Pussy Riot & Today's Tiny Tanka

Cold ore smelted into prison bars / salt tears rust them through: cry for the Pussy Riot girls / pool two years corrosion; break them free

So much for free speech - 'keep the rebels quiet' say state agencies, keep them down. Three girls imprisoned for expressing their political views...risking losing their children...can we sit back and let it happen? Come on, come on...at least read more, sign petitions, create your own Pussy Riot in a town near you...)

http://freepussyriot.org/news/human-rights-watch-conviction-blow-free-expression

The conviction of three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot on August 17, 2012 is inappropriate and disproportionate. The three women were convicted on charges of hate-motivated hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison.

The three women have been in detention for over five months and should be released. 

Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk-rock group based in Moscow.  Founded in August 2011, the band stages politically provocative performances about Russian political life  in unusual locations, such as Lobnoye Mesto on Red Square , on top of a trolleybus or on a scaffold  in the Moscow Metro.According to the group's co-founder: "Pussy Riot’s performances can either be called dissident art or political action that engages art forms. Either way, our performances are a kind of civic activity amidst the repressions of a corporate political system that directs its power against basic human rights and civil and political liberties."

Well, I let this slip by me for a wee while there - I will get the hang of this soon. One of the reasons for not posting was being part of the passionate, powerful and proud Northwest Pride. Oh, the joys...such happiness, so much laughter. This year's Pride was really achieved by everyone involved - practically no funding and volunteers exhausted - but the new blood stepped in, oh I was so Proud! Yesterday I packed up the banners and flags and my heart soared as I folded them - we are so beautiful, all of us.

So today's poem isn't a tanka and it isn't tiny. I wrote it for Dublin Pride in 2002, but hey, things hold true...so here it is.

A Poem For Pride…

(Dublin Pride 29^th June 2002)

Pride is lined with Purpose; there’s changes to be made

The Purpose is to stand up tall and not to be afraid

The Purpose is remembering who fell to put us here

And Purposely I’ll raise my voice and celebrate the Queer

Pride has Perversity, it’s quirky and capricious

It’s scary and it’s hairy and it’s meltingly delicious

Let’s go and flaunt our colours, the colours of our dreams

With indiscreet Perversity that pulls at bigotry’s seams.

By Persuasion you will get there, be you nervous or unsure

Persuasion of the people is our strong and salty core

Your Persuasion is your happiness, your future and your lust:

Persuade me that you’ll be there - for if you can, you must!

It may be Pandemonium, the gods of chaos rule

In Pandemonium all kinds of love pour in the pool

Pandemonium is the laughter of volunteers in action

And making (out of dreams and hopes) a wild and Pure reaction

Do you frown on Promiscuity? I always thought that lust

For Power or for Freedom or for Loving was a must.

Promiscuity is breaking all the rules that held you back –

I’m Proud of Promiscuity if that’s what hiding lacks.

(Pride is dangerous and wilful and will not be contained

And every queen of every gender graciously will reign.

Pride is happy and hysterical and cannot be ignored

And every queen of every kind deserves to be adored).

By Persistence we will win, we’ll take the streets back, claim our space

Persistence through the year, and on the day a wave of grace.

Persistence is what keeps us here, what keeps us all alive

With Persistence we’ll be free and help the weaker to survive.

Pride is quite Peculiar, it’s horny and it’s hot

It’s full of flair and showing off the kind of Pride we’ve got

Peculiar’s what strangers say who can’t accept your style

Come out and play and gladly be Peculiar with a smile.

With Perseverance we will see the world around us rage

As in glorious diversity we take the centre stage

With Perseverance we can see the future not so dark,

But brighter than the closet, so walk fearless through the park.

My Politics are basic – it’s the Politics of Pride

I want Freedom and I’ve got the right to kick the crap aside.

It’s Passionate and Powerful, this love that we all share

With Passion we will take our Power from those who do not care.

ImPassioned we are out there, on the street or in our heart

For we are Powerful and Beautiful, will not be kept apart

Our Potential is unlimited, with Pride let’s hear the shout –

“We’re here and getting stronger and we’re Proud of being Out!”

Today's Tanka...

Sun bakes. Flying ants patrol windows / trickle like sweat down speckled glass, reflects flat sky back / no barometer can measure this

Today's Tiny Tanka

Today's Tiny Tanka, I said...

Tanka is a Japanese form of poetry, cousin to the haiku. There are any number of places and sites that will give you the background, different forms, exercises and such....http://www.articlesbase.com/poetry-articles/an-easy-approach-to-write-a-haiku-or-tanka-poem-5633348.html would be one.

My understanding of the lovely Tanka form comes from Susan Carleton (link when I find her latest blog!). She described it as a form that

Uses natural phenomena to illustrate emotions

I've been writing them most days for the past while: a kind of journalling and a creative focus for the day.There's many forms that use a 5-line shape with structures like 5-7-7-5-5, but I've evolved a 9-13-9 form - the Tiny Tanka - or even sometimes a 7-9-7 which is more of a Teeny Tiny Tanka...

I'll be posting  a Tanka most days, and would love it if you, Dear Reader, did too.

So off we go. here's a couple I wrote earlier

28/5/12

Dusk silky grey. Dust settles, roof sighs / Edges blur, day lets go to night, insects creak and whirr / in the low ground. Dog barks at the moon.

11th June:

Those damn clouds keep appearing / Psyche’s delicate shell sunburnt: earth splits, heals dusty / On the horizon, clouds move away. Look.

Welcome to a bit of my world...

Pap & Polemic, indeed.

Welcome! I’m making a space here for poetry, political rant and whatever else springs to my mind. This is a link to some of my work as poet / performer, and also to opening debates about society, standards, new moralities and the role of the personal / political in our lives.

Pap [noun] Something resembling a nipple. Sustenance, easy to swallow nourishment.

Middle English pappe, probably from Latin papilla.

Polemic  noun [poh-lem-ik]  

1. a controversial argument, as one against someopinion, doctrine, etc.

2. a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.

And of course Poetry. My love, my life.