Monday 30 December 2013

Christmas Miracle



Jessas Maria! shouts the headline in my morning paper.

Priest falls from Christmas tree and plunges 7 meters the story begins.

Man of God (76) survives fall. Saved by guardian angel the text continues

And so I turn to page 9 and read on:

. . . Father Andreas Mohr was attaching a string of Christmas lights to the top of a fir tree when he suddenly fell from his ladder. The priest sustained several broken ribs and for a time his life was in the balance. 

He is now on the road to recovery . . . is the good news with which the story ends.



In these grim times when almost every news bulletin carries news of mass murders, brutal atrocities, and endless hardships it is good for the soul to be able to read some really good news.




Amen to a speedy recovery.



Sunday 29 December 2013

28,000 Words


Blessed are the peacemakers . . .  

28,000 words
listed and defined
in a pocket dictionary

27,500 words
more than required
for ordinary communication

where simple words like

give
peace
a
chance
and
let
us
make
no
more
war

will always suffice (by way of example)

28,000 words
succinctly defined

and conveniently listed
in alphabetical order

in a book
that fits in a pocket                  

one  assumes
the other 

will be 
listening



Thursday 19 December 2013

Frost in Winter


park fence with frost


 tangled maze with frost


red berries in frost


sun on gate in frost


Cough Drops 

When I become older 
And colder and slower

And nights on the couch 
Are longer and dreaded 

My trick is to drink 
The magic of winter 

This season of colds
Will be punched into spring!


 Two paths diverged in a wood  . . . (Frost)


Wednesday 18 December 2013

Happy 70th birthday, Keef!


photo credit: Raj Gupta (Wikipedia) 


From stones and poets you may know
Nothing so active is, as that which least seems so.

For he, that conduit running wine of song,
Then to himself does most belong

-

The above text is taken from Contemplation (lines 46-49) a poem by the Preston, Lancs, born poet Francis Thompson who shares today with Keith Richards (18th December 1859 and 18th December 1943 respectively). Failing to become a doctor or a priest Thompson drifted as a homeless opium addict until he was befriended by Wilfrid and Alice Meynell. He died aged 47.

Clicking on Raj Gupta's picture of Keith Richards takes you to Keith Richards' official YouTube site.    


Tuesday 17 December 2013

mistletoe thoughts in monochrome




lift up your eyes and see no boundaries 

-

only the ignorant are evil - the wise understand 

-

don't worry about making slow progress
 worry about making no progress 

-


House





a cold and empty house 
and the flowers in the frost
grey-headed like judges



Frost





frost on the field

and here a hat hung on a tree 

my way is through the woods




Monday 16 December 2013

Reality Check





We live in a world dominated by 24 hour news. But how much do we really take in? Try this little pre-Christmas reality check. Below are five newsworthy events from the last few days. Award yourself two points for every story in the list that you can recall: 


Iran's space monkey returns safely to Earth.  

21 miners killed in mine explosion in China.

Ferry with 2,000 passengers aground between Sweden and Finland. 

13 wedding guests killed by US drone in Yemen. 

Tokyo shaken by strong 5.5 earthquake.


An Albert Camus Book for Christmas


"It is better to be Herod's hog than his son."* 
- Augustus

    
This observation on the strength of the cruelty of Herod persuades me to relate, what is to my way of thinking, the real story of Christmas. I see it this way: 


A woman is destined to give birth to seven children: five boys and two girls. The first born will change the world. The woman is aware of this even before the child is born. The event has been predicted for centuries by wise men and prophets and it must come to pass for it is written in the stars as the saying goes. 

The special baby is born. The woman insists that the boy's  father is no less an entity than the Supreme Being. The prediction is fulfilled. 


The military goes on to high alert. All babies, that is all children of Judea up to the age of two must be eliminated.



The family, comprising the mother, her husband, and the baby, must flee. It will not be easy. The authorities have spies everywhere. And then there are the families dreading that their own children will be killed if this baby of God is not quickly found and handed over. They too are on the lookout for the three fleeing abroad. And yet somehow, as we all know, the three made it through. 

I have just finished reading The Fall by Albert Camus. 


The thing to do now is to read it again. But first I must do my homework. I must learn exactly what a Sadducee is, or more correctly I must look at the differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. I must look into the 9th and inner circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno. And I must acquaint myself with the text of a song - La Vie en rose, a song by the French singer Edith Piaf. 


And then there's the case of Girolamo Savonarola, a Florentine monk excommunicated and executed as a heretic.  


And much more. 


Only when I have completed my research will I be able to fully appreciate  the importance of The Fall, a work described by The Guardian as the most prefect of Albert Camus' meditations on human isolation and bewilderment. 







A Christmas reading tip? I suppose it depends, for when it comes to religion and the message of Christmas many of us don't want or need our comfort zone disturbing. If you are one such I must suggest that you don't read the following extract: 


I'll tell you a great secret, dear fellow. Don't wait for the Last Judgement, it takes place every day.

No, it's nothing, I'm shivering a bit in this accursed damp. Anyway we're there. That's it. After you. But stay a bit longer do, and come with me. I haven't finished, I must go on. That's what's difficult: going on. Now do you know why they crucified him, the other fellow, the one you may be thinking of right now? Well, there were any number of reasons for it. There are always reasons for a man's murder. What's impossible, on the contrary, is to justify letting him continue to live. That's why there are always lawyers for the prosecution and only sometimes for the defence. But alongside the reasons that have been very well explained to us over the past two thousand years, there was one great reason for that frightful agony, and I can't see why it is so carefully concealed. The real reason is that he knew, himself, that he was not entirely innocent. While he might not have carried the burden of sin of which he was accused, he had committed others, even if he did not know what they were. Anyway, did he really not know? He was at the source, after all.  He must have heard speak of a certain massacre of the innocents. Why were the children of Judea massacred while his parents were taking him to a safe place, unless it was because of him? Of course, he didn't want it to happen. He was appalled by those bloodstained soldiers and children cut in half. But being who he was, I am sure that he could not forget them. And the sadness that one perceives in everything he does: was that not the incurable melancholy of a man who could hear all night long the voice of Rachel wailing for her children and refusing any consolation? The lamentation rose into the night: Rachel calling to her children, who had been killed for him, while he was alive!

Knowing what he did, understanding everything about mankind - oh, who would have believed that the crime is not so much to make someone die as not to die oneself! - confronted day and night by his innocent crime, it became too hard for him to sustain himself and carry on. It would be better to have done with it, not to defend oneself, to die in order not to be alone in life, to go somewhere else, perhaps, he would be supported. He was not supported, he complained of it and, to finish off, he was censured. Yes, it's the third evangelist, I think, who began to suppress his complaint. 'Why have you abandoned me?' was a seditious cry, wasn't it? So, give us the scissors! And note that if Luke had not suppressed it, the matter would have passed more or less unnoticed; in any case, it would not have taken on such importance. That's how the censor advertises what he condemns. 


*Herod's own son was one of an estimated 14,000 babies and children murdered during the massacre of the innocents, hence the comment by Augustus. 



The Fall / Albert Camus 
Penguin Modern Classics 
ISBN 978-0-141-18794-5


Saturday 14 December 2013

The Sun Far Away




Those long golden suns 
of summer are gone 
 - and still here he stands 
 - facing the waves

and the chill of the Bora 

 - the sun far away  
 - that pale silver disc  
and him with his arms 

like the wings of the shag 

with its long feathers out 
 - the cormorant on the invisible 
 - cross. He 

suddenly sees me 

and smiles from his eyes 
for he knows I will search 
through his feathers;  a blue 

piece of silk I take for my wife 

 - close the deal with our hands. 
"See you next summer," he chirps 
 - just the hint of a question 

and when I nod yes 

 - his grin broadens wide: 
 - "Tomorrow I'll fly 
to Bangladesh and my wife."


Friday 13 December 2013

That is to say it depends




That 
is, 
or is to say 
it depends 
if  
is
is 

known known
known to all in the land
or if
is 
is
an
known unknown   
or
if
is 
is
an 
unknown unknown  
that is 
or 
is 
to say 

known unknown 
or
unknown unknown 
known 
only 
to 
those 
in the rarest of air
the dizziest of heights.
Of 
the so far unmentioned,
the
unknown known,
  nothing 
is 
known 
or 
is 
known

perhaps.



That is to say



There are 

known knowns. 

These are things 

we know 
that we know. 

There are 

known unknowns. 

That is to say 

there are things 

that we know 
we don't know. 

But 

there are also 

unknown unknowns.

These are things 

we don't know  
we don't know. 


 - Donald Rumsfeld 



It depends


It depends on 

what the meaning of The Word 

Is is


- Bill Clinton


Tuesday 10 December 2013

MANDELA INVICTVS


The refusal of men and women to compete in sport with
apartheid South Africa was a powerful weapon
in the fight against racial discrimination. 

INVICTVS is the poem that Nelson Mandela held in his heart during his 27 years in prison. It was written in 1875 by the poet W. E. Henley (1849 - 1903) at the end of a two year stay in hospital. The word INVICTVS is from the Latin and means Unconquered.

It is from INVICTVS that President Obama quoted a few lines today in South Africa. It was a fine tribute that was paid in a lengthy address by the president of a once partially enslaved nation to the memory of the late president of another once partially enslaved nation and to his family; and at the same time to South Africa's citizens, to a forward looking people comprising peoples of all colours and backgrounds.


The greatest achievement of Nelson Mandela, and there were many, is that his policies and his courage stopped a bloody civil war from erupting. We need only to look at Syria, for example, to see the potential disaster that could have all too easily flared up in South Africa; a civil war between blacks and browns and whites, and between tribes and factions. For me this is the spirit of INVICTVS and the legacy of the man who will always be remembered as the nation's father.



INVICTVS


Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Graphology








What can we learn of personality from a signature? Very much I think. 

I'd deduce that the writer of the first signature is honest, open, rounded, generous, confident, well-balanced and has a good sense of humour. 

I'd say the second example shows the signee to be untrustworthy; the theatrical combines with angst ridden egomania to create a perilously unbalanced mind. There are definite signs of a  depression which could end in self destruction.


But I'm no expert. And graphology after all is a disputed science.


So here's an interesting puzzle. Who signed these autographs? 


The identities, if not immediately obvious, can be found in microscopic type at the bottom of this posting. 



Top: Nelson Mandela 
Below: Adolf Hitler. 


Monday 9 December 2013

Breaks




the long canteen tables

& bowls of warm noodle soup, 

// all the sticks working flat out


My concept




of 
the external
is carried within 

as burlesque 

comedy turns  
in a theatre 
of dreams 

of the past 

which is present
in sketches 
and shows 

with striptease  

and guffaws 
with starred doors 
and mocked woes 

)secrets in mirrors(

and all of us 

players
in the burlesques 
of others

*

Thursday 5 December 2013

in berlin



we can walk / on the grass / in grey drizzle / outside the cathedral / through the fat botero's / the naked men / and women / the cats horses babies / around / the fountain / maternity dances / hollow bronze / brown and blacks / a sphinx / eve / a woman / with fruit / a woman seated / a woman reclined / a man / walking / unser glaube / ist der sieg der / die welt / überwunden hat / second hand / gas masks / second hand police caps / enameled / red stars / volkspolizei lapel badges / now / for the spree / the luna / the sachsen / and brasil / the brandenburg / to treptow / star / and circle pennants / riverside / snacks / closed / grandma's recipe / closed / drugs / graffito / nothing new / here / aurora / heiterkeit / frohsinn / and the stone / the memorials / to / those who perished / for example / when the heimatland / went down / those children / lost / and now the yellow cycle / of the postman / now in the rose garden / by the russian arch / the avenue / the trees / the fallen / leaves / tidily swept away / piled / into the corners / the stork / feeding the fox / ewiger ruhm / den kämpfern / die ihr leben / hingegeben / the sword / splits the hackenkreuz / the man kneels / with a kiss / to a standard / the dead in rubble / and ruins / stone planes / and tanks / stone fires / and flowers / and hammers / and stone sickles / play out / für die befreiung / der menscheit / von nazi / knechtshaft / the free / flying sparrows / the ragged / autumnal ruins / of roses wild / summer / not long / gone to dancing / midges / sleepy ducks / and one / mute swan / gliding on / bleak brown / water / the dozen / seagulls / the rushed / woman / the one / with the pimple / at the end / of her nose / bursting / through / the snaked queue / she aims / for the boat / aims / for the cafeteria / aims / for a toilet stop / perhaps / and now / me / shivering on the rainswept prow / the boat's reversing turn / and then / its nose chugging / to the allianz / a tower / to myself / through old berlin / with echoing commentary / what's to see / to the left / the west / what's to see / to the right / the east / now under / the treptower / station bridge / and the red brick / oberbaum brücke / the willows / weeping / on the west bank / a remnant / of berlin wall / cartoon signatures / remnants / of a fallen bridge / rescue the ice factory / bomb my planet / hunched one pulls / hard on a cigarette / a solitary angler / and the group / with the pimpled woman / spill onto the deck / a man / stands / next to me / he smokes / furiously / the silver foldaway ashtray / magically produced / at jannowitze brücke / the sauerland group / they board / the poseidon passes / with a few waves / then back into the spree / again / the furious smoker / is back / next to me / with his celebrated ashtray / the green light is on / and we enter / a lock / mühlendamm / andromeda waits / in a parallel lock / temporary halt / to proceedings / and someone coughs / in the perfumed smoke / which envelopes me / but disperses / soon when we move / berlin / city of peace / nikolaiviertel / collecting / names of boats / milan and monbijou / carola / spree lady / phönix / stern / bellevue / condor / neptun / franziska / pinguin / and captain morgan / a city resurrecting itself / the reichstag / the clean cut / glass / and concrete lines / how white / the bundeskanzleramt / the sun pokes through / briefly and disappears / a trumpeter plays / some say sadly / in front of the new / and bombastic / bahnhof / the neon / riverside beach / of deckchairs / and palm trees / a politician / with a poster grin / immigrants influence / home cultures / martin luther / bridge / where autumn leaves fall into water / the moabiter / bridge / and / four iron bears / more willows / weeping / more / graffito / boycott / mcburger / make for the platz / der luftbrücke / the berlin air bridge / to view / an alsatian / with a silver collar / taking a crap / on the grass / beside the monument / a large stick in its teeth / and two large and loud men / engaged / in a drunken brawl / and so / to the theatre / of the broken / windows / now on / the trams / and trains / too many / windows / all / heavily scarred / and scratched / not unlike / through fog / s-bahn / u-bahn / perhaps / so we / the travellers / can't look outside  / a berliner / & a kindl bier / topography !! of terror ! now  the destination !   

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Pub




it's time I was . . . 
. . . okay then, 
jest one more Guinness 


Tuesday 3 December 2013

Sign



The horse licks my jacket
Sign says: DO NOT FEED HORSE
We both understand it


Reflection




to open water
the mighty mountains 
bow their heads