The Month of May - Irish, author unkown; .ninth century

May it is
fair faced and gentle
blackbirds exult at the crack of day

cuckoos' work greets lordly summer
a balm it is for every bitterness
hedge-green bristle the branching boughs

summer shallows
thirsty herds hasten there
heather's hair sprouts
bog cotton flourishes

tides of smoothness
the ocean drowses
flowers decorate the world

bees bear their weight of harvest
high hills call the cows
the ant feasts

harp of the trees hums and soothes
colour reposes on each slope
haze upon the brimming lake

the corn-crake croaks on, merciless poet
pure falls fall to the warm pool
rushes regain their voices of whispers
swallows soar and dart above

ardent music rings the hill
fruit of sweetness is in the bud
the dusty cuckoo cries and calls

speckled fish are at their leaping
strength of on the swift hero
strength of man is in full flower
majesty of heights unmarred
fair are the woods from root to twig

fair each fresh and fertile field
ever pleasant the garb of spring
winter gales past and gone

cheerfulness on every grove
restful, happy, sunlit time
flutterings of birds  flock down
green fields full of answerings
where the busy water sparkles

a passion sparks for the racing of horses
where warriors are arrayed
rich verges on the cattle pool
lend gold to the iris flower

shy unyielding lark
the burden of your song is clear
bonny serene May is perfect

Reprinted from :-
The Craneskin Bag;
Celtic Stories and Poems
as told and sung by Robin Williamson
Canongate, 1989

If I were taken into custody by the authorities in my Country I am confident that I would be safe from torture.

How safe would  you fell if you were taken into custody?
Shockingly nearly 80% of people asked  in Britain don't feel safe from torture if they were arrested.
Enough is enough, join the campaign and help Amnesty International stop torture.
We need to send a message to two faced governments to stick to their promises.

http://amn.st/Stop-Torture

Tony Conran (7/4/31 -14/7/13) - Becca At The Gate

On the 175th anniversary this week of the Rebecca Riots thought I'd post this poem written by the late great Tony Conran, for the late Paul Davies, founder of the Becca group of artists, that was named after 19th Century Rebecca Riots against tollgates that were seen as symbols of oppression.A movement that sweeped my local  countryside, a popular uprising of the oppressed peasantry. By night the countryside seemed qiet, but at night fantastically disguised horsemen careered  along highways and through narrow lanes on their  rebellious quests ,an inspiring uprising that is still remembered as one of the most famous and striking protest movements in modern Welsh history.That still strikes the imagination in our hearts,minds and deeds.

Rebecca Riots remembered:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-27375757

Becca At The Gate

You saw them shouting at Efailwen,
Preseli men round Mynachlog Ddu,
Swains of Llangolmen and Maenchlochog,
Farmhands, greybacks at Llandysilio -

You saw the wrath of Twm Carnabwth
The house-in-a-night man, who put stones
Round a hearth, a roof and a chimney
And a good fire alight by the morning

Gunfire and horsehooves in the darkness
And you saw Rebecca at the gate-
Red petticoats over ploughman's boots,
Bonnets and shawls, tall hats of women.

You were at the hosting at St Clears
Blackfaced on  steeds round about Pwll Trap.
You saw the old bent Becca hobbling
Up to the gate, stooped on a thorn stick.

You saw the stick feel in front of her.
"Daughters, there's something put up here
Across the road, I cannot go on."
Hundreds shouted, "Mother, what is it?"

Nothing should bar your path, old Mother-
Not a great gate, nor bolted custom ,
Nor opportunities taken away,
The theft that is wealth, or dumb respect.

You were with wassailers by moonlight
On familiar ground, under the stars.
Her cry rang out " Children, off with it,
Break  the gate down, it's no business here."

Explosion in Turkey : Capitalism kills

A woman cries at the scene of one of  the explosion sites, after several explosion sites killed at least 200 people and injured over 80  at a mine in Soma, in the Western Turkish province of Manisa. Most deaths were due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
There are reports  of over  400 trapped underground. Imagine  this had taken place in a Parliament building and the dead and trapped people were politicians, imagine the media frenzy ...Yes exactly.
Miners  have blamed the disaster  on the absence of safety procedures  and the drive for profit at the massive mine. It is to me another case of work murder, where workers are forced to work in sites  in illegal, irregular, unsafe and  unhealthy conditions.
Those who try to protect their wealth  by saying 'profit and capital first', rather than 'People first' share responsibility for these murders. Turkey  has lost  many other workers like  this in similar accidents because of  their bosses thirst for profit and casual disregard for safety procedures, but this is the worst disaster for decades and is now being regarded as a catastrophe. To say that I am angry is an underestimate, at the end of the day, again and again  CAPITALISM KILLS.
All part of a system designed to maximise profit and create obscene  amounts of wealth for a privileged minority and consigning millions to a life of hardship and misery.
My thoughts go out to the victims, and the survivors, their families and those who are left to mourn.

Palestine Through the eyes of Photography

Hamde Abu Rahman is an award winning Palestinian photojournalist, activist and journalist and author of the photo book 'Roots Run Deep - Life in Occupied Palestine, a beautiful gem of a book, in which the photographer tells us ' left my work and studies to move back  to the West Bank to help my people and document the truth about  our struggle  against the illegal occupation of our land.' The book is dedicated to his cousin Bassem  who was shot and killed by Israeli  occupation forces during one of the weekly demonstrations at Bi'lin caprured so brilliantly in the Oscar-nominated  film Five Broken Cameras.
The book has been published privately, but I hope that   it gets to be seen by as many people as possible,  Hamde uses his photography powerfully to express what is going on under occupation, with beauty and insight, creativity,  allowing us to witness the steadfastness of Palestinians living in the West Bank. A truly powerful and moving book.
You can order the book here.

http://hamdeaburahma.com/

Eternities Dream

  

Let's go into worlds unknown
where we can search again  for humanity's glow,
a place where things can be forever regained
warmth and affection raining down  
Words growing on branches of love and passion
spinning tops of renewal and survival,
barriers becoming invisible again
as the world in slumber bathes,
fertile crescents shining on mountain tops
oppression and exploitation passing,
into passionate hands flowers bloom
delicate voices abandon anxiety,
having rid themselves of tyranny
despots, dictators, oppressors,
each morning waking to unity's exhaltation
universe surrounds us with multitudes of strength,
communal blankets wrap round protection
embers flicker with imagination,
glistening with eternities dream
our flames of hope, flicker with life,
every word released is magical
we flow as one, as we scratch the sky.  

Terence Mckenna (16/6/46 - 3/3/00) - Reclaim your mind

" Catalyst to say what has never been said. To see  what has never been seen. To draw, paint, sing, sculpt, dance and act what has never been done. To push  the envelope of creativity and language. And  what's really  important  is. I call it the 'felt presence of direct experience'. Which is a fancy term which just simply means we  have to stop consuming our culture.
We have to create culture. Don't watch T.V. Don't read magazines. Don't even listen to NPR (radio). Create your own roadshow.
The nexus of space and time, where you are now, is the most immediate sector of your universe. And if you are worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered. You're giving  it all away to icons, icons which are maintained  by an electronic medium so that, you know, you wanna dress like X or have lips like Y or something. This is shit brained, this kind of thinking.
That is all cultural diversion. And what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs.your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears.  And we are told 'No'. we're unimportant, we're peripheral, get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that - and then you're a player. You don't even want to play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world. Where is that?"

Any regulars to this blog, will notice that I have returned to Mr McKenna's  work several times over the years, but to anyone new, I strongly suggest you seeking out his work, always a treat to read. His life an endless search for mindblowing possibilities,  a perpetual quest of comtemplated consciousness,  psychonaut, teacher, writer, researcher.
Before anyone comments, not that may people do, the above quote does come across a little contradictary, this sadly is life, also mentions two people  that are not that relevent to the present age
replace them and I think it is applicable to anybody.
We still live daily in atmospheres of complete hypocrisy.
At the end of the day I guess  we all, need to learn again how to do it ourselves..

Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners on hunger strike.

Nearly all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails involving aproximately 2,000 political prisoners  have gone on hunger strike today, in solidarity with  administrative detainess who have been on hunger strike for nearly 2 weeks.
Administration detention is an Israeli policy under which Palestinians are held without  trial or charge  for one to 6 months. This periond can be extended to up to 5 years by an Israeli military court.
The current  protests can  be traced  back to May 2012,  when an agreement was  reached between the Israel prison service and representatives of the prisoners, which  brought an end to a previous hunger strike. At the time Israel agreed to limit its use of administrative detention to only exceptional cicumstances, but since then  they have  reneged on this deal and has  continued  to use administrative  detention on a systematic basis which has left the detainess  with little option  than to launch  a fresh strike.
Incidentally this is a lot of people imprisoned unjustly,surely the Israeli government can't imprison the whole Palestinian population to silence them? To many people this sadly appears to be the case.
Amnesty International has long campaigned against Administration detention's use  which effectively sees  Palestinian prisoners  being starved of justice.
Yet again these practices contravene Israel's obligations under international human rights law and international human law.
Today I support the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike in opposition to inhumane prison conditions and Israel's practice of detaining Palestinians without charge. It is more than time that the use of Administrative detention is ended.

Bring Back Our Girls

 

There have been global protests across the world in response  to a global social media campaign, fot the Nigerian government to  do more to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls  forcibly taken from a Northern boarding school in Nigeria, on April 14th  by Islamic militants. The girls   that wee abducted live in a region that has the  lowest  girl child enrolment in Nigeria. They were  taken and abducted   by Boko Haran, simply because  they wanted an education. 
The #BringBackOurGirls  hashtag  is keeping the story in the media lens. If it stays in  the media hopefully the Nigerian government will be forced to act. These girls are children of the poor, in Nigeria's deeply inegalitarian society and  must be saved. This tragedy touches the hearts of everyone, evoking a feeling  of revulsion, at their loss of freedom, their right to education. and the mistaken  assumption that  for these young girls their destination must be forced marriage and servitude.
Whatever mantra this militant group is following it is not  following the words of the Koran. The prophet Muhammed  categorically stated during his lifetime that women or children were never to be harmed under any situation that "oppression is worse than murder  (2:191)) and  that nobody "shall  force girls to commit prostitution." (24:33)
We must though stand in solidarity with these missing school children and any other woman around the world who continues  to fight for their basic human rights ,we  however must be careful of western intervention, we should remember that it is the Wests interests in Africa that has helped foster and spread this dangerous  misinterpretation and corruption of  Islam.
We must continue  to listen to what the  families and thinkers, the professionals  on the frontlines of this crisis have to say.
At the end of the day it is the people of Nigeria that has to find the answers, a troubled area   already, with their own backdrop of corruption and inequality. we do not want to  add to their problems and hasten a scenario that could result in a African Afghanistan.
We can continue to express our anger and frustration, and hope that the Nigerian government finds these girls, and they are taken from harms way and back into safety.
We should not forget many other innocent people who dissapear every day as well, migrants who drown seeking a better life, innocents  killed by remote control drones,  injustices daily incurring across the globe, in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, in all corners of the globe that sadly do not warrant the same headlines, all innocence is worth protecting.

 

The True Little Tramp

In February 1914, in  a time  of economic turmoil and international conflict, Charlie Chaplin walked into screens for the very first time as the beloved Little Tramp character, 100 years later, with homelessness on the rise, massive cuts to  social security, and an uncaring government trying deperately to drag the country  to war once more, Jack Brindell and friends consider what the Tramp's legacy can teach us in modern times.

My earlier post on Chaplin can be found here:-

Charlie Chaplin - Citizen of the World

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/charlie-chaplin-b1641889-251277-citizen.html