Welcome to Day 16 of the April Write 2013: a new era begins
Guest Host: Zita Holbourne
Zita is a poet & spoken word artist, a visual artist, a community, trade union and human rights activist and a mother. Zita is an award winning poet and artist and has directed poetry performance for theatre, performed on radio and tv and facilitated poetry writing and performance workshops.
Zita is elected to the National Executive Committee of the Public and Commercial Services Union, the Trades Union Congress Race Relations Committee and the National Executive Council of Action for Southern Africa (successor organisation to the Anti Apartheid Movement). She is the co-founder and national co-chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) uk, a campaign group set up to respond to the disproportionate impact of cuts on black workers, service users and communities and deprived communities.
Zita is a writer and guest contributor to a number of publications and regularly contributes as a writer to the Voice Newspaper, a national newspaper for the black community in the UK. In 2012 Zita beat thousands to win the Positive Role Model for Race Award at the National Diversity Awards.
Zita works for equality, freedom, justice and democracy through her work as a poet, artist, writer and activist.
The theme for today is ‘Whilst the rich grow richer, the poor die’
Zita wrote this poem and made the video to support the campaign for justice by South African gold miners who are seeking compensation for silicosis, a lung disease caused by working in the mines. When they are too ill too work their entire families suffer. She was struck by the increasing number of pawn shops and cash for gold initiatives growing in the UK – gold so sought after by many, rich and poor is now being exchanged for cash by the poorest in the UK who are being driven into deeper poverty every day through the Con-Dem coalition’s austerity measures whilst the country is run by a government Cabinet of millionaires. Whilst companies profit from melting down the gold through the misfortune and poverty suffered in the West no thought is spared for the miners and their families dying of poverty to mine the gold.
Please click on the link or the image below to watch and listen to the video entitled
‘Blood Stained Gold’ http://youtu.be/CJ3okfAz4mA
You are free to interpret the theme any way you want to – it doesn’t have to be on the topic of South African miners or on deepening poverty in the UK but you may wish to explore the theme of rich and poor divide and the effects of poverty. ~ Marina
Zita Holbourne (c) April 2013
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Written by Zita Holbourne, Poet~Artist~Activist
Children begging on the street
Walking with no shoes upon their feet
Collecting tin cans, playing on railway tracks
Searching through rubbish bins hoping to find scraps
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Mothers unable to put meals on tables
Carrying the stigma of pointed fingers and labels
Redundancy leading to homelessness
Destitute and feeling helpless
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Families of 5, 6, 7 or 8 living in one room
Praying for a miracle to come one day soon
Riddled with vermin, overcrowded
Either frowned upon or disregarded
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Living off cans of salt water vegetables and beans
Treated like inferior worthless human beings
Dependent on food banks where a can of spam’s a luxury
Consigned to a lifetime of isolation and poverty
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Evicted with less than 24 hours to pack
Told you’re only allowed what you can fit in one sack
Moving from homeless shelter to motel to cardboard box
Knowing the only education they’ll get is at the school of hard knocks
THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
This is the reality for children in the world’s richest nation
Where millions of children are in this preventable situation
Barred from healthcare, education and security
Reducing their life chances to a future of poverty
MR PRESIDENT; THIS IS NOT THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
Debbie Golt (c) April 2013
“Tell Tale Flat”
Tell tale flat
Tho unoccupied
Trampled on the pavement
By countless well heeled feet
A few steps away from
The shop window alcove
Another is folded
Neatly in a doorway
Once corrugated
Now smoothed and flattened
Mercifully dry
Protected by the overhang
About the length of a curled up teenage girl
No evident possessions
Rucksack or sleeping bag
Or signs of recent occupation
Perhaps they’ve moved on
Hostelwise or braved home
Perhaps their fortunes
Took a turn for the better
Or the worse
The stretched out
Body honed cardboard
Has its own story to tell
Debbie Golt (c) April 2013
” Reverberation”
Every time I receive news
Good news, bad news
Change of plan news
It resonates
Every time my phone vibrates
I think of you
A message carrying more
Than its mundane task
Embeds in my soul
Every time I dance to the
Sinewy seductive
Scintillating sounds of
Soukous
Boundless rippling guitar
Soaring vocals sharing
Untold pleasures
Of freedom
I empathise
I sympathise
With all my heart
I think of you
Born of pressures
The music speaks
Loud and clearly
Of our shared humanity
Good news, bad news
Change of plan news
Reassures me
Gives me measures
Of joy and surmountable pain
In the ebb and flow
Of my normal day to day
The buzz of communication
Notification
Good news, bad news
A change of plan
Brings mixed emotion
As the coltan fused with tungsten
Makes my phone judder
Makes my bones shudder
Every time he heard
The crack of a whip
Bob Marley’s blood ran cold
Memory indelibly etched
Experience reaching
Across time and space
Every time my phone vibrates
Your blood runs
I saw a programme about you
On TV
I watched at first
With the dispassionate
Mind that enables me
To cope
When presented with
Inexorable truths
Beyond the scope
Of my imagination
But there was a moment
I could no longer dissociate
A little girl, just two
Barely able to walk
On her own terms
Let alone in recovery
From unspeakable
Brute force
As she completed
Three feminine generations
Of the same family
Thrown out by those
That could have
Cherished them
Necessity or luxury
Phones worked fine
Before mercurial
Usury
Changed the plan
Pillaged the coltan
Inserted the tungsten
Good news, bad news
Change of plan news
Making my phone vibrate
Against a backdrop of hate
I’ve joked with my friends
Saying how did we manage
Without mobile phones?
Fine tuned personal antennae
And honesty saw us through
We went to where we said
We would
At the time we knew
We should
In touch with our
Inner clocks
Time honoured traditions
Of trust
Your time honoured renditions
Of care
Lost in the thrust
Of warfare
Fought in the disputed zones
Where men are trained
To be predatory
Losing all their dignity
Making you the women
The front line
Every time Bob Marley
Heard the crack of a whip
His blood ran cold
Memory indelibly etched
Experience reaching
Across time and space
Every time my phone
Vibrates
Your blood runs
There is hope
Safe houses run by
Women who more than
Understand
Who found their voices
And their strength
Speaking out about
What happened
The best ones to help
Those who are just
Finding their way
Again
They can help you
They are helping you
They are reaching out sameway
To those
Young boys
Deep in the mine
Scraping the coltan
From the sides of the
Cobalt shafts
Not knowing
How their exploitation
Fuels the conflict
Of ownership
Of your shared
Land
Teach a woman to read
And you transform
The whole village
Change the world one woman
At a time
The strength of women
Is unsappable
Women for Women International
Is making inroads
Opening the gates
When my phone vibrates
I think of you
Every time I receive news
Good news, bad news
Change of plan news
It resonates
I spread the word
With messages from my phone
I do what I can
There is a plan
To change and help
Woman by woman
We’ll subvert the
Power of the coltan
Memory repaired
Healing
Healing by those who cared
Enough
Reaching across time and space
Every time my phone
Vibrates
Mother earth has a face
And
I know
You will regain
Your sense of grace
Woman by woman
One woman can change anything
Many women can
Change everything
No longer taking
The rough with the rough
Good news, bad news
Make a new plan
News
Spread a new vibration
© Debbie Golt 01/11/10 ( 1st published Harlesden Poetry Hub booklet Dec 2010)