The Hill We Climb

Amanda Gorman Poet Laurate reading of Inaugural Day Poem

The day started with Donald Trump leaving via the back door, a quick word with staff, Marine One to Andrews Airforce Base, a, subdued speech in front of Air Force One, incoming Administration wished well.

Joe Biden sworn in, a very powerful and moving Inauguration Acceptance Speech.

He said he works for the people. The people, not lobbyist, not Big Business, not Banks, not Big Oil.

To stop something worse than Trump, President Joe Biden must push through a Green New Deal, a radical progressive agenda, address genuine grievances of Trump supporters.

We took action. We made our voices heard. We stuck together. And we never gave up. @JoeBiden stops #KeystoneXL on day 1. This is just the beginning. We will stop Line 3. we will shut down DAPL. We will end the era of fossil fuels. Join us. pic.twitter.com/eJMRLtKlmN

— 350 dot org (@350) January 20, 2021

President Biden has now signed the executive order which means the US is rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Will be deposited with UN later today and take formal effect in 30 days pic.twitter.com/pApATyB2WN

— Leo Hickman (@LeoHickman) January 20, 2021

You will be welcomed back to #ParisAgreement, USA! Even as the White House went dark, US citizens, public & corporate leaders kept the light. Today that light turns into a beacon for accelerated #ClimateAction everywhere. Onward w/ renewed vigor! pic.twitter.com/R6SegnaqS2

— Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres) January 20, 2021

The time to move forward is now. pic.twitter.com/IrUUu0bxGO

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 20, 2021

“If… I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect… I will fire you on the spot.”

President Biden tells his new appointees he won’t tolerate bullying in his administration – and expects them to restore “decency and dignity, that’s been missing… for the last four years”. pic.twitter.com/h2TGQHv4hv

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) January 21, 2021

No partying, no celebrations, President Joe Biden got straight down to work.

Executive Orders to stop Keystone XL, re-joining WHO and The Paris Accord.

An executive order to wear a mask on Federal Property a step in the right direction to halt spread of Covid-19. 400,000 Americans have died, more than died during WWII.

A warning to White House staff during their swearing in. Anyone who shows disrespect to their colleagues will be fired. Bullying will no be tolerated.

On a day for the history books, @TheAmandaGorman delivered a poem that more than met the moment. Young people like her are proof that "there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it; if only we're brave enough to be it." pic.twitter.com/mbywtvjtEH

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 20, 2021

So humbled by everyone's support! If you'd like to read more of my words, you can pre-order my first ever poetry collection, The Hill We Climb, here! @penguinrandom https://t.co/vNSo3WFpuf

— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) January 20, 2021

Thank you! I would be nowhere without the women whose footsteps I dance in. While reciting my poem, I wore a ring with a caged bird—a gift from @Oprah for the occasion , to symbolize Maya Angelou, a previous inaugural poet. Here’s to the women who have climbed my hills before. https://t.co/5Tegd20sko

— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) January 20, 2021

A great read – Transcript of Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem https://t.co/7WbbuLDrO5

— Pie Corbett (@PieCorbett) January 21, 2021

Incredible and moving poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, 22-year-old Poet Laurate.

Press Conference later in the day by newly appointed White House Press Secretary a breath of fresh air.

Tired & Suzanne

We’re tired of being white and we’re tired of being black

Tired

We’re tired of being white
and we’re tired of being black,
and we’re not going to be white
and we’re not going to be black any longer.
We’re going to be voices now,
disembodied voices in the blue sky,
pleasant harmonies in the cavities of your distress.
And we’re going to stay this way until you straighten up,
until your suffering makes you calm,
and you can believe the word of G-d who has told you so many times,
and in so many ways, to love one another,
or at least not to torture and murder
in the name of some stupid vomit-making human idea that makes G-d turn away from you,
and darken the cosmos with inconceivable sorrow.
We’re tired of being white and we’re tired of being black,
and we’re not going to be white and we’re not going to be black any longer.
We’re going to be voices now.

— Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

Tired by Leonard Cohen from Book of Longing, followed by Suzanne.

From a live concert Who By Fire?, First Aid Kit and friends, a concert of poetry and music Stockholm 2017 to commemorate the life of Leonard Cohen.

Imagine a beach free of litter

Imagine, just quickly,
A beach free of litter,
A sea, clean and sparkly alive,
Let’s make it happen
Yes we can do it
We must if we’re going to survive.

Imagine … a beach free of litter #ADropIntheOceanBrighton #Brighton #plasticpollution #OurBluePlanet #ADropIntheOcean pic.twitter.com/0lBtjbTR4H

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 12, 2018

These words were written on the window of an ethical fashion shop in Brighton, The Fair Shop, on the road leading down to the seafront from Brighton Station.

On the seafront, disgusting fish n chip shops serving their disgusting fish n chips on polystyrene plates or in polystyrene burger-style boxes.

Iydea #NorthLaine #Brighton #vegetarian pic.twitter.com/cilA51je5m

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 10, 2018

refreshing fruit juice apple, carrot, lemon and ginger Iydea #NorthLaine #Brighton pic.twitter.com/EAePZzGhcH

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 10, 2018

Iydea in North Laine, which for more than a decade has led the way on recycling, a fruit juice served with a plastic straw.

Salty Fig ovelooking Fig Tree Bay #FigTreeBay #Protaras #Cyprus pic.twitter.com/YFGkbnWtwl

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) May 28, 2018

Salty Fig a bar overlooking Fig Tree Bay serving overpriced drinks in plastic.

Plastic served overlooking the sea finds its way into the sea.

Humanity in a nutshell, the @NatGeo magazine about ocean plastic pollution comes wrapped in a plastic bag inside another plastic bag. Photo Roger Bassetto. pic.twitter.com/m0HUzkDuqW

— Luiz Rocha (@CoralReefFish) June 10, 2018

Walk in a supermarket, plastic surrounds everything, podded peas in a plastic box, potatoes and bananas in plastic bags, a coconut with shell hacked off shrink-wrapped in plastic.

coffee Grocer and Grain #coffee #BrightonCoffeeTrail #Brighton pic.twitter.com/4gQWNPrpbh

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 10, 2018

As always it is the indie coffee shops leading the way, serving takeaway coffee in compostable cups, KeepCup or similar reusable cups on sale, a discount if used.

We must eliminate the takeaway coffee culture, encourage relax in an indie coffee shop with speciality coffee served in glass or ceramic.

Water is a human right.

The coffee shops in Athens bring without asking ice cold water to the table or failing that water from which to help oneself.

Help make a big #plastic infographic art work with #AdropInTheOcean https://t.co/QTDcudtobJ on June 6,,7,8 + 9th They have thousands of bottle tops that have been collected on #Brighton #Hove seafront. https://t.co/vKvuRkgI5o #WasteNot #Sussex pic.twitter.com/a5QYBAXGHt

— BrightonCAN (@Brighton_CAN) May 22, 2018

A Drop In the Ocean, from March to October 2018, plastic bottle tops are to be collected from Brighton seafront to illustrate the amount of plastic finding its way into our oceans.

Plastic bottle tops are among the top five most deadly ocean trash items. Marine mammals, birds and fish see plastic bottle caps as food, which can lead to ingestion and potentially fatal consequences.

Plastic bottle tops float and take a long time to degrade. They are small enough to be swallowed whole by birds and animals. Every bottle top collected is a bottle top that won’t be eaten by a turtle, swallowed by a seabird, or settle as microplastic particles inside a mussel.

• Bottle Cap Report
• A plastic sea
• Plastic pollution in the sea off Bali
• James Hoffman on disposable coffee cups and why we need a latte levy

 

I am a nasty woman

Ashley Judd reciting ‘I am a nasty woman’  at Women’s March In Washington DC.

• #J20 The Other Inauguration
• Trump is not a Fascist
• When telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act

Futility

Futility by Wilfred Owen, May 1918

Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds,—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved—still warm—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?

— Wilfred Owen

Recited by Jeremy Corbyn in Islington on Remembrance Sunday.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.”

– Wilfred Owen

No One Leaves Home Unless Home Is the Mouth of A Shark

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here

— Kenyan-born Somali poet Warsan Shire

• No One Leaves Home Unless Home Is the Mouth of A Shark

I stand with Nepal

Nepalese girls who survived at the epicentre of earthquake

When the ground shakes , cracks and crumbles
Life and hope tumbles down
The echo of help come from a distance
And under the rumble the shrieks drown
The tremors tremble the humanity
The dance of destruction resembles insanity
Death and devastation everywhere but hope rests upon a tongue
I fought ,I will fight is the song that somewhere a human sung.
When the rage stops and hope rains in

We will rebuild from the scratch and a new dawn will set in.

— musings of sehar

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Counting

Another Alice

How many times a day do you think of me?

How far would you travel to see my face?

How many times have you ever dreamt of me?

And how much do you miss me?

How many lifetimes have our hearts known each other?

Being with you and not being with you is how I count time..

Maybe that is why time with me is kind.

in the end, nothing of all this counting matters..

it is just another nonsense

because..

what you can count does not matter and what you cannot, does..

What you can count, does not count and what you cannot, does

Love,

AA

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Paintings Inspired by the Poetry of Malcolm Guite

Paintings of artist Faye Hall, inspired by the music and poetry of Malcolm Guite.

Music: The Green Man, from album of the same name The Green Man and Other Songs by Malcolm Guite.

Malcolm Guite: Parish Priest, poet musician. He has released two albums The Green Man and Other Songs and Dancing Through the Fire. Unfortunatel, only possibe to find lofi samples. Let us hope he releases on bandcamp in the near future.

• For God So Loved the World