Getting there

Poem written after my grandsons tentative first steps.


It takes time for many  of us to master long journeys,

a while before we can bathe in shadows cast by steepness,

fall among grasses deep,

follow patterns,

conjour magic,

to walk steadily to the edge.


It only takes a moment though,

to see lights flicker upon a July morning,

footprints slowly leaving a trace,

one day at a time,

following the merryground of adventure,

step, step, then leap,

soon running like sunlight through the garden,

and as every day grows,

consider it done,

we will continue to do our best  to protect you,

as  new paths are found to explore.

Pay Rise for M.Ps,The Mind Boggles!

Britains 650 M.Ps are in line for a hefty pay rise. The Independent Parliamentary Authority is expected to unveil plans to increase the basic British Parlamentarian Salary from £65,738 to £75,000. At a time when the rest of the U.K is experiencing one of its worst economic periods, I see no justification at all in this news, and it's simply beyond contempt.
They are already paid nearly 3 times the average U.K full time salary. In Parliament, the 3 main parties, their policies  more the less the same, as they divide us even more, punishing the poor, protecting the rich. It's not as if their  planning a route out of the problems that they were responsible for in the first place. Their apparent solution, workfare and poverty for us and a pay rise for them.
At the moment  we are being led by a Coalition of Millionaires, most of whom went to private schools, inheriting  their wealth from their parents. With many other M.Ps  fom all parties also coming from privileged backgrounds , do they really need an extra leg up in this time of austerity. They already have  substantial discounts on food, drink, and transport than the rest of us, in addition to many of them getting hefty back-handers from their secondary corporate employers.
They might say we're all in it together, but in this, it's definitely a case of  no we're ******* not.
If people are deterred from becoming M.Ps  because  they don't think  they get paid enough. Do we really need them? I personally remember a time when certain M.Ps only took a workers age, more of them would be fine, people who recognise the real needs of the people, people who really understand  the social problemss of inequality and exploitation.
At a time when millions of people across the globe are making a stand against their own governments, why do we as a people, allow ourselves to be ruled by such a pack of greedy and malicious so and so's, besides a few brave loose  cannons, not an ounce of integrity between the rest.


Enough is enough.

If you've got time please sign this e.petition.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44225

Pablo Neruda (12/7/04 - 23/9/73) - Love

Because of you, in gardens of blossoming
Flowers I ache from the perfumes of spring.
I have forgotten your face, I no longer
Remember your hands,
how did your lips
feel on mine?

Because of you, I love the white statues
Drowsing in the parks, the winter statues that
Have neither voice nor sight.

I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice;
I have forgotten your eyes.

Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to
My vaque memory of you, I live with pain
That is like a wound, if you touch me, you will
Make to me an irreperable harm.

Your caresses enfold me, like climbing
Vines on melancholy walls.

I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to
Glimpse you in every window.

Because of you, the heady perfumes of
Summer pain me, because of you, I again
Seek out the signs that precipitate desires:
Shooting stars, falling objects.


From the pen of one my favourite poets. Born Ricardo Reyes Basaolto, this Chilean poet adopted legally in 1945 the pen name of Pablo Neruda.
From the 1940's on his work reflected the political struggle of the left and social developments in South America, his poetry ranging from Surrealism to political manifestos, but he was also a poet of love, never ambiguous but very open about his feelings.

Earlier post on Pablo here.
Pablo Neruda - Poet of Love
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/pablo-neruda-july-12-1904-september-23.html

The man of double deed - Anon

                                                       
Head full of cold and  at moment, the complexities of life reinforced, in dreams and thought we can at least  find freedom, converge our different arrangements. realign our illusions. 

                         The Man of Double Deed, 1989 (etching )
                                                          Paulo Rego b.1935 

                                                  Location:- Leeds Art Museum & Galleries
                                                          (Leeds Art Gallery)
                                                      
                                                    There was a Man of Double Deed
                                                    Who sowed his Garden full of Seed,
                                                    And when the Seed began to grow
                                                    'Twas like a Garden full of Snow,
                                                    And when the Snow began to melt
                                                    'Twas like a Show without a Welt,
                                                    And when the Shoe began to sail
                                                    'Twas like a Bird without a Tail,
                                                    And when the Bird began to fly
                                                    'Twas like an Eagle in the Sky,
                                                    And when the Sky began to lower
                                                    'Twas like a Liar at my Door,
                                                    When my Door began to crack
                                                    'Twas like a Stick across my Back,
                                                    And when my Back began to smart
                                                    ' Twas like an Arrow in my Heart,
                                                    And when my Back began to bleed
                                                    I was like the Man of Double Deed
                                                    Who sowed his Garden full of Seed.
                                                                                              
                                                                                                   Traditional
                                                                                        Seething, Norfolk       
                                                    

Glastonbury Foxhunting - Unworthy Farm

Short clips of Blackmore & Sparkford Vale foxhunt,  riding through the 'greenfields' of Glastonbury festival site. They chased a fox over the A361 SW of Pilton from the meet at Sticklinch, then another one NW from West Pennard. They then hunted all over Worthy Farm, site of the Glastonbury festival - around the stone circle and pyramid stage.
Michael Eavis makes great claims about how green and peaceful he is - maybe he should think about the fear and violence involved in fox and hare hunting and the hunt followers he employs as security on the gates at the festival.
Oh and he supports the Badger Cull too, and in these difficult and dangerous time, the tickets at an extortionate £205 a pop, is  what some folk live on for four weeks,  it  certainly does not sound like a peoples' festival to me. Corporate logos plastered all over the site, plus the Mumford and bloody sons !!! I fail to see a vision of Avalon or Shangrila .
On a personal note, have not been since the mid- nineties when  you  could (unofficially) get in free. Think i'ts goin to rain, some things never change.

Leonard Peltier Day

Today has been proclaimed as a day of memory and solidarity for Mr Leonard Peltier and hereafter every day on the 26th of June.
Throughout the world this man 'dubbed' the Nelson Mandela of North America is considered a political prisoner. With the support of AIM (The American Indian Movement), Amnesty International, global religious and political leaders, as well as over 20 million individuals, Peltier continues to fight not only for personal freedom but for justice for all Native Americans.
Leonard Peltier was convicted  for the deaths of two FBI agents who died on this day in 1975 in a shoot out at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Mr Peltier was an AIM leader who had been asked by the traditional people at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to come and help protect these people from violenceand to protect the peoples land  from mining operators,for uranium. In the two years prior  to the confrontation more than 60 indians at the Pine Ridge Reservation had been killed, without anyone being brought to justice for their crimes.
The confrontation in which the two FBI agents were killed after the agents had entered the reservation  with an arrest warrant. A fire fight  ensured. Evidence was presented at trial to show that the agents had recieved multiple shots and were quickly disabled beforebeing shot dead at point blank range. Two other AIM  leaders were initially charged with the agents' murders and were tried seperately, no evidence at the time was presented to link them to the killings. They were subsequently acqitted after evidence emerged about the atmosphere and intimidation on the reservation, with the conclusion that they might  have been acting in self-defence.
Following their acquittal, the FBI renewed its efforts to pursue Leonard Peltier, they needed a scapegoat  and he was arrested on February 6th 1976.

He was never given a fair trial, faced with an all white jury,federal autorities quashed or destroyed thousands of pages of evidence which would have led to his freedom.The balluistic evidence was deeply flawed, and no real links  to identify  Mr Peltier with the murder.
His  most recent petition for release on parole was denied in 2009, and I understand that  he is not eligible for consideration for parole again until 2024.
Now  aged 68 in poor health he has been incarcenated for 37 years, in poor health, suffering from diabetes, a heart condition and high blood pressure. Over the years he has become a model prisoner, still proclaiming his innocence,  his committment to his fellow  Native American rights undimmed, he spends his time concentrating on art and writing.
It is time
TO FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW.

Some petitions

http://www.change.org/petitions/leonard-peltier-petition-2

http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/free-leonard-peltier.html

Official Leonard Peltier website

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/

 

Immortal Technique - Internally Bleeding

 

 

The Beat goes on a tribute to Leonard Peltier

The Secret Police and Stephen Lawrence

The barrister who represented the family of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrebce says that  they are shocked by the revelation that a police officer may have been ordered to infiltrate the Stephen Lawrence campaign in 1993.
Absolutely dreadful allegations have emerged through the Guardian newspaper and the documentary programme 'Dispatches' on Channel 4, about the role of Briatains secret police, which exposed an orchestrated calculated attempt to discredit the campaign and smear the Lawrence family and associates.
An undercover police officer called Peter Fleming spied on the family , in a " hunt for disinformation" that might undermine those calling for an inquiry into Scotland Yard's botched operation.

Undercover officer , how I spied on Stephen Lawrence family

 It's difficult to find the words to convey the complete defamation of justice that such news represents. The ability for those, who pretend to protect and serve us, to fabricate and decieve in order to justify their own structural inadequacy is so shocking that is sometimes leaves us numb
These were not actions conducted collectively by police officers at the end of their tether. Again and again it has been proved that they have used planned operations to attack people working for social justice, with further allegations of infiltration of other groups working for change.
When people ask us why we say 'no justice no peace', why we don't trust police and why we have little faith in their reformation, these are the reasons why. For years now, our police forces have been deploying tactics like these that I believe, have no part in a democratic society, the Police being used as strategic arms of the state machine.
Stephen's mother was said to be 'aghast' about these allegations, 'coming back to haunt' the family after all this time. But has managed to bravely reatain her dignity and composure.

These allegations must be investigated immediately, this attempt to smear a grieving family is unforgiveable and beyond contempt.

 

http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/police-attempted-to-smear-stephen-lawrence-and-his-family/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Ponsoby (Lord Ponsoby of Shulbrade , 16/2/1871- 23/3/18) - Live in the Present

                              
                           Arthur Ponsonby, writer and social activist

' It cannot be too strongly emphasised that it is the journey that really matters, not the destination. There is higher remuneration and richness of experience to be gained for those who notice and explore the beauties and interests of the roadside in every stage of a journey than for those who blindly pass them by unnoticed in their eagerness to reach the expected though uncertain pleasures of some distant popular centre of attraction. The summit of the mountain may be dissapointing; it is the arduous climb to reach it which gives real satisfaction. . .
Now  is the greatest of moments, the most real thing of which we can be aware, and the whole colour of your life depends on this important now. To seize it as an opportunity means bracing oneself up for action, decision, bite , endeavour. Action is the finest narcotic for grief and bereavement; action dispels lassitude, and action resolves into their true proportions the petty irritations which disturb the even tenor of all our lives.'

From ' Life Here and Now '

I would add that at this moment governments of the world seem to go in the opposite direction of all that we know to be true, as people wake up and protest against their corruption, as a species we have outgrown governmental control.Follow your desires, fulfill your needs, escape from pain.

I am Bradley Manning

It's time to stop the war on whistleblowers
http://iambradleymanning.org

Avalon

The chambers of the sun
break through the mist
light releases, hugs the earth
makes space within our hearts
as we follow chords of immediacy
sing out abundant songs
pause and remember
as rippling currents point the way
feeding thirsty roots
casting shadows of peace
against the darkness of seasons sap
the roads lead on and on
as nature continues to carry us
releasing seeds, leaves, and hope
making things stronger 
feeding love that grows
as we struggle and renew
all things are possible.

Happy Summer Solstice,
heddwch/peace