Social Justice – Ear to the Ground

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…

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…

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…

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…

Poetry for the Peeps! Poems For Humanity

This week, before the celebration of the birth of Christ in Beit Layem in a week’s time, Israeli leaders and their U.S. handlers continue their vicious bombardment and genocide of Gaza and its people. It is with a heavy heart that we witness no mercy. From occupation to apartheid to genocide, settler colonialism seems to follow the…

Poetry for the Peeps! Mahmoud Darwish

I’ve been aghast at the news of what is amounting to ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the repetition of the Catastrophe of 1948. I am saddened and enraged by the absence of a real international outcry. We truly live in a inhumane world. Some antidote to the despair I have been feeling is found in…

Let’s at least, leave Flowers! Let’s at least, leave, Songs!

It’s been more than a year since I have been away from this blog and writing, generally. Words seem rusty and disused, and the world outside has twisted and contorted itself in ever more lexicons of cruelty.Humanity has been turned into soundbytes and fleeting visual catastrophes that seem to lead to no impact with regards…

Learning to See: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamin

I’ve been inspired lately by the paintings of Oswaldo Guayasamin. Although he is well-respected in Latin America, I rarely see the type of eulogizing that over him that is so common with Frida Kahlo, whose identity as a mature and political artist has been submerged in a depoliticized portraitist school of thought that is…

Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Blood: Poetry Against War

I didn’t think that yet another outbreak of war would be the only response in a world reeling from the impact of pre-existing wars and the covid19 pandemic. But here we are, in a bizarre lexicon of words and media where everything seems stripped of meaning and context, like a tsunami of global anomie. And because…

All of Us or None! A Belated Return to the Virtual World

It’s been ages since I have posted on the blog. Pandemic fatigue and the onset of winter and lock-downs have exacerbated SADness and made writing a difficult chore. While I have been doing some drawing, I haven’t mustered up the focus to write. This blog, pays homage to the work of two poets, February birthday…