Roxana Saberi Free

 

In the event you've not already heard, the Iranian - American Roxana Saberi was released from jail in Iran and has been told she is free to leave the country.  Last week, Amnesty supporters immediately responded by sending over 26,000 letters to the Iranian government in less than 24 hours urging her trial be revisited openly and that she be released. The details of Ms. Saberi's ordeal were reported here earlier.

Some of my Journal Bits from the past week....

• The sky has no cheer to offer
• The stars wink back / we are mutually exclusive
• old notions of predisposition / fell upon a perilous path /and were trampled
• there is commotion  / in the world order / what to do with the castors

Technorati Tags: Roxana Saberi,Amnisty International,Journal Bits

It's Clicking Again

Sadly the weekend is slipping away.  On the positive side, I was able to get some positive vibes back into my writing.  Yeah!!!

I'm working on both new stuff and rewrites for a particular submission that I've been planning and while the deadline is fast approaching, I don't as of yet feel particularly stressed about it. Surprising as that seems.

Parting thought for the weekend - "I shut my eyes in order to see." ~ Paul Gaucuin

 

Technorati Tags: life as a poet

A Few Contemporary Poets I Especially Appreciate

 

There are a good number of contemporary poets that are not  Merwins or Ashberys that nevertheless are exceptional practitioners of the craft and don't get near the attention they deserve. Here are my list of ten who's work I especially appreciate. (they are in no special order)

1. Dana Goodyear
2. Cecilia Woloch
3. Kelli Russell Agodon
4. Victoria Chang
5. Aleah Sato
6. Eileen Tabios
7. Katrina Vandenberg
8. Ivy Alvarez
9. Aimee Nezhukumatathil
10. Laura Kasischke

Technorati Tags: Contemporary living poets I appreciate

The Weekend Surprise

 If you're like me this April, your e-mail swelled beyond the capacity to read on a daily basis. Much of it is due to the influx of poems and poem related material during National Poetry Month. One such e-mail was from PBS Online News Hour with Jim Leher. They do a periodic feature piece on a poet and they are always top notch video feeds with bibliographical information and usually a poem or two. The email was to promote their latest, a visit poet Bob Hicok. I'm familiar with Hicok and I will get around to listening to their piece, but in taking the link to the PBS site, I saw a previous piece I had missed on another poet who I stopped to check out. The poet, pictured above, was  Nathalie Handal. 

I've missed anything about Ms.Handal up to this point on my poetry radar (which may need servicing) and this was an astonishing discovery.  She is well traveled, having I've lived in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the United States, and the Arab world. And while her roots are Palestinian, she is clearly a poet of the world.

I have found some of her poems and posted a few of their links here:

• The Hanging Hours 
• Strangers Inside Me
• Wall Against Our Breath
• Made in Palestine

And here us the PBS Video: 

Click here

Another Video of Nathalie Handal  reading - you might need to turn the volume up a bit. This poem captures a portion of the beauty that she compresses within the language of her work. A soft but mighty voice.

In many respects she reminds me of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

 

Technorati Tags: Nathalie Handal,PBS Online News Hour with Jim Leher

Sunday May 3rd is World Press Freedom Day

In 1991 the United Nations General Assembly established May 3rd as World Press Freedom Day. This year there have been a number if international incidents that underscore the fact that there are governments around the world that continue to suppress news journalists from doing their job.

Just since January there are a significant number of members of the press who have been assassinated and a larger number imprisoned throughout the world. Take a look at this list of news journalists who have paid the ultimate price for their work:

Assassinated journalists and media workers

Raja Assad Hameed (Pakistan)

Reporter for the daily Nation and Waqt TV Channel

Killed on 26 March 2009 in Pakistan

[UNESCO Statement]

Jawed Ahmad (Afghanistan)

Reporter for the Canadian media, including CTV News.

Killed on 10 March 2009 in Afghanistan

[UNESCO Statement]

Haider Hashim (Iraq)

Correspondent for the private TV broadcaster Al-Baghdadia

Killed on 10 March 2009 in Iraq

[UNESCO Statement]

Suhaib Adnan (Iraq)

Cameraman for the private TV broadcaster Al-Baghdadia

Killed on 10 March 2009 in Iraq

[UNESCO Statement]

Ernesto Rollin (Philippines)

Journalist for local radio DxSY-AM

Killed on 23 February 2009 in Philippines

[UNESCO Statement]

Jean Paul Ibarra Ramírez (Mexico)

Photographer for El Correo newspaper

Killed on 13 February 2009 in Mexico

[UNESCO Statement]

Ando Ratovonirina (Madagascar)

Reporter for the privately-owned Radio et Télévision Analamanga (RTA).

Killed on 7 February 2009 in Madagascar

[UNESCO Statement]

Said Tahlil Ahmed (Somalia)

Director of Horn Afrik Radio/TV

Killed on 4 February 2009 in Somalia

[UNESCO Statement]

Bruno Ossébi (Republic of Congo)

Columnist for the online newspaper Mwinda

Killed on 2 February 2009 in Republic of Congo

[UNESCO Statement]

Francis Nyaruri (Kenya)

Journalist for the independent Weekly Citizen

Killed on 29 January 2009 in Kenya

[UNESCO Statement]

Shafiq Amrakhov (Russian Federation)

Owner and editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51

Killed on 19 January 2009 in Russian Federation

[UNESCO Statement]

Anastasia Baburova (Russian Federation)

Journalist for Novaya Gazeta

Killed on 19 January 2009 in Russian Federation

[UNESCO Statement]

Orel Sambrano (Venezuela)

Editor of a weekly magazine ABC

Killed on 16 January 2009 in Venezuela

[UNESCO Statement]

Uma Singh (Nepal)

Journalist for daily newspaper Janakpur Today and Radio Today FM

Killed on 11 January 2009 in Nepal

[UNESCO Statement]

Lasantha Wickrematunga (Sri Lanka)

Editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper Sunday Leader

Killed on 8 January 2009 in Sri Lanka

[UNESCO Statement]

Basel Faraj (Palestine)

Cameraman for the Algerian TV network ENTV and for the Palestine Broadcast Production Company

Killed on 6 January 2009 in Palestine

The Roxana Saberi Matter

Roxana Saberi is a 31 year old journalist with joint U.S. and Iranian citizenship. She has been residing in Iran for six years where she's been studying for a masters degree in Iranian studies, and reporting for NPR, the BBC, ABC News and other international news organizations. Her plans were to return to the U.S. this year when she completed a book about Iranian culture she was writing.

Saberi was arrested at the end of January initially for purchasing wine (alcohol is banned in Iran) then officials alleged she continued to work as a journalist after her credentials were revoked. This finally converted to charges of unspecified "espionage."

On April 18th she was convicted and sentenced to 8 years of jail in a trial that was short of any international standards.

If you do nothing else to mark this this Word Press Freedom Day, click on these two sites and add your voice to the call for Roxana Saberi to be freed.

1. Amnesty International Site - send a letter to His Excellency -Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei asking for a fair and public review of the allegations against her and without any verifiable evidence otherwise, she be released.
   
2. Go to the site set up by Roxana's parents for her. Leave a note of support on the guest book.
   

Technorati Tags: Roxana Saberi,United Nations,World Press Freedom Day,Amnisty International

A Poet Gets No Respect

I can feel the lazy days of summer ahead, but they aren't quite here yet.

Any of you seen the movie Prairie Home Companion? It was a movie I had been wanting to see. My wife was not real interested and we never saw it when it came out. Cathy did however record it on our DVR knowing both my daughter and I wanted to see it. We've had it for a week or two now, and Cathy decided to make a night of it.  We got pizza and settled in and watched it.  I enjoyed it thoroughly. Both Cathy and my daughter Shannon by the end were fighting to stay awake. Neither were impressed.   My wife's explanation as to why I might have enjoyed it was that it reminded her of my poetry... inaccessible.

On a related note, I subjected my immediate family to only one poem this Poetry Month. They seem to believe they are subjected to way more then any sane person should have to endure through their connection to me. So I sent them on the last day of April one poem. They all received one poem from me. I chose the Billy Collins poem, Introduction to Poetry. The poem concludes with the following two stanzas....

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Now Cathy liked the Collins poem, but she responded in an email, "It's the poet that needs to be tied to the chair and beaten with a rubber hose for writing an inaccessible poem...and I'm sure we all know what poet I am talking about. :)

Technorati Tags: Prairie Home Companion,Billy Collins

May Day - May Day

May 1st and I've taken a break from writing today aside from my daily journal entry.

The break from writing a poem is suiting me well so far.  There's almost a hour left of the day, I suppose I could get the itch, but I'm thinking not.  Who knows, perhaps overnight I might wake up with some brainstorm. Hey, it has happened.

I realized one of my poems that had previously been publish was added to the Johnson County Kansas Public Library's poem a day feature on their Internet site. It can be seen here.

Technorati Tags: Johnson County Public Library Poem Month poem a day feature