Mermaids of the Sea Exhibition Aberteifi/Cardigan:- A poetical response.

A quick plug for this exhibition,  currently taking place in my hometown of Cardigan. Aberteifi, imaginative and innovative, well worth a visit, full of inspiring stuff, that celebrates the mythical allure of mermaids and the sea. It is worth noting that every water-based culture has their own mermaid stories, tales of Merfolk that are both magical, beautiful , mysterious and terryfying, the following  is my own poetical  response to the mermaids call.

A lament for the Mermaids

Out of our depths 
The mermaid swims
Releasing salty tears
Tries to embrace
Our struggles and pain
Visions of beauty
Whose siren calls
Tries to awaken us
Carry us to imaginations depths
On currents strong
Beyond the world's confinement.


Among the sea beds they dance
Guided by constellations
The swells of tangled threads
Want to hold us gently close
But are too afraid of being caught
By natures tempests and fishing nets 
Cruel hooks and traps
Wishing to remain immortal and free
Elusive creatures of the sea.

Long  may Neptune offer protection
sustain these senses of wonder 
voyaging  among the oceans pathways
dazzling spectacles releasing undulating light
beyond shores of exploitation
singing among fathoms deep
resting  upon pillows of pearls
serenaded by underwater acoustics
on sea foams of infinity 
the deep abyss of sanctuary.

Pieces

( well it is that time of the year, for the lovers)

Love is delicate, love is strong,
I never realised that
It came in so many pieces,
Whispering while we sleep,
To fan dreams, to release a spark,
To send some light, free us from the dark,
In every country of the world
Waits for travellers to call,
Untreasured can get lost,
Come apart, fade far away,
As longing fingers reach out to touch,
Can make hearts ache, like a snatch of song,
Can open doors for both rich and poor,
When people rise and fall love revolves,
Scattered in millions of pieces,
Allows feelings to run riot,
You can share it if you wish,
As the earth spins round.

Jeremy Hunt's pants on fire.

Yes Jeremy Hunt's been caught lying again,  claiming to have the backing of 20 NHS bosses for his decision to impose on junor doctors unravelled as at least half have said they never agreed to supporting the deal. Also a junior doctor  has accused him of 'spin' manipulation' and lies', a Dr Rachel Clarke, interviewed by the BBC recently. 
Not the first time Hunt has been caught lying, further evidence that he simply cannot be trusted. But remains willfully arrogant, as he ploughs ahead trying  to enforce a new contact, one that could see mass resignations, impose it against a peoples well, despite reaching any agreement. Tory democracy in action.
He and his partners in crime, the Conservative Government will stop at nothing to privatise the NHS. He has continued to lie in the House of Commons and should therefore either resign or be sacked, actually if all Tories' resigned for misleading the public, their would not be any  left in Parliament.
Anyway his actions continue to expose their warped philosophy, and now the country as a whole are right behind the junior doctors, their fight is our fight. Ordinary people across the land supporting their plight. But the Tories will continue not to listen, try and crush everyone of us into submission,  but we can't let them.
The Tories are dangerous though, let's not forget this for a moment, they don't give a flying ****  but we have to keep holding them to account take them on bit by bit, unless we want to sit back and stay silent allow the Tories to carry on creating a frightened , selfish, greedy society. Remember we might have another 4 years of their deceitfulness and crap unless we stop them. Jeremy Hunt and his chums cannot be allowed to simply get away with everything that they wish.  

IDS Murders

This video is intended to raise awareness of the thousands of avoidable deaths, that have happened as a result of welfare reform.
Only today in the Independent newspaper there is a report of a mentally ill man who committed suicide because his benefits were stopped, allegedly murdered by the Government according to his sister.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/benefit-
There have also been cases  of  peoples ESA  being stopped despite their own doctors being adamant that they were completely unable to work.
The flawed work capabality Assessment is also causing unecessary deaths by forcing the long term sick and disabled into work or work-related activity.  It is currently causing untold fear and misery for the country's most vulnerable. It is supposedly  designed by the Government as a way of assessing how an individuals  disability or illness impacts on their daily life. It is not designed to diagnose or treat a medical condition. It is not supposed to add pressure and fear and  contribute to  peoples ill-being.
How many more of us have to die? None of us want to be victims. We are brothers, sisters, mums and dad, friends and neighbours. But our safety nets, that used to be there are being torn to shreds, people are being left with no vestiges of hope. The welfare state was built on the idea 'from the cradle to the grave ', sadly this has now become a reality for many.
Obviously there are hundreds and thousands of people who have not been killed by Ian Duncan Smith's Government,  but one thing I am certain off, is the Work capabilty Assessment must come to an end in order to stop hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives from being a miserable daily battle for survival, and become more flexible for the needs of the most vulnerable. People who are sick need all the support they need. I sincerely hope people keep saying no, and rejecting the Tory's approved cruelty.

There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

( Thank you Leonard Cohen.)

There's a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in,
through empty gestures of times exhaust
that vent bitterness on tonque,
scars trace the nights laughter
sailing on ripped tides at dusk,
allow resurfacing days shadow to ignite
fizzing and nudging, in the process of awakening,
through depths of minds endeavor
moods of restless toil, 
voyages  of troubled sleep
deep in mood innate,
among the magic of the moon
in the dark shines bright,
waiting for dawns page to turn
golden tickets of imagination,
in the ever present of eternity
to purify and illuminate,
because there's a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in.

Solidarity to Junior Doctors taking Industrial action today.Save the N.H.S

Not taking place here in Wales,  for the time being  because the NHS in Wales is devolved. Since 1999, the Welsh Government has been involved in running its NHS, so for the time being will the junior doctors contract already in place, so Junior Doctors will be working as normal today. We are  guess most fortunate to have the NHS in our hands for now. We still have  public service  being run not for private greed. Catching up at last, after all  the Welsh have generally been poorer and sicker than the English  for at least the past 300 years.
Nevetheless across the border  Jeremy Hunt has vetoed  a deal that would have ended the junior doctor's  dispute, that was supported by the NHS's own negotiators.  At the same time N.H.S trusts cannot balance books because of poor funding. A political decision to create room for private enterprise  in healthcare. Cuts elsewhere such as in councils, has also piled on the pressure. Despite taking place in England, we must stand together until their is fairness for doctors, safety for patients  and safeguards for the future of the NHS everywhere. After all the approach taken by the Government in England is still an attack on us all.
The government is trying to crush the doctors and the NHS,  ( an  essential service that  the Welsh people helped create, modelled on miner's mutual aid schemes, ) whilst  undermining the BMA  and allow it to fall into the hands of the private sector, we can't let this happen. We must all support the junior doctors, to stop Jeremy Hunt from forcing doctors into accepting a contract that puts more live  at risk.  Dangerous to patients  because tired doctors don't perform at their best, and mistakes will be made.
Another Pig headed Tory ideological  attack on hard working honest people. Remember doctors save lives, Tory's take them away.We must continue to support the junior doctors and all those who seek to defend the NHS,  porters, cleaning staff etc etc  standing shoulder to shoulder with them all  in solidarity.

St Teilo's day / Dydd Sadwrn Teilo

The 9th of February marks St Teilo's Day.  (also Teilio, Theleau, Eliud; ) The waters of  his well - now dried up -  are near Maenchlochog,  in  West Wales, Pembrokeshire's rural heartland, where a church dedicated to him dating back to the 12th Century can be found. It was said  to cure whooping cough. Pilgrims came from far and wide  to drink it's spring water, which was said to cure paralysis and other ailments.
There was only one drawback; they  had to be slurped from Teilo's skull. This strange practice  continued into the 20th century using one of the saints three skulls!
Teilo was born  at Penally  in Dyfed , around AD 500 and was cousin of David the patron Saint of Wales. His original name was apparently Eliuid . He went on to become Bishop at Llandaf Cathedral in Cardiff, and died back  in Dyfed at Llandeilo Fawr.
The three churches, that were former centers of the Teilo cult,  are still standing. He was a very popular saint,- and by medieval times, there were over thirty churches and villages dedicated to him across Wales and Brittany, including the church at Plogonnec, Finistere, and the chapel of Our lady in Kerdevot.  In Brittany he is known as the Saint of horses, and of fruit trees, whilst in France, Teilo, St Samson and his followers are said to have planted three miles of fruit trees and even today the fruit groves they planted are known as the groves of Teilo and Samson.
 During his time in Brittany , he is said to have saved people from a winged dragon  which he tamed and which he kept tied to a rock in the sea. In another a local Lord offered him all the land he could encircle between sunset and sunrise , Teilo chose to ride a stag to cover as much ground in the time available. 
 Teilo performed numerous miracles in his lifetime (he raised one man from the dead, healed another one from the palsy and so on) which continued after his repose from his relics and holy wells associated with him. In the Middle Ages Teilo was loved and venerated as one of the greatest saints and Church figures in the country’s history. His veneration from Wales extended to Cornwall, Devon, Brittany and neighboring regions.
In around 554 Teilo and his followers returned from Brittany to Llandeilo Fawr. After the death of St. David, Teilo became revered as one of the most holy men in Wales. He was joined at Llandeilo by many disciples including Cynfwr, Teulyddog and Llywel. He died at the abbey of Llandeilo Fawr on February 9th, probably around the year 560.
A considerable number of churches dedicated to St. Teilo in Wales most can be found in the counties of Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan. Churches and toponyms that bear his name are also scattered in Cornwall, Devon and Brittany. The modern Anglican Diocese of St. Davids alone has 12 churches dedicated to St. Teilo, and the Diocese of Llandaff has at least six churches which have him as their patron. No fewer than six churches in Devon and Cornwall are connected with him. Quite a few schools are named after him as well.

Today Llandeilo is a little town in Carmarthenshire. Here Teilo founded his main monastery, served as abbot and bishop, lived as a hermit. The town church is dedicated to its founder to this day. It is early medieval by origin but was entirely rebuilt in 1850. After repose of Teilo the Llandeilo Fawr Abbey continued to develop and with time became the major church of all the neighboring districts. It is known that around the ninth century a beautiful and ornate Gospel, called “St. Teilo’s Gospel”, was kept in Llandeilo. It had been created a century before, most probably in Mercia in England. It was considered that this Gospel “had belonged to St. Teilo himself”. Afterwards it was transferred to the English town of Lichfield where it is displayed to this day as a great relic. From 1290 on, on the orders of King Edward I of England (1239-1307), an annual fair in honor of St. Teilo was held near the church in Llandeilo. This fair stopped only in the twentieth century. Fragments of two Celtic crosses (date to c.900) were also discovered and now are kept in Llandeilo church. There is a holy well of St. Teilo near the eastern end of the church. The saint is depicted on stained glass windows of a number of churches of Wales, for example, at the Holy Trinity Church in Abergavenny. A thirteenth-century church in the village of Llantilio-Crossenny in Monmouthshire, not far from Abergavenny, is dedicated to St. Teilo. The church has a very high spire and due to its large size it is often nicknamed a “baby cathedral”. The church is in the early English and Decorated Gothic styles. It is cruciform and its interior has many interesting features. In this spot a battle between a king of Gwent and pagan Saxons may have taken place in the sixth century. According to legend, St. Teilo took a cross, stood on the hillock on which the church was to be built and began to pray. And under the effect of his prayer the Saxons scattered. The church in the village of Llandeloy in Pembrokeshire is dedicated to our saint. This fine twelfth-century church was rebuilt early in the twentieth century but now is redundant. There is a holy well hidden among the vegetation near this church. A thirteenth-century church with three chantry chapels in the small hamlet of Llantilio Pertholey in Monmouthshire again has a dedication to St. Teilo who is depicted there in stained glass. Another twelfth-century St. Teilo’s Church in the spot known as Llandeilo Tal-y-Bont near Swansea was closed in the 1970s, then dismantled and has now been rebuilt at St. Fagans National History Open-Air Museum in the city of Cardiff (located in the grounds of the castle, this museum comprises over forty reconstructed historic buildings). Remarkably, during its dismantlement well-preserved ancient murals were discovered on the church walls under the wall-plaster. The village of Bishopston, called in Welsh Llandeilo Ferwallt, situated in the Gower Peninsula, has a church dedicated to St. Teilo. The parish church in the village of Merthyr Mawr near the town of Bridgend is dedicated to St. Teilo. It was built in 1850s on the site of a very ancient church. A modern Roman Catholic church in the town of Tenby in Pembrokeshire is dedicated to the Holy Cross and St. Teilo.

St. Teilo is most famous today for what is supposed to have happened after his death. According to an account in the early 12th century by Geoffrey of Llandaff, there was a dispute over the body of St Teilo. There were three claimants to the remains: the church at Penally (where he was born), Llandeilo (where he founded his church and died), and Llandaff (who claimed him as their bishop). During the night, the body is said to have multiplied into three, one for each church, thus settling the argument. A miracle, or perhaps just a dodgy excuse for a triple set of relics.In the early Middle Ages, it was financially advantageous to have relics or  shrine in a catherdral. in order to attract pilgrims.
 The ancient shrine of St. Teilo, along with his skull, survive at Llandaff Cathedral to this day and attract pilgrims, including Orthodox. His tomb with the main relics stands to the right of the high altar and his head relic is kept in the chapel which bears his name and is housed in a specially constructed reliquary. The skull is mounted on a silver base. For many centuries it was a custom to take an oath on the saint’s shrine. It was recorded that the shrine of St. Teilo at the cathedral was opened in 1850 and also earlier in 1736 by an architect. When the latter opened his shrine, it turned out that the saint’s remains (wrapped in leather) along with his episcopal crozier, cross, chalice and other items were practically intact. A statue of this saint today can be found in the west front of the cathedral. Some parts of Llandaff Cathedral are from the twelfth century; though this church was heavily damaged during the Second World War, it was subsequently restored in all its glory. St. Teilo together with Sts. Peter and Paul, Dyfrig (whose shrine still rests within the cathedral) and Euddogwy is a joint patron-saint of this Anglican cathedral. He is also a patron-saint of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff, which is very close to Llandaff and has a Catholic parish church of St. Teilo and Our Lady of Lourdes.
Down the centuries the saint's multiple relics went missing piece by piece, and what is claimed to be one of Teilo's skulls recently reappeared  in Hong Kong of all places.  After protracted negotiations on February 8th 1994 there was a special service at Llandaff,  at which the skull was installed in its own niche  in  the cathedral's St Teilo chapel. The reinstated relic is now considered far too precious to be used as a cup. The most succinct and restrained expression of the head cult survival theory in relation to the well and skull of St Teilo is that of Janet and Colin Bord. 'A most important aspect of Celtic religion was the head cult. There is strong evidence showing a close association of this cult with sacred springs and pools, some of it having survived even to the present day, albeit in fragmentary form and lacking the power of the original Celtic stimulus. The Celts were head-hunters… To the Celts the head was the most important part of the body, symbolizing the divine power, and they venerated the head as the source of all the attributes they most admired… The Celtic traditions became so deep-seated that many of them were perpetuated down the centuries, surviving almost to the present day, and this is certainly true of the head cult and its water associations. The Roman historian Livy (59 B.C. – 17 A.D.) described how Celtic warriors decorated skulls with gold and used them as cups for offerings to the gods, a custom continued in the use of skulls to drink the water at certain holy wells until recent times. The most famous of these was St. Teilo’s Well at Llandyfan, wwhich beecame a place of pigrimage, where the water was renowned for its ability to cure whooping cough and other ills, but only if drunk out of the remains of St. Teilo’s skull. Penlog Teilo is the longest surviving skull used for healing purposes, though there were others. Water was drunk from a human skull at Ffynnon Llandyfan . Gruffydd ap Dafydd killed at Dolgellu was used  in the same way, to cure whooping cough and other ailments. Francis Jones, suggests that water was drunk from human skulls in order to acquire the desirable qualities of the skulls original owner.Drinking from skulls at holy wells seems to have been widespread in Wales.
Incidentally there are other ways of preventing whooping  cough without getting out of your skull. Pass the patient under a donkey nine times, or else persuade them to take a ride on the nearest bear. This particular brand of preventative medicine often kept a bear-keeper in sticky buns and honey. Or whatever bears eat.

Further Reading :- Bord, Janet & Colin, Sacred Waters. Paladim, 1986.