Not all those who wander are lost.

                                    
                                        ( After, hay-on-wye and the golden valley)
                                        .
Everything can be suddenly changed
the crazy doodles of the heart,
among valleys, under trees
find smooth tempered words,
make up for the lengths, that we take
to hide ourselves, from minds archive,
with  distracted voices of calmness
we can leave a trail of thought,
follow the untethered leaf
and later make a poem,
under the muttering sky
catch the stars falling,
being grateful that
we can still breathe.

Chumbawamba - Liberation

In the Presence of the Holy See

So the Pope is visiting Palestine today. Above are a wonderful set of collages to remind  him - or inform him, if he doesn't yet know - of how the Israeli  occupation daily commits  crimes against the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian  Museum has launched  this project  in honour of his visit. Banners  combining recent media photographs of the Palestinian landscape and its people with Western baroque  paintings of biblical scenes will decorate Manger square in Bethlehem, highlighting the tension between the popular image of the Holy Land and Palestine's ongoing history of suffering under occupation  and oppression.
My hope is that he uses his visit to speak out against the injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people.

More details here:-

http://www.palmuseum.org/exhibition-news/news/in-the-presences-of-the-holy-see-project

Why not to vote - Shane Jansen-bowen

 

Some valid, coherent, thoughts from guest contributor in anticipation of tomorrows European election or any other in fact.

Don't vote, don't even think about voting. Don't  worry that not  voting is a wasted opportunity.
Don't reach for the people died so that you can vote justification. Don't believe that there is hope from NEW government. Just think  for a moment. Politicians ARE dishonest. A broad generalisation I know, but a stereotype that has been proven  in its rigorous Westminster playground over and over.
Have you noticed in the past that laws that have been passed have improved things.
What do politicians actually do? How much do they really get paid when you add up all the benefits they receive? How does your income  reflect their income? Well  there is plenty of info on all that crap out there so I will assume you know this shit.
Why are some people poor? That's a valid question. Farmers, factories, mass production techniques mean that one man can provide for 1000's so why is everyone poor?
Housing:
A builder will make 100's of houses in his lifetime, why  is anyone without a roof? A person goes down to the stream to drink. Someone else brings a bucket so many can drink. A well, a dam, a desalination plant. You get my flow.
No one should ever be thirsty. Why are we? Because we have the same system of governance that we have had for millennia. It's called a hierarchy. This system is holding humanity in stasis, preventing the next evolutionary step. A step for both the freedom of the individual and the chance at global community.
You generally make a choice between the red and the blue, why? It would be easy to show with 'prove anything' statistics that for the majority, party X was more favourable than party Y but you are missing the point. We say 'the lesser of two evils'., we joke about it. It's not very bloody funny. Any vote is going to result in a negative outcome, so don't.
I do propose anarchy, the type where you sit on your but and ignore the powerful, just like you would with a child that was having a tantrum. Politicians allow people to die, they cause wars, they sponsor greed and they do this in your name because you voted for that. You paid for children to die. The action of your representative, in your name, with your signature have caused untold misery. These people are insane and you allow this insanity to grow and fester into depravity.
Name me a good man, one that never got angry, never did anything wrong, compassionate one with no flies. All those names you're thinking, are you sure they were never a soldier, are you sure they were not misogynistic, held views that were popular but not bigoted against some faction.
We are not perfect and voting for someone to be in charge is crazy, we don't need managing, we don't need direction. We just need compassion and a willingness to help each other. Most of us already have that. So ask yourself just what does the government do for you or anyone you know? Do they really help you?
What does that friend of yours do for you? ..... Yeah! They do make a difference.
We have civil servants, we don't need government.
Don't vote.
 

Max Ernst (2/4/1891- 1/4/76) - Profanation of Spring

Even today Surrealism captures the imagination, with surprising force. Max Ernst, German painter, artist and poet was one of its primary forces. I am a great admirer of his work. In his painting Profanation of Spring painted in 1945 with its rich, bizarre portrayal he displays his fascination with the natural environment. Bulging-eyed insects. larval forms and subterranean anthropods, lurking in a dense web of decaying vegetation and murky humus.
Unlike Rousseau's jungle -like charm though  it had far more deeper, sinister implications, as Jon Russell  described  his paintings  of the 1940's (in Max Ernst: Life and Work, New York , 1967) it was to become one of his 'portraits of dissolution, panoramas of a world gone soft,'
Events of the day also weighed heavily on Ernst's thoughts, during this period. Nazi Germany had surrendered unconditionally to the allies on 8 May 1945. One might optimistically think that this  springtime victory over the forces of darkness as the auspicious beginning for a season of rebirth and renewal in devastated Europe. During the final weeks of the war, however, and following its conclusion, with the horrors of the death camps, and the sheer magnitude of Nazi genocide that became apparent to all, this may be the desecration of the life-affirming symbolism of spring to which Ernst alludes to in his title.
As the spectre of fascism lurks over Europe again, Ernst reminds me not to forget, as Spring smiles and awakes, the sense of foreboding menace and its jackboots are still stamping their feet, and raising their ugly voices. Deep in the undergrowth, sadly visible again.

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/