A WELSH WORDSCAPE - Peter Finch.

1

To live in Wales,

Is to be mumbled at
by re-incarnations of Dylan Thomas
in numerous diverse disgiuses.

Is to be mown down
by the same words
at least six times a week.

Is to be bored
by Welsh visionaries
with wild hair and grey suits.

Is to be told
of the incredible agony
of an exile
that can be at most
a day's travel away.

And the sheep, the sheep,
the bloody flea-bitten Welsh sheep,
chased over the same hills
by athousand poetic phraces
all saying the same things.

To live in Wales
is to love sheep
and to be afraid
of dragons.

2

A history is being re-lived,
a lost heritage
is being wept after
with sad eyes and dry tears.

A heritage
that spoke beauty to the world
through dirty alcoholic mists.

A heritage
that screamed that once,
that exploded that one holy time
and connected Wales
with the whirlpool
of the universe.

A heritage
that ceased communication
upon a death, and nonetheless
tried to go on living.

A heritage
that is taking
a long time to learn
that yesterday cannot be today
and that the world
is fast becomming bored
with language forever
in the same tone of voice.

Look at the Welsh landscape,
look closely,
new voices must rise.
for Wales cannot endlessly remain
chasing sleep into the twilight.


FROM: Selected Poems 1987, Poetry Wales



The Preseli Hills

Damaged Gaza still not repaired one year on

ABOUT three-quarters of the damage inflicted by Israel in its war on Gaza more than a year ago has not been repaired or rebuilt the United Nations confirmed last weekend.
In a new report, the UN Development Programme observed that Israel continues to bar construction material from entering the coastal enclave as part of an overall blockade of the territory, which is home to over 1.3 million Palestinians.
It is said that Gazans have carried out small-scale repairs worth £120 million with recycled rubble or material smuggled through border tunnels that are frequently targeted by Israeli air strikes.



"Many members of the international community, including the UN, have refrained, thus far from utilising materials identified as coming through the tunnels, subsequently limiting their role in reconstruction, " the report continued.
It added that, while "some recovery is taking place, the realities on the ground show that the international community is by and large , rendered ineffective in addressing the needs of the people in Gaza".
Meanwhile thousands of wellwishers thronged Istanbul's port last Saturday as three cargo vessels loaded with aid set off to join in an International solidarity fleet bound for Gaza.
A total of 9 vessels were scheduled to cast anchor at Gaza docks today with 5,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment and school supplies, as well as around 600 people from 40 countries.
Yet the state of Israel has already made itself clear , telling their ambassadors that the flotilla will not be allowed to disembark in Gaza. This despite increasing criticism from the wider International Community.
Top military officials have stated that their navy will intercept these ships bringing much needed relief to a people under siege.
Israeli peace group Gush Shalom have urged the authorities not to interfere with the flotilla. We will have to wait and see.
"The whole world is watching" the group has said. " Israel has no interest in flooding international television channels with pictures of sailors and Israeli commandos fighting with peace activists and humanitarian aid activists many of whom are well known in their countries."
There are still a lot of people who don't realise how under siege Gaza is and the amount of their dire circumstances, perhaps this peace convoy might highlight the issue, I do hope so.
It is commendable too, that two musicians I much admire, Gil Scot Heron and Elvis Costello announced their intentions not to play in Israel recently, Costello recognising the message of his song -" Peace Love and Understanding " would possibly not be appreciated there, and joining with the internationalists in recognising the injustices bought about under Israel's name.
Progressive people within Israel are pressing from within, it is wrong to tar them all with the sins of their leaders. To these people and the people of Gaza I offer my voice of solidarity.

ALTERNATIVE QUEEN'S SPEECH

BRIAN HAW : PEACE CAMPAIGNER CRAPPEST ARREST OF THE WEEK

CALL THIS DEMOCRACY.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE.

Contradictions

Flame wind of poppies
music of colours
great nights returning
gathered from mindfrost.
We bask in brilliance
bright petals spring from this
the golden light dances upon the leaves,
idle clouds sail across the sky
the passing breeze leaving its coolness
upon our lips.
The afternoon light has flooded the day
slips still, holding everlasting breath,
run with the words, smash into shards of possibility.
Time now to revive old factions
as worldly realities refuse to fade
dreams flower new universes in the head
as earths atomic fingers point towards the stars.
Slyly, moons still awake
slip upon shifting spaces all around
ragged silhouettes restless in their lark.

WINSTON SMITH - When the lights go on Again all over the World ( 2008) .

YEUGENY YEVTUSHENKO - People.

No people are uninteresting.
Their fate is like the chronicle of planets.

Nothing in them is not particular,
and planet is dissimilar from planet.

And if a man lived in obscurity
making his friends in that obscurity
obscurity is not uninteresting.

To each his world is private,
and in that world one excellent minute.

And in that world one tragic minute.
These are private.

In any man who dies there dies with him
his first snow and kiss and fight.
It goes with him.

They are left books and bridges
and painted canvas and machinery.

Whose fate is to survive.
But what has gone is also not nothing:

by the rule of the game something has gone.
Not people die but worlds die in them.

Whom we knew as faulty, the earth's creatures.
Of whom, essentally, what did we know?

Brother of a brother? Friend of friends?
Lover of Lover?

We who knew our fathers
in everything, in nothing.

They perish. They cannot be brought back.
The secret worlds are not regenerated.

And every time again and again
I make my lament against destruction.

THE AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ADVERT THE FINANCIAL TIMES REFUSES TO PUBLISH. SHAME!

CLICK TO ENLARGE