Quote of the day

"Racism is a weapon of mass destruction"

Faithless

Stand up for your rights!

I have a friend who is gay and lives in Poland. You might know why that can't always be easy. A couple of days ago he sent me (and our other friends) an email about a new campaign his NGO has launched against homophobia. The campaign is supposed to make people 'put themselves in others' shoes' so to speak, to make them realise how much intolerant hate due to sexual orientation hurts.

I wanted to salute this friend. For his courage and stubbornness. When they couldn't find someone to model for the poster - they didn't want a model but someone who had experienced homophobia in their own lives - he ended up being the front man. With his picture on 150 posters across Warsaw. My favourite G, thinking he might as well 'walk the walk' and come out to everyone who don't know already.

G, if you see this please know that I am full of admiration for you! Not just your courage - anyone can imagine how hard it must be to make this decision - but for the way you are in the world. The way you thought about your life in relation to the campaign, as you wrote about in the email. The way you decided to f*** it and take on the challenge. That is truly inspiring. Truly liberating. Truly fascinating. Like Margaret Mead said "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" - and G, you're the perfect example!

P.S. I will be posting the poster as soon as it's out in Poland - for now the NGO is still in the process of launching it.

A note from a friend

Beware the sling + arrows of outrageous fortune
They find in man a range of being
From the stoic altitude of quiet fortitude
to the siren song of the muse set forth

Who's to shout of life's joys + cruelties
who of the mortal world of thought
To write or not to write; that is the question
To answer involves a leap of faith

Who is brave enough to place soul on paper
To render bare what all must hide
Humanity revealed, in black + white, on paper
Testament to mans quest for self

So wherewithal this writing business
this note in life's impartial eye
Feed me now what food can't nourish
Those stirrings of my mentor's minds

I place these words for your perusal
in answer to your honest self
I wish you every 'fate's' indulgence
So you may gain your 'chosen' life

Beware! indulgence is an utter folly
what bounds, know not human conceit
I bid you check your sense perspective
Ensure it's point is you, your life!

For as you know perspective is everything
From where we look determines life
A book is surely one of man's great wonders
A chance to 'see' through another's eyes

- Draighnean, my friend, where does your heart find its pleasures now?

Dream

She appeared in a dream, this afternoon, after many many months, years of absence. Even so in the dream, I knew she'd been away for a long time.
With her usual expression - strong, confident, fulfilled - she stepped in from my hallway, on my birthday. Someone was playing a simple tune on a guitar and she sang "You're not alone, so don't you dare..." with a clear and cogent voice, carried by some life of earlier times. Like her mother always told us, draw strength and vitality from what went before.
And she embraced me while she sang, came towards me and held me in her arms, my head on her shoulder og tears streaming down my face into her hair. I felt joy and happiness, there were more people and someone had arranged this - for me.
I awake, crying, my throat contracted into a painful knot. I hold onto the image from the dream, I think of her, miss her beyond any feeling I can verbalise, and I think of all the people that I knew with her.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. She told me once when I never even imagined such a thing, such undivided hope in the future. I feel like she needs to know now. I don't know why. She was calling me in the dream - but where is she now?

(you know who you are)

so many thoughts, not organised
i am not organised
i like my couch and the ache it brings to my neck when i sit there too long
like today

for all the poetry in the world
i wish i could give you words of relief
of strength and remembrance
of yourself
for all the love i have for you
there are still no words to transport myself to you
to your pain and devastation
to your mild kindness and frictions in mind
to your love

i know you do well without me (there)
you must think of me but not as i think of you
how can you? you are not thinking of you
i only ever wanted to be a good friend
to you and everyone else that crossed my path
i only ever wanted for my love to be received, to be treasured
but i have insulated it, given it only to few and hardly any that understood
i have absoluted it and absolved myself for its failings
it is me

i know you receive me the way that i am
but i still feel at a loss, i am not there to help you
i wish i could carry some of your burden for you
i wish i could carry your heart in my hands, just for a couple of hours
so you could get some rest