The first poetry reading session of WIN: Writers International Network to welcome 2019 and to pray for universal peace, friendship and love in a strife-torn world was held on Sunday January 13 in Vancouver. WIN acknowledges that peace, within and without, is of paramount importance. So is health—individual and of the community.
We are faced with the threats of wars, terrorism, intolerance, poverty, illiteracy, hunger, climate change and bigotry. Once Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “we need poets to change the world.” Therefore, to fight these curses, we the poets have to act as one global family with common goals and shared vision for the protection, preservation and sustenance of humanity, nature and the earth. In an interconnected and interdependent world, the reality of oneness is to be recognized as a crucial factor, despite our socio-cultural diversities.
In an atmosphere of blatant distortions and manipulations of facts and truth, the serious writing plays a crucial part. It challenges and demolishes the official narratives and suggests the counter-narratives. The questioning of the status quo—at the cost of individual safety and survival is an essential part of arts.
WIN recognizes that “the future is fluid” therefore we attempt to bring writers to a place, common ground, where past, present and future exists simultaneously and to promote poetry reading and recital as a key to networking to embrace and understand fellow poets, writers, artists, community leaders and society at large.
The mission is not the self-promotion but promotion of writing community.
Ashok Bhargava is a poet and founder of WIN – Writers International Network and can be contacted at [email protected]
