trying to tanka

I set my goal to write five poems last week for the Random Acts of Poetry outing yesterday. In an earlier post, I posted "Trickster Translation," which I read on air live on the Betty Howls show at LU Radio. I read "The Divine Goodness: A Tree Called Sacred" (which I posted earlier) at Starbucks in Chapter's. I also adapted my rant against John Baird's UN speech that I posted last post, into poetic form; I'll post that later. 

The poem I read at the Farmer's Market was the shortest poem I wrote. It was very hectic at the market as we (the poetry word crew) were amongst the pumpkins, squashes, apples and other winter vegetables. The colour of these foods just draw people to them. 

Earlier in the week, I tried my hand at writing a tanka, which is an ancient Japanese form. There are five lines, each with a specific syllable length: 5 7 5 7 7.  Often, nature, the seasons, and emotions are the theme. Of course, as a novice of this form, I fell short. After I finished it, I realized I had written 5 7 5 7 5 instead. Well, modifications are part of the tanka's popularity in the West today, so I hope I can be forgiven. Next one I write, I'll try to be more faithful to tradition. 

Here's what I came up with:

Homeward

sweet smell of decay
yellow paper leaves crushing
surprise shout of red
My bike under the grapevine
I fall into hush. 

As properly I need two more syllables in that last line, here it is again with 5 7 5 7 7 form:

Homeward

sweet smell of decay
yellow paper leaves crushing
surprise shout of red
My bike under the grapevine
Headfirst I fall into hush. 

The Divine Goodness: A Tree called Sacred (part 3)

image source

Just finishing the poem I started serializing awhile back. It has another ending somewhere in my notebooks and papers, but I can't find it so I wrote a new ending.

It is best to read parts 1 and 2, to make better sense of part 3. 

The Divine Goodness:   A Tree called Sacred

part 1

part 2

Lately, however, I have become bitter.

I stand in full sun in plantations, 
not clinging to the side of mountains, 

shaded by companions, tended by careful hands.  

Barefoot, my caretakers have left for the city, seeking survival.

My canopy gone, the birds no longer visit 
they can’t sing in the chemicals sprayed on my green lungs.

I struggle to keep the velvet brown bean alive within me.  

Good morning.

I am plantation coffee.

Even though I am dressed up in inciting names,

my history erased, I get thrown down the drain.

I sit cold in the bottom of your disposable cup,

stinking like stale coffee breath.

 

doublespeak: Baird at the UN

I know I'm supposed to be spending every free moment writing poetry, but I just had to post the following excerpts from Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird's UN speech. Not only was the speech arrogant-- Canada giving a tongue-lashing to the UN for not doing its job? -- but also a prime example of the obscenity of the federal government's hypocrisy. Have they no shame? 

My comments about what he said are in blue. Maybe I'll re-write some of this in poetic form and call it "Have they no shame?" Take the doublespeak and expose it.

You cannot develop understanding by building walls between cultures.
You cannot achieve prosperity by erecting walls between economies.
And you cannot advance a people by putting walls between them and the state.

Have they no shame? What to say? Did he bring his concern about building walls to the Israeli government when he went there early in 2012? Of course not; instead, he confirmed Canada's unwavering support of Israel and its policies.

It is not enough for a society to protect its own security. As members of the global community, global security affects us all.
Or, as Nelson Mandela bluntly put it:
“Freedom would be meaningless without security in the home and in the streets.”

Have they no shame? Quoting Nelson Mandela's ideas of freedom and security--which came out of the struggle against racism and resistance against apartheid and institutional power--to argue for security defined through neo-liberal states like Canada that promote militarism, policing, and institutional centralization contained to politicians and corporations?

The late Martin Luther King Jr. once said:
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

Have they no shame? Obviously, Baird is not familiar with MLK's life's work and he has no shame to pull out a passage for his own rhetorical purposes. Obviously, Baird has never read MLK's sermon/speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence" where he speaks about the growth in America of "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism"--the very things that are the effects of the Canadian government's neo-liberal neo-conservative ideology and policies. 

Today, the most significant threat to global peace and security remains the regime in Iran.

Um, it is Israel that has 200+ nuclear warheads. Doesn't this present a significant threat to global peace and security? I think so. Go on the world stage and voice that nuclear truth.  

While Canada prizes engagement and open relations, there can be no open engagement with a regime that dishonours its word, repudiates its commitments, and threatens to perpetuate crimes against humanity.

Since 1948, Israel has repudiated the UN Resolutions that have sought to bring justice to Palestine and Israel. But because of US military support and the backing of countries like Canada, Israel has impunity to continue to ignore UN Resolutions, and, as Operation Cast Lead, shows, to perpetuate crimes against humanity with no accountability. Yet, Canada engages openly with this regime. 

The great poet Kahlil Gibran inspired us to remember that, “safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”
This is not simply a question of beliefs and values. It is a requirement for action.

OK, Mr. Baird, your government is required to safeguard the rights of Palestinians: the right of return, the right to be free from state violence, arbitrary imprisonment, and home demolitions (to name a few), the rights of Palestinians to live in Jerusalem and not be expelled, the rights of Palestinians to their land that illegal Israeli settlers are appropriating, ....the list is long of the missing rights of Palestinian people. There is "a requirement for action" on behalf of the Canadian government to speak out for these rights. It's missing. 
  

As we celebrate Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday tomorrow, let us be inspired by his words:
“You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean;
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.”

Have they no shame? Gandhi? Does Baird  even know what ahimsa means? But then again, maybe this passage is a defense of Canada's Tar Sands as Baird et al Conservative government think its environmental footprint is just a drop in the ocean. Just one black dirty oil drop.

Trickster Translation

 image source

I'm working on some poems for Random Acts of Poetry. I'm aiming for one new poem a day this week, so that I will have a pocketful by Saturday when I'll be heading out with a poetry word construction crew between 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

Our route is Calico Coffee House; the Farmer's Market; Starbucks in Chapters--oh dear, you know I boycott both Starbucks and Chapters, but, hey, I'll come up with a poem on plantation coffee with a stab at the Heseg Foundation, funded by Chapters to support the Israeli military; the P.A. Marina Waterfront; and our last stop, on air at LU Radio 102.7 FM, "Betty Howls" with host Lisa Ferris (listen in between 2 -2:30 pm).  

Trickster Translation

      for Althea

Babel.

n. The city mentioned in Scripture

where the confusion of tongues took place;

a confused mixture of sounds;

confusion;

disorder.

from the Akkadian Bāb-ilu,

gate of God

God

is not a gender.

God is not a he

not a him

not a father

or The Father.

God is not a masculine pronoun

a male object

male subject

or proper noun.

God is not a personification

an anthropomorphism

a construction of our English language

limited imagination.

God is not a metaphor

metonymy

an allusion

or allegory.

God is not a word

or The Word.

God is not Logos.

God is not logic,

nor logical.

In our delusion to make sense

of this amazing terrible world

we have made of God

a patriarch

a patriarchal institution.

How illogical.

What a bunch of Babel.

Finnish Labour Temple dressing room

An old black and white photo of actors prepping in the dressing room in the Finnish Labour Temple in Port Arthur, Ontario. The hall is now called the Finlandia Club and the city is now called Thunder Bay. I found this photo attached to a story about Childhood Memories (written by anonymous). As I was recently in the dressing room with the other members of the Northern Flikat drama troupe, getting ready for our play "The Old Woman and the Barefoot Maiden," I found this photo an interesting reflection on what the backstage dressing room used to look like.

The room is still there, except it is used as a board meeting room. Rather than this quaint round table with mirrors, there is a standard board room table, long and rectangular. That wooden cabinet in the corner is not there; there is a steel filing cabinet instead. The wooden closet doors running along the back of the room (seen in the right of the photo) are still there, full of junk.

I did not take a photo while we were scurrying around in the dressing room before our play, but here's a photo I found on the Finlandia Neighbourhood site, taken by TML:

photo 2009Copyright@TML