Saturday 30 January 2016

Musical Heroes


( will end the month with this poem, released last night at my monthly  Cellar Bards  meet,  a response to  people who have moved my world. These people are not flawless though, I do not worship them , but their voices have carried me  through lifes struggles, and continue to impact on my days.)

Musical inspiration
has rippled through my days,
in summertime and the coldness of winter
waiting for springs return,
old heroes keep drifting by
intoxicating my world with their senses,
wild in imagination
flickers of light that keep on shining
high above forever flying.

Sounds released 
give me a glimpse of yesterday,
a glance of tomorrow
alpha moving with Omega,
playing leap frog in the rain
earth beats keep on swinging,
the end is never quite finished
as another day unfolds.

Musical heroes keep on giving
refusing to go  gently in the night.
signals and currents
endlessly captivating,
voices strong that never disappear
so thank you,John Coltrane, Gil Scot Heron,
Bessie Smith, Woody Guthrie
Joe Strummer, Lemmy,
Billy Holliday, David Bowie,
fellow astronauts
travelling upon oceans of sound.

Thursday 28 January 2016

David Cameron loses it.


Fury has erupted as David Cameron lost it yesterday  during his attack on Jeremy Corbyn at PMQ's and now he's paying for it.
He has been criticised for  describing Calais refugees as 'a bunch of migrants' while Jeremy Coryn attacked  cruel and unjust bedroom tax  and derisory Google tax deal, his comments  have been described as vile and hypocritical as they came on Holocaust Memorial Day, using flippant remarks to score political points, at a time when we are facing the greatest refugee crisis of our time. Refugees desperately trying to find some safety and dignity to be treated with derision by a Prime Minister who used his position to release vile inflammatory comments. This coming after his  other casual remarks about "a swarm of people " arriving in Calais and previous cheap jokes  cracked  at Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron's expense  after being told about the plight of desperate refugee children.Shame on him as people are dying on our doorstep.
It is now down  to the rest of us to  show him that the spirit of compassion lives on, to do what we can to help and to ensure that the rest of the world knows that David ' dishonourable reptile' Cameron and his ilk are not representative of the rest of us and keep on staying human.

http://www.thecanary.co/2016/01/27/cameron-loses-attack-corbyn-pmqs-now-hes-paying/ 

Here's the late great Tony Benn, spot on as usual.






Wednesday 27 January 2016

Holocaust Memorial Day



Today is Holocaust Memorial Day - a time for us all to reflect on the Nazis attempt to wipe out Jews, Gypsies and other  minority groups, Trade Unionists, Communists,  homosexuals, people with mental and physical difficulties, Jehovah Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other slavic peoples  targeted for destruction and decimation  for racial, ethnic and national reasons, along with black people and resistance fighters.
From the time they assumed power in 1933, the Nazis used  persecution, propoganda,  and legislation to deny human rights to so many. Using hate as their  foundation.
By the end of the Holocaust over 8 million , men  women and children had perished in ghettoes and mass shootings , in concentration camps and extermination camps.
Holocaust Memorial day is  held today because it marks the liberation of Aushwitz-Birkenau , the largest of the Nazi Concentration Camps.
But is  also used today to remember all subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia  and Darfur etc etc.
We must never forget the journeys of the persecuted. and when we say  never again, we must mean never again.
But we still face  so much tragedy, and persecution that should not exist,  anti-muslim hate crimes have tripled,we have the 'jungle' of Calais, refugees  in Cardiff forced to wear identifying  red wristbands, doors of refugees painted red in Middlesbrough. The hate speech of Le Pen, and Donald Trump,  fascist forces and assorted racists from  a range of far right groups  descending on the port of Dover, with the aim of  inciting racial hatred.
We cannot afford to tolerate this, we must constantly oppose, or we will repeat the mistakes and crimes and terrible tragedy of the past. No to hatred and intolerance. Today I remember all those who died in the Holocaust , whilst watching history repeating itself, and people remaining silent.
Lest we forget.









...

Speaking Out


( after losing an unusual amount of followers on this blog in last few days. My voice still rings out.)

I usually have something to say
Whether you listen, or not that's ok,
My thoughts can be furious
or can  gently float,
trying to release meaning
standing alone, raising voice.
I try to release words
speaking out when I want to,
will apologise when necessary
as long as I still have breathe,
will try and keep on being true
refusing silence, allow words to engage,
sending out messages to fight and heal,
against injustice, senseless war
the horrors of the world,
in  anxious, restless times
try to stay present while I can,
continue to bark out loud,
allow thoughts to unravel
escape and enclose.

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Winter in Gaza - Mosab Mostafa


" Winter is a time for comfort , for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk besides the fire: it is the time for home - Edith Sitwell

"But not in Gaza .
Winter is the time  for pain, for tasteless food and coldness , for the touch of a freezing hand and for a cry beside the fire : it is the time for distress.

But sometimes it is totally the opposite. " -  Mosab Mostafa ,  Friend  from Gaza, Palestine.
  

Monday 25 January 2016

Karl Marx on Alienation



Karl Marx believed that work, at its best, is what makes us  human.  It allows us  to live, be creative and flourish. But under capitalism he saw workers alienated  from each other and the product of their  labour.
Unfortunately  we are all products of capitalism. So by it's vey nature it will leave us feeling alienated.
The system  that capitalism props  up wants us to be deatomised and detached from each other, and this atomization will unfortunately  continue as long as society exists.
Overcoming alienation is a perpetual task for individuals.
In other words dealianation is a continuous and interminable process. Rational freedom is the best hope we can  have for humanity for overcoming  various forms of  alienation. I am reminded of the old maxim, the truth  shall set you free.
We are all  cogs in a big machine designed to harness us to the system that keeps the wealthy on top. We can resist this alienation by creating projects for ourselves which produce real interactions outside  of the rules and relationships that social reproduction demands. In doing this we can find new affinities  and new prospects for destroying the existing order.
I remain at the end of the day an optimist.
Oh happy St Dwynwens's day, by the way, the Welsh Patron Saint of Lovers.

Narrated by Gillian Anderson  ; Scripted by Nigel Warbuton


From  the BBC Radio 4 series about life's big questions - A history of ideas.



Friday 22 January 2016

Dreamtime



( under the influence of a few jazz cigarettes

In dreamtime meanderings
I drift with subconscious mind,
releasing abstract threads of memory
from deep repostitory of brain, 
in transition, some become reality
journeys for the future to bridge,
flickering in colour, protective spindles of feeling
lingering passages of twilights passing pages,
swaying through the day and night
opening mind, releasing feelings deep inside,
gathering scraps of everything to restore
fading in and out, never submitting to defeat,
waiting for notions of days to come
days of change tumbling  forward,
sparks of magic, spinning through tomorrow
touching the earth, with explosions of breath.