Amira in America at the Spoken Word Census 2010

Here is a video of my poem from last year's Spoken Word Census in Nashville. My name is not spelled correctly, but that's all good . . .

:)

peace.

Less apt to destroy . . .

"Let us remember . . . that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both." Christian Wiman, Editor of Poetry magazine.

Howard Zinn, 1922-2010

I just heard on NPR that another writer, activist and great thinker died yesterday. Like Brutus, who died in December, Howard Zinn is a thinker/activist I just began paying attention to in recent months. The historian Zinn is most famous for his history text that tells the story of the nation through the lens of the marginalized, A People's History of the United States.

Others will certainly write a better synopsis of his life than I. His friend Daniel Ellsberg shares a great story about him here.

Zinn was concerned about several social issues in our nation, including civil rights. Most recently, I've been thinking quite a bit about war, historic nonviolence movements, and our Nobel Peace Prize-winning war president. Zinn, a former G.I. turned anti-war activist, spent a lot of time saying a word or two about war. So a few weeks ago I found this video of Zinn speaking at Boston University in November about the USA's three holy wars: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II (in which Zinn volunteered to serve as an Air Force bomber). In memory of him, I return to this clip. It's lengthy but good . . .

Three Holy Wars | Howard Zinn | Nov. 11, 2009 | Boston University from Ken Levy on Vimeo.

In one of his speeches about these "holy wars," Zinn says the following:

Just one point I want to make. This is the question that says, "What else would you do?" They say, "[what about] Hitler? You had to do something." I agree. You have to do something about all these things. You have to do something about winning independence if you're oppressed. You have to do something about slavery if there's slavery. You have to do something about fascism. You have to do something about all these things. But, you don't have to do war.

May we begin to think of another way to "do something" about atrocities, oppression and terrorism in this world of ours. Another way is certainly possible with creative imagination. We're smart people, after all. May we live beautifully into that imagination. And may Howard Zinn's words challenge and move us for years to come as his body and spirit find rest in peace.

Mary Oliver. Delight.

As I washed my hands in my yoga instructor's bathroom Monday, I read a poem she had mounted next to the mirror on the wall. It's called "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver. I've read it before, and it was nice to be reminded of the beauty of her simple poetic style and to appreciate the questions this poem asks.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I said to my happy yogi, "First of all, I love everything about your house" (I do. Every inch of her house is like stepping into a creative haven. Everything about it represents her and her hubby so well. From the old naked books on the shelves [I love dust jacket-free books!] to the flowers in the cozy kitchen nook to the watercolor haiku hanging on the other side of the mirror in her bathroom]. A fabulous house helps tell your story.) "Secondly, I love that you have a Mary Oliver poem hanging in your bathroom."

Well, I'm grateful I added my "secondly" because I received an email from my yogi yesterday saying that Mary Oliver was reading her work tonight at Belmont University and that I should check it out if I was free.

Delight.

It seemed nearly indulgent to hear Ms. Oliver read and speak these words I've read before and know that this is the intended voice for every word. And I smiled, rejoicing that this is her heart's delight, and she gets to delight her heart for a living. All of the time. Shape words into tiny snapshots of life and travel the world sharing her amazing gallery.

I would envy Mary O if envy were in my bones.

It was a lovely evening.

I'll close with one my favorites that she read tonight (oh, there were so many!):

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds
will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

The Poets Cry Out

I love reading poetry that speaks against injustice and speaks truth to a deaf world. In previous wars, art and literature played a huge role in speaking to the U.S. conscience. I've felt more silence in the present war, however.

Then I discovered Poets Against War and the Split this Rock Poetry Festival. I'm relieved to hear so many poet voices and believe a poem can end a war if we'll hear it and make it our own.

I've been inhaling Naomi Shihab Nye's 2005 collection entitled You & Yours again. It is filled with truth-telling and brings a needed view of humanity in the midst of this war in Iraq. This one speaks to me today:

Dictionary in the Dark

A retired general said
"the beautiful thing about it"
discussing war.
We were making "progress"
in our war effort.
"The appropriate time to launch the bombers"
pierced the A secion with artillery as
"awe huddled in a corner
clutching its small chest.
Someone else repeated, "in harm's way,"
strangely popular lately,
and "weapons of mass destruction"
felt gravely confused about their identity.
"Friendly" gasped. Fierce and terminal.
It had never agreed to sit beside fire, never.

-Naomi Shihab Nye

Zadie Smith on writing . . .

"The best, the only real (writing) training you can get is from reading other people's books. I spent three years in college and wrote three and a half stories but I read everything I could get my hands on. White Teeth is really the product of that time; it's like the regurgitation of the kind of beautiful, antiquated, left-side-of-the-brain liberal arts education which is dying a death even as I write this. Generally, an English Lit degree trains you to be a useless member of the modern world and that's what I'm being in the only way I know how." ~British author Zadie Smith (whose latest novel On Beauty is a New York Times Bestseller) in an interview for Bold Type online 'zine