"Heart approach to becoming a vegan
To renounce our old favourite foods and become a vegan cheerfully, we need more than a convincing idea and alternative food. Our head and our stomach need the support of our heart. Writing a poem can help us to assimilate the knowledge we heard by reflecting the words and images on multiple levels of our consciousness.
Here is what James Hillman said about the relevance of poetry to environmentalism, which I think also applicable to veganism: 'Orpheus reaches into the heart of the natural world by means of his art, and via this art nature enters speech, becomes poetry. If the speech of environmentalism does not awaken nature's sublimity, its beauty and its terror, if the rocks and trees do not speak, they remain mere objects, not ensouled subjects with whom the human is bound in the "sympathy of all things" ... It is the aesthetic response to the world's suffering, its ugliness, its abuse and exploitation - and its sublime beauty - that brings the phenomena of the world to life; the aesthetic response that sees and feels and speaks of the world as alive, ensouled, pagan'. (Orpheus: Uniform Edition 6) By writing poems about the animal world we will stop seeing cows and chickens as production machines, and remember that pigs and fish are living wonders.
In June at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre we are going to organise a Vegan Day which will include a Green Poetry Event.
Let the green Orpheus within us emerge! Green of the beginner's mind, green of fearlessness, green of the refreshed world, green against the red of bloodshed, green for vegans and aspirants.
Please send me a short poem or a few very short ones, with less than 108 words in total, on the theme of vegan and green as mentioned above. Short, in order to make it less daunting to write and to evaluate. You might win a prize! You don't need to be a confident poet or a confirmed vegan. You need only to aspire to live with beauty, truth and goodness. Thanks to the internet connection this event is also for you, wherever you live. You could consult, work together and invite your friends to participate; joy is the name of the game.
Please send your entry by e-mail to vimalabandhu@hotmail.com by May 31st. There will be two winners chosen by a jury and two chosen by the audience. Hopefully with the prize you'll be able to treat your friends to an excellent dinner. A jury of 3 or 5 experienced poets/poetry lovers within Triratna will make a short list and choose their favourite poems. On June 29th, those attending the Cambridge Buddhist Centre Vegan Event will vote from the short listed poems for the audience prizes".