Selecting Balance

 

I was listening to the national news a couple of weeks ago, when I heard the newscaster end the nightly report by reading email from listeners who he relayed were, “Tired of the coverage on hurricane Katrina.”  After reading a few of the emails, the

reporter admonished the letter writers, by reminding them that search and rescue  teams were still trying to locate and identify the  missing and dead in the affected areas. He ended by saying that the station and its affiliates felt  it was important to keep reporting the story.

 

I'm sure that many of the folks who were miffed by the constant coverage of the Katrina catastrophe, had not followed closely the depth of this life altering devastation in America. Or if they had, then they may be suffering from what many of us have been suffering from in these recent years; a collective grief combined with a sense of how unnerving things have become.  

 

It is unnerving to know that somewhere here in our America, that there are the unclaimed, decomposing aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings, moms and dads, friends, cousins, babies, and pets. It is unnerving to know that there are so many people who have no closure. It is unnerving to hear five months after the storm about the garbage strewn acres of land that are still there. This land for generations belonged to individuals who were once whole.

 

When those families were whole and healthy with their land they were sure of their identity.They knew that they belonged to the fabric  of something bigger than themselves as property owners in America. They fit because they had a past, which they could point to in the tangible things of their lives.They had a past where they could say they did what they were supposed to do as hard working citizens, to achieve their "piece of the rock" or their hold on the "American Dream".

 

It is unnerving to hear about the daily struggles of these regular folks who have little or no control over their present, no profitable ownership of their past, and absolute uncertainty about their future. It is unnerving and unsettling in the "land of the free, and home of the brave",  to have to come face to face with the absolute fragility of our existence.  I applaud the journalists who are willing to tell the people's story,  and not allow them to slip off of our radar.

 

Selecting Balance

 

There was no security strong enough in the

homeland to prevent this mass destruction.

 

They who taught the children how to envision and sing,

they who breathed life into all things worth savoring,

 

were grandmothers once saved then drowned on roofs,

and grandfathers  shut-up and smothered in attics,

 

Their hearts may have been opened or slammed shut

their eyes may have perceived light, then vision deceived,

 

their houses not solid like mine or out of harms way,

first slammed, then battered and washed away like toys,

 

their sweet heart babes shaken and swept up

in the smothering arms of an unleashed lake,

 

unsettling revelations of  America’s modern day 

refugees, mar the facade of the oval office’s swagger,

 

who knew that one nation under God

would fall so deeply  into disarray.

 

Bulldozed into a cemetery of dreams deferred

memories fester in gaping, rancid ice boxes,

 

the timbre of shock and awe, haunts the air.

 

 

Linda Joy Burke

All Rights Reserved by Author

 

If there were no good teachers

left, to keep the fires lit

in the eyes of the young,

who yearn to be filled

with the richest textures

a life can provide

worlds would collide

even more disastrously

 than they do now

 in these tumultuous times.

Without teachers living

on not enough sleep,

without teachers living

on needing more time,

without teachers living

on owed as much green

as the really fat cats

so full of greed,

the children would sprout

like prickly weeds -

the kind no one grows

to love and no one cleaves to.

 

Linda Joy Burke               

Februay 2006 - All Rights Reserved By Author

 

 

 

in the news

                                                

                                                black fly lands on white    

                                                oval office wall, listens

                                                to hubris crumble.

 

ljb all rights reserved by author

                                               

 

A New Way to Say I love You

 Black

At the entrance

to the 

  black   hole

of the world’s colossus 

    fear and rage

has slammed the door

     to the way

I call my own name

 

ask  

do not misjudge 

this   dark

hued

skin

 

stop

 

we can’t go back

to basic black

or white anymore

now that these nights

are so vast – amassed

with the rattle and hum

of revenge not 

appeased and

 warnings  repeated 

that our dark dreams

 have been interrupted

 by the laughter 

 of the unforgiven.

 

red 

  eyed

we   

  rise stubborn with this pain –  

 that kindles hunger for an

  eternal flame to light the

  way through this ashen mourning

  where streams of I love yous

  never having been said enough,

  force their way through the troubled

  mist of horizons dawning

  perfect in their shameless light.

 

white

 

breath 

crushed

disappeared  by

engineers of fear and

galvanized

hate –

 

induced  

judgements  

leveled on monolithic nations 

make them learn to wait like the

oppressed who 

process 

questions 

raisedby the suspicious and

touch the

unwieldy visage of

willful

x – tinction of

yesterday’s

zenith.

 

blue 

 

prayers    

  spin  like dervishes   

 into  shields  which   

wrap  around children   

  too young to know

   about being wounded  

   by an desperate enemy

and then left behind.

black 

night still comes quick 

with autumn’s preparing

winter’s deep resting

place – quiet in the long

    descending flight

  of light

 

white  breath

feeds red

love the

blue  flame

 of  tikkun olam  burns.

 

Linda Joy Burke

October 5, 2001

 

*tikkun olam repair the world

 

This poem originally appeared in the anthology,

9/11 project - September Eleven Maryland Voices – 2002 Baltimore Writers’ Alliance www.the911project.org

 

    "Children, everybody, here's what to do during war:  In  a time of destruction, create something.  A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful  moment. "
- Maxine Hong Kingston

Other Arts Based Resources to Help in the Aftermath of Katrina

Sent by: Poets & Writers Inc.   Reply to the sender

Hurricane Katrina-- How Writers Can Help 

Dear Friends,

In addition to the important work being done by the American Red Cross and other relief agencies, there are a number of special efforts we thought writers might be particularly interested in:

• The Katrina Literary Collective has been created to collect and distribute books to victims of the hurricane. For more information, contact the Amber Communications Group at amberbk@aol.com.
• A Louisiana Disaster Relief Fund has been established to receive monetary donations to assist libraries in Southeastern Louisiana. For more info, visit the American Library Association at http://www.ala.org/
• The American Booksellers Association has created a Bookseller Relief Fund to assist independent booksellers affected by Hurricane Katrina. For info, visit http://www.bookweb.org/
  
• The Southern Arts Federation has set up an Emergency Relief Fund to assist arts organizations and artists in those Gulf Communities most devastated by Katrina. For more info, go to http://www.southarts.org/
  

Thank you for whatever help you're able to provide.

Up Rooted

Where to begin? I took the photo at the top of this essay at 2:00 in the morning one day last summer. I just developed the roll, after a wonderful though long drive up 95 to visit a friend in Martha’s Vineyard  in July. Fortunately, I went before the tremendous spike in gas prices. The picture is of a flower that blooms only once every 7 years, or something crazy like that. This particular plant bloomed twice in a week, and totally surprised and delighted me. It's called a night blooming Cereus, and is indigenous to the desert. I don't live in the desert, though the dirt in the pot is quite desert like, I'm not responsible for that. I inherited the plant from a friend who had give up her home here because she couldn't get social security benefits to cover her chronic rheumatoid arthritis condition, which had crippled her. She moved to her sister's house in Vancouver Washington (evidently the system is more compassionate there)and I and other friends took in her plant collection.  This particular plant isn't really that attractive, with its long, flat, spindly leaves. It’s a succulent and relatively hardy though, so it like many of my other plants thrives here. I've been told I have a green thumb. I just trust that everything that lives will grow as long as there is enough light and water and the roots are kept strong.  

This column is not about flowers though, it is about being uprooted.

All of us thinkers, and writers, and compassionate healers, and rescuers and spiritual souls and artists and regular folks and politicians are being forced to look at our fragile humanity once again in the wake of a mighty storm, this time "in the land of the free and home of the brave ". We have to come to terms with the cold hard truth that man's might is no match for nature's fury. We have to come to terms with the cold hard truth that something could have been done to make this disaster less terrible and it will take a whole lot more than money to make things right after all the damage that has been done.  

Bob Herbert: A Failure of Leadership
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505X.shtml
Bob Herbert writes: Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president's failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in City New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the country and around the world.

Across the world, international communities wonder how America  with all her riches and power could be so slow to come to the aid of so many.  In   America the sense of incredulous realization that there is indeed a portion of the country that is terribly marginalized and invisible is startling, and frightening to those who would rather "the problem would go away". 

To the rest of us, that is those who do not choose to close a blind eye to the reality of poverty in  America we feel anger. Many have equated the treatment of those evacuated to the Superdome in as similar to the slave experience on the Middle Passage. What a sad and horribly accurate analogy. Too many people, confined to a dark structure, with no food, water, air, sanitation, in stifling heat, with people dying in the dark around them. Historical memory in this Southern environment is easily awakened.

So many had their physical, mental and emotional foundations shredded. Some show resilience and the capacity to change their lives and move on bravely into a strange new world. Others lack the physical or psychological capacity and life skills to make the transition from the way things were to some place and something new. It is so hard to fathom having to leave somewhere that has been home for generations. It's also hard to fathom clinging to the only home you've known, with your animals, and loved ones to try to ride a storm out, only to loose one or two of those loved ones their bodies lingering, the guilt must be overwhelming.

American's have been doing everything they can think of to bring aid. The world should know that we Americans are more brilliant, compassionate, responsive, pragmatic, and altruistic then the slow fumbling leadership that portends to represent us.  Americans wonder  how all those displaced will be able to grow again after such devastation and have mobilized in every community both religious and secular to rush to aid  of the distressed. Now we are hearing the stories about how the valiant tried to defend the rights of the weak and vulnerable and how heroes of all colors, shapes and sizes are doing whatever they can to keep others alive, even while they watch helplessly as people die. 

With each new catastrophic disaster in the world community, we as humans are being called to a singular awareness of the fragility of our existence. We are told we must prepare ourselves in case of emergency, have our battery-operated radio, water, flashlight, cash and spare clothes packed just in case. We need to have a meeting plan for family and friends. We need to make sure to look out for the elderly and those without means. 

With each new disaster, we are also called to understand that there is a fundamental need for building and sustaining neighborhoods and communities where people feel a sense of interconnectedness, no matter the economic status of the community. 

Surely, that idea sounds outdated, and impossible to the cynics that have thrown up their hands in despair at the loss of  America 's heart, or suspect to those who are “just trying to survive”.  This latest disaster and each preceding one asks for not only kindness and sacrifices from strangers, but also awareness of social conditions outside of our microcosmic worlds. It is true that one action can effect many.  I wonder how many will heed these calls. 

**********************

CD Baby has invited artists to donate all profits from any sales through
their site directly to the Red Cross. go to www.CDBaby.com and choose "for
charity" on the homepage. this will take you to a list of CD Baby artists
who have donated all monies from sales of CDs/DVDs directly to the red
cross relief fund. you can also just go directly to an individual artist's
page by searching their name.

 

****************************

Americans for the Arts staff are working hard to connect with our members in the affected regions and to offer help in any way possible.
 
We can report that the damage Katrina inflicted on our members in  Florida when it was a much less powerful storm, was relatively minor. Our members there are moving forward with an assessment to determine the damage to other arts organizations in their region. Greater concern is for those in the gulf states Louisiana, Mississippi,Alabama. We are attempting to reach our members there, and we will keep you updated on any information we receive from our state and local partners.
 
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Members we have talked to in the affected regions have expressed a desperate need for information. In response, Americans for the Arts has set up a bulletin board on our website to gather and disseminate information. If you have heard news about how arts organizations, cultural facilities, and artists are faring in the aftermath of the hurricane, please don't hesitate to submit it for inclusion on the bulletin board. If you know of any initiatives to assist the arts, please feel free to share them as well. Eventually, we hope also to share news and ideas about how arts agencies, organizations, and artists are themselves helping to ease the human suffering that has literally engulfed the region.
 
If you would like to make a contribution, our regional partner, The Southern Arts Federation, has established an EmergencyRelief Fund to assist arts organizations and artists residing in those  communities most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. A donation form can be found on our website at http://ww3.artsusa.org/pdf/get_involved/membership/emergency_relief_fund.pdf 

We also recommend that our members consider making a contribution to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF). CERF's Disaster Relief Fund, interest-free loan programs and staff, are prepared to respond to professional craft artists who have suffered significant losses. To make a contribution to CERF, please visit their website at www.craftemergency.org.
 
Lastly, we have been in touch with our colleagues at the National Endowment for the Arts and they are preparing a formal statement, which we will post on our website upon its release.

Americans for the Arts is committed to helping those affected by this devastating disaster. We will keep you informed about additional ways in which you can help. If you have any questions regarding our efforts, please contact Mara Walker, chief planning officer, at 202.371.2830 or mwalker@artsusa.org.

***********

 

My prayers go out to all those who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, which is all of us.