Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Neutrality / Objectivity

"Close examination of unbiased truth"
Painting by William Girometti (Italy, 1979)
Photo Silvia Girometti (via Wikimedia)

“Surely, we want to be objective if that means telling the truth as we see it, not concealing information that may be embarrassing to our point of view. But we don’t want to be objective if it means pretending that ideas don’t play a part in the social struggles of our time, that we don’t take sides in those struggles.   Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral."

― Howard Zinn, Declarations of Independence

All encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must
be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV)

The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.” 
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Yellow Emoticon Neutral Face Button
by Granny Enchanted

"The very concept of objective truth 

is fading out of the world. 

Lies will pass into history." 

--George Orwell

World map showing countries' degrees of neutrality prior to 2007:

  neutral countries

  disputed neutral countries

  historical neutral countries

Midweek Motif 
Neutrality / Objectivity

Neutrality and Objectivity are not equivalent, but they share the qualities of being relatively good or bad, possible or impossible and revealing or obscuring truth.  A neutral position is good in a yoga class, but bad in a debate.  Do you agree?

I picked this topic because today is a Celebration of Neutrality in Austria, one of several countries which have adopted a UN Declaration of Neutrality.  But as a member of the European Union, how neutral can and should it be?  

Your Challenge:  Create a new poem that explores one instance of neutrality or objectivity.  Try NOT to be either neutral or objective.

Excerpt from Goodbye to Tolerance

Related Poem Content Details

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

Genial poets, pink-faced   

earnest wits— 

you have given the world   

some choice morsels, 

gobbets of language presented 

as one presents T-bone steak 

and Cherries Jubilee.   

Goodbye, goodbye, 

                            I don’t care 

if I never taste your fine food again,   

neutral fellows, seers of every side.   

Tolerance, what crimes 

are committed in your name. 

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)

Neutral Tones 

BY THOMAS HARDY

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
     - They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
     On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
     Like an ominous bird-a-wing...

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
     And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ The Day of the Dead.)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Public Protest

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. 

Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.

― Bob Marley, Bob Marley - Legend

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy;

it is absolutely essential to it.
― Howard Zinn

Part of Chinese Democracy Movement in 1989:
Type 59 tanks on Tiananmen Square.   "Tank Man" 
is visible in the lower left blocking the entire army. 
(Photo by Stuart Franklin, via Wikipedia, Fair Use.)

TODAY is the sad 25th anniversary of the final confrontation 

of the Chinese Democracy Movement  on June 4th 1989.

Midweek Motif ~ Public Protest

Have you ever been moved to stand up to power?  Have you ever wielded the power that is protested?   I like it best when protest leads to positive negotiations.  Protest groups unite when negotiations failed and they are compelled to protest and strike.  Non-violent public protest has power to create change.  

Your challenge:  Either present an historical protest in an epic poem or create a lyric poem from inside a protest, or combine both, interlacing epic and lyric.

Anti-nuclear Power Plant Rally on 19 September 2011 at Meiji Shrine complex in Tokyo.
Sixty thousand people marched chanting "Sayonara nuclear power" and waving banners to call on Japan's government to abandon nuclear power, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.^[1][2]

Inspiration from a three Poems:

graduate school first semester: so here I am writing about Indians again

BY CHERYL SAVAGEAU

“The conquest is not sustainable . . .”
                                  —Winona LaDuke

thanks for bringing that

to our attention

she said the first time

to my response to a history text

about a famous painting

of the Battle of Quebec

that never mentioned the French

and only mentioned Indians twice,

once as nuisances, once

as the noble savage

kneeling by the dying

English general . . . .  

(See the rest of this poem at The Poetry Foundation)

Howl

BY ALLEN GINSBERG

I

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness . . . .

(See the rest of this poem at The Poetry Foundation) 

Ballad of Birmingham

BY DUDLEY RANDALL

(On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren't good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

. . . . 

(See the rest of this poem at The Poetry Foundation.)

Please:  

1.      Post your public protest poem  on your site, and then link it here.

2.      Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 

3.      Leave a comment here.

4.      Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is  the number 13.)

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Auto-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.