Raw is war
Rosalinda Palumbo

Raw is war
war is raw
what part of no
don't you understand
Demo is people
Kratia is rule
who are you?
the people or the rule?
a pipe is not a pipe
a rose is not a rose
war is peace
Hey Brother Hey
1984
put your left wing in
take your right wing out
when you shake it all about
the planet turns around
war is raw
raw is war
telepathy is not apathy
are you thinking
what i am
peace is peace
is peace is peace?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Stories for the 11th Hour.
Deena Metzger

A global action. Please circulate, print, transmit, post, receive, disseminate, translate, participate in any and all ways.  Please send to everyone to whom you have already forwarded Disarm the Barricades of the Heart at the 11th Hour.

Dear Friend,
It has just been a short time since we first circulated the letter To Disarm the Barricades of the Heart at the 11th Hour. The response has exceeded our hopes and expectations. We see the possibilities before us of global peacemaking through gathering the stories in order to open our hearts at this critical and historic moment.

We are calling for the true stories of what people have suffered through violence and war to become known, witnessed and carried by a community that coheres for that purpose.
We realize that those of us who were not there will never know exactly what it was to be “there,” what it was to have experienced the horrific and endemic violence of  20th Century wars or to have done what one is compelled to do in such wars. Nevertheless, there are ways of hearing a story that allows one to come close to the experience, close enough so that afterwards one acts with knowledge and consciousness.

It is because the times are so extreme that it is necessary that we learn from these stories the nature of the devastation that is being planned and enacted in our name: the devastation to be inflicted on others and also upon ourselves. Stories untold fester. Stories unheard become illness and despair. Stories unspoken undo the mind and the soul. Stories told heal the heart. Stories witnessed create community. Stories heard become wisdom.

Informed by these stories, awakened by the dialogue that can occur, we believe that we will be compelled to act with fierce compassion on behalf of the global citizenry and the planet.
The letters that we have received in the last week have, for the most part, catalogued the progression of the first letter to tens of thousands of people. We need your help, and the help of everyone who has responded, in the actual gathering of the stories.  Please seek them out in all areas of your life, public and private, so that they may begin to be witnessed as the carriers of truth and wisdom that they are.  

Stories told in simple language, without great embellishment, without analysis, blame or theorizing, hold great power and the potential to transform the course of history by disarming the hearts of those in whose hands the survival of all is held.  These are the stories that carry the truths to empower all who come in contact with them to stand up and say, "No, we must find another way. We will not allow the destruction and the suffering to continue.”

Time is critical. Please send the stories out yourself to every source and direction you can. Then also send them directly to us.
1)     Visit our web page at: http://home.earthlink.net/~eleventh-hour/index.html
2)     Contact us at storycarriers@earthlink.net
3)     To post a story, send it to: eleventhhourstories@yahoogroups.com
4)     To read the stories go to:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eleventhhourstories/
5)     We will also mail the stories to:
a)     the media
b)    policy makers, heads of state and government officials
c)    other sites that have offered to post the letters
d)    organizers of actions aimed at peacemaking.
e)     individuals who have expressed a desire to receive the stories.

We are hoping this becomes a true grass roots action. We are hoping that people across the world will enter into these conversations, speaking what has been hidden, what has been silenced, what has been impossible to bear and what has been ignored. We are hoping that we will be able to speak of and hear these stories from the heart. That the speakers will have the heart, courage and endurance to say what must be said and that the listeners will be both strong enough and have the courage to take in and hold this bitter knowledge.

In addition to sending the stories out in written form, we are imagining that stories will be spoken in public gatherings and peace actions. We hope that they will be spoken and read from podiums as well as shared in small groups and councils.
We believe that a new kind of dialogue will develop among us and that in the face of such truths that will come to be known, we will become what we must become for all our sakes so that all of us will survive.

In the United States in the last 40 years the telling of such stories previously suppressed has made an enormous difference in the culture and to individuals. It has been the foundation of the women’s movement as it has also given strength to so many people who previously secretly suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse. We have learned that the telling of the story in a compassionate setting has made an enormous difference for those suffering illness and trauma. And so now, for the sake of all our lives, and for the sake of the planet, we ask for these stories.

Peace and Blessings,
Deena Metzger for
Stories for the 11th Hour

[If you have a site or a venue that could receive and distribute these true stories please append at the bottom of the letter as you distribute it and also please contact us at storycarriers@earthlink.net. ]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Poetrylist is a literary journal based in Maryland whose goal is to give writers of poetry, both beginners and professionals, exposure. Through our efforts we hope to bring more diversity to the online literary world. Poetrylist at this time reaches 400 subscribers from over 24 different nations. The newsletter is sent out on the fifteenth of every month.

To subscribe, email poetrylist_editor@yahoo.com for more information. Poetrylist is currently looking for staff members, both editorial and technical, email us your résumé for consideration.

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COPPER CANYON FOUNDER ORGANIZES POETS FOR PEACE IN RESPONSE TO LAURA BUSH
from CLMP

Sam Hamill, poet and editor of Copper Canyon Press in Port Townsend, Washington (<http://www.coppercanyonpress.org>) has created a website, <http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org, to handle the thousands of poems he received after turning down his invitation by Laura Bush to read at the White House.

"I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War when I became a practicing Zen Buddhist and participated in the anti-war movement during the 1960s," says Hamill. Feeling strongly opposed to the Bush Administration's policies on Iraq and the possibility of war, Hamill decided to ignore the invitation to a symposium titled "Poetry and the American Voice" saluting Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Walt Whitman. Instead, he sent a query via the Internet to about a dozen poets asking for poetry that spoke out against war.

The response stunned Hamill. Within a few weeks, he had over 2,000 submissions, some of them from the country's most distinguished poets like Adrienne Rich, Phillip Levine and Galway Kinnell. "Who could have ever imagined such a turnout?" says Hamill. "I thought I'd get maybe 200 poems, but this is unbelievable." At the present, the website lists over 10,000 poems. He says that a 240-page book of selected poems will be published by The Nation Books in time for poetry month in April. A committee of 25 editors will read all the submissions, and Hamill will then make the final selection process. But because the response has been so overwhelming, Hamill wants everyone's voice to be heard. He has therefore arranged an electronic version containing all submissions, which will be made available at selected libraries.

The White House cancelled the symposium, scheduled for February 12, when it got wind of Hamill's poetic protest. With the brouhaha that followed (including pieces in The New York Times, The Nation, The Village Voice, and The Weekly Standard) came charges that Hamill's actions were more self-promotion than responsible action. However, Hamill (who co-founded Copper Canyon 30 years ago) says that he has devoted his life--"all day, every day"--to the practice of poetry, and adds, "I am not a self-seeking person. I have never been. I have led a happy, solitary life as a poet and publisher. If people want to think I'm doing this just to seek publicity, I don't really give a shit." Hamill sees the work he's undertaken, and the role he's taken on, in terms of a larger goal. "If we save one life in our efforts--whether it's an Iraqi life or an American life makes no difference--then our efforts will have been worthwhile."

 How You Can Be Published:

There are several ways. You can also send in poetry or short prose of your own to be considered for IN OUR OWN WORDS, THE EZINE FROM BBBOOKS. We also recommend looking at the Classifieds in Poets and Writers Magazine, visiting our Calls for Submission Page, or entering one of the contests like our "People Before Profits Poetry Prize". Only entires that include a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) will be returned, so be sure to include this with your work. See our editorial philosphy above.