Tag: news

Posted in poem, Poems/Poetry, Poets/Writers

The Road to Zvegona, a poem by Poet-in-Exhile Mbizo Chirasha; Update on Mbizo’s situation

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

See a procession of young mothers chattering their way
From water fountains in grenade torn sandals
And blood laced bras
Decade of Bullets, Mbizo Chirasha

Is fading the memory of its son,
Who for words must ride the night
Fleeing ears that hear thunder on a babies purity guggle,
Zvegona, my homestead,
Ancestors are watching
Elders on a scheming mission
Trading lies with more lies
The road to Zvegona
Your Sideroads sigh
Your song is silent
Only hiccups of mothers greet the sun
Yearning for the return of the bearded child
Who lives on the strings of truth
Truth refused a seat at the council of baboons on the lagoons
Goons settling scores on the assumptions that a boy has a price,
Well, the boy true has a price
But not one you can pay with looted coins
The boy has shaved his hair not his brains
The boy has slipped his boots on and truth has raised its flag
And the spirits of truth sing his Achilles heels on,
So Zvegona, the village of the lucky poet,
Grow thistles and thorns
Feed cattle and goats
The boy has shaved his beard
Ready for a walk back, to shave the land of all pretentious shenanigans
Uprooting the weeds and weevils
Repair the kraal too,
Where roosters shall announce light unto the land,
Currently bent double under the gargantuan weight of lying tongues.
Zvegona, you are my yesterday
Zvegona, you are my tomorrow in whatever form, shape or …….

© 2019, Mbizo Chirasha

UPDATE ON MBIZO

Mbizo is still in hiding with irregular access to water, food, computer and Wifi. Nonetheless, he continues working at his mission including  NOTICE FREEDOM VOICES PRIZE  and BRAVE VOICES POETRY JOURNAL and Womawords Literary Press.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The first New Look Brave Voices Poetry Journal will be out by the 15th of December 2019. It is a Christmas gift. Our deadline for articles [and poetry] is the 10th of December 2019. We look  forward to contributions and features with a length of 1500 words. You can send these in the body of mail with photos as attachments. Please include your publishable photos and a fifteen line bio to bravevoicespoetry@gmail.com

Yours creatively ,
Mbizo Chirasha- Brave Voices Poetry Journal Curator

We’ve received letters of support to go in Mbizo’s applications for grants and safe harbor, but the Go-Fund-Me effort is still not to goal, which would provide for the immediate need for pantry staples, computer, and so forth. Without predictable computer access, Mbizo has not yet been able to do his interview with the Canadian radio show, though the offer still stands.

International Human Rights Festival, the entity that sponsored Mbizo’s Go-Fund-Me, has attracted $480 and raised the goal to $750.  They have cut him some partial funding for now.  Meanwhile, folks, I suggest that if enough of us donated the price of one morning latte, we’d make the goal.  What do you say? A whole bunch of tidbits would combine for a whole lot of success. You can make your donation anonymously HERE.

If you are able and interested in helping in any way, you can contact Mbizo directly at: girlchildcreativity@gmail.com

– Jamie Dedes

“We remain resilient in the quest for justice, freedom of expression and upholding of human rights through Literary Activism and Artivism. ALUTA CONTINUA.” Mbizo Chirasha

RELATED
MBIZO CHIRASHA is a recipient of PEN Deutschland Exiled Writer Grant (2017), Literary Arts Projects Curator, Writer in Residence, Blogs Publisher, Arts for Human Rights/Peace Activism Catalyst, Social Media Publicist and Internationally Anthologized Writer, 2017 African Partner of the International Human Rights Arts Festival Exiled in Africa Program in New York. 2017 Grantee of the EU- Horn of Africa Defend Human Rights Defenders Protection Fund. Resident Curator of 100 Thousand Poets for Peace-Zimbabwe, Originator of Zimbabwe We Want Poetry Movement. He has published a collection of poetry, Good Morning President, and co-created another one Whispering Woes of Gangesand Zembezi with Indian poet Sweta Vikram.
Posted in Michael Dickel, Poets/Writers

Contributing Editor, Michael Dickel’s new collection, upcoming from Finishing Line Press

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

Congratulations, Michael. We’re so proud.

I’ve read Michael’s latest collection and will post a review, interview, and some sample poems shortly on The Poet by Day… Meanwhile NOW IS THE TIME TO PRE-ORDER Michael Dickel’s title, Nothing Remembers.
– Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor, The BeZine

Advanced praise: 

.
“He raises the question of whether the past can be preserved in memory, or whether memory is most effective in the face of loss. Either way, what does the past leave us, who are we with or without the past, and if poetry can occasionally fill gaps in our present, what if anything can it give us of our past? Is poetry anything at all — or is it nothing at all, and is the nothing of poetry the best memorialization? Dickel’s sensory, sensual, musical lyric roves across wet and dry landscapes, food and drink, family and friends, darkness and light, sleep and wakefulness, dreams and reality. His words hover between his homes in the Mideast and the American Midwest, conveying the fragility of present and past, enacting a memory at high risk of loss, maintaining faith against staggering odds. Nothing Remembers is a dream of peace, the peace that may come if and when persons and peoples live in a present comfortable with close and distant memory.
–Hassan Melechy, author of Kerouac: Language, Poetics, and Territory (Bloomsbury) and A Modest Apocalypse (Eyewear)
.
Michael Dickel combines powerful imagery and poetic beauty with a reality beneath life’s skin, that will gently shake the reader into an awareness, refreshing and engaging. He will take you through his pages to a ‘resting state’ where possibilities in your mind will feel endless.
–Silva Merjanian, author of Life and Legends
.
Between knowing and dreaming, shattered screams, pulses, shadows and longing, Michael Dickel’s arresting fourth collection, Nothing Remembers, navigates an erotics of re-membrance renegotiating a Proustian ethos of things resonant, prescient, and the ghostly revenance of hope.
–Adeena Karasick, author of Salomé: Woman of Valor
.
“I know so many wildly talented writers. It is one of the great privileges in my life. Michael Dickel is one of them: he uses language like layers of color in a complex painting — you can access experiences that you otherwise wouldn’t have. I’ve just preordered his upcoming collection, Nothing Remembers, from Finishing Line Press; poetry lovers, this is worth having.”

–Ina Roy-Faderman, author of 56 Days of August: an anthology of postcard poems

Posted in 100TPC, TheBeZine

Announcing the new “The BeZine” Arts and Humanities Group page; details on our well-established 100TPC FB Group

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“Creativity is the most supreme form of love. When it flows from any heart flooded by truth and light, it can change all those who encounter its seductive vibrations.” Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

The BeZine now sponsors two Facebook Groups.  The first, established years ago, is The BeZine 100TPC 100,000 Poets (and friends) for Change. It was established to share best practices for facilitating change, to share good news and initiatives that might easily be implemented anywhere. It’s not a place to simply regurgitate the horror stories playing out around the world. It is a place to encourage positive action.

The new Facebook Group:  The BeZine Arts and Humanities discussion group is also unique. It’s place to share all your arts activities and accomplishments, not just poetry, in the hope of inspiring one another and encouraging collaborations among the arts. Within this group you may announce publications, showings, events and so forth. You are encouraged to share your videos: music, poetry readings, photography, art, film and so forth. No selling please … And . . . please keep it kind and supportive. Thank you!

Artwork by team member Corina Ravenscraft

Guidelines for the Facebook The BeZine 10OTPC, 2019 Group:

2019 NEWS & GUIDELINES FOR POSTING: We’re especially interested in filling a gap here by collecting info on practical initiatives – ideas for taking action – from anywhere in the world, “best practices” so to speak that foster peace, sustainability and social justice, especially those that might be picked up and implemented elsewhere. Examples from the past include a variety of initiatives taking place around the world to mitigate pollution and climate change, the churches that open their parking lots at night to the homeless, the restaurant owner who serves meals to the homeless; and, the barber who uses his days off to give homeless people haircuts and the group that put out clothing for people to take if needed. PLEASE DO NOT POST POETRY ON THE BeZINE 100TPC, 2019 discussion page. There are plenty of poetry groups for you on FB, now including the new Facebook is The BeZine Arts and Humanities Group.

We also offer other opportunities to share your poetry and creative work.

FOR WRITE-UPS ON SPIRITUAL PRACTICE for Beguine Again message Terri Stewart. Note: We have a FB page – The Bardo Group Beguines – where we provide Zine info, inspiration, notice of spiritual events of interest to seekers and links to work posted on beguineagain.com founded and managed by Terri.

SUBMISSIONS to The BeZine of poetry, essays, short stories, creative nonfiction, music videos, and artwork for – journal or blog – are considered via email only: bardogroup@gmail.com. Facebook message questions to G Jamie Dedes. Please don’t use FB for submissions.

The BeZine is published quarterly. Here are the schedule, themes, submission deadlines and publication dates for this year:

  • March 2019 issue, Deadline February 10th. Theme: Peace.
  • June 2019 issue, Deadline May 10th. Theme: Sustainability
  • September 2019 issue, Deadline August 10th, Theme: Human Rights/Social Justice
  • December 2019 issue, Deadline November 10th, Theme: A Life of the Spirit

SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2019, 100,000 POETS FOR CHANGE, GLOBAL, 2019 and THE BeZINE 100,000 POETS FOR CHANGE VIRTUAL EVENT

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES: Email me (thepoetbyday@gmail.com) if you have poetry news or essays on poetry to be considered for The Poet by Day jamiededes.com. For submissions (poetry and short fiction or creative nonfiction) for consideration by Michael Dickel for Meta/Phor(e)/Play https://michaeldickel.info message Michael.

The Bardo Group Begines is a twelve-member core team of poets and writers, artists and musicians, philosophers and clerics providing comfort, inspiration and information via The BeZine and Bequine Again. The BeZine is an entirely volunteer effort, a mission. It is not a paying market but neither does it charge submission or subscription fees.

– Jamie Dedes

Posted in General Interest

Zine related news, timeline and contacts

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful – in a word, more alive.” Alice Waters, chef, author, food activist, and founder and owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California

The header to this post is our new banner for the 2019 The BeZine 100,000 Poets and Others for Change. It was designed by Team Member Corina Ravenscraft (Dragon Dreams). I appreciate the color and the flowers, which to me imply hope. So onward we go.

We use the banner as a header for our discussion page on Facebook (a gathering place of sorts) which you are encouraged to join. Our goal there is not about sharing poetry or regurgitating the news. It’s largely about “best practices.”

2018/2019 NEWS & GUIDELINES FOR POSTING ON THE DISCUSSION PAGE: We’re especially interested in filling a gap by collecting info on practical initiatives – ideas for taking action – from anywhere in the world, “best practices” so to speak that foster peace, sustainability and social justice, especially those that might be picked up and implemented elsewhere. Examples from the past include the churches that open their parking lots at night to the homeless, the barber who uses his days off to give homeless people haircuts or the group that put out clothing for people to take if needed.

Rev. Terri Stewart

FOR WRITE-UPS ON SPIRITUAL PRACTICE for Beguine Again, sister site to the Zine,  message Terri Stewart on Facebook. We also have a FB page – The Bardo Group Beguines -where we provide Zine info, inspiration, notice of spiritual events of interest to seekers and links to work posted on beguineagain.com founded and managed by Terri.

PLEASE DO NOT POST POETRY ON THE DISCUSSION PAGE. There are plenty of poetry groups on FB. We’re unique and doing something different but we do offer other opportunities to share your poetry and creative work.

SUBMISSIONS to The BeZine of poetry, essays, short stories, creative nonfiction, music videos, and artwork for The BeZine – journal or blog – are considered via email only: bardogroup@gmail.com.

The BeZine is published quarterly. Here are the schedule, themes, submission deadlines and publication dates for the rest of this year and 2019.

December 2018 issue, Deadline November 10th, Theme: A Life of the Spirit

March 2019 issue, Deadline February 10th. Theme: Peace.

June 2019 issue, Deadline May 10th. Theme: Sustainability

September 2019 issue, Deadline August 10th, Theme: Human Rights/Social Justice

December 2019 issue: Deadline November 10th. Theme: A Life of the Spirit

SEPTEMBER 28, 2019, 100,000 POETS AND OTHERS FOR CHANGE, GLOBAL, 2019 and THE BeZINE 100,000 POETS AND OTHERS FOR CHANGE VIRTUAL EVENT

Michael Dickel

Facebook message me or email me at thepoetbyday@gmail.com if you have poetry news or essays on poetry to be considered for The Poet by Day. For submissions (poetry and short fiction or creative nonfiction) for consideration by Michael Dickel for Meta/Phor(e)/Play  you can message Michael on Facebook or contact him through his blog.

The Bardo Group Begines is a twelve-member core team of poets and writers, artists and musicians, philosophers and clerics providing comfort, inspiration and information via thebezine.com and beguineagain.com.  

The BeZine is an entirely volunteer effort and a peace and justice mission.

For those who are interested, our freshly updated submission guidelines are HERE.

– Jamie Dedes, Managing Editor

Posted in 100,000 Poets, Musicians, Artists and Activists for Change, 100TPC, General Interest

CALLING ALL POETS, WRITERS, ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS: We Need Your Most Passionate Work

Posted on by Jamie Dedes

We invite you to share your most passionate works expressing kindness and human connection and the ways that together we might heal the degradation and devastation of wars and genocides; the heartbreak of refugees living in limbo; the desolation of hunger and famine and environmental catastrophes; the insanity of extrajudicial murders; and the disappointing growth in the West of racial and religious tensions and efforts by various administrations to chill dissent.

Please take this opportunity to join hands and hearts in peace and love: TEAM WITH US for The BeZine 100TPC online “live” event this September 30th (our 6th year) to address peace, sustainability, and social justice through poetry, music (videos), art and anything artistic that can be posted online and accessed through a url link or by responding in the comments section of the event post. The BeZine 100TPC is one of hundreds of events that will be held around the world on September 30 under the rubric of Global 100TPC founded by poets Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE that there are enormous theological differences and historical resentments that carve wedges among and within the traditions and ethnic or national groups, but we believe that ultimately self-preservation, common sense, and human solidarity will empower connections and collaboration and overcome division and disorder.

100TPC is just one effort that illustrates the higher possibilities of the human heart.

Let us ply our art, meditations, and prayer toward that tipping point when compromise – an admittedly imperfect peace – will overcome war and respect for life will topple resentments and greed. That may not happen in our time, but it has to start somewhere and sometime. Together let this be our modest contribution toward an end for which diverse people the world over are working and praying.

HOW THE BeZINE “VIRTUAL” 100TPC WORKS … It’s easy and will be intuitively obvious, though we will provide instruction. A blog post will go up at The BeZine blog on September 30 with some introductory material and directions. As with any other blog post, you can respond by putting your poem or other work in the comments section. There will also be “Mister Linky” … a way to put in a link to relevant work on your site. It’s easy to use but if you don’t like it, you can just put your link in the comments section. That works!

American-Isreali Poet, Michael Dickel

American-Israeli poet,Michael Dickel (Meta/ Phore(e)/ Play), is an extraordinary – and at this point very experienced – Master of Ceremonies. He’ll maintain a rolling commentary in the comments section. I’ll be online to fill in for Michael when he takes a break and also to extend the length of the event.We’re in different time zones, though this year not half-a-day apart since he will be in the States. The idea is convenience and inclusively.

All types of artists and friends can participate no matter where they live in the world even if there is no event going on in their neighborhood and even if like me they are pretty much or completely home bound (which was the inspiration for the virtual event). You can participate in our virtual event even if you are at an off-line event. You can do both. We hope that you will not only share your artistry but also enjoy the artistry of others, which is what makes it like a live event. See you then … 🙂 We also hope that you’ll visit The BeZine to read our September edition, a prequel to the 100TPC event.

On behalf of The Bardo Group Beguines (publishers of The BeZine) and in the spirit of love (respect) and community,
Jamie Dedes
Founding and Managing Editor
The BeZine

Posted in Peace & Justice, Poems/Poetry, Renee Espriu

I Consider Myself

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

soldier-silhouette-at-sunsetI consider myself to be
a peaceful person
living in a place
not fraught with war
void of detonating bombs
fragments of life gone

I consider myself but
to no avail
for the rumbling of war
has never been far
as off in the distance
on foreign soils
it creeps very close
to my own back door

I considered myself to be
living my life apart
even during Viet Nam years
seen on broadcast news
of death and others tears
of something I was
unable to touch

I considered myself & then
my son joined in the ranks
of men and women called
to fight in a war fueled
by the inner turmoil
of a people distant
and out of sight

I considered myself to be
untouched by the carnage
the destruction of
people unknown to me
whose lives were
never mentioned

I considered myself & then
you came home & you
seemed different
for you brought the
memories with you
that now touch my life
to forever affect it
with war

I have known many who became soldiers. My own father and his brothers fought in World War II, my brother was in service during Viet Nam but did not see battle. But when my own son went to the Middle East, even though he was fortunate enough not to have had to be in a battle, he saw enough of the aftermath, that it has affected his life in ways I will never be able to understand.  For most soldiers do not speak of what they have seen and heard but these things, I know, cannot be erased from memory.

– Renee Espiru

© 2013, poem, Renee Espiru, All rights reserved
Photo credit ~ Karen Arnold, Public Domain Pictures.net

c796b9e96120fdf0ce6f8637fa73483cRENEE ESPRIU ~ is a creative prose writer and poet. She began delighting us with her work at Turtle Flight, My Muse & Angels in March 2011. The work she shares with us there includes short stories. Renee is a daughter, mother, grandmother, and seeker of spiritual peace and soul-filled freedom. She’s studied at the graduate level and has attended seminary. She describes her belief system as eclectic, encompassing many faiths. She believes “Nature is the basis of everything that is and everything that is also a part of Nature.”