For World Poetry Day – dissident poets from PEN International

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/national-poetry-day-dissident-poets-pen

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Aron Atabek – Kazakhstan

The poet, journalist and activist Aron Atabek has been in prison since 2007 and has spent much of his incarceration in solitary confinement. In December 2012, following the online publication of The Heart of Eurasia, a critique of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's regime (written in prison by Atabek and smuggled out for publication), the poet was sentenced to spend two years in solitary confinement. He was denied access to natural light, communication with other prisoners, writing materials and telephone calls; family visits were severely restricted, resulting in only one successful visit between 2010 and the current date; he was kept under constant video surveillance.

My Throat Will Die by Aron Atabek

My throat, unable to speak, will dieFor the sounds of my homeland.My ancestors' patter will vanishLike water into sand.I am a storyteller of immortalityIn Semitic and Etruscan tongues;I am the dust of Turkic dialectsWriting in Russian.Many lives' twisted fatesAre lost inside me, mourning,And I myself am a naked tangle of nervesPulsating with verses

(Translated by Alfia Nakipbekova and Niall McDevitt)

Call to action: Aron Atabek

Liu Xia – China

Liu Xia is a poet, artist, and founding member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre. She has been held in her Beijing apartment without access to phones, internet, doctors of her choice, or visitors since her husband, Liu Xiaobo, was named the winner of the Nobel peace prize in October 2010. In recent months, there has been increased concern regarding the mental health of Liu Xia, who is reportedly suffering from depression.

One Bird After Another by Liu Xia

We saw itA little reflection left on the glassIt had been printed there for a long time without leaving…Every year on July 15 of the lunar calendarThe river would be covered with water lanternsBut they could not call back your soul…The train heading for the concentration campSobbingly ran over my bodyBut I could not hold your hand…

(Translated by Yu Zhang, Edited by Bonny Cassidy)

Call to action: Liu Xia

Enoh Meyomesse – Cameroon

Poet, author and founding member of the Cameroon Writers' Association, Meyomesse was arrested on 22 November 2011 and initially charged with attempting to organise a coup, possessing a firearm and aggravated theft – charges denied by the author, who maintains he was arrested because of his political views. After concerns over his treatment in prison and fabricated evidence, all of the charges were dropped in June 2012. A judge ordered his detention should be extended and he was charged and found guilty of being an accomplice to theft and illegal traffic of gold.

Despair by Enoh Meyomesse

you visited me that dayand the black night, without stars without moonbeamswithout fireflies without future without anythingyou could cut it with a machetelike the night when my feetlost their way behind the village hutoh God in heaveninky   darknessbeat down on meand you oh earth      yes you oh earth      you had stopped   turning

(Translated by Grace Hetherington)

Call to action: Enoh Meyomesse

Susana Chávez Castillo – Mexico

Chávez, a prominent poet and women's rights advocate, was found murdered in the border town of Ciudad Juárez on 6 January 2011. Her body found strangled, with one of her hands cut off, was only identified five days later. Chávez (born 5 November 1974) had been highly vocal in calling for justice for the hundreds of women killed in the Juárez area since the early 1990s, both as an activist and through her writings; in particular taking part in numerous poetry readings which she dedicated to the murdered women.

This poem, by Claribel Alegría, was one of a number of poems in the Pen International anthology Write Against Impunity which was dedicataed to Chávez's memory.

Impunity by Claribel Alegría

To Susana Chávez Castillo, murdered poet

Impunity extendsover our Americamultipliesdemandsturns us indifferent.They fall in cascadejournalistspoetswritersthey committed the crimeof denouncing crimeand not closing their mouthsand flushing outassassinationscrimesrapesand may the children knowand may the students read itand the old.Let's unite, brotherslet's unitewe denounce crimeand all thosethat want to silence us.Let's unite, let's uniteImpunity advancesand turns us into cowards.Let's wake upbrothersand between us allgash the neckof the medusato that impunityits multiple headsthat threaten to swallow us.

(Translated by David Shook)

Call to action: Susana Chávez