When the siege is broken; A poem for Gaza

One year after the 2014 war that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and destroyed thousands of homes, people in Gaza are still struggling to survive under awful living conditions and a crippling blockade.
A place of daily struggle for the 1.6 million living here under Israeli siege, in the tiny Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated paces on the planet, that has since 2007 suffered under the brutal Israel Land, air and sea blockade.
After the latest assault, entire neighbourhoods are inaccessible,  medical and medical disposables in shortage. The blockade has caused increased unemployment, loss of agricultural land, decline in incomes from fishing due  to restrictions imposed  by the Israeli Navy and daily problems obtaining raw materials, and everyday manufactured products. With health impaired by  a population impoverished, together with psychological problems, caused by the ordeal of confinement, to this open prison.
Lifting the blockade would enable Gaza to trade again. And if this happened the economy could grow by almost $4 billion. Local businesses and farmers could earn decent livings again. People could afford to feed their families and put their children through school or college and get access to safe water. We must be able to give some hope of a better future for the people of Gaza, it is more than enough time that they are given their dignity back to be allowed an economic life that has been denied to them for years,  to be allowed to travel and trade again.
Yes it is more than time that the blockade is lifted, for people to be connected with friends and family in the West Bank again,  the blockade of human rights and international law, an obstacle to freedom and peace.
The following a poem, that looks forward to a time when the siege and blockade is over.


When the siege is broken

From a dream within a dream,
freedom's breath kept calling,
the degradation just had to end,
a change needed to be delivered,
between the wall and sea,
the keys of promise allowed to return,
allow the struggling bird, to trace some light.

The future blossoms again,
green on the land,the dawn wakes to song,
instead of the rattle of gunfire and missiles,
the morning  moves with softness,
as cypresses sway, under the shade of oak trees,
jasmines scent floats, the smell of oranges, 
                                              sweet on the breeze.

Beyond the rubble of the past,
children play in jubilation,
farmers toil in the afternoon sun,
the fruit of their soil alive again,
a paradise is regained from oppression,
though weeping tears will never cease,
olive branches now glisten with hope,
fishermen go far out to cast  their nets,
smiling sharing salted bread,
to bring back home  a rich harvest.

Safe from captivity, no longer in a living hell,
hearts again, existing in peace,
the dream continues,
lights a path away from the dark,
as speakers ring out, a familiar call for prayer,
a conflagration of new beginnings,
returns some mercy.   

poem written last week before I became aware of extent of  my partners illness, a cause that we both share  together.                                    

Holding on

a poem, written for my wonderful friend, soul mate, partner, Jane, currently seriously ill in hospital.

Holding on

We break, get torn,
 this makes our living spaces so blue,
so we fall apart, to start again,
to shake dark shadows of our skin,
wait for calming thoughts to return,
to burn bright again,
feel the tug of another's heart,
holding on and not letting go,
souls are strong, the wind can't blow them away,
still like air, the morning she rises,
with touch and breath, smiles again,
by moonflowers and sunflowers,
we will continue to walk and talk,
allow our nights and days,
to be imbued with love.

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

" Love is not a victory march, it's cold and it's broken.


Hallelujah."

I have returned sooner than expected, time on my hand's,
for Alison Croydon  ( Ali) my beloved cousin, who  is being  laid to rest today,

aged 58, R.I..P.


Dear soul,

Stonehenge veteran,

intrepid traveller ,

inner and beyond, 
we light a brief candle,

both ends burning,

as we remember,

and her journey continues,
hallelujah

No to Beijing 2022

In a weeks time, on July 31, the IOC ( the International Olympics Committee will decide whether to award Beijing a second Olympic games. When China last hosted the Olympics there was a violent crackdown in Tibet and since then the repression  has only worsened. The 2008 Olympics did nothing to alleviate human rights abuses or enhance freedom, in fact since then China has become more aggressive in its attitudes to human rights in Tibet, and less willing to engage in  dialogue regarding a lasting resolution with reports of armed police attacking and beating peaceful protestors and seriously injuring many more, Tibetans imprisoned for simply singing a song, things are significantly worse than they were before. In the last few weeks over 2 human rights lawyers have been jailed in large numbers, many of which are still detained or still missing and entire communities can be punished for the act of one person.
Others too suffering, the arbitrary arrest torture, and disappearance of those they consider a threat, like the Ulghurs, southern Mongolians and Hans Chinese.
More than 175 Tibetan groups  have backed the call  for the IOC to reject China's bid. By granting China these games again, the IOC will be putting their international stamp of approval on China's continuing military occupation of Tibet. Combined with  its continuing restrictions on  civil and  political liberties this surely makes it an  unfit candidate to host these games because of it's clear contempt of human rights.

Please sign and share the following  petition. Tell the IOC that China does not deserve another Olympics


https://www.change.org/p/international-olympic-committee-ioc-don-t-reward-china-s-worsening-oppression-with-another-olympic-games

A poem for Tony Blair

Mr Blair's heart is running on empty
his soul containing only darkness,
he comes and go's as he pleases
adds nothing of value,no hidden depth
just likes to stir and pontificate
count his stockpiles of cash,
profits soaked in blood and tears
basking again today in the limelight,
showering humanity with his dismal grin
a joke that's beginning to wear very thin,
distracting us, with his vanity and deceit
can't this man be brought to account?
accept some responsibility, for all the lives he wasted
for all the pain and ruins that he created,
continues unrelentling, carries on unashamed
telling us little things,shouting down our cries,
I have become weary and unsympathetic
of this shameless charlatan, power mad junky.

"I would swim through vomit to vote against this welfare bill - John McDonnell

The Welfare and Work Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons yesterday by 308 votes to 124, nearly  half  of  the house voting for greater social exclusion and aggressive social cleansing, more homelessness, bigger child poverty, increased attacks on the poor and vulnerable. Sadly most  Labour Party MPs have forgotten that they are supposed to be in opposition, a bunch of gutless spineless individuals, a party fast becoming devoid of principles and integrity.  Only 48 Labour MP's decided to take a stand against austerity though, among them leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn, who with the above seems to care a lot, keeps showing himself  as a human being, despite the rest of the modern Labour Party acting like traitors to the people they should be representing. But we should not really be handing out congratulations either, surely this is why we have something called  opposition. When we live in a land of no opposition, we live in a scary place indeed.When those inside Westminsters walls carry on not listening, we must outside, carry on fighting and resisting , for the survival of us all.

The Queen's embarrasmment at old footage of her giving Nazi salute.

The Queen is said to be furious and embarrassed after footage was released recently by the Sun newspaper, showing her delivering a mock  Nazi salute in 1933. Unfortunately, this is what happens when Royalty tries to bury it's past.
The actions of a naive young girl maybe, aged only 5 or 7, who did not know what she was doing, and the full implications of her actions, under the influence of others So it's a case of blaming the adults I guess. In the black and white film footage she his shown with  her mum, the Queen mother, her Uncle Prince Edward and her younger sister Princess Margaret.
Many will say, it is time to move on, and in the hearts and minds of some of her subjects she will always remain as a dignified role model. But Republic which campaigns for a democratic alternative to the monarchy said the palace should stop  dodging responsibility. Others are saying you cannot bury history, because if you try to do this, it has a habit of coming back to haunt you.
In 1933, the fact is, due to Nazism, anti-semitism was on the rise. Hitler was  already known as  the leader of the National Socialist Working Party (the Nazis) had already started rounding up Communists, Socialists and Liberals, purging as many political opponents as possible - giving him one man dictatorial powers. Already talking of the master race, building roads on the outskirts of towns that would carry millions away to their deaths. Already they saw Jews, Roma (Gypsies) and the handicapped as a serous biological threat to the purity of the German (Aryan) race. Jews became the principal target of Nazi hatred. The Nazi salute, was already seen by many as a symbol of fear.
It could be said that the Queen, was hoodwinked, by her uncle Prince Edward, later Edward V111,  it is known he was a sympathiser of Hitler's Nazi regime, he admired Hitler's economic and social reforms as the Nazis swept to power, and wanted  Britain to offer them their hands of friendship. Later after his abdication, he visited Germany with the idea of discussing becoming a figurehead for an international movement for peace on Hitler's terms. And later on in his life his view of Hitler remained undimmed declaring him to be "not a bad chap."
Thankfully Hitler was defeated, but despite all the vestiges of privilege, this story,  will act not just as  a painful reminder of the historical past. It also serves  as a warning, an echoe to our present times, when the dangers of fascism still lurk, and governments with undemocratic mandates, run amok. Lest us forget either the Nazi sympathetic 'tendencies'  at the heart of the British establishment. At the end of the day this information should have been  in the public domain 50 years  ago, what was to hide, just an innocent secret, an honest simple mistake?

Worthless - Agnes Török

Powerful poem  on the news of a new Conservative budget, based  on the experience of living in Britain under austerity as a young, queer, unemployed female immigrant student - and not taking it any more.
Already gone viral, with thousands already having viewed this three minute call to arms, a blasting riposte to a system that glorifies the rich and its economic policies whilst telling the rest of us we are 'worthless.'




http://agnestorok.org/

Support your local hunt sabouteurs

Well done to the Scottish National Party Westminster Group who have met and decided to vote against the Governments attempt  to relax ban on fox hunting south of the border in tomorrows vote, they would have collectively voted against the Tory's proposals, so now David Cameron has been forced into a humiliating climbdown, made to delay a vote on crippling the hunting ban, it is so good to see the Tory's outfoxed, you see they can be defeated.
It is clear that the vast majority of the public are against a repeal of the Hunting Act, in both rural and urban areas. Cameron knows this but always likes to push things too far and will attempt to get the act through again, probably in autumn, because Cameron himself is a supporter and lover of this barbaric sport. For years treating animals inhumanely, a matter of course for a man who regularly uses benefit claimants, for his own legal bloodsport of choice. They don't really see a fox, they see a recalcitrant an ungrateful peasant, fox hunting just another way of expression their class rule.
Despite the vote not going ahead, remember too, that ten years after the Hunting Act in February 2005, hunts continue to meet, most notably on the sports big occasion, such as Boxing Day. There are still 189 packs recognised by the Master of Foxhounds Association.
Recently Middleton Hunt were caught with 16 fox cubs in a barn next to their kennels, taken from the wild and separated from their mothers, a clear case of trapping, the cubs to be used as an easy kill for any new hounds the hunts are training for when the hunting season commences again next month.
Thousands of people are still attending organised hunts throughout the winter, in theory hunts are now supposed to practice trail hunting. This allows hunters and riders to follow a scent trail pf fox urine laid out in advance in they are supposed to allow riders the experience of hunting without the climatic act of a fox being ripped apart by dogs. But inevitably and tragically dogs do encounter foxes and do kill, the hunt masters claiming again and again that such kills were purely accidental, which has resulted  in only a handful of hunters being ever convicted of breaking the ban, clamping down on illegal hunting is not seen as a police priority, a case of one law for the rich, and another for the poor.
Despite the ban animals are still being killed. People continue to hunt, illegally, as the law stands now, but  they carry on  regardless, without prosecution, so thank goodness for hunt sabouteurs. They are the only  organisation still taking direct action against the hunters, hunt sabs constantly  out in force trying to stop this cruel practice, I will continue to support people bravely standing up to defend the lives of hunted wildlife from this barbaric tradition and practice.
The hunting Act needs to be strengthened not weakened, because foxes are not the only animals being killed. It must not be returned. We must stay vigilant and constantly oppose this barbarism.


Look up your local  group here, and get involved.

http:www.huntsabs.org.uk/index.php/get-involved/contacts

Disconnect?

" Sometimes you have to disconnect, to stay connected. Remember the old days when you had eye contact during a conversation. When everyone wasn't looking down at a device in their hands? We've become so focussed on that tiny screen, that we forget the big picture, the view right in front of us." - Regina Bret

Disconnect?

She sits on the beach,
but is not really there,
as the surf rages all around,
her vista , is her mobile phone,
no time to gaze at sky,
just presses buttons,
of a self contained prison,
no room for actual conversation,
all the words she needs are in her hands,
to consummate all her desires.

She plugs herself in,
feeling comfortably numb,
in this ritual of abandonment,
day in, day out,
day in, day out,
always the same,
where she plays in her own personal cube,
no room for a view, of real beauty,
she is lost, she is possessed,
she is of this world.