Committing Poetry

The documentary film Committing Poetry  in Times of War  tells the story of Bill Nevins, a humanities teacher and youth poetry coach who was suspended and later fired from his teaching job after standing up for a student who wrote a poem critical of the war in Iraq.
Is it not the job of teachers to help people see things in a different way, allowing students to question, challenge and crtically engage. The teachers who I remember fondly, encouraged me to do this.
With the current media under scrutiny, values of thoughtful inquiry, away from schools of conformity, should be more than welcomed.In the case of Bill Nevin's the people rallied round.Inspired by the notion of creativity as a tool of change.
I find it unbelievable that students are not taught to engage with their imagination like this every day. I disagree with a lot of things, luckily for me, I discovered the joys of freedom, the enemies of this are already at the gates. But I still deny fascism a platform, that too is my right.
As for Bill he simply carried on teaching elsewhere and engaged himself in writing his own poems
http://www.committingpoetry.com/

Brian Jones ( 28/2/42 - 3/7/69) His light shines on in some Painted Rainbows

Psychic T.V - Godstar

The pact he made was never ordinary
lucky or mistaken we shall never know,
behaviour fell off the mark
promises failed in stormy weather,
under the influence
out ov time,
nearby magic tearooms
and melodramas,
played under setting suns
rich in chemistry,
indolence raged
as Pan mischieviously led.

'Israel afraid of the truth'

Hopefully the Freedom Flotilla sailing from Greece should soon be on it's way soon.In the meantime we should demand that the Government and the powers in Greece allow this peaceful convoy to sail. They sail as an expression of world citizens involved in non-violent, direct action,confronting ongoing abuses of Palestinian human and political rights.
The way America has colluded with the Greek and Israeli authorities has been shameful.
I believe in hope and also that this siege must be broken.
" Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians" - Nelson Mandela.

Theodore Roethke ( 25/5/08 - 1/8/63) - Long Live the weeds.

Long live the weeds that overwhelm
My narrow vegetable realm-
The bitter rock, the barren soil
That force the son of man to toil;
All things unholy, marked by curse,
The ugly of the universe.
The rough, the wicked, and the wild
That keep the spitit undefiled.
With these I match my little wit
And earn the right to stand or sit,
Hope, look, create, or drink and die:
These shape the creature that is I .

Off too London town, cat sitting, opportunity again to reflect, I like doing that.
Time for a little Marx, Miro, Schielle, some driftin, reflecting.... find some reasons to be doubtful.
Emma Goldman reminds me to keep on dancing., carry on believing. 
In the evening find some music,  cross some fences, look at a pretty city, sit awhile, feel the beat underneath my feet. Lights will dazzle, for a while........ 
in the meantime I leave something in the air..
probably be posting sooner than I think....
hope I remember when it's gone.

J30 Tomorrow is everybodies day....

Tomorrow Job Centre workers , teachers etc are on strike to defend their pensions, but this is everybodies fight too.
The government's attacks on workers go hand- in-hand with their attacks on claimants. At the same time as lowering terms and conditions of workers, they force claimants into privately run workfare schemes through for profitcompanies like ATOS, Maximus, Skills Training and Careers Develoment Group. At the same time they force the vulnerable and ill off incapacity Benefit and onto JSA ( Jobseekers Allowance).
They say these cuts have to be made, whilst spending millions weekly on futile wars in Afghanistan, Libya etc., whilst Prince Charle's income is rising ever higher and higher.
Tomorrow I hope to go to Aberystwyth and join a broad resistance standing together to show their opposition to these cuts.
Meeting at the Morlan Centre at 12 0'Clock. Ed Milliband is saying he doesn't support these strikes, but that's just his inner nit coming out, a united breath is what we need, solidarity must be maintained.
Love today, love tomorrow. It's our job to wind up Mr Cameron, don't let him get the upper hand, he wants us to work longer, pay more, get less, miserable *******. Why should ordinary people pay for a crises bought about by the bankers and their friends.
Enjoy the sunshine, everybody out. 

Billy Bragg singing - Never crossed a picket line. 

WAR IS A WONDERFUL THING - KIRK LUMPKIN

War is a wonderful thing
because it's like a syringe
  in the bloodstream
                              of the economy
because it makes boys
                                  into robot-men

War is a wonderful thing
because it affords a chance
                                         for the most foolish forms
    of  heroism
                     to be exhibited
because it proves which nation can most quickly become
    insensitive toward the people of another nation

War is a wonderful thing
because it inspires scientists
    to create technological marvels
    like napalm and nuclear weapons
because it gives the freedom to lawfully murder

War is a wonderful thing
because the vague softness of kindness
    is eclipsed by the focussed hardness of hate
because it's something we can all rally around,
    really get together on

War is a wonderful thing

Link to Kirk Lumpkun homepage
http://www.kirklumpkin.com/

Pilgrimage against drones Epynt, June 2011/ Armed Forces Day/ Epynt mehefin 2011 Protest yn erbyn awerynau di-beilot

Following on from Fridays post. Report of  visit to Epynt.
A humbling experience, the weather not that great, which to me seemed most appropriate. A good presence despite the dour weather. A day of  constant drizzle ,and  mists  that seemed to envelope us on our individual journeys. We remembered the innocent killed not in our names.
On the way up to a mock village created for battle games, humanity or something shined a torch,( but the cynics among us saw a propaganda excercise) ,  laid out for us, rows of coffee, tea, and biscuits too, neatly provided by our hosts the invading army. The Sergeant Major smiled, made jokes, he had been trained well in hospitality.
Their was a smattering of religion,  but underneath the skies I felt we were all equal. Two languages spoken , side by side.  In my pockets I placed some discarded bullets that I'd picked whilst they read out names of the dead senselessly killed  by drones. A moving experience, humbling.
 Some people greeted one another as old friends,  others remained on the outside,  all welcome though..... poets, painters, students, academics, pensioners, claimants.
 Half way  down the mountain me and my beautiful partner and a dear friend got  a lift from an old lay preacher( who by coincidence knew my hometown well, a small world I said to him in his own iaith,) as we talked about people we might  know, and the smell  of dew and rain  began to dissapear, we began again to discuss brighter things. Atheists and christians somehow united. Words that divided us,  blown away,  because a belief in peace was our common goal.
Found a village where we knocked on a door asking for directions. Sorry we haven't a clue they said , we're on holiday from Cornwall.
We found our way home, others remain forever lost. I hope they are not forgotten, we can carry on with our daily play, but for many others, the world has forgotten, and governments carry on regardless, acting with dangerous, deadly shame. Together we will keep our close eyes on them...... day  after day, and night after night.

" The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men become robots. True enough robots do not rebel, but given man's name , robots cannot live and remain sane. They become " Golems" they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life." - Eric Fromm (1900-1980).

William Dyce (1806 -1864) - Welsh landscape with Two Women knitting. (1860)

I love this picture , now sitting proudly in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. A snip at £557,218 .... what recession. It is though quite beautiful and was bought with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Charity Art Fund  plus a few individual donors, so that's allright then.
The artist, William Dyce was a Scottish realist painter who came to Wales when his health was failing in the  late1850s. He didn't last long I'm afraid.
I've got a photocopy in a small wooden frame. Suits me fine..

EPYNT: Pilgrimage to the military training ground on Epynt 25th June.

Glastonbury weekend, remember when it was a peace festival supporting C.N.D, yes it's been a long time, since then walls built higher and ordinary  people have been kept out. The spirit of 71 apparently this year, so it's free entry is it?
Anyway 70 years ago Mynydd Epynt was a strong Welsh speaking community of 220 people, inhabiting 54 farms. During the Second World War the people of Epynt thought that the war would have little impact on them, but in March 1940 however a government letter changed all that.
Despite united opposition on the part of the Welsh speaking community and support of a throng of Welsh M.Ps and leading national figures, a deadline was set. By June 30th each and every farm was empty. The community was no more and a whole way of life had been shattered. A community where farmers had lived for 450 years on the same farm.
The area became known as the Sennybridge Training Area, and is now used by the M.O.D as a military training area and artillery range, in an area of outstanding beauty.
Tomorrow on " Armed Forces Day" I hope to join Cymdeithias y Cymod ( the fellowship of Reconcialiation) on their pilgrimage to this place. We will remember the civilians killed by unmanned vehicles ( drones).
The area between Epynt and Aberporth ( ten miles up from where I live) is one of the two places in Europe where testing drones is permitted. As reported earlier in this blog these unmanned aeroplanes are part of the recent development in robots used as arms. Those used in Afghanistan and Libya are controlled thousands of miles away in a center in Nevada in the USA through satellite communication technology.  This has the effect that many innocent civilians are killed because of misinterpreting images on video screens that are so far away from the battle field.
Those who join ( at their own risk) this pilgrimage to Epynt will show their objection to testing these drones in the air above Wales and will send a message to the governments in Whitehall and Cardiff Bay that the militarisation of Wales is not welcome.

Epynt
 

The pilgrimage is setting off at around 2pm from the Shoemakers Arms, Pentrebach, Sennybridge, Brecon, LD3 8UB for the remains of Babell Chapel (see below), which is within the army's training area.

remains of Babell Chapel. 

There will be  be a service led by a Rev Guto Prys ap Gwynfor at 2.30 p.m. Following this we will visit the mock village built by the army for practicing house-to-house fighting. We will commerate some of the civilians killed by drone strikes by writing their names onto the grave stones in the mock graveyard.
For me personally it will be a rare opportunity to visit this important place in my countries history, where a rich  ( not monetary value) community was displaced for imperialistic purposes, and I will remember.

The Northern boundary of the Military Training Area.

http://www.cymdeithascymod.org.ukdiary.htm/

more on the history of Epynt here :-

http://www.cymdeithasycymod.org.uk/epynt-saesneg.htm


a really scenic part of the woods too, their is a lake on the firing range and the views are outstanding.
Remember we will not be tresspassing, it is the army that has done that for all these number of years.
Have a nice weekend,
the keywords are :-
heddwch/peace...........

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK

Sometimes people use the word shame when describing a piece of music they somehow see as a guilty pleasure.All forms of bigotry stems from one fundamental principle, namely that one believes one's culture to be superior to that of another or at  the very least fails to understand that other culture. In its most violent and extreme form, this can manifest itself in book burning ( the Nazis) record music burning ( the Klu Klux Klan) or cultural destruction and vandalism ( the Taliban).
Those culture snobs who believe themselves to be the final arbiters of the nations tastes and who would say to you they are mainly poking fun at your preferred styles of art and music , and who would seek to make you ashamed of them, are in fact standing alongside the worst despots in history, as they pursue their relentless drive of cultural genocide.
Some in denouncing the awesome and majestic sound of music, they are at one with Hitler, the K.K.K and the Taliban, none of whom are fans of the genre. Grandpa teifidancer did not sink battleships at the River Plate, nor did Great, GreatUncle teifidancer go over the top at the Somme for a society where you would be treated as untermensch for your love of rock music.
For those about to rock I salute you.

with thanks to Dave.......