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“Thirteen Maqams” from Fady Joudah (a Palestinian lament)
I’m linking to this extraordinary rage-meditation before it gets taken down for whatever “national security” reason: A Palestinian Meditation in a Time of Annihilation: Thirteen Maqams for an Afterlife, by the magnificent Palestinian-American poet/translator and physician Fady Joudah. Thanks to LitHub for making it available, and thanks to Louise Glück, wherever she’s traveling these days, for choosing Joudah’s first book for the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 2007. For anyone interested in the title of Joudah’s lament, here’s a good place to start exploring maqam.Read More
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A Kind of Poetry…
Can I pretend to call myself a “spiritual progressive”? I know those who would argue against that proposition, maybe myself among them. In any case, I put my name to this petition asking President Obama to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and for an “International Middle East Peace Conference to impose a final settlement on all parties.” I’m always dubious about such symbolic acts—how many petitions have we all signed since the age of mature awareness?—but poems are symbolic acts, so I consider signing this petition a kind of poetry.Read More
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Israeli Poets Protest the War in Gaza
See Linh Dinh’s blog entry here.Read More
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Magical Power in Gaza
Thinkers with as different a view of the world as Sigmund Freud and Mikhail Bakunin have been struck by the fact that the role of the state is to assert a monopoly on crime. Individuals get medals, promotions, and honors by committing the same acts for the state for which they would be hanged or imprisoned in any other circumstances. […] The very meaning of sovereignty which states guard so jealously is the magical power to decide what is or is not a crime. —Richard J. Barnet, Roots of War: p. 13.Read More
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More on the Massacre…
Linh Dinh offers up some excellent links to information on Israel’s massacre in Gaza, to which I’m adding this one to Naomi Klein’s call for a global movement of boycott, divestiture, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel—a strategy that helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.Read More
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Statement on the Crisis in Gaza
NO MORE BLANK CHECK FOR ISRAEL! A group of New Jersey peace activists prepared an ad to appear in the Montclair Times, and we found ourselves in broad agreement with its content. We have modified the ad for use as a Campaign for Peace and Democracy sign-on statement. Go to the CPD website at www.cpdweb.org to sign. In its massive military attacks on Gaza, Israel has again engaged in actions contrary to morality, international law, the cause of peace, and to the long-term best interests of the people of Israel.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
