#Poems about the war in Ukraine

[dontforgetukraine]

“You just have to. You have to be here or not, to exist or not, to breathe or suffocate. That is why I am at war.”

—Maksym Kryvtsov

Source: Acclaimed poet killed defending Ukraine

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A Poster from the Kyiv Book Fair, 2023.

* * * * *

Victoria Amelina was a Ukrainian novelist, poet and public intellectual. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of her country in 2022, she set aside most of her writing to document and research war crimes. Amelina understood the risks she ran with this work, both as a citizen who chose to stay in her country during war, and as a writer facing an invading army bent on destroying Ukrainian national identity. She moved her son to safety in Poland, but kept returning herself. When Kyiv came under bombardment in early summer she watched the explosions from her apartment and wrote: “The war is when you can no longer follow all news and cry about all neighbours who died instead of you a couple of miles away. Still, I want to not forget to learn the names.” She died on 1 July, aged 37, from injuries sustained in a Russian missile strike on a pizza restaurant in the eastern town of Kramatorsk. Two weeks before she died, she wrote about a painter, Polina Rayko, whose work had been largely obliterated in the floods unleashed by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam: “Art lives as long as the world sees it.” Below is Poem About a Crow, inspired by her work interviewing women who lived through Russian occupation. Translated by Uilleam Blacker.

Poem About a Crow

In a barren springtime field Stands a woman dressed in black Crying her sisters’ names Like a bird in the empty sky She’ll cry them all out of herself

The one that flew away too soon The one that had begged to die The one that couldn’t stop death The one that has not stopped waiting

The one that has not stopped believing The one that still grieves in silence

She’ll cry them all into the ground As though sowing the field with pain

And from pain and the names of women Her new sisters will grow from the earth And again will sing joyfully of life

But what about her, the crow?

She will stay in this field forever Because only this cry of hers Holds all those swallows in the air

Do you hear how she calls Each one by her name?

[The Guardian]

[apoemadaykeepsthehoesaway]

Preface (Unfinished)

-Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

This book is not about heroes. English Poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, dominion, or power,

-

except War.

Above all, this book is not concerned with Poetry.

The subject of it is War, and the pity of War.

The Poetry is in the pity.

Yet these elegies are not to this generation,

This is in no sense consolatory.

-

They may be to the next.

All the poet can do today is to warn.

That is why the true Poets must be truthful.

If I thought the letter of this book would last,

I might have used proper names; but if the spirit of it survives Prussia,— my ambition and those names will be content; for they will have achieved themselves fresher fields than Flanders.

[thepoetrycurator]

Excerpt from the poem "We'll Not Die in Paris" by Natalka Bilotserkivets, translated by Dzvinia Orlowsky.

From IN THE HOUR OF WAR: POETRY FROM UKRAINE edited by Carolyn Forche and Ilya Kaminsky.

[snovyda]

Historically, some of the biggest Russian opponents to domestic repressions are imperialists. Solzhenitsyn, most famously, is, on the one hand, bravely fighting the GULAG, and on the other hand - a vile imperialist with a sense of fascism. These aren't new phenomena, in many ways. Somehow one feels that [moving away from imperialism] is unlikely in Russia, because it goes so deep. This is just the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine, this is not just one war, this has been going on for centuries. Russian imperialism is embedded in Russian humour, Russian literature, codes of thinking. It's not about statements. It's not just about policies. When Pushkin writes, I don't know, "Кавказ подо мною" ("The Caucasus lies below me"), one of his famous poems... the amount of imperialist psychology that goes into saying that - that goes very, very deep. So until those much, much deeper sort of deep cultural roots of Russian imperialism, racism and oppression are addressed, nothing is changed. So let's think what we have agency over, in a way. [...] we can change the way Russia is perceived globally and in the West. Because this idea that Russia is a great power that has the right to a sphere of influence and that has the right to suppress others because it's great - that sits very deep in people's heads across the world. We can start working on that. So why don't we start working on that? Let's get people in my world - Britain, America - to re-read the Russian classics and understand how much imperialism and oppression of others there's there. Let's start de-mystifying this idea of "the Russian mystic soul" and really start rooting it to very specific histories of violence and oppression. Let's start changing the way Russia is perceived, so it's no longer seen as inevitable and so vast and huge that you have to drop on your knees in front of it, which still sits in people's heads. That means changing the way the universities overfocus on Russia studies and completely silence the voices of Ukrainians, Georgians, Kazakhs... There's so much we can do that will make people's perceptions of Russia rooted in reality. And they will help gain self-confidence to say, "Stop, we're not dependent on you".

Peter Pomerantsev

[thelittleukrainianwell-armedgirl]

"On 7th of January Ukrainian poet Maksym Kryvtsov and his ginger cat were killed by rssian army on the frontline. He was 33 years old. He was writing poems about the war and his loyal cat friend, while protecting his homeland. He could create so much if russia would not start this unjust horror.

Every time something inside me dies when I see news like this. Every Ukrainian from the beginning of their time in school learns about Executed Renaissance - when on the beginning of 20th century a lot of Ukrainian artists, writers, poets were chased and executed by Soviet Union for creating works in Ukrainian and expressing their national identity. Now it’s happening again, same evil, but under different flag. Besides occupation of our land russia also often talks about how Ukraine is fake country with fake language, they burn our books on occupied territories, mock us, our POWs for the fact we’re ukrainian. They were mocking us even before the invasion, I grew up with watching it on social medias myself. And now a lot of authors can’t create because of the war, russia kills them on frontlines, in their homes, russia purposefully targets objects of civilian infrastructure to leave us without heat and electricity. It pisses me off every time when I see russian “culture” being praised by the foreigners, knowing that it’s made on blood of other nations. Either 100 years ago or now. Because while russian authors can live and create, we have fight for our survival.

Before being killed by russia Maksym published his last poem, where he told about how his body will grow as violets after his death. Every time it’s hard to draw something about the war, I feel literally empty afterwards but I just felt it would be right thing to do. It’s awful that our artists have to go through all of this, so damn unfair, and I keep telling myself that justice is waiting for them but I can’t even imagine what has to happen, everything feels not enough.

Please support Ukrainian authors, until it’s too late."

(c) @ fate_221

[mariacallous]

The pictures are haunting. There are portraits of Ukrainian men and women who have spent months and years in Russian captivity: soldiers, civilians, paramedics and volunteers. All experienced torture and brutal treatment. Many carry physical scars from their time as inmates. They are among the prisoners of war swapped since 2014, when Vladimir Putin began his Ukraine invasion, with a covert takeover in the east.

In 2019, the Ukrainian photojournalist Zoya Shu began photographing those freed from Russian detention. Over five years, she spent time with former prisoners of war (PoWs) in their homes, talking to them about their life stories and listening to their harrowing accounts of beatings and other forms of daily abuse.

“They suffered. I see them not as victims but as survivors. What they experienced is horrendous,” she says.

Some of those she photographed have terrible wounds. In 2014, Russian “separatist” fighters carved a swastika on the back of a local man, Bogdan Sergiets, in the eastern city of Donetsk. They accused him of supporting Ukraine and being a “Nazi”. Another photo is a portrait of Aiden Aslin, a British volunteer captured in April 2022 while fighting for Ukraine. He and his fellow British prisoner Shaun Pinner, who were both threatened with execution, say they were beaten, stabbed with knives and electrocuted.

Other wounds are less conspicuous. Many prisoners, both men and women, said they were subjected to sexual violence and rape. In Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, interrogators used a wind-up military field telephone to administer electric shocks, attaching crocodile clips to genitals and nipples.

“There is physical and psychological trauma,” says Shu. “It’s difficult to deal with, and profound. It takes a long time to heal.”

Another torture method is starvation. One former prisoner of war, Borys, said he lost 45kg (99lb) during two years in various camps: “I got very thin. When I was released I was so weak I couldn’t put my leg on to a step.”

Borys says a fellow inmate was so emaciated he became unable to walk and “went mad”, adding: “He couldn’t lift his arms. He stopped eating. They took him away. We don’t know what happened [to him].”

Borys says his captors hit him with plastic pipes and shocked him with stun guns. This was done in a corridor, where there were no CCTV cameras to record the abuse. One day, his guards said his situation would improve if he gave an interview to a Russian propaganda TV channel. They also tried to “re-educate” him.

“They loved to teach us about ‘history’ – we were ‘fascists’. They told us Ukraine was always a part of Russia and didn’t exist,” Borys says.

Other ex-prisoners said they were made to sing the Russian national anthem and recite patriotic poems and songs from Russia. “One goal is to destroy Ukrainian identity,” Shu says, adding that a soldier from western Ukraine who could not speak Russian received extra punishments.

“There is a pattern of constant and systemic violations [of human rights],” Shu says, calling this “state policy”.

Some former detainees have successfully rebuilt their lives. Others remain haunted by their experiences and suffer from depression and panic attacks. According to Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 3,405 people have been returned from captivity, including 95 PoWs on 17 July. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, military and civilians, are believed to remain in Russian jails.

The exact tally of PoWs is unknown. The figure includes about 1,500 soldiers captured in May 2022 when the garrison defending the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol surrendered. The Kremlin refuses to give a comprehensive list of the people it holds, adding to the agony of families whose loved ones went missing in action.

Shu is critical of international organisations that help detainees. In her view, they have failed to pressure the Kremlin to improve dire conditions for prisoners and to end widespread abuse.

“Where is the Red Cross? Where is the UN? Where is everybody?” she asks. “There doesn’t seem to be much activity or urgency. The level of brutality and torture in Russian prisons requires immediate action.”

[redditreceipts]

its very sad how the 8th of march is not being taken seriously in russia. maybe in other countries too but im not gonna speak on that. its a "holiday" of "femininity, flowers and spring". you give your mom and grandma yellow mimosa flowers, read them a poem and celebrate what was mentioned above. i dont think most russians who celebrate it even know where the "holiday" came from or what it actually means.

have a nice day;3

that's so stupid. I mean I don't hate flowers or anything, and I think that it's a nice gesture if your boss or your boyfriend or your son gives you flowers. the problem is that they don't care to change anything for women in politics. Like in Russia, where 2017 there was a law that decriminalised many forms of domestic abuse:

and now look at what the Russian government answered:

they have literally an MRA government. but from the Russian women I know, most of them are extremely independent and choose to not have kids, which is why the birth rate keeps dropping lol

(on this sign, it says: "instead of flowers - respect")

I don't speak too much on this blog about my support for Ukraine and my disdain for Putin, but I just want to reiterate that the right-wing anti-democratic warmongering dictatorship in Russia is probably one of the worst for women in the entirety of Europe. I hope the birth rate in Russia keeps dropping to zero, until there is no one Putin can recruit into his stupid war anymore lol

[stormykatie]

someday i will teach

myself to write

a poem again

and it won't be about you

or the years

we wasted dreaming

about our future

while forgetting

to water the flowers

so one day they just wilted

away erasing

our existence

no, when that time comes

i'll be writing about something else

perhaps, not one about the war,

or the inflation,

or the rising heat index

i will try my best to write about

anything that does not capture

the stars in your universe,

the bubbles of thoughts floating

above your head,

the wind kissing

your hair, the rain gently gliding

in your porcelain skin

i will forget about the way

you made me feel

along with the memory

of how truth

became the first

casualty of a war

we didn't ask for,

a war that ruined

the taste

of heaven on my lips,

a war that created

waves of differing heights

and tenacity

i'll forget about the dreams

we buried beneath our fallen city,

the unread text messages,

the unpublished reels, drowned

in the echo of grenade raining

the afternoon sky, cries

of dissenters swarming the streets

like flies, shrieking out "freedom!"

oh, freedom,

when will i...

forget about everything

and write about cicadas,ignore

the ashes and screams filling

the air as i watch your head explode,

a watermelon being run over

by a truck!

i will teach myself

to write a poem that

doesn't immortalize you

however, everything

that you were stains

my hands with red-

a dark, raging

shade of red

-flowers wilting,

katie, 05/12/24

Photo lifted from:

[sixty-silver-wishes]

well, @illumiost asked to hear my Russian, so here's me reciting a poem that's very important to me.

This is "Страхи" (Fears) by the Soviet poet Evgeny Evtushenko, written 1962. The poem was set to music for the fourth movement of Shostakovich's 13th Symphony.

The historical context to this poem is vital to understanding it. After Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev's government came with some easing of cultural restrictions, and the decline of the "Socialist Realism" art style, most prominent in the 30s-50s. This period of Soviet history is known as the "Thaw." While the Thaw resulted in a rise in avant-garde Soviet art, it was still heavily discouraged, albeit not to the extent that it was during Stalin's time in power; while the fact that this poem makes an appearance in Shostakovich's symphony is indicative of the changing cultural atmosphere, it also faced censorship and controversy (albeit not to the extent of another Evtushenko poem featured in Shostakovich 13, "Babi Yar").

The poem alludes to two major historical events that defined Soviet culture during the Stalin era- the Great Purges (1936-38) and WWII (in the Soviet Union, 1941-45). During the Purges, a culture of fear and distrust grew, and while the war resulted in devastating losses of life, wartime and postwar propaganda pushed an image of Soviet strength and military power. This cognitive dissonance between fear and trauma caused by one's own government, while projecting a cultural image of patriotic might and confidence, is reflected in the poem as well.

Overall, "Страхи" is a poem about the lasting presence of cultural trauma and its consequences for Soviet Russia (and, one could argue, modern Russia). The first and last stanzas contain the line, "Умирают в России страхи" ("in Russia, fears are dying"), but as the rest of the poem states, this is not the case. Fear is still as alive in 1962 as it was in 1936, and it manifests as mistrust and a wariness to speak out against oppression. The poem purposefully contradicts itself multiple times; fears are dying in Russia, but they still permeate Russian society. Russians were unafraid of warfare during WWII, but were terrified of speaking aloud to themselves at home.

Here is my original English translation of "Страхи." It's not a one-for-one literal translation, but I did my best to preserve both the meaning and the original rhyme scheme.

In 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine, I was taking Russian language classes in college in order to further my music history research. I was invited by my Russian professor to participate in the Evgeny Evtushenko poetry competition, which required Russian learners (both students learning Russian as a foreign language and heritage speakers) to recite a Russian-language poem on a Zoom call. Evtushenko's widow and son were on the judges' panel. As I was familiar with some of his work and knew he collaborated with Shostakovich- a composer whom I had been enamored with researching- I signed up for the competition and chose this poem, as I was already familiar with it from the symphony. My professor was surprised I decided to choose such a long poem with that sort of historical weight to it, but agreed to help coach me with the pronunciation and enunciation.

Reciting this poem in front of her was difficult, even before the war began. My professor grew up in Russia, and I didn't want her to think I was taking the poem lightly by any means; I was dealing with serious subject matter from a culture I was not a part of, and while my historical research had helped me somewhat understand what the poem was about, I knew there was a cultural component to it that I would never be able to fully grasp. However, my professor encouraged me to learn the poem, and urged me not to shrink away from some of the more cutting stanzas.

I was probably halfway through memorizing it when the invasion happened, and that made me gain another layer of understanding. Going on Reddit and reading posts from Russians who had previously dismissed the idea of an invasion of Ukraine as "western propaganda," only to be completely shocked and disillusioned when the invasion actually began, hearing how scared my friends in eastern Europe were, reading news reports of protesters being arrested just for holding anti-war signs, and seeing the war be met with apathy or claims of being "apolitical" by civilians as it went on made it harder to learn and recite the poem, as I was beginning to see just how relevant it was.

One day, I read a news report that a memorial in Babyn Yar, Ukraine, had been damaged by bombing- the site of the 1941 anti-Semitic massacre where, in 1962, as stated in the Shostakovich 13 setting, there "was no monument." When I went to practice the poem that day in front of my professor, I broke down crying. 1936 became 1941 became 1962 became 2022, and that day, I felt as if I had caught a glimpse of the impossible length of history.

I can hardly remember being on the Zoom call and reciting the poem for the Evtushenkos. I couldn't believe I was actually speaking to them, and that they were listening to me recite the words of the famous poet- to them, a husband and father- who had collaborated with the Dmitri Shostakovich on one of the most monumental symphonies of the 20th century. I wish I could have looked at their faces on the screen, but I didn't; I just recited and then listened to the rest of the students read their poems. I didn't win the competition, and didn't even place, but a few weeks later, my Russian professor handed me this small book of Evtushenko poems, which she said the Evtushenko family wanted to give me. It's by far my most prized possession.

[existential-celestial]

in a webinar about writers in war-time Ukraine right now and Ilya Kaminsky reciting one of his poems from Deaf Republic is something terrifying and profound to experience

[sweet-caress-of-twilight]

Going off of one of my previous reblogs, i attempted to make a list of where in the world every Disney Animated Canon movie takes place

Antarctica:

Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros) (Pablo starts out living in the South Pole and then he goes to Chile, Peru, and Ecuador)

Africa

The Lion King

Tarzan

Asia

Aladdin is set in a mishmash of Middle Eastern countries. It was supposed to be in Iraq, but because of the Persian Gulf War, Disney said no, so it takes place in the fictional country of Agrabah, which is inspired by Baghdad in Iraq.

Raya and the Last Dragon is set in a mishmash of Southeast Asian countries, but takes the most inspiration from Vietnam

China: Mulan

India: The Jungle Book

Europe

England: The Wind in the Willows (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad), Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Winnie the Pooh, The Great Mouse Detective

France: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Aristocats, Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Germany: Snow White, Tangled

Greece: The Pastoral Symphony (Fantasia), Hercules

Italy: Pinocchio

Norway: Frozen (Arendelle is heavily inspired by Norway)

Russia: Peter and the Wolf (Make Mine Music)

Spain: Wish (Rosas is inspired by Spain and located off the Iberian Peninsula)

Turkey: Pomp and Circumstance (Fantasia 2000) is about Noah's Ark, and many people believe that the ark landed at Mount Ararat in present-day Turkey

Ukraine: Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria (Fantasia) (the real Bald Mountain is Mount Triglaf, near Kyiv in Ukraine)

Wales: The Black Cauldron

North America

Mexico:

Las Posadas

Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco

You Belong to My Heart/Donald's Surreal Reverie (all from The Three Caballeros)

United States:

Different towns in Massachusetts and California have claimed to be the Mudville that Casey at the Bat (Make Mine Music) takes place in, but the author of the original poem said it has no basis in fact.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed (Melody Time) - the real Johnny Appleseed (real name John Chapman) planted apple trees in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Ontario, and West Virginia

Lady and the Tramp could take place somewhere in New England

The Fox and the Hound looks like it takes place in Appalachia, so maybe Pennsylvania or Virginia

Home on the Range is somewhere in the Old West

Bolt takes place across America: starts out in California, the title character ends up in New York, visits Ohio, and is back to California by the end

Alaska: Brother Bear

California: Wreck it Ralph (Ralph Breaks the Internet reveals that Litwak's Arcade is in California), Big Hero 6

Florida: Dumbo

Hawaii: Lilo and Stitch

Louisiana: Blue Bayou (Make Mine Music), most of The Rescuers, The Princess and the Frog

Maine: Bambi (the forest was based on Maine and the animators traveled to Maine for reference)

New York: Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (Make Mine Music) (the Metropolitan Opera is in NYC), Little Toot (Melody Time), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) (the real Sleepy Hollow is in New York), The Rescuers (the Rescue Aid Society headquarters is in NYC), Oliver and Company, Rhapsody in Blue (Fantasia 2000)

Texas: Pecos Bill (Melody Time)

Virginia: Pocahontas

Washington, DC: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Milo works at the Smithsonian

Oceania

The Rescuers Down Under: Australia

Moana: Polynesia

Pangaea

The Rite of Spring (Fantasia)

Dinosaur

South America

Argentina: Pedro, El Gaucho Goofy (Saludos Amigos)

Bolivia: Lake Titicaca (Saludos Amigos)

Brazil: Aquarela do Brasil (Saludos Amigos), Baia (The Three Caballeros), Blame It on the Samba (Melody Time),

Chile: Pedro (Saludos Amigos) (The title character delivers the mail in the Andes, between Santiago, Chile, and Mendoza, Argentina), Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros)

Colombia: Encanto

Ecuador: Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros) (Pablo goes to the Galapagos Islands, which is an archipelago in Ecuador)

Peru: Lake Titicaca (Saludos Amigos) (the lake is at the border between Peru and Bolivia), Pablo the Cold-Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros), The Emperor's New Groove

Uruguay: The Flying Gauchito (The Three Caballeros)

Unknown/does not take place in our world

Any of the package film segments not mentioned here

The Little Mermaid seems like it takes place in the Mediterranean Sea, but it could also take place in the Caribbean, which would explain Sebastian's accent

Fantasia 2000: "Pines of Rome" is set in the Arctic, so it could be anywhere from Canada to Alaska to Finland to Russia

Most of Atlantis: the Lost Empire, since the city of Atlantis is completely made up

Treasure Planet

Chicken Little

Meet the Robinsons

Zootopia

Strange World

[ammcgee-author]

250. Remember Ashli Babbitt (An AntiWar Poem)

Sexist and Racist Liberals

Celebrate suicide,

And lionize male soldiers,

Protesters,

While knowing nothing

about their backgrounds.

Just as long as their protest,

Falls within convenient partisan lines;

Protesting the president and administration,

That they, themselves, voted for.

Mindless Fools

Who are too stupid, and dumb, and blind;

And racist, and sexist,

And prejudiced and brainwashed;

To see that smart protesters

Good, brave, and actually

Intelligent people;

Protest war and terror,

And stolen elections,

And evil regimes,

And needless and senseless wars

Before they happen;

while followers,

Who can’t think for themselves,

Are reactionary protesters;

Who only follow what’s approved of

And popular,

Pretending to stand up for something;

After so much time is lost,

And blood is shed.

Is that considered heroism?

A dozen

“Johnny come latelys” who burn

Their uniforms…

Have finally joined Ashli Babbitt,

The brave Air Force veteran in her

protest.

I guess it was about time;

Trump never started any new wars

in his tenure

(Babbitt voted for Obama,

because he promised to close Gitmo)

And the sheep will vote for Biden,

while they (simultaneously) protest him;

And a burning bush that says nothing new,

Is welcomed later

to the noble history of

Ashli Babbitt;

And Vietnam soldiers, and protesters, and self-immolators;

Who gave their lives for the country

By saying, “No”

Not just, “No more.”

I guess later,

Months and years,

And tens of thousands of dead bodies, later;

(Literally millions in Iraq and Afghanistan)

Is better

(So much slightly better than…)

Rather better, than never at all.

— A.M. McGee

[Notes & Commentary: I’m not a fan of either major political party, or their presidents/candidates… Often saying, “the only real difference between voting Democrat or Republican, is whether you want an old war with Russia, in Ukraine, or a new war with China, in MyanMar.” (A cause they, they meaning the military industrial complex, already workshopped trying to get liberal democrats to support.) However, I’ve definitely noticed the sexist double standard in which Ashli Babbitt, who died for her country protesting a stolen election, is defamed and criticized; while the suicidal protest and self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell is celebrated and lionized as an act of outstanding heroism. This makes zero sense to me, and to anyone who has both the courage and common sense to think for themselves. It goes without saying, that Aaron Bushnell has much more in common with Ashli Babbitt, than any of the people celebrating his “sacrifice” to their “cause.” — Both were Air Force veterans, both came from conservative Christian backgrounds, both died protesting the Biden Administration, etc. — And while self-immolation has a long history in AntiWar Protest, I think it’s smarter not to intentionally hurt yourself for people who don’t care how many hundreds or thousands of people they kill, every hour on the hour, with guns and bombs and chemical accelerants. This poem, in a way, is also about my grandmother and grandfather who became AntiWar Activists after serving in the Air Fore. I called the people who criticized Ashli Babbitt both racist and sexist, because of both the obvious sexism of this case (aka the implication that a woman can’t be a hero; or the even more sexist implication that her final act of heroism, as a patriot and as a soldier serving her country, was a sign of female hysteria) but also because of the more subtlety racist things that have been said about her after her murder, such as the suggestion that she “should have complied” while being shot, unarmed, by a Black cop.]

[vasilinaorlova]

Unexpectedly for myself, I wrote a poem in the Ukrainian language 😳 After years of not writing poems in the Ukrainian language, I wrote a poem. My Ukrainian is very poor, and I am not sure I have the right to write in it. And yet, poems are something that either happen or not. The spirit is breathing where and as it pleases. I don't know if this is a good poem, and if I even can show it to somebody, and if I need to show it, and I am sure someone has to correct grammar in it and perhaps suggest a more natural flow to some phrases, but--I am not a foreigner to writing poems in the languages I don't exactly speak. I wrote many poems in the English language, which isn't my native language and will never be my native language even though I grew to like it, feel it, and be relatively comfortable with it, like you're getting comfortable to prostheses or a corset, I suppose. I am not a foreigner to writing poems in the languages I do not really speak and using dictionaries to write those poems and replacing placeholders. Some of the poems that I wrote make me cringe, looking back, but so do some of the poems that I wrote in the only language I do speak or in which I consider myself more than simply competent enough.

But of course with the Ukrainian language, it is so much more than just the issue of the insufficient knowledge of the language. Writing in Ukrainian has always been, and now even more so, intensely political. To me, the language is covered in the triggers, its field is mined. The central issue is whether I dare to write in the Ukrainian language. Is writing in Ukrainian having grown up in Russia allowed? Can it be permitted? Is it cultural appropriation? The question is fraught with a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff comes into it. Some of the stuff that comes into these languages is useful and necessary, and some of the stuff that comes into these languages is hindering and unnecessary. It shouldn't be like that when you recall the language your grandmother spoke to you, the language to which you're a heritage listener rather than a heritage speaker, but this is like that. At the same time, I am wary about Russians dragging their Ukrainian grandmother and grandfather in every conversation. I am acutely aware that I am the one who is doing it as well. I am wary of myself, and nevertheless, here I am, again. In my mind, I already created a whole explanation (that nobody is requesting from me, and I am the only one requesting of myself--the severest censure is self-censure, as they say), an apology, a timeline: look, I have begun writing about my Ukrainian grandparents, and my mother, and my aunts and uncles, and my cousins, long before the war began, from way before 2014, my first book with the novel Vchera (Yesterday) about my Ukraine--my imaginary Ukraine--came out in two-fucking-thousand-three, yes, 2003, and I wrote that novel even earlier, in 1999. And yet, I often feel like somebody has to issue, sign, and stamp me a permission to mention my grandparents. And yet, I am also the one who is doing it--I am reissuing this permission to myself (again). All of this is to say that the act of writing in the Ukrainian language isn't easy. And yet, I have written a poem, unexpectedly and without an intent to do so, and I don't know if I type it or I ever show it to anyone. Thankfully, the language has a capacity to act entirely by itself, and this is what I celebrate and welcome.

[alex-the-bard]

here’s the skinny. here’s the deal.

there’s a war in Ukraine, Russia is assassinating people again, Israel is fighting HAMAS in Gaza and bombing civilians, KOSA might be getting passed soon, and waves of transphobia, anti-gay sentiment, crime, and petty partisan bullshit are sweeping across the U.S.

we need to stop this.

what people need to understand about all this is that these issues don’t just affect the people they’re affecting right now, and they don’t only affect them right now.

if Russia takes over Ukraine, GUESS WHO’S FUCKING NEXT. if HAMAS wins in Gaza, GUESS WHATS FUCKING NEXT. if KOSA gets passed and queer folks get chased off the web, GUESS WHO’S FUCKING NEXT. if we stand on the sidelines and let this happen, it sets a precedent that the global community isn’t going to do anything to stop you.

tell me, dear sweet reader, have you ever read the poem “First They Came” by Pastor Marton Niemöller? if you haven’t, let me tell you, and if you have, let me refresh your memory:

First they came for the Communists. And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists. And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Socialists. Then they came for the trade unionists. And I did not speak out, Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews. And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me. And there was no one left, To speak out for me.

if we don’t do anything about the state of the world, when our time comes, when they come for US, it will be too late, no one will speak out, because there will be no one left to speak out for us. there will be no one left to protect us. there will be no one left.

but we CAN stop this.

alone, one bee is nothing, but a swarm can kill a bear. alone, one voice is nothing, but a choir can sway a crowd. alone, one person is nothing, but a horde can change the world.

so do something. get up off your ass and go change the fucking world. i know not many of you will read this but by golly am i gonna make those who do remember it. stop going onto whatever social and making one post and calling it good. call legislators, call heads of state, call your friends, your family, your community.

we can’t do this alone, but together, we can do anything.

EDIT: due to the fact that both people who have commented on this have either been assholes about it or completely missed the point i was trying to make with this i will be blocking with extreme prejudice anyone who breathes even a word of negativity about this.

[humanrightsupdates]

It Is Our Moral Calling to Stand With Wrongly Imprisoned Russian Playwright and Director

Today, May 4, marks one year since Russian theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were arrested. The two women, thrown behind bars on bogus charges of publically “justifying terrorism” and spreading its propaganda over an award-winning play they staged together, are facing up to seven years in prison. Though the case against them was moved to trial in April, the first hearing has been pushed back to October at the earliest.

Earlier this spring, Berkovich and Petriychuk were put on the government’s list of “terrorists and extremists,” blocking them from drawing any funds from their bank accounts, except 10,000 rubles – just over $90 – per month for basic necessities. Russian law allows this measure to be used against anyone convicted or merely suspected of terrorism or extremism-related crimes.

Many journalists and commentators suggest that the absurd case against her and Petriychuk is in retaliation for Berkovich’s bold and compelling condemnation of the war in a series of poems she wrote shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. After all, Berkovich first directed a public reading of the play in 2019. It even won the prestigious Golden Mask prize in 2022, just a few months into the invasion. But it would take another year for law enforcement to raise any issues about the play. During that time, Berkovich’s defiant poems grew in number and visibility.

The health of Berkovich’s two children has reportedly deteriorated in the course of their forced separation from her. Berkovich’s 89-year-old grandmother, the prominent writer and rights activist Nina Karteli, died seven months after her arrest.

The play, Finist the Bright Falcon, which the authorities accused of propagating and justifying terrorism, is focused on Russian women being lured into ISIS and other militant Islamist organizations by online recruiters offering to marry them. The author and director were attempting to understand and explain the reasons many women across Russia are vulnerable to ISIS recruiters.