Miaowlit

“

The White House has disinvited the poets
to a cultural tea in honor of poetry
after the Secret Service got wind of a plot
to fill Mrs. Bush’s ears with anti-war verse.
Were they afraid the poets might persuade
a sensitive girl who always loved to read,
a librarian who stocked the shelves with Poe
and Dickinson? Or was she herself afraid
to be swayed by the cooing doves, and live at odds
with the screaming hawks in her family?

The Latina maids are putting away the cups
and the silver spoons, sad to be missing out
on música they seldom get to hear
in the hallowed halls… The valet sighs
as he rolls the carpets up and dusts the blinds.
Damn but a little Langston would be good
in this dreary mausoleum of a place!
Why does the White House have to be so white?
The chef from Baton Rouge is starved for verse
uncensored by Homeland Security.

NO POETRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!

Instead the rooms are vacuumed and set up
for closed-door meetings planning an attack
against the ones who always bear the brunt
of silencing: the poor, the powerless,
the ones who serve, those bearing poems, not arms.
So why be afraid of us, Mrs. Bush?
you’re married to a scarier fellow.
We bring you tidings of great joy—
not only peace but poetry on earth.

” “The White House Has Disinvited The Poets” by Julia Alvarez. Alvarez wrote this piece after Laura Bush, wife of then-president George W. Bush, cancelled a tea for poets because many quest speakers planned on protesting the War on Iraq.  (via reclaimingthelatinatag)

(via inautumn-inkashmir)

“

According to this brief but meaty ‘Capitalist Manifesto’, the law of the jungle is the natural code governing human life; injustice does not exist, for what we know as injustice is merely an expression of the cruel harmony of the universe: poor countries are poor because…they are poor; our fate is written in the stars and we are born only to fulfill it. Some are condemned to obey, others are appointed to command. Some put their necks out and others put on the rope.

The author of this theory was the creator of the IMF in Brazil.

” Eduardo de Galeano in Open Veins of Latin America, p. 220

“I didn’t know why I was going to cry, but I knew that is anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I’d cry for a week. I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in med like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full.” The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (via pagesandwords)

(via thdandeliongirl)

“

I’ve had librarians say to me, “People in my school don’t agree with homosexuality, so it’s difficult to have your book on the shelves.” Here’s the thing: Being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something that you can agree or disagree with. It is a fact, and must be defended and represented as a fact.

To use another part of my identity as an example: if someone said to me, “I’m sorry, but we can’t carry that book because it’s so Jewish and some people in my school don’t agree with Jewish culture,” I would protest until I reached my last gasp. Prohibiting gay books is just as abhorrent…

Discrimination is not a legitimate point of view. Silencing books silences the readers who need them most. And silencing these readers can have dire, tragic consequences. Never forget who these readers are. They are just as curious and anxious about life as any other teenager.

”

David Levithan - Supporting Gay Teen Literature (via cake-light)

This man is another of my very favorite authors and editors. If I ever met him in real life, I think he might be one of my very favorite people.

(via beckiejean)

(Source: lyras, via sanityscraps)

“Narrow minds devoid of imagination. Intolerance, theories cut off from reality, empty terminology, usurped ideals, inflexible systems. Those are the things that really frighten me. What I absolutely fear and loathe.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (via light-essence)

(via socialuprooting)