The formulae attained by your presentation as entwinned with heart- cave throbbing beat raves and cranks up my musical prone psyche AND I dance to the ritual of this mesmerizing rhythm, your lines carry the literary verve that coils us into realms of suspense , that quest to see further and discern more from a creative wonderment .Your unique and blood rippling lyrical vibe sends readers into poetic trances and as they rose from the trance , they are already transfigured . As much as your poetry is more historical and its subject matters also dips their life -hardened fingers into matters of moral decadence, political decay and economic malaise. Ukraine is a country associated with a myriad of political connotations, such name-dropping explains a more broader experiences of the geo- political- historical references of wars fought, won and lost, lives lived and lost , long journeys walked and later ended from the red earth of Zanzibar into social corridors of Ukraine up to the rich Amazon basin of Brazil. The well versed poet is a wonderful traveler, a well-versed chronicler, intelligent adventurer and prolific griot. Her knowledge of global geo-politics, world economics, cultures and historical events is extraordinary. Real poetry speaks of people and speaks to people. The poet griot has spoken and is still speaking. Eugenia Hepworth Petty ,It is a great wonderment to graze through your prolific writings. TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC remains rooted in Exclusivity, dexterity and diversity. Aluta Continua- (Blurb by Mbizo CHIRASHA).
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood / A beautiful day for a neighbor
In the summer of 1995 I remember sitting with a bunch of other Volunteers
during Peace Crops training in Lutsk, Ukraine, singing along to R.E.M.
It’s the End of the World as we know it
It’s the End of the World as we know it
It’s the End of the World as we know it
And I feel fine
Robert Reising used to wear the same t-shirt almost every day. On the back it said
End of The World Tour—Major Dates:
Love Canal, New York—1978
Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania—1979
Bhopal, India—1984
Chernobyl, U.S.S.R.—1986
Prince William Sound, Alaska—1989
Amazon Rainforest, Brazil—1990
Ozone layer, Antarctica—1991
Persian Gulf—1991
Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood!
And indeed, in whatever neighborhood one lives
one can watch a million tragedies transpire
In November of 2019, a third of the bat species in Australia died during a heat wave
They fell out of trees onto lawns into shimmering backyard pools
their brains literally frying from the heat
Ecologists called the die-off “Biblical” in scale
As many as 30,000 spectacled flying foxes—and 10,000 black flying foxes—
in the span of two days.
In other neighborhoods an olive ridley turtle is snarled in plastic waste
mangrove forests are cleared for antibiotic-laden fish ponds
two hundred reindeer starve to death in the high arctic
a scalloped hammerhead shark dies on a drum line
Since that day in Lutsk, we have lost so many of our neighbors—
Yangtze River Dolphin
Sri Lanka Shrub Frog
Pyrenean Ibex
Caribbean Monk Seal
Zanzibar Leopard
Mariana Mallard
Alaotra Grebe
Pinta Island Tortoise
Christmas Island Pipistrelle
Black-faced Honeycreeper
Yunnan Lake Newt
Western Black Rhinoceros
“However innumerable all beings are, we vow to care for them.”
Genjo Roshi looked up at the assembly, and I noted the variation in his words. “However innumerable all beings are, we vow to care for them.”
Om
Saha Naavavatu
Saha Nau Bhunaktu
Saha Veeryam Karavavahai
Tejasvi Navadhitamastu
Ma Viidvishavahai
Om
Shantih Shantih Shantih
People labored under a hot sun
lived in squalor died in childbirth
and were miserable most of the time
And so came the “days of note”
celebrations set aside for hours of happiness
drunkenness and revelry
It was like this in Ukraine
On any occasion a holiday would be called
and eating and drinking would commence
Before the harvest after the harvest
at births and funerals
weddings all saints days
baptisms
the acquisition of a goat
during days of harsh weather
and at the turn of flowers
toward the sun in spring
The bus would come
or not
the choir would wander home
without ceremony or performance
Men died in the snow
forgotten after dark
when tiny stars would appear
in the deep blanket of the sky
and we would raise our glass
Now On This Worried Earth
Sparks and flames
crackle blindly
in the gloaming twilight
illuminated
in a kind of motion
Above a little lichen drenched lake
people stop
and haggle over God
Burning corpses in saffron and muslin
lip at the corners of rivers
in blazing brightness
Lost friends go off blindly
iron-lidded
possessed
mad
Gardens fields forests
quietly enveloped in ashes and dust
firm their roots
to bone
trunks sunk in fifty-five miles
at the base
Now on this worried earth
edging the narrow haunts of space
brimming with sequined stars
A flock of souls unmoored
bullet-pocked
bloodstained
carnivalesque
Streaming like balloons
This poem was created by incorporating words and lines from 29 poems I wrote during Found Poetry Review’s 2014 National Poetry Month challenge.
Eugenia Hepworth Petty lives in America’s Pacific Northwest with her poet husband and a clowder of cats. Collections of her poetry include two chapbooks (Instructions for the Apocalypse and Pamyat Celo); two micro chapbooks (On a Planet Called Earth and People Live Here) and two “pointlessly small books” (if apple juice were oil and Poetry Is). Most recently, a portion of her Master’s thesis, written on the shamanic aspects of poet Patti Smith, appears in the anthology Roots and Routes: Poetics at New College of California (Vernon Press 2020).In addition to writing, Eugenia is also an analog photographer. In the mid-1990s she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, and continues to work on a long term photographic and writing project about that experience. She also makes postcards—and will send you one.
Mbizo CHIRASHA( TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC CURATOR)
UNESCO-RILA Affiliate Artist.Freedom of Speech Fellow to PEN- Zentrum Deutschland,Germany. Alumni of the International Human Rights Arts Festival in New-York, USA.Literary Arts Activism Diplomatie. Globaly Certified Arts Mediums Curator and Influencer. Internationally Published Page and Spoken Word Poet. Writer in Residence. Arts for Human Rights Catalyst. Core Team Member of the Bezine Arts and Humanities Project. His illustrious poetry , hybrid writings , political commentary ,short fiction , book reviews and Arts Features are published in more than 400 spaces notably the Monk Arts and Soul in Magazine in United Kingdom. Atunis Poetry.com in Belgium. Demer press poetry series in Netherlands. World Poetry Almanac in Mongolia.Poesia journal inSlovenia. Bezine Arts and Humanities Webzine in USA. The Poet a Day in Brooklyn ,USA. Litnet Writers Journal in South Africa. African Crayons in Nigeria. Poetry Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Pulp-pit USA.the FictionalCafe international Journal , Texas USA. Best New African Poetry series in Zimbabwe, Zimbolicious Poetry Collections in Zimbabwe. Co-edited Street Voices International Publications with Andreas Weiland in Germany.Co-Edited Silent Voices Anthology, a Tribute to Chinua Achebe. Co-Edited the Corpses of Unity,solidarity collection to victimzed Cameroonians with Nsah Mala. Curated and Edited the Zimbabwe We Want Poetry ,Inside Digraceland speaking poetic truth to the Mugabe regime and other bad regimes. He owns the Time of the Poet blog zine ,MIOMBOPUBLISHING that published the #GlobalCallforPeaceProject titled the Second of EARTH is Peace.A LETTER to the PRESIDENT his experimental resistance poetry colection was released in August 2019 by Mwanaka and Media Publishing.. Co- Authored Whispering Woes of Ganges and Zambezi with Sweta Vikram in India. Good Morning President his first poetry collection was published in 2011 by Zimbabwean published based in United Kingdom, Diaspora Publishers.COVID 19 Satansdeadly fart is forthcoming. Chirasha is Founder and the Chief Editor of Brave Voices Poetry Journal.
Thanks for sharing.
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