Friday, August 2, 2013

Poem of the Week: Saul Landau

Saul Landau        
                                 
The Living Need a Poem   
    

The Cold War is over
why aren't we having fun
I have destroyed my internal Timex
kicked an innocent dog
stiffed four ratty beggars
my team has triumphed over
the incarnation of wickedness
I etch acrid sarcasm
on a child's mind
can I pull a poem from shrapnel
fashion words of beauty
from shrill shrieks of falling bombs
submerge the laments of those
with investments
in times of need
the living need a poem

 
-Saul Landau 

Used by permission.  

From My Dad Was Not Hamlet (Inst. for Policy Studies 1993)


Saul Landau is an internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker on foreign and domestic policy issues. He has been a fellow at IPS since 1972 and at the Transnational Institute since 1974. He has written 13 books, thousands of newspaper and magazine articles and reviews, and made more than 40 films and TV programs on social, political, economic and historical issues.

Among his numerous accolades, Saul received the George Polk Award for Investigative Reporting and an Emmy for his 1980 film, "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang" (with Jack Willis), as well as the Letelier-Moffitt Award for his human rights work. He won a Golden Apple award for "The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas" as well as first prizes in many festivals with films about Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende and Subcomandante Marcos. He is Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly Pomona University.  

Saul's newest film is "Will the Real Terrorist Please Standup" (2011). It is now available on DVD.

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If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.   

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