerianacional.com/un-paisaje-sub-urbano/p?srsltid=AfmBOoro0Sa38kCFMcEtZVJtrWxi9M_bnjDX8_xGUmOgaPNf5bwGzMTz
His poems from that book, “Has yet another Great Battle in Darkness begun?” and “Canto for una Salvadorena” and their translation into Spanish by Camila Rocca Toro were selected for National Translation Month international competition in September 2025
nationaltranslationmonth.substack.com/p/two-poems-by-hall-gardner-translated
His poem “Vincent’s Room,” and its translation into French by Anne Gayet Turner, was selected for National Translation Month international competition in September 2023.
nationaltranslationmonth.substack.com/p/vincents-room-by-hall-gardner
He publishes poetry and short articles on domestic and international affairs on the MEER website. meer.com/en/authors/701-hall-gardner
Books on Geopolitics
Hall Gardner's American Myopia: The Failure of US Global Strategy and the Risks of Major Power War will be published by Bloomsbury in the Fall.
Hall Gardner’s first two books on global geopolitics, Surviving the Millennium (1994) and Dangerous Crossroads (1997) both forewarned of a dangerous Russian backlash, war with Ukraine, and the possibility of major power war if the U.S., NATO, and the European Union could not implement a new system of European Security that incorporated Russian security concerns. Dangerous Crossroads was republished as a paperback by Bloomsbury in early 2025.
His other books on global politics, include Toward an Alternative Transatlantic Strategy (2021) in French and English, published by Ginkgo Press and the Fondation Propective & Innovation (FPI), under the direction of Jean Pierre Raffarin; IR Theory, Historical Analogy and Major Power War (2019); World War Trump: The Risks of America’s New Nationalism (Prometheus Books 2018); Crimea, Global Rivalry and the Vengeance of History (2015); NATO Expansion and the U.S. Strategy in Asia (2013); Averting Global War: Regional Challenges, Overextension and Options for American Strategy (2007), and American Global Strategy and the “War on Terrorism” (2005).
Gardner’s book, The Failure to Prevent World War I (2015), explored the causes of the so-called “War to End all Wars,” with a focus on long erm French strategy since the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war.
Jonathan Power, former editorialist of International Herald tribune, is his book review of World War Trump in the New York Journal of Books (March 6, 2018) stated, “Not even Zbigniew Brzezinski or Henry Kissinger have written such a book.... Every foreign affairs student, journalist, academic and policy maker should make reading it a priority."
Gardner’s edited book, The Ashgate Research Companion to War: Origins and Prevention (2013) researched the origins of global wars in history. In this book, Gardner develops a theory of polemology and critiques long cycle theory.
