can I ask today for a spoonful of revolution —
not a feel-good post on X
not a copied Instagram story
not an emoji on a Facebook share:
beyond the privilege of watching war on a screen
able to turn it off at will
beyond the comfort of age, knowing carbon
is not your existential threat
beyond the indifference because
“they” are the “other”, not you:
let us settle for one little truth
about the world around us:
who is doing it
why are they doing it
for whom
and you don’t have to speak truth to power
oh no, that would be a whole bloody insurgency,
just whisper truth to the weakness inside you
am I doing it
why am I doing it
for whom
or add it to the bottom of this poem
truth after truth after line-broken
truth
so the poem can grow and grow and
grow
and wrap around the whole fucking earth
and somehow, just somehow,
guilt and shame and apathy included,
weakness and power and
us and they included,
somehow,
we can all
get through one more godforsaken winter…
THOUGHT PURGE 
If we all have a spoonful of revolution, if we all speak just one small truth, perhaps it WILL change something….and spread…and spread and help us get through these difficult days of winter ahead!
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Thank you, I hope so too… really do.
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Powerful. Eloquent. Bleak. Fiery. I love your first line especially:
“can I ask today for a spoonful of revolution —”
I’ll have what you’re having too, Rajani.
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Thank you, Sunra. Comes from a place of helplessness, watching the horror, day after day.
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Your last few lines spoke truth to me!
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Thank you, Yvonne.
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“can I ask today for a spoonful of revolution ”
If only it came in a bottle. Let’s grow the poem instead and wrap it around us for comfort and a way to let the anger out. Let’s grow it and wrap the corporate monsters to put them in their places, and maybe stifle them. I’m feeling the anger in this poem more than a sense of defeat. I’m feeling the hope in inviting people into your poem. This is the staring place: “you don’t have to speak truth to power
oh no, that would be a whole bloody insurgency,
just whisper truth to the weakness inside you . . . .” And then whisper to one more.
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And the warmongers. Whisper about climate and war, both. Thanks, Susan.
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Modernity’s future hurl has so buried its past learning that all we do is lift and burn … I think of digital culture as the spell of Niniane which entombs our Merlin in sedate echo chambers of Me, Me, Me. At exactly the time we must be most awake. Well done and writ, friend.
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Thanks so much, Brendan. I don’t know sometimes if I am upset more over what is happening in the world or the apathy/ignorance of people over what is happening. Me, me, me… is where we are and perhaps, that’s how the world will end. Yeah, there will be more upset poetry, that’s for sure 😦
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I heard an some climate advocate say recently that humanity does a good job with temporary immediate threats — the pandemic or some other disaster — but is absolutely terrible when it comes to dealing with chronically worsening problems, behaving like frogs in a pot that is simmering toward a boil.
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Interesting. I’d say climate has moved to the immediate threat category…waiting to see what numbers COP28 comes up with. As for the war, it is very deliberate, yet the world seems to be sitting and watching… it really is all coming apart.
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I really think this is timely… we need a little more thought than what can go in simple click or a like… so we need to add at the bottom of the text.
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Thanks Bjorn… yes, I agree, the one thing we can do, even from a distance, is to be informed and learn facts, even if those facts sit outside our comfort zones.
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Your poem is so of our time, Rajani, particularly the references to social media. We need ‘a spoonful of revolution in real life, to ‘settle for one little truth about the world around us’. I love the idea of your poem growing and wrapping ‘around the whole fucking earth’.
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Thank you, Kim. A lot of frustration from the apathy/ misinformation about what’s going on. And in the end, it all seems so disconnected from the reality on the ground and people’s lives. Sigh.
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This poem reminds me of Allen Ginsberg’s America. Yours may be smaller in size but not less impactful. This human race is such a hollow sham! “beyond the privilege of watching war on a screen / able to turn it off at will” best describes it.
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Thanks, Sumana. Hollow sham is right… and the way politics makes ithe world so unequal- it is just terrible to see over and over again.
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I love the strong wording in this poem, Rajani. The subject deserves strong wording. May the truths multiply….
“truth after truth after line-broken
truth
so the poem can grow and grow and
grow….”
Let’s spread the word somehow / somewhere / anywhere. I think this is going to be one LONG winter. How I appreciate your writing!
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Thanks so much, Mary. I think so many feel that helplessness, watching war and the climate crisis from a relatively safe distance and seeing how horrors can be stopped but aren’t. This is poem that came from frustration, possibly.
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Just whisper truth to the weakness inside me. I’m working on this.
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I think hope is the sum of all those whispers… thank you, TioStib.
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Oh, how I hear you, Rajani – the frustration, the discouragement, the despair that we need something so different from what is happening, and the seeming impossibility of that – and the inner whisper, as we contribute our teaspoonful of carbon along with the tonnes from the corporate criminals. Sigh. Your poem tells it like it is.
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Thank you, Sherry… it is with climate and more so with the war and with the twisted narratives around everything. We absolutely need something different from what is happening. More justice and more humanity about everything, for starters. But yes, helplessness is the pervasive feeling.
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Plus the three worst climate offenders – the US, China and Russia – will not be at the Climate Summit. That says it all. In Canada, an entire province is refusing to comply with the carbon tax and calls reducing emissions “unrealistic”. GAH! How to stay sane is the question.
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The absolute craziness of watching those offending climate and peace, waging war on people and planet… it all has to stop and we need to move forward to save both humanity and earth. Not sure how though. I am not very optimistic on either… 😦
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the plaintive keening of earth, make it audible, joining the chorus.
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Thanks so much… we need a very, very big and loud chorus, don’t we!!!!
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We do! Loud enough to drown out the corporates.
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Yes .. and the war machines. 🙏
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