Prompt: Black Out Integration

An attempt to unite patiently

We can make a difference with our soft revolutions.

We believe that a lot of the problems that we are seeing in today’s world is due to the lack of patience we (consciously/subconsciously) show towards understanding what we (consciously/subconsciously) deem as others. Even if we try to be kind and compassionate, often we simply do not see the need to understand something we do not immediately grasp. We alienate (people, art, etc.) without intending to do so; which eventually stacks up and leads to bigger issues.

At BNG, we thought of a writing exercise that might help us build that patience. Start a natural process of unification without compromising on the diversity we bring forth.

For participating in this effort to integrate, please follow these steps —

(1) Find a poem or article in a language you can not read/understand (or can barely read/understand or a language you want to explore further). If you struggle with this, you can choose writing from a language you understand but a concept that you do not fully understand yet.

(2) Take one word or a couple of words that look appealing to you. Investigate these words and research their meanings etc.

(3) Mentally or physically black out the rest of the poem, leaving only these words exposed. Show us the blacked out version if you like.

(4) Integrate these new words (in their original script) into a poem or an article of your own.

If you can, please do submit a link to the original work from were you pick the words. If you struggle to find something, you could use lines from this poem, कृष्ण की चेतावनी by Ramdhaari Singh ‘Dinkar’ —

हरि ने भीषण हुंकार किया, अपना स्वरूप-विस्तार किया, डगमग-डगमग दिग्गज डोले, भगवान् कुपित होकर बोले- ‘जंजीर बढ़ा कर साध मुझे, हाँ, हाँ दुर्योधन! बाँध मुझे।

यह देख, गगन मुझमें लय है, यह देख, पवन मुझमें लय है, मुझमें विलीन झंकार सकल, मुझमें लय है संसार सकल। अमरत्व फूलता है मुझमें, संहार झूलता है मुझमें।

We hope in the process of doing this, we all learn context, sentiments and meanings of new words/worlds and most of all learn the patience that the integration of others requires. At the end of the day, it does not matter who the writer is but it does matter how diverse a universe we paint for the readers. The definition of other changes depending on where we stand and who we are. Instead of feeding into the label narrative this world is consumed by, how about making it harder for everyone to put a label on us and our work.

By sharing our work, hopefully we are educating our fellow readers and writers with new ideas and creating unique pieces that only patient soulful integration can produce.

Love, Shringi and Ashley

Yamini MacLean, Yardena Schwersky, Gabriella Salazar, Johanna Naomi, Wolfie Bain, Lisa Alletson, Gianna Brachetti🐙Truskawa, Heidi Chase, Sarah Carter, Trixie Pacis, Jazz Ramsy, Martie Sirois, Christian Schoor, Charlene Fate, Sarah Book, G.R. MELVIN, C.S. Mathews, Trisha Traughber, Nadia Davidson, Riley Gordon, Tammy Ha, Janis Cox, Simon Heathcote, Agnes Louis, Shobha Roy, Rusty Alderson, Maymuuna, Justcallmejillybean, Sylvia Wohlfarth, J.J. Tung, Radhika Tara Kali, Jessica Archuleta, Michael Stang, Keara Lou, Austin Briggman, Anna Rozwadowska, Alex Carrigan, Chiedza Kikumi, David S., Anish Lamichhane, MD, Priyanka Srivastava, Vaishali Paliwal, Jessi Roman, Samantha Lazar, Shruti Sinha, Ashwini Dodani, Jenny Justice, Zarina Dara 🥀💃🏻, Tracy Aston, Dennett, wimpy af, Brian Fehler, Anitha Sankaran, schian H, Somsubhra Banerjee, Pablo Pereyra, Farida Haque.

If you wish to be a writer with us please drop a note in the comments.