Tunnels of Life

( In memory of Liz, writer, who people are saying goodbye today R.I.P )

Walking side by side
the comfort of friendship and companionship,
passes through our waking breaths
releasing the gift of laughter and kindness,
love and comradeship, sharing possibilities
the spark of imagination, dreams, magic and joy.

As tears are now shed
words arrive to pick people up,
whispering and soothing our cry's
carried on the tips of leaves, and trees,
to remember all the happy times
that life still has much in store.

Above us shine the constellations of the universe
near to the shining bright moon aglow,
when stars sail across the sky
weaving among shifting patterns of time,
peace in the sky, blooming in eternity
souls flying high, on journeys return.

A singular voice, is carried now
on embers of autumnal gold,
taking wing like a bird
a voice of vision, never to be forgotten,
in time we will continue to talk
read her stories, share her tales
we will be able to bring her back at will.

Lost ( a poem for National Poetry Day)

( poem for National Poetry Day, written in 10 minutes, Llyfrgell Aberteifi/Cardigan... 14.51

Poetry lives
in order to be free, 
precious and unguarded
but sadly is often not noticed,
as people walk on by
not even looking,
so simply ignored.

Like a big issue seller
wearing an invisibility cloak,
words written in life's  frenzy
in times emotion,can be rejected,
left behind, stuck on a page
lonely and lost.

Sometimes clumsy
after  sipping too many wines,
just takes a chance
thinking about yesterday
and the days to come,
words escape to express feeling
contained within.

Searching for meaning
waiting to be set free,
with shaking fingertips
imperfect thoughts,
half formed released,
because there is
no other way.

As the winds outside
continue to blow,
words unregulated
arrive random and unexplained,
the sound of a heart beating
a lonely cry.

Mind continues to explore
the silence that has no room to contain,
wandering full  of love and spirit,
will continue to spread
a wild virus of precious intent.
making it all up as I think,
refusing to be abandoned.

Outrageous a Tory got egged

Bit late with this one I know, but been kind of busy. A Tory walks the streets of Manchester, where the Tory's are currently not welcome, and is seen laughing and waving a picture of Margaret Thatcher, a clearly divisive figure to the anti-austerity protestors who have this week gathered in Manchester. Provoking  and  antagonising, clearly taking the piss , at all those who had gathered, and then some people are outraged when he receives an  egging!
I'm outraged too, that  the people who are now stealing tax credits from hard working families, making people rely on food banks in order to survive, cutting benefits for pensioners, sanctioning the unemployed, the sick and vulnerable and making life unbearable for disabled people,  spreading daily the cruelty of poverty are allowed to walk free around the streets with such arrogance.
Egg throwing is a continuing long, proud tradition of British protest. Eggs are usually used because they are cheap, and easy to detonate, and leave a lot of mess.
I want to shake the hand of the individual who threw the egg. Not that Im actually advocating that you should throw anything at anyone. Wish though it had been David Cameron who was left with egg on his face.



' He's just a Tory boy from a privileged family, egged in the mush for laughing loud at poverty.'

Cabinet of millionaires ( A Poem)

The cabinet of millionaires, dining now on the misery they cause
filling their guts with the carcasses of the people,
the richest parasites in Britain, gathered in one place
guarded and protected in their ivory towers,
eating from silver spoons, gorging from golden troughs
negating and abusing with denigration and labels,
calling their undeserving victims layabouts and scroungers
rejects and lazy bastards, this all from a self serving elite,
drunk on political power, running wild and amok
spreading pain, and broken promises, for own personal gain,
plutocrats gaining from capital and corporate shares
bankrolled by big business and multinational strength,
in the spirit of their ideology, continue to plunder all that we possess
making the underclass below their feet weep, as obscenity is spread,
but the people outside have grown weary and tired, and have had enough
time now to subvert their authority, after all we have nothing left to lose,
apart fromour poverty and chains, and self respect,
so take back what's been stolen, from their piggy bank
singing bread and roses, people not profit, Tory's out.

Why has Saudi Arabia been welcomed into the UN's Human Rights Council ?

Saudi Arabia  a country with appalling notorious woeful reputation  for human rights abuses has been welcomed to the UN Human rights council, facilitated in part by our own PM, David Cameron, has himself looked at curtailing many of our own personal freedoms, indeed he has already eroded many. I think I see a pattern emerging.
Saudi Arabia continues to try convict and imprison political dissidents and human rights activists solely on account of their  peaceful activities. Still subjecting hundreds of people to unfair trials and arbitrary detentions. People  daily being curtailed carrying   out  their beliefs. Saudi Arabian judges routinely sentence detainees to floggings with hundreds of lashings, the use of torture an every day occurrence. Women's rights  hardly in existence at all.
It is a mockery of humanity, when  a country that carries out  cruel inhuman punishments, that shackles its media, who in the last 20 years  has had over 2,000  people executed can be welcomed  by the UN in this way.  last year alone 175 people executed, for crimes that were hardly capitol offences. Saudi Arabia executes more people than any other country except China and Iran.
But the fact  that Saudi Arabia sits on the  world's largest  reserves of oil, could have been a contributing factor.
This decision by the UN  mocks the pain off dissidents currently languishing in Saudi Jails.

Tories not welcome in Manchester, and are definitely not welcomed here.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are descending on Manchester this weekend to protest outside the Conservative Party Conference - and feeling are  justifiably running high, since  the Tory's cruel  policies are leaving a lot of ordinary people in desperate poverty and misery, so  people are resisting and standing against austerity  and public spending cuts.
Too many people are now suffering under their discredited ideology of austerity. Two thirds of leading UK economists say they blame George Osborne's austerity policies to be damaging to the economy.
Austerity is not necessary,  there is another way, a better way. The ideology of austerity must  be exposed for the life destroying lie that it is. It is  just an ideological obsession being used by the Tories and their friends in the media to pick on easy targets that cannot fight back,   to scapegoat and pick on the poor, the vulnerable, the unemployed,  to distract us from the real wreckers of our society the bankers and the corporate world, as they continue to try and suck the last vestiges of hope from us all.
The Tories are  currently obsessed  with the concept  of shrinking our welfare state, privatising services and  reducing the public sector to virtually nothing. Attacking our human and Trade Union Rights, combined with their unrelenting attack on those who desperately need the support of the welfare state, we must remember those who have been  treated with brutality, incompetance and indifference, with many sadly having losit their lives.
So now is the time to fight back, not just in Manchester, but across the country, we simply cannot afford more years of Tory misrule, if we do not, we will lose everything, so we must  keep up the pressure, standing in solidarity in order to defeat the  government. We must start building alternatives, to their supposedly comfortable capitalist consensus, send out clear messages, saying no to austerity,  outside parliament, in our communities, in our workplaces.
They have gatecrashed into power, and are simply not welcome anymore.
It is time now to kick the Tories out of power.

Newtown Neurotics - Kick out the Tories.

Don't bomb Syria, it's the last thing they need at moment..

Grateful Syrians have spoken of their relief that so many friendly bombs are now blasting them towards peace. A few weeks ago it was Assad bombing them from the air and ISIS, shooting them from the ground. Now the Americans and Russians have joined in too.
The Syrian civil war has already left more than 240,000 people dead and created millions of refugees. We should not make matters on the ground even worse, just to show a largely futile show of force. 
Tell your MP to stand against any further military escalation in Syria. Another destructive  bombing campaign, will do no good at all. It will only lead to more death and destruction, leading to the death of innocent civilians, which will only serve to increase resentment, leading possibly to more acts of terrorism, and will not make Britain a safer place. The UK will be dragged into a deeper complex cynical game played  out in Syria by foreign powers and the Assad regime. We need to start helping the victims of wars that our governments so enthusiastically pursue, building roads to peace, and try fostering a more humane policy towards refugees.
Please tell your MP to stand against any further military escalation in Syria and prevent another disastrous intervention.

http://act.stopwar.org.uk/lobby/stopbombingsyria

Happy Birthday Human Rights Act

Today marks exactly 15 years  since our Human Rights Act came into force - and  it has been protected the rights of ordinary people across the UK ever since.The Act allows British citizens to raise human rights concerns in British courts rather  than have to go the European Court of Human Rights. The Tory Government has promised to repeal the act as stated in their general election manifesto. Human rights  put in place to stop corrupt Governments and to hold them to account.
Here are 15 ways the Human Rights Act has made all our lives better and 15 reasons why the Government must not be allowed to make this anniversary its last.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mairi-claire-rodgers/human-rights-act_b_8227590.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement

Free Palestine - Support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) movement. BDS is a strategy that allows people around the world to contribute to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and for freedom, justice and equality. It is used as a key tactic of solidarity with the Palestinian people,  creating a pressure that cannot simply be ignored. I remember how the South African apartheid system was itself bought to an end by an effective boycott campaign. That only needs to last until Israel ends its illegal  occupation and complies with international law.

http://www.bdsmovement.net/

Goodbye Liz Whittaker ; storyteller ( 1944 -2015) R.I. P

( a post prompted by my partner Jane, this is effectively her post.)

Sad to say goodbye to Liz Whittaker, friend, author, playwright, creative advocate of the arts scene here in Wales. A magical weaver of words, who touched many peoples lifes. A dear friend to my partner, who were able to bring great comfort and joy to one another. I personally grew to respect her immensely, this  passionate individual, who touched the lives of many, with her supportive manner, passion and kindness. Whose appreciative comments and thoughts  will be missed by all who encountered her. My community has lost a creative spark.
My heart goes out to her family and her many friends.