1020 - Flimsy whimsy

We drive along and we try not to crash
Though there are so many others to hit
We hide behind the beard and moustache
Of friendliness, like Santa the Misfit
Into my thoughts you still do sometimes flit
Perhaps I should keep myself busier
But wait, I work all day and work all night
The weekend’s the hardest of all, for sure
Like overpriced footballers, we can’t score
Any more and we don’t enjoy the clash
Of limbs and swords and shields, or losing it
Write poetry, accepting we are poor
Join groups, meet new people, go on a march
To save Iraq, Iran, maybe Tibet
Sat 20 June 2009

1017 - Precipitation observation

A perfect grey sky with no chink of blue
Refreshing rain blown sideways by the wind
A lovely walk home to look forward to
Wet clothes are something that I never mind!
To be downhearted about rain is blind
We need it, in the right amount, of course
As we suck the earth dry, the rain's our friend
Restoring, and obeying nature's laws
As we break ours, polluting without pause
Clean gutters, clean my dirty car, won't you
Clean landfill sites, and nuclear waste, and bins
Wash away all we produce without cause
And this time, build no ark to start anew
Or else put better-behaved people in!
Wed 17 June 2009

864 - Ad in the Daily Harp

If I was God for a day, then I would
Create lots of new Earths, fertile and blue
Like pearls upon a string, a neighbourhood
In orbit, close enough to rocket to
And maybe let us all live longer, too
Cut down on new births, stop overcrowding
Rather like heaven, it's all about you
The universe your personal plaything
The randomness of nature may well bring
Brief pleasure, but you pay for it in blood
I'd like to change that, overhaul, review
The natural order, each man a king
Is this what you'd like? If so, then you should
Vote for me, and I'll stand as God for you
Thur 15 Jan 2009

859 - It couldn't happen here

What would it matter if our hearts stopped now?
We think we matter, but it’s just to us
Like locusts we swarm, eager to devour
Hell’s getting hotter with each car and bus
Are stoics, or maybe mass murderers
The most logical thinkers of the lot
Because they’ve concluded nothing matters
Why not be super-cool or extra-hot?
Or laugh in the torturer’s face - why not?
That’s one thing he hates, won’t ever allow
Upset the rotten applecart, make news
Abuse them back, some new gunpowder plot
For good needs goodness to grow. Plough and sow
Poisonous seeds and all we’ll reap is dust
Sat 10 Jan 2009

854 - Annie Lennox get your gun

Israel should not be invading Gaza
But Gaza should not be firing rockets
Israel should not have walled up the frontier
But Arabs should not become terrorists
The west should not have aided Zionists
The Arabs should not be hostile to them
They should not mind their imposed homelessness
Disputes should end over Jerusalem
The Crusades should not have ever been sent
Muslims should not have left Arabia
Christians should not have spread out to the west
Jews should not have had land promised to them
People should not move to land that’s better
They should stay trapped in poor oppressed pockets
Mon 5 Jan 2009

765 - Up with the lark

What’s hell on earth? It’s getting up early
An even more ludicrous thing to do
As winter draws in, dark, cold and surly
Bed’s better, with an extra dream or two
Imagine the days of TB and flu
When factory hands and miners had to rise
By candlelight or gas lamp, no chance to
Relax with a coffee; out under skies
Blacker than the soot that would soon comprise
Their outermost skin; breathing in swirling
Dark clouds till lunchtime’s cigarette and brew
But the real sin was alcohol, advised
The preacher, warning of the hell to be
When it was a place they were going through
Wed 8 Oct 2008

725 - Feed the world, part thirty-three

Where do we go from here? What’s the next move?
Is socialism dead, too expensive?
We all know life is cheap, and that’s the truth
Money falls through it rather like a sieve
No, we don’t want to pay for them to live
Let them all die if they can’t feed themselves
Let babies cry as flies crawl, spiders weave
On faces in poor places; help ourselves
To cheap food from their land upon our shelves
And if it costs too much, we shall remove
The party we elected, though we give
A penny here and there out of our wealth
We’re good Samaritans, and there’s the proof
But there’s only so much that we can give
Fri 29 Aug 2008

714 - Darwin, Dawkins and Dr Williams

Last week I read Darwin on holiday
While waiting for the others to awake
It was rather dry (the book, not the day)
But it was an effort I had to make
And now Richard Dawkins is trying to break
The hold of religion on school science
Campaigning hard for Darwin’s shocking take
That we are related to worms and hens
Which some schools daren’t stand by, in case offence
Is taken by ostriches, who when they
Hear hard, challenging truth, declare it fake
And say that science isn’t evidence
Dawkins is talkin’ to Canterbury
And Rowan’s goin’ to squirm like a snake
Mon 18 Aug 2008

667 - Vigilantes

The vigilantes of normality
The self-appointed guardians of right
Control the streets and offices, you, me
And knife us in the back as we take flight
But worst of all is when we choose to fight
Then we are hunted down like some poor fox
Hounds salivating; orchestrating bites
Sound of conductor’s baton as it knocks
For silence before the whole building rocks
Sound of the judge’s gavel; the guilty
Hears sentence passed in whispers, out of sight
And must depart; the train waits on its tracks
For some gulag perhaps, or Coventry
The trial over, there’s no chance to see
The charge or build defence. So Kafka writes
Wed 2 July 2008

624 - Complete control

When stubbing out my last cigarette I
Broke the cracked ashtray I inherited
From my old tenants - a sign from on high
That it’s high time I quit this bad habit
Although I’m not religious maybe it
Is some vague universal consciousness
Transmitting a message just for me - quit!
Or is it all in my mind? Do I bless
Myself when I pray, hope, decide or guess
What’s best to do, and then when I apply
Myself to do it, do I have complete
Command and control to achieve success
Or just a mess? Responsibility
Of such magnitude’s often avoided
Tue 20 May 2008

560 - Sand people

The world is chaos. We are grains of sand.
Some end on top, but most just get buried.
We mute inglorious multitudes are banned
From the banquet, ghostly like Banquo, dead
To all except the families we feed,
The workmates we compete with for our crumbs,
The businesses that cajole, flatter, plead
For those crumbs afterwards. Oh look, here comes
The government, a ‘business’ doing its sums
With non-monarchical divine right hand,
Taxing citizens to death. Peasants, freed
From feudal yoke by welfare payments (bums!),
Must be corralled back into serfdom, and
Forced once again to sow the seeds of greed.
Mon 17 Mar 2008

542 - Hope springs mortal

How much time do I have left? Forty years?
If so, that's roughly what I've had so far.
And though what happened in the past is clear,
And what's to come is totally obscure;
And though the past's been lived, is safe, secure,
While future talk consists only of hope,
That all things go just right, unlike before,
Experience washes failure off like soap.
I start again, we all do, and we grope
Our way around the unknown with less fear
And more confidence, now with expert paw,
More able to snag fortune's antelope.
Right time right place will turn up if we're here
To keep on hunting till our prey appears.
Thur 28 Feb 2008

523 - Oh my goodness

We feel half-animal and half-divine.
We’re not, though: we are simply animal.
But, you say, what about when we are kind
To strangers, or the fight against evil?
Our art, such as in the Sistine Chapel,
Our science, maths, or mechanic design?
But we don’t all have this level of skill,
Only a gifted few, and those few pine
For reward, recognition, all the time.
The kindness could be just weakness; the kind
Of folk you get in church are old and frail,
And need golden rules. Evil is defined
By the strong, they who interpret God’s signs.
So please, let’s not cover our eyes with wool.
Sat 9 Feb 2008

518 - (I'm afraid we must) save the planet

The cry reverberates: “Save the planet!”
While spinning plates wobble worryingly.
The pressure’s on us all to call for it,
And not to cave in to the company.
We can’t leave it to governments; no, we
Must educate and demonstrate and push,
And at election times especially,
Defect from deaf defective leaders: Bush,
And even Democrats are in a rush
To fund campaigns and fill their full pocket
With packets of dough from each industry
To quieten those cries to a kind of hush.
Whatever the cause, there’s cause to regret
Each missed window of opportunity.
Mon 4 Feb 2008

483 - Wintry summary

The year now ending was a thing unreal,
Consisting of terrestrial motion,
Roughly a circle, a revolving wheel,
Divided by milestones of convention,
Of award ceremonies for fiction,
Acting and sport, of deadly disaster,
Assassins and political friction,
Athletes running and ice melting faster.
Since wine and roses, York and Lancaster,
Since pocketfuls of posies, since the deal
That led to war and to mass conscription,
Destruction of the land by rich master,
Each year’s end is a chance, we hope, to heal
The sickness of the last revolution.
Mon 31 Dec 2007

458 - When will we all be famous?

These days it’s easy to become famous.
No talent required. You don’t even need
To go on a reality show. Just
Get hold of a gun, make some bastards bleed,
Then shoot yourself (optional). Yes indeed,
This method has been tried and will succeed.
You could say that pump action’s guaranteed.
You’ll get some kicks as victims beg and plead,
And feel the fear that sweeps at lightning speed,
Turning their pretty hopes into mall dust.
They pretty much deserve it, with their greed
And selfishness. Look how they all impede
And exclude, saying you’re not one of us.
They’ve ruined you, so kill them as they feed.
Thur 6 Dec 2007

453 - Sudan death

If you go down Sudanwards today, you're
Sure of a big surprise. Don't take your bear
For it's no picnic there, especially for
Foreigners, but also Sudanese there
Untold numbers of refugees need care
But no-one cares. In Darfur and the south
The ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, despair
Endless uncivil war. And so look out
Sudan has oil, and the west's big black snout
Is in there along with China's. The poor
Are terrorised with armour we prepare
And supply with fuel. Our governments spout
Against the horror, but while payments pour
Into enough accounts, long live warfare!

Sat 1 Dec 2007

448 - Shades of grey

There's brillig or humbug, or there's brillbug
Superb, abhorrent, or superhorrent
Is it a cup or mug, even a cug?
A drip or torrent, even a drorrent?
You see, there's not just black and white. I've spent
Time thinking about the grey in between
That mixture of two opposites that's lent
The qualities of both. Though less pristine
Less pure, I'm sure it's more like things have been
Both in the human being, that big bug
And the bacteria that somehow went
Through space and grew in earth's water, so clean
Until we came along, until we dug
And dammed. Now will earth's riches be well spent?

Mon 26 Nov 2007

400 - Is this the end of a long golden age?

Is this the end of a long golden age?
Can this continue or must it turn sour?
Has growth reached its limits? Time for shrinkage?
Can the earth stand greater demand for power,
Whether it’s coal-fired or it’s nuclear?
Is there a wind, a whole climate, of change,
Blowing, showing us that we must lower
The population, and must rearrange
Our politics of greed? Is this so strange?
Can we end conflict, sing from the same page,
Look after sky and sea, tree and flower?
Can we evolve? Is goodness out of range?
Or are we creatures in need of a cage
Before we run amok and self-devour?
Tue 9 Oct 2007

378 - Free will is like political freedom

Free will is like political freedom:
It’s there, but kept in check by many laws,
Physical forces, some we know, and some
Hidden from sight, perhaps in a good cause,
Because most of us are selfish, of course;
Given the choice, we’d choose the most and best,
So peace must be maintained, preventing wars
Between man and man, as with east and west.
So some are born strong and, meanwhile, the rest
Learn to be good and kind, and not to come
Asking for more, to be content with chores,
Speaking occasionally, then repressed.
Of course we can choose which shoes to put on;
Of course we vote in whispers, not in roars.
Mon 17 Sep 2007