[New-Poetry] China

[Michael Snider]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Anny Ballardini
<anny.ballardini at gmail.com>wrote:

> China routinely filters Internet content and blocks material that is
> critical of its policies. It also frequently blocks individual videos from
> YouTube. Access to YouTube had been intermittent earlier in March, on the
> first anniversary of protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule.
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/technology/internet/25youtube.html?_r=1&hp
>
>

The block's not complete, at least for poetry. As recently as last year I
got an email from a person in China about this poem, written days after the
Tiananmen Square massacre, on my website for at least since 2002, currently
at http://www.mikesnider.org/poetry/mypoems/june41989.html

June 4, 1989


Students came to Tiananmen Square
To mourn the death of Hu Yaobang,
And call the old men to repair
The State they'd led to wrong.
Workers joined the student throng
And made the Square the people's place—
Thousands and tens of thousands strong,
They gave Liberty a Chinese face.

>From the Great Hall of the People glared
Faces from the revolution, hung
There to silence those who dared
To charge the State with wrong.
But now the torch of freedom shone
>From the statue of a woman raised
Before them—the people's challenge flung,
Giving Liberty a Chinese face.

Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng stared
As one man, unarmed and alone,
Despite the armored terror
Of the State's insane wrong,
Stopped a column of tanks along
The Avenue of Eternal Peace.
He simply stood his ground,
And gave Liberty a Chinese face.
Remember the thousands dead and mourn.
Remember the State's deadly wrong.
Martyr's blood is never erased—
They gave Liberty a Chinese face.


I suppose he/she may have been a government agent, but it's not been our
only contact since. That government is truly nasty in this regard, so I
don't want to jeopardize him/her by giving details, even on this list.
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