Never Read Out Loud

raj808 (71) in hive-170798 • 5 years ago (edited)

View this post on Hive: Never Read Out Loud

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5 years ago by raj808 (71)

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Shared on twitter... in the hopes that people will remember, and learn from humankind's past atrocities.

#posh sharing steem with the wider world

https://twitter.com/rowanj808/status/1233771901148975106?s=20

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chireerocks (72) · 5 years ago

@raj808, Slavery is very Dark Spot on Humanity and this Spot haunted many and still haunting many in this World. Thank you so much for sharing this indepth piece. Stay blessed.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Slavery is very Dark Spot on Humanity

Absolutely, I agree. To learn is to understand, to remember is to never repeat such things again... at least I hope so.

Thanks for reading chireerocks

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chireerocks (72) · 5 years ago

Absolutely true. We have to learn from the past experience otherwise there is no meaning of the Process Of Evolution. Stay blessed.

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shanibeer (68) · 5 years ago

I agree. The Turner Contemporary in Margate has an excellent exhibition We will Walk about Art and Resistance in the American South. People used a variety of ways to protest including the most famous, the walks, but also things like yard art and quilt making. The exhibition has a time line which sets out the laws that were passed to uphold slavery including that slaves were forbidden to learn to read, and acts of resistance from the first uprising in Haiti in the 1500s and Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley published in 1773, the first book by an African American to be published and only the second by a woman.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Thanks for sharing that link, I've just been taking a look and I'd love to visit that exhibition but being an impoverished writer from up north I'm not able to get down south at the moment.

But even just reading their website gives me an impression of the amazing exhibits.

That opening image

NewProject20191211T151554.793.jpg

Is so striking. Thanks again for sharing that, and for checking out my poem shani :)

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steemitboard (66) · 5 years ago

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owasco (67) · 5 years ago

Excellent. I feel his rage, his regret, his intelligence, the trob of extreme pain. I can smell the damp straw. I know the wrong, the great wrong. His very name, since he could read it, is an affront. Very powerful poem.

I am wondering about this bit

Letters that force
this hot and heavy heartbeat,
made these rotting circles of meat
that meet above my nose.

Is he angry at his eyes for reading? I can't bear thinking that his eyes were gouged out.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago (edited)

I feel his rage, his regret, his intelligence, the trob of extreme pain. I can smell the damp straw.

This is great, as I felt those visceral feelings that day in the cell imagining Ham's life as I wrote these words. As a poet, it made me happy to know that this comes across strongly.

It's a hard subject, especially when trying a persona poem like this.

Is he angry at his eyes for reading? I can't bear thinking that his eyes were gouged out.

But I'm afraid it is the later... his eyes were gouged out. That's why he is blaming the letters for the rotting circles of meat.

I've never been one to shy away from the hard truths in my poetry, especially when I was younger, and it's something that was done on occasion.

This is one of those poems that I hoped that would make the reader feel angry, sad and even the hopelessness that Ham felt.

I feel that it is important to remember these types of things, to revisit them and understand them so that the lessons of history are truly learned.

Thanks for reading owasco, this poem was 10 years in the making as I changed a lot today in the the edit from the original written in 2006.

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owasco (67) · 5 years ago

That is very interesting! do you think you changed any of your meanings, or did you make them clearer? Were they just proofreading changes? Vocab choices?
So this is gruesome this poem. It's dirty and disgusting and leaves me in his rage, and I get regret, not sadness, not yet, there's still too much pride for sadness. Is the rewrite more gruesome, or less?

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

The rewrite is no less gruesome, it is just clearer in the way it is arranged and some vocab changes. Also, I did change some of the imagery a little but it was a good 1st draft in how visceral it was before the proofread.

I'm older, and I hope, a better editor of my own work than I was at the age of 27 when this was originally written. I can't remember exactly what I changed in the re-write now. Lol,and it was only ten days ago, but I do remember that when I read it with my internal dialogue switched off, like someone who had never read it before or knew what it alluded to, there were parts that weren't quite clear.

So I focused on tightening them up :)

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carolkean (66) · 5 years ago

gaaaaaaahhhh!!!! They gouged out his eyes!!!!!!!!!
I cannot unsee this now
Ah, Raj, never one to shy away from horror, however graphic and intense. I applaud you, honest, I do, but I cover my eyes when I read these things! ;)

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

It is visceral in its uncompromising telling of this tale of history. They did this to people, just for learning how to read!

The depths of depravity of the worst of the human soul never ceases to astound and sicken me.

But, without the dark there is no light I guess.

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carolkean (66) · 5 years ago

I could do with less of the darkness. Historical fiction (and military!) have been too horrible for me to read until very recently--forcing myself through scenes like this eye-gouging (and witch burnings). It's one thing to know such things happened. It's another to read lurid details. Do I hafta? Part of me dies when I confront the horrific truth of what people have done to each other, and continue to do even in this enlightened age of science and reason.
Fiction conveys the horror if it better than textbook summaries can.

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creativecrypto (79) · 5 years ago

Hello @raj808, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

always great to see you @creativecrypto

I miss the days when @sndbox was around. Steem is truly less without such a great project. Hope things are going well with the magazine :)

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