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Hi folks! Happy National Poetry Month!

I generally have a plan for National Poetry Month (last year I wrote poems inspired by short stories), but this year I'm still not sure what I'm doing. I've decided to give myself a break and I'm going to wait until next week to figure it out.

Yesterday, I was trying to accomplish two things that after hours and hours still were not working. One of them was related to my new blog. (I'm trying to move this blog to Wordpress.) I think this will be the last post I put here, other than one that tells you where to go instead. The other thing was related to a birthday.

So that was really frustrating, but in the background, I could see Cory Booker uplifting us with a feat of strength. Physical, intellectual, and moral strength. After being disappointed by so many people and their incompetence, cowardice, and cruelty, it was like a balm for the spirit. Thank you, Cory Booker.

I'm still trying to make this blog migration happen (and birthday event!) and then I'll be back with deets.

Hugs to all!
T.

P.S. I didn't realize I missed this song until I heard it today: Typical by Mutemath. The video is worth a watch, too. (They learned how to do things backward, like sing, in order to film it.)

There's a whole lot of rhythm going 'round

We need the funk,
Gotta have that funk
~Parliament

James Brown, Germany, 1973

For Music Monday, old skool funk R&B from DJ Demetrius:



For something more serious:

Twenty Lessons (from On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder), read by John Lithgow

If you can't fly, then run

And I noticed my new best friend—
by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag,
some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradi-
tion. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
~Naomi Shihab Nye

Happy Poetry Friday! Are you ready for National Poetry Month? I'm not, but I hope to get my act together soon. I'll be away next Friday but I'll schedule something. Today, we have a poem that is based on a true story about children striving to become Olympians.

The Ditch Kids of the Maui Sugar Company
by Derek Otsuji

Barred from swimming pools the hot summer long
but loving the delicious cold on our skins,
we dove in ditches dug to irrigate
the same fields where our fathers slogged, under
the supervising eye of a white sun winking
on the blades of their machetes. Of course
there were barbed fences to keep us from ditches,
just as there were codes that banned us from pools
sealed behind an elite sports club’s gleaming
walls, a taboo, like a shiny thing, asking
to be smashed.
Released from sluice gates,
the sloshing water, brown as our arms,
ran down the channels, as we dipped and stroked,
like salmon driven upstream, the russeting
current sliding off flexed shoulder blades
in silted robes as we reached speeds that broke
all barriers and in our homegrown upstart way,
always the outside chance, the dark horse’s surge,
we sugar ditch kids, turning laps like verses
of an olympian ode, plowed that narrow lane
to victory and were crowned aquatic kings.

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* The title of the post comes from a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” I thought that was appropriate since the "ditch kids" found a way to keep swimming, and we all need to figure out our own ways to move forward.

* Fighting Back: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance Ordinary people have more power than they know.

* National Bail Fund Network

* Poetry as a path to recovery for children in Ukraine



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Marcie Flinchum Atkins has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Marcie!

Terra Mariana

Creating a new country from scratch has given Estonia the license to imagine what a country could be.
~Taavet Hinrikus

Having a peaceful Art Thursday with photos of Estonia:

Võipere village
Iifar

Letipea peninsula
Kalev Vask

Noctilucent clouds, Kuresoo bog, Soomaa National Park
Martin Koitmäe

Ruhnu church from 1643–44
Metsavend

Osmussaar
Tõnis Saadre

Heroic

I don't know how it is, but the Germans are amazed at me and I am amazed at them for finding anything to be amazed about.
~Frederic Chopin

Happy Music Monday! Heroic Polonaise (1842) by Frédéric Chopin today, performed by the Berlin Pro Musica Symphony Orchestra.

Flag of the November Uprising that carried the motto
"For our freedom and yours"

Info about the piece from 10 Pieces of Classical Music About Freedom by Emily E. Hogstad:

No sooner had [Polish composer Chopin] left for Vienna... than Warsaw broke out into armed conflict.

The November Uprising in Warsaw lasted from November 1830 until October 1831...

The Poles fought their occupiers, the Russians, but were ultimately crushed.

Chopin was devastated when he heard about the outcome. He wrote in his journal, “Oh God! … You are there, and yet you do not take vengeance!”

...He began incorporating polonaises – a dance form that originated in Poland – into his piano music.

He also began dating Paris-based authoress George Sand, who backed the Polish cause in her writings. After he wrote the Heroic Polonaise, she drew a direct line between the Polonaise and other countries’ fights for freedom and self-determination, writing, “The inspiration! The force! The vigour! There is no doubt that such a spirit must be present in the [1848] French Revolution. From now on, this Polonaise should be a symbol, a heroic symbol.”

A reminder

Unveiling of the
Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World (1886)
by Edward Moran

French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann responding to the White House press secretary’s attack after Glucksmann suggested France should reclaim the Statue of Liberty:

“Dear Americans, since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this:

Our two peoples are intimately linked by history, by the blood we shed, and by our shared passion for freedom—symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, which France gifted to honor your glorious Revolution.

As the press secretary for this shameful administration said: without your nation, France would have ‘spoken German.’ In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if Americans hadn’t landed on our beaches in Normandy.

Our gratitude to these heroes and their sacrifices is eternal. But the America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin.

It helped the resistance, not attacked Zelensky. It celebrated science, not fired researchers for using banned words. It welcomed the persecuted, not targeted them. It was far—so far—from what your current president does, says, and embodies.

This America—faithful to the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, your America—is worth so much more than betrayal. More than the abandonment of Ukraine and Europe. More than xenophobia and obscurantism.

We in Europe love this nation to which we owe so much. And we know it will rise again. You will rise again. We are counting on you.

And that is why I said in a rally: if your government despises everything the Statue of Liberty symbolizes, we could symbolically reclaim it. It was a wake-up call.

No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty. The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to all of us. And if your government no longer cares for the free world, we will take up the torch here in Europe.

Until we meet again in the fight for freedom and dignity, we will be the continuators of our shared history and the protectors of our greatest treasure: not copper and steel, but the freedom it represents.”

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A poem I wrote last year:

FIRST, THE ARM WITH THE TORCH WAS BUILT

In 1865 when the Union held,
in his mind's eye
Edouard de Laboulaye
spotted the light of a beacon
in the hand of a woman
all the way from France

what greater gift
what better friend
than one who calls forth
the truest self
again and again?  

Calling all dragon-slayers

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
~J. R. R. Tolkien

Confront the dragon by David Revoy

Happy Poetry Friday!



This Is An Incitement
by Chris Riddell

Don’t settle into inertia
As the ash falls on your head and shoulders,
Soft and ankle deep at your feet

Take up your pens and brushes
And make Art.

The ancient dragon of greed
Coiled tight around their hoards
Don’t understand Art.
But the snake oil minions
Who whisper in their ears as they sleep,
They fear it.

Art can capture the souls
They bought and paid for.
If you want to slay dragons,
Make Art.

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Imagine the Possibilities has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Rose!

A housekeeping note: I'm moving my blog to Wordpress! (I've been partially de-Googlifying myself for various reasons...The last straw was removing Black History Month from their calendar. What a bunch of cowards) My new blog is quirky because I can't figure out how some things work, but it should be okay by next Friday.

P.S. Support for US International Media Workers
P.P.S. Creative Protests popping up everywhere
P.P.P.S. Wired: How to Avoid U.S.-Based Digital Services and why you might want to

Free art classes

When I learn something new - and it happens every day - I feel a little more at home in this universe, a little more comfortable in the nest.
~Bill Moyers

Happy Art Thursday! Today I thought I'd point out some art classes/videos. Free online classes abound!

Drawing I made last week, not in a class

Links:
* Healing with the Arts, a University of Florida class through Coursera
* Princeton Art Museum has online drawing classes for all ages
* How to draw anything --learn sketching for beginners in 7 steps with Julia Bausenhardt
* Control+ Paint free video library has series on Digital Painting, Traditional Drawing, Composition Basics, and Using Reference Materials.
* Techniques for Illustrators: Monoprinting at Home by Leeds Arts University (Seems good for people who aren't illustrators, too! I am going to give it a shot.)
* Gothic Calligraphy Tutorial

Our fine land in the possession of thieves

There's a long tradition of Irish protest songs. There are literally thousands of songs, and they all were on the theme of resisting injustice.
~Mick Moloney

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody!

Below is a song written by an Englishman in support of the Irish and an Irish song for two English children. People reaching across a divide to one another. Plus a "rebel song" (which the post title comes from).

Kate Beaudoin:

In 1981, English band the Police released this song, a tribute to the Irish. Lead singer Sting wrote the song while he was living in Ireland, when there were hunger strikes in Belfast. During the strikes, Irish Republican Army leader Bobby Sands died of starvation in a British prison. "I wanted to write about that, but I wanted to show some light at the end of the tunnel," Sting told Revolver. "I do think there has to be an 'invisible sun.' You can't always see it, but there has to be something radiating light into our lives."

The Cranberries with Zombie:



Óró, sé do bheatha abhaile (or Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaile) is a traditional Irish song that came to be known as a rebel song in the early twentieth century. Óró is a cheer, whilst sé do bheatha 'bhaile means "you are welcome home". (Wikipedia)

Smooth

Listen to my feet and I will tell you the story of my life.
~John Bubbles

Happy Poetry Friday! My first poetic impulse was...dark, but I searched until I found my second third fourth impulse, haha, and so here we are with a poem by Glenis Redmond about Peg Leg Bates.

I’m Fly
Glenis Redmond
For Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates

Some people got two good feet
and still don’t know what to do.
My smoothness makes the argument
for just one. My other leg be long gone
sacrificed to the cotton gin god.

They pinned my mangled mess down
to the kitchen table. Made me suffer more
under the hand of an unsterilized knife
with only a cotton bit to bare the pain.

I got up and spit out that terrible taste
of Jim Crow and pity. Spun my mama’s guilt
and worry into a dance that twists past
the neighbors’ prayer, gossip and stares...

read the rest here




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Salt City Verse has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Janice!

Want another helping of joy? I love this and these folks.

Peeking out

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it.
~Douglas Hyde

For Art Thursday, the urban art of Lithuanian and Polish painter Linas Domarack, photos by Kontrola:

Groove

Go-go is so drum and Congo based. It's almost like music from Africa.
~Goldlink

Happy Music Monday!

We warmed up with markers before we went outside with the paint

I had fun at a graffiti workshop for my birthday. We talked about go-go music there, and I mentioned it to a friend who told me this is her favorite go-go mix. And here we are!

Courage is contagious

I know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate.
~Vladimir Kara-Murza

Pussy Riot by Denis Bochkarev

For International Women's Day, a TED talk by Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of the anti-Putin resistance group Pussy Riot:

Worth fighting for

Two things form the bedrock of any open society—freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don't have those things, you don't have a free country.
~Salman Rushdie

Happy Poetry Friday! Black poets with poems for our times today. We have community support from Bianca Lynne Spriggs, encouragement from Amanda Gorman, resilience/defiance from Lucille Clifton, the value of education from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and a reality check from Gwendolyn Brooks.

Sisters, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Some days I just can't look away from the news. It's like someone I love is ill and I am keeping a bedside vigil. But it's rough, and I definitely need to find a healthy balance.* Today I've had a deep dive into poetry and that has been refreshing, no matter the topic.

It doesn't take very much attention to notice that a man who says "let's celebrate pediatric cancer survivors" while cancelling funding for pediatric cancer research is not a truthteller. His supporters believe him anyway. Here's Gwendolyn Brooks with "truth":

truth
by Gwendolyn Brooks

And if sun comes
How shall we greet him?
Shall we not dread him,
Shall we not fear him
After so lengthy a
Session with shade?

Though we have wept for him,
Though we have prayed
All through the night-years—
What if we wake one shimmering morning to
Hear the fierce hammering
Of his firm knuckles
Hard on the door?

Shall we not shudder?—
Shall we not flee
Into the shelter, the dear thick shelter
Of the familiar
Propitious haze?

Sweet is it, sweet is it
To sleep in the coolness
Of snug unawareness.

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Earthrise
by Amanda Gorman

For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core,
To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

read the rest here

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won’t you celebrate with me
by Lucille Clifton

my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

read the rest here

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Learning to Read
by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Very soon the Yankee teachers
Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,—
It was agin’ their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge did’nt agree with slavery—
’Twould make us all too wise.

But some of us would try to steal
A little from the book.

read the rest here

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To the woman I saw today who wept in her car
by Bianca Lynne Spriggs

Woman,
I know you.
I know how that thing
when left unattended
will show up as a typhoon
at your front door
demanding to be let in
or it will take
the whole damn house with it.

I know this place too.
I get it.

read the rest here

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* If you like Key and Peele, these make me laugh. (I know LaShawn is a lot, but I was the sort of person to have themed days when my kids were growing up, haha!)

Reflections on the Teche has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Margaret!

Saorsa

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
~Sydney J. Harris

I started knitting last November, not long after the election. I am not expecting to be "good" at it-- I just like to do it because it calms me down. The other day, as I was picking up my "therapy scarf," a video popped up about AOC knitting. [Some people thought she shouldn't be knitting (???) and another person was coming to her defense.]

The name of this post means "Freedom" in Gaidhlig (Scottish Gaelic). Freedom to relax how you want, freedom to think outside the lines.

For Art Thursday, nontraditional knitting:

Social Knitwork
Friedenauer Brücke, Berlin-Schöneberg, Deutschland

Home-knitted protective cover for old tractor
by Beiarn Handicraft Society, Beiarn, Nordland, Norway.
photo by Frankemann

Ik en mijn Brei Art bike Boelenslaan
Baykedevries

Knitted egg cozies in blue and yellow demonstrate for peace in Ukraine
Haeferl

The Swabian Alb as seen across the Wurmlingen Chappel and the Rammert
Heidrun Liegmann (Knitter)
Rainer Halama

Knitted graffiti in Kiryat Hamelacha
by Liza Mamali
photo by Nizzan Cohen

Ain't gonna play

It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.
~Nelson Mandela

Apartheid has been coming up more lately because of the influence in our government of a white man from South Africa who grew up under the apartheid system. How was he influenced by apartheid? I don't know, did it give him the urge to remove all mentions of Black people from everything?

Here's a catchy song from the '80s with a truly impressive bunch of folks in it. Pat Benatar! Darlene Love! Miles Davis! See who you spot. (There's a list below.)




"In 1985, Steven Van Zandt, along with Arthur Baker, Hart Perry, and Danny Schechter, formed Artists United Against Apartheid and Van Zandt would write “Sun City,” an anthemic Rock/Hip Hop/R&B song protesting the Apartheid system symbolized by the South African resort, Sun City. Over 50 artists including Gil Scott-Heron, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Grandmaster Melle Mel, George Clinton, Run DMC, Jimmy Cliff, Ruben Blades, Pat Benatar, Herbie Hancock, Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof, Clarence Clemons, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Darlene Love, Bobby Womack, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys, Jackson Browne, Peter Wolf, Bonnie Raitt, Hall & Oates, Big Youth, Michael Monroe, Stiv Bators, Peter Garrett, Ron Carter, Ray Barretto, Nona Hendryx, and Miles Davis."

The green fuse

The landscape looks different from every blade of grass.
~Marty Rubin

Happy Poetry Friday! Today I have a poem I read on Grateful Living.

photo by Nicholas A. Tonelli

Belonging
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

And if it’s true we are alone,
we are alone together,
the way blades of grass
are alone, but exist as a field.
Sometimes I feel it,
the green fuse that ignites us,
the wild thrum that unites us,
an inner hum that reminds us
of our shared humanity.
Just as thirty-five trillion
red blood cells join in one body
to become one blood.
Just as one hundred thirty-six thousand
notes make up one symphony.
Alone as we are, our small voices
weave into the one big conversation.
Our actions are essential
to the one infinite story of what it is
to be alive. When we feel alone,
we belong to the grand communion
of those who sometimes feel alone—
we are the dust, the dust that hopes,
a rising of dust, a thrill of dust,
the dust that dances in the light
with all other dust, the dust
that makes the world.

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I'm guessing everyone has heard about the economic boycott tomorrow (Friday)? I'm looking forward to not spending any money.

Dare to Care has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Denise!

P.S. How appalling is it to be allied with Russia? Utterly.

Chess knights

The game is so full of events, there is such a variety of turns in it, the fortune of it is so subject to sudden vicissitudes, and one so frequently, after long contemplation, discovers the means of extricating one's self from a supposed insurmountable difficulty, that one is encouraged to continue the contest to the last, in hopes of victory by our own skill, or, at least, of giving a stalemate, by the negligence of our adversary.
~Benjamin Franklin

For Art Thursday, chess knights. I grew up thinking of them as the horses, but I also like these pieces which include the rider:

The Lewis Chessmen, probably made in Norway, about AD 1150-1200
Found on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
photo by Rob Roy

Chess Figure, 12th to 16th century
photo by Andreas Praefcke

Chess piece, Netherlandish

My heart's a drummer

It's funny...as I get older, I'm reverting to my roots. I want to plant stuff.
~Melissa McCarthy

Before we have songs for Music Monday, does anybody need emotional care?
Plant Care for Emotional Care: Grounding Techniques for Anxiety Using the Garden from Garden Therapy

Eva Noblezada's voice!



For a more serious song, here are two versions of a catchy anti-Nazi tune from Chumbawamba: an a cappella cover and Chumbawamba live.

Do you hear the people sing, for Ukraine

Visual Communication

Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing.
~Banksy

Graffiti is permitted in the Leake St Tunnel, London.
Photo by Dmitry Djouce

Happy Poetry Friday! I've got two poems for you today. The first one is mine and has a side story. I'm doing a Coursera poetry class with Denise (called Sharpened Visions) and one of the prompts was to take the rhymes from someone else's poem and use them in the same order. I picked Longfellow's The Arrow and the Song.

At first I had trouble coming up with a poem because his was stuck in my head. I had to think of a very different topic to send me off in another direction. I picked graffiti, which must have come to mind because I am going to be making graffiti for my birthday in a couple of weeks. (Although this is a lawless age, mine will be law-abiding, never fear.)

Rap it, as best you can:

GRAFFITI

Spray paint shakes, shoots through the air--
A word from a can freed to go where
It lands on a wall and gives in-sight--
Not every wall catches words in-flight.

Go outside, breathe unplugged air--
What you seek finds you out there.
Start out weak and wrap up strong,
Listen up hard for a skeleton song--

That's all you need to sprout a mighty oak--
The bones, the seeds, your acorn unbroke.
It's not like the end is even the end--
The painted-over wall is still your friend.

***********

Our second poem is by Sophia Thakur:



Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Laura!

Holodomor

At that time the punishment for a stolen handful of grain was 5 years of prison. One was not allowed to go into the fields, the sparrows were pecking grain, though people were not allowed.
~Olexandra Rafalska

It's Art Thursday! I started out just wanting to share "Overthrow of Autocracy" by Ukrainian artist Petro Martyniuk. It is circa 1930, so, when I couldn't find out more about the artist, I looked up the time period.

There was a famine in Ukraine (and the greater Soviet Union) during the years 1932-33, which was a Soviet-made disaster. "Holodomor" means "Murder by Starvation."

We Americans often don't know very much about world history (or even our own history), which puts us at a disadvantage when we are trying to understand contemporary events. You don't have to know about the Holodomor to understand why Ukraine would not want to lose its sovereignty to Russia, but learning about it casts light on their fierce determination.

Overthrow of Autocracy
by Petro Martyniuk

Holodomor plaque in Los Angeles

Holodomor Remembrance Day

Uplifting

This is a chance
To dance your way
Out of your constrictions
~Funkadelic

For Music Monday, two songs. First, "One Nation Under a Groove" by George Clinton Jr., Walter Morrison and Garry Shider, performed by The Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences Choir ft. King Bethel and Anaiya Hall:



Next, a cover of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" performed by Little Big Town:

Smarty Plants

Along with a home-inspection duo, a science writer, and some enterprising scientists at Princeton University, we dig into the work of evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano, who turns our brain-centered worldview on its head through a series of clever experiments that show plants doing things we never would've imagined.
~Radiolab

Cacao by Monica Gagliano

Want to be fascinated?
I heard this podcast on a drive today and loved it: Smarty Plants

The howlin' old owl in the woods

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.
~John F. Kennedy

Happy Poetry Friday!

I'm going to miss the Kennedy Center! It was a cool place when it was led by someone who loves the arts. I enjoyed seeing Phantom of the Opera, The National Symphony Orchestra, the Chieftains, The Lion King, The King & I, and more.

I didn't see the song below in person, but isn't it stunning?



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I don't know how long this will be available, but currently you can download a Poem Forest Toolkit from The Kennedy Center. They say "Poem Forest is an eco-poetry project that invites students, teachers, and communities to become environmental advocates through connecting with local ecology and the creative power of poetry."

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A poem by IN-Q, who will be at the Kennedy Center on March 16th.

When I think of superheroes I think of super humans.
I think of Superman, Wolverine and Wonder Woman.
Usually they have a cape, or a mask to hide their face just in case.
They have X-ray vision and super-human strength.
Some can even breathe in outer space.
They fly around a while, but always come back to keep our cities safe.
They’re here to save humanity from itself.
It’s a metaphor for how we look outside ourselves for help, and while the fantasies are fun, I choose to look for me and you.

read the rest here

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Free Lit Mag, in case you want to put it in a Little Free Library near you.

Free meditation resource: Tara Brach's "How to Meditate"

TeacherDance has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Linda!

P.S. Let me give a shout out to some recent things I've gotten from Etsy: a beautiful phone case from this Ukrainian store, Emily Dickinson pencils, and a "word of the year" mini banner.

P.P.S. I heard the insurrectionist prison choir has been invited to come sing at the Kennedy Center...To quote Liz Cheney: "There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."

The Cone of Montmorency

We of the United States of America consider ourselves blessed. We have much to give thanks for. But the gift of providence that we really cherish is that we were given as our neighbors on this great, wonderful continent, the people and the nation of Canada.
~Lyndon B. Johnson

Sending love to our neighbors to the north during Art Thursday. I haven't seen it in person, but doesn't Canada's Montmorency Falls in winter (in the 1800s) look fun? I'm also including one from a warmer season because it looks pretty then too.

The Cone of Montmorency, as it appeared in 1829
James Pattison Cockburn

Montmorency Falls in Winter
French-Canadian artist Joseph Légaré, 1850

The Ice Cone, Montmorency Falls, Québec, 1866
Robert Clow Todd

Montmorenci Falls, seen from close by
Coloured engraving by G.K. Richardson, 1840, after W.H. Bartlett

Waking up singing

I'm walking and talking with my mind
stayed on freedom
~Reverend Robert Wesby

So, I got a comment on my last post that was just the word "die!" written three hundred times. Hmm...was it something I said? I didn't expect to hear from the pro-defenestration contingent, but am I like, "Malevolent stranger, what would YOU like for me to say?" Umm, no.

The dust might have to settle before we find out if this is still the land of the free, but at least it can still be the home of the brave.

There aren't too many photos of groups where everyone in it looks good, but this is an exception. "Woke Up This Morning" with The Freedom Singers:

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.

photo of Glockenbaum sculpture by Symposiarch

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.

*********************

by Shannon Downey

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!