Last year, the Turtle
received an unsolicited, and fantastic poem. Find
My Message stuck the Poetry Commissars as a taut, funny, and
moving commentary on subversion and self-censorship in censorious
times. It was a poem that brought many to the Turtle, including
organizers from the South African Anti-Eviction Campaign. The AEC
has been organizing against the African National Congress’s increasingly
violent slide into neoliberal capitalism, and you can read about
them in a fine report here.
At an AEC organizing meeting, Find My Message was read out, and
hailed. The acclaim got back to Comrade Turse. Rather than bask
in well-deserved fame, Comrade Turse responded in a manner that
exemplifies the Stakhanovite spirit - he wrote another poem, to
the greater glory of the AEC. You can read it here.
Of course, two poems
do not a Stakhanovite make. But Comrade Turse has provided the Turtle
with an avalanche of fine material, from a review of a progressive
rock concert (no, not that kind, this
kind), to controvesial thoughts on the commercialization of
Che.
The
Turtle Salutes Comrade Turse, whose name will be forever inscribed
in fiery letters in the Annals of Stakhanovism!
*Nick
Turse would like it to be known that he can be found in the picture
above, to the left of the person holding the sign.
Click
here to read about our other Stakhanovites!
