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  NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW

                           Tribute to Dennis Brutus—1924-2009
                                               (Click Here)

                                  Remembrance by Steve Bloom
                                       Poem by Martín Espada
      
   Dennis Brutus, world-renowned South African poet and human-rights activist,
                          died on December 26, 2009 at the age of 85.

    A memorial meeting will be held in NYC on Sunday, January 17, at 2:00 pm.
                                   (Click here for more information)
                       

  PHOTOGRAPH

  Everything
  in the picture is white
  —well, almost everything.

  Ceiling, with glowing
  florescent fixtures,
  walls, even the floor.
  The clock face is white too,
  with a white plastic case.
  Only numbers and hands
  disrupt the pattern (must,
  I guess, be able to tell when
  the appointed time arrives).
  The frame is white, too,
  on the window
  that allows witnesses
  in the room next door
  to see what takes place
  when the appointed time arrives.

  The main contrast is the chair itself.
  It is, you can tell right away,
  a very special chair,
  the only one of its kind
  at the Greenville Correctional
  Facility in Jarrett, Virginia:
  an aged-oak color,
  with dark leather straps—
  both of which are more likely
  than the ceiling and walls
  to match the color of a prisoner
  fastened there until
  definitively corrected.

  The color of the human hand
  that, when the appointed time
  arrived on so many occasions,
  threw the switch, delivering thereby
  the requisite correctional jolt,
  is not public information.
  But you don’t really have to know.
  Just remember: Everything
  in this picture is white
  —well, almost everything.
      

                              NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW**NEW

                            Tribute to the Strikers of Stella D'Oro 
                                               Bronx, New York

                                                    (Click Here)

    

 
  NEW YEAR, GAZA, 2008/2009 

  Call out the names
  of the dead
  so that we may mourn.
              Call out the names 
              of the dead. 

  Call out the names
  of their killers
  so that we may rage
  as we mourn.
              Call out the names
              of their killers.                                      Photo by Carl Lawrence                  
                                                                       
  Call out the names
  of those who march in protest
  so that we may give thanks
  as we rage
  and mourn
              Call out the names
              of those who march in protest 

  Call out the names "Peace,"
  "Justice," "Freedom," "Palestine"
  so that we may hope
  as we give thanks,
  rage,
  and mourn.
              Call out the names
              "Peace," "Justice,"
              "Freedom," "Palestine"  

  And when the time has come
  to call out the names
  of all who remain silent
  as we are calling out these names
  let us pray that yours
  will not be among them. 
  

                Click here for link to archive of previous home pages
                                        2008                      2009

                  A new translation by Steve Bloom of the "Internationale,"
               anthem of the international revolutionary workers' movement.
                                           Click here for link
                    

   ** March 17, 2009, "Poetry of Resistance" Reading (Sponsored
  by the Activist Poets' Roundtable, NYC).

  Watch the video on YouTube (Click Here).

  ** ACTIVIST POET'S ROUNDTABLE—NEW YORK : the second Sunday of
  every other month. (Click Here for More Information.)

  Anti-copyright message: The poems by Steve Bloom on this website may be  
  freely copied, circulated, reprinted, or otherwise used for non-commercial
  purposes provided only that authorship is credited. Any commercial use
  requires permission from the author.

  All rights to guest poems, photos and other artistic creations reproduced here
  are retained by their respective authors/creators.