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.
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!
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…
Poetry for the Peeps! Humanity or Nothing
Today is a day when poetry and art speak for themselves. I think it is the 160th day of genocide, nearly 6 months since October 7th and we’ve seen things go from bad to worse with regard to the human rights of Palestinian peoples. Israel, U.S and the European powers who have big investments of…
Poetry for the Peeps! Gloria Fuertes
Gloria Fuertes, Spain, 1917- 1998 (English Translations, Kaushalya Bannerji, 2023) Gloria Fuertes, says Wikipedia, was a Spanish poet, author of children’s literature, and regular participant in children’s television shows. She was part of the post-war literary movement of postismo, and a member of the Generation of ’50. Her work focused on gender equality, pacifism, and environmentalism. HAGO VERSOS, SENORES! Hago versos señores, hago…
Rafah: A Dirge for Democracy
I was and was not Surprised To see and hear of the torment of Rafah. I have watched the screens light up White and orange as phosphorus and fire. I have seen the 75 years and 128 days of pulverized buildings, Broken bodies, parts of bodies, dead children, Broken healers, silenced storytellers, massacred mothers. Hind,…
Art and Poetry Speaking to Our Hearts!
We are in the 129th day of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli state with military, economic and moral backing by the U.S. , Germany, U.K. and Canada to name a few. Nicaragua has joined South Africa in a plea for ceasefire through the ICJ. People around the world continue to walk…
Nothing More Hopeful Than Solidarity! Poetry for the Peeps
Today I continue my journey of sharing the words of artists and writers speaking out against genocide. For no matter how the ICJ stops short in calling for a permanent ceasefire to hostilities on Gaza, we around the world know the truth of the matter. I share today the beautiful words and vision of Canada’s…
Poetry for the Peeps! Witnessing Genocide
Today’s blog continues to look at the atrocities being committed in Gaza and to join the world plea for a ceasefire now. There is no end to this inhumanity of pulverizing a people in real time and with the massive citizen and press presence on social media platforms, allowing us if we choose, to follow the absolute tragedy…
Return to the Same Moon
We enter the new year full of desires for a new and different world, a truly human world that honours our interconnectedness and “right relations” as Indigenous teachings put it. In this world, genocide would not exist because the power and powerlessness engendered by relations of exploitation, oppression, empire-building would not be the filters through which all…
Off with the Old Year! In with the New!
As we say goodbye to 2023, I feel compelled to say that witnessing genocide in real time has overshadowed so much and become one with the grief of the world.Since the management of the covid pandemic when blind obedience and global leadership let us down royally, to the current situation in which 2 countries hold…
Poetry for the Peeps! Sharing Spirit, Sharing Solidarity
Today’s post shares the amazing resilience of the Palestinian people and their supporters around the world. . Although I sometimes find myself turning away from the incessant slaughter by the Israeli and U.S. governments I remember that it is a privilege to do so and I turn back to the brave young journalists who bring…
Ear to the Ground 