https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-october-20-2019-1.5325821/there-s-poetry-for-any-occasion-even-a-pandemic-just-ask-twitter-s-unofficial-poet-laureate-1.5325832
One of his most moving, and most popular, poems is called "Refugees."
The unique poem presents two opposite responses to the global refugee crisis depending on how it is read
Brian Bilston first posted it on Twitter and it appears in his collection, You Took the Last Bus Home.
The unique poem presents two opposite responses to the global refugee crisis depending on how it is read
Brian Bilston first posted it on Twitter and it appears in his collection, You Took the Last Bus Home.
The poem carries a double meaning, presenting one point of view when read from the top down and a completely different perspective when read in reverse.
REFUGEES
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(Now read from bottom to top)
Bilston borrowed the idea of a palindromic poem after he read a similar verse called "The Lost Generation," then searched for a topic that might work in a similar way.
refugees caught between a rock(Greece) and a hard place(Turkey).
ReplyDelete700,000 refugees trapped at the Greek-Turkish border.
https://youtu.be/4qAiH6yKaY8
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/refugees-trapped-on-greek-turkish-border-attacked-from-both-directions
refugee convention revoked by Hungary (to be followed by the rest of EU?)
https://www.msuilr.org/msuilr-legalforum-blogs/2017/5/23/hungary-refugee-policy-and-the-refugee-convention
Can you imagine what will happen when Covid-19 reaches the world's detention camps!!
ReplyDeletevision for a unified humanity -- Robert M. Macrae,Castlegar
Its not just about taxing the rich ,but also about how we spend taxes
Every time we invest tax dollers in the military we subsidize the rich military-industrial corporations ,and lose the opportunity to invest that money in peace and social programs(e.g.education,healthcare,infrastructure,etc.)
No one would begrudge a reasonable defense budget,..however the size of the current global military budget($1.8 trillion US) is obscene.
If we reallocated one-third of that budget toward peace,we could provide food,clean water,housing,education,renewable energy,and healthcare for all humanity,; stabilize humanity's population,;rehabilitate damaged ecosystems; reverse global warming; prepare for pandemics ;eliminate poverty; ...and so much more.
And there would still be two-thirds of the money (1.19 trillion)for defence--even with no new taxes!
Simply by reallocating the tax resources we already have, we can reduce the income gap and create a poverty-free and a just society!