Every star in the sky is beautiful
all the pebbles on the beach atone,
for what we all have lost
every moment of life is precious,
fill it with cherished emotion
keep on releasing as much as you can,
sharing, caring, keep on believng
we are all a mixture of deep devotion,
from different walks of life
sometimes cools or intense like fire,
a collective roar in the universe
along the streets keep on wondering,
try to tear down bridges and walls
clasp hands together in unity.
'Chinese trailblazing dissident artist Ai Weiwei launches his largest single work
ever,focused on refugees. Called "Law of the Journey", the
70-metre-long (230-foot-long) inflatable boat with 258 oversize refugee
figures is on display at Prague's National Gallery. Called Law of the Journey, the show features a 70-metre-long inflatable boat with 258 oversize refugee figures.
It is a tribute to the thousands who have drowned
crossing the Mediterranean, the piece is Ai’s biggest-ever installation.A topic Ai has been particularly vocal about in the past.
It will be on display until the end of the year. It certainly makes a particularly powerful statement. The site-specific installation that went on exhibit last Thursday and was made in
a Chinese factory that produces dinghies used by actual refugees,
“My message is very clear: being a politician or
a political group, you cannot be so short-sighted, you cannot have no
vision, you cannot sacrifice human dignity and human rights for
political gain,” Ai said.“My message is very clear: being a politician or a political group, you
cannot be so short-sighted, you cannot have no vision, you cannot
sacrifice human dignity and human rights for political gain,” Ai added..
The Czech Republic and the other post Communist central European
members have rejected EU plans to allow Muslim refugees on their
territories throughout the migrant crisis. According to the European Commission, the Czech Republic has so far
accepted 12 migrants for relocation. Data from the International
Organisation for Migration shows that over 1.2 million people have
crossed the Mediterranean to Europe since 2015.
“If we see somebody who has been victimised by
war or desperately trying to find a peaceful place, if we don’t accept
those people, the real challenge and the real crisis is not of all the
people who feel the pain but rather for the people who ignore to
recognise it or pretend that it doesn’t exist,” said Ai.
“That is both a tragedy and a crime,” said the 59-year-old painter, sculptor and photographer.
Ai spent the last year visiting such migrant and
refugee hotspots as the US-Mexican border badlands to the
Turkish-Syrian frontier and crowded holding camps on Greek islands.
An outspoken critic of the
Chinese government, Ai was detained in 2011 for 81 days and had his
passport confiscated for four years.He later travelled to Berlin where his wife and son live.Recently
he has staged several high-profile exhibitions inspired by migrants,
including decking out the columns of Berlin's Konzerthaus with 14,000
orange life jackets from Lesbos, which is.an entry point for many migrants trying to reach western Europe from Turkey.
Last month, he said he
looked on in dismay at the Trump presidency, the US entry ban on Syrian
refugees, the attempt to deny visas to citizens of several mainly Muslim
nations, the pledge to build a wall with Mexico and invoke mass
deportations.
People are already finding it a particularly powerful statement.
Comments underneath Ai’s Instagram posts of the installation show how much of an impact his work has made.https://www.instagram.com/aiww/?hl=en
They
include “Deeply moving! The enormity and profound silence” from
@moniqueloveringstudio and “An astounding and emotionally charged work,
it’s beautiful too, which it has to be to represent the sad story. Thank
you as always for what you do,” from @michaelbirtphoto.
Ai Weiwei slams 'harmful' politicians ignoring refugees
Derek Walcott, a Nobel-prize winning poet known for capturing the
essence of his native Caribbean who became the region’s most
internationally famous writer, died early Friday at his home in the
eastern Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, aged 87,according to his son,
Peter after battling a long illness. “Derek Alton Walcott, poet,
playwright, and painter died peacefully today, Friday 17th March, 2017,
at his home in Cap Estate, Saint Lucia,” read a statement the family
released later in the morning. It said the funeral would be held in St.
Lucia and details would be announced shortly This was confirmed by his
publishers who noted on social media: "Derek Walcott was a true presence
who filled the literary landscape and did so with a delicacy of touch.
We have lost a giant of literature." In “Omeros” (1990), an epic poem considered his most ambitious and
accomplished work, he invoked Caribbean voices through Greek myth,
drawing on Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.Two years later, this prolific and versatile poet was awarded the Nobel Prize, after being shorlisted for many years
and in its citation, the Swedish Academy said: “He has both African and
European blood in his veins. In him, West Indian culture has found its
great poet. He would later win the TS Eliot prize for poetry in 2011, followed bythe
Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry lifetime recognition award in
2015.Born in 1930, he studied at the University of the West Indies in
Jamaica, before moving to Trinidad in 1953, where he worked as a theatre
and art critic.He first attracted attention on St Lucia with a book of
poems that he published himself when he was 18 entitled 25 poems.Walcott’s breakthrough came with the collection In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960
(1962), a book which celebrates the Caribbean and its history as well
as investigating the scars of colonialism and post-colonialism. Walcott,
who was of African, Dutch and English ancestry, said his writing
reflected the “very rich and complicated experience” of life in the
Caribbean.His ancestry wove together the major strands of Caribbean
history, an inheritance he described famously in a poem from 1980's ' The Star-Apple Kingdom'
as having "Dutch, nigger, and English in me,/ and either I'm nobody, or
I'm a/ nation." Both of his grandmothers were said to have been
descended from slaves, but his father who died when Walcott was only a
year old, was a painter, and his mother the headmistress of a methodist
school - enough to ensure that Walcott received what he called in the
same poem a' sound colonial education.' His work earned him a
reputation as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the 20th
century. He compared his feeling for poetry to a religious evocation.
Derek Walcott found that he was often defined as a black writer. That is
not how he saw himself. He was, he said, first and foremost, a
Caribbean writer. “I am primarily, absolutely a Caribbean writer,” he
once said during a 1985 interview published in The Paris Review.
“The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property
of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself. I have
never felt inhibited in trying to write as well as the greatest English
poets.”He was also an accomplished painter and playwright. His life though was marred with controversy.He taught at US universities, where two female students accused him of
interfering with their academic achievements after they rejected his
advances. This was said to have counted against him when he was passed
over for the post of poet laureate in 1999. He was also forced to
withdraw his candidacy for the post of Oxford professor of poetry in
2009 in a case which also forced the resignation of his rival Ruth Padel
only nine days into her term. Prior to his retirement in 2007,
Walcott taught for decades at Bostom University and spent time in New
York and Boston as well as St Lucia. He married and divorced three
times, and he had three children - Peter , Elizabeth and Anna. He is
survived by his children, grandchildren and his companion of many tears,
Sigrid Nama. The world has lost one of its most noted literary icons.
He helped illuminate the world, RIP. The poetry society described his
death as terrible news and encouraged others to read his poetry in
memoriam.https://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/a-tribute-to-derek-walcott/ A full -length obituary has been published by the Guardian newspaper.https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/17/nobel-laureate-poet-and-playwright-derek-walcott-dead-aged-87
Love after Love
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Dedicated to all the people of the world who still search for freedom, in all our different struggles against oppression, we must continue to hold on to our humanity.
Thank you Linda for reminding me, let us continue to endure and overcome and keep spreading seeds of possibility and hope. Continue to support peoples pride, in waves of solidarity.
It has become customary of me to mark the passing of Rachel Aliene Corrie a 23 year old American Peace activist from Olympia, Washington who was crushed to death by an Israeli military, caterpiller D 912 bulldozer in 2003, while undertaking non-violent direct action trying to protect the home of a Palestinian family from demolition in Rafah in the Gaza strip. Justice has never been served for her, along with others killed under the Israeli occupation. Today I reflect upon Rachel's brave stand in Gaza 14 years ago today and her courage to resist and all those who continue to live and struggle there, and all those passionate change makers across the globe who each day act with conscience, work tirelessly to try and make a difference. Remember that what is happening in Palestine which we keep on witnessing is an equal cycle of violence as seen in apartheid South Africa. Being against this injustice is not anti-Jewish anymore than being against a British governments military aggression marks you as as anti-British. Rachel Corrie understood these links and connections and would have known about an active Israeli peace movement, and of the hundreds of Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, many of whom have been jailed for their stance. Israel has invaded Palestinian land in breach of international law. Rachel died while attempting to prevent a demolition of a home, a common practice of the Israeli army's collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. A practice that violates International Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.The struggle against demolition and occupation of Palestinian homes and lands continues unabated. So here's to the memory and bravery of Rachel Corrie a true American hero but another pointless death.Bulldozed and suffocated her memory though will remain. http://www.rachelcorrie.org
A member of the Royal family maybe visiting Israel in an official capacity later this year, on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, according to British media reports.Though members of the royal family have travelled to Israel in the past on personal visits,an official visit of this kind would be a historic first, and would mean breaking decades of precedent in which invitations to visit have been previously rejected.
President Reuven Rivlin extended the invitation at a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Jerusalem last week, citing the importance of the Balfour centenary. According to Whitehall sources, such a visit could take place this year, the Independent reported.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestinian-campaign-israel-royal-visit-israel-netanyahu-israel-prince-charles-a7620251.html
The invitation comes on the 100 years anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.On November 2, 1917, the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour
wrote a letter in what is now known as the Balfour Declaration in what is considered to be the first political recognition of the Zionist aims by a foreign government. This cursed declaration, by means of which those who had no ownership
(Britain) permitted those who had no right to establish a national
homeland on an established country Palestine, inevitably bought about a
promise that marked the beginning of confiscation of the Palestinians homeland and
displacement of its people. I personally believe it is time not for Royal visits but a moment that my
rulers apologise about this historical injustice which Britain
committed
against the Palestinian people.
UK Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour
Palestinians believe the Balfour Declaration marked the beginning of a
series of moves by the British government in Palestine, which
facilitated Jewish migration in Palestine, which initiated a campaign of
ethnic cleansing in Palestine in 1947-8, which led to the displacement
of some 750,000 Palestinians.The population of Palestinian refugees today currently stands at 6,000,000 and
their issue is considered the longest standing in the world. A statement by the London based Balfour Apology campaign (BAC) http://balfourcampaign.com/recently said that :-
"
The royal family visit to Israel is seen by the campaign
and Palestinians under occupation and in the diaspora as ‘unhelpful’.
Such visit will only encourage Israel to continue its human rights
violations against Palestinians and provide free publicity to cover
Israel’s ongoing settler colonialism, occupation and apartheid
policies.”
.
Surely it is now time for the Royal family and the British Government to simply say sorry for what has
bought untold misery through nearly a
century of conflict, ethnic cleansing, ongoing human rights abuse,
brutal occupation and apartheid.It has a responsibility and duty and to
redress the pain and suffering of individual Palestinians that have had to
endured ever since, and keep up pressure on the state of Israel as they keep continuing to breaking international law and finally apologise for distributing land when they had absolutely no right to do so in the first place and redress the historical injustice that Britain committed against the Palestinian people .This surely would be a sensible approach to reconciliation and the road to peace.
Here is a petition you could sign if you wish, cheers :- UK must apologise for the Balfour Declaration and lead peace efforts in Palestine:- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/184398
Today is the 20th annual International Day of Action for Rivers!
For two decades, communities all over the world have gathered to defend,
protect and celebrate their rivers as sources of life and renewal. It’s
an amazing moment of global solidarity, for an event to join, discover this interactive global action map.
Each year, this event reminds us that we’re not alone in the struggle
for our freshwater. We share a common purpose with sisters and brothers
all over the planet who are fighting for their rights and their rivers. It is a day to educate one another about the threat facing our rivers, and learn about how to protect them. Here's a little poem I wrote for the rivers.
For the Rivers
From their source, delivers hope
helps release joy instead of sorrow;
into the sea allows freedom to grow gives us hope for a brighter future,
currents moving more precious than gold
forever running, constantly turning,
rippling inspiration, reaching horizons of
another tide
the rivers trace generations of memory,
constant treasures full of magic
veins of life that help sustain the planet,
we must conserve these flowing waters
help them replenish our mother earth.
Some wise words from the late British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer, Doris Lessing.
“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout
his or her school life is something like this: ‘You are in the process
of being indoctrinated. We have not yet
evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We
are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here
is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular
culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these
must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to
accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their
predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are
more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and
find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those
that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being
moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of
this particular society.”
Doris Lessing - extract from, The Golden Notebook, 1962
' " the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live,
mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time
the one's who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn,
burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across
the stars in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everything
goes Awww!' - Jack Kerouac.
Today is
the anniversary of visionary, iconclastic writer and poet,Jack Kerouac being born.
The shaman of the Beat Generation arrived today as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac to a French-Canadian
family in the factory town of Lowell, Massachusettsus USA. Variously called
the Beat Generations apostle, poet, hero, laureate, saint? Through his
own life story he created a work of fiction .Soared so high, that in
the end unfortunately found his own human skin, then found himself out
of his depth in bottled delusion, where the burning ship had become his
own.
Kerouac learned to speak French at home before he learned English at
school. Reportedly he did not learn English until he was six years old . His father Leo Kerouac owned his own print shop, Spotlight Print, in
downtown Lowell, and his mother Gabrielle Kerouac, known to her children as Memere,
was a homemaker. Kerouac later described the family’s home life: “My
father comes home from his printing shop and undoes his tie and removes his1920s vest, and sits himself down at hamburger and boiled potatoes
and bread and butter, and with the kiddies and the good wife.”
Jack Kerouac endured a childhood tragedy in the summer of 1926, when
his beloved older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at the age of
9. Drowning in grief, the Kerouac family embraced their Catholic faith
more deeply. Kerouac’s writing is full of vivid memories of attending
church as a child: “From the open door of the church warm and golden
light swarmed out on the snow. The sound of the organ and singing could
be heard.”
Jack would earn a football scholarship to Columbia University, and planned
to work in insurance after finishing school, according to the Beat
Museum,http://www.kerouac.com/ which goes into detail about Kerouac’s rise to literary and
cultural stardom. But his life only took a more hectic turn once he
arrived in New York City, and he quickly clashed with his football
coach. Jack dropped out of school, joined the Merchant Marines and then
fell in with New York’s literary crowd. Around this time, Kerouac took several
cross-country road trips with friend Neal Cassady that would later
inspire his seminal work, “On the Road.”
In his life, he had been part of a culture and people, who
burned like meteors. Jack Kerouac was the Beat Generations very own
mythologiser, he and his band of brothers helped redeem a bit of
America's soul. His legacy, like that of the Beat Culture, still alive,
still relevant, still taking root.
This influential poet and writer who originated the term “beatific” as a the
defining term for the group of artists and writers of the Beat
Generation, who along with his friends, GregoryCorso, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferllinghetti, Gary Snyder etc, paved a way for a whole host of dreamers searching for risk, some
form of adventure. Colouring our worlds with their crazy visions, their
minds in revolt, searching for future's possibilities. Hand in hand with
rebellion, against the conventions of the times.
Jack Kerouac in
his eighteen books and many others under Jack's influence were to me
important epiphanies on my own path of self discovery. He taught me
about "Spontaneous prose." - writing without revising....... He called
this " a spontaneous bop prosody." which is a bit like a jazz musician
taking an improvised solo, and he took it as far as he could go, with no
editing and no pause of breath. Sometimes what is left, has no meaning, a
void, but often their is a glimmer, that spells hope, that can become
endless, can run off the page, infinite but still accessible.
On my
bookshelf at home Kerouacs influence groans on my bookcases, his own
works, sharing spaces with others , that were touched by his
inspiration. I a very grateful to a friend called Charlotte who recently added more to my personal collection.
There is something about his tragic, magic life that
still resonates, hums, there will always be new connections, outhouses
where seeds will forever drift. New poets will emerge, to
experience, among the whole wide world, words will dance, impulsively
between time, forever and forever. Enthusiasm will be shared, thoughts will be exchanged, and
for some the personal will always be political.Passion will ignite.
Jack had a wild spirit, but such a dazzling voice, who through his writing revealed him as a believer in humanity, a dreamer, a doer and an explorer
of metaphysical depth. He was however also a recluse, socially awkward, a
drug abuser, an alcoholic and a man who became so overwhelmed with his
own fame it ultimately destroyed him. Still yearning for his mother, but lost in a catholic
guilt, that had always consumed him. Stuck in a sad exile,this mystical
breath had grown tired , what was once beautiful had begun to drift
towards bitterness.
Jack was not immortal, though for me his words are, and he left this planet
on October 21 1969, 47 years, related to alcoholism According to the San Francisco
Chronicle, Kerouac “was known to consume 17 shots of Johnny Walker Red
per hour, washed down with Colt malt liquor.” and because of this his search for inner lamentation was cut
tragically far to short.
There are two types of people in this world; those
that ‘get’ Kerouac, and those that do not. I am in the first category,
of course, so happy birthday Jack, your impact
continues to be felt , your satori breath released , and your legacy today is stronger today than ever ... om switchin on....
tomorrow's dawns chorus echoes,anesthesising the sky.... sentences
littered with wild perception, language as a spell that leaves
us forever hooked. In human existence our contradictions will
abound, freeze framed, on the road to nowhere. Kicks joy darkness.blessed be you in golden eternity., and as Jack said "Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven now."
William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, 1953
Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Kerouac,
Greeenwich Village, 1957.
Jack Kerouac on the Steve Allen show 1959.
Jack Keroauc: I'm sick of myself, I'm not a courageous man
a rare interview of Jack in French with English subtitles to a Canadian Television show where he explains how he came up with the name that described the literary movement of his generation.
There
are numerous pages and books devoted to Kerouac and the Beats , if you
look you will find what your looking for, the searching is part of the
journey In the meantime I offer you some of his poetry
POOR SOTTISH KEROUAC
Poor sottish Kerouac with his thumb in his eye
Getting interested in literature again
Through a mote of dust just flew by
How should I know that the dead were born?
Does Master cry?
The weeds Ophelia wound with
and Chatterton measured in the moon
are the weeds of Goethe, Wang Wei,
and the Golden Courtesans
Imagining recommending a prefecture
for a man in the madhouse
rain
Sleep well, my angel
Make some eggs
The house in the moor
The house is a monument
In the moor of the grave
Whatever that means
The white dove descended in disguise?
WOMAN
A woman is beautiful
but
you have to swing
and swing and swing
and swing like
a hankerchief in the
wind
149th Chorus
I keep falling in love
with my mother
I dont want to hurt her
=Of all people to hurt
Every time I see her
she's grown older
But her uniform always
amazes me
For its Dutch simplicity
And the Doll she is.
The doll-like way
she stands
Bowlegged in my dreams,
Waiting to serve me
And I am only an Apache
Smoking Hashi
In old Cabashy
By the Lamp
2111th Chorus
The wheel of the quivering meat
conception
Turns in the Void expelling human beings,
Pigs, turtles, frogs, insects, nits,
Mice, Lice, Lizards, rats, roan
Racing horses, poxy bucolic pig tics,
Horrible unnameable lice of vultures
Murderous attacking dog-armies
Of Africa, Rhinos roaming in the jungle
Vast boars and huge gigantic bull
Elephants, rams, eagles, condors,
Pones and Porcupines and Pills-
All the endless conception of living
beings
Gnashing everywhere in Consciousness
Throughout the ten directions of space
Occupying all the quarters in and out,
From supermicroscopic no-bug
To huge Galaxy Lightyear Bowell
Illuminating the sky of one mind
AND THEN THEY GOT HIM
The Oil of the Olive
Bittersweet taffies
Bittersweet cabbage
Cabbage soup made right
A hunk a grass
In a big barrel
Stunk but Good
163rd Chorus
Left the Tombs to go
and look at the
Millions of cut glass-
-a guy clocking them,
as you look you swallow,
you get so fat
you can't leave the building
-stand straight,
don't tip over, breathe
in such a way yr fatness
deflates, go back to
the Tombs,
ride the elevator-
he tips over again'
gazes on the Lights,
eats them, is clocked,
gets so fat
he can leave elevator,
has to stand straight
and breathe out the fat -
-hurry back to the Tombs
242nd Chorus
The sound in your mind
is the first sound
that you could sing
If you were singing
at a cash register
with nothing on yr mind-
But when that grim reper
comes to lay you
look out my lady
He will steal all you got
while you dingle with the dangle
and having robbed you
Vanish
Which will be your best reward,
T'were better to get rid o
John O'Twill, then sit a mortying
In this Half Eternity with nobody
To save the old man being hanged
In my closet for nothing
And everybody watches
When the act is done-
Stop the murder and the suicide!
All's well!
I am the Guard
Though my mind Is not like yours Slightly in tatters I still try to be a friend Here you can share my thoughts As the world spins round Making us dizzy As life rotates I will be what I am And you will too Carried by peaceful currents Unafraid, if you wish.
