Matthew Arnold ( 24/12/1822 -15/4/88) - Celtic Magic

In Matthew Arnold's lifetime only a quarter of his productive life was given to writing poetry, his reputation rests equally on his prose and critical essays, especially the relationship of man and nature. Ideas that W.B Yeats himself would later develop. Both attracted to the secrets of natural beauty and natural magic.
Here is a famous essay where he draws on these themes, which he brings alive with much eloquence..

'The Celt's quick feeling for what is noble and distinguished gave his poetry style; his indomitable personality gave it pride and passion; his sensibility and nervous exaltation gave it a better gift still, the gift of rendering with wonderful felicity the magical charm of nature. The forest solitude, the bubbling spring, the wild flowers, are everywhere in romance. They have a mysterious life and grace there; they are Nature's own children, and utter her secret in a way which makes them something quite different from the woods, waters and plants of Greek and Latin poetry.  Now of this delicate magic, Celtic romance is so pre-eminent a mistress, that it seems impossible to believe the power did not come into romance from the Celts. Magic is just the word for it, - the magic of nature; not merely the beauty of nature,-  that the Greeks and Latins had; not merely an honest smack of the soil, a faithful realism - that the Germans had; but the intimate life of Nature, her weird power and her fairy charm . . . Gwydion wants a wife for his pupil: "Well." says Math, " we will seek, I and thou, by charms and illusions, to form a wife for him out of flowers." So they took the blossoms of the oak, and the blossoms of the broom, and the blossoms of the meadow-sweet, and produced from them a maiden, the fairest and most graceful that man ever saw. And they baptized her, and gave her the name of Flower-Aspect." Celtic romance is full of exquisite touches like that, showing the delicacy of the Celt's feeling in these matters, and how deeply Nature lets him come into her secrets. The quick dropping of blood is called "faster than the fall of the dewdrop from the blade of red-grass upon the earth, when the dew of June is at the heaviest." And this is Olwen described:
"More yellow was her hair than the flower of the broom, and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands and her fingers than the blossoms of the wood-anemony amidst the spray of the meadow fountains."

For loveliness it would be hard to beat that; and for magical clearness and nearness take the following:

"And in the evening Peredur entered a valley, and at the head of the valley he came to a hermit's cell, and the hermit welcomed him gladly, and there he spent the night. And in the morning he arose, and when he went forth, behold a shower of snow had fallen the niight before, and a hawk had killed a wild-fowl in front of the cell. And the noise of the horse scared the hawk away, and a raven alighted upon the bird. And Peredur stood and compared the blacknness of the raven, and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood, to the hair of the lady whom best he loved, which was blacker than the raven, and to her skin, which was whiter than the snow, and to her two cheeks, which were redder than the blood upon the  snow appeared to be."

And this, which is perhaps less striking, is not less beautiful:

"And early in the day Geraint and Enid left the wood, and they came to an open country, with meadows on one hand and mowers mowing the meadows. And there was a river before them, and the horses bent down and drank the water. And they went up out of the river by a steep bank, and there they met a slender stripling with a satchel about his neck; and he had a small pitcher in his hand, and
a bowl on the mouth of the pitcher."

And here the landscape, up to this point so Greek in its clear beauty, is suddenly magicalised by the romance touch:

"And  they saw a tall tree by the side of the river, one-half of which was in flames from the root to the top and the other half was green and in full leaf."

Magic is the word to insist upon, - a magically vivid and near interpretation of nature; since it is this which constitutes the special charm and poer of the effect I am calling attention to, and it is for this that the Celt's sensibility gives him a peculiar aptitude.

From:
Matthew Arnold - On the Study of Celtic Literature

For those interested in Celtic themes and narratives, I will also refer you to The Mabinogion a rich collection of texts relating to the mythological past of the British isles. A collection that I return to again and again.

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

World Refugee Day

On this day
Don't forget the 6 million Palestinian Refugees around the world.
Some 31% of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza live below the poverty line, according to statistics issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is reinforced by a young population of which 41% are under the age of 15, compared with 39.7% of the non-refugee population in the West Bank and Gaza strip.
Meanwhile 27.9% of over 15 year olds are unemplyed, compared with 19.8% of non-refugees.
However, the illiteracy rate among Palestinian refugees is lower than non-refugees, with a rate of 3.7% of those aged 15 and above, compared to 4.3% of non-refugees.
While 86% of refugees owned their own housing units, only 15.9% owned private cars. 10% less than non-refugees.
These statistics were released to mark International Refugee Day and show that as of 1 January 2013, there were 5.3 million UNRWA registered Palestinian refugees.
Of the total 40% are in Jordan, 24% in Gaza strip. 17% in the West Bank, 10% in Syria and 9% in Lebanon.
According to UNRWA'S website, when the Agency satrted working in 1990, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees.
http://www.unrwa.org/

A Slow Burning Fuse

                                                   Sao Paulo, Brazil, 13/6/13

                                                   Turkey, now.

Voices tail us
roaring on the wind,
in a rainbow breath
on the squares of continents,
people united, under flags of resistance
brandishing patents of indignation,
where  crumbs become waves
and the air fills with fire.and rage,
Poisoned by legislators, and politicians tongue
calls for justice, weave comrades together,
and with clenched fists, the people sing
tides, follow no order, but it's forces soar,

Passionate defiance stirring throughout the land

People united by struggle, one just worthy cause.
as the barriers and fences come tumbling down
the fury of the masses  cannot be contained,
a slow burning fuse, fuelling  pulsations,
when, there is nothing left to lose.

Nice Page,here inspiration for above poem
https://www.facebook.com/#!/TheSlowBurningFuse?fref=ts

The Voices Of Austerity The Cold Hard Truth (With Music)

Everything  you need to know about what's going on with the powers that be in the U.K.
Listen, understand it and share it....
Good people of the world.

Click on picture to enlarge

The Termites may win - Herbert Noyes (b ? d1917)

Herbert Noyes was an Anglican priest in the last quarter of the 19th Century and first two decades of the 20th Century.

MILLIONS of years ago it was a point of issue whether Man or the Termite should possess the earth. Both being, in their natural state, the most helpless, unprotected, and weaponless of all creatures that walk - or crawl - the victory was in doubt, until, some aeons later, the ant came to the recue to the man and drove the Termite underground.
In entomology the Termite belongs to the order Isoptera, but is commonly known as the "white ant," because, as some humorist has observed, it is neither white nor an ant.
The life of the Termite is beyond all human comprrehension. Neither hereditary or evolution can adequately explain the miracles wrought by it. No scientist has ever put forward any reasonable explanation of the Power which guides their destiny - though no man can say what the last may be - is to me beyond doubt.
In a few thousand years, when the names and theories of our scientific teachers of today have faded from human memory, the Termite, secure in the fact that its total destruction is an economic impossibility, will be relentlessly pursuing his endless warfare against man and all his works. Empires and kingdoms, civilisations and creeds will dissapear, leaving no more vestiges behind than those which have preceded our own vaunted progress, but the inscrutably directed civilisation of the Termite, disdaining all mechanical aids, will remain to mock all our explanations.

Reprinted from Wit & Wisdom:
A medley of life and laughter,
London Burke Publishing Company Limited
1946.

Emmeline Pankhust (15/7/1858 - 14/6/1928) -' There are women lying at death's door...' and the uncomfortable legacy

 

Picture above, Emmaline Pankhurst

(Repost from yesterday, forgotten spectacles)

On the anniversary of the death of one of the leaders of Britain's Suffragette movement and the fourth anniversary of this blog, thought I would reprint this speech she delivered to an American audience on the 15th November 1913.
Whilst recognising the Suffragettes heroic struggle for equal rights, inspiring many to follow in acts of civil disobedience, with Emmeline herself being imprisoned many times, it does leave me with a few questions which I will try to raise at the end of this speech.

'...I have seen men smile when they heard the words 'hunger strike' and yet I think there are very few men today who would be prepared to adopt a 'hunger strike' for any cause. It is only people who feel an intolerable sense of oppression who would adopt a means of that kind. It means you refuse food until you are at death's door, and then the authorities have to choose between letting you die, and letting you go; and then they let the women go. No, that went on so long that the government felt that they were unable to cope. It was then that, to the shame of the British government, that they set an example to authorities all over the world of feeding sane, resisting human beings by force. There may be doctors in this meeting: if so, they know it it is one thing to feed by force an insane person; but it is quite another thing to feed a sane, resisting human being who resists with every nerve and every fibre of her body the indignity and the outrage of forcible feeding. Now, that was done in England, and the government thought they had crushed us. But they found that it did not quell the agitation, that more and more women came in and even passed that terrible ordeal, and they were obliged to let them go.
   Then came the legislation - the "Cat and Mouse Act". The Home Secretary said: "Give me the power to let these women go when they are at death's door, and leave them at liberty under licence until they have recovered their health again and then bring them back." It was passed to repress the agitation, to make the women yield- because that is what it has really come to, ladies and gentlemen. It has come to a battle between the women and the government  as to who shall yield first, whether they will yield and give us the vote, or whether we will give up our agitation.
  Well they little know what women are. Women are very slow to rouse, but once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible. And so this 'Cat and Mouse Act' which is being used against women today has failed. There are women lying at death's door, recovering enough strength to undergow operations, who have not given in and wont give in, and who will be prepared, as soon as they get up from their sick beds to go on as before. There are women who are being carried from their sick beds stricken on stretchers into meetings. They are too weak to speak, but they go amongst their fellow workers just to show that their spirits are unquenched, and that their spirit is alive, and they mean to go on as long as life lasts. Now, I want to say to you who think women cannot succeed, we have bought the government of England to this position, that it has to face this alternative: either women are to be killed or women are to have the vote. I ask American men in this meeting, what would you say if in your state you were faced with the alternative, that you must either kill them or give them their citizenship? Well, there is only one answer to that alternative, there is only one way out - you must give those women the vote ... I come to ask you to help win this fight.'

Powerful stuff indeed, and it was not untill 1928 that women were granted full equal rights of voting as men in Britain. Whilst supporting the concepts of equality and freedom, I believe the Suffragette movement unfortunately helped perpetuate the myth that making an 'X' on a pice of paper can affect real change. It leaves many people with the idea that they can vote and assuage themselve of guilt for not participating in any further action, with the conviction that they have done all that they need to do.
It is noticeable that Pankhurst, persuaded her Women's Social and Political Union to halt all militant suffrage activities dring the First World War, being among the first to ssurrender their principles to the altar of war and patriotism.It is also noticeable that Emmeline Pankhurst later became a member of the Conservative Party. It is also worth noting that the ability of women to elect and be elected culminated, in Britain with the rise to power of Margaret Thatcher, whose policies of repression, which had nothing I guess with her gender,did however prove that voting alone cannot accomplish significant positive change.  in my humble opinion does not amount to much of a legacy, despite the bravery and sense of common purpose that the Suffragettes showed.

Now in 2013, democracies dominant paries still represent the few, alligned with corporations, private financiers, that exploit the resources of our nation, not for us, but for the interests of the few which they truly represent and uphold. Are we really free? Is not democracy a sham. In the last election in Britain the majority of the people voted against the Conservative Party, but now in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, it is their policies that are being currently cruelly implemented across the country. Struggles outside parliament are routinely ruthlessly supressed or critisised or simply ignored by the mainstream media.
Where is the democracy that saw the arrests of many people, taking part in actions and demonstrations leading up to the G8 summit.

Where is the democracy that sees communities being torn apart, and stigmatised. The marginalised, the poor and disadvantaged singled out to pay for the crimes of the bankers and the capitalist system, aidied and abetted by nearly all the parties  operating within the Parliamentary structure.
The legacy of the Suffragettes lives on though in people who daily practice deeds not words, who participate in direct action, constantly calling out for more radical change.
On the anniversary of Emmeline's death their are still many being foce fed, from Guantanamo, Israeli Prisons, across the world, many people still fighting , still hungry for freedom. Here in Britain at the moment their is a 60 year old man called George Rolph, who has now been on hunger strike against Atos ( the organisation that carries out work capability tests on behalf of the Government) prepared  to sacrifice his life to draw attention to the fact that his disability benefits had been denied. A survivor of domestic violence and abuse, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. On all accounts an individual with severe mental health issues. Bringing attention how the most vulnerable people in the U.K are being treated by their democratic government. Many others have died because they are ill and cannot cope under the strain of this Government Policies....

So on anniverary of this blog, I thank those who have supported this blog, left a comment or too, shown some encouragement, you know who you are.
Stay free,practice solidarity.
All the best
heddwch/peace.......

Henry David Thoreau (12/7/1817 -6/5/62) - A natural aristocracy of thought

                               
 Henry David Thoreau (American author, poet,  philosopher,abolitionist,  naturalist and transcendentalist)

'  Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.'

From, Walden ( 1854 ) incidentally one of my favourite books

Jazz Poem

In the long nights of  Autumn
I let the records revolve round and round,
as ashtray heart gets filled with golden memories.
Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk,
Miles Davis, SunRa, Roland Kirk, 
into  deep spaces where I'm pleased to chill.

Follow giant steps, a love supreme
on the corner, the shape of things to come,
elements of fusion, on the fringes of tone time
rythyms of a higher power, free expression,
the poetry of improvisation, currents moving
running wildly across  seamless skies.

Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman
strong and bold, rough and smooth,
these are the beats of my heart
Chet Baker, Johnny Ray sing out,
voices of the past touching now
eclectic hums still running free.

Take a stroll in the moonlight
take a voyage round the sun,
cast aside rules, space is deep
within you yet far away,
follows no particular season
inside deep a temple of sound.

Ah, jazz, it's horizon smiles with seduction
gets under fingernails, gets into souls,
water's senses with unlimited oceans
follow the notes outside, find devotion,
flowing with this magical understanding.

Keep on moving, dance with intent
refresh your breath, shake your hips,
raise your hands, make room for celebration
listen to the sounds of rhythm's eternal escape,
wordless music, releasing  creativity
pulling us into the chambers of dream.

Naksa anniversary marked in Gaza

The fifth of June marks Naksa day or the setback during the 1967 six day war. At that time Israel launched a hostile war against Syria, Egypt and Jordan. After defeating Arab forces, Israel  completed the occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories and occupied vast areas of Syria and Egypt.
46 years later a war veteran said Palestinnians were betrayed by Arab forces. Palestinian resistance groups forced Israeli forces to withdraw form Gaza in 2005. Israel now says that it no longer occupies Gaza but facts on the ground prove otherwise. This place under international law is occupied. You only have to live  their to see the Israeli warplanes that dominate the sky and still fly over.

 Furthermore, in the aftermath, Israel expopriated around 80% of Palestinian property and displaced more than 400,000 Palestinians. Around half of those displaced Palestinians in 1967, were already refugees from 1948 Nabka. By it's swift end, Israel had occupied the West Banl ( including Jerusalem) the Gaza strip and the Golan heights, with the exception of the Sinai Peninsular, Israel continues its illegal occupation of those lands to this day.Nany have said that the Six Day War was not thrust upon Israel, but engineered by them.
Since this date,  well immediately after this so called  defensive war, Israels settlement policy increased.
According to Noam Chomsky

 ' Settlements in the Occupied Territories began immediately after the war, sometimes without government authorisation, though this regularly came later... By December 1969, the Meir government had established as one of its 'esssential goals' the 'accelleration of military settlements and permanent agricultural and urban settlements in the territoryof the homeland'. ( ref: Noam Chomsky, The fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, South End Press, 1999)

I leave you with the words of eminent journalist Robert Fisk - ' The injustice done to the Palestinians, the dispossession, the massacres, not only the loss of that part of Palestine which became Israel- and  is internationally recognised as such- but also the occupation of the reminder of the mandate territory and the bloody suppression of any end all manifestations  of Palestine resistance:all this had to take secind place to Israel's security and the civilised values and democracy for which Israel was widely promised' Her army, which often behaved  with cruelty and indiscipline, was  to be regarded as an exemplar of 'purity of arms' and those of us who witnessd Israel's killing of civilians were to be abused as liars, anti-semites or friends of 'terrorism.'

from ' The Grreat War for Civiliation:The Conquest of the Middle East;
Robert Fisk, 2005

Remnant of village destoyed after 1967.

I am a friend of neither, but I oppose injustice.

BADGER SWAGGER

CALL TO ACTION-

Urgent....
Sign the petition and find more about the cull.
http://www.getoffmybadger.com/
Write to your M.P takes 20 seconds
http://www.writetothem.com

The Track

BADGER SWAGGER has been produced & created by the Artful Badger with a little help from their friends...

https://twitter.com/ArtfulBadgerUK

http://facebook.com/artfulbadgeruk

WHY? -

We created this track & music video together to raise awareness on the needless,unscientific, cruel & unwarranted slaughter of one of the British Isles' most beloved and unique creatures. Backed by politics & fear, not science nor public opinion, this exopensive & ineffective badger cull could well cause more problems than it cures ... even our friend David Attenborough says so!!

Listen in the track for what he says....

BADGER SWAGGER

LYRICS

We love the badgers and they matter to our nanners
Cameron where's your manners
why them cameras try scan us
Some are sitting in a palace champagne and scallops
Some are in the store house begging for a package
We can't even manage
and killing all the badgers aint gonna fix the damage
It is sinning and drastic
like killing for plastic
Most are living brassic
people back this
We can't have this evil madness
Will tell your grandkids the story of the badgers
In 40 years time when they've all vanished
That you was to busy getting dizzy with a gadget
Sign the petition get busy and back it
Listen tio the mission see the vision and tactic
This will make the difference cos I went and Rob Cass'd it
Abbey road studios artful badger smacked it
Yeah I wrote a banger cos with grammar I'm the ccaptain

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win this fight
Some things are wrong not right
So people gotta hold on tight
Some things are like dynamite
Got to make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

Verse 2

Listen to my verse and words in the tune
It's all going down on the first of June
People gather round give your point of view
In the manor underground be the voice for you crew
Yeah it matters now make a choice for the truth
You can't cull the bagers if you aint got the proof
NFU NFU deaths bad karma for your revenue
NFU NFU it's not a clever move
I think you better think it through
Be careful what you do
Cos the inner city's gritty
And we don't like the news
TB just rteduced by 16%
Even if every single badger is dead
So whats the effect we're not impressed
All the scientists said it doesn't make sense
Yet the killing goes ahead
How do you sleep in your bed
Get off my badger or I will get vex!

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win the fight
Some things are wrong not right
So people got to holld on tight!
Some things are like dynamite
Gotta make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

Spoken word: (Sir David Attenborough)
So the government instituted a major inquiry to establish
scientifically the facts. That involved culling 11,000 badgers and
the results by the government advisor to that independent scientific
group were that culling was not a vible policy option.

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win this fight
Some things are wrong not fight
So people got to hold on tight!

X2

Some thing are like dynamite
Got to make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

STOP THE CULL

earlier post
West Wales badger cull
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/west-wales-badger-cull.html

R.S Thomas ( 29/3/13 -25/9/00) - On the Threshold of Liberty

                               
                                Rene Magritte


Been away a week, amongst  Hay-on -Wye's corporate tents, time for  annual reflections, time for trusty old notebooks to disappear.
Reflections  may come, and go, but every year I read some R.S. Thomas, so this year with it being the centenary of his birth it adds a little poignancy. So last week as I immersed myself in Welsh landscapes. I also searched out Mr Thomas's deeper imaginings, where his passion for art is overlooked, far away from Iago Prytherch, his  resonance still littered with profound suffusion, little proclamations of committment, that continually assist.
So today I honour yesterdays's serial obsessive, who unlike google at least followed some kind of ethical code, whose flowers  still bloom in hope's potent wind. On the bridge of possibility.

What it means is:
            you must accede
to the invention. Flesh,
trees, dwellings, the grain
                        in the wood
are vulnerable and not
             to be shot at;
only the sky is
           target.
                    Challenged
the inventor would claim
             all he wants is
  for it to go off.
                        So move
the paintings to one side
             in  the humanist's
gallery; open a window.
Let the gun point its muzzle,
at the idea that there are limits.       

Reprinted from
Ingrowing Thoughts- R.S .Thomas
Poetry Wales Press, 1985.          

Looking (after Hay)

Yesterday,
went missing for hours,
drifted in and out of shops,
with scraps of paper,
names of elusive books,
written down, to look for lost pleasures,
to fill in the blanks, left at home.
I Walked with open mind,
followed random navigation,
echoes reverberating with voluptuous tranquility,
it began to rain, saw poets,making a run for it,
turning on their heels, running on plains of sensation,
I continued searching, leaned on  latticed bookcases,
deciphering experimental  exit signs,
of no return.

Palestinian Children killed by Israeli forces since 2000 : 1,397

 

That was quicker than expected, quick schedule here, lest we forget.
An Israel government report released on May 19th claims Israelis occupation forces did not kill 12 year old Muhammad Al-Durra and that he may not be dead at all. Credible human rights organisations disagree.
Jamal a-Durra, Muhammads father responded ' Israel says my son is n't dead. Can you imagine how this feels for a father who has lost his child.They have all the technology tools in the world. He's not dead? Then bring him to me.
Muhammad is just one of nearly 1,400 children who have been killed since 2000 as a result of the military occupation and settler presence in the West Bak, Gaza strip, and East JJerusalem.
Read a full report by the IMEU here.
http://www.dci-palestine.org/content/child-fatalities

Paul Eldridge (5/5/1888 - 26/7/82) - Pessimism

Paul Eldrige, writer, author, teacher.

                                                               
Despite the bullshit,  despite it  all,
we still  answer back.......  off on holiday,
will possibly be back!

 " PESSIMISM is the philosophy of proportion and perspective. Wisdom., which is quite distinct from mere intelligence, is steeped in pessimism. The major prophets of the age, Jesus and Bhudda and Confucious were pessimists. They understood the tragedy of man, sad they went forth to heal him, each in his own way.
The pessimist does not seek needles in stacks of hay, and does  not seek needles in stacks of hay, and does not feel disillusioned because  they are  unfindable. The hopes he entertains are not too sanquine, and remain within the framework of the ultumate reality.
He knows that the proverb" no rose without its thorn" is trite only because of its eternal justfication. Therefore, beauty he cherishes with that exquisite tenderness  mingled with sorrow which characterises a last kiss, a dying dawn, the overtones of a cherished  melody."

The air is full of delicious scents

                
The sweet smell of freedom, follows us round,
gives real satisfaction, as it spreads and is found,
a hot day when light winds bring rhyme, music and sound,
apple blossom, tea just opened, coffee just ground.

Newly split wood in a copse, the smell of a gardeners leafy bonfire,
sinsimillia's pungency drifting in the air, lifting us higher,
petrol, creasote on wooden fences, the warm touch of lovers,
freshly mowed grass, scented inspiration, raining down in showers.

The smell of sea, clear and salty, drawing you close,
freshly baked bread rising, in the hedgerow a rambling rose,
strawberries and ice cream, the underside of turf,
passion awakening senses under cloudbursts surf.

The scent of memory, of absence, reigniting chains of familiarity,
pages turned from old dusty books, alchemical confectionary,
the vapours released in the steams of making love,
the fragrance of rebellion and disobedience, all of the above.

Yes, the air is full of portent avenues, filled with delicious intent,
that allow us to climb, inhale and roar, before arriving at next ascent,
the perfumes of radiance, sailing on white clouds in the breeze,
bouquets filled with essences, elixirs guaranteed to please.

Demonstration Against Drones : Aberporth

My local UAV testing site  has recently been in the news again , Welsh airfield at the centre of Britains drone revolution http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/06/welsh-airfield-drones where the Guardian seemed to be rehashing the propoganda machine of Mr Ray Mann, owner of Parc Aberporth in West Wales, a flight testing sight for UAVs. Most of Mr Mann's comments were subsequently rehashed in my local paper the Tivy Side,http://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/.
Despite this their are still genuine local concerns about what is happening up the road from me.  The constant noise of the watchkeeper 'drones' or or unarmed aerial vehicles' being flown around Aberporth continue. This constant buzzing- often for hours on end, is a constant reminder of how Wales is still being used for possible 'remote killing' activities.
The Israeli military and Israeli company Elbit systems have also been linked to the watchkeeper drones tested here, which have been used to target civilians in Gaza. As well as local concerns about their links with military use, their have also been ones of safety, with a number of drones crashing over the years.
These are some of the reasons I will be going to support the following demonstation.

DEMONSTRATION

Against Drones

Aberprth MOD Base, main gate
Saturday 18th May , 12 Noon

Bring things to decorate the gate

Drones have killed innocent people in the last decade.

Organised by Cardigan Quakers

For More information
Contact markfranchi@hotmail.co.uk 07905956324
or ruthburtton@tiscali.co.uk
01239 811139

I also support the following initiative,
click picture to enlarge, more details here.
http://www.bepj.org.uk/