Happy Poetry Friday!
I’m hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today, drop your links off below with Mister Linky, and enjoy all the poetry ponderings around our small planet.
Along with my poem and art, I found an interesting art/culture article from the NYTimes that I’m sharing some from.
You don’t have to look far to find our small world in pain and disrepair, here-America, Africa-Chad, Europe-Ukraine, and on and on… Though somehow artists in all areas seem to carry on with culture. Ukraine is on my mind with the recent bombardments there. While reading the NYTimes I found an article related to art/culture and artists from Ukraine doing just that, carrying on. The article is, In Paris Then, in Kyiv Now, Visions of Freedom and Bravery. You may not be able to access it if you aren’t a subscriber so I’m going to share a couple of quotes and a few links to some of the artists mentioned. Many of the artists are still in Ukraine, while some are displaced.
Here’e an excerpt by the articles author Jason Fargo,
“when culture took on the dimensions of survival, Ukraine’s artists have done what I thought could no longer be done: They have met history head-on. Their work is not the work of victims. It is the work of combatants — of active participants in an explicit culture war, proving every day that civic values can help defeat a supposedly superior adversary.”
This is a quote by poet and novelist Serhiy Zhadan,
“Yet our language has turned out to be much stronger than any attempt to compel us to remain silent, to forgo calling a spade a spade, or to forgo pronouncing the names we use to identify each other. We are trying to stand up to death; we are trying to stand up to absolute silence.”
Zhadan’s forthcoming book is called, “Sky Above Kharkiv.”
More artists mentioned:
Visual Artist Maria Kulikovska’s website
Oleg Shudeiko, a young composer “who works extensively with modular synthesis.”
“Gasoline Radio, a noncommercial station launched in Kyiv just this year, has kept Ukrainian house, techno and even folk music streaming worldwide, even amid the power cuts.”
There’s also a campaign of posters assembled all over Kyiv, “a one-word slogan, overlaid on images of soldiers, firefighters, grandpas, dog walkers. The word is bravery, a quality we honor in others but have grown lazy in asking of ourselves. “
Sending wishes for Peace, Joy, and a cease to War for all!
Leave your links with Mister Linky:
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Thank you for this powerful post and the resources you shared, Michelle. The concept of artists not as victims but as combatants is a powerful one.
This year, I had the opportunity to participate in a social justice project related to combatting hunger. The anthology Writing the Land: Foodways and Social Justice has chapters on several land trusts, including historical Freetown Farm near where I live. Poets were paired with the land trusts — visiting, writing in response to the land and the food it produces. In my post, I shared a collaborative mondo poem by me and my friend Patti. Thanks for hosting today!
Hi Laura, the anthology your are in “Writing the Land: Foodways and Social Justice” sounds like a dynamic collection, I’ll have to look for it. And also a rewarding exchange to be involved with, thanks for sharing about it!
Love “Morning Song Gift”! Thanks for the NYT article excerpts and for spotlighting the Ukrainian artists. I still keep tabs on musicians Serge Tiagnyriadno and Vlad Butenko, who have continued with their Wednesday Livestreams, raising money for Kyiv area children’s hospitals. They’ve also started a new record label featuring Ukrainian musicians called Javelin Recordings (“Born in War. Built for Peace.”) They’ve found the strength to persist with their creative endeavors despite fear, displacement, power blackouts and ever present uncertainty. Truly inspiring.
Thanks for hosting this week!!
Hi Jama, Thanks! and also for Serge Tiagnyriadno and Vlad Butenko, I may have to feature some of their music sometime soon!
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There is something so special indeed about the gift of a morning song! Thanks for sharing and hosting, Michelle – and for the news about the creators in Ukraine, of which I’d been unaware.
My heart is there, too, Michelle, if only to pause, read, notice, lift up, their bravery – the gift they offer.
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Thanks for hosting us, and for this post. The people and artists in Ukraine are inspirational in their determination, their bravery, and their persistence.
Thanks for hosting with a loving post honoring those who continue to follow their work despite the hardships and horrors of war in their countries, Michelle. So many need our help for all we can do for those in need. I read the article earlier, amazing for those who carry on. Their courage inspires us to do better however we are able. I am sharing a poem for my grandson this Friday. He is graduating from college next week!
Michelle, you gently awaken our senses with birdsong and then alert us to some important global responses to immense challenges confronting world citizens. The arts community has a way of elevating its approach to these fraught issues. Often responding in ways that inspire what has been variously decribed as quiet subversiveness. Inspiring and surprising. Thank you for the important reminders.
First, thank you for hosting. And, what a wonderful and uplifting post this is. Thank you for that. I’ve had moments of…I don’t know what to call it…despair sounds so dramatic…but just angst over the state of our world. There is violence and need everywhere. Thank you for highlighting the way art participates in saving and working toward a better peace. I’ve decided that even if I cannot have a direct impact on “the world” I am going to do my very best with the students I have in front of me daily to prepare them for working toward better. It doesn’t feel as brave and tough as folks in Ukraine. But, it is for them and so many others.
We’re both sharing bird-themed poems today, Michelle. Though mine was inspired by magnetic poetry – not life. (I am not an early-bird, but the gentle twitter of morning-song will always take me back to those precious years feeding babies through the night.) Thank-you for sharing these powerful quotes. They are inspirations.
Hello Dear Michelle. Appreciations for these quotations & links, which I followed to the radio station & unusual collaborative art project &.
I hope to return for more education. Your thoughtful WorldView is always important to me, informing me of projects, ideas & dreams I should know. In the case of the valiant Ukraine, it’s sobering & grounding to honor how luxurious each day here for us is, compared to life in a WarZone.
I’m also reminded of the sung words #WarisOverHappyChristmas from #YokoOno & #JohnLennon & wish that joy could be in Ukraine & the World’s future by Dec. 31.
Through my health care [which is going fine for my situation, despite ups & downs]
I connected with a wonderful practitioner from Russia, whose two adult children/grands are still there in a non-famous smaller Russian city & so my perspective is coming from average citizens in that country, too. It feels like everyone [except the R. leader] wants it to be #WarIsOver.
I wish you #slowHolidays & much nurturing from #WinterNature during this month.
[p.s. I received my fabulous order from your Etsy shop & you overwhelmed me!]
Thank you for hosting, Michelle, and for supporting people in need. You might like https://literaturfestival.com/en/now-is-the-moment-help-ukraine-survive-this-winter-of-war/ This International Literature Festival regularly supports people in crisis. In September they had a day of solidarity with Salman Rushdie. https://twitter.com/ilb_festival
Many thanks for this link Tabatha, I may add it to my post later today after I return from teaching this morning!
Thank you for this post and for hosting, Michelle. I’m stirred by, “We are trying to stand up to death; we are trying to stand up to absolute silence.” Wow. We saw a Moscow-based band’s concert last week, and they have members from all over Eastern Europe. One Ukrainian vocalist had to leave the group to fight in Kyiv. It’s stunning to me that we humans keep doing the same thing, over and over and over.
A post that’s both lovely and powerful, Michelle. Thanks for the links. Bravery — yes.
Thank you for the lovely poem and for the links to the Ukrainian artists’ work. Right now I’m reading Franny Choi’s “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On,” and its title reminds me of your post.
Thank you for hosting Michelle. It helps us all to be reminded of those who are brave, and those who have less, and that we all want a better world. Your poem and drawing are lovely too.
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Your poem is just lovely and that rabbit nestling is just the right ending. And then you remind us of the ongoing effort of artists in the Ukraine. A powerful juxtaposition. A powerful post. Thanks for creating this and for hosting this week.
Michelle, thanks for being a wonderful hostess this week. This is the second time I am writing this comment because I fell asleep over the computer again. Your layout for the artwork and poem is striking. The title is delightful and I love the little rabbit tucked inside. Thank you also for sharing information about Ukrainian artists. You are honoring them as it should be. Your ending wish for peace, joy, and an end to war is like a prayer that we all should send around the world.
Thanks Carol, I wish I could do more to help our small world 🌎 move towards peace.
Echoing all this gratitude, Michelle, first for your own lovely art and words; second for your always attentive ear to the needs of others – and thank you for all the links, as well for the links left by others in these thoughtful comments; and third, for hosting us this week with beauty and truth.
Sometimes it is very hard to feel like what we do as artists and writers matters to anyone because our work is so often rejected. Then you read about truly perilous times and places and realize the ideas we spend so much time thinking about and reflecting into the world ARE the things we hold onto as light in a dark cave. Thank you so much for the reminder.