Poems for Peace, Seattle

I have been asked to help create a Seattle edition of the Poems for Peace event that celebrates International Peace Day on September 21. 

SICA Poems for Peace

Anne Padilla and I are facilitating, preparing to make this event happen for the first time in Seattle. (The international event is back for its second annual iteration.) It is being sponsored by SICA, the Subud International Cultural Association, with poetry being the main vehicle by which people express their desire for peace, in all of its manifestations. https://www.poems-for-peace.org/ Bring a dish to share at 6:30. Confirmed readers so far include: Ibtihal Mahmood and Faiza Sultan.

Ibtihal Mahmood

Faiza Sultan

Poets involved in the recently concluded August Poetry Postcard Fest have been invited and the event will happen in the Chapel of the Subud House/Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle, at 15th & Spring. There will also be music and dance performance and a collaborative poem composed at the event as a Prayer for Peace. Meena Rose will display some of her Visual Peace Poetry. We hope to see you. – Paul Nelson

Meena Rose 1

Meena Rose 2

Faiza Sultan

لِنَمنَح الحربَ فُرصة Let’s Give War a Chance (excerpt)

1 كَيْ يَمشِي الحُبُّ حافِياًيَطرُقُ أبوابَ الخَنادِق

So that Love can walk about Barefoot,

knocking at

The doors of trenches.

2 كَيْ تَلبسَ الفَراشَةُ واقِيَة الصدرِ عِندَ بوَّابَةِ كُلِّ زَهرة

So that Butterflies can wear

Chest armors

At the gate of every rose

3 كَيْ تُكَشِّرَ الشمسُ عن أنيابِها ويَحتَرِقَ الليل

So that

The sun can bare

Its teeth

And the night can burn away

4 كَيْ نَبدَأبِالعَدِّ كم رَأساً نحتاجُ لِنُفِيضَ نهر

So that

We can start counting down

The number of heads

We will need to overflow the river

5 كَيْ نَحْكِيَ قِصَصاً لِأَطفالٍ مُشوَّهِين عن “مُفَخَّخةٍ فِي بِلادِ العَجَائِب”

So that

We can tell the tales

Of disfigured children

About

“A booby-trap in the lands of wonders”

6 كَيْ نتَعَثّرَ بِأجسادٍ مُنتَفِخَةٍ بِالأحلام على أرصِفَةٍ سَوْداء

So that

We can stumble over

Corpses bloated with dreams

On dark sidewalks

Subud International Cultural Association