Friday 30 October 2015

for it is hallowe'en




for it is hallowe'en 
and we'll go to the graves
armed with our tools
and our buckets
to wipe the stones clean
and sweep fallen leaves 
to the sides

we'll cut back the weeds
that block up the holes 
made by the rain 
and the rats 
and the mice 

the dead ones won't rest 
in heavenly peace 
on invisible clouds

tonight they'll come down 
and look in our heads 
awake at  our windows 
at midnight
our hollowed out heads 
there glowing with pride

today  at the graves
we'll put batteries in candles
and wash off the dust 
on the faded bouquets 
and someone'll mutter a suitable prayer
                    for  it is hallowe'en after all 


Wednesday 28 October 2015

First verse of 'God's Grandeur' by Gerald Manley Hopkins




Passing through a small village in a valley below a shrinking glacier I counted the number of supermarkets. There were five altogether. Four of the supermarkets had a large car park apiece; and on each of the four car parks perhaps half a dozen cars. 

It goes almost without saying that the oversize parking areas were covered with relentless layers of heat grabbing tarmac.  

And then I went for a long walk in the same area with a friend who is a retired cartographer. From a ridge near a mountain summit we gazed down to the valley harbouring the new supermarkets and my friend expressed shock and dismay at the picture below him.  

"That there are so many new buildings in the valley comes as a shock to me as one who surveyed the valley long ago. I remember it was mostly woodland and fields." 

"Where will it all end?" he said after a pause.

"No good will come of it," I replied. 


from God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? 
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
  And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. 


Friday 23 October 2015

Thursday 22 October 2015

I loved my dog Sam


Let's first bury the dog. Molloy p.33

I loved my dog Sam 
banned from the parks
who deigned only to eat 
off porcelain plates 
that is to say 
whenever we dined 
in the world's best hotels 
which Sam would sniff out 
with his sensitive nose. 

He'd lick his plates clean
and leave nothing behind 
except for the bills. Today 
Sam fell ill 
in the five star Hotel
a zander 
(perch-pike)
and a large beef tartar  
served-up with quails eggs
and a mellow veal slice . . .
as I read Beckett's Krapp 
and nibbled my snack 
Sam paid a high price.

No more 
shall we play


 

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Starlings now gather



Starlings 

now gather 
in clouds in their thousands

preparing to flee 
the cold weather 
  of Deutschland

where wet yellow leaves 
fly away 
 from the trees
if only to block the drains
in the streets 

 the streets where the fog 
comes and goes
and the incessant rain 
is windswept
and cold.

 Most of the white storks 

already flown south.

The last of the swallows 

away in September.

 The swallows 

as always 
the first ones to fly 

to 
that 
far destination. 

Today 
they dance under 
an African sky.






Monday 19 October 2015

If it's in the papers it must be true



First Christmas Trees 
Now on Sale.

Shooting at Florida Zombie Festival: 
1 Dead. Others Injured.

Woman Blind for 8 Days
After Mistaking Glue for Eyedrops

Imam to speak to Recruits 
at Austrian Military Swearing-in Ceremony. 

Home Security Boom.
Live Cameras in Teddy Bears.

Czech President:
"Some Women Look Better in a Burka." 

Post Box With Slot Facing Wall 
 Now Repositioned.

Uzbekistan: 
Hundreds of Cotton Pickers put Wool 
Back on Plants for Presidential Drive Past.

German Police Chief Demands
Security Fence on Border to Austria.

Actress Lindsay Lohan 
to Run for US Presidency in 2020

Buenos Aires Plastic Religion Outrage
Over Barbie and Ken as Mary and Jesus. 

Man wins €101 million 
on European Lottery.

Small Ad: 
Petrol Station Attendant Required. 
€7.90 per hour (Night duty)













Stupid Austrian Traffic Laws: Thank God for Charles Dickens.


You as a driver with this view must now turn
your head to look up the narrow road on the right
notwithstanding the hazards on the main road ahead
demanding your full attention.  

Vehicles emerging from this narrow lane  
are unlikely to stop. They have have 
priority under outdated Austrian traffic laws! 

It's a crazy and dangerous situation! Look at the top picture. Is there a child behind the white van? Is somebody in the van going to open a door? Is the white car on the right going to reverse out of the driveway?

Instead of observing these hazards I am obliged by law to take a risk and turn my head to look around the wheelie bins on the corner and peer into the uncontrolled narrow junction on the right to see if a vehicle happens to be approaching, and if it is then I must stop and give way to it. Just one example of the ridiculous 'priority from the right rule' in Vienna.

Yesterday, for the umpteenth time I was confronted with a hazardous situation as a result of what I can only call a stupid and outdated traffic law, which I assume dates back to the era of the horse and cart.

In darkness returning my eyes to the road ahead after having slowed and looked into a city centre junction on my right, that is peered carefully around the ubiquitous parked cars as required by law, I suddenly saw a pedestrian in the road directly ahead of me, a person who wasn't there a couple of seconds before. Fortunately on this occasion nothing unpleasant occurred.

Nowadays many pedestrians are seen on the roads in Vienna with telephones pressed to their ears and apparently oblivious to traffic. In addition the nights are drawing in, people here habitually wear dark clothing, and the street lighting in many streets is relatively poor. Children will soon be on their way to and from school in the hours of darkness.

This morning I decided to email the Austrian transport minister, a certain Alois Stöger, to ask him what he proposed to do about my dilemma, if anything. I went on his ministry's official website and completed the email pro-forma but when I clicked the button provided I got a message telling me to complete the boxes marked thus *. Obviously I had, being a reasonably intelligent type, already performed this simple task but just to be sure I checked those boxes and clicked again but nothing moved, my email was firmly stuck in that official website's electronic limbo.

And so on this particular road safety issue I have thrown in the towel.

In order to preserve my sanity I am resorting to a morsel of Dickensian wisdom. I have decided that if the law says that I as a driver must look up nearly every street on the right and risk endangering myself. my passengers, and other road users then the law as the great author wisely said is an ass.



Sunday 18 October 2015

Reinhard Mey - Ãœber den Wolken (ZDF, live)



Over the clouds 
Freedom is boundless
All fears and sorrows 
Remaining below . . . 

. . . all that we thought
To be so important
Is suddenly small. 



Saturday 17 October 2015

chopsticks and beyond


Middle-aged woman 
Playing the piano 

Your mask soon to fall 
Perhaps to ragtime or jazz. 
How do I know this?

From the light in your eyes
As you polish your skill 

And your hidden smile 
On hearing words 
Of support.   





the view from the bridge, but not from the top




Thursday 15 October 2015

Is my weapon bigger than yours?


By way of reply to the forceful foreign policy of Mr. Putin and the presence of Russia's military might in what is left of Syria the American Mr. Obama is set to stiffen his resolve and influence in of all places Afghanistan. US troops will not be withdrawn by 2016 as planned. Some of you will recall the Russians sensibly advising the Americans during the first days of the so-called hunt for Bin Laden, not to go blundering around Afghanistan as they the Russians did, for they would then find themselves nailed down and unable to get out. This has proven to be the case. A Russian prophecy fulfilled. It's all about testosterone at the end of the day.


Tuesday 13 October 2015

chain of sin and expiation




Our life is a chain of sin and expiation controlled by a destiny that cannot be understood - Josef Goebbels

man's war 
machine
is on 
the screen
in breaking 
propaganda 
news 
with a clean 
cut 
man 
embedded 
for pay 
to input
and output
the data live 
and the data dead
as received 
and not 
received 
about 
the cruising thing 
now 
on 
its blasted way
to 
paint the sin
by 
numbers 
its cross hairs
expiating 
on the screen 
that is 
unless 
the screen 
blacks out
as it is apt 
to do 
and 
suddenly 
we all return
to the current 
expert 
bath chair  
general
star of the glory show
a salami theorist on the chain of death  
curiously eager
with airbrushed 
candour 
to pronounce 
the score to date 
that is 
the current score
this side of truth
as you will see
my son
he quietly coughs
off mike
into cupped hand 
to be interrupted   
by village women 
who found 
a boy
who was undone
by fire of the friendly kind
hard destiny 
and yet 
there was just one truth
a truth reported
in the heat of it 
that may hide the truth 
the cold collateral truth
about the drone 
about the dawn 
when it 
exploded
in a place of dust and sand 
upon 
a blurred gray square 
that was a kindergarten 
school 
or perhaps 
a children's hospital 
in someone else's land 
in someone else's  
ruined land 
upon the map 
upon the right 
split 
of the screen 
 the harmful 
elements were long gone 
and another box 
was ticked
and so it goes 
for god is with us
and not with the sinners
as it is writ
in the holy book
praise be to him  
who leads us  
to victory 
in all 
man's wars
in him we trust
again in spite 
of pain
amen 






Saturday 10 October 2015

The colour of war


Goya's original is black 
The red the danger 
It has been added 
On the evil of war most are agreed
Others  justify war 
as a 
necessary evil
Vital for human development 




Brown paper bag on a street corner



Chinese poem fragment: 'Resignation' (A.D.826)


 
Better by day to sit like a sack in your chair;
Better by night to lie like a stone in your bed.
When food comes, then open your mouth;
When sleep comes, then close your eyes.

Thursday 1 October 2015

Sunday School Teacher


Discounted Golden Delicious - the only fruit? 


Miss Price: 
"After He created the sun and the moon 
and the stars and the birds 
and the fish 
and all the other things 
He made the first two humans  
 and He gave them 
 names:
 He named the man Adam 
 and He named the woman Eve

He didn't make any children 

dear children - not yet anyways.  

In the garden where they lived 

there were all kinds of fruit  trees -
theirs to enjoy - except for the apples - they were not allowed 
to eat the apples dear children. But they did. 

He saw them do it. 

And they even admitted to it.

Punishment was instant 
and dire. They were banished 
from the garden, which means they had to leave 
with their few possessions:
a goatskin water bottle, the sandals they were wearing and their loincloths. 
Yes, Sidney, just like modern day refugees 
from the banks of the Jordan 
and the Euphrates.

What more can I say to those of you who refuse to believe the biting of the  tempting apple was seriously bad news? 


BREAKING NEWS: SON ON THE WAY. BREAKING NEWS: SON ON THE WAY.  
He the One in three and the three in One announced today that He will send a prophet, a miracle worker, even a son to the area of conflict. According to sources He the One in three etcetera will make sure the chosen people are held responsible for the son's death in the event of a worst case scenario. We repeat . . . He the One 

"Not an insignificant little matter 
one might think,"
  said Miss Price, quietly closing her books of reference
  and switching off the TV.