Thursday, February 6, 2025

Darkness and strength

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
~Howard Zinn


Happy Poetry Friday! Glad we can gather together even when things are grim.

Sharing a song by Russian songwriter and guitarist Vadim Stroykin, who did not support the war on Ukraine and "fell" from a window today during a police raid.



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I shared this poem in 2018 but had forgotten about it until I saw Diana Butler Bass post it today. Yes, Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29, perfect.



Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

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Shannon Downey's Let's Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers
This is not normal (cross stitch pattern)
When it all feels insurmountable, do something kind for someone (embroidery)

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Beyond Literacy Link has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Carol!

Not normal

Hypernormalization was a term first coined by historian Alexei Yurchak in his 2005 book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation.
In it, Yurchak described the paradox of living in the Soviet Union before its dissolution in 1991, when everyone knew the system was failing, but since no one could imagine a possible alternative to the status quo, politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society.
~Heather Wake


Hi y'all! I've been super distracted this week by all of the crimes committed by DOGE and the ridiculous "I'll turn Gaza into a resort" declaration and the terrible cabinet appointments and... We SHOULD be distracted by the dismantling of our government.

Earlier this week, I had an appointment with someone who behaved badly, to the point where I was in tears. But, after I calmed down, I wasn't really mad. She seemed like she was just generally very upset, and I get that.

Have you heard "What do you call a coup attempt that goes unpunished?" Answer: "Practice." South Korea handled their presidential crisis sooo well. Perhaps they learned from us-- after the first attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021-- what NOT to do?

Perhaps it's time we should learn from them and protest in large numbers. I saw a tweet yesterday saying that the people of America are right-wingers who are cool with what is going on. I think that is far from the case.

In the meantime, here are some comfort quilts:

Quilt, Grape Pattern, c. 1939
Cora Parker

Original Design Quilt
Carl Klewicke (1835–1913)

Silk Crazy Quilt
Mrs. Brown - Missouri History Museum


Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Just the facts

It's like Kremlin Christmas, every day now.
~Rachel Maddow


There are a lot of great protest posters out there. "No one elected Elon" is one I've seen a lot, and I like this colorful one that taps into a meme to cover the salient points:


USAID info from Samantha Power on Stephen Colbert

Monday, February 3, 2025

Protector

There's a long line of hands carryin' your name, mm
Liftin' you up, so you will be raised
~Beyoncé


Congratulations to Beyoncé on winning Album of the Year at the Grammys last night:



Thursday, January 30, 2025

Batter our cymbals

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself.
~Langston Hughes



Happy Poetry Friday! It's almost Black History Month, but any time is a good time to celebrate Black excellence. Today we have Langston Hughes and Airea D. Matthews.

To You
by Langston Hughes

To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now—
Our problem world—
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free—help me!
All you who are dreamers too,
Help me to make
Our world anew.
I reach out my dreams to you.

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excerpt of Eviction
by Airea D. Matthews
for Wislawa

If one sister is silenced into salt

without body that remembers,

then I will batter my cymbals

bearing witness for us both

with what body still remains.

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excerpt of ‘Black Ecstatic Ode’
by Airea D. Matthews

Praise to that which endures
To old doors, layers of paint
To years of storm beating solid oak
Praise to the gable roof that is a ceiling
coffered ceiling that is also a floor
Praise to open wombs and caskets
To any mother who must decide either
Praise to what shoulders weight
To brackets and load-bearing walls
beams and spindly skeletons
sacred geometry and tangents
To levees and pregnant summers
the bullet-ridden body
To coilspring and wheel

Praise, soon, to the crown and seed lowering
To both the thorny and fertile soil
Praise to the ground unfastening
To every earthworm bristle
and every seraph’s six wings
Interlocked in songdance of welcome

To the body relenting only to dust
the spirit ascending straightway to stars
Praise to all who rejoice in becoming
To all who rejoice in return

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Bookseed Studio has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Jan!

The Brave zine has been updated! We added two poems that came in late.

Sipping Grief by Betsy Kahn ("There is actually a firehose of grief at my disposal, but everybody knows you can’t drink from a firehose. So when these images float up, I just take a little sip of grief, and mourn the loss")

Poetry Temple with Sage Cohen. February 8 from 3-4:30

Kim Tschang-Yeul

It was in Paris, in fact, that [Kim Tschang-Yeul] first embarked on his monumental water drop painting titled Événement de la Nuit (1972), where a single oversized water drop hangs, its shadow projected against the dark ground; within the droplet, a reflection of the window of the artist’s studio. Ever since, for fifty years, he continued to present works featuring water droplets that would transform into his trademark.
~Adam Hencz


For Art Thursday, Kim Tschang-Yeul. More from Artland's Adam Hencz: "The water drop motif straddles the space between the real and the abstract...water’s nature of being transparent while simultaneously having substance has been interpreted as a metaphor of emptiness or peace.

The meticulous practice of producing works, the painting process, and the creative act itself served as a self-healing journey for a generation of Korean artists [the Dansaekhwa movement] that grew up in the midst of the chaos of the Korean war...Creating patterns with the act of repetition is central to the practice of these artists. "

Kim Tschang-Yeul

Kim Tschang-Yeul


Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Huddled Masses

I lift my lamp beside the golden door
Remember what I stand here for
~Shaina Taub


Shaina Taub: