Category: The BeZine Table of Contents

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THE BeZINE, Jan. 2017, Vol. 3, Issue 4 – Resist

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

“When injustice becomes law, nonviolent resistance becomes duty.” Petra Kelly (1947-1992), co-founder of the German Green Party (1979) at a rally in Nuremberg (1983).

15253540_10153871288971612_1728300874287005039_nOur theme this month is Resist! We chose it to coincide with a protest today that was initiated by poets Alan Kaufman and Michael Rothenberg. Thanks to Alan and Michael, poets across the United States will gather on the steps of their local city halls and take their stand against the backward values that the U.S. President Elect represents. PEN America also sponsored an event today at the New York City Public Library and thanks to them protests are happening today in ninety U.S. cities and some cities outside the States.

As is our tradition at The BeZine, voices in protest are not limited to the U.S.

What are we trying to accomplish by protesting? “Dump Trump” is a rallying cry for some but it’s unlikely to happen, at least in the short-term.

We think what makes sense and what people want to focus on is creating awareness and building bridges, not walls. We want to stand in solidarity against scapegoating and the sort of rhetoric that fuels misunderstanding, hate and violence. We stand in support of the rule of law, civil rights and human rights. We want to keep the feet of the power elites to the fire and demand accountability.

Michael Rothenberg and Alan Kaufman have written that with “the Fourth Estate under siege it is now up to writers, poets, artists and musicians to join in and put our shoulders to the wheel.…There is no Post-Truth Era for the world of [the arts].” And here we are …

It takes courage to speak out, but speak out we must and today we bring you a collection that we hope will hearten you, if only by virtue of seeing just how many people share your values. There is hope in that.

It begins, with one brave enough to appear.
One idea, one voice in an asphalt void.
Oligarchs try to crush all dissension with fear.
Undaunted, the idea will not be destroyed,
Shares roots with others; reassures, “I’m still here.”  —Corina Ravenscraft

In this issue, Michael Watson, Priscilla Galasso, and Naomi Baltuck gift us with BeAttitudes that are measured, gain their wisdom from history and the arts, and speak to the long-term and to the preservation of democratic values.

“There’s a striking parallel between our current social order and that of the Middle Ages, in which the wealthy ruling class acted and peasants endured.”  — warns Naomi Baltuck in Boots on the Ground

Thanks to Michael Dickel we offer a fine collection of protest music and an apologia for activist poetry.  Zena Hagerty of HamiltonSeen brings us the life of Joe Hill, labor activist and song writer.  In The Push, from Zena and her business partner, Cody Lanktree, we learn how Hamilton—the fourth largest city in Canada—courageously pushed back against abuses and lack of transparency in their city government.  We have a flash fiction piece from poet and writer, Joe Hesch.

This month’s poetry collection is a rather extraordinary gift from poets who are well-established. They are published here alongside emerging poets we want to support and encourage. Together the poems serve to frame the current challenges we face in our world.

New to our pages this month (presented in no special order) are Greg Ruud, Russ Green, Joy Harjo, Alan Kaufman and our featured poet, Reuben Woolley. We are delighted to welcome Dianne Turner back.

Enjoy the Zine and do Resist! This is the moment.
—Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

My first contact with The BeZine came when Managing Editor Jamie Dedes wanted to review my book of poems, War Surrounds Us, and to interview me. Somehow, from there I became one of the many “core” writers who contribute to The BeZine community—and, because I am involved with 100-Thousand Poets for Change (100TPC), I ended up taking some responsibility for our annual live 100TPC online event. Now I have a nice title, Contributing Editor. As one of the core writers, and a contributing editor, I suggested the theme Resist! for this issue to coincide with the protest readings my friends Michael Rothenberg and Alan Kaufman have instigated.

I have been active in peace and anti-racism movements for years. I recall when I first heard about the Women’s Movement, as a high school student planning a student protest against the Viet Nam War. My academic work relates to violence and masculinity (see my essay, The Warm Blanket of Silence, in this issue).

However, this autumn marks, for me, one of the darkest periods in my memory. The rising influence of white supremacy (sic) movements, blatant misogyny, unapologetic homophobia, open anti-Semitism (from the right and the left), and sword-rattling (fake?) machismo in this last U.S. election—manifested openly and through “dog-whistles” by the President Elect, his supporters, and his advisors—recall the period before WWII. And not just in 1930s Germany—fascism was popular in the U.S. and much of Europe before the war, including a notorious “Fascist Plot,” also called “The White House Coup,” in 1933. Now the industrialists will have The White House—they don’t need a coup. The probable influence of Russia on our elections (not to mention the FBI) comes straight from 1950s nightmares. These dark shadows oppress my mood and sap my energy.

The only solution I know is to Resist! To stand with others and to say, loudly, “No!”

Jamie has expressed the idea of resistance positively above. And I agree with her. Resistance must be positive, but also strong. It should be non-violent (until violence becomes a necessary and last-resort defense). And it must be embedded in all that we do. My own poetry, art, music, teaching, and life should help awaken, empower, and facilitate resistance to the hate, indifference, and greed that permeate our political culture (a lofty goal I expect I will fail in, even as I attempt to achieve it). I hope to do so in ways that welcome dialogue and allow for diverse responses and approaches across a wide range of contexts. However, I will not “give him a chance” to promulgate hate, strip the environment, legislate for racism or hate, or further oppress those under the heal of the capitalist boot. I resist.

I resist the numbness.

I find energy in resistance.

I resist!
—Michael Dickel, Contributing Editor

Link HERE

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IN A NUTSHELL

Let Us, a poem by Alan Kaufman
letting my freak flag fly, a poem by Charles W. Martin
Scraggly Dandelion in a Concrete Crack, a poem by Corina Ravenscraft

BeATTITUDES

The Act of “Survivance”, Michael Watson
Practising Freedom of Choice, Priscilla Galasso
Boots on the Ground, Naomi Baltuck
Werewolves—the Hounds of Hate, Michael Dickel

MUSIC

I ain’t no millionaire’s son, Michael Dickel
Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A., Michael Dickel

DOCUMENTARY FILM

One Wobblie’s Life: Joe Hill, Labor Activist and Songwriter, Zena Hagerty with Jamie Dedes
“The Push” or how the eleventh largest city in Canada is pushing back, Zena Hagerty and Cody Lanktree

FEATURE ARTICLES

In Defense of Activist Poetry, Michael Dickel
Silence i—Warm Blanket in Silence, Michael Dickel
Silence ii—Sound of Silence, Michael Dickel

Writer’s Block: Doubt, Fear and Heartbreak, Jamie Dedes

FICTION

The Nature of the Beast, Joseph Hesch

FEATURED POET: Ruben Woolley

Congratulations to UK poet Reuben Woolley for the distinction of an invitation to The Fourth International Festival of Poetry in Marrakesh. All expenses are paid for by the festival organizers but the airfair. Just like the rest of us who earn our bread with poetry, Reuben’s purse is a bit light. Reuben has set up a Go Fund Me page to raise the money for airfare HERE.

natural killers, Reuben Woolley
the uncertainty of bright maps, Reuben Woolley
shade talking, Reuben Woolley
venus of coventry, Reuben Woolley
barely anywhere in time, Reuben Woolley
darker application, Reuben Woolley

POETRY

Deconstruction, Michael Dickel
So Thirsty, Michael Dickel
Circulating Language Manfesto, Michael Dickel

Dovetailed, Renee Espiru

Fire Song, Russ Green

Fear Poem, Joy Harjo

The Taste of Cyanide, Mark Heathcote

The Oak, the Man and the Mighty Weed, Joseph Hesch

Into the Unknown Flee, M. Zane McCllelan
War Lore, M. Zane McCllelan
This Is Not a Lullaby, M. Zane McCllelan

Of Seas, Bicycles and Whiskey, Liliana Negoi
no rain, Liliana Negoi
congregrating war, Liliana Negoi
faulty darwinism, Liliana Negoi

Noblesse Oblige, Carolyn O’Connell

Now That Anything Can Happen, Greg Ruud
Righteous Anger, Greg Ruud

Goat Herders, Dianne Turner

Waiting, Lynn White
Separate Development, Lynn White

Leaving Aleppo, Peter Wilkin

In close:

Here and Hereafter, Jamie Dedes

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Posted in General Interest, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

DECEMBER 15, 2016, VOL. 3, ISSUE 3, THE HEALING POWER OF THE ARTS

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“Poetry finds you when you are broken, insists on taking you into its fold, puts your pieces together and then you never leave.” Reena Prasad

Long before we had libraries teeming with medical and psychiatric tomes, we had cave paintings, carved images, storytelling, song, musical instruments and dance. The power of artistic expression to transform both creator and consumer was assumed.

The arts bear witness to sacred space, to the spontaneous dance between the conscious and the unconscious, to the existence of a symbolic realm. It is from these liminal places that our truest art and our healing words, visions, sounds and movement are born. Through art we experience a shamanic-like world that is beyond the consensual one, a world where each spirit is free to find its own core truth.

Hence, this month, we have: a poet (Reena Prasad) finding sanctuary and rebirth by reading and writing poetry: a singer/musician/poet (John Anstie) connecting with his own joy and the people with whom he collaborates; and Corina Ravenscraft’s interview with a soldier suffering from PTSD and finding relief in building and painting hundreds of miniature figurines.

Italian journalist, Mendes Biondo, brings us an interview with and three poems by Poemedic Deborah Alma, who prescribes “emergency poetry.” Our resident storyteller Naomi Baltuck offers us a PhotoStory that suggests just how empowering it is to tell our own stories. It is an excerpt from her book Apples From Heaven: Multicultural Folk Tales About Stories and Storytellers.  Michael Watson takes us for an intriguing peek into toy theatre/object theatre performance as therapy.

Our BeAttitude this month is by Priscilla Galasso, who tells it like it is, as she always does, a critical must-read.

You’ll find the poetry ranges from catharsis to confirmation. We feature the work of three emerging poets: M. Zane McClellan, new to our pages; Inger Morgan, who shares her poem, the splendor of blue, in Swedish and English and debuted last month; and Mark Heathcote, whose work has graced several issues.  Be sure to encourage them your “Likes” and comments.

The accomplished Reena Prasad who debuted with us last month is back with two poems.  Her stunningly beautiful essay Sanctuary is written from the perspective of the poet, but I’m sure other art forms offer the same potential for comfort and transformation to their own devotees.

We’re pleased to treat you to the work of regular favorites:  contributing writers Charlie Martin and Lily Negoi and guest writers Renee Espiru and Carolyn O’Connell.

We have a special guest poet this month, Myra Schneider, who has been featured in these pages before.  Myra is most well-known in the UK where – on turning 70 this year – she celebrated both her birthday and the publication of her fourteenth collection, Persephone in Finsbury Park. She teaches at Poetry School and is a consultant to Second Light Network.

THE JANUARY ISSUE

In January, our topic is Resist. We are piggy-backing on Michael Rothenberg’s and Alan Kaufman’s call to American poets to resist the incoming president.  Our effort is not restricted to poetry or to the United States. We’re doing a global call for submissions that counter policies – no matter what country – which undermine equity, foster poverty, encourage elitism, hate and scapegoating … all those things that pit people against people, putting many people at risk of disease, homelessness, starvation and murder. Please read the submission guidelines first. Send your work to bardogroup@gmail.com. American-Isreali poet and contributing editor to The BeZine,  Michael Dickel, and I will collaborate on the production of the January issue.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM ALL OF US AT THE BeZINE!

We represent the beautiful and great wealth of the world’s wisdom traditions, nationalities, races, disabled and LBGTQ.

The historic experience of our Jewish friends, the plight of our Palestinian friends, the suffering of our Syrian brothers and sisters and others who are or have been victims of social and economic injustice and human rights violations informs our effort. We know that lines must be drawn, that silence is not an option, and that scapegoating can only lead to pain. Having said that, we are  “prisoners of hope*,” and our hope is founded on our faith in you and on the foundation of those values we hold in common.

14720398_1514186551925651_1821171829511947280_n

In the spirit of community and
on behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines,
Jamie Dedes
Founding and Managing Editor

* Rev. Doctor William J. Barber
Illustration source unknown: if it’s yours, please let me know. I’ll take it down or credit as you prefer.

Bios of Contributing Editors and Writers

Bios of Guest Contributors

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Link HERE to read The BeZine My apologies: I had some technical challenges and the Zine lays out in reverse order. I know what the problem is and the next issue will be fine. I recommend that you scoot to the end and move forward to read it in the correct order. Thank you! J.D.

THE HEALING POWER OF THE ARTS

BeAttitude

Armageddon and The Art of French Cooking, Priscilla Galasso

Essay

Sanctuary, Reena Prasad

Feature Articles

Power of the Word, Carolyn OConnell
Aftermath, Michael Watson
Piece by Painted Piece, Corina Ravenscraft
The Healing Adventures of Deborah Alma, Poemedic, Mendes Biondo
Singing for the Love of It, John Anstie
Don’t Confuse Hunger for Greed, the poems of Ruth Stone, Jamie Dedes

PhotoStory

Telling It To the Walls, Naomi Baltuck

Poetry

Special Guest Poet

Mahler’s Ninth, Myra Schneider

Poems

Dark over Light Earth / Violet and Yellow in Rose,Laura Braverman
Wabi Sabi, Jamie Dedes
More Than a Gift, Renee Espiru
The Artist’s Restorative, Mark Heathcote
a poet’s prescription, Charles W. Martin
Laying on of Hands, M. Zane McClellan
Birthing to Earthing, M. Zane McClellan
Writing to Stay Alive, Reena Prasad
The World in the Cracks, Reena Prasad

MORE LIGHT

Poetry

Special Guest Poet

The Silence in the Garden, Myra Schneider

Poems

the splendor in blue, Inger Morgan
december mail, Liliana Negoi
the was of the will be, Liliana Negoi
water, Liliana Negoi

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Posted in General Interest, The BeZine Table of Contents

November 2016, Vol.3/Issue 2, Loving Kindness

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

November 15, 2016

“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
excerpt “what they did yesterday afternoon” by Warsan Shire

In our themed section this month our writers explore acts of kindness that are motivated by love (respect) as expressed to neighbors, to self and for the peoples of the world and the environment.

London-based Somali writer Warsan Shire’s poem above makes a powerful statement about the world today. Our writers define some of the issues, express their pain and encourage right action. They move from a hip-hop poem calling us to unity, collaboration and a sense of self-worth to an experimental expression of sadness and disillusionment in the aftermath of a mean-spirited presidential campaign and the inclusion of an impassioned piece asking us to stand against moral injustice and not use our cultural differences as an excuse to hate.

You’ll find a stunningly beautiful photo-story, a short story, some short articles along with a wealth of poetry. You’ll see a few emerging writers whose values are appreciated and who need our encouragement. They stand alongside many polished professionals whose work will take your breathe away. You’re sure to be delighted with the poems in our More Light section which includes a wonderful blues poem – a villanelle – riffing on the Robert Johnson lyric “blues walkin’ like a man.”

THE TALENT IN THIS ISSUE

Our old friend, Marilynn Mair, the queen of mandolin, is back and so is Liliana Negoi after a hiatus. They were much missed. This month we are pleased to feature again Aprilia Zank, Mendes Benido, Kimberly Wilhelmna Floria, Renee Espiru, and Carolyn O’Connell.

New to our pages are: Kinga Fabo (poems in English and Hungarian), Inger Morgan, LaMont Anthony Wright (a.k.a. Graffiti Bleu), Ruth Hill, Mark Andrew Heathcote and Reena Presad. Please welcome them with “Likes” and comments.

From our stellar core team we have Naomi Baltuck, Michael Dickel, Priscilla Galasso, Joe Hesch, Corina Ravenscraft and Lana Phillips.

Thank you all for your generosity and for your commitment to our shared mission.

Check out bios in page links down below the Zine.

NEWS

Now you can read The BeZine by clicking on one link.You’ll be able to scroll through all the features.  When you get to “older posts,”  just click on it to view the rest of the magazine. No more need to go back-and-forth to the Table of Contents.  There are no longer tacky WordPress ads to distract and annoy us. Note also our new url: thebezine.com.

Regular readers will have noted our new look and a new style. I opted for something that would showcase each feature and that is simple and uncluttered. You can “Like” easily and if you click on featured title, you can leave a comment. If you want to link a piece to your blog, website or  Facebook, just click on the title and copy and paste the url. Easy peasy.

We’re still flying with WordPress, though over the course of a year I’ve experimented – as time, energy and finances allowed – with a variety of options including virtual flip books.  I also tested  different WordPress themes, which I have used for some issues. I’ve appreciated the evals some of you gave me.  Thank you! You know who you are and I love that you care. I factored in your comments as I explored the remarkable number of options available for eZines today. Special thanks to Priscilla Galasso who often cleans up after my dyslexia.

In the spirit of Love and Community and on behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines,

Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

Volume 3/Issue 1, Loving Kindness

Link HERE to read The BeZine

Theme Features

BeAttitudes

Godbody, LaMont Anthony Wright
Hate is not the opposite of Love, Michael Dickel
I Believe in a Higher Power, Kimberly Wilhelmna Floria

Features

A Little Kindness, Corina Ravescraft
Meeting My Neighbor, Priscilla Galasso
Another Kind of Charity, Mendes Biondo

PhotoStory

Resistance is Not Futile, Naomi Baltuck

Fiction

A More Perfect Union, Joseph Hesch

Poetry

Seeds of Love, Reena Presad
Mea Culpa, Inger Morgan
Love Is, Carolyn O’Connell
The Nature of Metta, Renee Espiru
Unconditional Love, Mark Andrew Heathcote
Wild, Ruth Hill
Chaos in a Time of Wildfire, Lana Phillips

More Light

blues walking like a woman, Marilynn Mair
Isadora Duncan Dancing, Kinga Fabo
Transfiguration of the Word, Kinga Fabo
Poison, Kinga Fabo
No filigree angels, Aprilia Zank
Love on the Wall, Carolyn O’Connell
call me, Liliana Negoi
in time, Liliana Negoi

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Posted in The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

THE BeZINE, October 2016, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Rituals for Peace, Healing, Unity

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

October 15, 2016

I am honored to take the lead for this issue of Rituals for Peace, Healing and Unity. Lately, I have not felt very peaceful. In large part, it is due to the election cycle in the United States. It fills me with incredible anxiety. At the same time, I am actively part of a movement called Peacemaking Circles. Peacemaking Circles came to me via Saroeum Phoung who was taught by the Tagish Tlingit First Nation Peoples. Peacemaking is an ancient process that has been traditionally used in all forms of communal and family decision-making. The first principle of Peacemaking Circles is: The only change you can make is within yourself.

As painful as that reality is, it is true. If you change yourself to become peaceful, to be healed, to be one with the greater cosmic community, that will be enough. Because as you are settled and grounded in peace, it will ripple out towards others.

In some ways, I think that we are seeing the rippling of a great many people that have a cosmic concern for the ways of peace. As it ripples towards others, it does, unfortunately, lead to an increase in violence, intolerance, and ickiness. But it will be overcome. Love will win in the end. But the journey can be an anxious one. Staying grounded in peace while the world loses its collective mind is a challenge. Being a non-anxious listening presence in the midst of overwhelming anxiety is hard. And so, we offer you this issue focusing on expressions of rituals for peace, healing, and unity.

You will find an exploration of the ritual of writing as a spiritual practice from Jamie Dedes, a dharma talk from Gil Fronsdale, a reminder from Ram Dass on how to see others, a beautiful poem on healing from Carolyn O’Connell, a folk tale and illustrative photograph from Naomi Baltuck, a calming video and poem from Bridget Cameron, a poem from Renee Espriu that aligns with Ram Dass and how we see, Michael Watson offers an essay on ritual that is spot on, Corina Ravenscraft offers her daily ritual as does John Anstie, and I am offering five rituals that I have written that focus on gratitude, naming and releasing negative feelings, decision-making, a ritual for touch, and a ritual for release.

I’m sure I’ve missed someone. It is not intentional! We have such a generous community.

So, I offer you this issue. Get your warm cup of tea or coffee or water, take a deep breath, sit back and read. Enter into the spirit of peace, pax, shalom, salaam, and pace.

Table of Contents

Editorial Contributions on Rituals by Terri Stewart

A Ritual for Gratitude
A Ritual for Naming Difficult Emotions
A Ritual for Touch
A Ritual for Decision Making
A Ritual for Release

Rituals, Tales, and Poems of Peace and Healing from The BeZine Community

Breathless Between Language and Myth, Jamie Dedes
A Ritual for Peace, John Anstie
Convergence of Healing, Carolyn O’Connell
Ritual, Hélène Cardona
Holding Up the Sky, Naomi Baltuck
Visualize the Raindrops Falling, Renee Espriu
Falling into Ritual, Michael Watson
The Day Begins with You, Corina Ravenscraft
Waiting, Lynn White
A Rose for Gaza, Lynn White
Separate Development, Lynn White
Looking for Poland, Naomi Baltuck

Rituals, Tales, and Poems of Peace and Healing from the Wider Community

A Meditation for Peace, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche (video)
Starting Where You Are At, Gil Fronsdale
I Practice Turning People Into Trees, Ram Dass
Grace, Bridget Cameron

…

When you are done, take five deep cleansing breaths, slowly, in and out. Then go, carrying peace and healing in your heart.

Shalom,

Terri

2016-sequim-0631
Photo by Terri Stewart

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Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine.

Posted in 100,000 Poets, Musicians, Artists and Activists for Change, The BeZine Table of Contents

100TPC — 2016

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Welcome to The BeZine’s online,
virtual 100,000 Poets for Change event!

This past week, an international aid convoy in Syria was attacked with devastating results, during a ceasefire. Bombs went off, as usual, in Iraq. They also went off in New Jersey and New York. There were terrorist knife attacks in Jerusalem. And knife attacks also in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Police shot (at least) two unarmed African-Americans in the United States. Police shot “terror suspects” in Israel. Iran arrested dissidents. China gave a dissident’s attorney a 12-year sentence.

Climate change has reduced the arctic ice sheets at record levels, this summer just ended. The Fertile Crescent, where Western civilization began, has suffered such a devastating drought that farmers have fled it for years now—a contributing cause to the Syrian civil war and the refugee crisis. The hardened, drought-stricken soil in the region, broken up by heavy war-machinery, artillery shelling, and bombs, has turned into dust that the wind picks up—a contributing cause of record dust storms throughout the region.

It is time for global change

For the past six years, 100,000 Poets for Change (100TPC) has inspired and supported events on a Saturday in September. This year, there are over 550 events scheduled throughout the world. This blog/zine is one of them. The goal is for poets (artists, musicians, actors, even mimes) to band together and perform / exhibit their work in a call to change the world for the better.

The 100TPC themes are peace, sustainability, and social justice. The September 2016 issue of The BeZine, edited by Priscilla Galasso and Steve Wiencek, focuses on environmental justice. This focus relates to social justice and sustainability, but is a necessary part of obtaining peace.

If we still have poverty and homelessness, what is sustained other than inequality? And, without social justice and a sustainable environment, could there be peace? Could peace be maintained without both social and environmental justice alongside environmental and economic sustainability?

Share your work here, today, as part of our 100TPC online event—help us create a space for change. As in past years, the event will be archived and made available later on The BeZine’s website and will also be archived at Standford University in California.

Here’s how to post your work

For today’s online event, our choice is not to put one of the three themes—peace, sustainability, and social justice—above the others, but to recognize that all of these three necessary areas of change interrelate in complex ways.

We invite you to participate. Share your writing, art, music, videos, thoughts that relate to these themes on our website today.

It’s actually easy to do.

  • Click on Mr. Linky below and follow instructions for posting a link to a post on your blog:

  • You can also post a link or writing directly into the comments below!
Come back during the day

Please return often today (Sept. 24, 2016) to read what others have posted, follow links, like, and leave comments—and to see and reply to what others have commented on your own posts and links. We would love to see an active dialogue!

Posted in The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

THE BeZINE, Vol.2, Issue 12, Environment/Environmental Justice

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

September 15, 2016

The Environment is a complex array of interconnections and interbeing (as Thich Nhat Hahn would say). Steve & I have various metaphors for this. He likes to refer to “his bowling pins”. He imagines setting up a toy set of pins on a lawn and bowling at them. When they scatter, you set them back up exactly where they landed and bowl again. This takes you all over the neighborhood in endless permutations. I think of “trophic cascades”, changes in an ecosystem that originate at an extinction or other dramatic altering of balance, similar perhaps to “the domino effect” but less linear. However you try to wrap your brain around it, the nature of Life on this planet is intricate and incomprehensible. We are wise to approach it with the utmost humility. Because we are intrinsically involved, however, we must not fear to engage. We are already immersed. We might as well learn to float, swim or drown with awareness. With that understanding, we invited our contributors to share their perspectives from where they are. And there are many other currents besides. Let me just mention a few for further research:

Environmental Law – there are some exciting changes emerging in the championing of the Rights of Nature in legal systems. Corporations have legal protection and rights as individuals in many countries, while communities and natural entities (bodies of water, land, animals, etc.) do not. The ability to stand up against the interests of a Corporation and say, “We don’t care if you want this resource. You can’t have it!” is an idea that can be incorporated into law. Thomas Linzey of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is working to make that happen. Watch his keynote address to the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) HERE.

Deep Ecology/Environmental Philosophy – Deep ecologists are a group of philosophers who question the anthropocentrism embedded in the logic and ethics of Western culture. Arne Naess is the “Father of Deep Ecology”. Peter Singer is another important philosopher who spearheaded the discussion about the ethical treatment of animals in the early 70s. These philosophers are everything from temperate reformers (Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry) to anti-civilizationists (Derrick Jensen).

Habitat/Wildlife/Green Corridors – where human interference has fragmented the landscape, other species suffer huge losses. Establishing connected corridors of undisturbed terrain help to shift the paradigm from domination to coexistence. The American Prairie Reserve has a habitat base of more than 353,000 acres. Read the story of this amazing management project HERE.

Organic Farming – the proliferation of large factory farms that employ pesticides, herbicides, hormones and other chemicals while dumping huge amounts of toxic waste on the land has significantly impacted the health of the planet. Soil health, human health, pollinator health – so many things are involved here. Returning to methods of food production that are more locally-scaled and less dependent on chemicals is a natural remedy, but must be radically and quickly implemented to turn degradation around. Support organic farming in your area!

And now, we proudly introduce our Table of Contents,
Priscilla Galasso (scillagrace) with Steve Wiencek

Editorial Notes

How Will I Behave Here?, Priscilla Galasso, Contributing Editor
Nature…Place…Community, Steve Wiencek, Guest Editor
Cruel Legacy, Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

Environment/Environmental Injustice

Awareness

All Things Are Connected,  Naomi Baltuck
The Power of Place, Michael Watson
The Hoopoes Are Back, Lynn White
Dawn Chorus, Lynn White
Another Kind of Beauty, Jamie Dedes
Cloud Watching, Jamie Dedes
Meditating on Ancient Oak, Carolyn O’Connell
The Wordless Mystery, Jamie Dedes
There Is Pleasure in the Pathless Wood, Gordon George Byron, Lord Byron

Action

The Victories Are Important!, Corina Ravenscraft
Regicide, Joe Hesch
Trespass, Terri Stewart
Naturally Devoted, Priscilla Galasso
Environmental Injustice,  Mark Heathcote
Soil Isn’t Sexy – Neither is War, Michael Dickel
Climate Change (poem), Michael Dickel

Extinction

Rounded With a Sleep, Part 1, James Cowles
Rounded With a Sleep, Part 2, James Cowles
For the Last Wolverine, video reading, James Dickey
Last Call, Corina Ravenscraft
Eden Revisited, Charles Martin
Black Honey Fare, Renee Espriu
Hoping It Regenerates – Again (artwork), Jerry Ingeman

CONNECT WITH US

succulents
Daily Spiritual Practice, Beguine Again

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine.

Posted in The B Zine, The BeZine Table of Contents

August 2016 . Vol.2/Issue 11 ~ Hope: Great Expectations and Quiet Desires

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

August 15, 2016

“to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.”
© Ellen Bass

In this issue our writers touch on many aspects of hope and its flip-side grief, sometimes head on and sometimes by a thread. In our lead features, Corina Ravenscraft urges us to act without expectation, to take life as it comes and Priscilla Galasso encourages us to do the work so that our hopes and dreams honor our true selves. In “You Just Never Know,” Naomi Baltuck gives us a fable about hope, perseverance and the unexpected.

Life, love, hope and dreams are explored from different perspectives by our poets, often from the perspective of the hopes we cling to despite wars and abuse. For the later see especially the Landays of Pashtun women in “I will die with a heart full of hope” and the poems of Imen Benyoub and Jenean Gilstrap. In “Ashen” k. writes about the quiet desire of a husband to stay connected to his wife who has died. In Hollie McNish’s poem, “Embarrassed,” she hopes – argues for – a society that gets past its nonsensical and puritanical attitudes toward breastfeeding. Renee Espriu speaks simply of hope and family in her poem “Eucalyptus Trees.” With Hélène Cardona’s “Life in Suspension” she trusts “the ripeness of the moment.”  No stress. No strain. Luke Prater writes about the sacred moments and …

“When I knew mine was the life needed saving,
however seemingly insurmountable: this
is not an easy fade-to-black halfway home.”

With all our advice and encouragement, it’s never easy and we all need saving.

Jenean Gilstap and Hélène Cardona are new to our pages, and we are proud to introduce their work to you. Please be sure to check out their bios and Renee’s and Luke’s. This is not Renee’s or Luke’s first time here, but its been a while and we are delighted to welcome them back.

Terri Muuss is featured this month with her editorial, “For or Against,” wherein she clarifies the misconceptions and misunderstandings that arise from our communications in social media.

Enjoy!

In the spirit of peace, love and community,
for The Bardo Group Beguines,
Jamie Dedes
Managing Editor

BeATTITUDES
(Editorial)

For or Against, Terri Muss

HOPE: Great Expectations and Quiet Desires

Lead Features

Life on Life’s Terms, Corina Ravenscraft
Dream What You Will and Will What You Dream, Priscilla Galasso
You Just Never Know, Naomi Baltuck

Special Feature

I will die with a heartful of hope, the Landays of Pashtun women

Poetry

This Peaceful Morning in Wartime, Imen Benyoub

Life in Suspension, Hélène Cardona
Ouranoupolis Pantoum, Hélène Cardona
To Kitty, Who Loved the Sea and Somerset Maugham, Hélène Cardona

from their prison of lost hope, Jamie Dedes
after the injera, the wat, the niter kibby, Jamie Dedes

Eucalyptus Trees, Renee Espriu

my name is huda, Jenean Gilstrap

Sacred Moments, Luke Prater

CONNECT WITH US

succulents

Daily Spiritual Practice, Beguine Again

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine (currently in the process of updating), our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

 

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine Table of Contents, TheBeZine

July 2016, Vol.2/Issue 10; Faith in Things Seen and Unseen

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake

Faith! In the discussions here you won’t find consistent perspective or theology. You will find faith explored in its many manifestations, religious and otherwise. You’ll find it both shaken and unshakable and in things of the spirit, in nature and humanity, in intuition and in self and family. Unity here is not in things creedal but in the shared values of peace, sustainability and social justice and for many of us – implicitly – in ultimate salvation through artistic expression.

Unitarian Universalist Minister, Rev. Ben Meyers, starts us with an appeal to religions to give their prayers and vigils legs, to befriend one another into the groundswell of local social justice initiatives that ultimately help to inform and bolster global efforts toward equity, justice and peace.This couldn’t be more appropriate as The BeZine “went to press” amid news reports of yet more violence.

You will find our usual diversity represented: skepticism and atheism, the three Abrahamic traditions, shamanism, and the mystical perspectives of Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism.

Our special selection of lead features and poems are by: shamanic practitioner and psychotherapist, Michael Watson; resident skeptic, James R. Cowles; the always engaging and level-headed analyst, Priscilla Galasso; the fallen altar boy, poet Joe Hesch; professional story-teller and photographer, Naomi Baltuck; our renaissance man in Sheffield, John Anstie; and university librarian, poet and artist, Corina Ravenscraft, on the ultimate triumph of the Universe.

Speaking from positions of their unshakable religious faith are: Algerian poet, Imen Benyoub, on the spiritual joys and family and community connection she finds in the holy tradition of Ramadan; Catholic Theologian, Fr. Daniel S Sormani, theology professor at Ateneo de Manila University, warmly writes about lessons learned from the homely life of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and our gentle Italian literary contributor, Mendes Biondo, tells of inspiration from the Bishop of Hippo Regius (current Annaba, Algeria), St. Augustine. Imen and Mendes are our two student contributors.

Two of our contributors allude to child sexual abuse but a third, Terri Muuss, addresses it head-on and in depth. These are experiences that may strengthen faith in self, though that doesn’t come without pain and work. Terri is featured this month in our popular “Getting to Know You” section.

Our July poetry collection covers matters spiritual, emotional and environmental with excerpts from published collections by Zine regulars: Matt Pasca, Terri Muuss, Myra Schneider, Silva Merjanian and Michael Dickel, contributing editor to The BeZine. With joy we welcome back two lights: German poet, photographer and educator, Dr. Aprilia Zank and English poet, Patricia Leighton.

New to our pages in this issue are:

  • Connie Spearing  who writes of finally “seeing” her Irish grandmother with the accidental discovery of her family’s history during and after World War 1.
  • Sandra Renew’s s poetry expresses her opinions on the state of the world. She wonders who sleeps at night? Who is lucky enough to live in safety and peace?
  • Anca Mihaela Bruma, citizen of world, educated in Rumania, is a poet who writes spiritual autobiography. Anca wanted to incorporate some lovely music and art into her posts. Due to copyrights in one case  (Dorina Costras’ art) and technical incompetence (mine) in the other, we are unable to share Dorina’s paintings or Anca’s soundcloud recordings. However you can view Dorina’s work HERE. You can listen to Anca on soundcloud HERE.

****

One last word: DON’T FORGET TO SAVE THE DATE … Saturday, 24 September 2016 is The BeZine’s 100,000 Poets for Change, an event which we host virtually.  This event is part of an  important annual arts initiative for global solidarity and peace, social justice and sustainability. Reader participation is invited and encouraged. This is a good time to share your work in the service of a worthy cause.  As is our tradition, all submissions will be archived here and at Standford University. Instructions for participation will be provided on our blog that day with Michael Dickel serving as Master of Ceremonies.  Between Michael and me, the event will run from morning in Israel to midnight in California. The theme this year is Environment/Environmental Justice. More detail HERE.

****

Now, come friends.  Read.  Nourish yourselves at our table …

In the spirit of peace, love and community
and on behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines,
Jamie Dedes
Founding and Managing Editor
The BeZine

EDITORIAL

The World in Vigil, by Rev. Ben Meyers

THEME: FAITH IN ALL THINGS SEEN and UNSEEN

Lead Features

Knowing, Michael Watson
Varieties of Faith – Rational and Religous, James R. Cowles
Faith Means Making Choices, Priscilla Galasso
A Perfect World, Naomi Baltuck
Falling But Willing, Joseph Hesch
The Pine Cone Project, John Anstie
Regarding Faith, Corina Ravenscraft

Essays

A Month of Light, Imen Benyoub
The Blessed Mother: She Reminds Me of Who I Am and Who I Should Be, Fr. Daniel S. Sormani, C.S.Sp.
A Little Story of Faith, Mendes Biondo
NOTIONS OF THE SACRED: Poetry as Spritual Practice, Jamie Dedes
The Grandmother I Didn’t See, Connie Spearing

Speculative Flash Fiction

Moshe’s House in Space, Michael Dickle

Poetry

Rhetoric Introspection, Anca Mihaela Bruma
Our Autumn Spring, Anca Mihaela Bruma
Hindsight, Anca Mihaela Bruma

Unidos en Cristo, a poem in English y en español, Jamie Dedes

Three Poems, Michael Dickel
En Gedi, Michael Dickel
Hybrid: Warm Hunger, Michael Dickel

Lost Behind Clouds in Skies of Blue, Joseph Hesch
Hang in There, Joseph Hesch

And the Village Still Sings for Taha Muhammad Ali, Patricia Leighton

Coverage, Silva Merjanian

Passing, Terri Muuss
What Heals, Terri Muuss

Tanyou (In Search of Quietude), Matt Pasca
Silence, Matt Pasca
Toll, Matt Pasca
When Joy Breaks, Matt Pasca

Bring all those who are led astray out of the desert, Sandra Renew

3 a.m., Myra Schneider

prayer for shadows, Aprilia Zank

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

Terri Muuss, Over Exposed

CONNECT WITH US

IMG_0234Beguine Again, Spiritual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine (currently in the process of updating), our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

Posted in The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

June 2016, Vol. 2/Issue 9; The Joys of Friendship

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

June 15, 2016

“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief” Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship: Such a homely topic and yet where would we be without friends, whether from childhood or new to us in retirement, whether with family, schoolmates, coworkers, online or in the flesh, our friends do indeed double our joys and make our grieving more bearable. Friends may share specific times in our lives or specific values and interests. Each friend is without a doubt among the great treasures of life and living.

This month our contributing writers and our guests explore the wide range of friendships, their observations and notably, their gratitude. From newborn friendships to one that has stood the great test of time and is in its sixtieth year, from friends who share our family life to those who accompany us in retirement, all are savored this month.

Many of our reader-faves are back this month. Writing on theme Contributing Editor Priscilla Galasso, and Contributing Writers John Anstie, Corina Ravenscraft, Naomi Baltuck, Liliana Negoi and Charlie Martin. Frequent guest contributors Imen Benyoub and Aprilia Zank share their world-class poetry.

Poet Maggie MacKay debuted with us last month. We’re delighted to bring another of her poems to you today. We extend a warm welcome to poet Patricia Leighton, new to our pages.

Fathers can be our greatest champions and friends and we celebrate Father’s Day with Juan Felipe Herrera, former poet laureate of the United States. He’s a joy. Don’t miss that feature.

In our “More Light” section: We continue our well-received “Getting to Know You” series this month with interviews of Silva Merjanian, a frequent guest contributor, and Michael Watson, a member of the Bardo team from almost the beginning.

With Michael we also explore the consequences of disability in a special collection of features on illness and disability. You’ll find an inspiring piece there about a heroic friend of mine who, despite being legally blind, continues to ply her passion, fine art photography.

Contributing Writer, Joe Hesch, and Mendes Biondo – Mendes debuted with us last month – share their world class poety.

Among the features included in “More Light” is M.J. Tenerelli’s article about the process of publishing a poetry collection – Grabbing the Apple, An Anthology of New York Women Poets – which just launched a few weeks ago.  A long-time friend of The Bardo Group Beguines, Dutch nature artist, Paula Kuitenbrouwer, shares the tranquility in her art, “Lotus Plant” and “Lotus Pond and Tortoise.”

Enjoy all and thank you for being the peace.

On behalf of The Bardo Group, Beguines, and in the spirit of peace, love and community,
Jamie Dedes
Founding and Managing Editor

FRIENDSHIP

Features

Friendship and the Serious Introvert, Priscilla Galasso
You Rock, Naomi Baltuck
Musings on Friendship, Corina Ravenscraft
There Are Friends … and there are Friends, John Anstie
Bonds, Liliana Negoi

Poetry

scars and stars, Imen Benyoub
Eyeing the Landscape, Patricia Leighton
Musing on a Sixty-Year Friendship, Maggie MacKay
of lovers and friends, Charles W. Martin
you really didn’t say that, Charles W. Martin
re: your account, Charles W. Martin
photographs, Aprilia Zank

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

Father’s Day with Juan Felipe Herrera, Performance Artists and former California Poet Laureate

MORE LIGHT

Special Section: Disability

Illness, Disability and Servitude, Michael Watson
Living …. the operative word …. With Disability, Jamie Dedes
Legally Blind Photographer, Wendy Alger, Jamie Dedes

Feature

“Grabbing the Apple” … or, How a Regional Anthology of Women Poets Was Created and Successfully Launced, M. J. Tenerelli

Poetry

In Chorus We Breath, Joseph Hesch
It’s spring, folk!, Mendes Biondo

Art

“Lotus Plant” & “Lotus Pond with Tortoise”, Paula Kuitenbrouwer

Getting to Know You

Silva Merjanian, From War-torn Lebanon to Peace in California
Dreaming the World, An Interview with Michael Watson

IMG_9671CONNECT WITH US

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team, contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll where you can also find links to archived issues of The BeZine, our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

Posted in Beguine Again, General Interest, Peace & Justice, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

MAY 2016, Vol.2/Issue 8; Books That Changed Our Lives

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

May 15, 2016

Books are a uniquely portable magic.
Stephen King, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”

Books are a primary way we get to travel, meet new people, and learn about the world and the human condition outside the narrow confines of our personal concerns, our families and communities. They are indeed magic: they inform, heal, spur us to action, offer new perspectives, new ways of being in the world and – perhaps most important – they open us to the joys and suffering of others.

In this month’s lead feature, Algerian poet, writer, university student and frequent contributor to The BeZine, Imen Benyoub, tells how three important books that focus on war and genocide teach us about “courage, tolerance, love and sacrifice” and bear witness to “how generous and resilient a human spirit can be, even in the darkest times.”

Imen’s feature is suggestive of The BeZine‘s raison d’etre: to come together from different parts of the world, different cultures, races and creeds, to show our soft underbelly, our most human side in the interest of peace. We are here to quietly be ourselves, to share and in so doing to recognize one another as sister and brother, not “other.” If one of us bleeds, we all bleed. Let us not be silent in the face of daily brutalities. Pens, not swords, open minds and hearts and heal our world. This month – as always – our writers represent a diversity of nations, religions (or lack of), ethnicities and cultures. While this is an English language publication, not all of our writers have English as a first language.

Lilianna Negoi and Contributing Editor, Priscilla Galasso, get us started at the beginning, our early childhood reading. Lana Phillips tells the touching story of comfort in reading Red Shoes for Nancy about a girl older than she who was also living with disability. Corina Ravenscraft tells us how two books made a substantive difference in her life and way of being in the world. Michael Watson says in his essay:

Being an avid reader, I have developed a suspicion that, like the Great Weathers, almost any book can change one’s life for good or ill, and that timing has a lot to do with the outcome.

James R. Cowles’ essay, Escaping Into Reality, offers a lot to think about (as his essays always do) and Mendes Biondo (new to our pages) tells us of personal growth and changes in perspective fostered by an encounter with The Cannon of 20th Century Greek poet, Costantino Cavafy.

We move on to poetry by several of our core team members: John Anstie’s profound Looking South (looking back) with Frodo Baggins; Joe Hesch’s well-crafted and honest poems Schwund und Reue (Loss and Regret) and Confessions of Light-reading Poet; Naomi Baltuck combines a poem by Alice Lowe with her signature photo-storytelling; Charlie Martin loves too many books; Liliana Negoi writes movingly and vividly of reading.

We have several newcomers to our pages this month. We are delighted to introduce poets Joshua Medsker, whose poem is included with the themed pieces and, under the More Light section, Miki Byrne, Sakshi Chanana and Maggie Mackay. Please be sure to welcome them with “likes” and comments. Read their bios HERE.

Also under More Light are Naomi Baltuck’s always engaging photo-stories. We close with a charming art piece from Marlyn Exconde and her children.

Enjoy! … and be the peace …

Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

LEAD FEATURE

Three books. Three cities: Sarajevo, Warsaw, and Lod … stories about music, war, friendship and survival…, Imen Benyoub

THEME FEATURES

Essays and Photo Stories

The First Book That Shaped Me, Lilianna Negoi
Books That Change Lives, Priscilla Galasso
Red Shoes for Nancy, Lana Phillips
Books That Changed My Life, Corina Ravenscraft
Books and Great Weather, Michael Watson
Escaping Into Reality, James R. Cowles
May there be many a summer morning …, Mendes Biondo

Poems

Looking South with Frodo Baggins, John Anstie (essay & poem)
A Merry Literary Christmas, Naomi Baltuck and Alice Lowe
Schwund und Reue, Joseph Hesch
Confessions of a Light-reading Poet, Joseph Hesch
too many loves, Charles W. Martin
The Poetic Books, Joshua Medsker
Night Light, Liliana Negoi

MORE LIGHT

Poetry

Tying Coats on Elephants, Miki Byrne
Drugs on the Street, Miki Byrne
Blood and Money, Miki Byrne
Transience, Sakshi Chanana
Silver and Gold, Maggie Mackay
Anosmia, Maggie Mackay

Photo Stories

A Peace of My Mind, Naomi Baltuck
The Mistery of Life, Naomi Baltick
Lullaby of Life, Naomi Baltick

Art

Magic Is Your Name, Marlyn Exconde and Children

IMG_9671CONNECT WITH US

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll to your left along with archived issues of The BeZine, our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

Posted in Michael Dickel, Poems/Poetry, Poets/Writers, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

April 2016, Vol. 2/Issue 7 ~ Celebrating Poetry Month

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

15 April 2016
Poetry Month

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

I. The Burial of the Dead

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten.
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.…

A tidal wave of poetry, perhaps.

Michael Dickel, Contributing Editor

While Eliot declares the cruelty of April, April also happens to be National Poetry Month in the United States and Canada. In our online, social media world, it has become an international celebration of poetry as well. To join in this celebration, we in the Bardo Group Beguines dedicate the April issue each year to poetry. Many of us who write regularly for The BeZine are poets, and we usually include poetry. So, for us, it is a happy celebration—nothing cruel about it!

And what a wide-ranging celebration we offer in the 2016 National Poetry Month The BeZine issue! W. B. Yeats is oft quoted as saying, “What can be explained is not poetry.” So I won’t explain. I will tell you that Terri Muuss’ poem, “Thirteen Levels of Heaven,” takes you far and wide in a few grains of sand. “The Other Woman,” Imen Benyoub’s heart-wrenching poem, is not who you think—but in the current global storm of conflict and national political climate, indeed, she is Other. Michael Rothenberg’s “Poem for Mitko” personalizes the news we hear by imagining its impact on our mutual friend, Macedonian poet Mitko Gogov.

What these three featured poems have in common is their ability to take the intimate, the personal, the real moments of every day life, and reflect in and from them larger issues of humanity and life. Each describes very specific, personal scenes. According to Joy Harjo, “It’s possible to understand the world from studying a leaf.” And all of these poems open our eyes wide to the world. Sharon Olds tells an interviewer about poets she admires: “Their spirits and their visions are embodied in their craft. And so is mine.” And so are the spirits and visions of the authors gathered here.

“It may also be the case that any genuine work of art generates new work,” Donald Barthelme tells us in a Paris Review interview. As you read the poems, essays, interviews, and reviews in this month’s issue, I imagine that they will generate new art for you. Whether the art of living, the art of knowing others, or “the Arts,” you will want to do more of it after reading what we offer this month.

Last year, the Second Light Network of Women Poets (SLN) collaborated with The BeZine during April to present poetry from the SLN. In this year’s issue, you can read more about the network in “SECOND LIGHT NETWORK, showcasing the ambitious poetry of ambitious women.”  Jamie Dedes’ essay “POET, TEACHER, INSPIRATION: Dilys Wood and the Latter-day Saphos” also sheds light on Dilys Wood, founder of the SLN. This year, in my dual roles of contributing editor here at The BeZine and associate editor at The Woven Tale Press, I have served as liaison in a new collaboration. The works specifically from the collaboration appear in their own section in the table of contents below.

However, the whole issue represents collaboration—not only between the two publications, but between all of the writers. We work together, as a community. In putting this all together with Jamie Dedes and my Bardo Group Beguines and Woven Tale Press colleagues, I came to realize how many of the poets here I know personally—separately from these two publications. We all come from an organic online writing community. By organic, I mean through no organized effort or special social website.

After years of knowing Michael Rothenberg through email and Facebook, I only finally met him in person this past summer. Terri Muuss and I met at Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village, also years ago, where her husband, Matt Pasca (who also has appeared in The BeZine), Adeena Karasick, and I performed one lovely evening. All four of us keep in touch through Facebook now.

I met gary lundy a long time ago and have spent time together, including road trips and as roommates for a few months. However, most of our friendship has been sustained and maintained by email and online connections—dating back to before any of us had heard of Facebook. UK poet Reuven Woolley, Romanian poet Liliana Negoi, Natasha Head, as well as Jamie Dedes and the rest of the Bardo Group Beguines, I only know “virtually.” Until a few months ago, the same was true for The Woven Tale Press publisher and editor-in-chief, Sandra Tyler.

Today, the world of poetry, as with everything else, has transformed under the influences of technology and social media. Last year, I spoke to a graduate-student seminar about social media, poetry, and the latest wave of “democratization of poetry.” That discussion evolved into the foreword of The Art of Being Human, Vol. 14, which you can read in this issue as “(Social) Media(ted) (Democratic) Poetry.”

I won’t try to count how many waves of “democratic” trends in poetry have washed up on the beach. A couple of centuries ago, poets were concerned “just anybody” might write poetry, and they didn’t think that was such a good idea. Some probably still don’t. Free verse and the Beats in the mid-Twentieth Century have been associated with the idea, for better or worse, depending on who made the association.

Today, poetry slams usually involve actual voting, as do many online sites. Self-publishing has become easy and cheap, so anyone could have a book who wants to, now. As a result of all of this, editors—such as those putting together a special poetry issue—serve much more as curators than as the gate-keepers of old. So, we may be in one of the greatest ever waves of “democratic” poetry.

A tidal wave of poetry, perhaps.

Don’t worry. While it will wash over you and change you, you won’t drown. Enjoy the poetry, writing about poetry, and other work presented here for your celebratory pleasure!

“There is something in me maybe someday
to be written; now it is folded, and folded,
and folded, like a note in school.”
― Sharon Olds

Table of Contents

Featured

POEMS

ESSAYS, INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS

WOVEN TALE PRESS COLLABORATION

SECOND LIGHT NETWORK

IMG_9671CONNECT WITH US

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll to your left along with archived issues of The BeZine, our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

March 2016, Vol. 2/Issue 6 ~The Joys of Nature: Wilderness, Gardens and Green Spaces

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

March 15, 2016

With this issue, we bring to center stage a relationship in which we are all engaged in one way or another – our relationship to this Place. Call it Nature or Earth or Gaia or Creation, this is where all of us are born, where we will live our lives, and where we will die.

Does this place have a Spirit of its own? Does it have a will? How does it relate to us?

Those are some of the questions behind the pondering, the exploring, the dreaming and the planning that is communicated here in our writing, in our songs, in our art, and in our work.

Taking the lead in preparing this issue has been a great adventure for me. It has challenged me to hold the lens of Place in front of my eyes more intentionally and to listen more closely to the voices of those who look through different spectacles. It is my hope that the contents here will encourage sharper focus on this relationship for all of our readers.

I am delighted to have Michael Watson’s piece “The Gift of Relationship” to launch our journey. The essay “I Love This Place!” follows and establishes the Lead Features. John Anstie offers “An Alternative View of Nature” so that we might ponder not only joy, but also humility and personal cost in this relationship. This piece also ushers in our first Poetry section for this month. Nature provides so many metaphorical images that bloom into greater understanding as we ponder our interaction with the world. We have a marvelous cornucopia of poems from Zen-like to Romantic from our core members and newcomers to our group, a true garden of delights, broken into two sections: shade and full sun. (Can you tell I enjoy running with a theme?!)

So often the weight and depth of a crucial relationship is handled most gracefully in a good story. Naomi Baltuck is one of my favorite storytellers! She makes me feel the magic of my purest attempts to make meaning, the ones I began as a child. And she always includes great pictures! She offers a selection of her tales in our Story Corner.

Art and Photography are natural mediums for portraying this beloved Place. In this section, Michael Dickel will challenge your assumptions about the Holy Land and show you the true Nature of that country in personal photos…and then invite you to examine your perspective further in “Capturing and Interpreting Light”.

Two exceptional Essays put some real heartwood into this issue. “Staying Wild: How the Wilderness Act Changed My Life” by Annick Smith describes living the idea and practice of wilderness and illustrates a real alternative to human ‘trammeling’.  “Let’s Hear It For The Bees! (Parts 1-3)” by Tish Farrell provides some important information about a current environmental crisis – a wake-up call to the vulnerability of Nature.

Liliana Negoi next surrounds us with Green Light – two creative non-fiction essays to stimulate luminous musing.

After the Full Sun section of our Poetry garden, we offer some cool Music with tight harmony and a timeless message.

In More Green Light, we gaze on “Life in Ordinary Time”, “Unseen”.  Finally, “Who Is She?” introduces our Getting To Know You subject, the poet Joseph Hesch.

Variety, diversity, fecundity, liveliness – yep, this issue looks like Wilderness, Gardens and Green Spaces.  I hope you enjoy exploring and engaging in this small space and that it inspires you to deeper and broader and higher interaction with the larger Place where we all live. –

Priscilla Galasso
Contributing Writer/Associate Editor

c Michael Dickel
c Michael Dickel

THEME:
The Joys of Nature: Wilderness, Gardens and Green Spaces

Lead Features

The Gift of Relationship, Michael Watson
I Love This Place, Priscilla Galasso

Poetry (Shade)

An Alternative View of Nature, John Anstie
flies, Michael Dickel
Gardens, Ampat Koshy
Green Spaces, Ampat Koshy
Noctune, Sharon Frye
Rock Quarry, Corina Ravenscraft
Wilderness, Ampat Koshy

Story Corner

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Naomi Baltuck
Birds of a Feather, Naomi Baltuck

Art/Photography

Holy Nature Land, Michael Dickel
Capturing and Interpreting the Light, Michael Dickel

Essays

Staying Wild: How the Wilderness Act Changed My Life, Annick Smith
Three Bees, Two Bees, One Bee (Bees, Part 1), Tish Farrell
Let’s Hear It for the Bees – Hooray! (Bees, Part 2), Tish Farrell
Bee-ing Bee-Minded (Bees, Part 3), Tish Farrell
Nothing More, Liliana Negoi
Gardening Tools, Liliana Negoi

Poetry (Full Sun)

Haiku, Liliana Negoi
Lackadaisy, Sharon Frye
Nemeton Unfaded, Corina Ravenscraft
purple fates, Liliana Negoi
The Republic of Innocence, Jamie Dedes
Watching the World, Sharon Frye

Music

Let There Be Peace on Earth

More Green Light

Life in Ordinary Time, Virginia Galfo
Unseen, Tiramit
Who Is She, Joseph Hesch

Getting to Know You

Interview with Joseph Hesch

IMG_1750Connect with us …

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

Access to the biographies of our core team contributing writers and guest writers is in the blogroll to your left along with archived issues of The BeZine, our Mission Statement and Submission Guidelines.

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

February 2016, Vol.2/Issue 5 ~ Theme: All God’s Creatures

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

15 February 2016

“All God’s Creatures” … and what a menagerie we have, mostly dogs, cats and human beings … okay, a spider, a pig, a frog, a fly and a few birds.

This is a fun issue, though it has its inspirational moments too with the themed lead features by our premier essayists, Michael Watson and Priscilla Galasso; a lesson in detente from our resident Cannoness, Terri Stewart; and with characteristic grace, good criter-loving book recommendations and a call for compassion from Corina Ravenscraft. Judith Westerfield is back for a visit with An Amnesty for Daddy Longlegs, a short piece with a double-edge.

Under humor, Mafia Cats (Roger McGough) and The Pig (Roald Dahl) should put smiles on your faces.

For the poetry lovers, there is quite a collection of poems in both the themed section and under “More Light.” Michael Dickel and John Anstie share themed poems.

Core team member, Joseph Hesch, offers two signature pieces – one poem, one flash fiction – and resident skeptic, James R. Cowels, tickles our brains with Life, Death, and the “Establishment Clause.”

Under art, check out Gretchen Del Rio’s beautiful spirit-animal paintings of my grand-kitty, Gypsy Rose.

Aprilia Zand is back – Hooray! – this time with a poem.

New in this issue with impressive bios and even more impressive work: Roger Allen Baut, Ann Bracken, Christi Moon and Judith Black.

You’ll enjoy a couple of true adventures in the Storytelling section with Judith Black in Turkey. She’s a funny lady.

Under best practices learn how Zena Hagerty and fellow artists turned the James Street area of Hamilton, Ontario from a rough neighborhood into an arts enclave where art crawls are held regularly, pulling the community together.

The featured interviews this month are Sharon Frye, Matt Pasca, Michael Dickel and Charlie Martin. All the interviews offer value added by virtue of vision and wisdom.

Many thanks to Michael Dickel for introducing Ann Bracken and Matt Pasca, to Naomi Baltuck for introducing Judith Black, and to Native American Girl for the music selection.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think in the comments section and with your likes. Thanks for joining with us in the celebration of life, love and art.

In the spirit of peace and community,
Jamie Dedes
Managing Editor

THEME: ALL GOD’S CHILDREN

Lead Features

At the Bird Feeder, Michael Watson
All that Matters, Priscilla Galasso
Reflections on Snowy Owl and Raven, Terri Stewart
Animal Stories, Corina Ravenscraft
Campaigning for Compassion, Corina Ravenscraft
Giving Amnesty to Daddy Longlegs, Judith Westerfield

Humor

Mafia Cats, Roger McGough
The Pig, Roald Dahl
Cat v Comma, Grammerly

Poetry

A Dog’s Life, John Anstie
Snow Dog, John Anstie
Frog, Michael Dickel
Fancy Flight, Michael Dickel
Reading the Signs, Aprilia Zank

Art

The Several Faces of Gypsy Rose, art/Gretchen Del Rio, words/Jamie Dedes

MORE LIGHT

Special Feature/Best Practice

How One City’s Artists Transformed a “Rough’ Neighborhood into an Arts Enclave, Zena Hagerty

Storytelling

Welcome to Istanbul, Not Constantinople, Judith Black
Stray Dogs and Shtreimels: What Does Istanbul and Mea Shearim Have in Common?, Judith Black

Poetry

Ghost Dance, Roger Allen Baut
The Code, Ann Bracken
Transformation, Joseph Hesch
Musicman, Christi Moon
Dandelions, Christi Moon
Nyctalopia, Christi Moon

Flash Fiction

Kansas Pacific, Joseph Hesch

Essay

Life, Death, and the “Establishment Clause”, James R. Cowles

Music

Red Shift Blues, The Sweet Lowdown
Chickens Under the Washtub and Western Country, The Sweet Lowdown

Getting to Know You

Interview with Sharon Gariepy Frye, a.k.a. Sharon Frye
Interview with Matt Pasca
Educating the Teacher: Poet to Poet, Ann Bracken and Michael Dickel
Charles W. Martin and the Ever-loveable Aunt Bea

Connect with us …

Beguine Again, Spirtual Community and Practice

Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Twitter, The Bardo Group Beguines

 

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine Table of Contents

The BeZine, 15 Jan. 2016, Vol.2, Issue 4 (Parents and Parenting), Table of Contents with Links

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

Published by Second Light Network of Women Poets, Parents, an anthology of poems by women writers (Enitharmon/Second Light, 2000) was the inspiration for this month’s theme. What a wonderful idea. Parents are after all universal, even when the one who parents is a surrogate. This month The Bardo Group Beguines and friends have taken on parenting as well as parents and  present an interesting blend of insights and experience.

BUDDHA AS PARENT

Young Prince Rāhula prompted by his mother to ask for his inheritance, left behind by the Buddha after His renunciation. Instead, the Buddha told Venerable Sariputta (Sariputra) to ordain Prince Rāhula, giving him a spiritual inheritance better than the one he asked for.
Young Prince Rāhula prompted by his mother to ask for his inheritance, left behind by the Buddha after His renunciation. Instead, the Buddha told Venerable Sariputta (Sariputra) to ordain Prince Rāhula, giving him a spiritual inheritance better than the one he asked for.

The lead feature, Buddha as Parent, is by Gil Fronsdal.  Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982. In 1995 he received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Gil currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. He is the primary teacher at the Redwood City Insight Meditation Center in California and he teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California where he is part of the Teacher’s Council. His books include the ever popular Issue at Hand: Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness and A Monastery Within: Tales from the Buddhist Path.

If you have read the life story of Buddha, you may have been disconcerted to find as I was that the Buddha was an absentee father. Gil says however:

“…that after his awakening, the Buddha became his son’s primary parent for most of the boy’s childhood. From the time Rāhula was seven, he was under the care of his father, who proved to be a remarkably effective parent: Rāhula had reached full awakening by the time he reached adulthood. So we can ask, what kind of parent was the Buddha?”

In exploring the Buddha as a parent, we get some insight into how we too might bequeath a spiritual inheritance.

c Corina Ravenscraft
c Corina Ravenscraft

We move on to read Corina Ravenscraft’s touching feature Art Lessons about the support and inspiration her artist mother provided and Priscilla Galasso’s The Nature of Nurture, about her experience of parenting.

“Parenting is a living thing, a responsive dance with biology, and although we humans are biologically social creatures, heavy-handed social structure can strangle our relationships and bind us into damaging patterns.”

Resident storyteller Naomi Baltuck – whose family wins the award for most original family photos and best costume parties – generously offers two of her wise photo stories on theme.

We have a rich collection of poems under both “Parents and Parenting” and the “More Light” section. These include works by three poets proudly added to our pages: award-winning New York poet, Matt Pasca along with Lance Sheridan and Ampat Varghese Koshy.  Incuded among the poets are Myra Schneider and Dilys Wood, who share their poems from the anthology, Parents.

Under music you’ll find Walkin’ Home, so beautifully written and sung by Iris DeMent.

James Cowels and John Anstie offer thought-provoking essays under “More Light” and Marlyn Suarez-Exconde – also new to our pages – combines words and art into a pleasant nugget of wisdom.

Getting to Know You, a new section, features charming interviews of team members, Cornia Ravenscraft and Priscilla Galasso.

Read. Learn. Laugh. Cry … share your thoughs in the comment sections and show your appreciation of contributors with “likes.”  Join us next month for “All God’s Creatures.”

Special thanks to Moshe Dickel for letting us use his painting for this month’s header, to team member, Michael Dickel, for introducing Matt Pesca, and to award-winning British poet Anne Stewart for her kind and constant assistance in getting permissions for me from writers and publishers in the UK.

Don’t forget to visit The BeZine sister site, the spiritual community, Beguine Again, where you can enjoy Terri Stewart’s inspirational posts for daily spiritual practice. These have been well-received and are beginning to go viral.  Bravo!

On behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines and in the spirit of peace and community,
Jamie Dedes
Managing Editor

PARENTS and PARENTING

Lead Feature:

Budda as Parent, Gil Fronsdale

Parent:

Art Lessons, Corina Ravenscraft

Parenting:

The Nature of Nurture, Priscilla Galasso

Memoir

Remembering Mom, Jamie Dedes

Photostories

Magnum Opus, Naomi Baltuck
Back Down to Earth, Naomi Baltic

Poetry:

Squeezing a Penny, Jamie Dedes
Nursery Rhymed, Michael Dickel
Hearts and Glowers, Joseph Hesch
Three Poems by Ampat Koshy, Ampat Varghese Koshy
Jigsaw Puzzle, Charles Martin
Walking Around Monaco, Matt Pasca
Soup and Slavery, Myra Schneider
Christmas Fare, Dilys Wood

Music:

Walkin’ Home, Iris DeMent

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

An Interview of Corina Ravenscraft
An Interview of Priscilla Galasso

MORE LIGHT

Art:

When the Heart Speaks, Marlyn Suarez-Exconde

Essay:

Individual Responsibility … Whose job is this?, John Anstie
Sailing with the Ancient Mariner, James R. Cowles

Poems:

Bullied Into Insanity, Brian Crandal
Compassion, Michael Dickel
Grace, Matt Pasca
Into the Darkness … A Mugging, Lance Sheridan

Further Connections

Beguine Again, Spiitual Community and Practice

Brief Biographies of Core Team and Contributors

For updates and inspiration “Like” us on Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Track our Tweets at The Bardo Group Beguines

MISSION STATEMENT

Back Issues Archive
October/November 2014, First Issue
December 2014, Preparation
January 2015, The Divine Feminine
February 2015, Abundance/Lack of Abundance
March 2015, Renewal
April 2015, interNational Poetry Month
May 2015, Storytelling
June 2015, Diversity
July 2015, Imagination and the Critical Spirit
August 2015, Music
September 2015, Poverty (100TPC)
100,000 Poets for Change, 2015 Event
October 2015, Visual Arts (First Anniversary Issue)
The BeZine, Volume 2, Issue 1, Nov. 2015 (At-risk Youth)
The BeZine, Volume 2, Dec. 2015 (Waging Peace, An Interfaith Exploration & The Hero’s Journey)

Posted in Bardo News, Beguine Again, General Interest, justice, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

The BeZine, 15 Dec. 2015, Vol. 2, Issue 2-3 (Waging Peace and The Hero’s Journey)

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

15 December 2015

When we planned this issue we planned to focus on “The Hero’s Journey.” We have done that, but events this past month also led to a spontaneous eleventh-hour addition,  a special section, Waging Peace. Thank you to Rabbi Gershon Steinberg-Caudill, Rev. Ben Meyers, Father Daniel Sormani, C.S. Sp., Sophia Ali-Khan, the Unitarian Universalists of the San Francisco Bay/Peninsula, Michael Dickel, the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi and to Carla Prater, the assistant director of Buddhist Global Relief for her help.

Rabbi SteinBerg-Caudill is a Jewish teacher who espouses a Jewish Spirituality and Universalist teaching for the future brotherhood of all people. When I wrote to him about this effort he reminded me of what surely should be foremost in our minds and hearts:

“The Hebrew word for PEACE – שלום – does not imply a lack of strife. It implies instead WHOLENESS, COMPLETION. If one is in a state of peace, he can still be whole in a time of chaos.”

Rev. Meyers of the Unitarian Universalists of San Mateo also counsels inner peace with his You are the promise … the one … the hope. Rev. Meyers says:

“I understand and often share the ‘urge of urgency’ over the peacefulness of peace. But this I also know: We live at the intersection of action and reflection.”

Father Sormani, a Spiritan priest (a Catholic) who has lived and worked in Algeria and Dubai and is now teaching theology at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philipines, asks What Have We Done that People Can Pick-up Weapons and Kill. Father Dan says:

“We have become our own worst enemy. Whenever we separate the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’, whenever we accept blind generalizations and cease to see a unique individual before us, whenever we forget we are all victims of carefully orchestrated deceit and deception for wealth and power, the force of darkness wins. Bullets will never win this struggle, only the heart and mind will.”

The Unitarian Universalist clerics of the San Francisco Bay/Peninsula share their open letter  – With Faith in Love Beyond All Beliefs – encouraging the support of Muslims in our communities.

Lest you’ve missed Sofia Ali-Khan‘s letter, Dear Non-Muslim Allies, which has been making the rounds on Facebook and was also recently picked up by some mainstream media, we’ve included it here.

We’ve also included a video recitation of Tunisian poet Anis Chouchéne‘s profoundly moving poem against racism and fanaticism. Chouchène speaks directly to radical Islam  … but I think you’ll agree that ultimately he speaks to all of us in our fear and ignorance.

“Peace we keep an eye on/while it packs its bags/to abandon our lands, little by little …”

Chouchène concludes as Father Dan does, that we must be able to see the individual.

Michael Dickel‘s poem Mosquitoes (excerpt from his chapbook, War Surrounds Us) is included. The poem starts out with Israelis and Palestinians crossing the artificial lines that divide to offer one another condolences on the deaths of their children.  This is a favored poem of mine, especially so because The Bardo Group Bequines was formed to – in effect – cross boarders. Our mission statement is HERE. Michael spins the poem on to show how we are manipulated by the propaganda machine. Michael Dickel, Father Dan and Bkikkhu Bodhi are of a mind on this.

We’ve included a short video presentation on the seven steps to peace developed by peace activist, Rabbi Marc Gopin. Director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) and co-owner of MEJDI, “a peace tourism business that embraces the multiple narratives of indigenous peoples.”

The Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition, an author and teacher. He is the founder of Buddhist Global Relief.  With permission, we offer his 2015 talk given at the New Year’s Interfaith Prayer Service, Chuang Yen Monastery. In the same spirit as Rabbi SteinBerg Cadhill and Rev. Ben Meyer, Bhikkhu Bodhi says:

“Real peace is not simply the absence of violent conflict but a state of harmony: harmony between people; harmony between humanity and nature; and harmony within ourselves. Without harmony, the seeds of conflict and violence will always be ready to sprout.“

Bhikku Bodhi goes on to analyze the obstacles to achieving world peace, the prerequisites of peace, and the means to realizing these goals.

So here we are attempting to untie the ropes that bind us …  certainly a hero’s journey … unchosen as hero’s journeys often are. Under our themed section, we explore the journey in its many manifestations – in its parts and in it’s whole – with features, fiction, memoir, and poems by John Anstie, James Cawles, Michael Dickel, Priscilla Galasso, Joseph Hesch, Charlie Martin, Corina Ravenscraft and Terri Stewart. Under “more light” – we can always use that, eh? – we have photo-stories from Naomi Baltuck, a poem from Brain Crandall and an essay from Michael Watson.

Special Announcement

Last week we unveiled our new community website thanks to long and hard work by Terri Stewart and generous funding by the Pacific Northwest United Methodist Church.  You can read all about it HERE. You can visit it HERE.  Please enjoy but also be patient, the tech gremlins are still at work. This site is set-up (both design and intention) to facilitate more participation with and among readers.

On behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines and in the spirit of love and community, Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

Thanks to poet and artist K.A. Brice (Mirror Obscura) for our fabulous December header.

Table of Contents with Links

Waging Peace
An Interfaith Exploration

You are the promise . . . the one . . . the hope, Rev. Ben Meyers, Unitarian Universalist cleric

What Have We Done That People Can Pick Up Weapons and Kill?, Fr. Daniel Sormani, C.S.Sp., Catholic Priest

With Faith In Love Beyond All Beliefs, an open letter, Unitarian Universalist clerics

Dear Non-Muslim Allies,  Sofia Ali-Khan, Muslim activist for understanding

Peace Be Upon You, شوشان – سلام عليكم, Tunisian poet, Anis Chouchène, Muslim

Mosquitoes, American-Israeli poet, Michael Dickel, Jewish

Peace Steps: One Man’s Journey Into the Heart of His Enemies, Rabbi Mark Gopin, Jewish

Waging Peace, Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, Buddhist

December’s Theme
The Hero’s Journey

When a Hero Needs a Hero

I think I need a hero, Colin Stewart

Lead Pieces

Mankind: The Modern Mystery and Myth, Priscilla Galasso
The Hero’s Journey and the Void Within: Poetics for Change, Michael Dickel
Hero Worship, a poem, Michael Dickel
Sailing with Ulysses, James R. Cowles

Fiction

Who Cries for Icarus?, Joseph Hesch

Poetry

Courage, Joseph Hesch
local heroes, Charles W. Martin
~ Lifted ~, Corina Ravenscraft
~ Epic Everyday ~, Corina Ravenscraft
Heroes Seldom Wear Capes, Terri Stewart

Memoir/Family History

The Major, a poem, John Anstie
Real Heroes, Part 1, John Anstie
Real Heroes, Part 2, John Anstie

More Light

Photostories

Pondering, Naomi Baltuck
The Same Boat, Naomi Baltuck

Poetry

Let the Children Come, Brian Crandall
A Dream Walker Hands You The Door, Michael Dickel

Essay

We’re Still Here, Michael Watson

Further Connections

Our Community Site: Beguine Again

Brief Biographies of Core Team and Contributors

For updates and inspiration “Like” us on Facebook, The Bardo Group Beguines

Track our Tweets at The Bardo Group Beguines

MISSION STATEMENT

Back Issues Archive
October/November 2014, First Issue
December 2014, Preparation
January 2015, The Divine Feminine
February 2015, Abundance/Lack of Abundance
March 2015, Renewal
April 2015, interNational Poetry Month
May 2015, Storytelling
June 2015, Diversity
July 2015, Imagination and the Critical Spirit
August 2015, Music
September 2015, Poverty (100TPC)
100,000 Poets for Change, 2015 Event
October 2015, Visual Arts (First Anniversary Issue)
The BeZine, Volume 2, Issue 1, Nov. 2015 (At-risk Youth)

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine, The BeZine Table of Contents

The BeZine, Volume 2, Issue 1, Nov. 2015 (At-risk Youth)

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

15 November 2015

Welcome to our first issue that is focusing on at-risk youth. Our mission today in our topical section is to share stories and poems that cause us to think about youth in a different way. Who are at-risk youth? Where are they?

Often, they seem invisible to the world until they are splashed across the news in dramatic headlines. We can all remember the photos of dead children washing up on the seashore…refugees fleeing Syria. And in the US, just a few days ago, a young boy, age 8, killed a 1 year old. Why? Because he was the babysitter in charge and she would not stop crying. I am often appalled at the reactions we have to children with extreme behaviors. What skills do we expect an 8 year old to have?

Sigh.

And so, we, at The Bardo Group, have written of the children of the world that are marginalized and at-risk for a wide range of disasters. This is a special topic for me. I run the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition which provides chaplaincy and mentoring to incarcerated youth. I have included three pieces in this edition that are close to my heart. One, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. This poem is the first one I wrote in reaction to the stories I heard in detention. I wanted to put the parents, and God, on trial. And so I did. I wasn’t happy with the answer I received! And yet, it gave me so much hope. The second piece, an essay titled Mentoring At-Risk Youth, tells you a little more directly about who I am and what I do. Last, is the poem, A True Story. You may guess that it is a true event and you would be correct! It happened this year and it made me very angry.

St. Augustine says, ““Hope has two beautiful daughters – their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

Hope, anger and courage have driven me to move through the pain and challenge of working with these particular youth.

A small collection from people I work with that all explore what it is like to work with incarcerated youth. They are all new to the BeZine so let’s give them a resounding welcome! Justin Almeida offers an essay, Finding Life in Detention. Lisa Ashley, MDIV, has a poem, at risk youth, that names what is really at risk when you work with youth in detention—your heart is at risk!  And Natasha Burrowes drops the mic in Untitled.

Closely related to Natasha’s discussion of who is really at risk is Charles Martin’s, at risk… It is a great question. Who is really at risk when we allow our children to be the victims of poverty, crime, and other forces? Is it really just the child? Or is there something larger?

Incarcerated youth, across the board, have increased rates of trauma when compared to other youth. The ACES test (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores incarcerated youth as having a 92 out of 100. I think I would be a bowl of jello if I had that high of a trauma score. Christina Conroy explores living through a traumatic childhood in her autobiographical poem, Legacy. Also writing autobiographically is Kimberly Wilhelmina Floria in Validating Myself. It made my heart grow two more sizes! Also cracking my heart is Jamie Dedes’ Heading Home autobiographical poem regarding suicide. Sometimes, I wish I knew what that special something is that manages to give children resiliency. Heart breaking. Or I wish I had a magic wand that would right the world’s wrongs.

Also writing from experience is Trace Lara Hentz’s essay, Angel Turned Inside. Lara was introduced to us by Team Member Michael Watson and is new to these pages. Her essay explores the tragedy that was the movement westward in the US and the use of adoption as a weapon against American Indians and First Nations. I am aware of this tragic history because of my knowledge of church history which is horrifyingly replete with church support of taking children from their families and putting them into orphanages.

Knife Notes—a Poem, from Michael Dickel, explores the relationship between the past and the future for Joe. I am especially moved by the truthful reflection of how kids who are hurting treat each other.

“It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.” That is a quote from Washington state’s constitution. Unfortunately, we simply fail our children. John Antsie’s article, Education, Common Sense … and The Future, explores two simple things regarding education-one thing to change and one thing to hope for.

One thing that the youth I work with almost unanimously face is addiction issues. Jamie Dedes’ piece, scag dancing, explores in vivid, concise imagery the relationship between addiction and poverty.

With “Thinking Continually of Those at Risk,” by Priscilla Galasso, you will be surprised at where she starts and where she finishes! She speaks a truth that resonates, “We can so easily provide food, shelter, and opportunity to our youth with the systems we have devised, but those systems have become mine fields where kids are sabotaged on the journey.”

Sometimes we attempt to sabotage journeys with needless judgment regarding what makes a real parent. John Nooney explores his experience of adoption and the sometimes senseless absorption of people asking, “Have you found your birth-mother?” in his essay, Some Thoughts on Adoption.

In my research of how to interrupt the school to prison pipeline, I have found two interesting statistics. One, children who miss 24+ days of Pre-K or Kindergarten are more likely to become incarcerated. And two, children who personally own five books of their own have better life outcomes than those who do not. I have also recently run across an article pointing towards the importance of librarians in achievement for children. Corina Ravenscraft points out the importance of libraries in “These Hallowed Halls of Hope.” Libraries are, indeed, an oasis of peace in a concrete jungle.

One thing is trite but true, it does indeed, take a village to raise our children.

Thank you for moving through my rambling reflections with me. I hope that your heart is moved to consider how we support and work with those who are at-risk.

Shalom & Amen!
Terri Stewart

Theme: At-Risk Youth

Lead Features

Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani, Terri Stewart
Untitled, Natasha Burrowes
Validating Myself, Kimberly Wilhelmina Floria
At-risk, Charles W. Martin

Poetry

Legacy, Christina Conroy
At-risk Youth, Lisa Ashley, MDIV
A True Story, Terri Stewart
Heading Home, Jamie Dedes
Knife Notes—a poem, Michael Dickel
scag dancing, Jamie Dedes

Essays/Features

Mentoring At-Risk Youth, Terri Stewart
Finding Life in Detention, Justin Almeida
Education, Common Sense … and The Future, John Antsie
These Hallowed Halls of Hope, Corina Ravenscraft
Thinking Continually of Those at Risk, Priscilla Galasso
A Teenager Who Fled Syria, NPR and World Vision
Rapid Re-Housing Best Available Crisis Intervention for Homeless Families and Youth, National Alliance to End Homelessness

Special Features: Adoption

November is National Adoption Month in the United States

Some Thoughts on Adoption and “real” parents v adoptive parents, John Nooney
Angel Turned Inside, The Fight for Native American Families, Trace Lara Hentz

General Interest

Poetry

How Can I Justify My Life If I Do Not Justify His Own?, K. A. Bryce
Second Light Network of Women Poets: Celebrating Anothologies of Women’s Poety, Jamie Dedes

Photo Essay

Some Early Seasonal Cheer, Corina Ravenscraft

Photo Story

The Secret Object I Keep Hidden in My Underwear Drawer, Naomi Baltick

Essays

Deportment for the Soul, Sue Vincent

paint-prints-of-youths-hands

BIOS WITH LINKS TO OTHER WORKS BY OUR CORE TEAM AND GUEST WRITERS

FOR UPDATES AND INSPIRATION “LIKE” OUR FACEBOOK PAGE, THE BARDO GROUP/BEGUINE AGAIN

MISSION STATEMENT

Back Issues Archive
October/November 2014, First Issue
December 2014, Preparation
January 2015, The Divine Feminine
February 2015, Abundance/Lack of Abundance
March 2015, Renewal
April 2015, interNational Poetry Month
May 2015, Storytelling
June 2015, Diversity
July 2015, Imagination and the Critical Spirit
August 2015, Music
September 2015, Poverty (100TPC)
100,000 Poets for Change, 2015 Event
October 2015, Visual Arts (First Anniversary Issue)

Posted in General Interest, The BeZine Table of Contents

The BeZine, 15, Oct. 2015, Vol. 1, Issue 12, First Anniversary Edition, Table of Contents with Links

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

15 October 2015

Time does indeed fly and – almost unbelievably –  here we are publishing our first anniversary edition.  It’s been a lot of fun collaborating, batting around ideas, connecting with new contributors and producing a rather remarkable body of work over the course of the last twelve months.

Safe to say we are all grateful to be able to make a contribution – modest as it may be – to peace and understanding.  We are grateful too for the readers who make this work worthwhile. We’re especially grateful to those readers who participated in 100,000 Poets for Change (100TPC) this year.  Thank you! More on that soon.  Meanwhile … for our anniversary issue, the theme is Visual Arts: Shape, Color, Movement and Meaning …

The American graphic designer, Milton Glaser, has said that art is “terribly important” as a survival mechanism, as a means of cultural survival. Good art, he says, “makes us attentive.”  It inspires us to re-engage with what we think something or some circumstance is and see it for what it truly is. It seems our poets have decided to comment on art by using it as inspiration for poetry. Not surprising that. In the light of Glaser’s words, I think this “appropriation” of art for poetry helps to make an even stronger statement of culture and values and moves us closer to the truing of our vision.  “Why ask art into life at all,” asks poet Jane Hirschfeld, “if not to be transformed and enlarged by its presence and mysterious means?”

And so this month we present diverse works of art largely commented upon in poem – ekphrastic or otherwise – or used as a jumping off point and moved into new directions. In some cases the art is the poet’s own photographs or digital art.

New to our pages this month is professional photographer Donatella D’Angello with a set of poems in both Italian and English (translations in collaboration with Michael Dickel) as well as with her photographs, which inspired the poet in Michael.  Our wonderful cover photo (the header) is courtesy of Donatella.  You can enjoy more of her work HERE. Michael tells me “the photos are as shot in the camera. She borrows techniques the Futurists used for motion-studies of long exposures (and subdued lighting, often) and moves into and within the frame (or has her subjects move, but I used all self-portraits in the post).”

Italy stars in three pieces. Two are by Michael Watson who shares photographs and meditations from a trip to Italy. The third is a piece by Michael Dickel on his trip to Salerno this past June for the 100TPC summit.

We are also pleased to introduce Professor Aprilia Zank.  Aprilia is a photographer, poet and literature professor who coordinated the National Beat Festival in Munich this year. We hope to share more of her work here in the future.

We start with the graphics produced around the world to promote 100TPC and move on to Priscilla Galasso’s “Art, Time and Love,” which is as thoughtful and characteristically provocative as her work always is.  You’ll find two of Naomi Baltuck’s wonderful photo-stories, artwork by Corina Ravenscraft, and a flash fiction piece by Liliana Negoi … All alongside the aforementioned wealth of poems. Enjoy … Let us know what you think.

On behalf of The Bardo Group and Beguine Again and in the spirit of peace and community,

Jamie Dedes

THEME

VISUAL ARTS: SHAPE, COLOR, MOVEMENT, MEANING

Design Art: 100TPC Posters

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Posters are followed by some photographs of Mimes for Change in Egypt and then Michael Rothenberg’s flag to welcome refugees. (These are not the same posters that we displayed in a slideshow on the blog.)

Lead Features

Art, Time and Love, Priscilla Galasso
~ A Dragon’s Day ~, Corina Ravenscraft
An Autumn Photo from Spring, Michael Dickel
Salerno Like a Painting, Michael Dickel
Regretting Its Death by Drowning, Jamie Dedes

Fiction

bonds, Liliana Negoi

Poetry

Parallel Worlds, John Anstie
Decline, John Anstie
Battle Horse, John Anstie
Three Poems (Italian and English), Donatella D’Angello (translations with Michael Dickel)
her power leaps, Jamie Dedes
Cassandra, Jamie Dedes
A dream walker hands you the door, Michael Dickel
White Angel Feathers, Michael Dickel (with photographs by Donatella D’Angello
Framed, Joseph Hesch
Fields of Lavender, Joseph Hesch
a beautiful enigma, Charles W. Martin
war’s cold night, Charles W. Martin
Not That I Really Know, Charles W. Martin

GENERAL INTEREST

Essay

the land remembers, Michael Watson
Cinque Terra, Michael Watson

Photo-Story

Two Subjects (and one important thing to remember), Naomi Baltuck
Turning Night into Day, Naomi Baltuck

Special Feature

Imagine the Beats (Readings, Photography, Music), Munich, German, Aprilia Zank

BIOS WITH LINKS TO OTHER WORKS BY OUR CORE TEAM AND GUEST WRITERS

FOR UPDATES AND INSPIRATION “LIKE” OUR FACEBOOK PAGE, THE BARDO GROUP/BEGUINE AGAIN

MISSION STATEMENT

Back Issues Archive
October/November 2014, First Issue
December 2014, Preparation
January 2015, The Divine Feminine
February 2015, Abundance/Lack of Abundance
March 2015, Renewal
April 2015, interNational Poetry Month
May 2015, Storytelling
June 2015, Diversity
July 2015, Imagination and the Critical Spirit
August 2015, Music
September 2015, Poverty (100TPC)
100,000 Poets for Change, 2015 Event

Posted in 000 Poets, 100, Musicians, The BeZine Table of Contents

100TPC Event Today … Link in your poems, art, stories, film, music, videos for peace, sustainability and social justice with an emphasis on poverty and hunger

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines
<img class="size-custom" title="Hand of Fire, Hand of Creation
Moshe Dekel (age 5)” src=”https://thebezine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/img_0031.jpg” alt=”Hand of Fire, Hand of Creation
Moshe Dekel (age 5)” width=”2389″ height=”1548″> Hand of Fire, Hand of Creation by Moshe Dekel (age 5)

Welcome to the 5th year of 100,000 Poets (Musicians, Artists, Mimes…) for Change, and the 2015 edition of The BeZine Online 100TPC Event! If you’ve done this before and you know the score, skip to the comments or Mister Linky at the bottom of the post and begin. If you are wondering, hey, what are you folks up to then check out some serious non-fiction here:

Our mission here today as poets, writers, artists, photographers, musicians and friends is a sort-of fission for change—a burning with and expression of the desire for peace, environmental and economic sustainability, social justice, inclusion, equity and opportunity for all. We seek through our art to do a bit of old-fashioned consciousness raising, to stimulate thought and action leading to the kind of change that is sustainable, compassionate and just, and to engage in the important theme of the issues facing humanity today—but all with a goal to alleviate suffering and foster peace. We don’t want to just “talk about it,” we want words, art and music that help us take action in some way for positive change wherever we are in our lives, in our world.

We see a complex inter-woven relationship between peace, sustainability, and social justice. We all recognize that when people are marginalized and disenfranchised, when they are effectively barred from opportunities for education and viable employment, when they can’t feed themselves or their families or are used as slave labor, there will inevitably be a backlash, and we’re seeing that now in violent conflicts, wars and dislocation. Climatologists have also linked climate change, with its severe weather changes and recent droughts, to the rise violence in the world, and even contributing to inequities in areas – like Syria – where a severe drought destabilized food production and the economy, contributing to the unrest that led to the civil war, according to one study.

Jerusalem in an unprecedented dust storm that engulged much of the Mideast, linked by one climate scientist to the Syrian civial war and ISIS conflict
Jerusalem in an unprecedented dust storm that engulfed much of the Mideast, linked by one climate scientist to the Syrian civil war and ISIS conflict

There are too many people living on the streets and in refugee camps, too many whose lives are at subsistence level, too many children who die before the age of five (as many as four a minute dying from hunger, according to one reliable study—more info), too many youth walking through life with no education, no jobs and no hope. It can’t end well…

Syrian refugee camp, photo: The Telegraph
Syrian refugee camp
photo: The Telegraph

More than anything, our mission is a call to action, a call to work in your own communities where ever you are in the world, and to focus on the pressing local issues that contribute to conflict, injustice, and unsustainable economic and environmental practices. The kind of change we need may well have to be from the ground up, all of us working together to create peaceful, sustainable and just cultures that nurture the best in all the peoples of this world.

Poverty and homelessness are evergreen issues historically, but issues also embedded in social and political complexity. They benefit the rich, whose economic system keeps most of the rest of us as, at best, “wage slaves,” and all too many of us in poverty, without enough to provide for basic needs or housing (including the “working poor,” who hold low-paying jobs while CEOs are paid record-breaking salaries and bonuses in the global capitalist system). We are united in our cries against the structures of injustice, where the rich act as demigods and demagogues. We have to ask of what use will all their riches be in the face of this inconceivable suffering and the inevitable backlash from the marginalized and disenfranchised. We need fairness, not greed.

So, with this mission in mind, and with the complexity of the interrelationships of social justice, sustainability and peace as a framework, we focus on hunger and poverty, two basic issues and major threads in the system of inequality and injustice that need addressing throughout the world.

We look forward to what you have to share, whether the form is poetry, essay, fiction, art, photography, documentary, music, or hybrids of any of these—and we want to engage in an ongoing conversation through your comments on all of the above as you not only share your own work here today but visit and enjoy the work of others, supporting one another with your “likes” and comments, starting or entering into dialogues with writers, artists and musicians throughout the world and online viewers, readers, listeners.

Think globally, act locally, form community.

—Michael Dickel, Jerusalem (with G. Jamie Dedes, California, USA)

DIRECTIONS FOR PARTICIPATION

Share links to your relevant work or that of others in a comment or by using Mister Linky below. To use Mr. Linky, just click on the graphic. (Note: If you are sharing someone else’s work, please use your name in Mister Linky, so we can credit you as the contributor—we will give the author / artist name in the comments, from the link when we post the link in a comment.)

You may leave your links or works in the comment section below this post. If you are sharing the work of another poet or artist, however, please only use a link and not the work itself.

In addition to sharing, we encourage you to visit others and make connections and conversation. To visit the links, click on Mr. Linky (the Mister Linky graphic above) and then on the links you see there. (Some Mr. Linky-links can be viewed in the comments section after we re-post them.)

Thank you! 

All links will be collected into a dedicated Page here at The BeZine and also archived at 100TPC.

Thank you for your participation. Let the conversation begin …