Poem for MalalaTo Malala Yousafzai. We see it all. The red-stain, We do not feel the skull-shatter-impact, the tubes. Your eye, Red filters down, Father – Mother Child child child child child. Somethings are veiled. to cover A green veil. the tip of I would sew the sequins myself, If you must veil, as laurels, green, on your head. |
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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
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 and Helmuth A. Niederle for permission to reproduce their two poems from Catechism for Pussy Riot. The book is available for a small donation via the English PEN website, here.
I read it Wednesday 21/11/2012 at the Grand Social as part of this event, and which I have linked in this blog, here. I read a new poem of mine called, Precarious Migratory Spectacular.
Philo Ikonya is a writing colleague of mine from PEN International and the PEN International Women Writer’s Committee. I am linking here to her website and blog.
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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 21/11/20126.30pm, Wednesday 21 November
The Grand Social
35 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin
www.thegrandsocial.ie
Admission free
Further Information at Irish PEN and at English PEN
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 though they say I have nothing to lose,
I’ve got the Fukushima Blues.
Anonymous workers facing certain death
Trying so hard the leaks to stem
Tepco cannot pay for their last breath-
Nothing but crackers and rice for them.
‘We’re sorry’, they bow, ‘we made a mistake’
-Truth is, that Tepco was often warned-
But ‘who would expect a 9.0 earthquake?’
They took no action, the advice was scorned.
Even though it is not in the news,
I’ve got the Fukushima Blues.
Who needs to fear a terrorist
When respected companies act like this?
Covering it up and playing it down,
It isn’t their children on that playground.
There’s nothing to worry about,
Forget it, you haven’t a care-
Just don’t drink the water, eat the food,
Or breathe the air.
Even though they say I have nothing to lose,
I’ve got the Fukushima Blues.
Deadly radiation released into the Pacific
Poisoning the fish humanity will need
The amount? Can’t be specific-
Measure it in units of human greed.
Nuclear energy so safe, so cheap –
But what is the cost not in their calculations
As a poisoned world we all will reap,
With more cancer, leukemia and genetic mutation.
Even though it is not in the news,
I’ve got the Fukushima Blues.
Empty towns with deadened lights –
No one could take the time to pack
No need now for energy on dark nights –
Get out while you can, and never look back.
O babes of Chernobyl- what have we done?
Generations damaged beyond repair.
Is this also the fate of the land of the rising sun?
O nuclear fools, learn how to see and care!
Even though they say I have nothing to lose,
I’ve got the Fukushima Blues.
Four hundred and forty nuclear plants
And some still want to build some more
I’ve been accused of anti-nuclear rants –
But is energy really worth dying for?
We all live on only one planet
Travelling around our sun –
We’d better learn to take good care of it;
Surely even nuclear execs can count to one.
They say all will be well in this nuclear hell,
and I’ve nothing to lose-but- I’m telling you-
they’re giving our world the Fukushima Blues.
© Glenda Cimino ,all rights reserved. First published in News Four.
