Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Human Trafficking

(Check out the events and the videos here.)

Quote from the WOHT: 

"The International labour Organization estimates that 21 million people are victims of forced labour globally. This estimate also includes victims of human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation."

   #HumanTrafficking 

#EndHumanTrafficking

“[S]ex trafficking  and mass rape should no more be seen 
as women's issues than slavery  was a black issue 
or the Holocaust  was a Jewish issue. 
These are all humanitarian concerns, transcending 
any one race, gender, or creed.” 
― Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Midweek Motif ~ 

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is so widespread, 

I wonder how I escaped it and if

I know anyone involved. 

I read the news 

and feel powerless. 

Do we each have a right to 

our own body and its labors?

Can we write poems about this?

Your Challenge:  In your new poem, 

bring a character or event to life. Stick to the "human trafficking" motif.

1 August 2017

                                                    THE FREEDOM FIGHTER ACTIVISTS

Anonymous

Mack2

It was brought to me a year ago,

I had heard it before;

but now it was freshly in my mind.

Girls were being kidnapped.

Girls were being forced,

    to do the unimaginable.

. . . . 

(Read the rest at Power Poetry.)

Reflection—Human Trafficking

Anonymous

 “I am a human being…

and I have been sold. 

    I make the cell phones we use…

   I clean the neighbor’s house…

  I pick the tomatoes we eat…

     I’m on the Internet…in the local motel…on the street corner…

     But no one really sees me."

. . . . 

(Read the rest at the blog Human Trafficking, Apr 23, 2014 .)

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

by Jon Wesick

1-888-373-7888

the mantra that dispels powerlessness

and despair. This is the truth

not a lie.

1-888-373-7888

the human trafficking hotline.

Learn it by heart. Teach it to others

and your merit will increase a thousand fold.

1-888-373-7888 call

if you see the signs of modern-day slavery.

Call when you see bruises and signs of abuse.

Call when someone seems submissive and afraid.

Call when they can’t speak for themselves,

when they’re always accompanied by their boss,

when they don’t control their money and ID.

Call when they’re transported to and from work

or when they live and work in the same place.

Call when they owe their employer a “debt.”

Call when they can’t leave their jobs.

1-888-373-7888

This is the great mantra,

the vivid mantra, the best mantra.

Set forth this mantra and dial

1-888-373-7888.

🌏

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

Next week Sumana's Midweek Motif will be "Kintsugi: Art of Mending."

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Survival

“All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. 
All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, 
to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.” 
― James Baldwin

film trailer:  http://www.poetryofresilience.com/

*** *** ***

“. . . and when we speak we are afraid

our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive” 
― Audre Lorde, 
The Black Unicorn: Poems

Midweek Motif ~ Survival

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Breaking the cycle of violence 

against women and girls.  Stopping violence altogether.

Today, I am thinking of the ones who 

don't survive.  Of the ones who do.

 Of surviving  huge violence and 

violence others might perceive 

as small.   I want to write,  but how 

to take one event and emotion

 from among so many that 

stuff up our mouths?  

Your challenge: Speak about survival so that others may listen.  Write a new poem because that is what we do. 

*** *** ***

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 Energy, as in Vitality)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Captivity

“We are determined to answer evil with GOOD, slavery with FREEDOM, 
rape with hope!  We are against slavery, rape, beheading, torture, 
violations of human rights, corruption and misuse of religion!” 
― Widad Akrawi

“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” 
― Frederick Douglass

“The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, 

the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.” 
― Nadine Gordimer, Get a Life

source

Midweek Motif  ~ Captivity

The United Nations uses March 25th to observe two separate International Days for victims of slavery and other forms of captivity.  Follow the links to read more about the United Nations' resolutions:

• International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade:  ". . . tribute to the many women who suffered and died during the slave trade . . . "
• International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members:  ". . . protect United Nations staff and peacekeepers, as well as our colleagues in the non-governmental community and the media."

YOUR CHALLENGE:  Describe a captivity in a poem using imagery and narrative story ~ OR, simply use captivity as a motif.

my own photo in Père Lachaise Cemetery

Excerpt from  To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth

by Phillis Wheatley, 1753 - 1784 

. . . . .

Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?
Steel’d was that soul and by no misery mov’d
That from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d:
Such, such my case.  And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

. . . .   (Read the rest HERE at Poetry.ORG.)

The Captive Dove 

byAnne Bronte 

Poor restless dove, I pity thee; 

And when I hear thy plaintive moan, 

I mourn for thy captivity, 

And in thy woes forget mine own. 

To see thee stand prepared to fly,

 And flap those useless wings of thine, 

And gaze into the distant sky, 

Would melt a harder heart than mine. 

In vain ­ in vain! Thou canst not rise: 

Thy prison roof confines thee there;

 Its slender wires delude thine eyes, 

And quench thy longings with despair.

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at Poetry Soup.)

# 
For those who are new to Poets United: 




Post your Captivity poem on your site, and then link it here.



Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 



If you use a picture include its link.  


Please leave a comment here and 
visit and comment on our poems.



(Our next Midweek Motif is "cherry blossoms.")

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Poets United Midweek Motif ~ A Woman's Day

Source

"In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not 
merely tolerated but valued."

 - Aung Sang Suu Kyi (1945–)

International Women's Day.  *UN WOMEN Photo: UN Women/Fernando Bocanegra  

       

Midweek Motif ~ A Woman's Day

This Sunday, March 8th is International Women's Day.  This year's theme is "Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!”   So let's "Picture It" with empowering images:

In 2015, International Women’s Day, celebrated globally on 8 March, will highlight the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments 20 years ago that sets the agenda for realizing women’s rights. While there have been many achievements since then, many serious gaps remain.  - See more HERE.

Your Challenge:  
Let your poem show how a woman is special. 

Choose anyone you want famous or not, living or dead.

 The FifthFact  

By SARAH BROWNING

For Ben’s project he must research five facts

about his African-American hero and write them

on posterboard. He chooses Harriet Tubman,

whose five facts are: Her father’s name was Ben.

Her mother’s name was Old Rit. She was born

in 1820 and died in 1913. She was born in Maryland

and died in New York. Ben asks for advice

about his fifth fact and I suggest: She led more than

300 people to freedom. Ben sighs the way he does

now and says, Everyone knows that, Mom.

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at the Poetry Foundation)

Phenomenal Woman

     By MAYA  ANGELOU

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

. . . .   

(Read the rest HERE at Poem Hunter.)

For those who are new to Poets United:  

• Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
• Post your Women's Day  poem on your site, and then link it here.
• If you use a picture include its link.  
• Please leave a comment here. 
• Visit and comment on our poems.

(Our next Midweek Motif is "A Man's Day")

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