Gil Scott-Heron R.I.P 1/4/49 - 27/4/11

Just heard the news that Gil Scot Heron has passed away , so sad, a true legend, inspiration and hero to me.
Another light blown out in the world.

Where did the Night Go - Gil Scot Heron

Long ago the clock washed midnight away
Bringing the dawn
Oh God, I must be dreaming
Time to get up again
ASnd time to start up again
Pulling on my socks again
Should have been asleep
When I was sitting there drinking beer
And trying to start another letter to you
Don't know how many times I dreamed to write again last night
Should've been asleep when I turned the stack of records over and over
So I wouldn't be up by myself
Where did the Night go?
Should go to sleep now
And say fuck a job and money
Because I spend it all on unlined paper and can't get past
" Dear, baby, how are  you?"
Brush my teeth and shave
Look outside, sky is dark
Think it may rain
Where did the night go
Where did the night go
Where did the night go

Soon the Revolution will be shared , whether you are my friend on facebook or not, and will be available for free.

R.I.P Gil Scot Heron

Earlier post here https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/gil-scott-heron-ladies-and-gentlemen.html

Ned Thomas - The Welsh Extremist ( free P.D.F) / Supermarket ( a poem).

When this 'little red ' book of the Welsh ' Seventies first appeared it was widely and favourably recieved.
A tremendous book with so much range, I  remember a battered copy someone gave me back in the 1980's, now long replaced with 1991 re-issue, still rather battered at the edges, but that's what a well thumbed book looks like. This classic of Welsh polemics is is now available free as a P.D.F from Cymdeithas y Iaith's homepage ( The Welsh Language Society) . Still essential and valid.
Niall Griffiiths a writer I admire, said of it " Non fiction, and frightening, not because of its promotion of militancy,heck no, but because of its revelations and clear analysis concerning the insiduous and evil hegemonic takeover of whole countries, and their ways of life. It still speaks on behalf off all oppressed nations and the individual creative effort threatened by the barren swamp of enforced uniformity.As vital now as it was in the 70's, and as important as Franz Fanon's, The Wretched of the Earth. Endorsed by Raymond Williams, and he knew a thing or two.
 A grasp of contemporary theories that were well ahead of their time, a book inevitably tied up with my nations language, a place of roads ,so to speak where for many the issue of identity and language are inseparable.  But Mr Thomas ( who went on to found  'Planet', by the way, one of Wales's leading cultural and literary magazines) in his clarity, manages to pass on his  strong message, realising Welsh themes abut setting them free into an internationalist socialist context. Perhaps it is time that our collective consiousness are reawakened,and radicalised the energy is there, the flame still burns,..
Link here

http://archif.cymdeithas.org/dadlwytho/ned-thomas-the-welsh-extremist.pdf

and interesting piece here as well

http://ytwll.com/?s=Ned+Thomas

He was also a fine poet too.

Supermarket - a poem by Ned Thomas

Sometimes I think I would like a spell in prison
In a humane country, for a political offence;
Somewhere where the library service is efficient
Or Scandinavia, where the wives come in at weekends.

But better still in nineteenth-century Russia
To be exiled from the capital with friends,
And between the talk and drink to write the scriptures
Of our blinding human future without end.

To live rough and die fighting is also an ideal
(Guevara testifies) not yet out of date,
Like the soft cities to the high sierra, our trivial
Existence to the life we contemplate,

And the peasant ways are comely whatever you say
About hardship and early death. Ripe apples are stored
For the winter, no visiting stranger pays
For his wine, and the year goes round as before.

Choosing identities in a mad supermarket
(O packaged metaphor, bring me to a decision)
Good poets go home and wryly dig the garden.
Sometimes I think I shouyld like a spell in prison.

FROM :-
Poetry Wales
Volume 5 Winter 1969

dog dream - Patti Smith

have you seen
dylan's dog
it got wings
it can fly
if you speak
of it to him
its the only
time dylan
can't look you in the eye

have you held
dylan's snake
it rattles like a toy
it sleeps in the grass
it coils in his hand
it hums and it strikes out
when dylan cries out
when dylan cries out

have you pressed
to your face
dylan's bird
dylan's bird
it lies on dylan's hip
it lies on dylan's hip
trembles inside of him
it drops upon the ground
it rolls with dylan round
it's the only one
who comes
when dylan comes

have you seen
dylan's dog
it got wings
it can fly
when it lands
like a clown
he's the only
thing allowed
to look dylan in the eye

FROM:-
Early Work 1970-1978
Patti Smith
W.W. Norton, New York 1995.

So happy 70th Birthday Bob Dylan
I doubt we ever get to the end of the story,
to believe in it, is often enough.
Don't ask me what it means I have no idea,
sometimes we learn , sometimes we don't,
the spirit of songs touched, through  the ages.
he never really gave an answer on China,
did he? Still as elusive as ever,
 practiced hard his techniques,
hey don't we all copy, imitate
I like it when he goes walking with raw poetry.
sometimes I can listen for hours, sometimes!
Long may his nasal twang call,
in the middle of nowhere,
rolling around like tumbleweeds,
solitary, sceptical, wise?
leading us
somewhere outside of our selves?

" May you have a strong foundation
when the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young."

ATOS ORIGIN THREATENS DISABLED GROUP WITH LEGAL ACTION.

In the manner of the school bully threatening to crush the smallest most vulnerable kid in the class, ATOS origin yesterday wrote to the webmaster and domain owner of www.afteratos.org/
a website run by a lone disabled woman who suffers from PTSP threatening legal action against them regarding libel and infringement of ATOS's copyright and rrademark on http://www.afteratos.org/

So the world did not end, we continue, and carry on regardless, and if we can pick on someone more weaker than us we will.

More Information

below

htpp://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/05/479784.html

http://afteratos.org/

They say this isn't a poem - Kenneth Rextroth (22/12/05 - 6/6/82)

1.

All that is a harmony,
Otherwise it would not endure.
Harmony of the parts with the whole
Is the definition of goodness.
Therefore all that is good.
Man is part of all that is, so
He is part of its harmony.
Therefore he is by nature good.
Insofar as he knows what is,
He knows it because he is
Within himself a harmony
Of parts in a whole, of the same
Kind as all that is. Therefore,
The harmony of all that is
Without man can unite with
The harmony of all that is
Within a man as knowable
Good, an inner moral good.
But if this good is known within
By one party, man, it must
Also be known by the other
Part, All That is hence he who
Is in perfect accord with All
That is can act upon it
Without effect, with a kind
Of reprocity, like acts
Of the mutual love of friends.
How beautiful and specious
And how stinking with the blood
Of wars and crucifixions.

II

The order of the universe
Is only a reflection
Of the human will and reason.
All being is contingent,
No being is self-subsistent.
All objects are moved by others.
No object moves itself.
All beings are caused by others.
No being being is its own cause.
There is no perfect being
Being has no economy.
Entitieis are multiplied
Without necessity. They
Have no sufficient reason.
The only order of nature
Is the orderly relation
Of one person to another.
Non-personal relations
Are by nature chaotic.
Personal relations are
The pattern through which we see
Nature as systematic.
Homer, and all sensible
Men since, have told us again
And again, the universe-
The great principles and forces
That move the world - have order
Only as reflection
Of the courage, loyalty,
Love, and honesty of men.
By themselves they are cruel
And utterly frivolous.
The man who yields to them goes mad,
Kills his child, his wife or friend
And dies in the bloody dust,
Having destoyed the treasured
Labor of other men's hands.
He who outwits them survives
To grow old in his own home.

1956.

It's the End of the World as We Know It but I feel fine

According to an 89 year old man called Harold Camping,the  world is about to come to an end. Well tomorrow actually.
He's done this lark before though back in 1994, but now, according to him ,May the 21st is the actual day of judgement.
I quote hime here " It is the day that ends all gospel Salvation activity. It is the most important day by a billion times than any other day the world has ever known".
Hey we can all change our minds when we want to I suppose.Especially certain nutty religious fundamentalists.Some of them believe that tomorrow after raging storms and fires and earthquakes 207 million people will get decimated., but even then the world will not officially end until October 2011, oh dear, some people like to drag these things out.
Somehow the sounding of trumpets and eternal bliss and raptured cries I think I'll give a miss, hey ho, and  when the moment passes without anything happening their will still be those who cry , hey its gonna happen someday.Delusions are what make some people tick, I suppose.
Tomorrow here in West Wales I think the forecast is a bit of light rain. So I'm going to get some weed in and smoke myself into a bit of oblivion, and will be back here soon, in all probabilities.
I prefer a satisfaction that guarantees, but good prophesies I have been told often recquire unknown dates and imperfect signs.
So have a nice day, and I'll catch you sometime in the future, follow truth and freedom , remember to read between the lines.
heddwch/peace.

PATIENCE AGRABI (b.1965) - WHO'S WHO?

1.Beloved: Toni Harrison or Toni Morrison?
2. Famous Irish poet: Yeats or Keats?
3. Puppy Love: Donny Osmond or Ozzy Osbourne?
4. Blockbuster: Sweet  or the Beat?
5. Psycho : Anthony Perkins or Anthony Hopkins?
6. Passive resistance: Mahatma Gandhi or Muhammed Ali?
7. Playschool : Fenella Fielding or Floella Benjamin?
8. Space Shit : Chris Offili or Salvador Dali?
9. Some Llike it Hot : Marlon Brando or Marilyn Monroe?
10. She's Gotta have it : Mike Leigh or Spike Lee?
11. Pop art: Andy Warhol or Adam Chodzko?
12. Water Lilies : Monet or Manet?
13. Scary Spice: Mel B or Mel C?
14.Bohemian Rhapsody : Cream or Queen?
15. Split britches: PJ Harvey or PJ Proby?
16. Rowan Atkinson: Mr Benn or Mr Bean?
17. The Flea : Thom Gunn or John Donne?
18. Frankenstein : Mary Kenney or Mary Shelley?
19. Del Boy : James Mason or David Jason?
20. School Days : Nick Berry or Chuck Berry?
21. Rock dinosaur: Cliff Richard or Keith Richards?
22: Zorba the Greek : Anthony Quinn or Anthony Quayle?
23. Misunderstanding : Genesis or Oasis?
24.He's a Rebel : The Crystals or Crystal Gayle?
25. Rebel of the Underground: Tupak Shakur or Kula Shaker?
26. The Artist : CK Williams or William Carlos Williams? .
27. Other Lovers : Jackie Kay or Kathy Acker?
28. Prime Suspect : Helen Mirren or Karen Millen?
29. GBH: Robert Lindsay or Albert Finney?
30. Best of my Love : The Beatles or The Eagles?
31. Myra : Marcus Garvey or Marcus Harvey?
32. Composer: Engelbert Humperdinck or Engels?
33. To Celia : Ben Johnson or Dr Johnson?
34. How Deep is your Love? The Three Degrees or the Bee Gees?
35. Death Wish: Charles Bronson or Charles Manson?
36. Bring the Noize : Public Image or Public Enemy?
37. Call up the Groups : The Barron Knights or Barry White?
38. Red Light Spells Danger? Phil Oakley or Billy Ocean?
39. It's in his Kiss?: Cher or Shere Hite?
40. Poet Laureate : Andrew Marr or Andrew Motion?

FROM
TRANSFORMATRIX by Patience Agbabi
Payback Press 2000

TRUE POLITICS IS INCAPABLE OF REPETITION .

The old territories are shut off
tears are authentic, all politics is fiction.
Time and Space died yesterday
true politics is incapable of repetition
true politics is incapable of repetition
life and breath, effectively co-exist
true politics is incapable of repetition.
Total additions made, to clear space
the difference between nations
absence of logic, knowledge stolen
once recoveredusually reeling
the size and shape of an egg
can be divided by syncopated rythym
noises at dawn, will bring freedom.
" we are unidentified."
No value judgements here
" beyond the shadow of the night."
Madness makes storytellers of us all
when some prisoners escape
they head straight home.
Where will it end?this grinning circle
at the time this addition was made
true politics is incapable of repetition.
There are statements on the origins of nationality
that surreal enough often employ
elements for further discussion.
The State still has powers of Stalinist proportion
some things exploited for unique possibillity
the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
True politics is incapable of repetition
true politics is incapable of repetition.

63 Years of Nakba / Day of the Catastrophe.

In  human terms, 1948 saw the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.
Today some of us remember this.They still belong to this land, they were there for hundreds and thousands of years despite what some today are trying to change. They still remain, in their hearts and spirits, still holding and caring for the keys of their houses for the people who left, who managed to escape their occupiers crimes. Time drifts, but for many memory is never erased, still belonging to lands of ancestors, where hearts and minds can never leave.

Today, meanwhile almost 9,000 Palestinians are being held in Israel, in violation of International humanitarian law. In hundreds of cases, Israel forbids adult relatives to visit, so it is left to children under 16 to maintain the family contact.

Intifada means Revolution.
But Revolution does not mean violence.
Revolution means change.
A Jasmine Revolution is coming to Palestine
as it did in Tunisia and Egypt.
This Palestinian Revolution is near.
It is inevitable under oppression.

Lets not forget
in the meantime
free Palestine.

Atos: They simply don't care

A National  Protest Against Benefit Cuts is taking place throughout the week, with noisy protests expected up and down the country. Whether we see any reports of these events we will see.
Many protests are expected to take place both announced and unnanounced outside the offices and testing centres operated by Atos Origin.
Atos Origin have recently been granted, and have starrted a £300 million contract by the Con-dem Government to carry out 'work capability assessments' on all people currently on Incapacity Benefit.
It has been claimed that assessments will be used to test what people can do rather than what they can't. I feel the real purpose will be to strip vulnerable people from their benefits to pay for the bankers greed.
The testing system has already led to people with terminal illnesses and severe medical conditions being declared fit for work and having benefits cut. Our G.Ps are simply ignored in favour of decisions made by Atos's own accessors. I know of people with severe illnesses whose benefits have been stopped, pending an appeal, and many others who are scared witless.
Where  conditions have been stabilising over years and their have been intermittent periods of survival,  Atos is currently undertaking a process that robs people of their  dignity and have in many cases , made people more anxious than ever before. A lot of the examinations I have heard about seem to be based on simple trickery,the examinator  does not hold open the door for you or seek to help you in any way and simply ignores any signs of invisible illnesses, the internal unseen forces that cannot be detected by mere physical tests.
 It has been said in other parts that it is simply an excercise in robbing people of any dignity that remains. To date  however about 50% of appeals have been successful ,this proves that the means of testing cannot possibly be correct, yet this does not stop the worry or the fear. A lot of innocent people are clearly , but not plainly for the rest of the country to see, being treated unfairly.
Their have also been plans for the scrapping of Disability Living Allowance , and soon perhaps will be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit.

Meanwhile David Cameron is seen daily on the television and in the newspapers looking jolly and upbeat, ignoring the misery that he has inflicted on a few. A millionaire with no sense of what it it is to face invisible fears, and apprehensions, in a lot of cases, this is daily living, and the living is definitely not easy. He pays no heed  to people whoes experiences of life are mostly heart rendering. He parades his standards for all to see, and his friends the bankers, and those with corporate power idly get rewarded, as he divides the country into us and them. Poverty pimps is to nice a word.
Next after stealing peoples lifes , Cameron will turn to slice and carve up the N.H.S and other essential services.
It is always the same, I suppose , the rich get richer and those below the radar, are beaten down. The mainstream press collude with this and blame people on benefits, neighbours are turned against one another, the blame game spreads, whilst the real parasites grow stronger and stronger.
I confess I have personal bias,  personal experience, guess you know which side of the fence I'm on. Anyway this is not about me.
This is about the experiences of many other people up and down the country, who are being blamed for capitalisms worst excesses, who deserve respect and certainly some dignity.
Finally , when the legendary underground Edinburgh poet  Paul Reekie killed himself on June 10th, two letters were found on his table at the time - one informing him  his Incapacity Benefit  had been stopped, and the other that his Housing Benefit had been stopped.
I will let you judge for yourself. Atos abrilliant acronym by the way, simply don't care.
Show solidarity.
Fight the cuts.

 For more information see

  http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

WE

ARE

NOT

WORTHLESS

WE

ARE FIGHTING

BACK