WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Selected Poems of Voltairine de Cleyre 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:11.320 Cool Zone Media bork Clorb bloork Clorb, bloork Clorb. Hello 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.240 and welcome to Cool Zone Media bork Clorb, the only 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.480 bork cloor board. You don't have to do the reading 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:21.000 because I do it for you. Wait, No book club, 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:23.159 the only book club where you don't have to do 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.960 the reading because I do it for you. I'm your host, 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:30.000 Margaret Kiljoy, and today I'm going to read some poetry. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.320 I'm going to read some poetry to you. I'm not sorry, 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.800 because April is National Poetry Month, and so we figured 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.920 we'd read you some poetry from a prominent anarchist, feminist, writer, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.800 and public speaker, Voltering Declaire. Voltering Declaire, if you haven't 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.080 heard of her, she's like nineteenth century right. She was 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.560 radicalized to anarchism by the Haymarket Affair of eighteen eighty 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.160 six in Chicago. See the very first episode of the 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.960 podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff about that story? 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:02.120 And why you have an eight hour work day? I 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:03.880 don't know anyone who has an eight hour work day? 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.200 Why we ostensibly have an eight hour work day? She 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.600 was a lifelong advocate for free thought, women's liberation, atheism, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.680 and anti theism and anarchy and spoke fiercely against authoritarianism 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.160 and state repression. She was a friend of Emma Goldman, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.520 Alexander Berkman, Lucy Parsons, the IWW, some of the people 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.080 I talk about all the time on my podcast, and 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:33.360 also the broader Philadelphia and Chicago anarchist scenes. Her politics 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.319 were influenced by her lived experience with extreme poverty and 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.039 gender based violence, as well as chronic illness and disability. 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.840 She passed away in nineteen twelve at the age of 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.560 forty five after a long and painful period of decline. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.960 She was buried in Waldheim Cemetery now called the Forest 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:54.360 Home Cemetery in Chicago, which is kind of the pilgrimage 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.600 place of choice for American anarchists, right next to the 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:03.480 Haymarket Martyrs whose executions changed her life. And remember that 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.520 name Waldheim because it will come up in her poems. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:09.400 After her death, she was remembered by her friend Emma 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:13.440 Goldman as the quote most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.800 America ever produced. Maxnet Law honors are more simply as 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.480 quote the pearl of anarchy. She was asked why she 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.840 considered herself an anarchist and she responded because I cannot 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.320 help it. And today we're going to read some of 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.040 her poetry. She wrote prolifically her whole life and published 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.160 in all the radical journals of the time. Newspapers were 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.960 just a huge thing. Just every radical had their newspaper 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.720 and they had huge distributions. You're talking tens hundreds of 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.680 thousands of copies of things going around. So this is 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.040 a bigger deal than it might sound when we think 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.400 about like the newspapers of this or that radical clique 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.520 right now, we aren't thinking in the same scale. Usually 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.839 published in Lucifer the Light Bearer, The Rebel, Free Society, 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.720 and Mother Earth, and will read her poems about revolution, martyrdom, grief, 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.280 the systemic violence of racial capitalism, the Mexican Revolution, a 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.560 lilting lyric poem that could probably best be described as 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.280 an inside joke between friends, and one that I can 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.400 only describe as heretic pride or maybe staging a revolution 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.400 against God and Heaven. These poems come from a volume 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.240 of her work edited by her longtime comrade and literary 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.360 friend Sasha Berkman, who I haven't covered on the show yet. Besides, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.360 he shot a robber baron who was killing a bunch 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.240 of workers. He tried to break out of prison. He 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:46.480 was bisexual, king Yeah, Sasha Berkman's Cool. These were collected 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.640 into a volume of her work edited by Sasha Berkman 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:52.960 in tribute to her memory after her passing. So the 0:03:53.000 --> 0:04:00.480 poetry of altering declare the hurricane. We are birds of 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:06.320 the coming storm. August spies. The tide is out, The 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:10.040 wind blows off the shore, bare burn the white sands 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.560 in the scorching sun. The sea complains, but its great 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.320 voice is low, bitter, thy woes, O people, And the 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:24.599 burden hardly to be borne, wearily grows, O people, all 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.640 the aching of thy pierced heart, bruised and torn. But 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.400 yet thy time is not and low, thy moaning desert 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.800 thy sands. Not yet is thy breath hot, vengefully blowing. 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:42.919 It wafts o'er lifted hands. The tide has turned, the 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:47.560 vein veer slowly round. Slow clouds are sweeping o'er the 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:52.880 blinding light, white crests curl on the sea. Its voice 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:58.200 grows deep, angry, thy heart, O people, and it's bleeding fire, 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.520 tipped with rising hate. Thy clasped hands part O people, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.800 for thy praying warmed not the desolation. God did not 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.159 hear thy moan. Now it is swelling to a great 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.000 drowning cry, a dark wind cloud, a groan now backward, 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.320 veering from that death sky. The tide flows in, the 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.479 wind roars from the depths the world white sand heaps 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.559 with the foam, white waves, thundering, the sea rolls o'er 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.240 the shell crunched wall. Strong is thy rage o people 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.160 in its fury, hurling thy tyrants down. Thou meetest wage 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:41.760 o people, very swiftly. Now that thy hate is grown. 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.960 Thy time at last is come thou heapest anguish, where 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.599 thou thyself wert bear no longer to thy dumb God. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:57.080 Clasped and kneeling, Thou answered thine own prayer. See Isle Sitty, 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:05.800 New Jersey, August eighteen eighty nine. All right, next poem optimism. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.479 There's a love supreme in the great hereafter the buds 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.640 of earth are bloom in heaven. The smiles of the 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.720 world are ripples of laughter when back to its aiden, 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.080 the soul is given, and the tears of the world, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.400 though long and flowing water the fields of the bye 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.320 and bye, they fall as dews on the sweet grass. Growing, 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.680 When fountains of sorrow and grief r undry, though clouds 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.040 hang over the furrows now sowing, there's a harvest sun 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.600 wreath in the after sky. No love is wasted, no 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.880 heart beats vainly. There's a vast perfection beyond the grave, 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.920 up the bays of heaven. The stars shine plainly, the 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.960 stars lying dim on the brow of the wave. And 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.960 the lights of our loves, though they flicker and wane, 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.000 they shall shine all undimmed in the ether nave, For 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.480 the altars of gods are lit with souls, fan of 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:06.320 flaming with love, where the star wind rolls Saint John's 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:12.120 Michigan eighteen eighty nine. But do you know what isn't 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:17.080 a poem but has its own certain poetry? That's right? 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.680 Maybe advertisement is the poetry of our time in that 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:26.040 most people don't want to listen to it. No, it's 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.560 not poetry at all. It adds. It's just a thing 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:43.200 that happens. I don't know. Here's the ads, and we're back. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.600 This poem is called at the Grave in Waldheim, which 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:51.520 is yeah, where she is later buried next to some 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:56.800 of her heroes, the Haymarket Martyrs. Quiet they lie in 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.680 their shrouds of rest, their lids kissed clothes, the lips 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.280 of peace over each pulseless and painless breast. The hands 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.640 lie folded and softly pressed as a dead dove presses 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.200 a broken nest. Ah, broken hearts were the price of these. 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.080 The lips of their anguish are cold and still. For 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.480 them are the clouds and the gloom all past. No 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.160 longer the woe of the world can thrill the cords 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.840 of those tender hearts, or fill the silent dead house. 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:32.480 The people's will has mapped asunder the strings. At last, 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:37.160 the people's will. Ah. In years to come, Dearly you'll 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.720 weep that ye did not save. Do ye not hear 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.439 now the muffled drum, the tramping feet, and the ceaseless 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.800 hum of the million marchers, trembling dumb in their tread 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:53.840 to a yawning giant grave. And yet, ah, yet there's 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.320 a rift of white tis breaking over the martyr shrine. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:02.000 Halt there, ye, doomed. One bathes the night as lightning 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.160 darts from its scabbard, bright and sweeps the face of 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:09.080 sky with light. No more shall be spilled out the 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.600 blood red wine. These are the words it has written 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.320 there keen as the lance of the northern morn. The 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.840 sword of Justice gleams in its glare, and the arm 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.040 of Justice, upraised and bare, is true to strike, Aye, 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.440 tis strong to dare it will fall where the curse 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.760 of our land is born. No more shall the necks 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:35.040 of nations be crushed, no more to dark tyrannies throne 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.760 bend the knee. No more an abjection be ground to 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:43.640 the dust by their widows, their orphans, our dead comrades, 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:48.920 Trust by the brave heartbeat stilled by the brave voices hushed, 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:55.960 We swear that humanity yet shall be free Pittsburgh, eighteen 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:02.160 eighty nine. Its next poem is called Light upon Waldeim, 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.640 and the figure on the monument over the grave of 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.920 the Chicago Martyrs in the Waldheim Cemetery is a warrior 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.320 woman dropping with her left hand a crown upon the 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.240 forehead of a fallen man, just past his agony, and 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.800 her right hand is drawing a dagger from her bosom. 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:25.439 This is worth knowing Light upon Waldheim, And the earth 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.760 is gray, a bitter wind is driving from the north, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.560 The stone is cold. The strange cold whispers say what 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.400 do ye hear? With death. Go forth, go forth is 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.120 this thy word, O mother, with stern eyes crowning thy 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.920 dead with stone caressing touch. May we not weep o'er 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.400 him that martyred lies slain in our name, for that 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.640 he loved us much? May we not linger till the 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.800 day is broad. Nay, none are stirring in the stinging dawn, 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.960 None but poor wretches that make no moan to God? 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.200 What use are these? O vow? With dagger drawn, go forth, 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:09.280 go forth, stand not to weep. For these till weakened 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.079 with your weeping Like the snow, ye melt dissolving in 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:21.000 a coward piece. Light upon Waldheim, brother, Let us go, London, 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.600 October eighteen ninety seven. Can The next poem is called 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:32.440 The road Builders, opens with a little parenthetical aside, who 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.720 built the beautiful roads? Queried a friend of the present order. 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.880 As we walked one day along the macmadized driveway of 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:44.280 Fairmount Park, I saw them toiling in the blistering sun, 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.680 their dull, dark faces leaning toward the stone, their knotted 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:53.680 fingers grasping the rude toombs, their rounded shoulders narrowing in 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:58.080 their chest, the sweat drops dripping in great painful beads. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.880 I saw one fall his forehead on the rock, the 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:05.559 helpless hand still clutching at the spade, the slack mouth 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.800 full of earth, and he was dead. His comrades gently 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.680 turned his face until the fierce sun glittered hard upon 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.320 his eyes wide open, staring at the cruel sky. The 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.000 blood yet ran upon the jagged stone, but it was ended. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.320 He was quite quite dead, driven to death beneath the 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.800 burning sun, driven to death upon the road he built. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.680 He was no hero. He a poor black man, taking 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.319 the will of God and asking nought. Think of him. Thus, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.960 when next your horses feet strike out the flint spark 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.760 from the gleaming road, think that for this, this common thing, 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:50.040 the road, a human creature died. Tis a blood gift 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.199 to an o'er reaching world that does not think ignorant, 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:58.840 mean and soulless. Was he well still human? And you 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.600 drive upon his co Worps, Philadelphia, July twenty fourth, nineteen hundred. 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.680 The next poem is called marsh Bloom, and it's dedicated 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.560 to Gaetano Breshi. Gaetana Brushy. I don't have my notes 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:15.679 in front of me, but he was this Italian immigrant 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.120 who lived in Patterson New Jersey worked as a shoemaker, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:25.520 and one day when the Italian King Mberto two, I think, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.360 gave an award to a man who had gonned down 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.000 hundreds and hundreds of workers who had peacefully demonstrated for bread. 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:35.360 You know, they had been like, hey, we're hungry, and 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.760 the government had killed them all. Gaetano Breshi was like, 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.160 you know, I can't really just sit around and make 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.079 shoes in New Jersey. So he bought a gun in 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.800 a one way ticket to Italy and he killed King 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:53.360 Emberto two and his comrades then raised his kid. That's 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:59.839 Gaetana Brushy. This poem is called marsh Bloom Requiem, Requiem 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:05.920 blood red blossom of poisoned stem broken for man, swamp 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:11.280 sunk leafage and dungeon bloom seated bearer of royal doom? 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.320 What now is the ban? What to thee is the 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:18.679 island grave? With desert wind and desolate wave? Will they 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:23.120 silence death? Can they weight thee now with the heaviest stone? 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.480 Can they lay aught on thee with thee alone? Thou 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:32.240 hast conquered breath? Lo it is finished a man for 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.480 a king mark you well, who have done this thing? 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.680 The flower has roots bitter and rank grow the things 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.280 of the sea. Ye shall know what sap ran thick 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:49.280 in the tree when ye pluck its fruits. Requiem, Requiem, Requiem, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.000 sleep On, sleep on, ac cursed of them who work 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:57.200 our pain, A wild marsh blossom shall blow again from 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.240 a buried root in the slime of men. On the 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:07.680 day of the Great Red Rain, Philadelphia, July nineteen oh one. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:15.720 That line, on the day of the Great Red Rain. Yeah, anyway, 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.960 but do you know what won't sweep away the existing 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:24.200 order in a wash of blood? Our advertisers, they are 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:38.920 the existing order, and we're back. Okay. This next poem 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:45.440 is called Love's Compensation. I went before God and he said, 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.400 what fruit of the life I gave? Father? I said, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.800 it is dead, and nothing grows on the grave, where 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.160 ofth was the Lord and stern has how not to 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:01.720 answer me? Shall the fruitless root not burn and be wasted? On? Early? Father? 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.080 I said, forgive, for thou knowest what I have done 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:09.239 that another's life may live. Mine turned to a barren stone. 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.600 But the Father of life sent fire and burned the 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.400 root in the grave. And the pain in my heart 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.200 is dire for the thing that I could not save 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:20.960 for the thing. It was laid on me by the 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.520 Lord of life, to bring fruit of the ungrown tree 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.680 that died for no watering. Another has gone to God, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.920 and his fruit has pleased him well, for he sitteth 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.840 high while I plod the dry ways down towards hell. 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.000 Though thou knowest, thou knowest, Lord, whose tears made that 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.080 fruit's root wet. Yet thou drivest me forth with a sword, 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.840 and thy guards by the gate are set. Thou wilt 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.720 give me up to the fire, and none shall deliver me. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.760 For I followed my heart's desire, and I labored not 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.960 for thee I labored for him. Thou hast set on 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.680 thy right hand, high and fair. Thou lovest him, Lord, 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.359 And yet twas my love won him there. But this 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.320 is the thing that thou hast been, hath been since 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.359 the world began, that love against self must sin, and 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.280 a woman must die for a man. And this is 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.080 the thing that shall be, shall be till the whole 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.560 world die. Kiss met. My doom is upon me? Why murmur? 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:30.760 Since I am I Philadelphia, August eighteen ninety eight. This 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.800 next poem is called a novel of color, And this 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:35.639 is the one that's probably inside joke, but it's just 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.560 kind of neat, and it opens with the parenthetical aside. 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.480 The following is a true and particular account of what 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.440 happened on the night of December eleventh, eighteen ninety five, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.200 but it is likely to be unintelligible to all save 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.840 the chipmunks and the elephant, who, however, will no doubt 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:57.400 recognize themselves. Chapter one. Chipmunks three sat on a tree, 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.720 and they were as green as green could be. They 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.520 cracked nuts early, they cracked nuts late, and chirruped and chirrupped, 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.720 and ate and ate. Tis a pity of chipmunks without 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.639 nuts and a gnawing hunger in their guts. But they 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.280 should be wise like you and me, and color themselves 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:17.240 to suit the tree. Achi Achi Achi Achi gay chaps? 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.480 Are we we chipmunks three? An elephant, white and sorry, plight, 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.160 hungry and dirty and sad. But night straggled one day 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.640 on the nutting ground, lo chattered the chipmunks Our chances found. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.439 Behold the beast's color were he as we? Green and 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.680 sleek and nut full were he. But the beast is big, 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.560 and the beast is white, and his skin full of emptiness, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.320 serves him right, achi achi achi achi, Let us sit 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:50.040 on him, sit on him. Chipmunks three, Chapter two. Three 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.359 chipmunks green right gay were seen to leap on the 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.840 beast his brows between. They munched at his ears and 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.920 chiffeted his chin, and satin sat and satin on him. 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.880 Not a single available spot of hide where a well 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.280 sleeked chipmunk could sit with pride, but was chipped and 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.960 chipped and chip chipmunked till aught. But an elephant must 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:16.040 have flunked. Achi Achi achi achi, What a ride we're having? 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:28.040 We chipmunks three, Chapter three burn chapter four? What was it? Blue? 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.000 A wu a woo? Three green chipmunks have all turned blue. 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.960 The elephant smiles a peaceful smile and lifts off a 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.520 tree trunk sends haste or guile. Seize him, seize him. 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:44.240 He's stealing our tree. We are undone. Undone, shrieked the chipmunks. Three. 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.199 The elephant calmly upraised his trunk and said, did I 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.639 hear a green chipmunk? Achi a chi a chi a 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:59.240 chu chippy? You're blue? So are you? So are you? Philadelphia, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:05.159 December eighth, teen ninety five. And this next poem I 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.360 actually I think first heard about because the person who 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:11.760 did our theme music for cool people who did cool 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:17.560 stuff is a amazing songwriter and cellist named Unwoman, and 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.800 she at one point set this poem to music. And 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.680 this poem is called written in red. It's gonna be 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.199 really interesting to not try and read it in the 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.479 same cadence as the song. This is dedicated to our 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.840 living dead in Mexico's struggle. This was about the Mexican Revolution. 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.840 Written and read. Their protest stands for the gods of 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.399 the world to see. On the dooming wall. Their bodyless 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.320 hands have blazondo farsan and flaring brands I loom. The 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.960 message sees the lands, open the prisons and make men free. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:57.000 Flame out the living words of the dead, written in red. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.800 Gods of the world, their mouths are your guns have spoken, 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.080 and they are dust. But the shrouded living, whose hearts 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.160 were numb, have felt the beat of awakening drum within them, 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.480 sounding the dead man's tongue calling smite off. The ancient 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.119 rust have beheld, resurrects it the word of the dead 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:24.359 written and read, bear it aloft a roaring flame skyward 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.840 aloft where all may see slaves of the world are 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.560 caused the same. One is the immemorial shame, one is 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.520 the struggle, and in one name manhood, we battle to 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.960 set men free. Uncurse us the land Burn the Words 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:45.840 of the Dead written and read. I think this was 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:50.000 vulturing into Claire's last poem. Then she wrote, Uncurse us 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.359 the land Burn the Words of the Dead. Yeah, I 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.560 don't know. I don't have them blot specifically to say 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:57.920 about the poetry. Besides, I like that she has a 0:21:57.960 --> 0:21:59.959 lot of different stuff. I actually really like the Chipmunk 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.200 poem might be my favorite poem of it. I don't 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.680 know the fuck it's about, but it's really fun to read, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.760 and I would read a kid's book of it anyway. 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:12.959 Vaguely speaking of Haymarket and may Day, which I was 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:14.879 a while ago, because some of these poems are about that. 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.800 We have some exciting stuff happening on book club for you. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:21.399 We're going to do an experiment, because this is always 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.080 the book club where we do the reading for you, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.800 but we're going to try a thing where we listen 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:29.080 to what you have to say about some stuff. We 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.000 have some reading that I'm not going to do for 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:33.439 you ahead of time that you have to go and 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:37.719 read yourself these stories. I believe in you. I trust you. 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.240 I believe in your capacity to read two short stories 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.440 so that when we talk about it in early May, 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:50.240 we'll be able to include your words. I want you 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:53.280 to read the stories. They're both by Ursula k Legwin. 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.480 One is very very short. It's called the Ones who 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.600 Walked Away from om A Loss ome E La s 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.440 and the other story is called The Day Before the Revolution, 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:09.520 both by Ursula kay Legwin. You can find them both online. 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.400 I believe in you, and then we're going to talk 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:15.320 about them. I'm going to talk with some other people 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:20.360 about these stories, but we're also going to include your words. 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:22.359 And I think the way that we're going to do this, 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:24.440 I will update you if this is not the way 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:26.280 we're doing it is that I'm going to make a 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.480 post on the it could Happen here Reddit. I never 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.159 use Reddit, That's not true. I lurk on Reddit, not 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:34.639 the podcast reddits. I can't bring myself to do that, 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:37.760 but I do like Reddit. But I'm going to post 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:40.639 on that it could happen here Reddit and people can 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.440 add their comments about those stories there and we'll kind 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:46.720 of curate them and include them in our discussion. We'll 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.680 make it a good and proper book club with your help. 0:23:51.280 --> 0:23:55.800 I believe in you anyway. I'm Margaret Kiljoy. You can 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:59.440 find me on the Internet at Margaret kildoy and on 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.320 Blue Sky and Instagram in particular, as well as my 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.280 substack where I write about things every week. And I'll 0:24:06.280 --> 0:24:08.359 find you on the Internet. I don't know how m 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:10.640 I'll be able to find you, but maybe I am 0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:13.560 paying attention to your web traffic. I'll find you reading 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:16.200 The Ones who Walked Away from Omelas and the Day 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:19.880 Before the Revolution by Ursula k Legwin, for example, on 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:24.000 the Anarchist Library. There's a very large library on the 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:26.880 Internet called the Anarchist Library that has a lot of texts, 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:30.480 and I believe it includes those texts. All right, take 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:34.520 care of each other, Fuck Ice, free Palestine, Up the punks. 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:36.720 I never say up the punks anymore. How Come people 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:38.840 don't say up the punks? I guess because we moved 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:42.879 beyond subculture. But I still believe we shout up the punks. 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:49.919 It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:52.760 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 0:24:52.840 --> 0:24:55.040 cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:58.680 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:01.639 you can find sources. It could happen here, Updated monthly 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:05.320 at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.