The Right of Books to be Safe

Do books, like people, have the right to be safe from persecution? That is the question. If the answer is 'No', where should we draw the line? And who should be responsible for drawing it?

The Right of Books to be Safe

Macklin's Bible in VII volumes

Butler's Hudibras

F X Kraus's Dante

Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare

Pinelli's Costumi Antichi

Napoleon III's Histoire de Jules Cesar

Lasserre's Notre-Dame de Lourdes

Benson's Confessions of a Convert

Porson's Tracts and Criticisms

Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy

Pashley's Travels in Crete

Keppel Craven's Excursions in the Abruzzi

J P Uz's Poetische Werke

Gleig's Life of Thomas Munro

and Merejowsky's L'Antechrist

are standing in rows

in wire mesh boxes.

We note the imprints

on their spines.

Their ancient secrets

have escaped us.

Homer and Cato

look on with alarm.

gw2011/

Understanding the purpose of Evil

Millions of ordinary decent people around the world, people of no particular religious persuasion, are asking themselves: What evil lurks behind the latest Christmas atrocity in Nigeria?

This time last year 80 Christians were murdered as they prayed. This year thanks to the vigilance of the police and public that number was down to 40. It could have been far worse.

Seeing Beyond the Immediate

In the beginning She said:

Let there be Darkness and Light!

for without Darkness we should

never be able to fathom the point.

Light alone would blind us

to the Truth - as She knew.

The top of the tree

Does the choice of ornament for the top of the Christmas tree say something about the one who put it there?

How would it be if someone photographed and published the tops of the Christmas trees of the world's most famous personalities; those top people who grace the tabloids?

I think it would be jolly Christmas fun to look at the trees decorated by people like Cheyney, Rice, Bush, the Clintons, Rumsfeld, Blair, Rooney, Schwarzenegger, the Beckhams, and Charles and Camilla featured on a double page colour spread. We lesser mortals could try and match the treetops to their rightful owners.

Predicting 2012

Poet-in-Residence makes bold prediction for 2012 - the Year of the Awakening.

Nice try. No cigar!

Christmas at the old folks home

The sudden appearance

of light

the afternoon breeze

briefly

stirring

to let through the light of the sun

it moves along the panes

for a spell

a precious few moments

then fades

back to grey

and still

there is nothing to say

______

gw2011/

The property of stones

The following poem is about the history of my own country of Wales and my own family but it is inspired, if that is the right word, by the deteriorating political situation in Hungary (see George Szirtes' blog). I offer it as encouragement and support to oppressed and subjugated peoples wherever they are.

regarding

the ancient wisdom

of the people

they knew the swim of the salmon

and the swim of the stars

and they knew the power

in the songs of the stones

as in a summer

of mysterious lights

and mysterious sights

and they could tell you

these people

why the stones

would sing

and they could tell you

these people

many another thing

before the time

of the coming

of the crazy people

with their contrary proofs

and their many damnations

as is known to happen

from time to time

and from place to place

in the world

a crazy people

who didn't believe

all the superstitious nonsense

as they called it

a crazy people with too many books

in which someone had written

that everything anyone thought they knew

must be false

and wrong

and evil

and wicked

and a stumbling stone

on the way to redemption

a crazy people come to knock

them

down

as they always had done

everywhere else

before

but somehow

this time

a

number

held hard to the faith

to the stones

and to the power of the stones

and so it was

that they grew

relentless

and stubborn

just as the stones

that grow

in the fields

gw2011/

Happy New Year

Winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere) was at 05:30 hrs (UT) on 22nd December 2011*

Darkness retreating

Perihelion approaching

Celebrate NOW!

*data: US Navy

image:gw2011

Christmas Reading Choice

Regular readers of this blog will not need telling that I won't be getting overly sentimental about Christmas. I'll certainly not be dusting off the Charles Dickens' classic novel about the moneylender Scrooge.

Having said that, I was reminded the other day that I had, some 8 or 9 years ago, written up the tale of Scrooge & co. for a school play. I was shocked. I had completely forgotten about it; but wonder of wonders, according to my informant, it is still being performed every Christmas.

It happened that I had a class of 30 German-speaking youngsters who were learning basic English and as a volunteer teacher (a so-called native speaker) I wanted all the children to have a speaking part in the Christmas play.

I politely declined to 'do' the school's 'official' play, it was the nativity story, for I saw it had speaking parts for only a few of the children; and had the rest of them just standing around. So I wrote my own.

With Scrooge I succeeded in giving each and every child his own voice. And not only that but I exposed them to an another way, to them a new way, of thinking about Christmas. The children and their parents greatly appreciated it.

Today I took myself to the library. I came back with three books which I plan to get stuck into over the so-called festive season that is unfortunately these days a season of unbridled excess designed to keep the wheels of industry, commerce and bankers' bonuses turning.

My books.

Novel: Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller

Play: Ashes to Ashes - Harold Pinter

Poems: Coney Island of the Mind - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I'd love to know what books you plan to read or hope to find under your tree if you have one. I expect travel books and books of legend and myth, especially those about Mayan predictions for 2012 will appear on many of Santa's lists. Cookery books too, these are always popular.

Which way will poetry go? Have we moved on? I think translations are the coming thing.