Indifference

                                         Indifference

As the Kestrel hovers, trembling like a new leaf in the breeze

Judging the moment to abandon its efforts to defy gravity

Ready to fall as a dropped hammer

With curved knives to pierce the life

Of a mouse, stilled in its skittering

Pausing, about to chew upon cast away seeds flung from the khaki grass

That may still yet become reborn;

A friendship of lambs with heads down nibbling and chewing

Intent on consuming the sweetest and tenderest tips

Fail to notice the theatre of a life in its final moments.

On The Death of Two Ash Trees

Chalara the Destroyer     
Part of the ring is broken,

Felled by chainsaw ripping through disease

Danger averted but majesty destroyed

 

Mysterious root of the ancient people

Provider of tools

Heater of homes

Cooker of food

Healer

Strong

Wise

Gone

 

No longer do you stretch to the heavens

No longer do you delve the earth depths

No longer do you connect

Oak and Hawthorn abandoned so the three are divided

Fae have flown.

 

A tear in the garment of the earth

A hole in the living order

Heaven un-tethered

 

Will the Meliae* come again?

Will the ring  be made whole?

Will that living link between earth and heaven be remade?

 

The mighty ones have fallen

Air too dirty, soil too salted, water too foul

To resist

 

We must plant again

Make our soil living again

Make our water pure again

Make our air clean again

 

Nurture and serve our mighty Ash

Re-birth the magic

Re-connect heaven and earth

Re-make the ring.

 

 

 

*Meliae – Ash tree nymphs(dryads)

Jerusalem – A National Anthem

Jerusalem

And could those ancient feet of inspiration

Walk now on England’s pastures green

Or would the Lamb of God be waiting in Calais

Excluded.

Those feet would not walk on the cracked, fracked rolling hills,

That countenance divine would not be welcome in the

Satanic Mills made over to be shopping malls,

And the army of God has disappeared

With its burning gold bows for sale in retro stores

And chariots of fire traded in for 4 x4s with aircon and 0% finance,

Swords are asleep as hands are full of keyboards and phones

The arrows of desire  pre packaged

And marketed for ‘only your pleasure’,

 

Exhausted from the mental fight and drowning in lakes of wine

The deserting army has ceased the fight

And looking around we know

That while we sang that we would build Jerusalem

We have built Babylon instead.

 

Who Are These Strangers?

Who are these strangers,

Threatening our way of life,

Threatening our decency

Threatening our morality

Dragging our country down

Who only care for themselves

Who are willing to do anything, anything, for money

Who are these strangers who have broken up communities

Who have thrown people out from their homes

Who have abandoned the young and the innocent

Who have turned deceit into a lifestyle?

 

They are not the quiet ones who spend hours and hours each week running food banks and soup kitchens

They are not the thousand upon thousand who run, cycle, swim and dance for charity,

They are not the cheerful volunteers doing their best to help the creaking schools and hospitals, parks and canals, libraries and museums

They are not the millions of parents struggling to give their children the best start in life

They are not the ones who struggle to keep a roof over their heads

They are not the truly religious who selflessly give and give and give again

They are not the huggers and laughers who brighten our days

They are not the decent majority looking out for others always willing to lend a hand

They have not got England’s dirt under their fingernails

They have not sweated for a pittance

They have not grafted for others

 

 

These strangers look like you or me

These strangers are not from abroad,

They live in our villages, towns and cities

They drive on the same streets as we do

They walk on the same pavements we do

But they are not the same as us

 

 

They are the people who would turn away a child in need

They are the people who would seek profit from your sickness

They are the people who would sell your schools

They are the people who would lie to you, cheat, you, misrepresent you

They are the people who would make war on others

They are the people who would belittle you because you care

They are the people who would take away your voice and vote, if they could,

They are the people who make me ashamed because I have to share my country with them

And they act in my name even though I did not vote for them.

 

These strangers, how did we let them in to our beautiful lives,  how have we let them take charge of our beautiful country, how did we let it get so bad?

 

written the day after 297 Tory MPs voted not to take 3000 unaccompanied refugee children, the day after the Hillsborough inquest reached its verdict and on the day when doctors were striking because they  cared for the NHS. 

Emperor Education’s New Clothes 2018

Education in 2018 is like the Emperor with no clothes interpreted by the Orwellian nightmare of 1984.

In 2018 unclothed Education parades around embarrassingly, being flattered by political parties and their legions of willfully ignorant followers into believing that it is clothed in the rich and beautiful cloth of culture enlightenment and civilisation.

The backwards looking wealthy and powerful, myopically and rosetintedly see Education as clothed  in the terrifying 1950s private school style not seeing through their self delusion the brutal nakedness it really was. Bizarrely, they seek to impose this view on everyone.

The Orwellianesque OfSTED  insecurity forces stalk about seizing on the unsuspecting and bullying them. Through the ‘proof’ of carefully worded and weighted tests and measures they forcing them to agree that Education is, in fact, clothed in garments of ever increasing splendor.

The few people left who seek to make real clothes for Education using scientific research, analysis and reasoned argument are scorned and ignored whilst the sly, populist media deceive the unsuspecting general population into believing the blackwhite doublethinking drivel that clogs up their screens and newspapers.

Isn’t it time that someone pointed and laughed?

An Opportunity to Change Flavour?

It seems as though the UK General Election is gathering momentum leading up to the vote in May. Where does that leave people loving citizens?

Well it is a bit like being in an ice cream shop, you have to be in the shop, but they only seem to sell ice cream and no other food. You can have many different kinds of ice cream but they are all ice cream. You could move to another shop but almost all shops sell only ice cream. The few shops that sell something different are heavily discriminated against by the ice cream shops, some of the shops sell dangerous food that could make you sick or kill you while others seem to be OK but are beginning to sell more and more ice cream. So the choice is, what flavour of ice cream do you want?

OK a bit of an Eric Cantona ramble but it seems to me that we have no real radical choices at the election, we are locked into a monetary system that puts money as the aim rather than true prosperity. This is concerning because whilst the world and some individuals  are getting richer I see many  living poorer lives with less time for each other, less time to care for what is around them and less time to build strong communities. Fewer and fewer people are in power, – in the UK local democracy has been hamstrung and all power and control is in the hands of a few people in Westminster. I am really uncomfortable with this and wish to vote for change.

Maybe the only real alternative is the Green Party – radical policies and putting people and the environment first. Maybe they are the cabbage in the ice cream shop. Maybe I will vote Green as the other choices are just different flavours of the same old approach.

Spatchcock Christmas Turkey

OK, so there is no recipe here but don’t you just feel that sometimes you are that spatchcocked turkey? Sometimes it feels like you have been opened up, gutted and broken. The turkey is a great metaphor, its life controlled from birth, fed a controlled diet and had its experiences restricted. Of course the turkey, like us, isn’t too aware of these things it is just the world where it exists. Where we can be different is that it is possible to become aware of what is happening and I believe thousands and probably millions of us are becoming aware of just how turkey like our society makes us. We seek alternatives and we find them everywhere, some are diversions but I believe that the natural world and in particular plants show us the way forward.

More on this another time.