Think About It 102: KATE JENNINGS

 

The United States is a democracy, and yet it's powered by autocratic corporations. Its engines are fascist. Nothing democratic about them. Paradoxical, wouldn't you say?…

      There's a pretense about democracy. Blather about consensus and empowering employees with opinion surveys and minority networks. But it's a sop. Bogus as costume jewelry. The decisions have already been made. Everything's hush-hush, on a need-to-know-only basis. Compartmentalized. Paper shredders, e-mail monitoring, taping phone conversations, dossiers. Misinformation, disinformation. Rewriting history. The apparatus of fascism. It's the kind of environment that can only foster extreme caution. Only breed base behavior. You know, if I had one word to describe corporate life, it would be 'craven.'

 

Moral Hazard (2002)

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read a 2011 interview with Australian novelist, essayist, activist and memoirist KATE JENNINGS:
 
 

http://theincblot.blogspot.com/2011/04/kate-jennings-on-writing-snake.html
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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The Write Advice 206: e.e. cummings

 

A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words.

      This may sound easy. It isn’t.

      A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling.  And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking.

      Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel. Why?  Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.

      To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

      As for expressing nobody-but-yourself in words, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn’t a poet can possibly imagine.  Why?  Because nothing is quite as easy as using words like somebody else.  We all of us do exactly this nearly all of the time — and whenever we do it, we’re not poets.

      If, at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling, you find you’ve written one line of one poem, you’ll be very lucky indeed.

      And so my advice to all young people who wish to become poets is: do something easy, like learning how to blow up the world — unless you’re not only willing, but glad, to feel and work and fight till you die.

      Does that sound dismal? It isn’t.

      It’s the most wonderful life on earth.

      Or so I feel.

 

A Poet's Advice to Students (1953)

 

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read about the life and sample the work of North American poet e.e. cummings:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/e-e-cummings

 

 

 

 

 

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Poet of the Month 095: NADIA BEN SLIMA

 

 

NADIA BEN SLIMA

 c 2017

 

 

 

 

 

UNFATHOMABLE

 

When will you understand?

you are not what you fear

and fears do not appear

that make souls mute

troubles that you repaint 

of a naïve anguish

are not worth the intention

promised by your virtue 

 

The flowers suddenly have

the scent of your fear

and when you remember yourself

sorrow awakens

You make of it a home

ramparts of nothingness

When will you understand?

you are very much what pleases you

 

 

2016

Translated [very loosely] by

BR

 

 

see below for original French text

 

Born in 1980 in the Moselle region of France, Nadia Ben Slima spent her childhood and most of her adult life in Lorraine, Alsace and Franche-Comté in the east of the country.  She now lives in the northern city of Lille.  Drawn as much to science as she is to literature, Ben Slima has recently focused her energies on pursuing a scientific career, putting her passion for poetry on hold for the time being.

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read more poems (only in French) by NADIA BEN SLIMA:

 

 

 

https://www.poetica.fr/categories/nadia-ben-slima/

 

 

 

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ABYSSAL

 

 

Quand comprendas-tu?

tu n'es pas ce que tu crains

et les peurs ne revêtent

que les âmes muette

les peines que tu repeins

d'une angoisse ingénue

ne valent pas le dessein

promis par ta vertu

 

 

Les fleurs ont soudain

le parfum de ta peur

et quand tu te souviens

s'agite le chagrin 

tu en fais ta demeure

des remparts de riens

Quand comprendras-tu?

tu es bien ce qui te plaît

2016

 

 

The Write Advice 205: DUNA GHALI

 

The author’s name still makes a difference in the reception of the text.  I still believe that a woman’s name influences the reading of both male and female readers.  I believe the gender of the writer colors the reading of the text in certain ways.  But when writers are in the midst of the act of writing, they are focused on the text itself.  The writer herself (or himself) is already in a transformational moment where one is not woman or man.  Virginia Woolf spoke about the angel in the house, who stood behind her to warn her when she wrote, so she had to consider what should be said and what should not be said as a woman.  After some time being tormented by this angel, she threw the inkwell at her and killed her.  To me, it’s about the uniqueness of individuals and texts. The prevailing judgment still revolves around men addressing major issues, while women write about 'daily life'… but it must be acknowledged that much has changed today, and what remains are the sensitivities of reading.

 

Duna Ghali on Writing, Translating, and Publishing Between Arabic and Danish [ArabLit, 2 May 2024]

 

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read the full interview with Iraqi writer DUNA GHALI:

 

 

https://arablit.org/2024/05/02/duna-ghali-on-writing-translation-and-publishing-between-arabic-and-danish/

 

 

 

 

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