I agree, it was shocking news.
You're right that the poem is a bit awkward -- but it begins very strongly
and you've got the ideas down, so I expect you will be able to strengthen it
later when you've got some distance from it?
Janet
On 12/12/2007, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> (I can't write tonight because I am silenced by sadness. This is my
> awkward attempt.)
>
> I could hide in the exultant cricket news
> of the Aussie win over the Kiwis
>
> I could lose myself in the cool eyes
> of my stuffed camel from Broome
>
> Or Bernstein's 'Poetics' and
> Peter Ciccariello's 'Uncommon Vision'
>
> I could hide, yes, I could
> run away from Bad News
>
> but I can't
> I can't stop howling
> at the Judge who let ten rapists go free
>
> and the Prosecutor who said
> they were 'naughty' for
> gang-banging a ten year old girl.
>
> Ten years old.
>
> Some blame it on their culture,
> they say it was
> youthful experimentation
>
> but it damns them all, it
> damns Queensland's legal system,
> it damns Australia, it damns
> me, impotent on
> the other side of this sunburnt country
>
> where the 'silly season'
> and credit card spending will
> knock such stories off
> the TV news, off the front pages
>
> unless I howl a lot louder,
> unless _we_ howl a lot longer,
> unless I stand up for
> the human rights of
> ALL people in Australia,
> the weak and misguided,
> the sick and the lame,
> the defenceless children ...
>
> Hide, my little black charges,
> hide in the bushes
> in the dry creek beds,
> hide until
> Justice overwhelms Law
> in this primitive land
> where today's Dreaming
> is Nightmare.
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
>
--
Janet Jackson
[log in to unmask]
www.proximity.webhop.net
www.myspace.com/poetjj
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