Wild Fridays: Thought Provokers

Imagination

We need to review our past to fix the broken cast that we all need to heal

The seal that is always broken that needs to be forespoken

To make everyone awoken

That our imaginations are limitless

If we come together it will be bigger than ever

If we collide as one, when we are done

We can see what we have become

Before one expression can lead to depression

The pressure of being yourself has made you feel left behind.

Being kind is not a self act, it’s a selfless movement

This containment needs to be released as if it was our relief

From our so called ugly self image

Our disapprovals our negative thoughts

I’m not being figurative, the damage of us hurting ourselves

Has changed us as a whole as if someone made the wrong fold.

Now tilt the container.

Do you feel a sense of calmness and relaxation?

As if that fracture has been repaired but left a scar.

If you don’t that’s OK

All you have to remember is time isn’t now and you’ll feel it one day

But sometimes that’s what keeps us going of the fuel to power our minds to steal our sadness away

To conquer our imaginations

Don’t stay how you are now

Work on yourself even if that means bending yourself down to pull others up

Because if we all do that then who will be down?

When you look at your property do you realise that others are living in poverty?

In school there are people who think they are cool

But what they don’t realise is that in a time scale smaller than a cup

Starting from the word 'sup' makes the ones the majority thinks aren’t cool feel lower than a stool.

Don’t be a fool to be proud of someone who is down and think it’s hard

That is how it is now

What we all need and know is that this generation can quickly turn foul.

– By Jasmine Logan

It's a time when the young are speaking up with powerful voices. Sherry gave us a great example in her last 'I Wish I'd Written This', featuring Shane Koyczan on bullying.

I admire the way this poem, too, while deploring the nastiness some young people can engage in, also urges the positive values of kindness and imagination.

Jasmine Logan, pictured sharing this poem at a recent 'Poets Out Loud' event in Murwillumbah, Australia, is 13 – the youngest participant in these local readings. Soon to turn 80, I may well be the oldest. 

A very confident performer, Jasmine came in second to me in one of our recent slams; I beat her by only 0.2 of a point. It was the only slam I've ever been in, so I was pretty chuffed to win; but, until the announcement, I was actually sure she had it won, and I told her so afterwards. Now the oldest and youngest local poets have become friends, and I asked if she would let me share her words here. 

At this stage she is very much writing for performance, so you need to 'hear' the sound and the rhythm as you read her words – or even better, try them aloud.

In the photo, Jasmine is wearing the colours of the Australian Aboriginal flag. I asked her to explain what the t-shirt says, because I was sure that otherwise someone would be bound to ask. She replied:

'Free the Flag', the t-shirt says.

It’s because the Aboriginal artist (Harold Thomas) has sold the flag to a non-Indigenous company who are Aboriginal art frauds. Now they have got rights to use it while everyone else has to pay. We just want to use our flag like every other Australian.

You can read the history of this flag – one of the officially proclaimed flags of Australia – including the situation she mentions, here if you're interested. (I think most Australians are already aware.) I asked her if she would like to say something about being an Indigenous Australian. She said:

Being Indigenous has made me really connected to culture and this land, although it comes with a cost. It is so upsetting to see people climb Uluru and Wollumbin.

[These are sacred mountains; the second is local. The indigenous custodians have recently ended the climbing of Uluru.]

Jasmine also finds it upsetting to contemplate the Stolen Generation.

My cousins were stolen, and my dad, aunties and uncles had to hide in my nan’s house until it was safe.

Here is one of Jasmine's most recent poems, on this subject:

Staring back at me was the Stolen Generation

I looked in the mirror and found a great mystery
Staring back at me was my people's history

Its name was a generation stolen

Sad event with children taken away

Many aboriginals had fallen

Mums are home anxiously every day

Terrified and NO parents of their own

Forbidden to learn about their people

Strange people around, feels like you're alone

Silence all around, besides one beetle

Forced to sing for the boss, they were made slaves

NO dreams, they were made to be maids when they grow

Least they tried, run back because they were brave

Blindfolded taken feels like it is slow

Mixed heritage identity unknown

Imagine that’s you. See! Are your minds blown?

She says: It breaks my heart to know how much racism there is in Australia ALONE, but I’m proud to call myself Indigenous.

May her strong voice be widely heard!

Material shared in this post is presented for study and review. Poems, photos, and other writings and images remain the property of the copyright owners, usually the authors. This photo of Jasmine is © Sarah Temporal 2019.

Note:
Sanaa's 'Wild Fridays' title is too good to waste – even though Sanaa herself won't be using it any more. Instead, she and Magaly will be taking turns to host our Sundays, now that Mary and Sherry have stepped down.

We think the title fits the way all sorts of topics pop up on Fridays, in random order. So we're making it the overall title, now, for all the Friday posts. This banner is Sherry's photo of wild waves in her glorious home environment, used with her permission – an acknowledgment of our original Wild Woman of Poets United! 

Ros

Poetry Pantry #498

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I thought we might as well get into the spirit of Halloween this week, and get all cackly. Smiles. October has scurried by with the swiftness of falling leaves and fading daylight. We hope it has been a good month for you, sparking some wonderful poems. On Friday, did you catch Shane Koyczan's spoken word poem: To the Bullied and Beautiful? I love his work. 

On Monday, it is - so soon I can scarcely believe it - Mary's and my "See you in the 'sphere!" feature. And we will, never fear! We still love poetry! And all of you. 

On Wednesday, Sanaa has an intriguing prompt for us at Midweek Motif: A Million Years Howl When Voices Whisper Among the Trees. That stirs my Wild Woman muse. I suspect some wolves may show up in the poem I write in response. Smiles. 

Next Friday, Rosemary is continuing her series of features under the new name: Wild Fridays. I love that title. Her first Wild Friday features an Australian poet who is only thirteen years old; she was the youngest poet performing at a Spoken Word event alongside Rosemary. You won't want to miss this feature. I am enchanted. I love it when the young speak up, in their clear voices. 

But now, it is Sunday. Let's settle in with our coffee cups, and read some of your wonderful poems! Thank you for joining us every Sunday. We wouldn't be here without you.

I WISH I'D WRITTEN THIS - SHANE KOYCZAN

I wanted my last Friday feature to be awesome, so I chose Shane Koyczan, Penticton Spoken Word maestro, whom I have featured before. Rosemary also featured this wonderful human in 2013. 

Shane speaks from his heart; he reaches right into the chests of his listeners, stirring the memories, the emotions, the humanness of being a person in this world.

He is an extremely successful artist, often on tour to packed, appreciative audiences. His personal story is moving: a small boy raised by his grandparents, who, as an adult, goes in search of the father he did not know.  This journey is told in the documentary about his life, Shut Up and Say Something (trailer above). 

In any of his performances, what strikes me is the connection Shane makes with his audience. He makes his listeners feel all he feels; they resonate with the many times they have felt the same way too.

Here is just one of his amazing performances, perhaps his most famous. It is a bit long. But just maybe it will make you laugh and cry, as it did me.






There are many other of his performances on youtube. 

Shane has a new book out, titled Inconvenient Skin / nayêhtâwan wasakay Illustrations are by Joseph Sanchez, Jim Logan and Nadya Kwandibens. This book addresses Canada's dark colonial history, wounds from which are still in need of healing. 

Available here.

Shane has thirteen books out on Goodreads. 

Shane is unafraid to address painful topics. He goes there, and by being his compassionate, feeling self, helps us go there, too. 

Once you read, or, especially, hear him, you will be hooked. One can never get enough of this rich, warm embodiment of what it is to be a full-hearted human, Being. 

Material shared in 'I Wish I'd Written This' is presented for study and review. Poems, photos and other writings remain the property of the copyright owners, usually their authors.

Poetry Pantry #497

Chestermans sunrise

The Wild Pacific Trail

The Broken Group Islands from the Wild Pacific Trail

Wickaninnish in Blue

Chestermans looking towards Catface and Lone Cone

Menina and me

Cox Bay

Tonquin Beach

Chestermans sunset

Happy Sunday, friends. Today I am sharing a few photos to give you an idea of the spectacular beauty in which I am so fortunate to be living. There is so much inspiration here for creative folk, with which the village abounds: writers, painters, photographers, sculptors, carvers, dreamers - all gather here and feast their senses in this dramatic and ever-changing landscape.

Menina is a friend's dog; I walk her on the beach often, since I am so bereft, living as a dogless person, that I have to borrow dogs. Smiles.

Our countdown to the end of October is upon us. It feels surreal that this is my next-to-last Pantry. Be sure to scroll back if you missed Friday's feature: Magaly hosted one of her interactive Moonlight Musings, on the topic of change. Smiles. Plenty of that around!

On Monday, we will get to know Lori Ryan a little better, in my Life of a Poet series. Do stop by and leave her some words of welcome to our community. On Wednesday, the theme of Sumana's Midweek Motif will be Forgiveness. We look forward to reading your poems in response.

And for my final Friday feature, at the end of the week, I am showcasing British Columbia spoken word maestro Shane Koyczan, in what is perhaps his most popular poem: To the Bullied and Beautiful. We hope you enjoy it.

For now, it is Sunday. Coffee, hot, poems, at the ready. You know what to do! Let's dive in!

Poetry Pantry #422

Greetings once again, Poets!  Once again, happy autumn to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere; and happy spring to those in the Southern Hemisphere.

Before I forget, if you have not already read / listened to the I Wish I'd Written This this week, hop back to it.  Sherry has presented some beautiful spoken word by Shane Koyczan from British Columbia not to be missed!

This week Monday Sherry will feature three 'poems of the week,' which I am sure you will enjoy.

If you enjoyed last week's Midweek Motif - The Wall, be sure to come back this next Wednesday to participate in Susan's Midweek Motif -  Balance!

With no further delay, let's share poetry!  Link your one poem below. Stop in and say hello in the comments.  And visit the poems of others who link! Looking forward to reading your poetry today.

I Wish I'd Written This

I have just belatedly come across the wonderful work of Shane Koyczan, a talented Spoken Word poet who lives in Penticton, B.C.  The documentary film on his life, "Shut Up and Say Something," was the 2017 official selection at the Vancouver International Film Festival. 

He is amazing. I included the video above to give you a little glimpse of the beautiful area where I am fortunate to live, which he extols in his poem. I have also added the video below, to demonstrate his warm, compelling, and very moving presentation on sensitive topics. He draws on his own life experiences to talk about childhood, bullying, being different, and being oneself,  often drawing tears from his audiences. He touches hearts. He has certainly touched mine. 

Shane grew up without his parents, but with a grandma who adores him. He knew what it was to be bullied as a child. He said his grandma woke him every morning with the greeting "Rise and Shine". I would say he  certainly does just that - he shines. I love his big, warm, inclusive heart. He quips, "My dreams were shy because I'm Canadian." Smiles.

He has several books of poetry out, and a novel in verse. His books, To This Day: For the Bullied and Beautiful and A Bruise On Light Visiting Hours, were selected by both the Guardian and the Globe and Mail as the Best Books of 2005. He and his band Short Story Long recently released a full length digital album titled Remembrance, where he tackles the sensitive topic of abuse.

He is doing such good work in the world; he speaks to all ages, especially to the young, who know he totally "gets" their painful struggles. I just love him. Here is his wonderful presentation of  "Remember How We Forgot".





For another wonderful presentation, here is a link to "When I Was a Kid", perhaps my favourite, for your enjoyment. His website is here. 


Material shared in 'I Wish I'd Written This' is presented for study and review. Poems, photos and other writings remain the property of the copyright owners, usually their authors.

The Living Dead

~ Honouring our poetic ancestors ~

There will be no Peace

By W. H.  Auden (1907-1973)

   Though mild clear weather

Smile again on the shire of your esteem

And its colours come back, the storm has changed you:

   You will not forget, ever,

The darkness blotting out hope, the gale

   Prophesying your downfall.

   You must live with your knowledge.

Way back, beyond, outside of you are others,

In moonless absences you never heard of,

   Who have certainly heard of you,

Beings of unknown number and gender:

   And they do not like you.

   What have you done to them?

Nothing? Nothing is not an answer:

You will come to believe - how can you help it? -

   That you did, you did do something;

You will find yourself wishing you could make them laugh,

   You will long for their friendship.

   There will be no peace.

Fight back, then, with such courage as you have

And every unchivalrous dodge you know of,

   Clear in your conscience on this:

Their cause, if they had one, is nothing to them now;
   They hate for hate's sake.

This week we've been looking at bullying, with Timoteo's poem on the subject featured in 'I Wish I'd Written This' and again in Susan's Midweek Motif. Here in Australia we are being visited by Canadian spoken word poet Shane Koyczan with his bullying poem which was featured in an earlier 'I Wish I'd Written This'. (The link here takes you straight to the video.) I saw him interviewed on TV, saying how wonderful he finds it that bullied children everywhere are getting in touch, telling him how much that poem has helped them.

This poem of Auden's addresses a somewhat similar situation. He's the 'you' in the poem, which was written in 1956 about the resentment some people expressed at his appointment as Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. Obviously it hurt! Yet, like those other two poems, the writing arrives at a resolution.

Wystan Hugh Auden, born and brought up in England, became an American citizen in 1946. He is considered one of the foremost poets of the 20th Century, who excelled in a variety of forms. If they know nothing else of his work, most people probably know the poem Funeral Blues which featured in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Wikipedia tells us: 'Auden published about four hundred poems, including seven long poems (two of them book-length). His poetry was encyclopaedic in scope and method, ranging in style from obscure twentieth-century modernism to the lucid traditional forms such as ballads and limericks, from doggerel through haiku and villanelles to a "Christmas Oratorio" and a baroque eclogue in Anglo-Saxon meters. The tone and content of his poems ranged from pop-song clichés to complex philosophical meditations, from the corns on his toes to atoms and stars, from contemporary crises to the evolution of society.'

Poetry Foundation says he 'exerted a major influence on the poetry of the 20th century' and that he 'was known for his extraordinary intellect and wit.'

The Academy of American Poets, of which he was a chancellor from 1954 to 1973, says he was 'generally considered the greatest English poet of the twentieth century' – but I think there are other contenders for that title (Yeats, Eliot) and it would be truer to call him one of the greatest.

As well as being a prolific poet, he was a prolific essayist and reviewer. He also collaborated in writing plays, opera libretti and documentary films. There are articles about his life and work at all the links I've quoted from. They comprise just a little of the material about him online, as you'll see if you Google. And of course there are many volumes by and about him at Amazon.

The best place to enjoy his poems online is probably YouTube. He has a wonderful reading voice!

Another thing Auden was famous for was his remarkably wrinkled, craggy face in old age, sometimes thought to be due to his heavy smoking. I found the real explanation on Samizdat Blog:

Auden had apparently been suffering since early manhood from Touraine-Solente-Gole syndrome in which the skin of the forehead, face, scalp, hands and feet becomes thick and furrowed and peripheral periostitis in the bones reduces the patient's capacity for activity.  There was no therapy for the syndrome, which does not affect either life expectancy or mental status, but which accounted for Auden's striking appearance of grave, lined melancholy. 

The condition is inherited rather than contagious, and quite rare. 

Material shared in 'I Wish I'd Written This' is presented for study and review. Poems, photos and other writings remain the property of the copyright owners, usually their authors.

I Wish I'd Written This

... and created it visually and audibly too. It's beautiful. And it's many other things, including poetry.

So, for something a little different this time, click here!

Apologies to those who've already seen this on facebook or elsewhere — but if so, you'll know it's worth sharing as widely as possible. In fact, it's a must. And wait, there's more!

The author, Canadian Shane Koyczan, has a website, a facebook fan page, and you can find more of his poems here and here. For other details about Shane, check his Wikipedia entry.

And when you're on his website, don't miss listening to the track, 'Remember How We Forgot' — top right, just under  the picture/link for the album it's from, Remembrance Year.  But be warned, once you've heard it, you'll want to buy the album. The chances are very good that, like me, you'll be going, 'I'm in love with this man!'