JANUARY POETS

Thank you for your comments, everyone! Much appreciated ;) ~Lindz

Being personally and newly connected to this wonderful artist, poet and activist from Vancouver BC, I have a bit more context than the rest of the readers here to a certain extent, which I feel quite thankful for. This gives me an opportunity to add a certain amount of written depth to what I think these stand for. These are only my opinions. In Haiku 1, my take is that as Westerners with enormous, flowing freedom that we have as citizens, we do hold that close to our hearts, and we can appreciate all of our rights, however, while we may be thankful for these privileges, we may also sometimes overlook them and take certain things for granted. With that said, when we go to, say, thirld world countries, we may not always understand the cultures and all of the intricacies that are occurring within that specific country. For example, if a non governmental organization (NGO) were to come and impose their own processes to fix an issue without actively listening to the true needs of the community, the impact may not be what that country is actually looking for or need. Meanwhile, these supposedly full proof solutions may not even be suitable in the end. International and intercultural communication play strong and important roles into all of this; active listening is key and primordial. These solutions might not always be "recognized" as indirectly stated. To me, the leaf is an individual and the trunk is the local community. Ideology feels like it's getting lost in the shuffle somewhere. For Haiku 2, I feel like this is more of a universal message that pinpoints: community and also, social change. Here, I could picture a group of activists gathering for a cause, creating awareness and building momentum to fight that specific cause. In the end, a strong community is formed and nothing can really stop them, putting aside any oppositions or challenges, because the community itself creates a movement for social change. Examples are endless. Finally, the initial "singing" occurs within ourselves and by doing so, we influence others around us and that "I' becomes "we" such as an activist turns into activists. Congratulations to Lindz for getting published in this wonderful online magazine. I believe that she's definitely a young, vibrant, up-and-coming female leader to watch in the near future as her current local reach will hopefully turn global one day. If you're on Twitter, you ought to follow her over at @lindzmarsh. Thanks for reading.