More poetry……. and remembering as a political action ………..

A) The Old Walls by Zoe Skoulding

The wall is who we are and they are not and
farther in the boundaries collapse in a rush of
security as cells multiply and break through stone
translucent grit cracks the skin open to the elements
we go down through layers and this is history
a low door at the foot of the walls opens into starry
arches articulate as loin bones the slender joints
lithe as a voice disappearing from behind the
words behind the walls where water moves
against deep tones of trees that cloud the air
behind the smell of wet earth the voice leaves
the shape of itself and the footprints of walkers
trace the shell of the city its dead words
we crawled out of our words tender like snails
and the new city grows from the loins of the old
as lichen spreads in acid maps invading and
retreating the city runs along fingers runs along
roads and wires and into fields and the sightlines
run back to the city in wires and the walls
keep nothing out and the nothing beyond as a cloud
of eyes moves through the streets and falls like rain

B) ‘Left Holding the Baby: Remembering and Forgetting the Magdalene Laundry’ (2009)

http://www.magdalenelaundrylimerick.com/left_holding_the_baby.pdf

An interesting thesis by Evelyn Elynn on remembering and forgetting of collective trauma  

‘Remembering, as a political action, is the subject of my first chapter. I begin by looking at some general issues in relation to remembering and forgetting of collective trauma. Using the Holocaust as my main point of reference, I examine the reasons why it is important to remember and the purpose and function of collective forgetting. This is followed by an exploration of psychological theories in relation to trauma and abuse. This section focuses on feminist writings since they bring the issue into the realm of action. I conclude this chapter with an examination of ethics and responsibilities in relation to remembrance of trauma, and discuss what an effective response to witnessing of trauma might be’ (Evelyn Elynn)

 C) Extracts from Judith Lewis Herman’s book                              

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

‘Denial, repression and dissociation operate on a Social, as well as an individual level’

‘The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried’

‘Those who attempt to describe the atrocities that they have witnessed also risk their own credibility’

‘To speak publicly about one’s knowledge of atrocities is to invite the stigma that attaches to victims’

‘It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering’