I Looked Up And All The Stars Were Jasmine Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

'The call to action last Saturday draw less attention to the Chinese people. However, in Beijing, a man named Liu Xiaobai 25 years old was ambushed by the police when putting jasmine flowers in front of fast food restaurants, especially, McDonald's, which was mentioned as the location of a planned protest, and took some photos there.

'I was very scared when the police took my cell phone. I just put some white flowers. What's wrong with that, ' said Liu. 'I'm an ordinary citizen who love peace.'

Security forces intended to arrest Liu previously, but the crowd of journalists initially prevented the arrest. Two other men were also arrested. Not yet clear whether the actions were related to 'Revolution Jasmine'. The arrest took place in Shanghai.

On Sunday, the government went further, reaching the virtual world. Search for the keyword 'jasmine' is blocked in similar micro-blogging site Twitter in China, Renren.com. Not only that, short messaging service via mobile phones are also disturbed.'

AP Article found on VIVA newspost Internet Sunday February 20,2011 after initially hearing about this on BBC Radio



I looked up and all the stars were jasmine
the moon was veiled in jasmine
the crickets in the dark
sang 'jasmine', 'jasmine'

in my heart a small white
flower so perfumed
in my heart a small
white flower, delicate, in freedom

bloomed and bloomed.

I looked out and all
the earth was jasmine
folded into Space save in

one place, only-
a poet with one last word to spend
spread a trail of jasmine

and was led away to who
knows where by those afraid
of only flowers.

now the lines on God's own weeping palm
are crossed and crossed again,
but they spell 'Jasmine'

and all my tears-
and all my tears-
are jasmine. jasmine.

mary angela douglas 20 february 2011