Sunday, February 05, 2006

Purpose and Project

With her usual acumen, listener nutshells our problem and suggests some solutions.

We need a common purpose, a short-term project perhaps. What do the Poets Against the War need by way of support from kindred blogs? Or do we simply want to choose our own "project" and go for it?

One idear is to link with some of the people who visit veterans, such as Anne*from*Vermont and see if there are some vets who have written poetry about their struggles.

In addition, are there some among us who have written poetry during this difficult time? Or who have painted, or created music, or whatever OUT OF their sorrow or hope related to the war and/or the state of this country?

What if we all tried to create or uncover at least one item to share with one another by...Valentine's Day?

~ listener

8 comments:

Catreona said...

Oh, I donno. The shortness of the deadline adds piquancy to the assignment. *grin*

Catreona said...

...although, you know, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq might be a good date to shoot for. It's an easy date for me to remember. In his inimitable fashion, Fearless Leader started his lousy war on my mother's birthday, March Nineteenth.

Let's aim for, shoot for - we need a better, nonviolent term here - Mar. 19 and then, I donno, send the results to the WH?

Catreona said...

Er, how about writing and/or collecting poems (and essays? Fiction doesn't seem appropriate to me); ideally, these should be anti-war poems, though poems relating to the hardships of the Iraqi people would be good too. *scratches head* You mentioned, listener, getting hold of Anne and seeing if any of her vets have poems they would be interested in contributing. This seems to me an excellent idear. Can you contact her, or should we try to snag her on HEP? I don't just now remember the URL of her new North East Kingdom blog; if we could find that, this project might form a nice collaboration between the two groups. Am I being too ambitious here?

One thing that I try to keep the focus on over at DAFD is the plight of journalists, both foreign journalists kidnapped etc. in Iraq and those reporting on the war/occupation held by the U.S. Maybe someone could do something with this topic. I've wondered if it's something that should be highlighted here, though journalism is a cousin, so to speak, not a sibling to the creative arts. Still, it is not wholly unrelated to our central motive force, so to speak. I donno. I've written one little poem, and shall exert myself to do something more and better. But, I can't do much; certainly, for this project to work, we're gonna need help. Catreona and listener can't doo it all alone, guys. Hint, hint.

Catreona said...

listener, I wonder if you could also do something with photography? Just an idear.

puddle said...

I have on baby poems by both Shelley and Phil which would fit. Could prolly write one of my own if I set my mind to it. . .

puddle said...

Cat it would be really cool if you could set the time stamps to reflect the dates as well as the times of comments.

Catreona said...

Puddle, please contact Shelley and Phil to clear it with them. If they agree, please let us know the URLs of the poems you have in mind. I don't know yet if we're going to print everything or what...

I don't know how to adjust the time stamp to reflect date as well as time, though I did see that your comments have this feature. I'll look into it.

Catreona said...

Any kind of visual that can be scanned or otherwise made digital would be grand. I'm still confused about what to do with the finished compilation... But, we can worry about crossing that bridge when we come a bit nearer to it.

Also maybe I ought to front page this thought - anyone with thoughts, news links, etc. relating to art (in the broad sense we use it, including handycrafts etc.) and politics is more than welcome, is strongly encouraged to post them here. Anyone who is not a member, post in a comment thread and let us know that you'd like to become a member. This is meant to be a community, an online gathering place... Awh, what's the use. Nobody cares, except listener, of course. *sinks head onto chest* It's very discouraging.