in the earthly paradise
birds will flock and fly
their songs will be the only sound
to rise at break of day
the sky a pale cerulean
the air so pure and clear
we won’t be missed by anyone
we have no special worth
everything we ever made
was only for ourselves
nature
George Elliot quote
We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it, if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass, the same hips and haws on the autumn hedgerows, the same redbreasts that we used to call ‘God’s birds’ because they did no harm to the precious crops. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known and loved because it is known?”
A good article to read
Show Respect (a Georgic)
for the love of the land
for the love of your home,
act swiftly,
consider the tiny things
that help the larger things grow
remember the balance in all that you do
or be at the mercy of strong winds that blow
and the giants that rattle the earth
and the rise of the floods that will come and go
and the sun that can parch the earth
and remember the times of the ice
the earth will survive
by natures device
but you will be gone from this place
no child will remain to inherit
no forgiveness of grace
will save you from your fate
for the love of the land
for the love of your home
act swiftly,
show no neglect,
before it’s too late,
learn respect
Brave New World
No poem today – just this …………..
I just saw a news article saying that Amazon would like to deliver our parcels by drone. The advantage of this, to the customer, is to get packages faster – I don’t need them faster. Amazon Prime is fast enough and what’s so wrong with waiting?
I like to meet the delivery guy at the door. I don’t want to live in a fully automated world with a sky full of drones. The kids love the idea of course, but me? NO THANKS!
This set me to thinking.
I grew up in a world where the sky was for the sun, the moon, stars, stars you could see clearly at night, clouds, rain, birds and planes. It wasn’t full of satellites bringing us bad news faster or surveillance cameras protecting us from what the world has become.
I am so glad I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I grew up in both rural and urban locations and it was always safe to go out. True, I did meet a couple of pedophile predators but my instincts on that were strong enough not to be lured and that instinct works face to face. There were always more vulnerable children of course but it’s far more dangerous to be groomed on the Internet.
A friend of mine, who is a teacher, recently told me that she read one of my poems about rural peace to a class of Hispanic urban teenagers. The nature images in the poem were from my childhood and were things they had never experienced or seen. One girl had tears in her eyes by the end of the poem. She said she wished she could go to a place like that. I wish she could too.
I didn’t have a mobile phone or Internet until my late 40’s and I communicated just the amount I chose to communicate. I even chose at one time in my 20’s to have no phone at all. I survived! Imagine! Fancy that! I didn’t die in an emergency or get stranded. I knew people. I had nearby neighbours who talked to me. The people in the local shops knew me. I was not in any way ‘cut off’ despite the fact I lived on the moors then and had to walk to the village.
I pity the children now with all their gadgets and computer games and no real freedom. Wandering the outside world with your friends or alone and taking an occasional risk is part of growing up. I suppose they will be better suited to the world ahead than I am but at least I know how to live when the power goes off.
It was also so much healthier to be out in the fields building hedgerow dens. In the summer holidays I was out with my bike or playing in the fields and woods from 9am to 6pm when I came home because I wanted my dinner and my packed food supply had run out.
When I lived in town I was in no danger either. One stabbing in our town was a major sensation, totally unheard of at the time. So, OK, London had the Kray twins and their like but criminals basically fought each other for territory and would never have taken an interest in the likes of me or the general public. Look at the world right now. Look at the gun crimes. The Kray Twins pale in comparison.
I think we have to admit that the world has gone seriously wrong and we can be sure that every bit of bad news will bombard us very fast while we are told so little about good things. Stressful isn’t it.
I am very sorry for the kids, but I am selfishly glad I am getting old because it means I wont have to see so much of the future.
I say ”thank you so very much for my childhood” because I am one of the last of the paradise kids.
A Bards Lament
did we survive so long in hardship
with arrow, quiver, toil and song
to reach a place, where all’s forgotten,
no honour held in memory,
of how they worked to make us strong?
I remember some of them
my family fought for generations
for a cause we know is just
we rose, we fell, we rose again
our banners both of air and dust
the tales i know will pass away
unwritten in the ancient books
were our dreams so misbegotten
that we face a future here
where nature’s treasures are befouled
and horrors rob this lovely place?
virtue’s lost and hides its face
in sorrow for a world held dear
dust is dust
air is air
dust floats on the air
Balancing
such shadows come and fall on me
from joy to sorrow, like a switch
i fight to turn the light back on
i don’t know where the joy has gone
a single note in some old song
a word not said
a thought unwise
i try to see where i went wrong
the tender sweetness
on a breeze
can turn my heart
and make me freeze
and then i go and sit a while
and lean against a steady tree
and wait to smile again
and see
like the earth we reach for warmth
and the thirsty kiss of rain
all things in nature
are the same
it’s all a mirror of ourselves
dimmed and scratched
things unclear
and things not seen
this constant flow
of dark and light
is just the deep souls day and night
and the turning of the year
The Choice is Pyramids or Circles
the pyramids of greed and power
became our masters long ago
they took the land away from us
and fenced the common pastures
while we were tired and sleeping
are we sleeping still?
we walk on ice above the fires
we hover on a precipice
bind-folded by the wrong desires
our better hopes defeated
how did we come to this?
the storm brings rain to fill the rivers
we complain of changing weathers
we take for granted natures gifts
making wanton use of treasures
every creature great and small
brings blessings to the earth
while we destroy and poison all
how can we be so foolish?
we are earth’s most useless creatures
we will come to understand, too late,
the damage we have done ourselves
in breaking natures circle
we will recognise our awful fate
when we reap the final harvest
join the circle, strong, complete
to guard and bless the garden
there is no greater purpose
the only promised land we have
is here beneath our feet
Chicken Slaugher
On my first visit to Morocco I wanted to buy a chicken for a dinner for friends.When I asked for advice on where to buy one I was asked,
”You would like a white one or a brown one?”
I said ”Oh just a fresh one, not a frozen one”
So I was taken to a shop where the chickens were so fresh they were still alive. They sat comfortably in fairly spacious cages lining the walls of the little shop. The man sold nothing but chickens.
I said to my guide, ”I don’t want a live chicken. It’s for dinner”
He said ”Choose one. The man will kill it”
I had qualms about this but resolved that, if I wanted to eat it, it was rather hypocritical not to see it killed. So I just said, ”Any chicken” because I still didn’t want to issue the death sentence and prefered to leave that to fate.
I also decided that I would not look away.
The man went calmly and caressingly, peacefully selected a chicken and held it under his arm like an embrace, speaking to it all the time. The chicken remained calm. In a rapid gesture the man cleanly slit its throat. No squawking. No fuss. That was that.
When I went home to the UK I told my friends about this. Most of them expressed revulsion despite my careful description of the event and its humane nature.
Now – I ask you to stop and think.
Think of the type of slaughter we allow. Think of factory farms. Think of disgraceful methods of slaughter that go on every day on a mass scale.
If you are a vegetarian I recommend that you don’t view this accompanying video (link below). If you think our slaughter methods are humane watch it and see what effect seeing it has on you (but be warned that it’s horrific). This was clearly not filmed in the UK but we do have factory farms here and our meat arrives from everywhere. Judging by the mass production of our meat I, for one, will not, in future, eat anything that I have not seen killed and if you want animals to be treated properly you might want to do the same. I go further than that. No meat at all because the ONLY way to truly stop this is not to PAY for it.
Watch the film or not as you wish. The first half is not unpleasant (it is just the reaction of people being shown the video). The second half (of which you will be warned before it begins) is a souless, mindless, totally disrespectful and disgusting disregard for animals and, in a sense, nature as a whole. If you like animals at all you wont want meat after this. This video shows chicks, chickens, calves, pigs and piglets.
The World
the sun, the shine,
the shadows fall beneath the trees,
tranquil trance of leaves, triumphant,
leaning, lofty, lovely, light
the love, the lost, the found, the learning,
light of love, looping flight
flight to night, the moon, the stars,
stars that lead the navigator
star of wonder, star of hope
tent of sky, singing songs
sounds of battle, lullaby and funeral marches
swords and strangers, the strong, the mighty
might have been, may be still, morning comes,
comes with chimes, chime of bell,
bells of silver, shiver, shatter, shards,
sentinels of silence, stone
stones in water, stones in sea,
the rivers rush, rolling, waters rising into cloud,
rain and rainbow. what of us?
What of us? we were. we are.
walking, wandering, wondering why,
where and when, will it, wont it come again
the sun, the shine and is this all?
are we really all so small?
the sun, the shine, a burst of light,
burgeons, blossoms, blooms and grows,
glows and gladdens, glancing eyes,
eyes that see, the world, the life unfold,
enfold, enshrine, delightful,
dancing, woven in delicious dream,
the globe, the glow, eternal, bright,
entrances me – this glorious world
The Dreaming Path 