Questions.

Nicky Gumbel interviews Tony Blair at Holy Trinity Brompton.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of his personal Christian faith, his work in the Middle East and his vision for his Faith Foundation at a church event attended by 1,200 people on Tuesday night. 21st July 2009.

Tell me the mystery
the half light
of your dark fantasy
the black day
the white night
of amoral innocence

Tell me the truth
your truth made mine
and show me the proof
the proof ephemeral
animated in your mind

Tell me your mind
the clinical ambition
the gregarious charm
the sociopathic innocence
the earnest pernicious desire
the benevolent funeral pyre

It is not right for a man
to judge his worth
by denying worth to another

It is not right for a man
to injure what he cannot heal
or destroy what he cannot build

It is not right for a man
to kill like Cain
or die like Abel
killed in the twilight
of good overcome by evil

Hear the whisper of his blood
utter a bewildered sigh
for the innocents caught up
in our devious violent world.

Tesco hikes price of booze.

Supermarkets price off licence chain out of business:

The off-licence chain which trades as Threshers, Wine Rack, The Local, Haddows, Bottoms Up and Victoria Wine is closing 128 shops in Scotland.
First Quench owns 219 off-licences across Scotland but went into administration at the end of October.
The shops, which are spread across the country, will all close before Christmas with 688 redundancies.
Across the UK, 391 stores will shut, resulting in 2,140 redundancies, though the Wine Rack brand has been sold.

Now -We- want the supermarkets to hike the price:

Supermarket chain Tesco says it wants to see curbs on the sale of cheap alcohol during this Parliament.
Tesco has welcomed a promise by the coalition government to ban below-cost sales of
alcohol in England and Wales.
The UK's biggest retailer goes further, saying it would back the more radical step of introducing a minimum price.
Tesco says polling for the company found excessive drinking and the anti-social behaviour it causes is one of the public's most serious concerns.

Jackie Bird, Nicola Stugeon and Lucy Neville-Rolfe. From Tesco.
All presented this on 'Reporting Scotland' as Tesco responding in a humanitarian way to the wishes of the people of Scotland.

"Crucially Tesco have reached their position after consultation with customers, demonstrating that there is also consumer support for change.
"Like me, they believe that it's wrong that you can buy alcohol in supermarkets for less than the cost of bottled water" - Nicola Sturgeon.

There is a news story here but not the one presented to us.

N. F. L. - Update.

Summer Walker.

Walking the roads of Argyll.

Sitting in the cart shed
I ate cheese and bread
drank a jug of milk
then lay down my head

I awoke it was dark
the roof rattled with rain
I ruffled the straw
then lay down again

I awoke it was clear
and a beautiful day
thanked the goodwife for breakfast
then went on my way

I walked to the next farm
and knocked on the door
a day in the fields
by Drumlemble shore

Gathering Summer
from the meadows of Thane
up on the big mill
threshing the grain

A girl came to the field
with a basket of food
I thank her very much
and tell her it was good

She is pretty and feisty
melt your heart with a glance
she tells me all are welcome
at the end of harvest dance

The farmer's son became enraged
He said "You had no need thank her
and you will not be welcome
not you or any other tinker"

I didn't answer him a word
I could see that he was smitten
perhaps I had overstepped the mark
in a manner unbeffiting

But words were not enough for him
he pushed me off the mill
then jumped down on top of me
and beat me with a will

I heard the farmer shout "Enough"
then brought me water to wash my face
his son protested "These tinkers Dad
why do you allow them about the place"

The farmer sided with his son
and the workers began to goad
as he handed me my wages
and pointed to the road

The farmer walked me to the gate
then told me he was sorry
I wished him well with all good will
knowing he did not say it for me

I walked to the next farm
battered and sore
The girl from the field
opened the door

I had thought from a beating
could only come harm
not a beautiful wife
and an arable farm

We sit in the church
to worship and pray
the farmer and his son
now stay away

It's a struggle being accepted
by these good farming folk
lives seldom affirm
the fine words we invoke

Some are amused
from some a distant regard
and some could see me
in the church yard

We sit in our parlour
and look out to sea
my beautiful wife
snuggles closer to me

I whisper - She asks me
"What did you say"
I tell her "I want us to sit here
and watch our grandchildren play"

She giggles and says "O old man'
I'll be your grandchild watch me play"
She runs into the garden
jumping and skipping and tilting her head
I hide and she finds me
sitting in the cart shed.

Abandoned Holiday.

Why did Mr and Mrs McGrath abandon their holiday in Torquay?
If you have the time and the patience - You can read about it here.

Oasis - Don't look back in anger.

A lull in conversation.

A lull in conversation.

I'm sorry
I wasn't good company

I was thinking
If space time curves
into a fourth dimension
does that dimension
form an umbilical
between time
in the physical universe
and timelessness
in spiritual eternity
and do we
share in timelessness
by being known
in the eternal mind of God
omnisciently alive
born into time
destined for timelessness
from Alpha to Omega

And I lost the gist
of your anecdote.

Wax.

A picket fence.

A picket fence
forming a line
toward the horizon
disappearing in distance
leaving an impression
of infinity

A semblance of love
expresses itself boldly
but in unintelligible terms

A man waiting
to become mature
by the discipline of need
asks rhetorical questions
and receives evasive answers.

An experience in wax.

An experience in wax
melts
in the black heat
of the midnight sun

becoming white
in natural light

articulately endearing
in a display of compatibility
with an endangered species

reacting spontaneously
with all the art
of practiced
self preservation.

Combatants.

Psychological
combatants
an attempt
to dominate
a struggle
to defend
autonomy
Concealed by
camouflaged
emotions
retreating into
three
dimensional
thought.

Me and Katie.

At the transport museum in Glasgow.

Mayfly

Mayfly

She's young and beautiful
she doesn't have to
be sensible

It's in the effortless
ability to please
floating ephemeral
on the Summer breeze

It's in the lightness
of not needing to know
the origin of the stream
or to where it will flow

It's in the ambient harmony
of breakers on the shore
the rhythmic universal pulse
declaring:"Life is more"

It's in the unconscious breaking
of another unwritten rule
and the hundred friends on facebook
all whoopin': "It was cool"

It's in the morning's joy
of living for the day
her personal sunrise calling
all her world out to play

It's in the designer handbag
her make-up clothes and shoes
she is ready for her girlfriends
and they are ready to cruise

It's in the natural ratio
of volume mass and weight
she only has to say
"What was the question?"
to transcend the debate

It's in the oblivious flower
thriving on no-man's-land
the fallen soldier reaches out
an Angel grasps his hand.

The picture is of Jade Goody.

Poem for 1st of May.

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare.

The picture is of a German Gypsy family.