#politcal poetry

[theevenusianwitch]

how can i write when there is nothing but war in me and around me. how can i write ?how can i live? how can i breathe?… when people like me die as i type… how can i write cause when i look away i’m one legal step closer back to chattel slavery. how can i write when i know soon i cant marry the person i love? how can i write while people who look like me starve ? starving cause of the government. white lies listen to our cries and laugh with closed hearts and open palms. their palms open to push us out. they stole us. they stole the land. they stole us. sold us. beat us. ate us. used our bodies to make their antiques. they are still selling our bones and buying our brains. raped us. caused so much division in us. worked us to death and they still fucking do. how can i write when i cant even feel my legs at work. how can i write when i work until my body makes me rest? how can i write when i watch a baby missing half its brain shake in someone’s arms? how can i breathe? how can i laugh? how do i write when my people die for me to have convenience? i hate that my life is made off someone else’s suffering no matter what i do to reduce that. i’m just a being who feels so heavy. guilty american from the 14th but blacker than the Nyx in my soul. maybe i should befriend Eris to learn how to let my anger be. how do i remember how to feel happy without being under some influence? how do i find joy in so much anguish? my joy is a protest and a act of resistance and i’ve resisted so much all my life. i’m tired. we are so tired. too much snow where it shouldn’t be but oh look how pretty. snow on the bayou, it should really fucking worry you.

how can i? -mars

[oneandocey]

Apocalyptic silence

It didn't take long for the world to go quiet,

The first few days were loud sure,

A cacophony of bullets and bombs shaking the earth,

Screams and cries like an echo to the violence,

But once the first week had come and gone,

The rhythm of war slowed to a walz,

The humm of the AC drowning out the occasional plea,

I never thought the world could fall silent,

But when it feels like your voice doesn't matter,

Silence comes easy.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 20, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 21, 2024

At Chicago’s United Center today, the delegates at the Democratic National Convention reaffirmed last week’s online nomination of Kamala Harris for president. The ceremonial roll-call vote featured all the usual good natured boasting from the delegates about their own state’s virtues, a process that reinforces the incredible diversity and history of both this land and its people. The managers reserved the final slots for Minnesota and California—the home states of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, respectively—to put the ticket over the top. 

When the votes had been counted, Harris joined the crowd virtually from a rally she and Walz were holding at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Last month the Republicans held their own national convention in that venue, and for Harris to accept her nomination in the same place was an acknowledgement of how important Wisconsin will be in this election. But it also meant that Trump, who is obsessed with crowd sizes, would have to see not one but two packed sports arenas of supporters cheer wildly for her nomination. 

He also had to contend with former loyalists and supporters joining the Democratic convention. His former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told the Democratic convention tonight that when the cameras are off, “Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers.” Grisham endorsed Harris, saying: “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.”

Trump spoke glumly to a small crowd today at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in Howell, Michigan. 

It was almost exactly twenty years ago, on July 27, 2004, that 43-year-old Illinois state senator Barack Obama, who was, at the time, running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, gave the keynote address to that year’s Democratic National Convention. It was the speech that began his rise to the presidency.

Like the Democrats who spoke last night, Obama talked in 2004 of his childhood and recalled how his parents had “faith in the possibilities of this nation.” And like Biden last night, Obama said that “in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.” The nation’s promise, he said, came from the human equality promised in the Declaration of Independence.

“That is the true genius of America,” Obama said, “a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles.” He called for an America “where hard work is rewarded.” “[I]t's not enough for just some of us to prosper,” he said, “[f]or alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga.”

He described that ingredient as “[a]belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief—I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper—that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. ‘E pluribus unum.’ Out of many, one.”

Obama emphasized Americans’ shared values and pushed back against “those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.” He reached back into history to prove that “the bedrock of this nation” is “the belief that there are better days ahead.” He called that belief “[t]he audacity of hope.”

Almost exactly twenty years after his 2004 speech, the same man, now a former president who served for eight years, spoke at tonight’s Democratic National Convention. But the past two decades have challenged his vision.

When voters put Obama into the White House in 2008, Republicans set out to make sure they couldn’t govern. Mitch McConnell (R–KY) became Senate minority leader in 2007 and, using the filibuster, stopped most Democratic measures by requiring 60 votes to move anything to a vote. 

In 2010 the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, declaring that corporations and other outside groups could spend as much money as they wanted on elections. Citizens United increased Republican seats in legislative bodies, and in the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans packed state legislatures with their own candidates in time to be in charge of redistricting their states after the 2010 census.  Republicans controlled the key states of Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as other, smaller states, and after the election, they used precise computer models to win previously Democratic House seats.

In the 2012 election, Democrats won the White House decisively, the Senate easily, and a majority of 1.4 million votes for House candidates. Yet Republicans came away with a thirty-three-seat majority in the House of Representatives. And then, with the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, making it harder to protect Democratic voters.

As the Republicans skewed the mechanics of government to favor themselves, their candidates no longer had to worry they would lose general elections but did have to worry about losing primaries to more extreme challengers. So they swung farther and farther to the right, demonizing the Democrats until finally those who remain Republicans have given up on democracy altogether. 

Tonight’s speech echoed that of 2004 by saying that America’s “central story” is that “we are all created equal,” and describing Harris and Walz as hardworking people who would use the government to create a fair system. He sounded more concerned today than in 2004 about political divisions, and reminded the crowd: “The vast majority of us do not want to live in a country that’s bitter and divided,” he said. “We want something better. We want to be better. And the joy and the excitement that we’re seeing around this campaign tells us we’re not alone,” he said. 

And then, in his praise for his grandmother, “a little old white lady born in a tiny town called Peru, Kansas,” and his mother-in-law, Marion Robinson, a Black woman from the South Side of Chicago, he brought a new emphasis on ordinary Americans, especially women, who work hard, sacrifice for their children, and value honesty, integrity, kindness, helping others, and hard work. 

They wanted their children to “do things and go places that they would’ve never imagined for themselves.” “Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or somewhere in between,” he said, “we have all had people like that in our lives:... good hardworking people who weren’t famous or powerful but who managed in countless ways to leave this country just a little bit better than they found it.” 

If President Obama emphasized tonight that the nation depends on the good will of ordinary people, it was his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, who spoke with the voice of those people and made it clear that only the American people can preserve democracy.  

In a truly extraordinary speech, perfectly delivered, Mrs. Obama described her mother as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. “She was glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation,” Mrs. Obama said, “the belief that if you do unto others, if you love thy neighbor, if you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off. If not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren.”

Unlike her husband, though, Mrs. Obama called out Trump and his allies, who are trying to destroy that worldview. “No one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American,” she said. “No one.” “[M]ost of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” she said. “We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business…or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don't go our way, we don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead…we don't get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No, we put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something."

And then Mrs. Obama took up the mantle of her mother, warning that demonizing others and taking away their rights, “only makes us small.” It “demeans and cheapens our politics. It only serves to further discourage good, big-hearted people from wanting to get involved at all. America, our parents taught us better than that.” 

It is “up to us to be the solution that we seek.” she said. She urged people to “be the antidote to the darkness and division.” “[W]hether you’re Democrat, Republican, Independent, or none of the above,” she said, “this is our time to stand up for what we know. In our hearts is right. Not just for our basic freedoms, but for decency and humanity, for basic respect. Dignity and empathy. For the values at the very foundation of this democracy.”

“Don’t just sit around and complain. Do something.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[kaithixn]

Independence Day.

I find it harder and harder to justify celebrating this holiday.. I truly do want to feel pride for my country. Just as I truly respect and love the people that live within it. But as I watch the paper starting to tear and the flags start to unfurl all I can think of is the golden calf as it continues to burrow into our roots and the rest of its herd pave the way of a new throne.

The exact throne that we had all fought to never have again. As the past continues to reflect. Humanity never seems to learn. The sky roars in its pain and crys for our sake. Despite this we will live on. For the mind is ever free to ponder and dream.

My heart still clutched with hope even if I am met with rope. The gods of the skys and stars don't mourn. That much I have sworn. Whatever comes to pass, I only seek peace for us all.

| 7 - 4 - 2024 |

[dremilioastutoworld]

É. Rocha /World Samba Bossa Muses / Greta Thunberg: Climate Justice Now!...

[omanxl1]

Rare Earth - Feelin' Alright (Album Version)

Digital Crate Digging Continues as we proceed and continue with either some Afternoon Jazz or setting off this O-Dog Day Party! This is our Music Monday edition, getting breakbeat scientific is how we’re living while out here out in our remote outpost out off of I-20 in Atlanta but in the heart of the metro area is where you’ll find me… …after I blast off from our remote outpost out off of I-20…

[findteenpenpals]

My name is Sierra or Rea, I am 16 from Indiana USA. I would love to exchange letters with someone! My interests are reading, my favorite book at the moment is In Other Lands! I like bees and am politcally active in my community. I crochet and write fiction and poetry. I watch all kinds of movies and shows, I cosplayed as Inej from Shadow and Bone for Halloween! I have access to national and international postage.

wolfiaddress@ gmail.com

[ak-europe]

Blog #13/January 16

Today we took a look at some of the great structures created by Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi is known for is unqiue and newer type of architecture when it came to his creations and there are three factors that help us understand how something as unqiue as his work occured in Catalonia and during the 1900s.

The first factor we talked about was the architectural style of the "Art Nouveau" which is basically natured styled architecture. We saw a lot of this type of architecture presented through his usage of vibrant colors and unqiue curvature of his structures. We also saw glimpes of other architectural styles like gothic and neo gothic Gaudi used towards the end of his life like he used in the La Sagrada Familia through his use of geometry and combination of modern and traditional architectural elements.

The second factor we talked about had to do with politcal economy. We talked about how Barcelona was a port city and just like Nice had a mixture of cultural elements that would bring new innovations to architecture as well. We talked about how the textile industry became huge and brought wealth to Spain helping them fund these types of new mixed culture modern projects.

The last factor we talked about was national identity and culture. Meaning Gaudi not only took in nee cultures in his work but he wanted to rembrace the Catalonian culture as well gathering his ideas from books, art, and poetry from the Catalonian Renaissance. He used Catalonian art styles like stain glass and iron usage like we see used in the La Sagrada Familia.

[starrypawz]

'Keep politics out of music'

'Keep politics out of poetry'

'Keep politics out of tv'

'Keep politics out of film'

'Keep politics out of writing'

'Keep politcs out of art'

Ok then you're gonna lose like.... 90 percent of all art ever created just saying

[anthr--apology]

May 29th Journal

May 29th began with introductions and the question of ‘why are we here? why this? why now?’. Through separate responses, we all found similar reasons as to why we came to this project, including seeking connections, taking risks and finding outlets for frustrations and anxieties. This discussion also brought about more questions, such as ‘how is this work going to land?’ and ‘where are the roots of human tradition?’. Because this project is so pliable in its current form, it is important for all of us to allow ourselves to have an open mind, to explore and ultimately to fail. After all, this is an impossible project - it will never be complete.

We spoke about the audiences perspective on this production, and how to ensure that this process does not end for the audience either. Discussions on entrances and exits occurred - particularly on how an exit (or an ending) can perhaps become an entrance (or a beginning) into a new state of being. This can look like the audience exiting or entering in movement - Pina Bausch was referenced for this example - or perhaps a ‘clocking in’ with a time card at the end of the performance, as a suggestion to the audience that their role has only just begun. Starting points look very different for everyone and seem to be just as pliable as this project.

AI machine learning and ChatGPT was the subject of our next conversation. We spoke about the creative potential of AI and the fabulously absurd glitches that can be created though the use of ChatGPT. This connected with some of the physical explorations done with the text - discussing surrealist stories, painting without paint but instead with body and senses, and some explorations of shyness and the importance of silence. The concept of the importance of the written word was brought up - the idea that writing was once something that only a few people knew how to do and was deeply treasured, but is now something that is now taken for granted and is no longer considered to be special. Particularly in relation to the development of ChatGPT, where a single prompt can now generate a few hundred words of text. Writing this post, in relation to this discussion, does feel a bit ironic - I think there’s some poetry there somewhere…

We ended the day with a discussion of connecting existing protest/advocacy work as well as the question of what constitutes ethical engagement, in relation to Andreas Malm’s ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’. We spoke about how to facilitate engagement with the Anthr-Apology text on a deeper level - perhaps making its way into different locations, times, and spaces. This lead to the question of ‘how does a celebration of the fictional not depart from the politcal/social lessons of people telling their own stories?’ as well as the safety that comes with a person talking about their own experience(s).

[andromerot]

whys it always funny phrases and quirky words neatly translated into english for quick consumption and very rarely language learning resources or history or linguistic politcs and never fragments of literature of poetry on here. is the french tag like that?

personally i found adventures in yiddishland postvernacular language and culture by jeffrey shandler a bit lukewarm (despite making some really good points and providing some useful information) but anyway sometimes i see posts on here that make me go oh okay everyone should read adventures in yiddishland postvernacular language and culture by jeffrey shandler

[sub-verse-ive-poetry]

ever vigilant

ever strong the hands-

protection by prodding fingers,

clenched fists and the constant

wailing of all the institutions broken

by their iron grips.

cold and distant the eyes-

ever vigilant,

always looking around corners

for the opportunity

in a world

that can't help but look away

when they finally

find their mark.

strong and silent,

these black and blue guardians

are held aloft

by the countless puritans

who have never felt

the endless sting

of their own righteousness,

never forced to pick up

the shattered remnants

of a son too dark

to be seen as a person,

but rather as a target-

never have they had

to stare in the face

of their oppressors

and beg themselves silently

to be Jesus,

to turn the other cheek

and pray that their meekness

will allow them

to inherit another day.

ever vigilant

the victims will stand,

against barricades

     in lines

          at funerals

               and over graves,

staring outward with eyes

made cold and distant

by indifference

and the radicalism

of wanting protection

from their protectors.

Tylo

[softandfruity]

july 19th, sunday

I finally went to pick up all the books I left at uni and now I spend half my days staring at my bookshelf because it looks so damn pretty. I’m finally happy with the area above my desk too! planning on spending my summer reading, studying, working a bit, and just spending time doing things I love - but inside

✨ currently reading: the way of kings (Brandon Sanderson) and the silk roads (Peter Frankopan)

[letsgetsquiggly]

A Fem?

Everyone says I would never put a women in an uncomfortable position. Well, unless of course it's beneficial, to me anyway. You see, they need you. Feed off you. You, with your well fared freedom. It lets me be, well, what you see. A single paupered mother just a number, on a hand out roster, while I watched my children grow into 12 year old adults, more world weary then those damn politicians on t.v, Their umbilical cords latched onto the poor of society, Such as me. I am that leach that the repubs. despise and the demos. idolize. I can trick you. And you can re elect me. That is how it goes, in our land of the free. The land of man made babies who die at 80 we must be crazy to escape what see... Porky hands grasping dollars bills. Screaming, IT'S FREE! IT'S FREE!! IT'S FREE!!! Free homes. Free food. Free cars. Free gold bars, Paid by yours truly, me. But I am underestimating the rung of, propriety? We all must date drunk muscle, enjoy being beaten whilst muzzled. I'm the tread on your tread mill, and the oil on its wheels. The least you can do is pay me.

[bandeezy7]

Fire Within A Roar (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/QwJCOeUOJbb Collection of poetry

[omanxl1]

SUMMER MIX 2024 / DEEP HOUSE, VOCAL HOUSE, HOUSE.

Digital Crate Digging Continues per this Music Monday just like the struggle continues, so while we’re putting it down it seems like it don’t stop so I guess we can say Once Again It’s On!! The saga / struggle continues, this is how we play; O-Dog drops the beat and the prose is from O-Zone.. Once again it’s on!! Brotha O is Going In / Getting It In; actually? a brotha already here.. In It Now…