Troy Davis

For Troy Davis a thought by Albert Camus:
But what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life. -Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)

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.

9/11 Casa Louisa, Hoboken

When reading on the ominous date of 9/11, 10 years later one has to acknowledge that fact that brought so much suffering to world. It will be a reading full of peace and love and the will to resist. Yet there also will be pleasant, cozy moments, instances of pure poetry and music at Casa Louisa in Hoboken.
Participating poets: Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, Bert Bevers, Leila Boukhéfit, Bart Stouten, Annmarie Sauer,
Fred Schywek, and musicians Jokke Scheurs, Quirilan, Bateau Feu and Ken Post, eye witness of 9/11, singer/songwriter.
A short poem, original German  by Fred Schywek and an English and Dutch version: KLANG

2nd European Poetry Festival, 9/17/2011

In a week the first guests of the Festival will arrive. First early in morning flying in from San Francisco is devorah major who has advise and strong thoughts to offer. The first poem she'll read is: tempest. Storm in Dutch.

does the ocean understand
the land she smooths and softens
   
put a value on the minerals she extracts
from shells she has pounded
from bones she has chewed
from wood she has sucked
from iron she has bathed

does the ocean see her color
liquid crystal transformed
when painted by sun and dusted by silt
until she becomes gray and brown 
blue and silver, sparkling green froth
as she grows and recedes
paying no attention
to the sufferance of humans
beyond offering the gift of her song
that hums in singular contentment
or howls a deep enduring sadness

does the ocean feel the shape
of each mountain she contains

how some of her lithe torso
with the gentlest of rotating currents
or through the thrusting of storms
cuts paths and rounds ridges
spoon caves and craft nooks
where life finds sanctuary
or meets destruction

does the ocean plan her lessons

stillness without quiet
light inside darkness
how she nurtures life
and how she ends it
without pity or remorse

The Master of Ceremony

Roger Nupie will be the MC at the 2nd European Poetry Festival  on September 17th, 8 PM in Antwerp, Permeke Library.  He does this with flair, yet we shouldn't forget he is a poet in his own right. On the anti-war day he read the following poem in dutch.

Landmines (How big)

How big is man

juggling words like

bomb, shell, rocket, rocket bomb,

and fills them with smaller bombs.

How big is man

if his ammunition ends up in trees,

on roofs or under wretched

African sand.

How big is man

if in the aftermath of wars

not cleaned up antipersonnel mines

still cause daily harm.

How big is man

if he paints these bombs

in bright colours

- attracting mainly children.

How big is man

who because of this takes

an arm or a leg

of a child.

How big is the rat

who locates explosives

of landmines

with its nose.

How big is man,

who with a metal detector

only manages thirty, forty square meters

per day.

How big is the rat

who in half an hours

time checks

one hundred square meters.

How big.

How big.

from the upcoming book: Lighthouse, world internet books.

Worldwide day against war also at salon 12b

 Whatever small gesture, one has to do what one can to denounce the horrors of war in all its facets. A bunch of poets held a reading at salon 12b. Poems about old wars and new situations, an eyewitness song about 9/11, intimate readings about light and fire and loud performance supported by music... The next performance will be on 9/11 in Casa Louisa in Hoboken and then there will be the 2nd European Festival of Poetry September 17/201 in Antwerp, in the Permeke lbrary at 8PM. There will be a special anti war performance under the name of the Moorsoldaten.
The poets featured here will also be there...


 Here you see Fred Schywek and Bart Stouten reading the Hama poem I have posted before, the rhythm flowed apart and together, beautiful performance.

Here you see the current city poet laureate of Antwerp Peter Holvoet-Hanssen on the harmonica, one of the attributes which is always near at hand in a reading.

The first verse of what he will perform on the 17th...

 Pain of War

    (background: Flemish traditional: drie schuin tamboers, die kwamen uit het Oosten)

I  marched by the most abhorrent horrors to the youngest anguishing wail

From the 25.000 throats of Béziers – in solidarity with the Cathars

I swept over pyres – over blood and the stench in the streets

rimbombo, rimbombo, I drummed in the rue Rivoli

danced on a flamethrower with fixed-bayonet

with the 15-inch-Howitser hewing at the cold

over Brandhoek, Ieper, Hellblast Corner, no-man’s land

ay the muster gas scorched us off the world

I sank down next to G. E. Ellison, lancer who fell last

mixed myself in the intercourse and rooted

in forgotten graves – Solferino, time upon time

 

Debate on climate change, culture and art

The panel

 

Plastic bag for culture, yet biodegradable

I went to listen to a debate about ecology and culture. Basically the question was 'what can the cultural sector do to prevent climate change which, when nothing is done, will make children sick in about 20 years'. There is a radical solution: Insulate your house, don’t eat meat or fish, don’t fly and in 20 years we would have avoided that the temperature would go up with the fatal 2°C. I learned that working half an hour equals drinking a glass of water. Each worth one unit, and the bad news is: one person has only 40 units per day for a good ecological footprint. Many solutions are at best tentative or even misleading. I try to buy organic and fair trade food and products, I have paid to carbon offset flights but it seems that is not the right system. Many artists have renovated their house in order to leave a smaller footprint, some installed solar power, others make artwork with low ecological impact. As a poet and literary translator I wonder whether I do have to feel guilty for using my laptop extensively, for using a lot of paper to check in print for mistakes. I wonder that people speak about not eating meat or fish, not flying, making tickets more expensive but don’t really deal with social injustice or the cost of war, cost in lives, in destruction, in pollution by the heavy armored tanks, the war planes. I wonder what the ecological cost is of war. Or is war just considered to be a branch of polluting industry? And if you want to know how I went to this debate: I walked, I shared one cup of coffee (bio & fair trade) and connected to people.