"Beep Beep"

"Beep Beep"

I hope I don't die stupidly
for no apparent reason at all
by deciding to prune a tree
or crossing the road for a ball

I hope it's not like Luney Tunes
or a Laurel and Hardy flick
falling like Wile E Coyote
or met by a falling brick

I hope I'm not a victim
of some botched act of crime
or cut down by an illness
too ignorant to bide it's time

A man should die in age
with his family around his bed
and they should weep and hug each other
when the Doctor says - "He's dead"

They should bear him up like Joseph
solemnly to his resting place
and remember him joyfully
in a new born baby's face

This doesn't always happen
it isn't always allowed
some are dragged to execution
through the midst of a baying crowd.

Ten ways to die:

1. Illness
2. Accident
3. Medical Incompetence
4. Act of Violence
5. Victim of War
6. State Judicial Execution
7. Suicide
8. Old Age Health Decline
9. Natural Disaster
10. Giving Your Life to Save Someone

Harvest.

Harvest.

Autumn is here
and there is no harvest
The trees have leaves but no fruit
The wheat has ears but no grain
and if you should return
I wouldn't know
how to begin to explain

I would offer you a gift
but of all the things I own
all I have is my sin
all I have that's mine alone

Spare me - I pray
another year or two
if you will extend your hand
I will fill a harvest basket for you

I have laboured in these fields
among this bracken, broom and whin
and a lifetime to understand
all you wanted was my sin.

Moonstruck.

Debbie and Donna.

Debbie and Donna

I saw you at the bus stop
on my way back from the chip shop
You were wearing your
'Don't you want to go out with me dress'

You were going to meet your boyfriend
the one who works in the off licence
the one who left his wife and kids
And she was screaming and kicking your door
at two o'clock in the morning waking up half the street

A chance to stop and chat
mostly about last night's episode of Corry
I actually watch it so that I can chat to you about it

A dog pisses on the bus stop
"Marking it's territory" - you said
A girl is throwing two balls against a wall
making it look like an Olympic sport
"She never misses" - you said

Sitting at my coffee table
I unconsciously begin placing my chips
in little rows and shapes
in a kind of cold chip mathematical equation
I'm trying to figure out
how long it will take the Adonis from the off licence
to go back to his wife and kids
That'll be some rebound
and I fully intend to be there to catch you
to comfort and console you

The phone rings
it's Donna - I bumped into at the chippy
(We used to call her 'Marry Donna' she talked about marriage so much)
She asks me if I have the tv on
Jimmy White has levelled and it's nine frames each
"Thanks Donna" - I tell her
finding the remote under the chip paper
"I didn't know you were all that interested in snooker'
...Okay...see you in about five minutes"

She's on her way round and this place is a mess
It could do with a woman's touch and then again...so could I.

Angel Song

Angel Song

I hear the harmony
of their wings
resonating in the air
like the breeze on my face
I can feel they are there
They are rising in harmonics
turning like a flock of birds
in the choir of their wings
I can hear these words

'The poor man's wealth
is in his heart
collected treasures set aside
a lifetime of feeling and thought
of joys to share and grief to hide

The poor man's wealth
is in his soul
fashioned by a life of care
when there is nowhere to turn
calling out to God from his despair

The poor man's wealth
is in his hope
for heaven's pasture
and a camp to pitch
in the gift of God
who spares the poor
the poverty of dying rich

The poor man's wealth
is in his faith
upon this staff his burdens lean
and walking taps along the way
finding evidence of things not seen

The poor man's wealth
is in his need
though wealth and power
their virtues flaunt
the place where the God is found
is in the sigh of abject want'

Then gradually I became aware
of breathing again
there was less pressure in the air
and the sky just looked like rain
I called out and I listened
but I knew they were gone
so I sat beneath an oak tree
and wrote down their song.

I posted this in March, but you can always sing a song again.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

This is a post I happened upon by Mario Vittone.
There is a 'share' icon I clicked and it appeared here - magic.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning

Man is good by nature ?

Third verse of - "Why should we idly waste our prime"

Robert Burns -
The Golden Age we'll then revive:
Each man will be a brother;
In harmony we all shall live,
And share the earth together;
In Virtue train'd, enlighten'd Youth
Will love each fellow-creature;
And future years shall prove the truth
That Man is good by nature:
Then let us toast with three times three
The reign of Peace and Libertie!

Solomon -
There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:20.

Jesus -
"What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean."
Mark 7:20-23.

Paul the Apostle -
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Paul - Romans 7:18.

It is better for ideals to die than people.
"The golden age" is a yellow brick road that can lead to an Auschwitz.

Stefin Spelbug.

Very Good.

I read your poem last night
it was very good.
Apart from the incongruous cocktail of metaphors,
the tortured crunching of words in the second stanza
and the indiscernible (or non existent) structure.
Apart from this it was very good.
Did you purposely write - 'Stefin Spelbug?'
Do you have any more or is this your first attempt?

Ps - Ammonium nitrate, which I assume you mean by - 'Aminaume netraite'
would not be generally considered the only cause of holes in latex.

The Express.

The Avonbridge Express

From the Forest of indifference
walled within the briers of distress
rest turns to sleep and sleep to dream
of the Avonbridge Express

The Engineer is in his glory
amid the toil the heat the mess
his heart is in his service
for the Avonbridge Express

Families and their loved ones
emerge from an ephemeral egress
they are gathered for the boarding
of the Avonbridge Express

The Guard surveys the platform
opens his watch with finesse
then announces "All aboard"
the Avonbridge Express

A phone is ringing in the Station
an increasing urgent duress
but this is the departure
of the Avonbridge Express

The Debutante delicately poised
at an angle to impress
gazes from the window
of the Avonbridge Express

The young man on the platform
has three choices to address
aboard beneath or wave farewell
to the Avonbridge Express

Bless me Father for I have sinned
and ashamedly confess
my every thought has ever been
of the Avonbridge Express

To Avonbridge
via Findo Gask
then on to Port Na Fane
Speeds the Avonbridge Express

never to return again
never to return again
never to return again

Forgive.

We see the light reflected
from the moon upon a pond
and reach to touch the circles
from an instinct to respond
and the grace to forgive
within the heart forgiven
reaches out beyond the stars
to touch the light of heaven.

Boy band.

The willow trees

Omagh

A day
can seem like a lifetime
a moment like a year
hopes and dreams
contained and lost
in one exploding tear

Caught
in the freeze frame
moving in slo-mo
another imagined
retrospective scenario

When those loved
more than life
do not survive
the deepest wound
is the hurt
of being alive
To stand beneath
the willow trees
and weep aloud
lost in grief
wander Market street
among the crowd

Caught
in the freeze frame
moving in slo-mo
another imagined
retrospective scenario.

Economy.

Change:

"Hierarchy"

Should read:

"Economy"

Change:

"Safeguards in hierarchical structure"

Should read:

"Fears of continued economic gloom"

Away.

When the seagulls sing.

I didn't know
where you came from
I didn't care
where you had been
no questions
no answers
imagined to be real
interpretations of the past
permitting us to feel

You accosted my life
You deconstructed my mind
You rearranged my heart

The first noticeable change of a spring day
an unheralded rush of light and warmth
throwing open windows and doors
expelling the chill from the air

Filling the emptiness with the joy of living
breaking the silence with the sound of laughter
sharing the magical gift of unconscious forgetfulness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

But now memories amount to one
The fact that you are gone

Your beautiful body
away from me
Your beautiful body
away from me
Your beautiful body
away from me

It was like when the seagulls sing
it didn't mean a thing
like when the seagulls sing
it didn't mean a thing
when the seagulls sing
it doesn't mean a thing.

When I wrote this poem I was living in a second floor flat in Paisley.
After the last line I was sitting looking at it and I heard this squawking sound.
I looked out of the living room window, three seagulls were flying in a circle and squawking outside the window.

The Beach.

The Beach

We sat in the shade
and drank lemonade
and watched the sun going down
We talked until dawn
of hope and of fear
then walked to the beach
to watch the sunrise
We saw the Earth turn
on it's flight round the sun
and the glimmer of stars from space
We saw the sunrise
turn the sea into wine
and intoxicated
We played on the sand.

Andy

Rudy.

In a feeble attempt
to break the blues
I bought a new pair of shoes

Before walking out
I looked at the receipt

It said

The most beautiful dancers
have the ugliest feet

Larry Grayson.

Camouflage.

Camouflage is an important word and practice in the military.

Camouflage is also an important word and practice in politics.

To begin to understand War you must first begin to understand
who or what is ruling the world, who or what is in control.

The world is ruled and controlled by the faceless and unaccountable
Executives who sit on the boards of world corporations.

The Leaders who sit in these boardrooms have no concern for people,
they have no concern for justice, they have no concern for peace,
they have no concern for democracy and no concern for the environment.

What concerns them is the control of the world's resources
for the purpose of establishing and maintaining their power and wealth.

If killing people and destroying their property is peace then they bring peace
If imposing upon a people a puppet Dictator is democracy then they bring democracy.

When soldiers are in the theatre of conflict
it is no longer about why they are there. It is about their Regiment, their friends,
it is about watching each others back, about killing or being killed.
It is about surviving and coming home to their families.

When the bodies start to come home it becomes disrespectful to ask why.
Now it becomes about service and duty and honour.
People appear on the news saying - "That's what they wanted"
And families who do not say the right things don't get to appear on the news.
The reason for this is that the corporations also control the media.

Politicians are the mediators between the boardrooms and the public.

When they retire from politics they graduate to the boardrooms.

If any Leader in the Christian church in Scotland
would like to explain to me how our Wars of the past few years
is bringing freedom, peace and democracy to the Nations of conflict
then I would be willing to listen.

Dr Robert Ritter.

Robert Ritter's explanation of how the Gypsies came to be of "inferior blood" is a startling example of science driven by ideology. The Gypsies who left India in the 10th century, Ritter argued, were pure Aryans. However, as they migrated westward and intermingled with inferior races -- e.g., in Persia, Armenia, the Slavic countries -- they lost their pure Aryan characteristics. The inferior blood gave them racial characteristics which predispose them to a set of asocial and criminal tendencies. He recommended the segregation of all gypsies and the sterilization of those who were of obviously impure strains. Ritter's research came to the attention of Himmler and, by mid-summer, 1937, he called for a careful evaluation of the research on the Rom.

In September 1939, Reinhard Heydrich organized an official conference of racial policy. The conference was held in Berlin on September 21. While the primary concern of the meeting was to plan the systematic deportation of Jews to Poland, it was also decided relocate 30,000 German Gypsies. In preparation for that deportation, the conference called for the segregation of Gypsies in special camps. While the deportation of Gypsies took a back seat to the deportation of Jews and the desired 30,000 was not immediately achieved, several thousand were deported.

At this point it is important to remember that on September 1, 1939, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland. Under Heydrich's command, the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units followed the regular Wehrmacht troops into Poland. Their assigned task was to eliminate political criminals, asocials, undesirables, communists -- anyone who posed a security threat to the Reich.

It is not known how many Gypsies were killed by the Einsatzgruppen charged with speedy extermination by shooting. For the sake of efficiency Gypsies were also shot naked, facing their pre-dug graves. According to the Nazi experts, shooting Jews was easier, they stood still, `while the Gypies cry out, howl, and move constantly, even when they are already standing on the shooting ground. Some of them even jumped into the ditch before the volley and pretended to be dead.'(Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961:439
According to Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide, 1979:

In 1939, resettlement of Gypsies was put under Eichmann's jurisdiction along with that of the Jews. Gypsies were forbidden to move freely and were concentrated in encampments with Germany in 1939, later (1941) transformed into fenced ghettos, from which they would be seized for transport by the criminal police (aided by dogs) and dispatched to Auschwitz in February 1943. During May 1940, about 3,100 were sent to Jewish ghettos in the Government-General: others may have been added to Jewish transports from Berlin, Vienna, and Prague to Nisko, Poland (the sight of an aborted reservation to which Jews were deported). These measures were taken against Gypsies who had no claim to exemption because of having an Aryan spouse or having been regularly employed for five years.

On December 16 1942, Himmler ordered the deportation of all Gypsies to Auschwitz. This is the official beginning of a "Final Solution" to the Gypsy Nuisance. At Auschwitz, the Gypsies were held in Camp B IIe. This is the designation for the larger Camp at Birkenau. Many were used in Joseph Mengele's medical experimentation, others were used in the German Air Force tests on reactions to extreme freezing temperatures, thousands were sent to the gas chambers. Similar fates for Gypsies are reported at Treblinka, Chelmo and other extermination centers.

Link here.

Eva Justin.

Eva Justin's dissertation was approved by the German ethnologist Richard Thurnwald. After the completion of her studies the 41 children used in the study were deported to the "Gypsy Camp" at Auschwitz on May 9, 1944. Soon after their arrival Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz. Link here.