regained
dark folds
into fog
into dark folds. She is
back
breathing night with the
sleepless
plucking ferns
by the moon
before
they unfurl
unshoe
the coming horses.
Alessandra Naccarato started a great initiative against Bill 78 in Quebec around poetry. Restricting the right to organize in Canada??!! Where is the Canada we used to be proud of. To go to the poetry website click on related link below. This is one of the two poems that I contributed:
He ordered the trees
and the flowers,
lined up all of the
creatures in
rows, hushed
the forest but
a group of
diaphanous
butterflies began
to emerge. Dozens
then tens of
thousands danced
a red fury,
wings clanging.
| related link
Microfinance has come into the news lately, in part because of this new book and in part, because there are issues with some microfinance programs. Microfinance is often part of the financial sectors that have gotten themselves in a mess. Like them, there is over lending, over leveraging and just plain bad management. I've seen some of these. But I've also seen some powerful examples of what microfinance can do. Check out SEWA Bank on my links, for example. 800,000 women in a trade union with a cooperative, small scale pharmacies, literacy, marketing, producer and service cooperatives. They even offer pension schemes and daily savings collection. Most of these incredibly savvy and resourceful women are illiterate. Much of my work has been with savings groups and cooperatives but I've also seen some very effective microfinance programs. KixiCredito, Angola, also on my links is one of these examples. Polarizations are provocative but in the real world, it's messier and more complex. There is always good, bad and ugly. But don't take my word for it. Ask the women themselves.
Click on the Related Link below for an interview that I did with the Halifax Media Coop on these issues.
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There were only two poems left
One was a word
The other a hand
The hand could not hold the word
The word could not read the hand
But a star chattered to them one night
They considered what they had heard
If you are right, then one of us is not needed
What if both of us are simultaneously true?
Then we don’t need to be two different poems
What if there aren’t really two of us?
Then one of us is dead
What if both of us are dead?
Then there is no need for stars
Published in THIS Magazine, January 2012.
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Some graphic facilitation at the plenary.
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