For The Thrifty

their greatest hope lies
in the promises of the wealth
that never arrives anywhere near
where it could be theirs for the taking.

Against The Grain

In spite of all I see about me
I am going to be contrary
by loving of my enemy,
at least as much as I can. 

Authority vs Authenticity

In one of them we are ourselves
as we want to be, for good and ill,
not that we expect ill to become us.

In the other we put on stale airs
to disguise how we lack control
and claim power over others
when we should let then be themselves. 

My Second New Year Card Of 2020

I have no idea what is going on here,
but it looks like they overdid the idea of discretion. 

The Buoyant Voter

In forty years of being available to vote
I have rarely voted for the candidate
who was to be first past the post
in the ten general elections I could vote in.

My convictions about who to vote for
always left me among the minority
who can't identify with those in power.

I don't mind that, indeed I can't
since it means I have spent my time
supporting candidates and parties
who could well win in the future.  

My First New year Card Of 2020

'We never chose this; The journey to safety is hard.
We were lied to, Europe does not want refugees.
We thought we would arrive to safety but Europe
makes us struggle more against being sent back
into the old dangers, now increased'.
'Hoping to Survive' Razieh Gholami, 2019.
  

'It' Will Soon Be Over

Christmas is that time
when, egged on by commerce,
we drown each other in cliches
become anxious about happiness
as if anxiety could make us happy,
and at the end of it relearn to breath
that collective sigh of relief,
that it is all over-until next year.

Make Christmas Grate (Again)

With this special gift for all the people you love the most...

Yesterday's Bread, Today

Our daily bread is always fresh,
it has to be for today to be today
and yesterday to be the past.

But when the digital world
offers us so many pasts to choose from-
all of them clean for being online,
and there at the touch of a button-
nobody is to be blamed
for wanting to go back.

Every past had it's awkward times,
often written out when accounted for,
and in their conflicts was the life
that they bequeathed the future.

Never Trust The Media

To help you believe in yourself
-when it fails or gets bought over
by some cheap millionaire
who is on the make
in the pursuit of power
then how shrunk you feel
will be no loss for him.

But it will matter to you.
So take care to enrich yourself
by more than whose opinion
you choose to read.

My Third Christmas Card Of 2019

And it is a second image from the John Bolloten exhibition
of images of the poor and homeless which is travelling
across the UK at present; last seen in Belfast. 

The Offer I Can Refuse

When inequality is proof of success
and the greater the inequality
the more the success is heralded,
then remind me to want less
of what the gov't feels I should have.

If I can't share what I have
with those who have not
in my attempt at community
then what I have means less
than being told 'you have earned this'.

Reading The Past

The more technology advances
the more the human attention span
gets sucked in, towards television,
where an ever increasing density of pixels
combines with decreasing levels of content
as life and money flow down the drain of time.

But with the time it takes to write,
and time to absorb what is written
the greenest and most advanced
modern entertainment remains reading.

Robot Nation

Recently my local public library
installed drop boxes for returned books.
So the public no long had to stop
a member of staff to leave off
the books that they were finished with.

The library said 'It is an efficiency saving'
designed to free up the time of the staff,
so they can engage more with the public.

But returning books that had been borrowed
was one of the easiest ways the public had
of engaging with staff, and this came after
much else has been computerised before that.

Soon robots will be reinventing 'public service values'
by borrowing books from automated public libraries
where human beings are no longer involved.

Effectiveness

It takes a huge amount of money
and factories full of technology
to create the permanent gulf
between the billionaires
and the rest of us, so effectively
that the inequality it entails
is too much for us to resist. 

My Second Christmas Card Of 2019

Images like this of people who seem to exist without a name,
they could name themselves after the wind for all we know,
should be more common to us, but as a society gloss
and false surfaces have taken over, making sure reality is never seen. 

For A Better Quality Of Negativity

When you find the false cheer
that everyone shares to be exhausting
and it is the only cheer on offer
then there is an alternative;
a natural and unforced nihilism
where the more negative the logic
the more we want to grasp it,
which makes cheer it brings
seem all the more authentic.  

Is Time Your Flexible Friend?

And then there is the second lesson;
talk is easy, listening is harder
and a shared silence is beyond price.

My First Christmas Card Of 2019

Taken form the travelling exhibition of photographs
'Nothing To See Here' a collection of images
of the homeless, the destitute, and those for whom
choice means drug and alcohol misuse,
all pictures taken in Bradford. 

Democratic Immaturity

In the era of modern media,
elections make politicians hide
behind non-speaking photo opportunities
where for a short while they play act
as if they are near-to-normal people.

But this makes them seem like children
as accounted for by Victorian parents
where 'children should be seen and not heard',
or watched and not listened to, whether down mines,
up chimneys, in the workhouse, or just being fed.

But the modern public are not Victorian parents;
the situation is now reversed, we are keen to hear
what these suddenly shy creatures of privilege
who see their only choice as being to lead others
have to say for themselves to defend their motives.

Bad Speech

In the present show of nervous malcontent,
nothing much seems Heaven sent,
particularly when on the radio
all talk between experts
openly hides more than it shows.

The clearest sense of  'the demos'
comes from the questions
that the common people ask
in front of those seeking power,
for which those in power
will have no answer. 

Our Next Prime Minister's Guiding Poicy

Because for those who win power
via a distorted hall-of-mirrors media
whatever it is that they confidence in,
it is very rarely what it seems.  

When The Accent Makes The Difference

With universal suffrage we can add
one more item to what we all face;
after the inevitable death and taxes
we all have the right/duty to vote.

More exactly this means the duty to listen
to the content in the political campaigns
even when we want swear or hold our nose
at the words some party leaders speak.

With votes now held annually and biannually
for local and national offices of state
it will be hard to know who to vote for.

The one thing that a candidate can't hide
is their accent, and they will all be
between posh and regional.

Others will choose  for themselves
but for me a regional accent
will draw me in to listen
with more appreciation.  

Picture Set Of The Month - December

'Life Goes On' painted in 1970
by Soviet painter Tatiana Lablonska (1917-2005).

'Grain' painted in 1949 by Soviet painter
 Tatiana Lablonska (1917-2005).

'In Spring' painted by Soviet Painter
Tatiana Lablonska (1917-2005).

The Artist's Granddaughter Playing the Piano
painted in 1997 by Tatiana Lablonska (1917-2005)