Sarah Browning

Benefits Split This Rock Poetry Festival - Washington, DC, March 10-13, 2010$1,000 awarded for poems of provocation & witness

Patricia Smith, Judge
Deadline: March 9, 2009 (postmark)

Split This Rock is pleased to announce our second annual poetry contest, to be judged by National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith. First place $500; 2nd and 3rd place, $250 each. Winning poems will be published on http://www.splitthisrock.org/, and the 1st-place winner will be invited to read winning poem at Split This Rock Poetry Festival, 2010.

Details:
Submissions should be in the spirit of Split This Rock: socially engaged poems, poems that reach beyond the self to connect with the larger community or world; poems of provocation and witness. This theme can be interpreted broadly and may include but is not limited to work addressing politics, government, war, leadership; issues of identity (gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, body image, immigration, cultural heritage, etc.); community, civic engagement, education, activism; and poems about history, Americana, cultural icons. Read the winning poems from 2008 here: www.splitthisrock.org/contest2008.html.

Submission guidelines:
- Send up to 3 unpublished poems, no more than 6 pages total, in any style, in the spirit of Split This Rock (see above).
- Staple one cover page to your submissions containing your name, address, phone number, email, and the titles of your poems. This is the only part of the submission which should contain your name.
- Enclose a check or money order for $25 (made out to "Split This Rock") to:
Split This Rock Poetry Contest, c/o Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036
- Simultaneous submissions OK, but please notify us immediately if the poem is accepted elsewhere.
- Postmark deadline: March 9, 2009.
- For more details, contact info@splitthisrock.org.

Patricia Smith, author, poet, teacher, performer, is the author of five books of poetry: Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press, 2008), a book of poems chronicling the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina; Teahouse of the Almighty (Coffee House Press, 2006), a 2005 National Poetry Series selection, winner of the 2007 Paterson Poetry Prize, and finalist for the 2007 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Close to Death (1993); Big Towns, Big Talk (1992); and Life According to Motown (1991). In addition, she has authored the history "Africans In America" and the children's book Janna and the Kings. Smith's work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and many other journals. She is a National Book Award Finalist, Pushcart Prize winner, Cave Canem faculty member, and four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition's history.

From the very smart and ever thoughtful John Feffer, Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus:

Last week, shortly after being inaugurated, President Barack Obama ended the "global war on terror" (GWOT). Or so The Washington Post reported. The new president countermanded the Bush administration's extralegal approaches by mandating the closure of Guantánamo within a year, outlawing the use of torture in interrogations, and putting the CIA out of the secret prisons business. Obama announced that he wanted to "send an unmistakable signal that our actions in defense of liberty will be as just as our cause."

Sounds good. But the Post's declaration might be just as premature as President George W. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the USS Lincoln that signaled the "end" of the Iraq War.

On the civil liberties front, for instance, the administration retains the right to use renditions, by which the CIA secretly abducted suspects and transferred them to third countries without trial. "I think it's a glaring hole," Vincent Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights said last week on Democracy Now! "I think that one way that the Obama administration could have dealt a more decisive blow to the illegal Bush policies and even the rendition policy, which originated under Bill Clinton, is to specifically reference this and to say that we are going to disavow this."
Also, the inmates at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, which holds more prisoners than Gitmo, and the thousands held in Iraq won't get the case-by-case review accorded to their counterparts in Cuba. Non-military agencies like the CIA, after a six-month review, might get "additional or different guidance" on interrogations - and who knows what that means. And, as Politico points out, the guy in charge of the 30-day review of Gitmo is the same fellow who was in charge for the last two years - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. That's not exactly a recipe for reform.

But even if Obama holds to his word on torture, closes Guantánamo within the year, applies the same yardstick to detainees at Bagram and in Iraq, and eliminates the Clinton-era policy on extraordinary rendition, the death of the "global war on terror," as Mark Twain once said of his own prematurely published obituary, is greatly exaggerated. Indeed, on the day after it published GWOT's obituary, The Washington Post reported on two U.S. unilateral air strikes in Pakistan that killed 20 suspected terrorists. Although it observed an uncharacteristic silence over these strikes, the Pakistani government has previously expressed outrage at these violations of its sovereignty.

Then there's Afghanistan, which will be the new epicenter of U.S. counterterrorism strategy. Here's the relevant excerpt from the official White House statement on foreign policy: "Obama and Biden will refocus American resources on the greatest threat to our security - the resurgence of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They will increase our troop levels in Afghanistan, press our allies in NATO to do the same, and dedicate more resources to revitalize Afghanistan's economic development."

Why does Obama believe that he can escape the same outcome in Afghanistan that Bush faced in Iraq? As former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern argued in a recent appeal for a five-year "time-out" on war, "In 2003, the Bush administration ordered an invasion of Iraq, supposedly to reduce terrorism. But six years later, there is more terrorism and civil strife in Iraq, not less. The same outcome may occur in Afghanistan if we make it the next American military conflict."

So, is this a kinder, gentler GWOT? Certainly the new Obama administration is more concerned about observing international law. It's more prudent in its willingness to use diplomacy over force. But so far at least, the new president still treats terrorism as a war to be won rather than an endemic problem to be dealt with, patiently and largely by law enforcement agencies. We're still at war in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and for the time being in Iraq. We're still selling arms to Indonesia, Israel, and Colombia as part of an overall counterterrorism approach. The Pentagon's new Africa Command (AFRICOM) still looks at counterterrorism through a military lens.

Sounds to me like we haven't seen the last of GWOT quite yet.

Praise Song for the Day
by Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Copyright © 2009 by Elizabeth Alexander. All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota. A chapbook edition of Praise Song for the Day will be published on February 6, 2009.

Tom and Ben and I were invited to a Birthday Party/Inauguration Watching Gathering last night at the home of one of Ben’s classmates. At the last minute Tom’s colleague Jennifer, whose son Alberto goes to the school and who introduced us there, had to cancel, as Alberto wasn’t feeling well.

So we were introduced to the mother of the birthday boy outside school at pick-up time and set off on foot through the ice and slush along the river with her and a posse of 10-year-olds headed for the party. The family spent several stints in New York over the years and so the parents Valeria and Simone speak excellent English. Phew.

We found ourselves, in fact, in a warm and welcoming environment. Adults arrived in waves from work over the course of the evening. And Valeria brought out wave after wave of food platters: mini panini with salami, prosciutto, or mortadella. Celery stuffed with gorgonzola. Bread sticks, a specialty of Torino. Massive blocks of hard cheese. Warm little pastry envelopes filled with apricot jam and sprinkled with sugar. Birthday cake, of course. Little marinara pizzettas, just red sauce. Endive with pomegranate seeds. And bottle after bottle of wine – red, white, prosecco.

Valeria waited until it was clear we were ObamaHeads and then took off the sweater she was wearing to expose her Hope T shirt, with the beautiful red and blue portrait of Obama that’s become so ubiquitous this winter.

We watched the inauguration on CNN on the large TV in the living room. It came via their internet cable, as the Sky satellite dish was malfunctioning. So there were frequent stutters and misses both in the picture and the sound. Moreover, a dozen or more Italian 10-year-olds were rioting through the place. At the very moment that Elizabeth Alexander began her lovely poem the kids brought out their noisemakers and began blowing – in celebration of the birthday boy, the inauguration, or for the sheer joy of making the loudest noise possible.

It was surreal to watch such a momentous event in such a chaotic environment. But I loved it. The mood was festive and celebratory and not somber, as it might have been at home. We met fascinating people: a science journalist for Italian TV who had to leave the party early to go home and write something on Obama and stem cell research, energy, and environment for today’s show. Her husband, not in attendance, is a member of parliament from Torino, in a left-wing party. Laura began to tell me the history of left electoral politics in Italy, why it has been so fractured. I want to get more clarity on this, but I did understand that there were many smaller parties in the past, then they tried uniting into one large party, the Partita Democratica. But that experiment has been a failure, according to Laura, and there is talk again of breaking apart, to come together in coalition in the future.

Simone, our host, is a professor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, leading a masters program in food studies that combines history, anthropology, sociology, and sciences. It’s affiliated with Slow Food University in nearly Bra. He also teaches in an American Studies program at another university, as his own field is the experience of Italian immigration to the US and the history (I think I got this right) of Italian food there.

Our other host Valeria is a tour guide. We met two auto engineers (Fiat headquarters are here) and a yoga instructor. Almost everyone spoke marvelous, idiomatic English. It made me ashamed of my pathetic Italian. Though I was able to discuss the lunches at Ben’s school with the monolingual grandma: Schifoso, my son says, disgusting, I told her. Yes, Ferdi says the same, she agreed. Italy’s Worst Cooks, we call them. You must complain, she says. Protesta. All together.

Tom and I drank too much and I cried during Aretha Franklin’s My Country Tis of Thee (and thank God she didn’t sing God Bless America) and Tom blew raspberries at George Bush. Just after the swearing in, the kids marched around the apartment waving American flags. Later, I spotted Ben wearing 6 or 8 of them stuck in his collar and waistband, a gorilla mask over his face. Sadly, no camera.

I always roll my eyes at the speeches and their celebration of an assumed American Exceptionalism. But I felt even more acutely last night the sheer arrogance when Obama declared in ringing tones that American is ready to lead again. Tom called out, You hear that, you Italians, America will be leading you now. Aren’t you pleased? As if America is the nun and Italy and all the other nations are little Madeline and her pals lining up in two straight lines behind. (I’m remembering that Madeline and Co. wreck a certain amount of havoc, so perhaps the comparison is more apt than I suppose.)

But we were the only ones objecting. Italians must be so used to this rhetoric by now that they can’t bother to complain. Or perhaps they were being polite to us. Or the chaos of the party obscured the words. Or they don’t care – like the rest of us they are just grateful for the End of an Error, moved by the election of our first Black president and by the massive outpouring of support from the American people, hopeful for a saner and more just American foreign policy.

A kind soul took pity on us and drove us home, though we live in the exact opposite direction from his house. He spared us a bus ride and a tram ride and waiting in the cold for each of them on their infrequent evening rounds. We have small cars in Italy, he apologized, as we wedged our big American butts into his tiny Fiat. Yes, and thank God, we said. Maybe someday America will learn a thing or two from you.

Split This Rock's own E. Ethelbert Miller and Andy Shallal, artist and owner of Busboys and Poets, are both featured in a photo and audio montage of responses to Obama's impending presidency. Miller is heard reading his O Poem. Click here and scroll down to "From I Have a Dream to Yes We Can."

Hard to be away from DC on this glorious, astonishing day. Almost impossible to write what I feel, so I am sharing a letter from Michael Moore that came into my In box just now. Wishing everyone a celebratory, wonderful ObamaDay!
**

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Friends,

This happy, happy day!

We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.

To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.

But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.

So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers").

On a personal note, it's no secret that I have had to suffer an avalanche of hate and attack as I stuck my neck out to simply do my job. Some day I will tell you what the true cost of this has been for me, but not today. Today is a time for celebration and optimism and hope. I'm glad we all lived to see this incredible moment. And I thank each of you for your support of my work and your dedication to our democracy.

12:01pm can't come soon enough!
Happy Inauguration Day!

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

>>>>>>

Subscribe!

Subscriptions are free. There are two options.

JOURNAL ONLY. If you would like to get email notices four times a year with announcements of new issues, please join our subscription list at Mutual Aid. Go to: http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/beltwaypoetryquarterly.

DC LOCAL LISTINGS. Want more? If you would like a subscription PLUS information about readings, calls for entry, and other literary events in the greater DC region, please join our DC list at Mutual Aid. Go to: http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman./listinfo/beltway.