Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Yael Flusberg
Washington, DC
Mother's Milk
Born from the womb of war My mother's milk flowed like Ashes Composting on a dew-dripped field in early spring
This spring, the dead have been recycled Into poetic battle song Ancestors resurrected Pumping blood into the arteries of my beloved city
My dead do not rest in peace Their tombstones sculpted into Sacred liturgy praying for safe travels To the Fertile Crescent
At night, while I study the shadows of the street lamp on my ceiling They whisper to me on wind's breath The fountain of everlasting life Will not, they say, Be found in a river of blood on desert sand Like Ramses' Nile
Life will not be found in the crematoria We ourselves have fashioned In Chicago In Rhode Island Over blue Texas skies
I was born from the womb of war My mother's milk flowed like ashes from a burnt offering A river of oil singeing my throat Until all that I could say was this:
The dead do not forget. Their memories transform into our dreamscapes. Listen to the voice of the wind. Listen to the voice of the wind.
(Statement of Conscience)
just read the news that the white house is cancelling the feb 12th event for fears of "politicizing" it too much.
i am the co-founder of a grassroots, dc-based organization called sol & soul which fuses arts with activism. (www.solysoul.org) (as well as a fledgling poet; i was glad to send you something when i first learned of your effort)
i hope that you continue to collect protest poems and think strategically about how else they might be used -- seems to me that art must be at the center of any transformative social movement, and those of us who are aghast at the current US leadership certainly have our work cut out for us.
