What began in 79

when your home is not
a protective shelter to dignity and heart,
where government scythes away
public voices in favour of a few,
nervous rattle of doors
closing on opportunities
for those we should cherish,
disabled now disenfranchised
workless sanctioned and berated
for just existing,
statistics and targets
media fodder,
minimum wage hunter gatherers
chasing food bank trails
as rent arrears accumulate,
things are getting brighter
economy booming,
so some say
a cautious tale of cynicism
is needed to chew on this pill
of crushed realisations,
we have awoken
but not awake

written in response to the Conservatives taking victory in the elections and Cameron claiming power again

12 Years A Slave – Solomon Northup (free download)

On http://www.archive.org there is the download for an early version of 12 Years a Slave in both epub and kindle format, a fascinating book that has been illustrated by Steve McQueens film that will do well at the Oscars, so here we go the link for the book

https://archive.org/details/twelveyearsasla01nortgoog

McDonalds and Social Welfare

United Nations Poetry for Peace Competition 2011

Until

Time paused
a moment imploded,
the shuddering tremor,
rippled in dramatic light
silence came with pain,
fallen boughs
new sown seeds,
growth blemished in bark
reaching skyward
with gentle  leaves,
the tree had not forgotten
yet learned from it's birth
never to touch
that light
or feel that moment
again.

Kyochikuto/Oleander

from chugoku to the ota
nothing remained
upon the debris strewn
red earth,
in the silence
that  came with time,
shoots with elliptic leaves
to five bright petals,
vivid signal that,
survival is the future
that through resilience
we find a peace
and learn that for
no other reason
it should never
happen again.


With these two poems i came third out of 741 poets worldwide and was presented with a gift from the Japanese government and they where read out at a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York by the Japanese Ambassador which you can watch here http://www.un.org/disarmament/special/meetings/dis_week/ the poems revolve around the Hibakusha survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the poems are also going into a book in New York

blind code of tragedy

o glad spring

natures skin covers all again,

immortals forgotten

books buried in dull folded earth

tender vortice consuming hearts,

there is a thirst for the coming sand,

grass may tremble as it has risen,

flaming rings and streaming darkness

colossal worlds had not seen anything

of this before,

innate crawling at our borders

no day is forever,

spires and battlements no place

for ones such as this,

cold petals of a comets tail

let it pass

nine waves of birth

many wanted it shrouded

mother

scarlet ribs exposed expired,

now here would grow

one of a darker shine is coming

in a place on fifth street

habitat of men’s waste

civilization stiffened,

once before it had been seen

but not born as this had been

limbs without foetal sac extend 

ribs expanded

a new biology that was rapid and sudden

fear came in quarters

with each section of growth,

it knew and would consume voracious and explicit,

time segmented to be lived

as and when it wanted,

those who knew to object

found in a deep lividity,

and there was others born of old natures form

fragile anthropoid womb,

as they rose

as did the hero

figure in fixative of mood and relevance

could he protect against such malevolence,

he was a lure to the failings and complexities

we had once known,

from poulticed womb

sucking on earth drawn nipple,

would live and not yield,

he could not comprehend

that he would see

stark in it’s contrasts a beast to be fallen or understood,

flesh decays for a reason

both he and beast

faced a modernity

that was new and abstract

in a wasteland of succession ,

beast would find it’s way

limbs gave way to wings

stretched on the industrialism and democracy

that came before

fear could be a portent

science a response not a reaction

could not comprehend,

even those who had laws

that pastured and herded

experienced a sight problematic

with their domestication to older gods,

he again the one chosen to slay

as they truly wanted,

two creatures find a companionship

astride ocean’s they left

the tentative threads of old tragedy that existed,

and watch the tilt and slide

on axis of belief and society

fall away to a darkness 

worse than nothing

 

Alexander Rodchenko- War of The Future (1930)

 

Alexander Rodchenko magazine illustration War Of The Future (Voina budeshchego) a constructivism montage this had a documentary feel stating chemical warfare fall and collapse as seen by his analytical mind which also looked at conflict as a whole

I Am The Same Curse

i stood where i started from

listening to envy greed and lust,

my throat a weight unfreshened

refused to sing along,

echo around the laundromat

radio splashed it’s autumn gold,

in front of machine

behind me things i will never see,

thrum of rolling drum comforts,

hardship would one day

strike me to the grave,

for now though dead has life,

cool evening passing

food would be another sacred handout,

vinyl abstract floor

with cycle nearly done,

i had a book with words

your last fingers wrote,

the answer had been

when i kissed your hair

you a shining strip torn from me

an accident occupying a seconds space

my frenzied heart and hands

gave last touch,

before ambulance came,

now folding clothes softly

you are in me again

my sight is not wearied out,

and i will go

i must sleep

but only as a stone would

as dreams do not gather

 

Men In T Shirts

When Syria was falling apart as Assad began to strangle the country this is what i wrote in August last year

smoke encroaches the sky
men gather
unarmed
by the barricades
gunfire rattles
a chattering fear,
they move in groups
seem aimless powerless
what to do
to call , to chant
to pray,
to unify,
and hope together
will survive
tank wheels
closer now,
fear a sharpened
sword swinging ever closer
do you hide
inside,
or call and shout
defiance.

 

http://poetry-24.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/men-in-t-shirts.html