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Writings for Peace

Bringing you poetry and prose from around the world to reflect the broader humanitarian mission of Peace Partners. It is our hope to provide a safe space for compassion, empathy, and insight into our shared want for a more peaceful society. Here we showcase work from familiar names and those too-long overlooked by history, as well as the new and emerging voices of today.

One Story

27/3/2021

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From its idealistic beginnings to what is become one of the most celebrated global events of the year, Earth Day is a rare phenomenon of our modern age; a single day where the importance of empire and capital are secondary to the health and preservation of the planet, a day where 193 countries from around the world are united by this most universal bond of existence.
 
Since 1970, we celebrate April 22nd as a day of environmental awareness, advocacy, and appreciation. Recent years have also seen an increased emphasis on political policy reform in the face of impending climate disaster. The 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, for example, saw signatories from around the world coming together in their pledge to ensure a safe and sustainable planet for all.
 
The effects of climate change, like those of a global pandemic, are and will continue to be felt across every corner of the planet. We can be heartened by the universal support for vaccination research, dissemination, and safe social policy that has overtaken society over these past many months, if only to show that we are capable of so much more, that in the face of financial collapse we left no stone unturned in our fight to overcome the coronavirus. This too shall pass, but the work of defending our planet is ever-demanding and will require an equally impassioned effort.
 
As part of our continued Earth Day celebrations, Peace Partners will showcase environmental poetry throughout the month of April. From Nicaragua to Palestine, from Indonesia to the United States, we have carefully selected work that speaks to our universality and the global necessity of climate action. We begin with famed poet and environmentalist W.S. Merwin and his timely appeal, “One Story”:
One Story

​Always somewhere in the story

which up until now we thought
was ours whoever it was
that we were being then
had to wander out into
the green towering forest
reaching to the end of
the world and beyond older
than anything whoever
we were being could remember
and find there that it was
no different from the story 

anywhere in the forest
and never be able to tell
as long as the story was there
whether the fiery voices
now far ahead now under
foot the eyes staring from
their instant that held the story
as one breath the shadows
offering their spread flowers
and the chill that leapt from its own
turn through the hair of the nape
like a light through a forest

 knew the untold story
all along and were waiting
at the right place as the moment
arrived for whoever it was
to be led at last by the wiles
of ignorance through the forest
and come before them face
to face for the first time
recognizing them with
no names and again surviving
seizing something alive
to take home out of the story 

but what came out of the forest
was all part of the story
whatever died on the way
or was named by no longer
recognizable even
what vanished out of the story
finally day after day
was becoming the story
so that when there is no more
story that will be our
story when there is no
forest that will be our forest
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The GRASS IS LIKE ME

19/3/2021

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In March 1999, UNESCO formally recognised the imperative need for poetry in the modern age. Now for more than two decade, March 21st has come to represent our global literary community as few other events ever could, and to promote the preservation of regional poetic cultures around the world.
​
It is a day to recognise the long, storied legacy of poetry through every stage of human history; from landscapes of Ancient Greece to the wartime writings of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva and the forlorn beauty of Turkish exile Nazim Hikmet. Poets have been the very eyes and ears of time, speaking truth and beauty for the heart of unknown generations to come.

Poetry, through its many oral and written traditions, offers a human chronicle of our shared existence. Where modern accounts of history will recall the political winners and casualties of conflict, it is the poet's rendering that will speak to the truly human experience of war, peace, and perseverance.

In honour of International Poetry Day, and as part of our ongoing effort to elevate new and/or foreign voices with English readers, we are delighted to share a poem from revered Pakistani Urdu poet Kishwar Naheed:

The Grass Is Like Me

​You know, the grass is like me
It's true nature revealed
When trodden under foot
But when drenched 
Does it bear witness
To burning disgrace
Or blazing fury?
Yes, the grass is like me
It lifts its head
Only to be continually shared
Into flat velvet by the frenzied machine
How many ways do you have to flatten a woman?
But the earth
And women continue to rise up
If you ask me, you had the right idea
A footpath was spot on
Those who can't endure
Are patched down into the scorched earth
Merely straw
A path for the oppressors
Not grass
You know, grass like me! 


Naheed's life and poetry have been deeply influenced by the intensely gendered politics of the Indian-Pakistani region. Fortunately, her work and advocacy can be felt around the globe, as many of her most famous writings have been translated from original Urdu. Naheed's passion for human rights and gender equality is inspired and infectious (curious readers might also consider the equally anthemic, "We Sinful Women").

Her work speaks to our shared, persistent struggle for individual freedom and social equity, particularly as relates to gender imbalance and the indispensable role of women in society; now and forever. Naheed's work exemplifies the poet's role in society as a purveyor of strength, hard truth, and all the hope of humanity to find beauty in even the most unexpected places.
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Website last updated - 12th August 2021
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  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Pledge to Peace
    • Peace Education >
      • Peace Education FAQs
    • Humanitarian Aid >
      • Food for People
  • Who we are
    • Meet our Team >
      • Peace Education Support
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Our Memberships
  • News & Stories
    • Latest News
    • Writings for Peace
    • e-Bulletin
  • Our Partnerships
    • Partnership Initiatives
    • Become a Partner
  • Events
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