Thanks, Katie. Lovely thoughts for a midwinter morn. There is, I think, a kind of fundamental activism in writing poetry. Thanks for reminding us all of that.
Thank you Katie. Waking up to this awful news, what you have said rounds the sharp edges of what has become a deepening awful reality this morning. We need poetry more than ever now.
I don’t consider myself a brave person, though initially spurred into activism after returning from two years as a student in the dark days of apartheid in South Africa, I chose a safe and careful approach because this was/is a dangerous world. When I went to teach in China, I shut down my AI involvement (that’s A for Amnesty , not Artificial) as I was not brave enough to face the risks of confronting their authoritarian regime.
I believe we are all brave in different ways. I have activist friends, and I'm so grateful that they can do what they do. But that old "comparison is the death of joy" adage works here, as well as when we compare ourselves to those who are "more successful" or "more beautiful." Courage comes in many forms, and is expressed depending on our personal psyches, our unique combinations of nature and nurture. I do believe that resisting the values impressed on us by ultra-capitalism takes courage. And that seeking our own ways of understanding this life takes it too.
Thanks, Katie. Lovely thoughts for a midwinter morn. There is, I think, a kind of fundamental activism in writing poetry. Thanks for reminding us all of that.
Thank you Katie. Waking up to this awful news, what you have said rounds the sharp edges of what has become a deepening awful reality this morning. We need poetry more than ever now.
I don’t consider myself a brave person, though initially spurred into activism after returning from two years as a student in the dark days of apartheid in South Africa, I chose a safe and careful approach because this was/is a dangerous world. When I went to teach in China, I shut down my AI involvement (that’s A for Amnesty , not Artificial) as I was not brave enough to face the risks of confronting their authoritarian regime.
I believe we are all brave in different ways. I have activist friends, and I'm so grateful that they can do what they do. But that old "comparison is the death of joy" adage works here, as well as when we compare ourselves to those who are "more successful" or "more beautiful." Courage comes in many forms, and is expressed depending on our personal psyches, our unique combinations of nature and nurture. I do believe that resisting the values impressed on us by ultra-capitalism takes courage. And that seeking our own ways of understanding this life takes it too.