The BeZine’s Live 100TPC
Poetry, Music, Art
for
Peace, Sustainability, Social Justice
Poetry. It’s better than war! —Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of 100,000 Poets (and friends) for Change
It is time once again for The BeZine live 100TPC event, this year at the end of a week when over 7 million people around the world participated in various climate crisis strikes to demand action now, according to 350.org.
Today, under the banner of 100,000 Poets (and friends) for Change (100TPC), for the 9th year, people the world over are gathered to stand up and stand together for PEACE, SUSTAINABILITY and SOCIAL JUSTICE. There are over 700 100TPC events worldwide scheduled for 28 September 2019, and many others throughout the year. This year, a large number of these events focus on the climate crisis, the urgency of which has been well expressed by Greta Thunberg:
When our house is burning we cannot just leave it to the children to pour water on the flames – we need the grownups to take responsibility for sparking the blaze in the first place. So for once, we’re asking grownups to follow our lead: we can’t wait any longer. —Greta Thunberg, 15 March 2019 (age 16, Swedish)
Our themes for your contributions, as every year, are Peace, Social Justice, and Sustainability. As I wrote in the introduction to the September 2019 issue of The BeZine, these three issues intertwine with each other. With a month of climate actions, this week just past of focused action through 350.org, and Greta Thunberg’s #ClimateStrike, #FridaysForFuture, and #schoolstrike4climate efforts, the climate crisis has been a central focus of many this month. The BeZine blog has been running daily posts related to the climate crisis throughout September.
Even so, we welcome your work on any of the three themes. We need action and change in all of these areas, we need it now, and we need to keep calling for action and deep, cultural change, every day.
Right now, the youth are urgently calling on adults and governments to act, and especially on issues of sustainability. Thunberg boldly told the gathered world leaders at the UN:
People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you! —Great Thunberg, 23 September 2019
While Thunberg may be the most well-known youth on the issue of the climate crisis, other youth have worked on related issues, especially clean water. Clean water should be a human right—it is an issue of social justice, wars are fought over water, and sustainable practices are needed to clean our waters and keep them clean.
Autumn Peltier (age 14), an Anishinaabe living in Canada, is one of those other youth, who, as did her aunt before her, lives her life as a water protector:
No one should have to worry if the water is clean or if they will run out of water. No child should grow up not knowing what clean water is, or never know what running water is. —Autumn Peltier, 22 March 2018 (age 13 at the time, Canadian Anishinaabe)
Seventeen year-old Xiye Bastida, a Mexican American living in New York, speaks to the need for deep-rooted change:
We need to change our culture and change our narrative. For too long, the narrative has been that this is some big distant thing that will happen in the year 2100. But pollution is here. Heatwaves are here. Wildfires are here. Melting ice caps are here. Floods are here. Category 5 hurricanes are here. It’s here already. —Xiye Bastida, 19 September 2019 (age 17, Mexican-American from New York City)
Mari Copeny, a 12 y.o. African American also known as “Little Miss Flint,” at the age of 8 brought attention to (and grant money for) the water crisis in Flint, MI, by writing to then President Barack Obama. Now aged 12, she calls on us to not just act today, nor this week, nor this month:
No, our fight to save the planet didn’t start today with the #ClimateStrike and it doesn’t end today either. Many of us have been putting in the work for years to save our planet. Don’t just amplify our voices today, but every day and support our solutions to save us. —Mari Copeny on Twitter, 20 September 2019 (age 12, African-American from Flint, MI, also known as “Little Miss Flint”)
I return to Thunberg, who proclaims “change is coming”:
You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not. —Greta Thunberg, 23 September 2019
Last year on our 2018 Live 100TPC page, Jamie Dedes, our managing editor, wrote about 100TPC:
Think on this when you are tempted to lose all hope for our species. Remember that—not just today, but everyday—there are ripples and waves and tsunamis of faith and courage crossing borders in the form of poetry, stories, art, music, friendships and other acts of heroism. Hang tough. And do join with us—The Bardo Group Beguines—today to share your own creative work and to enjoy the work of others. All are welcome no matter where in the world you live.
I say, think of these youth, their messages, and their leadership—”ripples and waves and tsunamis of faith and courage.” Think of these precious, perceptive youth—
—Michael Dickel, Contributing Editor
these precious perceptive youth, a poem
“Providing food, shelter, clothing and education is not enough any more, because all of this would have no meaning in the end, if your children do not have a planet to live on with health and prosperity.” —The Constitution of The United Peoples of Earth
this perfect blue-green planet, her youth
dream among the strains of their hope,
dream of us like our sun and moon,
coordinating … if only we would,
sowing the rich soil with right-action,
cultivating a greening of our compassion,
acting on a commonsense vision
the fruits of our being-ness plant their
ideals, shared values, a call for accountability,
for a re-visioning unencumbered by insanity,
rich fields to harvest, color, sound, textures,
rough and smooth, the deep rootedness of
their stand and stand for, their wise demands
casting a spell that we might see with one eye,
splendor hidden behind our irresponsibility,
their effervescent call, blossoming unity, vision –
bright spinning planet gently graced with these
wildflowers, these precious perceptive youth.
Dedicated to the young people of the world who teach us many lessons as they reach across borders in their stand for climate action.
© 2019, Jamie Dedes
Jamie Dedes’ poem originally appeared on her blog, The Poet by Day.
Read more about Autumn Peltier, Mari Copeny, and Xiye Bastida here.
POST YOUR WORK HERE TODAY
TO SHARE YOUR POEMS, ART, PHOTOGRAPHY AND MUSIC VIDEOS FOR OUR “LIVE” VIRTUAL 100TPC TODAY, PLEASE USE MISTERLINKY FOR URL LINKS. JUST CLICK ON THE ICON BELOW. YOU CAN ALSO SIMPLY PASTE YOUR COMPLETE WORK OR THE URL TO IT INTO THE COMMENTS SECTION.
REMEMBER THE THEMES ARE PEACE, SUSTAINABILITY, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE.
as of OCTOBER 2, 2019, this event is closed for sharing
YOU CAN STILL READ
thank you everyone who participated
we’ll open an all-new virtual event next year, Sept. 28, 2010
Wonderful kick-off, Michael. Thank you and congratulations.
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Thank you, Jamie! We’re off and running.
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We are indeed. Thanks for including my poem, by the way.
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Happy to include it—it fit perfectly with what I wrote.
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A Sad State of Freedom
You waste the attention of your eyes,
the glittering labour of your hands,
and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves
of which you’ll taste not a morsel;
you are free to slave for others–
you are free to make the rich richer.
The moment you’re born
they plant around you
mills that grind lies
lies to last you a lifetime.
You keep thinking in your great freedom
a finger on your temple
free to have a free conscience.
Your head bent as if half-cut from the nape,
your arms long, hanging,
your saunter about in your great freedom:
you’re free
with the freedom of being unemployed.
You love your country
as the nearest, most precious thing to you.
But one day, for example,
they may endorse it over to America,
and you, too, with your great freedom–
you have the freedom to become an air-base.
You may proclaim that one must live
not as a tool, a number or a link
but as a human being–
then at once they handcuff your wrists.
You are free to be arrested, imprisoned
and even hanged.
There’s neither an iron, wooden
nor a tulle curtain
in your life;
there’s no need to choose freedom:
you are free.
But this kind of freedom
is a sad affair under the stars.
Translated by Taner Baybars
– Nazim Hikmet
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Two more poems by Nazim Hikmet here: https://wp.me/pne74-igY
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Sergeant Schultz Testifies Before Congress by Charles W. Martin
https://slpmartin.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/sergeant-schultz-testifies-before-congress/
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The planet has a plan
Do you know that the Pacific Ocean is compromised?
That clean running water is less and less
The desert gets larger and larger
The artic ice is melted entirely
The air is toxic
And the madness is higher then ever
Do you know? Have you digested this message?
Yes, the planet is saving itself
It fights back once again as it did with the dinosaurs
Then, it called for help in the deep space and a huge rock came
This time it has a different approach
But neithertheless, the planet will survive
These bugs, toxic bugs, called humans, after their canibalization will meet their extinction
Not even their words, their big, fancy spell, won’t leave a trace…
The Planet has a plan
It will win using our weapons against us
Our greed, our stupidity are its tools
Keep doing what you are doing, soon the planet will be free!
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Julia, you are so right. We talk about “saving the planet” but it’s really about saving ourselves. Mother Earth will survive. Thank you for your wise and well crafted poem.
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A powerful message:
“The Planet has a plan
It will win using our weapons against us
Our greed, our stupidity are its tools
Keep doing what you are doing, soon the planet will be free!”
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Thank you hugely, Jamie! Thank you so much, Michael! Love and conquer!
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Amen! Love and conquer.
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The Planet Speaks
the Amazon burns no one
quells the fires
air, knowledge is lost in the fire.
Waters run polluted no one
seeks to free fish
or children drinking poison.
Air spins in cyclones
destroying all under its twisting cloud
flooding the earth.
Metal is used to make war
peoples flee
are called predators by those who’ve only known comfort.
Are we but people
whatever language colour, creed
we came from one source?
But will expire
in our own detritus
unless we care for our planet
which will spin
into the void of extinction
unless we care for it and others.
©2019 Carolyn O’Connell
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Jamie Dedes posted do not make war on Mr. Linky.
Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Coming Back: Franco not here no more, 1988
I go blind from then I go
here now so into Franco-free light
where I don’t know
how to turn my eyes,
spent scars of second skin,
years of no and fury,
now the clean air breaking in
to be real in this to breathe it
all in and then to die in Madrid.
Tempt it not—I surely do not
Not too. No Franco and his cops
Nor his tiny stamps, unwritten laws
And truncheons at the ready.
I did not come here to die
but to be home here
where I can get lost again free
in a landscape of
words drifting oh words!
Hombre que te pasa
la Republica Zaragoza libertad.
Find the bridge, the path,
to cross over to some-
where the verdict words cannot.
Qué bonitas son
Son las flores
No, not just pretty. Knot not.
When I go blind,
“good I cannot see them”
(as the words once were cords
even to touch their fury)
The pain of sound.
Clackety clack.
Let the air out
of this flat tire.
I’m breaking in
to be real again—
the Guadarrama mountain range
splendid low about the horizon
white-scarred muses
women scarring Fascism.
Late afternoon glory with them in Madrid.
The air so pure it stings to settle.
originally published in The BeZine, September 2018
copyright 2018, Linda Chown – and shared here with her permission
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What they said
At the beginning of before.
Here it is: are we in the right
spindle bobbing away?
Are you a fable resting in the sun and wanting?
Tell me how your dreams are.
Tell me what you might mean to yourself in their fury,
Now, skirts forever in a night wind
Yesterday spins yellows around tomorrow
Whatever did your mother tell you about
late at night when you put your book down
on the bed and she came in soundless
with a tight face to sit in the dark with you
while you wheezed and you waited.
Violence in the coal mines.
They always told me
La Pasionaría was brave
no pasarán, she said. With her vision
she was defending Madrid’s mountains
they told me and I heard her when
she spoke with that spike of passion
indomitable: she said no pasarán
and in the foothills there were cheers all dressed in black.
Your father I learned took a gun with him
there at the beginning of before
to protect himself at midnight
on the picket lines in the dark
to protect himself from hit men
who hated his vision out west
in the fog in those long flat parking lots .
Low in his left cheek a muscle quivered
within, at the end of a smile that wasn’t.
He took a gun and she went kitten silent on your bed.
The quiet of her heavy sitting
at the beginning of before
reminds me of an old dream,
her telling you of crossing the street
because of the scar on her skin
because she wanted to hide it from all eyes
Was this a mingled message
to fight with all the passion the rains pour
or to scurry away from feeling?
To hold the front line or to flee into a hole?
Camus who believed in solitude as his struggle
And Aragon whose masses were transcendental
Tell, tell me more please before the end is over.
Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, aka “La Pasionaria,” a Spanish Republican leader of the Spanish Civil War
originially published in The BeZine, September 2018
copyright 2018, Linda Chown … and shared here with her permission
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complex…
the walls
are
thin
i can hear
conversations
picking out
keywords
freedom
justice
human rights
but
the walls
remain
so
i can only
imagine
such things
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Thank you, Charlie!
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Resistance Poetry Wall 100Tpc.org
by Benedicta Boamah
28th September, 2019
running helter-skelter
in a sense of confusion
shields of refrains
an opted referendum of subtle serenity
the patterns of a judicial reform
©Benedicta Boamah 2019
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Sheikha A. posted Enter Their Homes on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Anjum Wasim Dar posted Poetic Oceans on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Dennis Formento posted Dennis Formento & Simone Bottasso: “this floe of ice” on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Thanks for posting, Michael. I didn’t see that you had.
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In Mster Linky, the link to poem, “this floe of ice,” for Cesare Pavese and Salvatore Quasimodo, by Dennis Formento, from his book, Spirit Vessels (FootHills Publishing, 2018.) Simone Bottasso, organetto. Recorded August 20, 2019, in Plan Felinaz, Valle d’Aosta, Italy. Music based on a melody by Marco “Mammo” Inaudi. Reza Mirjalali, videographer. Good stuff. Check it out. Worth your time. Thanks to Dennis Formento.
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Gayle Walters Rose (Bodirose’s Blog) asked me to post this for her. The direct link is:https://bodhirose.wordpress.com/2019/09/19/a-lightness-of-being/
A Lightness of Being
to witness your pain
and to take it in
where it stirs my heart
and compassion reigns
connects our humanity
eloquent and deep
we meet in the middle
and clasp our hands
tears fall freely
without feeling vulnerable
knowing we’re loved
with no hesitation
reaching around
our embrace enfolds
and healing begins
from the warmth
of our emotions
there is no weakness sensed
I will hear what you grieve
held in a space of safety
where love always lives
I will be there for you
as you are for me
our pain will diminish
as the two of us reveal
let me shore you up
through life’s sufferings
bring you ease, a smile
and a lightness of being
copyright 2019, Gayle Walters Rose
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Thank you for linking me up here, Jamie, I appreciate it. After reading all the quotes from the young people speaking out, I’m amazed at their poise, intelligence and awareness of the issues at hand. Oh, how we underestimate our youth’s insight! They’re cutting through the BS and holding adults accountable for their harmful choices. I’m so impressed! I do have hope.
Gayle ~
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Yes! They are. So proud.
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I posted the Mr. Linky link, too.
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Machinery
Sun blasts the black gully
Seethes the road rocky
Shaped like a refugee
Adrift in a hodgepodge.
This burnt lost shrine of pure nothingness
In this sunlit black stew where
We beggars tell of yesterday’s
Hot fires and lyres. How to make beauty
in this year’s wilderness?
Even the flowers look withered and unseen
In this year’s lying, like lovers grown out of themselves.
©️2019, Linda Chown
Just now “hot off the press” so to speak!
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Gayle Walters Rose posted A Lightness of Being on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Michael Dickel posted To Write a Peace Poem on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Michael Dickel posted Flash Fiction—Riding the Chariot on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Pamela Moffatt posted Preaching Enchantment to the Choir about Khashoggi on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Ankh Spice posted 16 and Burning on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Steve Andrews posted Where Does All the Plastic Go? on Mr. Linky. Go to Mr. Linky to share links to your 100TPC-related works! Writing, art, sounds, video… link it…
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Progress To The Future.. Ode To An Oderus Anarchist.
When I was a child I was sold a flag and a map.
A map that said progress on it and that’s a fact.
I can see it now with definite sign.
Follow us it’s gonna be fine.
When I got older they sold me another map and a flag.
a flag with some stars on, better cars and cheaper gas.
As we all march you and me, two by two, and hand in hand.
“Eeee”, it were marvellous the future were grand.
Now I am older and wiser I have an atlas at last.
My own moral compass and an extra fine reading glass.
Step by step as we traverse this globe.
With sure gate and a black and red robe.
Nick Yaya Hayward 25/01/2017
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Thank you, Nick!
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An Owed to our lost sense of tribe.
A tribe is a group of girls and guys that get together and grow old and wise.
A tribe is a group that look out for each other and check your well supplied.
A tribe is a group that takes care of your loved ones while you’re otherwise occupied.
A tribe is a group that’s got your back your front your left and your right side.
A tribe is a group that sees beyond lifes petty slights likes and dislikes.
A tribe is a group that fall or stand together no matter the weather or outsiders appetites.
A tribe is a group that only now do I miss when I am away from my friends majestic flight.
Nick Yaya Hayward 25/01/2017
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Welcome to Virtual 100TPC, Nick. Thanks for sharing your poetry.
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