No pilot…no blame..
Sometimes, less is more. The less said, the more we can draw our own conclusions.
For about a month, I was feeling like I had a “biggish poem” inside. That means to me personally, that I might be taking a poetic stand on something, which I do rarely, but sometimes I feel I just have to. I had no idea what it might even be about, and even when this poem, and the music (the music came first) were being born, I still was not sure this was it…but now I think it might be.
I give you “Drone,” with the apology, that I am sorry the world is such a mess, that I even had to consider writing it. As I said in Blur, this is one of many variations, of too many verified incidents, and sadly no one can say this never happens…or is not happening now. I do invite you to listen to it, as the sound track plays an integral part. It is a performance, piece, and I will perform it at my next reading April 6th at Ce Soir Arts.
The Picture was shot on my very pensive world of three layers on Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand called “Between The Profound and The Profane” Intrepid grid travelers can click on the name, and go in and immerse in a very bizarre build, captured between two extremes. Just Click below to listen to the poem and my original musical composition that encouraged it.
Drone by Karima Hoisan.mp3
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Digital Rabbit Hole 
Strong and terrifying, Karima. I am deeply sad that this is happening in the world (not only for moral reasons, even; it seems so clear to me that this is the perfect way to create more terrorists). You paint the tragedy and sadness well…
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Thank you Dale for being the first brave public commenter. If I could move you a little then I feel the poem has accomplished its reason for being here. Sighs..and decides to not say much more than…. when innocent children are the ones hurt, maimed, or killed, for any reason..or anyone’s war, or psychosis, I am horrified enough to sometimes write a poem protesting this sad and inexcusable part of our human condition.
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I listened twice. It is tragic, wondrous, and a modern horror. The music is subtle like an unintended soundtrack. The pilot should hear it. Like bombardiers in past world wars, we are too far removed from death these days to care enough.
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Thank you RoseDrop for listening and leaving your impressions. I think you are so right about that,
“… we are too far removed from death these days to care enough.” I just allowed myself to feel one of the many horrible injustices happening at this very moment, I too have tried to remove myself from seeing or caring. Sometimes..I just can’t, and poems and music like this are born. I had thought about making a machinima, which is maybe why you hear a soundtrack” but I don’t know…I think maybe this is enough.
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This one kind of shook me out of my reverie. Never knowing what to expect, even when forewarned, I felt the vibe of morbid tragedy. You never fail to evoke strong emotions and we can always count on covering the full spectrum of them by following you (((hugs))).
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Thank you Diz…and as I said above, I’m sorry to have to write a theme like this one…but I think it is on a lot of our minds..The “robotic wars” take indifference and cold-bloodness to new levels..and not confined to any one country or cause…but always there is a human hand and brain behind the scenes..I think we all feel vulnerable watching the signs point in this direction…
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Thank you for sharing this poem, Karima! It’s so haunting listening to you and the soundtrack. The level of realism is beyond words!
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Thank you Red for taking the time to leave your impressions.. If my poem was able to touch you like this, then I am content that I posted it. I appreciate your words very much..
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After reading the poem I was doing some research about those drones. And it’s horrible. I mean ok, the first victim of a war is the truth and you cant trust no one, but its a fact that a hellfire rocket cant decide who is a terrorist and who is not. And the use of weapons which are built to destroy tanks and bunkers against people result in that cynical term collateral damage.
The precision of so called “intelligent weapon sytems” is one of the biggest lie ever.
Another fact is, that in 2009 the armed drone strikes dramaticly increased under President Obama, and the DoD published many of these strikes as videos on youtube. These videos became hit and were known as “drone porn”.
Being a soldier means to risk your own life, but not for those new videowarriors. In february the DoD established the “Distinguished Warfare Medal”, which ranks right under the Distuingished Flying Cross. Many Organisations critisized that and they are right. Sitting in a warm 1500 miles away bunker, drinking coffee and kill people with a fingertip isnt combat nor war.
And unfortunately the German Gouvernment and the German Secretary of Defense (aka “Verteidigungsminister”) are considering acquisition of armed drones. Thats really a NO GO!
And so the German peace movement starts this years Easter March with a campaign against armed drones.
The use of drones, armed or not, is a threat to all people in all countries. Watch out the skies!
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Thank you Nat for your research and your comments about the subject in general. It’s a very scary theme, and hard to feel so impotent facing it..
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Moody and atmospheric and unusually for your poems, it left me with a cold chill. However,it’s a message that has to be out there and your eloquence and feeling makes it compulsive listening however uncomfortable it makes us feel. A masterpiece which brings the human tragedy of anonymous actions into your unswerving gaze.
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Thank you so much Sis for allowing yourself to be moved by it. Really, there is so much more to say, but I think the poem with the soundtrack, concentrated on just opening up a very broad and disputed topic to any of those who took the time to listen to it. Thank you sis, for doing that, and leaving your comment.
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Wow! This is exactly why you were chosen by the powers that be, to be a writer. Technology has taken us in two directions. Good and bad. Diz says it well when she calls “drone technology” morbid. Your poem is very affective. It evokes great responses. Again thank you for speaking out for all of us. Here is a song by Kris Kristofferson on the morbidness of the world today. He is a great writer. But I thought I would up his status by having him mentioned along side of you.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-dJ7sspsiE)
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Thank you so much Hoyt for your comment and your “chiste” about who makes whom look good:) Thank you for believing in what I do and for helping me to take chances even when I question whether I should..Thanks for your boundless loyalty and support…mi ruco..
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This was more than a challenge for me…this topic is a personal one, for I know loss from technological warfare. In this time of advancement in all our technologies – much of it simply stunning and positive – there is this terrible thing we have created: an “automatic” way of killing. Life is so precious…and I feel deeply sad that it seems so expendable in modern times, as we do seem doomed to repeat history for lack of learning.
Technology creates connections and tears them apart at the same time. Some of us are using technology to strengthen, to invigorate, to stimulate, to grow, to share, to create…and some of us are using technology to weaken, to enervate, to depress, to halt, to steal, to destroy.
We each have a choice – many choices – every day that are tantamount to life and death choices; perhaps those choices are not always directly about ourselves or those close to us – and perhaps they are not always clear and well-defined – but choices, they remain. Let us remember that I breathe your air and you breathe mine, making us one in yet another way…deeply spiritual and cellular. Let us choose as wisely as we can and remember that every act is as a pebble thrown into a pond, with ripples that reach far into tomorrow.
I thank you Karima, for your sensitive, stark, revealing and poetic look at this horrific tool of war and its devastations. It goes far beyond that…to the very value of life.
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Oh Mireille, thank you so much for taking the time to first listen to the poem Drone, and then to write this beautifully expressed reply, I am sorry to know that this has touched you in some way personally, and your views on the dark and light of technology were so well thought out and stated here. Knowing that you speak from real life experience of loss and are a witness to the dark side of technology in the most personal of ways, impresses me with the importance to sometimes speak out. I don’t very much as you know..but when I do, I see how many are touched personally by a situation I only knew poetically, and yet my words were able to make that connection. I love what you say about we all breathe the same air..so important to remember daily in our lives and our relationships with “strangers” We all have much more in common than we have differences..but it has been good oil for the War machine to make us all look harder at the differences..
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