All posts filed under: Campaigns

International Women’s Day 2013, poems for Malala Yousafzai

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Poem for Malala To Malala Yousafzai. We see it all. All of it. The red-stain, the shame. We do not feel the skull-shatter-impact, the moveable plate – the tube, the tubes. The blood-bags. The bags of blood, the urine. Your eye, the eye-blood that occludes your vision. Red filters down, lowering them to the ground. Our hackles are raised. Father – Mother Daughter – Son Sister – Brother Niece – Child Child child child child child. Somethings are veiled. It is necessary to veil what is sometimes a wound, to cover to dignify to protect. A green veil. A beaded veil, the tip of an eyebrow raises it – Disturbs it, for the breath of. I would sew the sequins myself, make good the golden threads. If you must veil, let it crown you, let it crown your head, as laurels, green, on your head. . For Malala is © C. Murray, published along with 200 poems protesting the shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousafzai. Time to say No ! is published by Pen Club Austria. …

‘Pussy-Riot Forever : The Body’ by Philo Ikonya and Helmuth A. Niederle

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Pussy-Riot Forever : The Body   I riot, You riot, We riot.   The body riots.   Arterial riot Breast riot Cheek riot Eye riot Finger riot Gall bladder riot Intestine riot Jaw riot Knee riot Liver riot Mouth riot Nose riot Prick riot Palate riot   Riot in Queues   Renal riot Stomach riot Testes riot Thigh riot Tongue riot Umbilical riot Vagina riot   Vocal cords riot   Waist riot Wrist riot X-ray riot Yin Yang riot Zeee riot  Dictators Never : Roll-Call Aferworki Isaias riot Ben Ali riot Bashar al Assad riot Castro riot Duvalier Jean-Claude (Baby Doc!) riot Ershad Mohammed Hossain riot Franciso franco riot Ghadaffi Muamar riot Ghasmi Ahmad riot Hugo Chavez riot Hitler Adolf riot Hussein Saddam riot Idid Amin riot Jean Bidel Bohassa riot Kim Jong II riot Lukashenko Alexander riot Mugabe Robert riot Moi Daniel Torotich Arap riot Noriega Manuel riot Ortega Daniel riot Pinochet riot Pol Pot riot   Putin Putin Putin Putin Putin Pussy Riot ! © Philo Ikonya and Helmuth A. Niederle. Thanks to Philo Ikonya …

Catechism; a reading for Pussy Riot in Dublin

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Poets across the UK and Ireland come together to mark the nine-month anniversary of Pussy Riot’s performance in a Moscow Cathedral by reading from Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot, English PEN’s anthology for the group. This link gives the list of locations and readings in the U.K and Ireland. Ireland’s readings are organised by Christodoulos Makris & Barbara Smith. Participating poets are: Kimberly Campanello, Sophie Collins, Sue Cosgrave, Anatoly Kudryavitsky, Christodoulos Makris, Máighréad Medbh, Paula Meehan, Alan Jude Moore, Christine Murray, The Poetry Divas, Sam Riviere. DUBLIN 21/11/2012 6.30pm, Wednesday 21 November The Grand Social 35 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin http://www.thegrandsocial.ie  Admission free Further Information at Irish PEN and at  English PEN

‘I’ve got the Fukushima Blues’, by Glenda Cimino

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Even though it’s not in the news, I’ve got the Fukushima Blues. Strontium 90 on the grass, Iodine 131, cesium, plutonium – Cow’s milk is poisoned in your glass, But don’t tell- there’d be pandemonium! Three reactors in meltdown, Tepco now confess But where the radioactive water’s gone, Is anybody’s guess. Even though they say I have nothing to lose, I’ve got the Fukushima Blues. Radiation spikes sky high, People told to stay indoors, Animals abandoned to sicken and die, Workers sleeping on radioactive floors. Radiation in your taps should not alarm, They lie; for radiation will accumulate Over days and years; but this sure harm They do not want you to contemplate. Even though it is not in the news, I’ve got the Fukushima Blues. Have to evacuate another town Radioactive dust on the school playground Will people take this lying down? Maybe the living were better off drowned. The heat and power of the nuclear sun Burning down through layers of our earth Do they know what they have done? Officials argue and resign, for what it’s worth Even …