Given

the chance to make a real difference....

I got a letter this morning that made my heart jump with joy
if you know me than you know why I am so happy about it
here it is:

"I am a Canadian and have recently returned from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, working as part of a group supported by CIDA (Canadian International Development Association). My role was to assist small business, most of whom were retail with various marketing strategies. In the process of my participation I worked with a wonderful woman who was selling a variety of products made by a group of forty village women. She sells a variety of merchandise including including T-shirts. In a brainstorming session with my young Indonesian interpreters an idea emerged to market a T-shirt with a design including a poem of the Tsunami (written in English). The group did some research and determined that your poem was their favourite. I explained that they could not use the poem without permission. So this is where I come in.

Brigitta, would you allow "Tsunami Poem Without a Name" to be used for commercial purposes on a T-shirt design by Ibu Asmatawi. The poem would have your name attached as the author and would only be used to support the local business in Banda Aceh. Certainly a prototype could be made available to you. It is thought that a memorial park will be created in the city centre where the huge barge moved 5 Km in from the sea. This could be a good opportunity to sell memorial T-shirts, now and in the future."

This is why I write... really... to make a difference in our world... to be part of... to help where the help is really needed... I am deeply moved that the people that were effected in such a grave way found my poem to touch them in such a way

and the most important way since i have no money to give.... that i can give them my permission to use this poem of mine like this... i am so thankful... really:)

here is the poem again just in case you missed it when i first published it on this blog just after the tsunami


The silent ocean
suddenly a wall of destruction

Sleeping in the soft sand
—mass grave
1000 upon 1000's of souls
brilliant flash of light
spiraling in a world between worlds


Fragments of pain
—deep
into the heart


Mounting numbers
of lifelessness
—Empty shells


Larger than life
—proportions


All I have to offer is
— hope
in those darkest of times



All I have to offer is
—oceans of joy
as dawn breaks