MetaFilter posts tagged with poetry and politics

The first hundred days, in poetry

aught — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:15:51 -0800

Everyone and his or her uncle has griped about the mediocre official inaugural poems heralding recent new U.S. presidencies. Meanwhile, poets Arielle Greenberg & Rachel Zucker have put together a blog, STARTING TODAY, commissioning a poem a day from many of those they consider the best contemporary poets writing today, documenting in verse life under the new ruling paradigm.

This is just to hold a press conference to announce...

casarkos — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:20:14 -0800

A small selection of parodic poetry inspired by the Illinois corruption mess. Ben Smith: - and which you were probably/saving/for Quinn - If you can scheme - but never scheme in writing/If you can talk - but not from your home phone Metaquotes (quoting from a locked politics-slash community): - Whose seat this is, I think I know - Shall I compare thee to an empty seat? - "The time has come," dear Roddy said,

Woeser

homunculus — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:05:29 -0800

A Lone Tibetan Voice, Intent on Speaking Out. Woeser (previously mentioned here) is a Tibetan writer and poet living under house arrest in Beijing, from where she blogs about the recent unrest in Tibet (there are English translations of her posts at China Digital Times). Last year she was awarded the Norwegian Authors Union Freedom of Expression Prize, but she was not allowed to travel to Oslo to collect the prize.

The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below.

mek — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:57:18 -0800

The poppy is bitterly ironic this Remembrance Day. Borrowed from John McRae's classic In Flanders' Fields, the poppy has shifted from a symbolic meaning to the central subject of an ongoing conflict. As international intervention in Afghanistan continues, opium production has reached record-breaking heights, with this single country now producing 90% of the world's total supply (utterly dwarfing global licit supply). Meanwhile, the world suffers a global opiate shortage(pdf), Canada's heroin maintenance project is threatened by politics, and the National Review of Medicine suggests that prescription opiates are far more dangerous than the "usual suspects".

"He'd zap the programme off and holler/ 'Go and read some Emile Zola."

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:41:03 -0800

Boris Johnson, poet.

Burma

homunculus — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:05:35 -0800

Risking all: the Burmese jokers who laugh in the face of danger. In Burma (Myanmar), comedians are targets in the junta's war on words. [Via BB.] The Moustache Brothers have a website, but it doesn't look like it's been updated for some time. Htein Lin, the artist mentioned in the fifth link, was the subject of this post.

D.C. Afghan Cabdrivers' Poetry Conflict

jason's_planet — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:51:48 -0800

There aren't many places in the United States that can count poetry societies run by Afghan cab drivers. Washington has two. And they don't like each other.

The Liberal Limericker

crookdimwit — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:21:10 -0800

The Liberal Limericker. Yep... just another site dedicated to astute political commentary in limerick form.

Neb — Thu, 09 Nov 2000 21:43:04 -0800

It figures the only election haikus I'd find are at FreeRepublic.com. Can anyone find more?