Thanks for the flow chart organizational minds--Edwin, Wendy, Chris--things get done. I'm thinking how to best contribute with what I have to contribute and the limited time to do so.

I think, once we hone in on the structure and format of the various pieces, I can kick in the way I did with Edwin, initially offering my take--how I would say things about empathy, about life, about society, and so forth--maybe answer some of the questions Wendy posed.

Another part where I might contribute is the public presentation part--either live or video interview format answering questions about empathy.

The subject of empathy--the connection between and among people and peoples and the existence of evil in the world and the relationship between these two things--is the focus of my life and is central to much of my poetry. Here's, for example, a kind of guided meditation that came to me as I was reading Desmond Tutu's book--No Future Without Forgiveness:

 

Imagine

Imagine this—

            an automobile tire

            hanging around your neck,

            resting on your shoulders,

            its weight forcing your head forward just a bit

            as if you were praying

            which you may very well be doing—

            this tire filled with petrol

            and lit ablaze by your brother

            who does not feel  . . .

            who does not feel . . .

            who does not feel like your brother

            who only feels that you are the other

            and so cannot feel . . .

            himself.

Imagine this—

            the penetrating power

            of a face in flaming agony

            seeking the smallest crack or crevice

            in that self-constructed shell around a soul

            we know is there, somewhere

            behind the hand that held the match.

            Imagine that hand to be our own.

            Imagine that shell to be our own.

            Imagine that memory to be our own

            and follow that thought where it takes us.

                                                                                    BD 1/23/08

Note: The practice is called necklacing.

or another one that came to me after a visit to Kaiser:

 

Uno desaparecido—

                   after the visit to Kaiser

Did you forget the privilege of your position?

            Did you forget that each life is precious—

            yours and mine—even when we have

            just a few minutes together—

            especially when we have

            just a few minutes together—

            what if you died in the night or I

            and that was our moment together to use

            and we let it fall prey, as we did,

            to some extraordinary rendition of our own,

            allowed our moment to become uno desaparecido

            to become a bloody Myranmar monk—

            lost to each of us, gone, never to return.

            What if I were your very own new born child,

            vernix caseosa on your hands and forearms

            as you catch and cradle this new life?

            Think of me so and I will try to do the same

            and not wait to see what you will do

            but do what comes most naturally to newborns—

            know my need to be seen and held—

            and know, as well, your own

            and then, perhaps, if we can hold ourselves there

            we’ll seize our one moment

            and not allow it

            to be disappeared.

                                                                        BD 11/14/07

These are two that might give a bit of an indication of what I mean. I have hundreds. There might be a place to plug something like this in--there might not be--they show a little bit of how my mind works and where it goes with things I see and feel in the world.

All my poems are posted on line at urbanharvestdesign.com.

Off to printing.

Bill