Good eveneing. Welcome to the Dkos Poetry Slam/Open Mic. Find a table or sit
on the floor, step up to the mic and share some words.
Today, Patriots across America marched in the streets to protest the Iraq war and the threatened escalation.
Poets Against War marched, and hosted a reading this evening:
That evening, January 27th, from 7-9 pm DC Poets Against the War will host a reading in the Langston Room at Busboys and Poets with poets Reginald Dwayne Betts, Sarah Browning, Esther Iverem, Christi Kramer, Mike Maggio, and more.
Join poets from across the country who are speaking out on this day of protest.
January 27 also marks the liberation of Auschwitz,
comemmorated here by Brahman Colorado .
In honor of the marchers, let's join our voices in solidarity, and sing the songs of peace.
(In the spirit of fair use, please use blockquotes and provide links to sources when you post works that are not your own.)
I will open with this fine piece by one of our PSlam super heroes:
Speak Out
by L. Ferlinghetti
And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land
And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers
Into the beginning of the Third World War
The war with the Third World
And the terrorists in Washington
Are drafting all the young men
And no one speaks
And they are rousting out
All the ones with turbans
And they are flushing out
All the strange immigrants
And they are shipping all the young men
To the killing fields again
And no one speaks
And when they come to round up
All the great writers and poets and painters
The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency
Will not speak
While all the young men
Will be killing all the young men
In the killing fields again
So now is the time for you to speak
All you lovers of liberty
All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness
All you lovers and sleepers
Deep in your private dreams
Now is the time for you to speak
O silent majority
Before they come for you