Local Peace Economy Gathering | Poetry Round-Table

All right, welcome everybody. It's uh July 22nd. Um this is the local peace economy meeting uh that's focused on a poetry circle where we're going to talk um to a poet in our midst, uh Joy Johnson, and and listen to some poems of hers and talk to her about her process. And then we're going to read poems together and reflect on each other's poems. And uh we'd really like I'm going to um I'm going to preface the meeting that we want to hold the space a little differently than just reading poems. We would read the poems and take a short moment of silence after each poem. And then we want people w as they're reflecting and they're thinking about the poetry and then wanting to speak about it with the larger group that they think about how the poem made them feel and what the poem inspired in them and uh how uh what vulnerabilities it brought up in them in themselves instead of necessar not necessarily what you're thinking but what you're feeling because of that poem. And we want to encourage people to be just a little vulnerable with each other tonight. All right. So, uh, let me welcome Joy Joy Johnson. Uh, she is a regular at the local peace economy gatherings. You may have seen her, uh, talk and and share, um, at several meetings before. And, um, she has been writing beautiful poems based upon the global peace economy pivots. enjoy. Um, and we've been sharing them on the local peace economy substack. And so if you are not uh familiar or not following the Substack, I'll put the link in the comments, but um I wanted to give Joy a little bit of time to talk about her project. >> Oh yeah. Okay. Hi everybody. Um, you know, I was just reading uh something from I think it was writer's digest, something dorky like that today about one of the things to uh uh to good habits of a writer is to look for inspiration everywhere, which is like second nature to me. So when I got the workbook and there was a list of 23 pivots, I was like, "Oh, look, this is a 23 poems." You know, I was good to go. It and uh so I I did finally finish. It took me over a year to write all of those. But I did finally finish those and uh um and I'm very and and of course and I shared them with Jod and Marie and and and then they want to do something with them. So, I'm very flattered uh to have them including me on the Substack. It it's really really nice. And I want to add that in in the Substack, it's not just a post of a poem that I wrote, but Marie uh writes some words about the pivot and about the poem and stuff like that. And I think it's very um it's very thoughtful and and I really appreciate it. I really do. >> Thanks. Yeah, we're trying to make the pivots as accessible to uh people's relationship with being in these times right now about how it's I think it's really easy for people to go like you know to hear like oh you should pivot from one thing to another but what does that actually mean like what is the creative process in your mind when you're thinking about pivoting your life towards peace and I think that the workbook and the way that the pivots are structured is uh very thoughtful that way and the creative >> the creative outpouring of your poetry is like a perfect expression of that. Um, >> I think and you picked up on on one of them that you already posted that I wound up writing a lot about problems you might have if you try to do this pivot and and and and so I you know a lot of times it's it's more like the the the the things that might be difficult about the pivot in my poetry. >> Yeah. you know, >> and and really exploring and and sitting with the resistance that we have to like every day we encounter multiple ways to pivot in a whole bunch of different areas, but there is this like deep resistance to pivoting in specific ways. is like today I'm writing um I'm preparing another one for Substack and it's about pivoting from plastics to planet >> and and the the history of plastics and the relationship that we all have with plastic in everything we do everything we consume like you know everything that comes into our house and in our yards and plastic is everywhere and how feeling like we and potentially pivot from plastic to planet like feels like sometimes like an overwhelming uh step. And so I think uh that these poems really take the problem and look at it in this like bite-size emotional way and it helps us to understand that we're not meant as creators, as people to cure the problem for the world. We're here to engage in what narrow circle of influence we are here to engage with and to do the very best creative work that we can and that we're not here to solve every problem in the world. And that understanding that in the context of the pivots is um is an important part of that process. And I think that your poetry is really beautiful for that because it looks and it goes what is my contribution and what small step can I take to be better? >> Well, sometimes I hope it that's good. I'm I'm glad that that you know you're reminding me of one of my favorite Nuda quot which I I won't be able to remember exactly, but it's about it's it's something along the lines of the the um poetry is not for the poet, it's for the reader. Yeah. >> So, um, yeah, whatever you get out of it, that's and you're talking about stopping and reflecting and letting yourself feel it. And I think that is very important in the in because uh, you know, poetry is a special kind of writing that invites that kind of of of engagement. You hope you know that it's not it's not it's not reading a novel. It's not it's not reading a a history book. It's not that. It's something that's touching, you know, something I think that's kind of a unique way to reach down into the human experience hopefully, you know. >> Yeah. It it it re it allows people to experience in their feelings an ephemeral >> leading relationship to uh what I kind of term as the numinous like there's this that it we are that what's outside of us that is a collective >> and and you get when you read a really good poem >> you feel that ephemeral quality of something more than words. Does that make sense? >> It does make sense to me. I don't know. What about you guys? You getting it? [laughter] >> Um uh and and you're talking about then maybe to me one of the things that poetry did for me was in causing me to have feelings. Um first of all, it validated that I have feelings. And nobody was even in the room. I was just there reading a poem and it was like it's okay to have feelings, you know, and and then but then it made me feel connected to other people who maybe read this and had feelings, you know, right? >> Is that nuts? I don't know. >> No, it's not. And speaking of connecting to other people who are having these same feelings, can you talk, you're a really good uh um person to uh talk a little bit about the writing workshop that's ongoing, has been going on for the year. And I've been with Code Pink for almost two years now, year and a half, a little more than that. And the writing workshop predates me. And so there has been a a group of people. I don't think it's like uh an exclusive group of people. People come and go, but a group of people that meet once a month to share. And so can you talk to everybody about what that looks like? >> Yeah, it's I I find it uh to be one of the the [clears throat] most um meaningful exchanges I have about my writing that I've ever experienced because uh yeah, and and it's different people every time. Um but uh Michelle Humphre leads it usually, you know, and uh and um and and she follows this uh uh template for how to do the discussion of the reading. And it's not just poetry. We uh people bring all kinds of writing there, but a lot of us are bringing poetry. Um and and uh and we do this really interesting thing where the author reads the poem and we share them or or reads the work whatever it is and we share them uh with links you know you so that everybody can open it up and look at it and then somebody else reads the piece of work and and so first of all that's really illuminating to hear somebody else read my words. That just doesn't happen every day, you know. And then uh and then the author has to leave the room. In other words, you mute yourself, right? And then and then the other people in the group discuss what they've just read and but you get to eaves drop on them because you are you know you may have left the room but you're just outside the door with your ear to the door you know and uh and then after they feel like they've exhausted uh their discussion the author is welcomed back in to to the conversation at which point I always have like questions or or like what did you mean by or what did you think of or you know that kind of wonderful stuff. It's just I think it's a really genius way to uh to to do it. And so you know we have usually maybe as many as a half a dozen people come and uh I don't I don't know. It's great. You guys ought to come. >> And you know you can also come if you don't have anything to share by the way and just be part of the discussion. just allow yourself to be touched by what somebody else has written, you know. >> And do you feel like have you um taken the notes that people gave you and then changed what you've written and like incorporated it and is that something that um that that people do or do and then they come back with the changes or is it like a workshopppy kind of thing or is it or do you >> It's not It's not that much like a workshopppy thing. It certainly is that is a a a thing that could happen for sure. But um I think uh meeting only once a month, we kind of uh are much more interested in bringing something new every time and not not revisiting that with our limited amount of time, you know. >> Yeah, that >> I certainly do take notes from what people are saying. Absolutely. You know, I I do that. Uh and and and I might change a little bit. Uh but I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not the right person to ask about that process. I'll just say that. [laughter] >> Well, do you want to um read a poem uh that you've written that you you know that you want to share with the group and and maybe talk about what the inspiration like where it came from? Like did it come out of, you know, a creative bolt of lightning or was it a process or like how did you um how did you create it and and what was the inspiration other than the pivot and uh yeah just >> tell us. Okay. So, do you want me to read one of the pivots or do you want me to read something else? >> It's completely up to you. >> Um I So I Let me see. I I know I open Yeah. Uh, so I have one open that is a pivot. So I I think maybe that's the one that I'll start with. And this one um in another writing group in person writing group that I'm in, I got some good feedback about this. So, I thought you guys might enjoy it and you can tell me what you think or but most importantly, you got to remember that after I finish reading it, we're just going to be silent for a while and you're going to experience what it ever is that it wants you to experience. Right, good. Okay, this one was for the reactionary to investigative. Uh, story untelling. Freedom is the thing. From morning pledgings to founding fathers warnings about taxing without representing to heck with central planning, no wonder pre-term us was confederation. to anthems a rung from sporting events. We're inundated with infinite tales unsung throughout a youth fence ignorant of what's owed to slaves, natives, the earth above and below and how freedom is the wrong poem. We are one. Then comes the imposition onto all we see and partake of commercialism. How our worth is beholden to our purse. What power it can muster to coersse respect from whom? Non-existent jury. Nonetheless, we're pistoned back into work. Chasing what we told we we're told we want. Reassess courtesy American Express constant makes it hard to see codenisens of earth as joys unbounded and congress priceless. Then all grown up, we settle right in to watch the news. A story bespoke not for you, for the oligarch. I don't want new wars to watch, read, listen to. The Germaine asks, "Who's paying for the tuning to? Who is distracting us with half-truths, untruths? We're being used. It's no conspiracy. It's just concentrating wealth elsewhere unfairly, monumentally unso. Since baptism against fascism needs compassion, every contrived separation arose. Every moment on earth, blind love, our duty to the story, the truth. All right. Does anybody have a reflection or uh a sense or a feeling that they want to express or an inspiration, a feeling of inspiration? I feel like it just kind of captures our our day-to-day existence in America. Now, I think if he'd written it in a different country, it would have come out a little different differently, but sort of the way that it feel it sort of has a feel for what it's like here. I think the sense of um not feeling powerful. Uh feeling like a lot of uh what we how we spend our time and what we listen to on the news and uh what we're told is important has kind of been set in stone for us. And hopefully we feel like questioning that. >> Right. >> Yeah. For me, I it I felt uh a strong um urge as you were listing listing all the ways that we that that we are being manipulated. Um are that our reactionary self um I wouldn't say I felt shame around it because I could see myself in those reactions. I would I think that I I recognized more deeply I felt more deeply the manipulation of of the war economy's hold and grasp on sort of all of these different parts of our life. And um >> yeah, you don't have to wait with me here. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And so I that that's how that's how how I related to it. Does anybody else want to speak up? Yes. I wanted to um see the line you said from baptism and then until fascism. if you could repeat that section or maybe put in the chat if you have a text version. But were what were you what was your intention when you were writing that line or what were you thinking about? We're thinking about religious manipulation or something else. H um well the line uh that sentence is since baptism comma against fascism colon italicized needs compassion. Um, and you know, what I was thinking about is not nearly as important to me as what it does to my reader, but um, uh, what You know, I think this is a poem again that in the pivot from reactionary to investigative um that I am doing talking a lot more about the difficulty of that pivot you know and uh and personally the difficulty I you know that I might be having with how do you get there you know and uh so I think that that little line there is maybe tied up with that uh how do how does this happen that you're born and I I admit that instead of saying since birth I said said since baptism probably because I needed more syllables. Okay. Um and and uh up until you know now when we have this in this country in particular I think we have a rising fascist element going on and and and clearly uh if you're trying to untell that story you know which is the subtitle of the poem for me that um that maybe compassion might be a better response uh a little bit more mature and a little bit more investigative rather than reaction. You know what I mean? I don't know. Was that an adequate sort of pointing the way to what I was saying? >> I understand like mechanically needing more I think syllables, but I think birth is a better from your intent way of saying it because it's talking about how one is conditioned. >> Yeah. >> And then can lead to changes throughout life um according to you know um experiences and learning and growing as a human. So yeah, I think that would be a better word because like for me baptism means rebirth. So it kind of doesn't really flow in in the way that uh maybe you intended it. >> Yeah. And I and I worry about too when I can't help my upbringing. I I have certain vocabulary words. Um even though I don't consider myself particular to be a Christian anymore. I've been I've taken Buddhist vows and all that kind of good stuff. Um, but it it v the vocabulary of Christianity just comes out of me and I worry about that sometimes. And one time in the reading group, the the there was a a decent amount of Christian vocabulary in the poem that I shared that day and it turned off some people. They immediately dismissed it. But a but as we read it together and they discussed it and then I came in and we discussed it. It was actually a poem against religion, you know. So, but I get I get what you're saying and I worry about those words creeping in uh to to my stuff. >> It wasn't so much that I would be cautioning against religious vocabulary. I just I was from my perspective it's almost making it sound like you know the idea of baptism and then fascism I probably misunderstood you. Um that's why I think it's important to ask a offer what they mean but I interpreted it as saying that religion inherently has shaped and formed fascism or a conscience of fascism. But I would strongly disagree with that perspective as I think often Christianity is about really seeing and aligning with the other or the scapegoat or the one who is powerless. Ideally, >> ideally, >> but then, you know, you could that would o could open up a whole conversation about the the misinterpretation of baptism and Christianity and stuff like that. >> And maybe it's maybe it's even a conversation that is not even between two people, but between you and the poem, >> which is that could happen. Yes. So I think poetry like you can imagine that you're when you're reading something you're having a conversation with the ideas in the poetry the words but also with the offer even if you don't know the offer. >> Hey so Moji has his hand raised and I thought we Moji would you like to uh reflect on how the poem made you feel? >> Sure. Uh well I the poem made me made me feel sad for one thing and then uh but what the reason I raised my hand uh is because of what I find often. I am from Iran. I am a Sufi Muslim and so I am subjected to Islamophobia, to being uh being called a sleeping cell of terrorism and all other nonsense that is being pushed by the military-industrial complex and Israel in particular. And I want to say in my own poetry, whether in Persian or English, I don't I don't focus on how it's going to impact whoever. it just comes out a lot of times in a dream or I wake up and I the the fo the poem either in Persian or in English is flowing and I'm just writing it and but I believe there is a profound distinction that needs to be made between religion and its abuse by the force forces of as we say in Persian by the forces of gold power and deception. And so a lot of times I feel sad that people um especially poets may feel compelled to hide what is flowing out of them. And in case of joy, it may it may have Christian uh vocabulary or Christian imagery. And then they say, "Oh, it pisses people off. Therefore, I should not be authentic to what is flowing out of me as a poem." And my only answer is, and I've been, as a Sufi, by the way, I've been persecuted. Um, and so there is a difference between the essence of religion, whichever religion we are talking about, and the fact that it has been quote unquote fucked up by people who are, you know, who have agendas of various sorts. So I thought to share that. Um, that's all. Thank you. Thank you, Moji. That's a really powerful reflection both you and Rosalyn um sharing about this the religious imagery and how what it elicits from people as they and the feelings it brings forward. Even it's very subtle like I didn't even mark it as religious and but it it is obviously but I didn't even mark it as a religious uh word and and it's it's it's a really important aspect of our relationship with words as to what it makes us uh feel when we're relating to the very specific aspect of the word chosen. Joy, do you want to share another poem with us? I I totally could if you want me to. >> Sure. [laughter] >> We'll do one more and then we'll open it up to people. >> Okay. >> Others who want to share. And if you want to share a poem, um raise your emoji hand. I can't see your actual hand because uh when you're Zoom controlling, you only see like three people of an assembled group. So raise your hand uh your emoji hand. And in the order that that people raise their hands, I will I will pick them uh after Joy reads her poem and we reflect on it. >> So go ahead, Joy. So, this one is not one of the pivots and it's a more recent poem and it's called 2026. Uh, but I wrote it in uh Roman numerals and it is a um a a series of four it's a four sonnet series and uh I recently wrote one that's a seven sonnet series. So, you can be grateful that I'm not going to read that one. Okay. Okay. How meaningless will be my end compared to inapt or not the life of one tree who in my yard has bloomed prolifically whose green soul made home for many a bird to fill the world with a morning song heard by just everything needing a boosting a new day meeting readying to sing some better beginnings into being. Please swear you've never cursed the bird song of a morning. Whether in leisure or spooked by the day's coming demands workforce have claimed so many would be expansive moods. I only care you have whooped at bird's chorus into new day exude contemplation of a world come undone amidst my concern for online gift guard. Everything comes to not for the rear guard of these generations. So many ton of trees and birds transmuted into man. So much blissful ignorance, oh my god, of how to make a world go. The lifeguard we need instead of admitting this one is worth changing everything for bird song in place of rockets drone and chainsaws smoke. Unconscious we breathe like advent for gone like nothing's wrong. Like Jerusalem oak stands for eventuality unchanged. No matter how blindly deaf we're estranged, soon enough my end will be upon me, except I shant even be there for its consequence. So why in my bones upsets this thought of birds and trees lively army of births output of earth's output reduced to memory today's mood certainly nei find me a motivation please acostic insufficient quantity to remedy this oni this miscanton everything will change doubtless but ruthless need it be So all to have been taken for no other end than a grandisement of few human wallets. Such judices with no dream beyond a microclimate. Let no feather, no leaf fall unhallowed, unseen for its essential part in time in this grand endeavor. life so sublime, so unique in the known verse, a ballad to chaos and the laws of physics, and an imagination grander than mine or any part could ever have dreamed. Shine, I declare, a monument foreshadowed at Big Bang, ephemeral in its print of energy throughout all existence. Life, life, life, never fade, genius imprint. Sing, sing ye birds. Tell us this morning's instance. Nothing tree limb will be more important than how you support us all with your graces. Thank you. Well, I I could I could relate to that as an as a um a conservationist who works to try to protect birds, among other things. Um, and I think we may the poem is like saying what why should I care? I mean it's it's implying that my short little life doesn't isn't why am I worried about that? You know what's happens to the birds songs? But, you know, um I'm I was just thinking about that. I was thinking about a lot of the things that you're that that are going on. And right now, uh the whole story of the Emperor's Nightingale, for example, I if you remember that from childhood where they were where he gets a fancy mechanical bird to sing to him. Well, it seems like that's kind of what they're trying to do now for us is is get us to buy into that that we can sort of have that and that will satisfy our needs even if we don't still have a functioning planet. So that's my thought. >> Thank you, William. If anybody else would like to respond about their feelings or their relationship to the poem, but just unmute. >> What were you saying, Marie? >> I was saying that if you have a response to the poem that was just read, uh Joyy's poem, um if you would, uh just unmute and you can respond to how it feels and your relationship to the poem if you have an observation. It was deep. It was deep and profound. So, thank you. And I'm sorry that I'm late. No, it's it's finally I wanted I just my relationship to the poem I felt um over and over again the the pull between uh ideas of the sacred and the numminous and the relationship to the more than human world. And that is a place where I feel like I sit very deeply in my everyday. That's how I experience the sacred. So I I very much appreciated that in the poem um and how it was brought forward. Just wanted to say that. All right. Well, um Josh Middorf has a poem that he would like to share and um Josh, if you would like to read your poem and then again we will have uh 15 20 seconds of silence afterward and then have a response period. So go ahead Josh. >> I I have a request for this community too. I woke up yesterday morning with this idea that Jews in America are just so divided. There's the community of the traditional community which is support Israel no matter what and then there's the Jews within code pink that are setting another example and many others of us and I I would like help organizing a gathering or a conference of Jews to express both sides to connect with each other. um the those who support the genocide and those who support peace. So if anybody please reach out to me if you think you might be able to help with organizing that. Thank you. My poems. If all life is a dream, is it your dream or mine? And why should our two dreams agree? An answer avails if we're both the divine. At our source, I am you and you're me. Though it seems that we're separate, I trust you'll concur. It's a stretch to conceive one great soul. Still, we sense there are times when our boundaries blur and designs coales as one whole. If together we've dreamed up this life with its flaws and its numberless wonders untold, might we re back our species to mind nature's laws? Who can say what new worlds may unfold? We might harness the power of resonant thought. We might dream exploitation to cease once we own all the battles that air man has fought. Are we ready to co-create peace? Wow. If anybody has a a sense of uh feelings or relationship to this poem or something they'd like to observe, go just unmute yourself and comment >> to the point. For me, the poem really spoke to if we can't dream and imagine a future where we are co-creating with the more than human and the biosphere and uh in a positive way with a relationship to natural law and biological systems. If we can't imagine that in our poetry, in our life and in our world, then we have almost no ability to create it. Like if our imaginations are are so hemmed in by the systems we participate in that we can't imagine these beautiful worlds that Josh described. Um it's really important to imagine them. And so the poem, this poem to me imagined these worlds and I appreciated that very much. Oh, thank you, Marie. >> Well, don't you think don't you think like that what you're saying, Marie, is part of visualization? Like in my meditations, I will take a few seconds to just visualize the world the way I want it. Even though I know there's chaos going on, but it's like I wonder if we all just did that every because we get so caught up in the the horror of it all that we forget that there still is beauty. There's still so much around us that we can visualize and we can appreciate. I just a thought. >> I agree and I think uh I feel like the poem is a kind of meditation that that's Yeah. Anybody else have an observation on the on Josh's poem? >> I I just want to say that here's sort of where All right. I think um it's the reader's personal experience, right? is what happens because there at the end I don't even remember the line exactly um but it totally made me think of uh a need for uh better education which is a place that my brain goes all the time because I'm an educator okay or possibly because I'm human but I always claim it's because I'm an educator um and and so there you go that immediate mediately that I was like, "Oh, yeah. I know what he's talking about now." You [laughter] know? Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, Josh. Barbara, you're up next. Would you like to read your poem? >> Um, yeah. I I um this poem, although I wrote it when I was about 11 years old, um it kind of speaks to Joyy's last poem. Um, it's it's entitled Smog and it goes soft and muted misty gray. The enveloping clouds will come to stay. But they are right. It it must go. It surely will look different though. And that's it. >> Any good for a 11year-old? Anybody else want to relate? I I want to say that because she put it in the context of having written it when she was a child that [clears throat] it made me think of just really how different things are than they were when I was a child, you know. Um and uh and so sort of a bound up wistfulness with Yeah. Don't we need to change and wasn't you know can we find our way back to some good stuff or something like that that that uh um about undo some stuff you know. All right, Barbara, thank you. That was that's really special that you have a poem from when you were a child. Like I uh I I don't I I I think I must have written poems when I was 11, but I have long since um not had them in my possession. So, I think it's pretty amazing that you uh that you uh have preserved that bit of your childhood for your your grown um adult self to reflect on and to to keep with you. Um that's really beautiful. All right, Danny, you're next. >> Yeah. Hi. Yeah, I've got a different style. Maybe it's a different branch because um and I'm in a rare or unique branch because everyone does this subjective descriptive kind of stream of consciousness which [snorts] is fine but I do the objective didactic more intellectual than the emotional stream of consciousness although mine is full of emotion. [snorts] So, um, it's rhythm and rhyme with meter and message and, uh, rant and remedy because you can't do rant unless you have remedy. So, I'll just do my disclaimer and then I'll start. Um, [snorts] so any comprehension of what I'm going to say in this poem will cause emotional enlightenment and spiritual emancipation. And um, I don't want to forget to say hello to my friend Emoji. Salam alalayikum. [snorts] And um if anybody's going to understand this, I think Moji will. So um here we go. It's called Who Am I? [snorts] You say that your God is gracious and my God is ghoulish. You say that your religion is a godsend and my religion is a godamned. You say that your paradise is perfect and my paradise is perverse. You say that your doctrine is divine and my doctrine is deranged. You say your zealousness is fantastic and my zealousness is fanatic. You say that your unwillingness to compromise is a virtue and my unwillingness to compromise is a vice. You say that your nationalism is patriotism and my nationalism is fascism. You say your aggression creates peace and my aggression creates war. You call your soldiers courageous and my soldiers courage. Why is your hate justified and my hate vilified? Why? Why is your violence heroism and my violence terrorism? Why? Why? Why is your revenge revered and my revenge renounced? Our motives and methods are the same. Our rhetoric, our rationale, and our remedies are identical. Yet you say that your cause is righteous and my cause is wrong. Who am I? Who are you? I haunt hypocrisy. I ravage ruthlessness. I empower empathy. And I inspire integrity. You see how it works? Do you see how it works? I boomerang belligerance and I magnify magnificence. Yes, we are explicitly many, but never forget we are implicitly one. Diversity is not a problem to be solved. It is the colorful tapestry in which we are inextricably involved. The reflection that you see is actually we. Your actions create me. Kill me. Kill me and you kill humanity. The reflections have started in the comments which um have been really positive and supportive. Uh would anybody like to react and uh share what has brought up for them? I just want to say I really like Denny's poem [clears throat] and I uh I kind of connected to uh um the poem that um Josh um read earlier as well as uh the first poem that Joy um read for us. Um, I kind of see Danny's poem um as a critique of of uh the way of how people are um you know separated and pulled apart. And I see Josh's poem as a reflection on how you could actually bring people together. And they kind of both reflect on the same theme of uh we are all really just one and the only reason that we do not see each other as one is because [clears throat] we are being manipulated and that was the theme of Joyy's first poem um about the u mostly on the atrocious American propaganda system but it's it's common in all the world And it kind of is what uh separates people and makes them see as not one. >> Thank you. That's a great reflection. I love the the fact that you could tie them together and see the the common thread. Beth, would you want to come on and talk about your what you just put in the chat? >> Well, it's interesting. I've been in several small groups with Danny after the local peace economy and he inspires me a great deal. He talks about the language we use and talks about pivoting to different language so that we so that we talk to each other and to those we wish to bring into the conversation. in a way that they can they can enter. And one of the other poems talked about the unity at the at the heart of things was Josh's ball which also moved me greatly. And that's something that's been a theme that Danny's been talking about pretty much every time we get together. And this poem spoke so deeply about about how we can allow words and thoughts and ideas divide us. I I I really really appreciate it a lot. Thank you, Beth. Yeah, I felt the poem really spoke to uh the um moral constancy that we so often miss um in our lives because of propaganda or othering or for whatever reason that I I highly value moral constancy in my friends, in my relationships. And um and this really spoke to the fact that there is a lot of um moral inconsistency in the world and um and that once you see it it's hard to unsee it. So thank you Danny that was really lovely. So we have two more hands raised and it's one minute um to breakouts. I thought that we could have two more poems and we will read them without commentary at the end and then you could go to your breakouts and discuss these two poems. Uh MoJi and Rosalyn will read. Discuss these two poems. If they're in your group, you can discuss with them. Um if they're not in your group, you can discuss among each other. And if there are other poems that want to be read in your breakouts, then to read those, too. And for people who are new to the local peace economy gathering, we do not time our breakouts. Uh we send you off to breakouts allow you to talk until the talking is done until the conversation is over. And when everyone leaves um the breakout groups um and returns back to their lives, then I close the room down sometimes hours later. Um and I love the fact that um people stay so long and connect and deeply connect with people um our allies around the world u with each other. So Moji, if you would like to read your poem. >> Sure. First of all, thank you and thank you brother Danny for mentioning my name. I I want to read a poem that when I woke up from sleep, I began writing on May 13. Uh and I as I was writing it, both the Persian beginning of it and the and the English section of it, I was weeping as I was writing the poem. And it's a conversation between a Minab mother. Minab was the the school in Minab was destroyed by American Tomahawk missiles. And this is a conversation between one of the mothers of Minab who is singing a lullaby to to perhaps a doll that her daughter was playing with. the daughter that was killed at school and then then an American mother, the mother of soldier America. It's a conversation between the two and it is being it has been turned thanks to a very talented musician and and uh singer friend of mine into a song called Minab Lullabi. And the Minab laai is an awakening lullaby as you will see rather than one that lulls pe you know you know humanity into into sleep. So I'll transl I mean I'll read the translation of the of the Persian laabi and then the English ninab laai. By the way, this was third 10 days after the idea that occurred to me on May 3rd to build a Minab school memorial monument for peace which is now a project that is developing. Minab la. Oh, Minab's daughter. Lullaby. Oh, fresh blossom flower. Where did you go? Where did you go? Why did you go? Why did you go? You were my cute, sweet daughter. You were the bird of my flight. Why were your pedals pulled? Oh, why you my bird flew out of the nest? Oh, my flower. And now the American mother. Salam. Oh mother of m like you I am a mother. I need your help. Oh me knob. Oh me knob. mother. M mother. I am the mother of soldier America. But but oh mother of mab, my son is proud is proud that the ugly tomahawk birds that he flew into the school bird nest of your flower daughter of Mino. He is proud. Why? Why my baby boy soldier America doesn't understand and doesn't care that the axe of his tomahawk by the way tomahawk means axe the word means axe why doesn't so my soldier America my son doesn't care that the axe of his tomahawk has crushed your school bird to sleep. Oh, mother of mop, help me. Oh, mother of m, not long ago, my soldier son used to be my dear baby boy. He is my baby in my heart still. But now the bird of his soul has gone to sleep, to deep sleep. And I weep and I weep and I weep. I plead with you, oh mother of m, help me, please. Can the bird soul of your school flower? Can the bird soul of your school flower, our daughter of Mino and of America? Can her weeping soul sing the lullaby of conscience? Lullabi of conscience. 168 weeping times. That's the number of children that were killed. Sing can her weeping soul sing the lullaby of conscience. 168 weeping times to awaken to awaken to awaken the soul of my soldier baby. Thank you. Thank you, Moji. You guys are going to have a lot to talk about in breakout groups. Um, that was beautiful. Rosalyn, would you like to read your poem and then we will break for breakouts. >> Yes. Uh thank you Marie. So I will open up. It's an old collection but uh it was inspired um recently by a testimony by Benjamin Champagne song. remind me of the murder of Manuel Tran or Turkey if anyone is familiar with the stop cop city movement and the Fred between police brutality and militarization. So it's a series of four very short poems that you read together. One call of the Atlantif forest. Creation groans beneath the weights of bullets. Sniper fire burning beauty. Who will fight for Ze? Yahweh who crafts heaven and earth. Mountains above and a valleys below. Atlant forest rise. Forest defenders creating world holding many worlds sitting a top a canopy. Echoing cry caught by the leaves below. Call of the Atlanta forest. Two. We birdmen like birds flying on instinct with a clearer view. Emotions evolving into rational thought. Call to action or dues. A forest landscape lays in waste. Barren dune of bullet haze. Unless we birdmen take flight. So take flight we do. Three. When you are called a terrorist, is it the terror of empathy? Yet the world cannot see. They do not perceive the real terrorists. The 40ies who kill and slaughter without impunity the innocent of blood pools around them. Four. Choose life. Even when all the world is burning, fire of hate. Choose life, says Yahweh. Lean not on your own understanding, but the wisdom carried on a prayer flying from the great white north to the Atlanta forest. Oh, that's great. All right, so we're a little bit after the hour and I want to respect everybody's time. Um, thank you everybody who read a poem. Thank you so much. Joy, thank you for bringing your work and your um your pieces not only to this space but also to the Substack and allowing us to learn about the pivots through your eyes. Thank you to everybody who participated and commented and and shared uh and was vulnerable about what these poems did for you. Um I'm going to send you I'm going to stop the recording. Um uh thank you again. I'm going to stop the recording and then I'll send everybody to breakouts.