Since the last time I did a post on this blog, the U.S. has leapt into the flames of fascism and kleptocracy willingly, it appears. In the second month of 2025 we are witnessing a surge of policies and enactments in real time affecting not only the U.S. but Canada and other countries. And the…
Author: Red Balloon
I am a chronically ill queer artist and writer. I have a number of degrees in higher education and have spent most of my life interested and active in social movements against racism, militarism, misogyny and homophobia. Over the course of my life, I have worked in the world of alternate news, translation, law, teaching, and with progressive cultures, music, poetry, performers, and artists. I speak and understand a few languages and plan to share media in them on this blog. I am a poetry, art, music, and nature lover with an especial fondness for cats!
Reflections in 2025: Dreaming of Justice and Hope
Welcome to 2025 on Eartotheground! I can’t believe that it’s been nearly 6 years since I started this blog to contribute to a culture of awareness, resistance, and celebration of those whose voices are so often marginalized. But as Covid19 swept through the globe, and then the genocide in Gaza started, my preoccupations were often…
Winter Solstice: A Creative Journey with Art and Music
I’ve pretty much run out of things to say about the state of the world that are not being articulated better and with great persistence, by comentators and journalists like Wizard Bisan (Bisan Owda), Motaz Azaiza (photographer and speaker), Vijay Prasad, Jemima Pierre, Aaron Mate, Youtube’s Neutrality Studies, Breakthrough News, and some other independent sites….
Ode to an Incomplete Poem
Today’s post is a poem I wrote after taking stock of the current situation; the inhuman destruction of Gaza and Lebanon, the destabilization of the region and indeed the world, the deadly embargo on Cuba, not even lifted for humanitarian purposes as the island is battered by blackouts, hurricanes and earthquakes, the de facto U.S….
Complicity and Resistance: U.S. Poets on Palestine
Once again, as we enter the second year of an expanding genocide and are subject to increasing techno-fascism and the normalization of militarism, I seem to be unable to say any more than I and countless others have already said. This week’s blog perhaps subconsciously influenced by the upcoming U.S. election, features 3 U.S. poets….
There Should be No Anniversary for Genocides in Our Calendars
This last year has been very unusual in that a genocide is taking place in full view of our eyes, and that it has not even been stopped 365 days later, but rather, expanded— in a reckless and diabolical manner by an occupying force and the U.S’s billions shoring up the entity of Israel. Some…
Something More Than Force! Poetry and Humanity
Today’s post picks up where we left off, sharing the powerful and beautiful poetry of people’s varying resistances to annihilation. From the USA to Palestine, from Hawaii to Guatemala, these poems show us the common humanity we possess, though desperate efforts are being made to strip our commonalities away. These efforts are evident in trade…
Breaking the Silence: 5 Years of Eartotheground!
I have not been able to muster up the necessary energy, inspiration or even concentration over the last couple of months to work on this blog. And although I have continued to keep up with the horrific news of Gaza, the world’s complicity and indifference have been soul -wrenching. The trite banality of doubling down…
Going Up the Mountain!
Ya Taleen, performed by Dana Salah An old song from the Galilee, it’s believed that Palestinian women used to sing it as they visited their loved ones in prison. Through the seemingly confusing lyrics, the women would convey subversive messages, perhaps informing their loved ones that they would soon be liberated by freedom fighters. This…
Poetry for the Peeps! From the Land’s Heart
Land Back Rivers flowingScreens overflowingwith deathA keyboard of rubbleTechnology’s offeringRetina-burned imagesSeared into our conscience Violence reveredDialogue destroyedLives snapped into piecesDeath’s drones and sirensThe soundtrack of these days This is the world we witnessAs we bow and breakBeneath the onslaughtBut return we doOver and over and over againTo the olive grove’s heart.
Poetry for the Peeps! A Litany of Refusals to Become Ghostly!
We had the honour of supporting the students in response to their encampment for disclosure and divestment from Israel at Universities across the U.S, Canada, and internationally. This blog is dedicated to the young people who show us that conscience and compassion are still bringing hope to those who wish for justice against settler colonialism…
Poetry for the Peeps! Citizen Heart
Today is my father’s birthday. Since he was a poet, translator, lover of, and professor of comparative literatures, it is fitting that he should be born in World Poetry Month. The poems and visual arts today are a tribute to him (Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, 1938-2020)). The poems below would have engaged him and certainly been part…
Poetry for the Peeps! Affirm Life!
The poems and art pieces chosen here reflect on themes of injustice, oppression and deprivation, and specifically starvation as a weapon of capitalist social organization and war The poems speak to a reality that has been ongoing in places where man-made famine and war have deprived people of their most basic necessities and rights ,including…
To Wake Up Human!
Antonio Gramsci would have aptly described our times, smug and blood-thirsty as the “time of monsters”. Unbelievably, it’s been 173 days of military onslaught that has brought calamity and massacres to the Gaza Strip. The suffering seems endless. Having seen the testimonies of so many children and youth, the murders, the detritus of bombardment, it’s…
World Poetry Day!
March 21st is a day which celebrates both the power of poetry and calls for the elimination of racism globally. Today’s post shares the words and pictures of poets and artists speaking to the need for justice and for poetry. As the great Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton said, “poetry, like bread, is for everyone.” Even…
Ear to the Ground 