Monday 30 November 2015

Freedom and Liberty

Freedom of expression is not something you put in a pot and boil down.
Nor does it come in flat pack form.
Liberty is not pick'n'mix.
You can't just choose the bits you like.
Either it exists or it doesn't.

(The one law of mitigation is there to sanction those who use it to harm or defame)

This Freedom is the source from which the fast, strong waters of all other freedoms flow.
All of them.
The Freedom to come and go, to assemble, the Freedom of each one of us to live the life we feel to be right without harming others.
These Liberties all depend on each other.

The killers proved in blood those very links which so many people refuse to acknowledge.

- from  Philippe Lancon's article in Sunday's Observer.

Philipe Lancon was wounded in the Hebdo attack in Paris.
Both my grandfathers fought in the Battle of the Somme.
Like Philippe Lancon they were both wounded in the struggle for freedom.
My father suffered in the Second World War.
Freedom and liberty are priceless. Millions of ordinary people in France, the Commonwealth, the United States, and many dozens of countries around the world have forfeited their lives to create the civilized world we enjoy today.
Freedom is here. Our greatest duty is to strive to protect it.



Saturday 21 November 2015

It's good to read more than one book


                    vive la france
other
authors
now
famous
in Paris 
include 
George Sand, 
F Scott Fitzgerald, 
Georges Simenon, 
Marquis de Sade, 
James Joyce, 
Samuel Beckett, 
Ezra Pound, 
Charles Baudelaire, 
Simone de Beauvoir,  
Ernest Hemingway,  
Charles Dickens, Henry James, Honore´ de Balzac, 
Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jean Genet, 
Joseph Roth, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Flaubert, Friederich Nietzche, Denis Diderot, Marcel Proust, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Andre Gide, Lawrence Sterne, Tristan Tzara, Voltaire, Langston Hughes, Rainer Maria Rilke, Gustav Strinberg, Jean-Paul Sartre, Guillaume Apollinaire, Katherine Ann Porter, Ford Madox Ford, Ivan Turgenev, Moliere, Guy de Maupassant, Henry Miller, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gaston Leroux, Gertrude Stein, Stendhal, Katherine Mansfield, Jacques Casanova, Edmund White, Allen Ginsberg, Heinrich Heine, Alexandre Dumas, Gerard de Nerval, James Thurber, William Burroughs, and Emile Zola to name but a few. Note the use of an Oxford comma. Merci. 


Friday 20 November 2015

Today's Poems (chosen by God)





            Aware of the daily violence and horror inflicted on and by human beings on other human beings, on intelligent animals who take no delight in sharing our vision of the world, on highly evolved sea creatures now dying in vast numbers, and even on the very fabric of the planet itself, I decided I would invite no less an author than the Supreme Being to contribute a verse or two from his personal poetry collection; that is to say from the New International Version of his renowned book, the anthology generally known as The Holy Bible. Silently and respectfully and in all seriousness  I invited God, as he is called by many, to use my dutiful fingers to riffle through the 1,385 pages allowing them to settle as he willed while firmly believing that he would indicate any relevant passage/s by exercising some mysterious control over my thumbs. Where my thumbs  lay in the margins when I returned my gaze to the pages would indicate the passages he wanted me to publish here today. 



See how they lie in wait for me!
Fierce men conspire against me
for no offence or sin of mine
O Lord.  
I have done no wrong, yet they 
are ready to attack me.
Arise to help me; look on my plight. 
(Psalm 59 verses 3,4 - page 638)

Poem 2

Increase the days of the king's life,
his years for many generations. 
May he be enthroned in God's 
presence for ever;
appoint your love and 
faithfulness to protect him. 
(Psalm 61 verses 6,7 - page 639)





Wednesday 18 November 2015

Cinquain 2





Backlit

The moon  
silhouetting
cloud shapes of predawn sky; 
new cloud behind the minaret
backlit. 






Monday 16 November 2015

Reaping the whirlwind


Berlin 

With their latest outrage in Paris the terrorists have have just succeeded in doing something the UN could never do. They have persuaded Russia, France, America and others to join forces.

Not since the days of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis has the world been so completely united against a common enemy.

Even underground organizations like Anonymous are lending support.

In the words of Winston Churchill who quoted an Arabic proverb when dealing with Hitler and his thousand year empire: He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind.

This time there will be no premature 'Mission Accomplished' announcement.

When this is all over, and the last remnant has been swept up, the great powers will have to decide what to do to secure the peace. There may be some uncomfortable decision to be made.

For the time being, the world is united.  


Sunday 15 November 2015

Cinquain


Paris

Preach hate
to broken youth; 
indoctrinate the violence;
paradise at the end of it.
Paris. 

  
George Szirtes (see Links) recently covered the subject of the cinquain, a five line form made famous by Adelaide Crapsey. My cinquain 'Paris' was posted today as a 'reply' on Magyar Haiku (see Links).



Behind the Lines with Anna Prohaska




Sopranist Anna Prohaska and pianist Eric Schneider took the stage at the Vienna Konzerthaus on 17th June 2014. The programme which I thoroughly enjoyed not least because of its variety, included the four songs featured below. Following the performance and the enthusiastic applause Anna Prohaska  autographed copies of her new cd "Behind the Lines" in the Mozartsaal foyer. 


Wand'ring in this place as in a wilderness,
No comfort have I nor yet assurance,
Desolate of joy, repleat with sadnesse:
Wherefore I may say, O deus, deus,
Non est dolor, sicut dolor meus.

Anonymous 


Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o' the great;
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowne´d be thy grave!

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)


In Flanders fields the poppies blow;
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from falling hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae
(1872-1918) 


My Luve's in Germanie, send him hame;
Fechting brave for royalty:
He may ne'er his Jeanie see - send him hame.

He's as brave as brave can be - send him hame;
He wad rather fa' than flee;
His life is dear to me - send him hame.

Your luve  ne'er learnt to flee, bonnie dame;
But he fell in Germanie,
In the cause of royalty, Bonnie dame.

He'll ne'er come ower the sea - Willie's slain;
To his love and ain countrie:
This warld's nae mair for me - Willie's gane!

Hector McNeill 
(1746-1818)



Tree_ality being Tree_mendous




evergreen towering 
reaching for the light
beyond dark shadows





Saturday 14 November 2015

Pray for Paris



Pray for Paris
Pray for Damascus 
Pray for Kabul 
Pray for Baghdad  
Pray for Aleppo 
Pray for Homs 
Pray for Boston  
Pray for Mumbai 
Pray for Madrid 
Pray for Ankara 
Pray for New York
Pray for Moscow
Pray for Jerusalem 
Pray for Cairo
Pray for London
Pray for Palestine
Pray for yourself 
Pray for me too
Pray for Gaza 
Pray for the World






On the long road to dreamland . . . .


 It's all true folks!  

Friday 13 November 2015


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A FENCE THIS IS NOT A FENCE THIS IS NOT A FENCE THIS IS KNOT
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Tuesday 10 November 2015

The Muppets in Concert.





They only got half way through the theme from The Muppets. Dann was aus! 

That was last year. This year the authorities have other matters on which to concentrate their minds. Like what to do with nearly a million refugees, or four million as it will be by 2017 according to 'expert' predictions. Nobody is predicting when and how all this will end. Nobody is saying how many refugees will be coming after 2017. In Austria a prominent politician is taking legal action against  his own government, accusing them of involvement in a people smuggling racket. Several taxi drivers and bus drivers have already been sentenced to terms of imprisonment in Austria and Germany according to local news reports. Other bus drivers claim they are being forced to work long hours transporting refugees which means they could fall asleep at the wheel. The police have said they might go on strike if the situation doesn't improve. Motorists have been warned they will face huge fines if they are caught giving lifts to refugees. Slovenia has ordered sufficient fencing material to seal off their country from neighbouring Croatia should the need arise.  The other day I visited an overcrowded hall, a  refugee cafe' run by volunteers. I sampled some cake and coffee and left a small donation. I heard stories of refugees  arriving from Syria, Palestine and Afghanistan. Thousands more are today on the way from Libya according to the news. In Austria thirty refugees were taken seriously ill and rushed to hospital after eating poisonous mushrooms. The chaos continues unabated you might think.  But you'd be wrong. For what is unfolding here is happening by design and not by accident. For some background information to the root cause of the crisis please visit the video link in the post below. 


Monday 9 November 2015

exodus über alles*


https://www.rt.com/shows/sophieco/321260
-war-syria-presidential-elections/

Dear Angela, David, Jean-Claude and Co. 
Why on earth don't you deal with the cause?  

from the levant
and the garden of eden
from the holy lands
of the miracles
the few
then the hundreds
then the thousands
and the tens of thousands
and soon the millions
the newspapers say

millions 
about to be delivered
into the outstretched arms
on the other side
to be patched up
and herded
through gaps
 in wire fencing
to be driven 
around the real europe
in executive coaches
in a dream
sadly going wrong

or to be taken 
by train
into the hall
of the insatiable monster
the open door europe of deutschland 
über alles

an über alles 
where the door will be opened
and shut
according to the political climate

an über alles
where the long wished for paradise
is an uncertain future
in the land of the furnaced roar
where mechanical mouths open and close
to offer an apologia
for a holocaust past
for a hell on earth
starvation behind electrified wire
for the slaughter
of holy land brothers and cousins
and the unmentioned others
of unworthy stock
by zyklon-b gas

an über alles
where no heavenly virgins
will greet you with sunshine
in crystal
for here
it is coal
for iron and steel
and a hammering and a pressing
as the buyer demands

in the temples of fire
 great wheels turn the chains
to the strains of great wagner
look! here are the sidings
with trains carrying ore
arriving and leaving
precisely
on time


*There are more than 60,000,000 refugees worldwide, and their number is increasing. Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, there was a 'problem' at an Australian refugee centre situated on Christmas Island. 


Sunday 8 November 2015

Money for War Clock (Recent Photo)


In 3 days it will be Remembrance Day: 

counting the bodies 
they said we'd remember
but we didn't remember

we must now count the cost 
not lest we forget 
     but because we forget 

Worldwide military expenditure
since 1st January (in Euro)

Friday 6 November 2015

FENCING POLICY IN THE EU




Fences nearly sold out! 
Don't be left at the Gate! 
Border yours NOW! 






Wednesday 4 November 2015

Most of what you know about the nature of the universe is probably wrong.

The flight of an Imperial Eagle



In Hainburg in the Donau-Auen National Park in Upper Austria a pair of eagle chicks were born. That was in May this year. When the juveniles had mastered the arts of survival, of flying and hunting, they headed off and into their unknown futures. 

One eagle made for the mountains of Slovakia and was happy to stay there. The other, being curious about the world, being ambitious, more adventurous, bolder perhaps, flew to Hungary, then to Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and to the southernmost point of that land and then across the Mediterranean Sea towards the coast of Libya, the signal from its transmitter growing ever fainter . . .

Respect.