Friday 24 May 2013

haiku




the farmers market

the weekly shop in the rain

and three bags full 






Wednesday 22 May 2013

haiku




fish eat plastic waste

falling rocks crater the moon

we see with one eye







Astronomers report seeing the bright flash caused by a meteorite impacting the moon. The stray rock made a 65' diameter dent in the lunar surface.



Friday 17 May 2013

Three giant leaps for poetrykind



This handsome certificate doesn't signify much. It's an acknowledgement of my entry.

Yes, you too can own one simply by clicking on the little green dog at the Haiku for Mars Contest (4 posts below this one) before the closing date of 1st June and sending your haiku to the Maven Going to Mars campaign

The three poems gaining the most votes will be taken to Mars aboard NASA's Maven spacecraft.

Let us go there in peace.


The Funeral



At the funeral of a dear friend, an elderly spinster, I was asked to read something.

First came Heinrich Heine's LXXXVII from DIE HEIMKEHR 1823 - 1824 (The Homecoming 1823-1824). My translation is directly below the original.


Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht,
Das Leben ist der schwüle Tag.
Es dunkelt schon, mich schläfert,
Der Tag hat mich müd gemacht.

Über mein Bett erhebt sich ein Baum,
Drin singt die junge Nachtigall;
Sie singt von lauter Liebe,
Ich hör es sogar in Traum.


Death, that is the cool night.
Life is the warm day.
It is dark now, and I will sleep;
The day has made me tired.

Over my bed there is a tree 

Where a young nightingale
Sings loudly of love;
I hear it as in a dream. 



This was followed by Raymond Carver's Late Fragment.

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.


1920    "It is dark now, and I will sleep"    2013


Monday 13 May 2013

A Mother's Day haiku



mother's day presents 


children and dads in the park


the weekly visits



___________
Here in Austria as in many countries the annual Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday in May.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Charity and the Fox




One morning a fox was found dead
outstretched on the grass
in the park near the church
where we like to walk in fine weather

The fox was as still as the moth-eaten stole
in the charity box of discarded toys
a box in the dark in a corner forgotten
by time and tied up to go to the tip

And the flies were arriving and landing
and looking and flying away
and returning with tentative touches
in the curious fashion of flies.



Friday 10 May 2013

Haiku for Mars contest


The Poetry Foundation's current newsletter brings news of an "intergalactic" haiku contest.

Examining the details I was slightly disappointed to discover that the contest does not come within the orbit of  poets in other galaxies.

I have friends in Andromeda.

The contest, it turns out, is a local interplanetary enterprise.

Entry is free and confined to Earthlings.  Closing date: 1st June 2013. 

The winning verses, in standard 5-7-5 haiku format, and the names of the 3 winning poets will be taken to Mars by NASA's Maven spacecraft.

Full rules and other useful information can be found here:

little green dog

Curiosity update:
Now preparing to drill into "knobby Cumberland rock".


THE GLOBAL T-SHIRT



fashion

         2       
MC  = E

misprinted in Bangladesh 




The death toll in the collapsed Bangladeshi sweatshop where branded products for the EU and the USA markets were stitched up   has risen to more than 1,000 and the number of injured to more than 2,500. 

As if one tragedy is not enough there is more horror news. A fire has broken out in another factory and the death toll is rising there too. 

So what is the EU Parliament doing about it, or intending to do about it? We can no longer say 'it is over there' and so it is not the EU's concern. 

The deaths of these workers and the suffering of their families is on our collective hands. 

Why? 

Because we are the ones responsible for tolerating these kinds of substandard working conditions; because when it comes to making money, and getting cheap imports, we have always turned a blind eye. 

Europe has a long history of 'doing its business' on the subcontinent. It's time to put our house in order.

The situation may be terrible but it is far from hopeless. 

Fair Trade enterprises like THOKKTHOKK are showing the way forward. Check out their website,  especially the page titled 'About' and the subheading 'production', and take a look at their photos; you will be impressed by the high standard of their operation in India

Personally I have no qualms about wearing my THOKKTHOKK t-shirt. It's a 100% ethical product, it's a top quality product, it's made from 100% organic cotton, and it's made by people working in a clean and safe environment. No workers were killed or injured during its production.

In the final analysis the power to change things for the better is always in the hands of the consumer. 


Wednesday 8 May 2013

In the Laboratory




It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity - Albert Einstein


dissectors of flowers 
seek to discover the secrets 
of beauty 

and dissectors of seeds 
search for the roots 
of the trees

others with books 
dissect numerous verses 
for reasons unknown
  
. . .  here comes 
the announcement  
of interest 

"One working
with mushrooms 
  discovered a secret!"

we all gather round 
to see
the mathematics 

the beautiful
power
of the square 

2

. . .  soon in the desert
more beautiful flowers
will bloom

taller than trees 
more dangerous
than poetry


Tuesday 7 May 2013

Sunday 5 May 2013

The Idiot and the Enlightened Master




I fell and bashed my ribs the other day when I lost my balance. I was trying to rescue one of my neighbour's cats.

Next thing, a friend said to me: Gwilym, you're a perfect mixture of Buster Keaton and Mr. Bean!

Well, it may be that I am an unintentional clown at times. "Many a true word . . . " etc.

In the old courts every wise king kept a fool. The fool was was there for balance.

On my shelf a copy of Dostoyevsky's masterpiece 'The Idiot' has been gathering dust for too many years.

I was thinking it's about time I got round to reading it. Now I'm certain.

That brings me to my second book. And to the point.




I found the book in a banana box more than ten years ago. I have read it many times. I find it most inspirational. I like books you can open at any page and be certain to find words of wisdom or insight.

Today, for example, I turned up the following:

   It happened once: A great King had a wise man but not a fool. And things were going wrong, so a search was made and a man was found who was a perfect fool. Perfection is rare: to find a perfect wise man is rare, to find a perfect fool is still more rare. But perfection is beautiful wherever it is. Even a perfect fool has a quality in him that you cannot challenge - perfection. Perfection has its own beauty, it gives a grace. If you want to read what a perfect fool is, read Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot.
   A perfect fool was found. The King wanted to test him to see whether he was really worthwhile. So he said to the fool, "Make a list of ten great fools in my court" - there were one hundred members of the court - "Make a list of ten persons, and put the names in order: the greatest fool first, and then the second and then the third . . . ." And seven days time was given.
   The seventh day the King asked, "Have you made the list?"
   The fool said, "Yes."
   The King was curious. He said, "Who is the first?"
   The fool said, "You!"
   The King was annoyed and he said, "Why? You will have to give me an explanation."
   The fool said, "Just yesterday, up to yesterday, I had not filled the first place. To one of your ministers you have given millions of rupees, and you have sent him to a faraway country to purchase big diamonds, pearls, and other precious stones. I tell you that man is never going to come back. You trusted him - you are a fool. Only a fool trusts."
   The King said, "Okay. And if he comes, then?"
   The fool said, "Then I will cross your name off and put his name instead."

___



WHAT'S THE beeG SECRET?


I'd like to share with you some detail from a Bruno cartoon which appears in today's Kronen Zeitung newspaper.

The background to the cartoon is the news that the Ministry for Agriculture and Environment have cited 'official secrecy' and 'confidentiality' as valid reasons for not releasing year on year information about the nature and amount of industrial pesticides being used in Austrian agriculture.

This came in the wake of a EU Parliament vote on the intended widespread use in the European Union of three neocotinoids believed by many, including experienced apiarists, to be harmful to bees; not to mention butterflies, moths, worms and other creatures in the food chain such as hedgehogs and birds.

Fortunately in the EU Parliament common sense narrowly won the day.

It may not do so next time.

When all is said and done, money talks. And big money, that is chemical and pharmaceutical money, talks big. That's why the bees in the cartoon are carrying briefcases stuffed with lucre.

There are, as we all know, many untrustworthy and unscrupulous persons in positions of political power and influence who will put their name to almost anything in return for a quick buck or a quick euro.

The two sides involved, the lobbyists and the politicians, think of this practice as accepting and giving presents. It sounds much better than what it really is which is giving and taking bribes.

Recently an Austrian EU delegate was caught by undercover British journalists and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment.

But there are those in positions of power who will always follow the lobbyist with the fattest cheque book. They will take the chance and damn the rest of us.

After the EU vote it is was discovered (surprise! surprise!)  that Austria already used neocotinoids and had been doing so for years.

Suddenly a proverbial white rabbit weighing 10 tonnes was pulled out of the cylinder hat.

Ten tonnes (if that figure is true) might not sound much. But independent research shows that neocotinoids in 5, 10 and 20 parts per billion can be enough to disorientate a bee's navigation system.

Ironically, on the shores of one of Austria's most beautiful lakes is situated the house of the man who discovered how bees communicate. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this important discovery.

Bruno's cartoon shows how Austria's Agriculture and Environment Ministry, despite or because of its secrecy, functions smoothly. Almost like a beehive.



Another Austrian newspaper, The Presse am Sonntag, has published the the last 6 years of Austrian honey production figures (values in tonnes).

The yellow figures, (each is two consecutive years added together) are my way of showing the seriousness of the situation, the decline of the honeybees, even more clearly.

2005/6 - 6,100
2006/7 - 6,300
(i.e. 2005/7 - 12,400 tonnes)

2007/8 - 5,700
2008/9 - 5,500
(i.e. 2007/9 - 11,200 tonnes)

2009/10 - 5,000
2010/11 - 5,600
(i.e. 2009/11 - 10,600 tonnes)

So what's the BEEg secret? Is there something else we should know?



It would not profit you



It would not profit you
to eat these flowers 
growing wild 

along the sides of fields
and country paths
because you rightly fear their bane; 

though bees and other insects 
can partake when plants are free 
from neocotinoids.

But how are bees to know what's safe?
Bees cannot read the signs which say: 
Keep Out.

One needs to ask: 

Who will not help 
the bees and butterflies?

And why?







Saturday 4 May 2013

The Death of BEE (2)



Today's papers highlight the unfolding ecological disaster I wrote about in my poem 'The Death of BEE' just yesterday (the poem and other relevant information can be found in the post below).

The Kronen Zeitung's front page, shown above, begins: Bees murdered with tons of poison? Bees are dying in Austria and researchers believe that tons of pesticide sprayed on cornfields is responsible. The Ministry for the Environment is now entrenched behind a confidentiality law . . . 

And continuing inside: . . . a pesticide known as Neonicotinoid is said to be responsible for the deaths . . . it has been sprayed on Austrian fields year after year . . . 

88.7% of readers polled by the Kronen Zeitung said it was time for the Minister for the Environment to resign.

As I mentioned yesterday, by way of example, one apiarist lost more than 50% of his bees over the winter. He was surprised to find there were no bees in 16 of his 26 hives when spring arrived. The bees had mysteriously disappeared. "No dead bees were to be found in the hives but there was plenty of food and all the honeycombs were full," the puzzled beekeeper said.

A recent TV documentary I saw concerning American bee decline and colony collapse posited the theory that pesticides affect the nervous systems and consequently the navigation systems of honeybees. This means that foraging bees will be unable to find their way back to the hives and they will die with the onset of winter.

Apart from honeybees there are other pollenators vital to the ecological balance: moths, butterflies, bumblebees etc..

The attitude of certain power groups means it cannot go well for the insects. And that, in the long run, means trouble down the line for us too.

In the EU parliament the recent vote has prevented three types of neonicotinoids from being sprayed throughout Europe. The vote narrowly went the way of those who would protect our environment; despite heavy lobbying from the chemical and drugs industry cartels. It may not do so next time.


Friday 3 May 2013

The Death of BEE




In the palace grounds
The flower beds 
And there the yellow rose 

With petals faintly edged 
Pale red  
And clinging to them 
One dead BEE 

How did BEE die? 

Wondered loud
And then 
It came to me 

The announcement 
On the radio
From the Ministry 

For Bees 
and Moths and Flies and Fleas 
and Pesticides 
with Neocotinoids

"We are unable to tell you 
How BEE died 

"For the fate of BEE 
Is now protected data

"And therefore confidential . . . "

That's the latest buzz 

The End.



Footnotes:
1) One of the problems highlighted again recently, not covered in this poem, is the fact neocotinoids accumulate in the earth from year to year, and therefore affect earthworms and birds.
2) The Austrian Government, as indicated in the poem, is so far refusing is release data on bee colony collapse and the use of neocotinoids citing data protection and confidentiality.
3) Can it be a coincidence that there is currently a move to prevent local sale and exchange of seeds between smallholders at the same time as attempts are being made to introduce patented gm and neocotinoid treated seeds on a wider scale?
4) One organic bee farmer in Burgenland, Austria, for example, recently reported only 10 of his 26 bee colonies surviving the winter. The honeycombs were full and there was plenty of food but there were no bees to be found.


Thursday 2 May 2013

The Slackliner






a slackliner is coming to town 

to walk in the sky 


between the cathedral's high towers 



thousands will gaze to the heavens

suspending belief  


+  pass judgement upon the performance