Human Rights in China

By Evan Mantyk Advertising for it is everywhere. If you haven’t seen it, you just haven’t been paying attention. A brilliantly colored image depicts a Chinese woman striking an airborne pose. But what is Shen Yun really all about? What does a performance involve? Whether you are a poet, an...

(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) The Filtering of English in Iran by Delir Ecwabeus "...nor did anything terrify the people so much as those encomiums on his Majesty's mercy..." -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels "To teach the English language is against the government," said Medhi Navid-Adham, head of state enlightenment....

  Justice Rendered by Cal Wes Ubideer "Sanctuary cities help protect undocumented aliens." —"Weird" Ace Blues July 1st, 2015, Miss Kate Steinle had been shot. A single bullet struck her in the back, as there she walked upon Pier 14 with her father, San Francisco Bay. She died, killed by...

Autumn Haiku The red squirrel flits From brown bark to golden leaf He is not gone yet   Winter Acrostic When cold winds blow and rain comes from the north In time, you see the days are growing short Now frost appears and creeps across the pane The crust of...

  ~ Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners facing persecution in China Brutality meets decency and then What happens?  Hardness softens, or it cracks A little.  Craquelure might happen when The decency is struck.  Unless an axe Completely shatters bright compassion, right Can still survive, strong, beautiful, and calm. If brutal...

Read about forced organ harvesting in China here. Photograph This man is lost, dead, His organs taken. Dark; hard to look at: His drained flesh sunken, With hard, dark, stitch scars ... Gone, save this token. Elsewhere, his organs Live where they’re foreign.   Flame The non-consenting body Knifed with...

Unshaken Faith Forward Alliterative verse dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners who have faced persecution in China since July 20, 1999   The ground was broken, crusty, cracked for miles and miles, and ever on, and in the distance, black clouds called out death and doom, from Hell they hailed. The...

To Liu Xiaobo by Morgan Downs Xiaobo—you are from hence forever gone. Meanwhile, your executioners remain. Even now, they overcast where you have lain And scrape as best they can your measure on An ignominious oblivion, Hunting after an afterlife—in vain. The cudgel and the prison may profane What has...

ADULT AWARDS   1st Place – $500 Josh Lefkowitz, “A Poem of Fact” 2nd Place – $250 Kathleen Hellen, “Everyday Halloween” 3rd Place – $150 Lorna Davis, “Buyer’s Remorse” 4th Place – $100 Alexandra Umlas, “Falun Gong” 5th Place– $75 A.R. Harmon, “Welcome Tree”   Honorable Mentions | Adult   George Ian...

  Heaven Smiles for Falun Gong O you who stand so strong through wind and rain, So like those statues lasting through the years, Impervious to time’s assaults and pain, Unfazed by human doubts and crippling fears. With hearts of gold and wills of diamond made, With fliers in hand,...

Written upon watching this video. Note that May Day is the international day honoring workers.     Mayday on May Day By Damian Robin and Evan Mantyk With their pins and strings and force withal And gloves as white as pus, Like Marxist carpet wall to wall They raise appalling...

Compassion, with your sun that shines unseen, You lead the river of man’s thoughts to flow Where Saving Grace’s golden breezes blow, To universal mercy’s sea pristine. With selflessness imbued, one’s self will soar To reach its zenith, freed of every urge, To feel the joy of spreading joy emerge,...

We Forget How quickly we forget the people killed, Millions slaughtered to get a lie fulfilled. All those Russians in the frozen gulag, All those Chinese, dead, without epilogue, All those hearts, for grand fantasies, stilled… The same ideas which now make students thrilled Inspired other men to the death...

Trees, Libraries, and Chinese Communism To wrap a ribbon round a UK tree And tie it into Chinese tyranny, Or flag up five star Chinese hostelry Above a Yorks* Art Deco library, May tighten minds to ask: “How can that be?”— The links are not far fetched. Please bear with...

  Old School I saw two women at a table in a small café Not making eye contact or talking, but in their own way Communicating, and I found myself a bit perplexed. Then realized that they had iPhones®, and were sending texts. They sipped their drinks without a word,...

Buyer’s Remorse How long are we allowed to close our eyes To who produces what our money buys? How can it be that goods made by a slave Are justified by how much cash we save? The cargo ships that crisscross every sea Are loaded high with human misery, But...

Rising above the silt and murky mud, Clean and pure is the small pink bud, Supported by a supple stem of jade, Adorned with gleaming dew drops, crystal made. Elegant yet sweet this gentle bloom, Penetrating the bleak, surrounding gloom, Steadfast, and honorable heart unmoved, Its light fragrance adds to...

  Scrabble-ism One night I was hangin’ with Len, Eating and watching t.v. All the pizza rolls gone, I then Suggested Monopoly. “That game is all luck!” he then said, Voice revealing some anger. “Scrabble,” Len suggested instead, To which “yes” was my answer. Scrabble is, no doubt, a great...

  In an Unfinished Honeycomb:  An Old Story As lichen on a rock expands, so you grow in love on the lap of your mother until --- smothering her presence you burst aglow into green adolescence. Seldom still, you run before the bulls, climb peaks, favor dreams to feed your...

  Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners who have faced seventeen years of persecution in China. As tempests are blowing, angry waves clash; The foaming sea roars, whilst lightning doth flash. Eternal clouds march across the bleak sky, To sailor’s dismay, the heavens now cry. Braving the rain, the wind, the...

Dogs are expected to sit Dogs are expected to stay They receive kicks If they make the boat sway Hong Kong is the dog But, of course, there is no Hong Kong When it comes to the law In China there’s only one: It is the law of the People...

  Persistent Danger Where is this going when state and foe mow down civilians and non-combatants in market stalls? They shock and flame like an erratic clown whose grisly creativity appalls, resolving citizens to not shut down. As killing stalks with permanent, present dangers, our crowded sense of continuance recalls...

In the name of poetry, we implore you … Since time immemorial, poetry has moved people’s hearts and shaped humanity at large. As poets we surely have a purpose. Today, in China, speech and belief are under attack. The tyrannical fist of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) still attempts to crush...

  Aleppo By Cid Wa'eeb El Sur We will drain it dry as hay. Peace shall neither night nor day hang upon its pent-house lid; it shall be a place forbid. Weary seven months times nine, shall it dwindle, peak and pine. Though its spot cannot be lost, yet it...

Blaschka Glass By Beau Ecs Wilder So beautiful they are, the lovely Blaschka glass displays, exquisite floral blossoms and marine invertibrates; such fragile, magical designs, and educational, as if their curving artifice were purely natural. Work after work reveals subtle tease and frilly gills, as if they captured, in a...

  A Hero These are the weathered shoes worn by the Jew, So cracked from all the miles walked since he fled. These are the slave’s strong legs like trunks that grew And worked so hard until he’s beaten dead. This is the heart of Christians who’re hemmed in By...

Dedicated to Falun Gong practitioners who have peacefully resisted persecution by the communist regime in China for 17 years, since July 20, 1999.   When the world’s despondent spirit sets in heavy clouds of slumber, One last gaze of thought transports me to the woods of baleful bawling... Gusts of...

Chapter II: Visions and Dreams (For Chapter I click here.) THE band and locals, totaling fourteen, Retired to rest before the looming day. Some went to sleep but most in silence sat, Now meditating, clearing thoughts that prey. With legs both folded firm and yet relaxed, Their bodies felt the...

  C0d0s0 By Leweca Derusbi The Chinese hackers who are known as the Codoso group are infiltrating sites across the Internetic loop. They're breaching banks, law firms, and varied techno-companies; they even once hacked Forbes' website with corresponding ease. There is a murky and much-hyped, emerging industry no longer found...

Post your Tiananmen Square poems in the comments section below.   Tiananmen By James Fenton, Hong Kong, 15 June 1989 Tianamen Is broad and clean And you can’t tell Where the dead have been And you can’t tell What happened then And you can’t speak Of Tianamen. You must not...

  Zhang Dejiang's Hong Kong Visit, May 2016 By Li "Web Crease" Du "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow." -The Beatles, Revolution Zhang Dejiang, the Communist charged with Hong Kong's affairs, arrived amidst great discontent, as one of...

Chapter I: Arrival in Beijing Inspired by real events   Sing to me, Muse, who flies through Heaven’s realms, Sing of that night when terror swept the land And peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong Were made to live in fear, their practice banned. What was it like to know tomorrow’s...

Inspired by real events in China   Not that long ago in China, in a labor camp confined a Year or longer, I was sitting, making for a U.S. store Christmas tree lights meant for hanging, when there came an awful banging Like a phantom’s chains’ loud clanging—angling through the...

Shall I compare the CCP To a tragic Shakespeare play? For all the lies of history Unfold in China today. Good and evil set the stage, The last and final scene. But those who ‘gainst heaven rage Know not of the unseen. Greater forces are at play, Watching this tragedy,...

  In China now are shadows forged from fire, a DNA pre-history. They cloud troubled villages, rice fields, goldfish ponds. Stones form, creating outlines with moving corners of such mild movements of peace. Finest threads link, form love that birth-screams, sucks air from smoke. This China has two hues, crimson...

Ode to a Soldier’s Wife I can see your tears are streaming, in the lamp light they are gleaming; How I wish that I were dreaming, and that duty hadn’t called. Through the wretched bars we’re kissing, as the steam train begins hissing And of all the things worth missing,...

Igor at the Kitchen Sink By Alecsei Durbew I saw him washing dishes at the sink. He stood against the smooth, white countertop, and tan, wood cabinet below his pink thick, stalwart legs—bull in a china shop. O, he was not Prince Hamlet at the court, but rather more Prince...

Choice Now to change; rise to rearrange; fix buckled tracks; iron out the cracked strange. Time to take off the human make- up, look within and see beyond the fake: catch and count seeds in the air; mount heaven’s stairs; stay aware; stay calm; pipe fount- ains from seas; drop...

Riverside Sun rays glisten Reflect the river I stand and listen Can’t help but shiver Restless fish swim Graceful, majestic Watching sunlight dim Thoughts are monolithic Nature’s beauty endless Never ceases to amaze I stand still, breathless Caught up in a daze   Persecution of the Wiser I believe in...