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Hi all! Today when I started writing up my draft, the first thought that came to me was as if it was only yesterday when I was struggling to put up my first poetics prompt on Dverse – I wrote about Holi, an Indian festival of colors, and now time has come for the same festival this year. So this marks my year as a bartender – I would like to thank you all for the support you have given me. I feel proud to be a part of this and spreading poetry. So thank you.
However, I am not happy today. I am rather shaken by a really bad news – Avijit Roy, a Bengali writer and blogger, was hacked to death in Bangladesh by Islamic extremists, when he was coming out of the book fair in Dhaka. He died when he reached hospital. His wife was attacked too and was seriously injured. They were in a very much public place, yet no one came up to save them. In one of his early articles, he wrote about inner struggles whether to relocate to India, as that is where most Hindus from Bangladesh shifted, on or after the partition. He, unlike most, didn’t leave Bangladesh – he loved his country – where a brutal death awaited him.
His father was a renowned physicist and freedom fighter in Bangladesh. He studied in Dhaka, then Singapore and later moved to US and started working there. As a student, he started writing about his views in yahoo groups. He was one of the fore founders of a community blog – Mukto Mona, where he started writing about freedom of speech, atheism and rationalism. He along with his followers wrote equally against the radicalism. He received many death threats; yet he ignored them and went to the book fair at the launch of his new book.
I would be honest here – I didn’t know him or heard about him before. Yet now that I am reading about him through the articles of someone I know, I feel that I know him very well, as if I have met him, shared his views. He always wrote about humanity irrespective of religion, caste or any discrimination. When I heard the news first, I felt scared. In many occasions I write about social issues. I protest when I see something is not right. I asked myself, am I feeling weak? Am I going to accept things as they are? I was reading about him for last few days and one of the articles really showed me hope. The author, Biplob, said that this is not the end; it is not a moment to think they won and we lost. It is a moment to write and raise our voice. When Avijit started his journey as a philanthropist, he only had eight friends were with him, now the followers are in thousands.
The extremists may think they are powerful, they can challenge our integrity by their barbaric act but we can also show them that we are not afraid today. No, tonight I don’t want you to write about any religion but raise your voice against terror, against abomination. Look around the globe. Iraq Ukraine, Copenhagen or Paris – humanity is facing the darkest hour. We need to believe that we cannot be suppressed. We will make our voice heard. Join me in the protest.
Truth, peace, harmony, love
I must be the change I wish to see in the world.
Now, if you are new to Dversepoets, this is what you got to do.
- Write a poem and post it to your site/blog.
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Note that the prompt will be open for 36 hours. Thank you all.
dVerse 
Hello everyone!
Hello Abhra.. A heavy subject indeed.. and at least to me very important..
A heavy but timely topic ~ Thanks for the lovely prompt Abhra ~
I will be around to return visits ~
Thanks Grace – it is fairly late for me – I am planning to sign off now and check in the morning.
See you tomorrow ~
Yes very much so Bjorn as I was saying earlier – this is closes to terrorism I have ever felt.
We had a suicide bomber in Stockholm a few years ago.. but he failed to kill anybody but himself….
We had our own share too, at the Ottawa City last October 2014 ~
I recall…
Hello there everyone.. and despite the sad state of affairs I hope you have had a wonderful Tuesday.. and for those of you who didn’t have time to visit yesterday I hope you like the splash of color we have added.
hey abhra,
I am working on something for you in the morning…
did not want you to think I was dissing you man…smiles
I def can get into some protest poems…
I would imagine this is right up your alley Brian ~ looking forward to it ~
I think some protest poetry is definitely in place.. one of my favorite topic.. heard som vivid poetry from Ukraine on a poetry festival..
nice. have a long day today, so it may be late before I can finish mine up…
Brian, I am looking forward to it.
Thanks Brian
My poem is simple, but my feelings are deeply felt.
Be over in a bit Viv ~ Thanks for adding your voice ~
I think the pain don’t need many words.. it’s deep.
I was going to pop in to tell you how much I love the new burnt orange background, and then I read your post. Of course, your words really shook me up. Thank you for sharing your heart and this tragic news, of which I was unaware.
Nice to see.. you.. and yes sometimes we need to write of some true protest poetry.
Thanks Shawna – I can not really explain how difficult it was to write about someone I could relate to…
Our world has changed so much in the last couple of decades. This is a timely prompt. We have the power of the pen, along with the dangers that accompany our freedoms to express our beliefs, whatever they may be. What will it take to grow mutual understanding between so many diverse viewpoints? Thanks, Abhra.
It seems like there is a constant threat and we have to regain our right and ability to win back the right of different views.. The last few years seem to have changed a lot..
Yes Victoria, that was precisely my thought too. May be in future, there will be a time when people will see the differences as a matter of interest not hatred.
It is frightening that people are brutally murdered simply because of a difference of opinion, a different religion, different color of skin. This is a timely prompt. I am having trouble connecting to your page and will try later. I also will be submitting something for this amazing prompt later. thank you for this.
Ah I hope you come up with some great thoughts.
I can only come up, at this point, with the thought of the insanity of dealing with insane people and that insane world inside their heads.It isn’t enough for them to blow up a building and kill thousands of people, they must go further and hack someone to death…as if this validates them in some way. Beheading, hacking….it takes a lot of hate to get so up close and personal in the murder.
Thank you so much – yes, it is time to raise our voice.
I have to head to bed now. I will catch up later.
See you tomorrow Bjorn ~
This is a prompt that really speaks to me, as does the death of one so brave, who shone his light against the darkness. When one such as he is silenced, a thousand more raise up their voices in his place. He is still impacting this world by his death, as he did in life. Thank you for sharing his story and for issuing such a timely challenge.
Thanks for your lovely visit Sherry ~
Thank you Sherry….
Abhra….I added my link to this Mr. Linky inadvertently…my poem has nothing to do with this topic. My apologies, but I have no idea how to remove it. Please feel free to take it down if you know how. Sorry 😦
I will remove it for you ~ And feel free to link later ~
Oh thanks so much 🙂 I just posted a note on this post about it and so now can remove that!! Really appreciate you doing that for me! My apologies again.
No problem 🙂
It’s okay….no problem.
Good prompt. I confess I didn’t completely leave religion out of the equation, but it’s not the focus of my poem. I’ll be back later to read what others have posted. Peace, Linda
Peace back to you Linda ~
Thank you Linda – the main idea behind the prompt was to raise voice in protest. Yes, religion also a part of the same equation – but I thought it will take a different shape with it.
I am moved by your prompt. My heart is in my throat.
Thanks for being here Susan ~
Thank you Susan….
I am sad to hear this (yet another) story of violence and censorship. But poets will not be silent and you have honored Avijit Roy with your prompt and poem, Abhra. What can be said in response? my words today feel lame…
Your words are very uplifting to read Lynn ~ Thanks for sharing them ~
So well thought-out, Lynn. With rights come responsibilities.
Lynn, I happened to know someone who was close to Avijit. This is the closest to terrorism I have ever felt in my life. I was shaken. Thank you for your support.
So so sorry to hear the news of a fellow blogger … we work in a medium that travels far and for most of us has small consequence. But the world is a rough place, and it’s never that far, really, from us. How much we need our witnesses … I repost from last summer a poem about the shooting down of the Malaysian Air commercial jet in Ukraine — we need to keep those moments fresh … And honor our witnesses.
Thanks Brendan ~ I will be over in a bit to read yours ~
I’m so sorry for your loss and your sadness Abhra. We all share in the sorrow over the senseless violence of this world.
Thank you for your lovely post Myrna ~ I admire those who can love and forgive their enemies ~
Abrha, I am so sorry for your loss. There is altogether too much senseless violence in this world.
Thank you Mary – yes, I am so very shaken and disturbed by the news. In many times, I write on social issues and more on crime against women – I will continue to do so, even more now.
I can’t think of better way to celebrate your friend’s life than to what he did.. and truly that too.. is my mission in life to find common ground of love and connection among people of many cultures with or without religion to inspire them to do the same..
The best fight against terrorism is keeping freedom of expression in all its multicolored clothes alive.. and to keep expanding it as freedom IS
CONTAGIOUS..:)
Sorry for your loss and i hope that loss at least will inspire more freedom in what your friend set out to do..
AS Freedom is truly never free in human cost.. but well worth always as
is..:)
And i for one am among the freest of free verse poets.. perhaps alive… as i follow no other way.. alone..:)
Smiles.:)
At present, what seems to unite us is the violence our countries experience. it is very sad.
True – I think it unites us and together we can spread the message wider.
a good prompt – evil has arisen, so many take “all men are created equal” as an opinion and discard others at their convenience.
Thank you Bill
I may be the only one but I find the brick-red background is not conducive to easy reading.
Having said that, yes, the attack was and is tragic but we also need to remember that despite all of the suffering in the world today, we still live at a time where more people have a better quality of life and greater freedom than ever before in recorded history, if only on a percentage basis. There is much which has improved over the past half century, particularly in the developed world, but even in what is called the Third World, there has been improvement.
First we will be looking through the colors, but we wanted to have a clear change. I really agree with the fact that we have had such a great progress during at least 20 years. Whenever I feel too sad I always take a look at a Hans Rosling video and feel better again. Yet, last year and this has been the first years in a long time when things have turned worse at so many places at once… but I am probably still more optimistic than pessimistic.
I am sure you can put colour to the vote.
I don’t sense that in the past year things are worse. I think we increasingly have sensationalist media which finds facts to fit stories instead of writing stories to fit facts. The approach to weather/climate is a clear indication of that.
It is probably African servers but I have not been able to access dverse for a few days. It is nice to be back on track.
Welcome back – we had no problem accessing recently.
I don’t have time to write for this prompt, unfortunately, but the subject matter has been close to my heart for over 50 years….our U. S. history has it’s high moments, but we continue to repeat mistakes of the past.
Ah.. but remember we have an Open Link soon… with the current schedule we are set to have it already next Thursday 🙂
Thank you for this meaningful and important post, Abhra, and the inspiration to raise our voices.
It is a great subject to write on..
A difficult subject….a tragic story. I may have taken a different approach on this.
I admire the message of peace ~ Thanks for sharing ~
This is a moving prompt. I am afraid I may not in a state to write something new. Just two days back, I wrote an emotional piece in reaction to the comments made by Delhi gang-rape accused. Linking up the same. I hope you do not mind.
Ah.. talking against violence is the right thing..