Just a reminder, you have until 31 March 2025 to submit features, essays, poems and artwork to Culture Matters Peaceweavers Anthology. I'm especially interested in any practical work or activism people have been involved with, interfaith and social justice work, peace and climate change, peace from a feminist perspective, or ideas on how creating a fairer society can bring about a more peaceful world. Email submissions to swanmedia@ntlworld.com

https://www.culturematters.org.uk/peaceweavers-callout-for-new-anthology/

 A memo distributed by US National Security Agency leadership to its staff says that on February 10, all NSA websites and internal network pages that contain banned words will be deleted. This poem contains all 27 of them.

This Poem Should Be Banned

by Rebecca Lowe

The word Injustice is now banned,
As if the New Oxford Dictionary
had been rebranded by Ayn Rand
And our only objective was to stand
At the centre of our own circle,
Ignoring the needs of others.

DEI and Allyship of our sisters and brothers
Consigned to the dustbin, a shredding of integrity,
Likewise Inclusive, All-inclusive and Inclusivity,
Inclusion is an illusion, creating confusion
In a world of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’,
Equality, Equitableness and Equity,
Mere words determining Confirmation Bias –
They rub out easily.

Likewise, Anti-racism, Racism activities
And all talk of Racial Identity
shall simply cease – a whitewashing of history,
Harkening back to the golden days of Empire,
When nations stole proudly and showed off their spoils

Don’t spoil the party, with your arty-farty talk of parity,
When what we need is simple clarity in terms of Identity,
Such as:
Rich/poor, Right/wrong, Male/female, Rulers/ruled,
There’s no space for Intersectionality
In our Brave New World,
Where Diversity is
a dirty word,

Where He (and it is always He,
remember, Feminism is an aberration)
He who speaks loudest takes up all the space.

Our Freedom of Expression:
The freedom to express
Our prejudice and privilege
(But never your opinions; no, never that).

We’ll have no talk of Diverse Sexuality,
Gender Pronouns, Transgender and Gender Identity,
We’ll Make America Great Again –
For ‘Great’, read ‘Hate’ –
By simply obliterating everything
We don’t understand
Or don’t like.

We’re strong, we’re psyched,
We’re walking stereotypes:
Fat white men in puffed out suits,
Unrepentant in the repellent stench
of our own intellectual offence.
You might call our actions Orwellian,
If we even understood what that meant.

The 27 banned words distributed to NSA staff are all in the Tags box below:

Tags: All-Inclusive, Allyship, Anti-Racism, Bias, Confirmation Bias, DEI, Diverse, Diversity, equality, Equitableness, Equity, Feminism, Gender, Gender Identity, Inclusion, Inclusive, Inclusivity, Injustice, Intersectionality, Prejudice, Privilege, Pronouns, Racial Identity, Racism, Sexuality, Stereotypes, Transgender

 

Our Father Eclipse - politics and dystopia

Our Father Eclipse is, by far, the strangest thing I've ever written. Towards the latter end of 2019, I'd conceived of the idea of writing something vaguely political, framed by the apocalyptic literature I'd studied in my twenties, and taking in signs and portents and political events. I'd mulled this idea around for some time, and put together a couple of poems...and then 2020, Covid and lockdown happened.

My previous poetry collection, Blood and Water, was written over a period of about a decade, each poem being carefully added and edited. The birth of this collection was completely different. Over a period of about two weeks, the poems wrote themselves, obsessively, frantically, as if all of the pain and confusion of the past few years came spilling out like a fever dream. As soon as I had the poems completed, with minimal editing, I sent them to Culture Matters, my favourite publisher. I sent the email at 6pm. By 9am the next morning, I had a message in my in-tray saying 'yes please, we'd love to publish'. This NEVER happens! 

I chose to illustrate the poems with 16th century apocalyptic woodcuts, which seemed to fit the themes. The result is a strangely dystopian vision of a world which feels increasingly unreal and disturbing - and a call to action. In difficult times, we can dare to hope, we can dare to dream, with radical passion and revolutionary compassion...

Here's the review from The Morning Star's Andy Croft: 

 https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/c/21st-century-poetry-andy-croft-0

"Our Father Eclipse (£10) by the Welsh poet Rebecca Lowe is a brilliant, inventive and original take on contemporary feelings of impending apocalypse, constructed around the image of a solar eclipse – “We dare not gaze directly / for fear of blindness, / but know instinctively / the gathering dark.”

Wide-ranging and eloquent, these poems barely contain their rage at the way we treat our neighbours and our planet in the 21st century."

 

IT'S HERE!!!

Available on Amazon, priced £9.99 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Write-Mindfully-Unlocking-writer-within/dp/B0D67BBR5R/ref=asc_df_B0D67BBR5R?tag=bingshoppinga-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80676856953959&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584276322642351&psc=1

Write Mindfully – Unlocking the writer within by Rebecca Lowe 

Published by Talisman Arts, July 2024.

ISBN: 9798326906267

CONTACT: Rebecca Lowe on 07866 871116 or email swanmedia@ntlworld.com to arrange interviews or order review copies.

‘Each of us has a beautiful story to tell’

Do you long to create but find yourself held back by feelings of inadequacy or fear of judgement? If so, you’re not alone, but it’s never too late to start writing!

I want to help you find and listen to your inner voice – your Soul voice, if you like. Once you do that, you’ll find that writing comes easily to you – as naturally as breathing.

Topics covered include:

·         Mindfulness and creativity

·         Dealing with imposter syndrome

·         What makes a person creative?

·         How to handle rejection

·         Embracing playfulness and imagination

·         Finding your creative flow

·         Writing using all your senses

·         Creating a writing ritual

And much more!

Never let anybody tell you that you are not good enough. You are more than enough. You are beautiful, precious, unique. Nobody can tell your story better than you.

So write it, Sing it,

Dance it,

Shout it,

Be it!

Author bio:

Rebecca Lowe is a Pushcart prize-nominated poet, mother, journalist and editor, based in Swansea, Wales, UK. She has three published collections of poetry: Blood and Water (The Seventh Quarry, 2020), Our Father Eclipse (Culture Matters, 2021) and Grandmasaurus: Poems for children (Talisman Arts, 2021) and has appeared in anthologies in the UK and internationally. She is a Bread and Roses Spo0ken Word Award winner (2020) and her poetry has been translated into Welsh, Greek, Romanian and Chinese. She runs Spoken Word open mics and poetry and storytelling workshops for all ages. When not writing, she enjoys climbing trees with her daughter, singing, playing the hammer dulcimer, painting, Mindfulness and walking in the beautiful Welsh countryside.

Writing Across Borders - International connections

 In the last few weeks/months I've been fortunate to participate in some wonderful international events - something I could never have imagined in the pre-lockdown, pre-Zoom days. 

In April, I celebrated International Women's Day with friends from across the globe, with a poetry reading coordinated by Xanthi Hondrou-Hill at Apeiron Art:

Apeironart - Buy and Sell Art Online - Creative Diversity

A beautiful mix of subjects and themes - from the cultural oppression of women through to portrayals of Mother Earth, goddesses, and reflections on femininity and motherhood. My poem 'Conception' was featured:

I also took part in my second International Poetry Festival, run by Gobinda Biswas, in India - a tour de force of poetry featuring writers from all over the world. A couple of weeks ago I took part in a beautiful cross-cultural celebration of Easter, Passover, Holi and the coming of Spring. It was organised by my good friend Pankhuri Sinha - an amazing, dynamic poet in her own right - who invited poets from across the nations to celebrate in verse. Most poems were read in their original languages as well as English translation. Both were wonderfully uplifting events, an insight into many different cultural traditions, and a testament to the power of poetry to break cultural barriers and bring unity, especially during these difficult Covid times when we have been separated physically from friends, family and loved ones. 

Another recent highlight was the Rockport International Poetry Festival, from Rockport, USA. I was invited via Bob Whelan, who had remembered Talisman Spoken Word writers from the time some of our poets visited Boston, Massachusetts to participate in a cross-cultural exchange with Merrimac Mic poets. This resulted in two books: Ten Swansea Writers (publ. Talisman Arts) and The River Widens, a joint anthology with the Merrimac poets.

The Rockport Festival was an incredible event, featuring a full 24-hours of poetry from all over the globe! It also collaborated with the Coracle Europe Poetry Festival (run by my friend Dominic Williams, from Poems and Pints Carmarthen), who offered the Rockport Poetry Festival on April 18 as Day 2 of their presentation. Some of their presentations can be seen here:

Poets without Borders with Coracle Europe (part 1) - YouTube

Poets without Borders with Coracle Europe (part 2) - YouTube

Last week, my friend and co-organiser of Talisman Spoken Word, David Churchill, was the featured poet for the Merrimac Mic writers group, in Massachusetts, USA. I logged on at 7.30pm US time, (which was half past midnight in the UK!), together with Alice Sullivan, also of Talisman. It was great to 'meet' our exchange poets on the other side of the Atlantic, especially host David Somerset, who I had heard so much about from the other poets who'd visited five years ago. The standard of the poetry was excellent, and David's feature was a treat. His book, Volcano Moon, is published by Talisman Arts, and we hope to have copies available for purchase online soon.

Finally, I took part in my second radio podcast with the incredible American poet Rick Spisack's Poets of the East show. This was my first live broadcast, so somewhat nerve-wracking, though Rick is such a welcoming host he very quickly put me at ease:

Poets of the East Episode 18 Island Poets all 04/24 by Progressive News Network | Politics Progressive (blogtalkradio.com)

It has been such a treat to meet so many poets from all over the world (and well worth staying up til 2.30am for, though I wouldn't recommend doing it every night!) I feel fortunate and privileged to be in contact with so many supremely creative and talented people.

Most of all it has taught me the power of words. Words really are magical. They can bring people together, across cultures, across nations, and bring hope even in the most trying of times.

I have met so many inspirational figures - people who, like me, are passionate about the written and spoken word. Our voices rise together, strengthening one another as we share mutual encouragement and support. Long may it continue! 

A lovely review of Our Father Eclipse, my second collection of poetry: 

Our Father Eclipse, Rebecca Lowe (Culture Matters): Review | FISKBOOK

https://www.waterstones.com/book/our-father-eclipse/rebecca-lowe/mike-quille/9781912710379