I wrote a little poem for my english extension 1 class this week! I performed it as a spoken word poem, which I had never done before, but it also doubled as a found poem. This is when an author may take direct lines from a book or novel (in this case, I used an article on Peace & Conflict within Ursula K LeGuin’s novel, The Left Hand of Darkness) and turn it into a poem. I hope you enjoy!
Non-violent action has power, she said
Why, peaceful conflict resolutions take more than good intentions and courage
Careful strategy is equally important
There are 5 stages of peace settlements
Dealing with non-violent dimensions
Establishing rough symmetry between opposing groups
Negotiating interest rather than positions
Developing loyalties to more inclusive groups
And 5. Working within the limits
Once we move beyond the fears and stereotypes of the other
We first perceive the problem from our own eyes
But we must take a step
And look
And see
The problem from the other’s perspective
The attractiveness of a goal– food, territory, power, depends on the perceiver.
We must recognise that people differ in their perceptions
Power situations, peace, or problems
Hence
The resolution of conflicts requires our eyes
In the face of another
For the goal of power
To see the common ground between them
The final four strategies of conflict resolution
deal not with the people involved
but with the issues themselves.
Imagine a line
On one side there is one | and on the other is another
Symmetry is vital for bargaining for power
But in the end
"There must be no illusions. In some cases nonviolent people have not only been
beaten and cruelly treated but killed, not only accidentally or as isolated punishment, but in deliberate massacres" (556).
To ask that all conflicts be resolved by the end is to fall into the trap which Mason warns against: "The fallacy with all such visions is that they posit peace as a state rather than a process and take no account of the actual texture of continuing day-to-day life. Peace does not solve all problems; it shifts them onto less harsh ground" (2-3).
Like Mason and Park, Le Guin has said that readers have a right to look to literature for hope (Language 117-18). In The Left Hand of Darkness she provides that hope, and its credibility is enhanced by the grounding of the book in principles and strategies that have importance and credibility of their own in the field of peace studies and conflict resolution.