Showing posts with label gabrielle bryden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gabrielle bryden. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 July 2012

WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks
is leaking,

haemorrhaging,

soon to be dead

says Julian,

if the funds can’t get through

invisible gatekeepers say no,

Visa, MasterCard, PayPal,

Western Union, Bank of America

have turned off
the life blood,
a sacrifice
to stop further leaks,

jugular payback
snarl the offended,

let’s stop playing monopoly

groans Julian

and fetch a real doctor.

© Gabrielle Bryden

Wikileaks wins court battle against Visa in Iceland over blocked donations

Gabrielle is an Australian poet published in a range of books, print and online journals and on ABC National radio. She blogs at http://gabriellebryden.wordpress.com and tweets as GabrielleBryden.

Monday, 12 December 2011

Making a Stand

T.S. Eliot
Prize for Poetry
is supported
by a hedge fund –
that’s a bit prickly,
a bit pear shaped,
a bit suspect
for an anti-capitalist.

Ouch!
John Kinsella
makes a stand
on the pointy end
of capitalism.

I withdraw my nomination,
he shouts, then jumps
with a dramatic flourish.

It began with Alice Oswald  -
poetry should be questioning
not endorsing such institutions.


The Government
is pulling the funds,
left, right and centre.
What’s a poor
Poetry Book Society
to do?

Where do you find
that stream of purest money
to finance the arts?

No-one has an answer
but making headlines -
must be good
for poets and poetry;

another layer in the
proof of existence.

© Gabrielle Bryden

We shouldn't forget that TS Eliot was a banker
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Gabrielle Bryden is an Australian poet published in a range of books, print and online journals and on ABC National radio. She blogs at http://gabriellebryden.wordpress.com and tweets as GabrielleBryden.

Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Death Penalty

Relief and tears on hearing
that young Scott Rush will live
to face life in an Indonesian prison,
not death by firing squad.

To shoot in cold blood,
that’s killing,
Truman Capote style:

Dick Hickock and Perry Smith
slaughtered a family of four
innocence – gunned and sliced
remorseless, senseless!

The young Rush boy carried drugs,
part of the Bali nine,
not a ringleader, a minor mule
with brains to match.

He didn’t kill anyone,
drug users make their choice,
just stupid bravado, bad company
and the broken hearted

parents living his nightmare.

© Gabrielle Bryden

Bali Nine's Scott Rush avoids death penalty
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Gabrielle Bryden is an Australian poet published in Ripples, Speedpoets, Extempore magazines; Cherry Blossom Review, Lunarosity, Divan, Bolts of Silk, Third Eye, Specusphere ezines; and on national ABC Radio.

Friday, 25 February 2011

Cable

Justice taking form, stop

uber hacker
leading the way,

information for the people, stop

alien tresses, attitude,

no giving up.

All is not lost,

sign of the times,

seismic shift in paradigm, stop
assuage no one

no way back,

genius programs
everything known, stop

© Gabrielle Bryden

Wikileaks: no proof that Julian Assange encouraged leak

Gabrielle Bryden is an Australian poet published in Ripples, Speedpoets, Extempore magazines; Cherry Blossom Review, Lunarosity, Divan, Bolts of Silk, Third Eye, Specusphere ezines; and on national ABC Radio.