Friday, 29 October 2010

THE TIM BOBBIN INN: Machine Breakers in Council. - Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth (1804 -1877)

Just got back from the North of England, thought I'd post this little number, you can hear the rich dialect flowing through the prose. We should never forget our past. Remembering , remembering.


A BRIGHT light gleamed from the windows of the ground floor. Crossing the threshold, this light was seen to come chiefly from a large coal fire, blazing in the ample grate of the room which served as kitchen, bar, and place of reception for guests. High-backed wooden settles screened the centre of this room from the door, and occupied two sides of it. In the middle was a plain deal table, and on this glasses of beer, and of spirits and water, with some rough hunches of bread and oatcake. Overhead was a frame, the strings of which were covered with the round, flat, thin flakes of oatcake which had dried there. From the hooks in the ceiling hung hams and flitches of bacon. The settles were filled with men mostly smoking from long clay pipes; and spittoons, filled with sawdust, lay beside each on the sanded floor....
All seemed weary and worn. "Oi'n allays been agen this rowing and rioting as brings t'sodgers on us poor wavers," said Silas. "What t'farreps have we to do in feyghting wi t'red coats? Connut we creep into t'mills at neet, and smash o't' iron wavers as robs eawr childer of bread? A bit of a tenpenny nail stuck in t'reet pleck in a machine, ull break it o' to nowt, when th'ingin gets agate. Yo moit crack 'em o', when th'ingin starts i' t'morn, wi' their own steeam. What's t'use o' lettin t'sodgers get a chance at us?"
"Nay , lads , let's do nowt underhand. We'dn done a pratty day or two 's wark afore t'sodgers geet at us. There's summut righteos i'open wrath, for clemming wives and childer, but we're noan theives to cloak what we done i' t'dark... What says ta, Jonah?"
"Oim o' thy mind, Mark. There's nobbut two uses in what we'n done. If these machines can foind wark for o' onus, there mun be moor on 'em by a deal, and wen towd t'meausters at we winnt clem. But if they connut foind wark for ten times as mony machines an' steam looms as they now han, then, lads, we'n gien 'em notice to quit. They'n getten t'brass and t'edication, an' we'n nother brass nor larning, but we'n shown 'em as we'n Lancashire pluck. We're not t'lads to dee in t'ditch, 'bout kicking. But I'm noan clear which is reet --- mo steam looms, or ten times as mony iron-wavers."
"Then why smash them as tha' has helped to do?" asked Silas. "To keep t'pot boiling at whoam till t'measters han fun out t'reet gate. We mun keep t'hand loom jingling at whoam an we han nowt but oatmale, and praties, and buttermilk. t'pig, and t'garden stuff. After this smash we'st ha'wark ' bout flittin' into t'towns, and by-and-by we'st get mills all o'er t'forests."




Personally speaking, resistance is necessity.

Monday, 25 October 2010

James Broughton (10/11/13 -17/5/99 ) Excerpt from SHAMAN PSALM



Listen Brothers
The alarms are on fire
The oracles are strangled
Here the pious vultures
condemning your existence
Hear the greedy warheads
calling for your death
Quick while there's time
Take heed Take heart
Claim your innocence
Proclaim your fellowship
Reach to each other
Connect one another
and hold

Rescue your lifeline
Defy the destroyers
Defy the fat vandals
They cry for a nation
of castrated bigots
They promise a reward
of disaster and shame
Deny them Deny them
Quick while there's hope
Renovate man
Insist on your brotherhood
Inist on humanity
Love one another
and live


Extracted from:- SHAMAN PSALM,1981. Another relevant poem for our times.




THE OMEGA NEBULA.







Saturday, 23 October 2010

Richard Dadd Fairy Feller Master Stroke


HENRIK IBSEN once said "This longing to commit a madness stays with us throughout our lives.Who has not ,when standing with someone by an abyss or high up on a tower,had a sudden impulse to push the other over.And how is it that we hurt those we love although we know that remorse will follow,Our whole being is nothing but a fight against the dark forces within ourselves. Unfortunately the british visionary artist RICHARD DADD (1817 1886) succumbed to his own internal delusions and was permanently insititutionalized after killing his dad.He spent his days in the Royal Betlem hospital a k a BEDLAM,where he at least produced an outstanding body of work.So outside the perimeters some people basically go mad.A lot more actually come through,recover and survive ,not all ,though, but quite a lot.In literature and in music one finds a long tradition of writers creating writing out of the extremes of mental distress,in isolation and in groups,lets see William S burroughs,Alexander Trocchi, lets face it alot of THE BEATS ,the surrealists,Robert Calvert,Syd Barrett,T s Elliot, John Clare,Peter Reading,Sylvia Plath,NIck Drake,Ezra Pound, etc etc.All im really saying there is power in words and imaginations that can be witty,brittle,serene,remote and tortured.That can also have the continuing power to transform,inspire and challenge. Hey Ho singing to stay alive,Down at the edge of lonely street with a pink moon in their eyes..............

Thursday, 21 October 2010

The MIND Day Centre - Paul Kean ( b.1958)

I fell myself learning from the old lags
Bandura et al, imitative learning.
It's quite a skill, sitting in a chair, staring into space,
I did try reading a book, but got discussed,
when I laughed reading it
heard I was a manic depressive.
No one laughs at the MIND day centre.
Bought a few cans in, got called an alcoholic,
That's definitely against the rules,
the rules they supposedly 'Don' t Have'
In the end go to the local pub
Guy there says 'I went in there they woudn't
let me out'
So, MIND doesn't have labels
Pull the other one, saddens me,
I don't want to learn to be more mentally ill
when I say that, the professional says
'You should hear yourself'
and again uses the language of my oppression
to oppress me She even cynically uses' user rights'
To take away mine



and again we are under attack.

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

Emergency Verse.

Excellent anthology out at moment collecting over a 160 poems in defence of the Welfare State and against this bloody governments imminent cuts.
It is alive and refreshing and has to be the political anthology of 2010. We are in a state of emergency, these poems can be used as a remedy or as tools of resistance when fighting back.
I believe in the power of poetry and the power of these oncoming cuts, so use these words as ammunition. Fight the Cuts.

http://www.therecusant.org.uk/#emergency-verse/4543558626

Saturday, 16 October 2010

Robert Wyatt and Gilad Atzmon in Haaretz.


Haaretz published yesterday a massive interview with Mr Robert Wyatt and Gilad Atzmon ito coincide with their latest collaboration ' for the ghost within' . A very enlightening and most informative interview. An Israeli paper that does not censor. With the greatest of respect to the paper it allows Gilad to say what he says, and what he says is pretty uncompromising and powerful. Their new album by all accounts is quite beautiful, a mixture of Wyatt's heartfelt contemplations and Atzmons brilliant dazzling muscianship. Oh can you guess, am bit of a fan. Read the interview in full here.

Friday, 15 October 2010

John Brandi (5/11/43) -OUR GEOGRAPHY IS HEARTBEAT.

We all hold
to some territory.
The merchant
makes his salad with money.
A seamstress begins
at the fine-line stitch of time.
The astronaut remembers
the Red Sea
with the ultra-violet eye
of the bee.
The director cuts apart
geography on his human meatboard.
The poet begins
inside his mother
riding an iconclast raft
with villages and trees
igniting themselves
along the edge
of th sea.

We all begin
as mirrors, naked
with bodies once solar
begetting form.
The priest wears a robe.
The judge wears a robe.
The scholar graduates in a robe.
All remember the alphabet
differently.
All connect the swan
with a proverb or a symbol
Or regard the stars
with possibilities.
And look to the craftsman
for a sewing bobbin
or a shoelace.

We all hold
to some territory.
The evangelist eats out
on donations sent to convert
pagans. The orphan rides
a subway into black paradise, free.
The dragonfly holds 10,000
worlds in its fine topaz blink.
And the fortune-teller
looks through amber
to discover the face of
an assasin.

We all sit down
and rise inside a dream,
asking questions
about our situation, scratching
parts of the body
at intersections, perplexed
with changing signals
& semaphores
that announce no train.
We all have
ridden a tractor or
a subway, arranged our hair
in an automobile,
or opened a briefcase
in an airplane.

Our geography
is heartbeat, and a second
hand swings through
the flesh, like a road
pretending no end
while outside the self
lives another one
of us, who conducts the world
with a spiral wand
and carries into us
the charts and maps, the earth
and particles of air that
combine to breed water,
fire, hate, love
passing storms and gates
that can be locked
or unlocked, forever
among us all.


FROM :- Heartbeat Geography, Selected and Uncollected poems, White Pine, 1995.







Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Extracts from a Republican Phrase Book (of sometime in the not too distant future)

I cannot believe in the 21st century, their is still the concept of the monarchy still in operation in Britain. In this time of recession and cut backs, would someone explain how the government is able to confiscate our money and give it the royal family. What are this families uses, if any at all.
This family recently secretly lobbied to recieve even more money from government fundsset up to help people on low incomes.
Their essentially a family of thieves, hey ho. Part of our long tradition and everything.
Time perhaps for and end?



CIVIL LIST: Organised freebies on a massive scale. See also Tax dodges.

COURT CORRESPONDENT: Lackey, servile person.See also Eunuch.

CROWN: Symbol of sporting success, e.g. Heavyweight Crown,Triple Crown.

CROWN JEWELS: Booty; ill-gotten gains; stolen goods.

DUKE: John Wayne.

EMPEROR: Large penguin or butterfly.

EMPIRE: Territory of large penguin (or butterfly)

KING: Term of adulation bestowed on those who have given great pleasure, e.g. Elvis Presley; Barry John; John Charles.

MONARCH: Type of butterfly, also head of politically immature state.

MONARCHY: System of government favoured by politically immature people in which the head of state is determined by an accident of birth.( Constititutional Monarchy: A contradiction in terms.)

NOBILITY: Descendants of minor thieves and murderers.

PRINCE: Adrogynous US pop star.

PRINCE OF WALES: Popular pub name, also person without purpose.

PRINCESS: Expensive clothes horse.

QUEEN: Pop group of decadent style.

QUEENMUMGODBLESSER: Deceased, fantastic pensioner created by tabloid journalists.

ROYALTY: Descendants of major thieves and murderers. See also The Mafia and Freemasonry.

ROYAL WATCHER: Member of worthless profession. See also Disc Jockey, Estate Agent, Stockbroker.

SUBJECT: Person better described as object.

THRONE: Seat; toilet seat (vulgar), see also:
Heir to the throne:Next in line for toilet.
Heir apparent:Only person waiting outside toilet.
Heir presumptive:Person who thinks he should always be first in the queue for the toilet.
Loyalty to the throne:constipation.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Pablo Amaringo ( 1943 -11/11/09)- Ayahuasca Vision Paintings.

Years ago Peruvian Pablo Amaring took the Shamans path. In his paintings he pictured his detailed visions which he experienced under the influence of the drug ayahasca. In his pictures we meet living spirits, of both good and bad, visitors from distant galaxies and ancient and wise guardians of esoteric knowledge. I ratherlike them, more information at bottom of page.

WORLD DAY AGAINST DEATH PENALTY