Tuesday 31 July 2012

Not the Olympic Medals


Not the Olympic Medals

Here are some of my medals; a colourful bunch I'm delighted to call my own. But, as you can see, they are not the Olympic Medals.

The reason for displaying this selection of medals is that I recently read a Yahoo! News report to the effect that an Olympic bronze medal was worth in material terms about $3.50.

But of course an Olympic Medal brings its owner cash from advertising and sponsorship and glory at home and so there are athletes who will not hesitate to take performance enhancing drugs and masking agents to try and win a gold medal. In other words they are prepared to cheat.


To me the monetary value of a medal is not its first importance. I think the real importance lies in the effort made to gain the medal. Some people call this 'the hard sacrifice' that the would-be medalist has to make. But I don't think in these terms.

I think it's in the basic day to day training that the real joy and passion is to be found; or ought to be.

The long hours I spend jogging, trotting, dawdling and sprinting on the local woodland trails with my water bottle and camera are precious and priceless.

The sun, the rain, the wind, the snow, the mists, the moon, the ever-changing shades, the four seasons, the birdsong, the sight of the deer, the fox, the squirrel, the flowers, even the very earth and rock itself; it's all a magical wonderland.

I am very lucky, in my middle sixties, to be fit and able enough to put to good use the wonderful countryside of the Vienna Woods.

It feels like play; and to my way of thinking that makes it right. And yes, I really do appreciate it.


I will not comment on the various quasi-sports now being played out in stadiums and halls full of judges and referees, backed-up by expensive and sophisticated timekeeping and measuring equipment, except to say that I think it's all going rapidly downhill.

I feel it won't be long until Formula 1 motor racing, for example, becomes an Olympic sport.

Tiddlywinks was mentioned as a possibility some years ago.

And I cannot speak for the boredom or the dedication of the swimmer who swims back and forth in a 50 meter lane, with the water at a controlled temperature, for endless hours. For me such an exercise would be mental torture.

And so I have the medals. Some are merely for finishing. Others are for gaining a place on the podium.

They are not the Olympic Medals. They are a testament to amateurism. Sport in a natural environment and purely for the joy of it.




Sunday 22 July 2012

The Last Angel Flying




  The last angel
flying

back
and forth
in these thin trees
where the weakening sun
veers north
south
east
and west
will be swayingly drawn
down
through mournful breeze
 to the faint sound
in the darkness
growing ever more dark
in the weak heart
and the
doctor's
cry


Arbeit macht frei!



Saturday 21 July 2012

Olympic haiku


this olympic pool

where they dive in

at the shallow end

__________
inspired by today's image at

Not the Olympic swimming pool

A lake such as the one in the picture would make an excellent Olympic pool. Races could be measured by the number of crossings of the lake. There would be no need for roped lanes, touch pads, patrolling judges, endless heats, quarter-finals, semi-finals and so on. As you can see, there would be enough space for everyone to swim together and make a proper race of it in natural surroundings. The same goes for athletics and other sports. All you need is a suitable field or area.

The point here is that the modern Olympics, as we see every 4 years, has less to do with sport and more to do with political hype, mega building projects, bribery, corruption, financial scandals, infrastructure problems, national identity, international tourism, TV rights, advertising, self-promotion, environmental damage, traffic queues, drug abuse, cheating, terrorism threats, personal restrictions, stress, fireworks, alcohol, noise, crowds, queues, garbage, mobile toilets, tacky souvenirs, and multi-billions of pounds/euros/dollars/yen/etc. in wasted money.

It's time to rethink the Olympics. In fact it's probably time to take a look at the format and structure of most of most of the planet's major sporting events.

We must do things differently and better; and at less cost and with less damage to the environment, or more correctly to what is left of the environment.

We must take better care of our precious world. We must give the matter some deep thought.

__________

As an example of a complete waste of money and resources consider the 2008 Austria-Switzerland European Cup where a € 66.5 million state of the art football stadium designed to hold 32,000 fans was built in a small provincial city. Two or three European Cup games were played there. After the glorious show was over, only 2-3,000 dutifully gathered at the magnificent stadium to watch their team play in the lower levels of a regional league. Nobody has any idea what to do with the too big and too expensive stadium. There has been talk of ripping out the top tier of seats but even then the stadium would still be too big. And so it is - just another white elephant in the room.

The Legions


of the damned
the bands of the elect
the high sounding names

the social climbers
and those called
to the colours

were caught
in the horns
of a military band

the revelation -
wrath
was an end in itself

and their world
left naught
to be desired

the consolation -

this might
have been worse

__________
(revised version)

FREE NEWSPAPERS


like teeth
in the slotted mouth

in the steel box
at the end of the street

nobody took one

yet

nobody threw one around
or set one alight

yet

the front page news is too bloody awful

yet

again


I take the free papers

all
I can carry


__________

the above is a newly revised version of my original poem
The Free Papers


Friday 20 July 2012

Sunny spells are on the way

On the Sonnenweg at Stanz, Austria.
Friends in Britain tell me that the jet stream is not behaving normally and consequently they are having a damp and dismal summer. This is for them. 







Under a cloud?

The sun and I 

We'll do what we can!



Tuesday 17 July 2012

It's not only humans doing science . . .


Science is the crow 
 who looks through the window
and sees me at breakfast.

Science is the fox
who waits for the breeze 
under the ripening apricot trees.

Science is the cat 
who goes and comes
wherever he likes

___________


Inspired by yesterday's 'Annotated Margins' blogpost here

Monday 16 July 2012

haiku



the surface calm 


the idea of reflection 

and moving on

Thursday 12 July 2012

Dazzlingly different


English scientist Luke Howard studied clouds and in 1803 categorized them and gave them their present names. He classified clouds according to their visual characteristics. Terms, such as cirrus and stratus, are applied on the basis of visual experience - how high the cloud is; what density and texture it has. He doesn't differentiate on the basis of some hidden or secret characteristic veiled from our eyes. 



Blogger Kuni San invites his readers to produce lines of poetic text to suit the wonderful cameo paintings he produces and presents on an almost daily basis for our enjoyment.

In fact, I think it is such a good idea that I have taken part myself. My submission is in today's Comments to his post Something Different no. 3.

There are no rewards to be won but when we see the artworks and read the corresponding texts that people have conjured up from their imaginations we get the feeling that we are all winners. Bruce Springsteen, tonight on tour in Austria, succinctly puts it: Nobody wins unless everybody wins. 


I'd be more than pleased and delighted to read in my Comments box any lines of suitable verse or text that you the reader might like to post to my photo of the midsummer sky above Lake Constance (or Bodensee), the third largest lake in Europe; a lake the Rhine flows through and a lake shared by three countries: Austria, Germany and Switzerland.


Tuesday 10 July 2012

haiku


  

a fallen flower 

causing a ripple 

a duck arrives


Friday 6 July 2012

haiku


the strawberries  
from the strawberry patch
never two the same