Yellow snow on the San Francisco Peaks

The Snow Bowl Ski Resort on the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona didn’t have enough snow a few winters in a row. They decided, and it was approved by the municipal council, to turn the sewage effluent into snow. They sell 1,5 million  gallons of waste water per day. The environmental impact assessment pointed out several problems: scaring of the landscape, noise from the snow making machine, the changes in the soils’ chemistry and thus the destruction of wildlife habitat. The area concerned is one where herbalists, Native American healers from several nations as far away as the Zuni from New Mexico. The area is used for finding medicinal herbs, is part of a pilgrimage and is the home of the Hopi Katsinam. Sacred land should not be soiled, defiled. Declarations by elders and healers in court and massive protest by environmentalist and Sierra Club hasn’t helped. Gathering herbs is sacred,it is also a service to the members of one’s community. Sadly all bad things came to pass and the snow made from the waste water to their 'astonishment' turned yellow. Virginia Tech indicated that the snow from the sewage could be a breading ground for antibiotic-resistant genes. So what ever you do, don’t get into making a snowman or a snow angel in the wider area around the ski resort...

Broomstick Revolution

Grandma Edna tells us:
*
“WE NEED CHANGES in this world,
really big BIG changes.
I’m prayin’ they’ll be peaceable changes,
not violent and bloody ones.
I’d like to see a peaceable revolution,
a revolution of broomsticks instead o’ guns.
Call it a Broomstick Revolution.
*
That’s right.
We the People—
AND ESPECIALLY US WOMEN!—
pick up our broomsticks
and work together to Sweep Injustice Out!
~
YOU CAN’T JOIN the Broomstick Revolution.
You’re already PART of it
if you believe in peace and Mother Earth
and respect for all living things.
~
The Broomstick Revolution is NOT an organization.
The Broomstick Revolution is inside of each of us,
in every beating heart of humankind,
a sacred place where we listen to the Creator
and follow Creator’s Instructions
to sweep out injustice and violence.
~
NEVER raise a broom in violence.
Your broomstick is a symbol of PEACE.
Peace is our purpose.
Peace is our method.
Peace is our philosophy.
Peace is our Goal.
ONLY PEACE WILL BE EFFECTIVE!
~
MAKE PEACE YOUR
CENTRAL THOUGHT!
~
I’D LIKE TO SEE THAT ‘60’S PEACE SYMBOL
painted on the broom-heads.
Then plant’m like FLOWERS OF PEACE
in your front yards, on streetcorners,
in front o’ stores and schools and churches and banks.
Plant’m by the millions. When they rip’ m out, plant’m again!
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!
Ain’t no end to how many agains there can be!
~
Love all people, even--especially--your 'enemies'.
We want to save the world, not destroy it.
Let everyone—even the One Percent—be included!
~
Some advice: Stay out of big crowds
that are easily turned into mobs.
They’re waitin’ for mobs.
Work alone or in small groups,
groups of Leaders.
There are no followers
in the Broomstick Revolution.
We are ALL LEADERS!
TELL’M GRANDMA EDNA TOLD YOU SO!

Unciya and Hakata's birthday

 Unciya and Hakata, Grandmother and big sister in Lakota, invited a bunch of people for their birthdays. They are the heart and soul and workforce of the Flemish Leonard Peltier Chapter. Yet they got fed up by all the wannabes they have to deal with  when they visit certain gatherings. Thus they decided on a Flemish theme.

 Breughel and the food of his time became the fare: Black pudding sausages with organic applesauce, white sausages, frikadels with cherries, good dark bread and 10 kinds of regional beers and as a desert delicious safron ricecream with brown sugar. Doesn't Hakata look like the milk girl by Vermeer? Of course among the joy and bustle of dogs running around and the talking Leonard peltier was not forgotten: They passed out postcards to send to the White House to ask the President to commute Peltier's sentence. Good work my friends!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday it was Leonard Peltier's birthday. Two dear friends, Unciya and Hakata, run the Flemish Leonard Peltier Chapter and decided to do something for his birthday. So in a small literary café Den Hopsack a reading was organized from his prison writings My Life is My Sundance. Of course reading the whole book Is a bit long. I was asked to compose an overview of his thoughts in the book and to read it to the audience. Hakata had made an excellent slide show, running slowly in te background. And Unciya, she rebel roused the people present explaining about AIM and why they do what they can for Leonard. They made some money to be send to the defense team.

Louise Erdrich: The Plague of Doves

Having read several of Louise Erdrich’s books I was thrilled at the airport in Washington to find her latest book: The Plague of Doves. The circumstances not being quite right I had a hard time getting into it. Yet at a certain point I got involved in the different narrators pushing on the novel which has a marvelous layered complexity. Events are described with their own momentum and at the end there is a kind of closure by the search for and discovery of the truth. In the interwoven settings of the reservation and the small town of Pluto, the weight of historical injustice comes to light through the conjunction of many different elements, as well in an historical setting as a contemporary. Themes are: religion, the unsolved murder of a family, a stamp collection, a violin, burning love, racism, family, the reservation and an untold past.

Read it, take your time over this intricate tapestry and achievement of Louise Erdrich.

Quotes:

Unable to sleep, he lighted a candle stub and paged through the Meditations until he found the one he needed, the one that told him no longer to wander at hazard or wait to read the books he was reserving for old age, but to throw away idle hopes (Louisa!) and come to his own aid, if he cared for himself and while it was in his power.

As I look at the town now, dwindling without grace (....) (Yet there is something to the love and knowledge of the land and its relationship to dreams – that’s what the old people had. That’s why as a tribe we exist to the present.)

The Indian women I knew were shy and very studious, although a couple of them swaggered around furious in ribbon shirts with AIM-looking boyfriends. I didn’t really fit in with anybody.

Like Anaïs, I reviewed every thought, all visual trivia became momentous, my faintest desire a raving hunger.

My consciousness is fragile ground, shaky as forming ice. Every morning, when I open my eyes and experience my first thought, I am flooded with relief. The I is still here.

Sweatlodge in the rain

 First the lodge was build from fresh willow, growing abundantly in the waterlogged polders of Flanders. here you see the utensils, sage and some other herbs to be used in the water that will be poured over the rocks.

The fire heating the red lava rocks is burning in a friendly way under the watchful eye of the fire woman. The door woman too got a good dose of the pelting rain. Every one got soaking wet, even the stones in the fire pit were under water. The puddles grew, crawled into the sweat lodge, cooling off the participants.

So we had to stop stop after the third round, for lack of heated stones. It was however a good gathering, with a thought for Leonard Peltier, the leader of the sweat singing so that the spirit of Leonard might be free even when his body is still jailed, people praying, meditating for justice.

We also laughed and giggled, one participant cooling off by laying the largest puddle...

Wet stones, rain having doused the fire pit. Fire women is seen here getting soaked through blankets off the structure. Trying to dry them out in front of a blazing stove...

It was a good thing to have warm coffee and stew afterwards...
All was organized by the local chapter of Free Leonard Peltier, a bunch of good hearted folks.

Sweat lodges

Most, if not all, Native American nations hold sweat lodges. To the eastern Cherokee it doesn't seem to be a typical thing to  practice. Here a description by a singer of the Hualapai way of doing a sweat:

“ The East represents the fire; there rises the sun we greet in the morning. It represents your emotions. It is the first thing to get hurt. It is the same with the world: volcanoes and fire, caused by wrong emotions like anger, envy and greed, destroyed our first world. Those will still hurt you. That is what has to be worked through in the East. It is considered a male energy.

“ Next to the door in the South you put the hot rocks. This represents the earth and stands for our body. This is a feminine power. She destroyed the second world, by earthquakes.

“ In the West, next to the rocks is the place of the water in which you can put the plants and herbs or oils for healing. That is our spirituality and as you will remember floods have destroyed the third world. You use different plants for different illnesses. Eucalyptus for the lungs, ephedra, like the Mormon tea, is for the stomach and for colds. Juniper cleanses your liver and such.

“ The North side is the emptiness in the lodge; it stands for the sky, the air and our mind. When you know about the polluted air all around then you know how this, the fourth world will be destroyed. We already have this huge hole in ozone layer. The element of the North is the wind."

Black Eagle, half Navajo, is leading a sweat in the Flemish countryside today.

Leonard Peltier 36 years in prison

Uncyia and Hakate are the heart and soul of this Leonard Peltier chapter. They work relentlessly convincing more and people that Leonard indeed is innocent: showing informative documentaries about the incident at Oglala, poetry by Native American activist authors read in translation and now this gathering to commemorate the long time Peltier spend in jail.

After the first people arrived, they waited for late comers and a tumbleweed ending up under the wrong bridge.

The demonstration started with a silent smudge ceremony, clearing our minds and our hearts.

 There were banners and people of all persuasions passing by showed interest. Information sheets were handed out to the people eating on the terraces of a more than excellent fish restaurant. The bond among the participants was strengthened once again as was the commitment to work for justice for all.

The names of 57 AIM supporters or AIM members killed by GOONS or in the presence of the  FBI or by FBI agents have been read out mentioning the place and circumstances under which they were murdered. These names were read out in many places all over he world.

We AIM not to please

                                by Dennis Banks

They call us the New Indians.
Hell, we are the Old Indians,
the landlords of this continent,
coming to collect the rent.

Leonard Peltier week end

The two organizers, Uncia and Hakate, did a wonderful job. They had an empty chair for Leonard Peltier and had choosen four documentaries which left us wiser and better informed. They  were: A good day to die, Warrior, Incident at Oglala and the movie Thunderheart. Supporters of actions could by could by CD's, T-shirts, books, jewelry and Peltier's Prison writings. 

Native American poetry was read and Dave Betts performed with his own songs and read a wonderful text by Buffy St Marie. It was a fine week end. Thank you Unciya and Hakate.

 A poem by John Trudell:



Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say

Too many people
Standing their ground
Standing the wrong ground
Predators face he possessed a race
Possession a war that doesn't end
Children of god feed on children of earth
Days people don't care for people
These days are the hardest
Material fields material harvest
decoration on chains that binds
Mirrors gold the people lose their minds
Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
Today is now and then
Dream smokes touch the clouds
On a day when death didn't die
Real world time tricks shadows lie
Red white perception deception
Predator tries civilising us
But the tribes will not go without return
Genetic light from the other side
A song from the heart our hearts to give
The wild days the glory days live

Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air

Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
We are the seventh generation
We are the seventh generation

Jimmy Durham in muhka

 Jimmy Durham is a Cherokee artist. Muhka is a great museum. In the stairwell they put up an impressive time line. Yet what really pleased me was the collection of animals and some of his 'thoughts': Language is a tool for communication, like a city or a brain.
And also the title of the exhibition is: a matteR of LIfe aND Death aND sINgINg. 

American Sign Language and Poetry

 

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2012

Dori Vaughn works in a school as an interpreter/assistant for children who cannot hear. She even, in her lunch break, thought hearing children to sign, so that the deaf children would be less isolated. When I asked her whether she could sign some of my poems, she hesitated a moment and said yes. Signing is interpreting. American Sign Language (ASL) is not “English”. So she practiced while I spoke the text and she looked for the best rendering of the image or the concept. She also practice ‘off the page’. Working from a written text is a job not many interpreters like to do, and poetic language of course is an extra challenge. She also discussed the content of the poem, what I had meant, how it came about. I however wanted to know how she read the poems, because a poem once written, is read and interpreted by the reader and might carry a different weight or connotation. Dori does a great job and adds to the beauty of the event of April 30, 2012: desert poetry night.

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver

What to do on a blustery day with showers except photographing the light and shadows of life.

Just find a warm place inside and read.

Being a fan of Barbara Kingsolver’s writing I was pleasantly surprised to find her book in a small town for $2. I have read five of her books, this being the sixth one. She writes rich stories, with a tapestry of characters which ring true. In Animal Dreams Codi, the main character is at a juncture in her life, and goes back to Grace, Arizona where she grew up with her sister Hallie, who is in Nicaragua, helping the people with  their crops, and a distant father. Codi is in the habit of running to another place when life doesn’t turn out the way she wanted. One could say it is all about the luxury of forgiveness and living a sweet life so one has sweet dreams... Her memories seems unreal until the day she fully participates in life with loss, love and belonging. Some quotes which touched my heart:

* I couldn’t ask Emelina for directions to my own childhood home; I didn’t want her to know how badly dislocated I was. I’d always had trouble recalling certain specifics of childhood, but didn’t realize until now that I couldn’t even recognize them at point-blank range.

* Children robbed of love will dwell on magic.

* ”Insomnia’s different,” I said.  “You know the light that comes on when you open the refrigerator door? Just imagine it stays on all the time, even after you close the door. That’s what it’s like in my head. The light stays on.”

* The winter rains would soon dry up. Then there would not be another drop till July. During those brittle months the taste and smell of rain would be lost to us, beyond the recollection of children and the deepest root tips of trees. That is the way of the seasons in a desert place.

My Grace is Chloride, AZ.

International Leonard Peltier day

Leonard Peltier wrote for this occasion:

Greetings to my relations, my friends, and to my many supporters the world over.

It is that time again. Another year has passed, and on February 6th I will be marking 36 years since my arrest. During all this time, my family and allies have discovered just how far the government will go to wrongfully convict and imprison someone they know is innocent. They do this as a message— first to Indians, and further to anyone who might stand up to injustice—as if to say, “We will do as we please”.

From the day of my arrest until now, through you my supporters, I have been honored with many activist and humanitarian awards. I thank you for keeping awareness of me and my case alive. Your commitment has really been a special experience for me.

In addition many celebrities, political figures, and organizations have called for my release, including 55 members of Congress. This last November, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a permanent resolution calling for my release. Well let’s hope its not that permanent. The NCAI has committed to being directly involved with my case so that the message from Washington to Indian people does not remain, “We will do as we please”.

Still, despite all this attention and with all the leaders and people of conscience calling for my release, I have been kept in this iron cage. They have even kept me longer than their own laws say they can. With evidence corroborating that I did not receive a fair trial, with proof of government misconduct, with admissions by government officials that they do not know who killed those two agents that day at the Jumping Bull property, here I sit. “We will do as we please.”

Recently, as many of you know, an act was passed and signed into law that allows for indefinite detention of American citizens without charge or trial. This is perhaps the final straw, the final nail in the coffin of American freedom, the end of habeas corpus and due process. “We will do as we please.”

We Indians said it for generations: If they can kill us indiscriminately, they will do it to anyone. If they can take our land, they will do it to anyone. If they can kidnap our children and take them to prison schools, they will do it to anyone. If they can starve us and lie to us, they will do it to anyone. If they can wrongfully imprison us, they will do it to anyone. Now, sadly, this is another Indian prophecy fulfilled. “We will do as we please.”

Our ancestors and tribal people all over the world prophesized a time of upheaval and great change. I believe that time is fast approaching. I believe a part of this is the government’s ongoing overreach of its authority—until the people rise up and tell Washington, “You will NOT do as you please! We are NOT your slaves! We will NOT be subjugated! We will NOT be ruled by an iron fist! We will NOT allow you to steal our liberty or our justice!"

My friends, my relatives, my supporters—Be a part of this latest, perhaps the last "Indian uprising". Make your voice heard! Be a part of the brave Movement to come, the Movement that will change the course of human history. Make change and hope and peace and justice a part of your personal legacy. Be the change that you envision and know in your heart must take place.

Do this, and on the day you take your last breath and prepare to meet Creator, you will know your life on this Earth was well spent. Close your eyes knowing you used your breath and energy to Creator’s good purpose. Smile as you cross over knowing you changed the world so that the next seven generations can know a good life. Do these things and know that I am with you.  I will embrace you as my relations—in this life or the next.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier

Happy Birthday Leonard Peltier.  He turn 67 in the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. It would be an act of kindness and correctness to transfer him to a prison nearer to his family.  Further more his case papers should be made public for general scrutiny of his case.  Free Leonard Peltier.

Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona just out of Flagstaff in its idyllic surroundings is a soul-soothing stop when one is in need of nourishment. The archaeological work supported and shown by the museum, the changing exhibitions, always centered on the regional nations : Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Hualapai, Havasupai and other Pai people.  Beautiful ancient pottery, jewelry in its distinctive  styles, a partial mural of an ancient Hopi kiva. All that is there.

The museum is nestled  on the high plateau leading up to the Grand Canyon. Ann Coulter's famous and bold South western architecture is still instrumental in making it look and feel like it is just perfectly balanced in it's surroundings.

Navajo rugs, which I'll never be able to afford do please my eyes. And of course the bookshop is well stocked, so one can find some contemporary Navajo and Hopi poetry by Luci Tapahonso and by Ramson Lomawatewa. The heritage program features dances and programs from Hopi, Zuni and Navajo. Saturday 25, You can enjoy  Hopi dances at the Museum.

Typical representation of Hopi, Navajo and Zuni.

Seven degrees of separation

Just in the last two days I rediscovered how true it is that all humans in the world are connected to each other in just seven steps.  My sister in law, working as a volunteer for the democratic Party in Nevada, met Michele Obama and actually spoke to her. That is two degrees of separation. The other person, I knew about since his tragic death in July last year in Villeneuve Grenoble in France is Karim Boudouba. He was a convicted thief, armed robber, yet loved and respected in his neighborhood which protested violently after Karim Boudouba was shot in pursuit by the police. After his death riots broke out in Villeneuve Grenoble in the modernist area of town. My daughter, a future researcher, interviewed an impressive and wise and very sociable man, who happened to be Karim's uncle. Once again just three degrees of separation to a thief and victim of police action. I can only conclude that what Native Americans hold dear is a simple truth: we are all related.

Black Mesa mine

I know the Mohave Generation Station. I also know it has been closed because for years and after many warnings they kept polluting the air along the Colorado river. Lung problems and allergies had risen dramatically in the area. The closing had as a consequence that the Black Mesa Mine was also closed. A good thing but then a coup at Hopi and the last bad deeds of the Bush administration made Peabody the owner of all the coal on Black Mesa whether they mined it or not. Then a petition came which mixed the mine issue with the land settlement issue

In part this petition is timely. And in part it is opportunistic and attempts to attach an old problem to a very real immediate problem. One element of the petition is timely because of the recent approval by the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) of Peabody's life of mine (LOM) permit. Linking this immediate concern to the efforts to repeal the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 is a bit like mixing apples and oranges.

At least the two issues should be separated into two petitions. It's always best to have a petition deal with one very specific issue. Dual or multi-purpose petitions run the risk of discouraging potential signers because they may embrace one issue while having concerns about one of the other issues on the petition The LOM permit is improper and contrary to the best interests of the tribes, especially the Hopi Tribe. But, the current powers that be at Hopi do not agree with this assessment because they have been, once again, led down a primrose path by Peabody, by OSM, and even by their own General Counsel, Scott Canty. Peabody is and always has been a sinister organization that thrives on exploiting the resources of the tribes and paying very little (in comparison to what they would have to pay off reservation) to the tribes in return.

A former Chief of Staff to one Hopi Chairman and Special Assistant to the most recent Hopi Chairman believes and I quote: that it would have been in the best interest of the tribe to block the LOM, at least until it could be fully and carefully reviewed and understood and presented to the Hopi people. It would seem appropriate for the tribe to take back control of its own natural resources and if it was going to be in the coal business to do it as a competitor of Peabody instead of as a victim. Or, at least it would have been better to gain a negotiating advantage and be able to be competitive...make Peabody compete and pay fair prices for Hopi's coal.

As it stands now, under the LOM, Peabody would control all of Hopi coal and won't have to pay Hopi hardly anything unless they start mining again. They have enough coal at the Kayenta mine to last 20 to 30 years. So, they don't have to mine at Black Mesa again for 2 or 3 decades. That's why it was clear to us that OSM's rushing of the LOM was only to get this in under the wire before the Obama administration took over.

The petition attached to the email is a misleading and opportunistic attempt to combine two issues. It distorts and/or distracts from the potential serious impacts of allowing the LOM to survive so they can promote the repeal of the settlement act. Yes, it is important to "REVERSE THE DOI/OSM DECISION TO GRANT PEABODY COAL A LIFE OF MINE PERMIT ON BLACK MESA" but I don't agree that this is directly connected to "THE METHODS OF GENOCIDE BY POPULATION REMOVAL AND COAL MINING EXPANSIONS" or that it is justification for reviving the plea for the "REPEALTHE NAVAJO-HOPI LAND SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1974 P.L. 93-531)."

They've mixed apples and oranges. They should separate the issues. For one thing, since the closure of the Mohave Generating Station a few years ago, the mining at Black Mesa has, to the best of my knowledge, stopped. Granted, the LOM would incorporate the unpermitted Black Mesa Mine into the permitted Kayenta Mine and thus authorize the re-opening of the Black Mesa Mine...that is if Peabody can find a customer for the Black Mesa coal.

I will not deny, however, that there always has been and remains a direct connection between Peabody's dominance and control on Black Mesa and the plight of the people at Big Mountain. The entire fiasco for the last 150 years has been all about exploiting natural resources on Black Mesa. And it remains today as a great cause of the factionalism in Hopi tribal politics. Peabody must go.

Anyway, it's very complicated and the Black Mesa Project Environmental Impact Statement is an 800 page highly technical document that no normal person, including the tribal council representatives, can understand. It was railroaded through by OSM with the support of the tribe's General Counsel, the Hopi Energy Team, and their consultant/hack. OSM steadfastly ignored the pleas of the Chairman of the Tribe to delay a decision. They repeatedly claimed they had appropriately consulted with the "Tribe" by virtue of "consulting" with the Energy Team's paid consultant who was NOT an official of the Tribe and who was marching to the drum beat of Scott Canty and the Energy Team. There has never been an official position taken formally by the Tribal Council as a legislative body, only by the General Counsel, their consultant, and individual members of the Energy Team.

So, if the LOM is left to stand as is, the tribe has just had all rights to their coal stripped from them forever with no assurances of this sell-out even generating any real revenue.

Once again the Bush administration pushed through another 11th hour project for the singular purpose of fattening Big Energy at the expense of the tribes.

There are current actions being taken in federal court, evidentiary hearings being scheduled, etc., in an orchestrated attempt to reverse the LOM. So, we have to hold our breath until 2010.

And remember, there is no such thing as "clean coal."

Improvisations

Last weekend I tread on uncharted territory. A bunch of topnotch musicians: Jakke on Sitar, Michel on guitar, Sadig on the lute, Jean with alt clarinet and North African drums, Theo with drums and Peruvian flutes, Katelijn with her jaguar cello, and Joachim who was my first taste of overtones in voices going deep into body and mind, joined by Pieter and Kaja each in different tones and style. Not knowing anything about music I was privileged to be with them on stage in a series of living room concerts reading North American Indian contemporary poetry. Jean was my teacher and found the images and words on what to listen for as to when to start reading. Being there with them was a deep experience, in the music, in the time, in the now, but out of this world.
The last picture shows Katelijn talking to the audience just before the start. After the performance she fed us with warm soup, homemade pies by her friends and warmth and friendship.

Birthed from Scorched Hearts

Birthed from Scorched Hearts Women respond to War was compiled and edited by MariJo Moore. She produced an important, powerful book. 54 women from all over he world have sent in their words, their feelings, their insights, their stories. Some give courage, some are heart wrenching, some are wise. Reading the book I learned about old, historic violence beginning with Medusa and the daughters of Celtic Boudica. We learn about massacres and forgotten people, the plight of indigenous peoples in the USA and in the rest of the world. The chronology then brings WW I and WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, followed by the protesters and peace workers. I am moved, humbled by the creativity and life lessons of these women. I like the historic fiction by MariJo Moore writing about Creek War and the Indian boy Andrew Jackson took home. MariJo imagines the mother’s tale about her lost boy’s life. Great. Then another important piece is by Rebecca Bevins Faery about Vietnam and the repackaging now of Nam as a tourist destination. She was married to a soldier in that war and was a peace activist. It deeply resounded in me as it was my first confrontation with war and as a consequence peace work. I should mention Laura Tohe’s testimony about her brother. Molly Mc Glennen writes about Native American women’s poetry and the reinterpretation of war: insightful and moving. We need to understand creative expression as sacred and to acknowledge the continuum among the speaker, writer, reader, listener, creative spirit and the word. Doing so, your writing will have political implications. Your love flowing out can change the world.

Day of writers in prison

Our Writers in Prison Committee of the local Pen-center did well. 12 writers choose 12 different authors and read some of their writings. The totally was moving and strong. The poetry read was thoughtful and stirring.
Putting writers in prison or exiling them or killing them is an age old way of dealing with disturbing thoughts or feelings. We read poets from Myanmar, Nigeria, Tibet, Malawi, the USA, South-Africa, China, Argentina, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey... here you see the MC of the evening, three writers waiting their turn on the podium and the front row with the defiant dozen readers who try to remind all of us that writers still are punished for their disconcerting thoughts. By the way we had a fine crowd listening.