The poets include Nobel, Pulitzer, continental and national literary prize winners as well as presidents of international poetry festivals, presidents of PEN clubs, and writers associations from 97 countries.
I have highlighed fellow Caribbean poets.
The poets who contributed to the anthology represent world poetry today: Etnairis Ribera, Puerto Rico/ Angelina Llongueras, Catalonia/ Aju Mukhopadhyay, Pondicherry, India/ Ban'ya Natsuishi, Japan/ Julio Pavanetti, Uruguay/Spain/ Gertrude Fester, Rwanda and South Africa / Jack Hirschman, USA / Iztok Osojnik, Slovenia/ Erling Kittelsen, Norway/ Obediah Michael Smith, Bahamas/ Bina Sarkar Ellias, India/ Raúl Henao, Colombia/ Anne Waldman, USA/ Nguyen Quang Thieu, Vietnam/ Timo Berger, Germany/ Elsa Tió, Puerto Rico/ Kamran Mir Hazar, Hazaristan/ Rodrigo Verdugo, Chile/ Mildred Kiconco Barya, Uganda/ Stefaan Van Den Bremt, Flanders, Belgium/ Winston Morales Chavarro, Colombia/ Esteban Valdés Arzate, Mexico/ Akwasi Aidoo, Ghana and USA/ Yolanda Pantin, Venezuela/ Yiorgos Chouliaras, Greece/ James O'hara, Mexico, USA and Ireland/ Raquel Chalfi, Israel/ Jim Byron, USA/ Luisa Vicioso Sánchez, Dominican Republic/ Andrea Garbin, Italy/ Luz Helena Cordero Villamizar, Colombia/ Peter Voelker, Germany/ Zoran Anchevski, Macedonia/ Naotaka Uematsu, Japan/ Paul Disnard, Colombia/ VyacheslavKupriyanov, Russia/ Gabriel Rosenstock, Ireland/ Maruja Vieira, Colombia/ Nyein Way, Myanmar/ Gaston Bellemare, Québec/ Zohra Hamid, South Africa/ Amir Or, Israel/ Ivan Djeparoski, Macedonia/ Attila F. Balázs, Slovakia/ Ioana Trica, Romania/ Michaël Glück, France/ Quito Nicolaas, The Netherlands/ Noria Adel, Algeria/ Francisco Sánchez Jiménez, Colombia/ Werewere Liking, Cameroon and Ivory Coast/ Beppe Costa, Italy/ William Pérez Vega, Puerto Rico/ Fanny Moreno, Colombia/ John Curl, USA/ Kevin Kiely, Ireland/ Azam Abidov, Uzbekistan/ Luis Galar (No Country)/ Santiago B. Villafania, Philippines/ Althea Romeo-Mark, Antigua/ Bengt Berg, Sweden/ Luz Lescure, Panama/ Lola Koundakjian, Armenia/ Zindzi Mandela, South Africa/ Edvino Ugolini, Italy/ Jean-Claude Awono, Cameroon/ Stefania Battistella, Italy/ Eugenia Sánchez Nieto, Colombia/ Alina Beatrice Chesca, Romania/ Simón Zavala Guzmán, Ecuador/ Ostap Nozhak, Ukraine/ Berry Heart, Botswana/ Gilma De Los Ríos, Colombia/ Laura Hernandez Muñoz, México/ Mamang Dai, India/ Erkut Tokman, Turkey/ Álvaro Miranda, Colombia/ Claus Ankersen, Denmark/ Mark Lipman, USA/ John Hegley, England/ Micere Githae Mugo, Kenya/ Germain Droogenbroodt, Belgium and Spain/ Fiyinfoluwa Onarinde, Nigeria/ Ataol Behramoğlu, Turkey/ Khal Torabully, Mauritius and France/ Jorge Boccanera, Argentina/ Kamanda Kama Sywor, Congo/ Bineesh Puthuppanam, India/ Iris Miranda, Puerto Rico/ Pamela Ateka, Kenya/ Fahredin Shehu, Kosovo/ Tamer Öncul, Cyprus/ Tânia Tomé, Mozambique/ Howard A. Fergus, Montserrat, West Indies/ Janak Sapkota, Nepal/ Károly Fellinger, Hungary/ Alfred Tembo, Zambia/ Emilce Strucchi, Argentina/ Juan Diego Tamayo, Colombia/ Manuel Silva Acevedo, Chile/ Elias Letelier, Chile/ Mohammed Bennis, Morocco / Károly Sándor Pallai, Hungary/ Edgardo Nieves-Mieles, Puerto Rico/ Fatoumata Ba, Mali/ Vupenyu Otis Zvoushe, Zimbabwe/ Santosh Alex, India/ Silvana Berki, Albania and Finland/ Hussein Habasch, Kurdistan, Syria/ Lucy Cristina Chau, Panamá/ Jessie Kleemann, Greenland/ Siki Dlanga, South Africa/ Irena Matijašević, Croatia/ Boel Schenlaer, Sweden/ Merlie M. Alunan, Philippines/ Ernesto P. Santiago, Philippines/ Rassool Snyman, South Africa/ Mary Smith, Scotland/ K. Satchidanandan, India/ Sukrita Paul Kumar, India/ Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Iceland/ Zelma White, Montserrat, BWI/ Navkirat Sodhi, India/ Gémino H. Abad, Philippines/ Mbizo Chirasha, Zimbabwe/ Joyce Ashuntantang, Cameroon and USA
Here is the poem I contributed;
The Forsaken
(A collaborative poem for the Hazara people)
We have dared to be “the
other”.
Outcasts in your eyes,
we threaten your world.
Your words are burning spears
seeking to pierce our armor.
Strength and wisdom repel
the weakening of faith and
culture,
steel us against your
witch-hunt,
steel us against the screams
for our demise.
We seek respite, seek a
haven
from the relentless hunt of
our people.
We are not charlatans and
terrorists.
We cannot return across
rivers,
to crumbling villages,
cannot return to the scenes
of the cross-fired dead
and a burial of diseased
animals.
That is an anathema.
We are Hazara!
We, too, are God’s children.
For information about the Hazaza:http://www.hazarapeople.com/
The anthology can be purchased by clicking on the following link.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=poems%20for%20the%20hazara&sprefix=Poems+for+the+Ha%2Cstripbooks%2C426&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Apoems%20for%20the%20hazara
Powerful!
ReplyDeletegood poem althea. congrats
ReplyDelete