LEAVING, LEAVING…
leaving
leaving
leaving again
a life of leaving
leaving this house behind
leaving
leaving
a leaf leaving its tree
to fall and become humus
to sprout once more
elsewhere
leaving
leaving
to go where?
a lifetime of leaving
since grandpa Wilson
a slave
ran away
(c) Julia Wright. January 5, 2025. All Rights Reserved.
WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN WE LOOK INTO THE FIRES?
Hey Folks,
We live in times that are as volatile as a tinder dry atmosphere sparked by breaking news.
Hardly had I sent my daily poem to y’all that I stumbled on James Wood, the Hollywood producer sobbing on CNN over his house lost to fire. The same James Woods who verbally and rabidly exhorts to genocide.
Thanks to Mr Woods, I found the ending of my poem.
Peace,
Julia
what do we
see when we look
into the fires?
when we were kids
it was a game
we played
trying to imagine
all sorts
of fantastic figures
but what do we see
in all the fires
spread by imperialism
today?
do the children born
in the million dollar
now destroyed
mansions of Hollywood
see gigantic
frightened fireflies
in the flying embers
born of the climate change
fueled by their CEO fathers?
do the children of Gaza
reach out to touch
never seen snow
only to be slow-burned
to the bone
by white phosphorus
made in USA?
will the film stars
waking up to walk
on the still red-hot carpets of rubble
replacing their Shangri La castles
now see
just a bit
how
cluster bomb flames
in Gaza
can raze
all that remains
including life
and ancestral houses
and olive groves?
or
as Hollywood is rebuilt
with heartquake proof materials
will
the Apartheid
of corporate profit
and racial accelerant
blindly
business as usual
criminally
continue?
perhaps,
but Mother Earth is on our side
and the contradiction
will deepen
(c) Julia Wright. January 10, 2025. All Rights Reserved to playgroundsforpalestine.org
WE KNOW WHO THE HEROES ARE
In memory of Aaron Bushnell and the others who self-immolated
in protest over the genocide in Gaza to let us know that the fires
the empire lights elsewhere come home to burn
October 7th 2023 …
the Hamas Offensive
carefully cut off
from its anti-colonialist context
was presented
to the world
as a wild terrorist assault
stealing
God and hubris-given zionist land
January 7th 2025 …
Mother Earth’s Offensive
of Fires
carefully cut off
from the real narrative
of unchecked corporate assault
on our climate
our wildlife
and our humanity
was presented
to the world
as a hoax
a conspiracy theory
maybe why not
a wildly uncontrollable attack
of nature gone illegally amok
against the most expensive real estate
on the planet
Hamas and Nature
are invisibilized
as forces of Liberation
the mother of all Hollywood blockbusters
is being filmed
this time in real time
with
in the starring roles
the migrants,
the Mexicans
and the incarcerated
on the front line
as fire-fodder –
just as a genocide
is live streamed
by intrepid journalists
doctors
and aid workers
staying behind
at the risk of their lives
with the clarity
of cleansing fire
we know who
the real stars –
the only heroes –
are
(c) Julia Wright. January 16, 2025. All Rights Reserved to Susan Abulhawa’s playgroundsforpalestine.org
A POETIC PETITION FOR AN INDIGENOUS GRANDFATHER
The name “Grandfather’s clock” comes from the song lyrics written by American composer Henry Clay Work in 1876 – whose chorus I have adapted here to speak of the death by incarceration which the UN Human Rights Committee has asked Presidet Biden’s Department of Justice to place under moratorium and which has been experienced for 50 years by the Indigenous Nation’s ailing grandfather, Leonard Peltier.
President Biden,
are there Grandfather clocks
in the White House
my forebears built
brick by brick –
Grandfather clocks
ticking away
and what do they say?
eighty years without slumbering ( tick, tick, tick, tick )
his life seconds numbering ( tick,tick,tick,tick )
the clocks would stop short – never to go again –
if imprisoned grandfather Leonard Peltier’s prayers
went unheeded by you
President Biden,
Grandfather clocks
in your folklore measure the time
of life stolen
and
of nevermore
eighty years without slumbering (tick, tick, tick,tick)
his life seconds numbering (tick,tick,tick,tick)
the clocks would stop short – never to go again –
if the aged prisoner were left to die
President Joe Biden,
you who are a Grandfather too
can you hear
these elderly clocks
keeping pace
of your last presidential minutes –
what do they whisper ?
do they let you know
they are
the pendulum of your worktime
in History
tick by tick
slowing down ?
can you hear them transmitting
heartbeat by heartbeat
the worldwide united vigil
of Indigenous peoples
from the Amazon to New Zealand :
“Free Leonard Peltier” …
eighty years without slumbering ( tick,tick,tick,tick)
his life seconds numbering (tick,tick,tick,tick)
the clocks could still strike the hour
of clemency given
as a noble and nobel peace offering
to so many Native Peoples
releasing the world’s beloved Indigenous elder
from his chains
as your workshift is still not unwound
(c) Julia Wright. January 18, 2025. All Rights.
WHOSE VICTORY? OUR VICTORY
in tribute to Ramzy Baroud, Abubaker Abed and so many others whose smiles speak as clearly as their analysis that the so-called negotiated ceasefire is really a people’s victory
in tribute to Mario Benedetti who wrote of the underneath of the underneath
claim no easy victories
Amilcar Cabral
said
the Palestinian people’s
refusal to be defeated
in Gaza
is a victory
that was not easy
but remains
all the more
exemplary
to the freedomfighters
of the world
in spite of the smoke and mirrors
and PR distractions
the ceasefire
would not have seen
the light of day
if it had not been
for the underneath
of the underneath
holding strong
against a genocide
the Palestinians
have changed
the climate of revolution
everywhere
from the western campuses
to the global South
where we have marched
in unison
sang
made noise
written
dug in our heels
striked
self immolated
boycotted
divested
sanctioned
sat in
died in
been arrested
flown hope’s kites
for 471 days
relentlessly
the Palestinians
have shown
each one of us
whatever anti-imperialist battle
we wage
however
small and caged
or isolated
we may be –
that with ever tightened unity
of action
of spirit and purpose
there is
an indivisibility
of victory
(c) Julia Wright. January 20, 2025. All Rights
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