ACLU Sues CIA Psychologists on Behalf of Torture Victims

I still hear them praying in the coffins, sir –
someone
has left, nearly left the door ajar, and I can hear
their muffled weeping, and it is funny
how you can flay a man alive
with days of light upon his skin
until he cries for a hatful of darkness,
but dress his face for an hour
in black camouflage and boots
and he will peel back the lids of his eyes
to find anything left of the sun.
It is the demons, sir.
The things they do –
they don’t
like the rest of us watching.

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…

American-Israeli Poet, Michael Dickel

By now, those who pay attention to poetry and in particular the poetries of witness and activist poetries, know well that it follows from a long tradition. Yet others, especially cultural and political conservatives, argue “protest” poetry or “political” poetry both do not constitute “Literature,” and that such poetry cannot help but be time-bound little more than contemporaneous commentary. I have been told that some of my poetry is “journalistic,” and that I am caught in a “fashionable” trend from the mid-1950s that has no literary roots beyond, possibly, the Beats. Such arguments simply are nonsense.

Carolyn Forché’s volumes Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English 1500–2001 and Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness demonstrate, with excellent examples, a long history of social and political engagement in English poetry. In fact, one might claim just the opposite of the (usually disguised political) claims that the tradition…

Our independent readers have now finished reading and we have our list of Paragram Picks. 

These pieces were submitted to the Paragram Paradox Prize and our readers felt they were too good to miss.

They will be published in a section of their own in the forthcoming ‘Paradox’ anthology.

Brittle Star is calling for submissions of unpublished, original poetry (of up to four poems)

A little bit about them:

For fifteen years, Brittle Star has been publishing poems and short stories from new and early-career writers, many of whom have seen their work in print for the first time. They’ve a growing reputation for being one of the first ports of call for new writers on the path to publishing their debut collections. A not-for-profit magazine published twice a year; it receives no funding and their magazine is run on a voluntary basis by a small team of dedicated writers and arts professionals.

Brittle Star also has a great reviews section which is well worth a look, especially for guiding new poets into the world of collection publishing.

Submissions:

If you’d like to submit short stories or poetry, please read their submission guidelines.

Waging the Peace, driving productive conversation and connection: Michael Rothenberg, co-founder of 100,000 Poets for Change,  just sent us the link to The BeZine’s page on the official 100TPC site. Our thanks to Michael, for doing this and for all that he and Co-Founder Terri Carrion are doing. They both rock big time!

People if you want to organize a gathering it’s not too late to register at 100TPC. You can do something as simple as having a small intimate group around you kitchen table, share your poetry, art and music and plan for a larger more visible event next year. As Michael Dickel says, “May peace prevail.”

Don’t forget Terri Stewart’s gathering, 100,000 Peacemakers for Change, at her church in the Seattle area. Notable: I think thanks to Terri this may be the first church to officially take up the banner. Hooray!

In the spirit of peace, love and community and