Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts

Tuesday 28 May 2019

Media Indefference To Migrants Deaths.

 
         I have often stated that migrants, as far as the state is concerned, are beings with no human rights, a sub-human species, to be used as scapegoats, as fodder for the political machinations of their particular ideology. This is a phenomenon from the state created illusion of our superiority, our exceptionalism. There is a litany of cases of migrants being abused, used and denigrated, and being stripped of their humanity. A 1948, in America, one case of migrant herding ended in tragedy with the media adding further insult by treating the deaths of the migrants with indifference. Woody Guthrie marked the occasion with a poem.
Lyrics
The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"
My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters they working the old church,
They rode the big truck still laydown and died
"Chorus"
The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"
"Chorus"
 TEDx Talks published on June 3rd 2026.

        In 1948, a plane carrying 32 passengers crashed in the Los Gatos Canyon, California killing everyone on board. The media, including the New York Times, listed the names of the pilots, the flight attendant and the immigration guard but all 28 of the migrant workers (braceros) were labeled as deportees. This angered folk singer Woody Gutherie who wrote a poem about the crash. Almost ten years later, school teacher Martin Hoffman composed a melody to Guthrie's poem and that song became well known. Around 2010 Central Valley writer Tim Z. Hernandez discovered the story and soon began a project of finding the names and surviving relatives. Soon after musician Lance Canales joined the journey and composed his own version of the legendary song with Hernandez reading all the names of the deceased workers. Thanks to a fundraiser spearheaded by the two artist a new head stone has been built in the Holy Cross honoring all 32 passengers. Lance Canales is a roots-blues musician from California’s breadbasket. He lived the life that so many songs have been written about since the birth of roots music – hard labor, one room shacks and ghosts whispering of a better life. Canales’ guttural vocals combine a hard-edged storytelling approach with stripped down, foot-stomping, acoustic instrumentation that people readily respond to; Canales and his band, The Flood, were a favorite at the 2015 Sister’s Folk Festival. Canales led the initiative to place a memorial headstone with the names of the plane crash victims of the famous Woody Guthrie song “Deportee,” who were discovered buried nameless in a mass grave in Fresno, California. Now and forever nameless no more. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Thursday 11 April 2013

Let's Make That Stand.


       Today's poem is with the previous post in mind. It was written a considerable number of years ago, so please forgive the couple of lines that could be claimed as sexist, but I'm sure you'll agree with the essence of the poem.

LET’S MAKE THAT STAND.

Come rise with me
here, take my hand
it’s time my brothers
to make that stand,
we’ve bought this world
with blood and tears
shed by our kin
through countless years.
Put an end to war
it’s time for peace
man killing man
has to cease.
No more poverty
in a sea of wealth
all men equal
in a new commonwealth.
Let’s never again kneel
let’s stand up tall
claim what’s ours
justice for all.

ann arky's home.

Monday 8 April 2013

The Rebel.


     Today's poem,--- well, make what you will of it, I suppose that's what we should do with every poem.


THE REBEL

Rebel rebel break the rule,
What does it matter that a “wise” man sees a fool.
Not for you the herd’s dull beat
Making tomorrow, yesterday’s repeat,
Living out the life of a clone
Marching with the crowd but always alone.
Shaping your life from some dusty tome
Playing it safe, staying at home.
Rebel rebel break the rule
Swim in the sea, never the pool.
Live your emotions, feel the surge
Follow your dreams, chase the urge.
Make life though short, an exciting game
Not a mad march for fortune or fame.
Capture the moment, live it now
Being alive your only vow.
Rebel rebel break the rule
In the end,     you’re humanity’s jewel.

ann arky's home.

Thursday 7 June 2012

SPIRIT OF REVOLT.


               I don't know the poet, but I pay homage to him/her, and I can't remember where I got the poem, but I like it very much, it captures the spirit of revolt and the determination of the ordinary people. The title is my own idea as it didn't have a title when I copied it away back. 

WE ARE THE PEOPLE.

If You Beat Us, We Will Revive ourselves.
If You Suppress us, We Will Arise Again.
If You Defeat Our occupation, Of Streets We built,
We Will Occupy Our Jobs, And Our Communities.
You Cannot Destroy Us, For We Are,
Manifest, The IDEA That You Created.
You
Created Us With Your Arrogance.
You
Created Us With Your Exploitation.
You
Created Us With Your Prejudice And Your Greed.
You Created us with Your destruction
Of The World We love.
Your
Ill-considered Occupations
Begat And Inspired Our Occupations.
You
Have Sown The Seeds Of Dissent.
We Grow Like Wildfire,
And We Bring Forth The Whirlwind.
Look To Your Barricades, Your Badged Lackeys,
Your Fawning Courts, Your Corrupt Officials,
Your Long held Illusions Of Divine Right.
None Of These Matter, You’ve Earned Defeat,
And You Will Take The Fall.
We are The people, Newly Awakened.