For Her Ears ( Dedicated to Jane Elizabeth Husband; the mighty furbster; 9/5/60 - 8/1/17 )

I pay homage today to someone no longer here
Far away in the infinite, in the galaxy of stars
Though moving on, will not simply press delete
While holding on to other magical things
Finding kindness near, that can comfort my tears
Making it so much easier to progress
But a memory ever present
Especially on a day like this
Still poignant and precious.

I remain grateful, this is my truth
To a love that did not judge
Encouraged my deep convictions
Shared music and the gift of friendship
Will not canonise, after all was only human
Cherised, treasured, like the flowers that return
The rains that fall, allowing gardens to grow
Love that continues, intimate and within reach
Releasing lips alive, full of understanding,

I watch leaves now in blossom
Listen to orchestrated choruses of the day
On the edge of the world, clinging on
Sowing seeds instead of sadness
In the distance hear her gentle laughter
See a smile that still gives strength and meaning
Ears listening I hope, but hiding
All our breaths will one day be taken away
Ghosts of time, our echoes will linger
For now I offer this gift, from which all can inhale.

Gary Snyder (b,8/5/30) - Revolution In The Revolution In The Revolution

Happy Birthday Gary Snyder, American poet, essayist, ecologist, teacher, steward of the earth, Beat hero and Zen master who is 89 today. Despite his reluctance to identify with the Beat title, he has been an undeniable influence on the Beat gneration and its writers. He was fictionalised as the character Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums and helped initiate the San Francisco Renaissance by organising poetry readings with his close friend Allen Ginsberg among others, thus ushering in the Beats as a recognised social force.
His numerous books have engaged with so many different subjects, covering the various intricate intimacies of life, bringing together ecology and spirituality, who also draws on social anarchism in developing his perspective and philosophical orientation.
His collection Turtle Island which won the Pulizer prize in 1975, has sold over a hundred thousand copies. ' Turtle Island swims/ in the ocean -sky -swirl void / biting its tail / while the worlds go/ on-and-off/  winking.' Here is a link to a previous post related to him:-

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2014/09/stand-up-for-earth-gary-snyder-b-8530.html

The following poem is from his 1970 collection Regarding Wave. Cheers Gary Snyder, such a wise individual, who has had  huge impact on my own reasoning.

Revolution In The Revolution In The Revolution

The country surrounds the city
The back country surrounds the country

"From the masses to the masses" the most
Revolutionary consciousness is to be found
Among  the most ruthlessly exploited classes:
Animals, trees, water, air grasses

We must pass through the stage of the
"Dictatorship of the Unconscious" before we can
Hope for the withering-away of the states
And finally arrive at true Communionism

if the capitalists and imperialists
          are the exploiters, the masses are the workers.
                     and the party
                     is the communist

if civilzation
         is the exploiter, the masses is nature.
                    and the party
                    is the poets.

if the abstact rational intellect
          is the exploiter, the masses is the unconscious
                    and the party
                     is the yogins.

& POWER
comes out of the seed-syllables of mantras.


Reprinted from 
REGARDING WAVE
New Directions 1970.

After Gaza ceasefire reached.

After Palestinian militants have said a cease-fire with Israel has been agreed, some words  of context especially that next week will be the anniversary of the deadliest day of protests along Gaza's boundary fence with Israel, and as Palestinian Muslims begin the holy month of Ramadam.
The undertanding was brokered by Egypt and the United Nations, and includes measures to ease the acute economic criisis in the impoverished Gaza Strip, home to two million people.
Shortly before the cease-fire came into effect, Abdul Latiif Al-Kanno, a Hamas spokesman said, ref, " Any truce thar does not obligate the occupation to lift the seige on our people in Gaza will be fragile and collapse once again."
Since the protets broke out along the border on 30 March, at least 145 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. The majority of those killed were non -violent protstors, as well as journalits, bystatander an a nurse, no Israelis had been killed.
Let's not forget that  Gaza is besieged by Israel by land, sea and air on a daily basis, it's inhabitants, the vast majority of whom are refugees, trapped in an area of land, just 60 kilometres long and 9.5 kilometres wide,  in what may see is an open air prison.
Due to fuel shortages,damaged anddestroyed infrastructure, thre are power shortages for up to 16 hours per dayr in most areas of Gaza. 70% of households in Gaza recive running watr fror only 6 to 8 hours once every two or four days. Over 90% of the war extracted from the Gaza aquifer is unsafe for human consumption. Nearly 90 million litres of untreated or partially treated sewage is dumped into the sea of Gaza everyday. Due to the economic blockade, education, medical car, agricultural and fishing indutries are in a state of near collapse.
Gaza's wealth is largely unreachable , access to traditional fishing ground is restricted, while the movement of people into and out of Gaza is severely limited, as is the import and export of goods.  this all amoints to collective punishment  of it's people  which is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Palestinian rockets  were symbolically fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday (4 May) in response  to Israel air strikes, in response Israel carried out waves of retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strp on Sunday, in a deadly escalation that seemed to show no signs of slowing and raised fears of war.
It has been  reported  that 25,Palestinians  have been killed and many injured, includng the deaths of two pregnant woman and a baby, and four Israeli  civilians. The deliberate targeting of civilans must be condemned as it undermines every moral, legal and human standards. The international community  must continue to pressure Israel to end it's stiflling blockade that it has imposed on the residents of the Gaza Strip which is the root cause of this violence. Whilst Hamas is criticised for it's own actions  and " Israel can tell both ttself and the world any story it wants, it can talk about escalation only when rockets fal on the  south or about terrorsm only when its citzens pay the price. It can erase the brbaric blockade on Gaza, th endlss starvation of its population, the snipers who kill unarmed protestors, the shooting of fishermen, the lack  of potable water, the electricity, the infrastructure, the economy and the unemployment.
Yet none of these will cease being part of the history in the making of occupation an violence. With all due respect, a narrative cannot replace reality, and in reality, Israel has been abusing two million beseiged Gazans for over a decade. What did we think would happen? That because the strong have the power to tell the story the weak would simply vanish?"
https://972mag.com/no-escalations-do-not-begin-with-rockets-on-israel/141302/?fbclid=IwAR2scvTm4od4T5c5U7ScdOCBLyJvBBDZKBwgDbKltaKveHVlJt2fhGJdupY
It is more than time for the illegal blockade and siege of the citizens of Gaza to come to an end, as a fragile casfire is reached, the Israeli occupation continues, and carries on inflicting misery on the Palestinian population.The Eurovision song contest takes place from 14-18th in Tel Aviv, Israel despite the whitewashing and the 'so called spirit of togetherness; the oppression of the Palestinians and the citizens of Gaza will go on, for that reason some would argue they have the right to resist, for their dignity and survival, their right to exist. . .

When child asylum seekers are wrongly classified as adults - BBC Newsnight

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Since January, 2018 Newsnight has found a shocking 90 cases where child asylum seekers have been incorrectly classified as adults.
In the above report, Helen Johnson  OBE, of The Refugee Council 's Head Of Children's Service, explains how children whose age is not believed are  locked up by immigration officers in adult detention centres in breach of Government policies and legal guidelines.. This  has a devastating impact on vulnerable and traumatised young people who came to the UK in the hope of finding safety. Children experience severe physical and emotional effects of detention, which is traumatic and  can last a lifetime.
The mistakes continue to happen. Government records show that at least five children have been detained in the notorious Yarl’s Wood centre in Bedfordshire since the start of 2015. Three of them were eventually classified as between 12 and 16 years old.
Procedures at Yarl’s Wood have also been criticised by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. In 2013, official inspectors wrote in a report on the centre that “some young detainees were age assessed by a chief immigration officer, rather than social services”.
Once inside an adult detention centre, children have struggled to challenge the Home Office’s decision. Many have been left waiting for months to be seen by councils’ child experts.
Holding children under the same conditions as adults are held is inhumane, and must come to an end, they should all be afforded appropriate care and protection they truly deseve.
To find out more, read Navid's story below or discover  how the Age Disputes Project is helping these chidren get the support they desperately need.

https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/latest/case-studies/navids-story/

The Origins of May Day

May Day, the 1st of May  marks an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and a traditopnal speing festival in many cultures around the globe. With the earliest May Day celebrations appearing with the Floralia, festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers. During the Roman Republic era, this was held on April 27 and with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, which is most commonly held on April 30.The day was originally a traditional summer holiday in many European pagan cultures, as February 1 used to mark the first day of spring, therefore May 1 celebrated the first day of summer, thus the summer solstice in June 25 was Midsummer.
When Europe became Christianised, May Day changed into a popular secular celebration and the secular versions observed both in Europe and North America incorporated the traditional dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May.
The giving of ‘May baskets’, small baskets of sweets or flowers which were usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps, were also a traditional part of May Day, but have now faded in popularity since the late 20th century. Today also marks a neo-pagan festival, Beltane, the Celtic festival of Summer's beginning a time to dance under a Maypole, a time of cleansing and renewal,drink and be merry, follow Jack in the Green, the mystical Green Man of legend.
Although the secularisation of May Day was due to the pagan holidays losing their religious character, during the late 20th century many neopagans began reconstructing traditions and began again celebrating May Day as a religious pagan festival.
May Day traditions in the UK also involve crowning a May Queen and dancing around a maypole, where traditional dancers circle around with brightly coloured ribbons. Historically, Morris dancing has also been linked to May Day celebrations.
May Day May Day has been a traditional day of festivities for many centuries, usually in small towns and villages, with people celebrating springtime fertility of the soil, livestock, and people.
May Day is also  now recognised symbolically all over the world as International Workers Day or Labor Day. It is a day for the working class to down tools and take to the streets in protest against capitalism and wage slavery. We should not  forget Chigago , Haymarket either, where on May 4, 1886, demands for an eight hour working week became particularly intense. Where a labour demonstration caused a crowd of some 1,500 people to gather. When policemen tried to disperse the meeting, a bomb exploded and the police opened fire on the crowd. At least eight people died as a result of the violence that day and more than 100 people were injured. Eight leading Chicago anarchists were subsequently arrested, and charged with the bombing, despite no evidence of their involvement, five were sentenced to be hanged, two were given life sentences and the last was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The trial is now known by legal historians as one of the worst miscarriages of American history and spared an international wave of protest,.

In December 1888 the American Federation of Labour called a protest for 1 May 1890 and in 1889 the founding meeting  in Paris by what is known as the congress of the Second International Workingman's association took up the call  for a "great international demonstration" to take place the following year, The call was a resounding success. The International had already decided to begin a campaign for the 'three eights'--eight hours work, eight hours leisure and eight hours sleep. The causes of the eight hour day and the Chicago Martyrs were tied together, and May Day was launched.
The Second International meant business. It called not just for protests, but for international strike action on 1 May 1890. It was decided that the day would symbolise not just the struggle for an eight hour day, but the international power of the organised working class.
That first May Day in 1890 thousands of workers stopped work and took to the streets in Germany, there were mass strikes in Italy, and in Cuba the cigar workers struck. In Britain 10,000 workers marched behind a temperance band in Northampton, and in London there was a huge demonstration of 500,000 people. Observing it, Engels commented that he had heard 'for the first time in 40 years, the unmistakable voice of the English proletariat'.
May Day soon developed into a truly international workers' day. At the Hyde Park celebrations in 1904 German, Polish, Yiddish and Russian speakers were heard, reflecting the diversity of the working class movement., attracting thousands and thousands of people. On May Day 1909 the march was led off by 2,000 children from Socialist Sunday Schools singing socialist hymns and 300 Clarion cyclists wearing red roses. It  has continued to this day. Since then,  May Day has become established as an annual event to commemorate all the workers who have died in the struggle against those who exploit them. A celebration of international struggles and our solidarity. As workers have emerged from tyranny and repression in whatever country, they have adopted May Day as theirs. With these acts of solidarity we also lay down the foundations of a future world.
In Britain we even have a Bank holiday now close to the day, which was  created in 1978, this year in the UK it will be May 7th. In February 2011 it was reported that the Tories were considering scrapping the bank holiday associated with May Day in favour of replacing it with a bank holiday in October, possibly in order to coincide with Trafalgar Day,  which thankfully failed.
I see no reason why not to celebrate all of the above.
Happy May Day
Heddwch/peace

A Garland for May Day

1895, Walter Crane 

 
The Internationale

Stand up all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all

So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race

Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we'll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken now they must give
And end…

Ustad Sammi - God Is Not A Terrorist

The  75 year old Ustad Naseerudin Saami  is a master of the unigue Pakistani vocal style known as  Surti which is characterised  by its use of microtonals, and is widely regarded as the very last master of the khayal (Arabic for "imagination"), a pre-Islamic predecessor of Pakistani qawwali music which has been handed down by his ancestors for over a thousand years, but currently on the brink of extinction. It is multilingual (Farsi, Sanskrit, Hindi, the ancient and dead language of Vedic, gibberish, Arabic, and Urdu) music.
But because his style of music is regarded as blasphemous and considered haram, impure and resented, as they do anything else pre-dating Muhammad, and have made threats on his  life for simply performing the ancient art. This has seen in Pakistan many musicians being murdered since the turn of the century. notably the assasination of the famous qawalli Anjad Sabri in a hail of bullets in 2016 and the numerous attacks  on Sufi Pakistanis. Sadly, like in  in Mali,this distrust has seen a violently imposed break from anything outside the doctrine and history of Islam which has resulted in the ritual burning of instruments and a ban of most musical forms.
Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami's however  has spent his entire life mastering the nuances of every given note, in order to keep Surti alive, and it is important to acknowledge, that when he passes, the music may die with him. While many others would be  cowed into silence, Saami remains defiant, literally risking his life daily in Pakistan.
I have finally managed to get hold of a copy of  ' God Is Not A terrorist '  which was produced by acclaimed Tinariwen producer and Grammy Award winner Ian Brennan. Vol.5 of Glitterbeat’s  Hidden Musics series and was recorded in one single night session during which the musicians present continuously chewed paan (a preparation combining betel leaves with areca or betel nuts found in South Asia, South-East Asia and Taiwan and chewed for its stimulating and psychoactive effects) until their teeth turned a fiery red. The session yielded 5 tracks, all featuring the harmonium or pump organ (an instrument introduced in Asia by Christian missionaries and banned on the Indian and later Pakistani radio for the longest time) in the leading role.
The record is a delight, the music is dense and rich and full of wailing that bends and weaves throughout, hypnotising, raw and haunting, powerfully carrying a contemporary message celebrating peace and diversity that is truly universal. You do not need to understand the lyrics to enjoy the singing, with his soaring voice it's a truly electrifying listening experience. I especially  love the message in the title track, "to sing is to listen" The highlight for me has got to be the almost twenty-minute long closing track 'Longing'.  A truly mesmerizing homage to a disappearing musical tradition! Long may this music live on freely. As the Sanskrit proverb says;" If one has a diamond in their chest, it will shine on their face."Despite opposition, Master Ustad Naseeruddin Saami  chooses the light.

Tracklist
1, God Is
2. My Beloved Is On The Way
3. Twilight
4. Hymn
5.War Song
6. Longing

Get it here :-  https://glitterbeat.com/product/god-is-not-a-terrorist-by-ustad-saami/

God Is Not A Terrorist (Trailer)

Ustad Saami - Longing 

Relentless Endurance ( My first attempt at Rap)

I can't rap, in fact i'm rather crap
a light weight snowflake, not hardcore,
my poetry can arrive like a hallmark card
overworked rather tired, ever so scarred,
uninvited not making people beg for more
but sometimes brutally honest when I soar,
with a revolutionarty message to it's core
after smoking bud, mind starts to flow,
words arrive not from god or allah
from deep inside my heart to catch ya,
under the influence am not falling yet
beyond poetical rules  this is what you get,
i'm not sorry, I  just can't  fake it
unleashed take a stand against  bullshit,
cutting like razors, releasing inner edge
get too deep, don't know when to stop,
renegade thinking ,growing and knowing
rhymes released, just my way of showing,
on the battlefield  try to protect peoples rights
bewildered by what I see fight against injustice,
stand wth the kurds, the palestinians,  anyone not free
on the streets, on the page this is my reality,
love can arrive to act like a tranquiliser
a passion that oozes when  fuse is lit,
making me stronger easing the pain
through the haze and smoke, pouring rain,
releasing my songs of pride and devotion
this is me, please accept my contradiction..