Poems from Guantanamo Spoken Word Video: “EVEN IF THE PAIN” & “ODE TO THE SEA”

Yesterday I filmed and edited this video of “EVEN IF THE PAIN”  by Siddiq Turkestani and “ODE TO THE SEA”  by Ibrahim al-Rubaish, two of the poems from the collection, Poems from Guantanamo: the detainees speak edited by Mark Falkoff (University of Iowa Press).

Poet Adrienne Rich writes of the collection: “Poems from Guantanamo brings to light figures of concrete, individual humanity, against the fabric of cruelty woven by the ‘war on terror.’ The poems and poets’ biographies reveal on dimension of this officially obscured narrative, from the perspective of the sufferers; the legal and literary essays provide the context which has produced–and under atrocious circumstances–a poetics of human dignity.”

On Monday April 13 from 7-9pm, poets and peace activists will present “Poems from Guantanamo” at a Place for Peace, 896 E. Main, Ventura California.  A donation of $10 per person is requested; funds will be divided equally between Place of Peace, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Veterans for Peace. More details here.

Poets, peace activists and celebrities poems are presenting the poems in various venues to call attention to the continuing plight of the detainees who are still being held and tortured or recovering from their ordeals in Guantanamo and in the hands of the US military. Many of the past performances have been filmed and posted on YouTube; we will post ours also.

Three myths about the detainees and torture have been called to my attention. ONE: Detainees are too dangerous to be released; they have knowledge which requires torture.

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights which has provided pro bono attorneys to attain due process for detainees, 29 of the 350 still detained are illegaly imprisoned minors. A majority of the detainees were turned over to the military for huge cash awards. All detainees have been tortured.

TWO: Detainees must be terrorists because the government put them there.

At the event, I will be presenting “Ode to the Sea” by Ibrahim al-Rubaish. He was teaching in Pakistan when he was arrested by mercenaries and sold to allied forces. A religious scholar who dislikes hostility and was once a candidate for a judgeship, Rubaish has a daughter, born just three months before he was captured, who is now five years old. During a military administrative hearing, he was told: ‘If you are considered to be a continued threat, you will be detained. If you are not considered a threat, we will recommend release. Why should we consider releasing you?’ Rubaish’s response was, ‘In the world of international courts, the person is innocent until proven guilty. Why, here, is the person guilty until proven innocent?’”

Even if some of the detainees were or are “terrorists,” should we torture them and treat them so inhumanely? Since the signing of the Magna Carta in the 13th century, we have had laws requiring due process, rights to an attorney, rights to a civil trial. No one deserves to be treated the way the US has treated the detainees.

THREE: Torture ended at Guantanamo with the new Obama administration.

The military personnel who have been torturing the detainees under the Bush administration still work at Guantanamo. Currently, fifty detainees are strapped to chairs being forcefed. Humiliation, stress positions, temperature extremes and sleep deprivation continue.

We must speak out. Many of the past performances have been filmed and posted on YouTube; below is one by Vanessa, Lynn, Corin, and Jemma Redgrave. We will post ours also.

For other completely unrelated poems, check out ReadWritePoem.