Enlightened England

It's a privilege
to live in Manchester,
where our library
is more impressive
than our cathedral.

Where stained glass windows,
instead of being devoted
to St. Winifred,
are adorned with Plato,
and Socrates, instead.

NB.  Thank you to Chris Addinsell for the stimulatory chat!

Pigeons (lament of the apathetic)

Like pigeons,
everywhere
they gather.
Carefree,
unaware.
Then scatter,
afraid,
but only
in the moment,
to return,
unfased,
to the scene
of their torment.

Lament of the climate change deniers

Who are these cretinous idiots?
These despicable morons.
These neuron-free vessels
With lungs between the ears.

More than a mere nuisance,
These playdough-minded fools,
Refuse, point blank,
To absorb the facts,
But stare, vacantly,
Disregarding the future,
No repent for the fury
We bestow upon our present.

A malevolent band
Of cold-hearted flagrants,
Chilling within themselves
A warming so apparent.

Soon to lament
This sorry, blind reticence
To that which is more
Than merely a fable,
But unyieldingly plunders,
While they stew, unable
To accept what will come.

What will be.

What is fated.

If we lie down,
Discreetly,
To injurious apathy.

Raftery

Raftery wrote poems that concerned the people.

It would cause him quite some gall,
today,
that folk are not concerned at all.

Another IPCC climate change report

Another year, another report,
While the efforts on climate change leave us distraught.

We've been certain that humans are causing this tragedy
For long enough now we should have some clarity.

Clarity of vision, to change this position,
Fewer chimneys and fossil fuels, for greater contrition.

The abolition of greenhouse emissions,
Should be at the forefront of poltical decisions.

How un-fare

To add to the plethora of injustices
The Tories will get free trams, and buses.
Labour, too, were offered this deal,
Last year for a conference, in Manchester central.

The last among us who need this gratitude,
Are those who grant us pitiful servitude.
Cameron and co., never humble nor know,
The plight of the working man, in Manchester central.

Nurses, students, pupils and teachers,
Must muster a fare, not much change to reach for.
While the aristocratic swines on the carriage,
Sit idly by with no care for the masses.

Philosophy of the rational mind

1. Faith in God requires a distinct lack of willingness to think.

A science textbook is out of date the moment it is printed.

The bible was written more than mere moments after Jesus walked the earth,
and mostly through a series of "Chinese whispers" with which we all became familiar at primary school.

2.  Money is a make-believe concept.

The only things that should drive you are your heart and your morals,
which are two things rarely subtended by wealth.

3.  Care for all animals and all plants.  All microbes, archaea to algae.

We have shared this earth for 4.5 billion years,
We are not special.
We are no better than the sum of Gaia's parts -
A living biosphere.

4.  Don't make enemies - harbour rivalry.

Hatred can only cloud rationality.

5.  There is no finer exploration of knowledge than through the endeavour of reading with skepticism.

A brain exercised
Is eventually wise
To the fine things in life
And to see through the lies.

6.  Learn to cook.

Food, water, and love,
Are the three common denominators
For all of us.

Learn to cook,
With love,
And suddenly you may reveal a half-full cup.

7.  Do good things, for good people, and good things will follow.

Don't waste time trying to impress
Those who are fickle, and shallow.
Life is short, and sweet,
So long as the friendships you seek
Are true, and never hollow.

8.  Smile, though your heart is aching.

No wiser words have ever been stated,
The lyrics of Nat King Cole should never be understated.

9.  Always be pleasant, even with those who to you seem aberrant.

How are we to know what has happened during anyone's existance?
Be it years in the past,
or here in the present.

10.  Make millions of memories, with those you cherish.

Death, more often than not, makes a mockery of the miser.

When asked,
With each and every final gasp,
The dying cite time with loved ones, friends, and family,
As those things which really matter at the last.

Islam in Britain

Some harrowing news today,
28% of English say nay;
That Muslims should stay among us
For fear they'll be sheared by bomb blast.

It's ridiculous, and causes me dismay
That a quarter of our populus thinks this way.
What happened to education?
It's our brains that require some salvation.

There are arseholes, cunts, and wankers everywhere,
Not constricted to those who wear
A headscarf, turban, or native dress;
Don't listen to the tripe in the racist press.

Make up your own mind, don't fill it with air,
Read the Independent, not the Mail and Farage.
Most Muslims are good, have some common sense,

I'd rather deport the 28%.

Thought for Food, Berlin 2013 - a poetic tribute

Thought for Food convenes in Berlin,
Hundreds of changemakers network within
The old coinery, at zwei Molkenmarkt
To seed ideas from neuron to farm.

A cartload of cardboard from the talented Oupas!
Bedecks the interior of the teeming Alte Muntze.
Teeming! With thought, and those who care,
To drive solutions, make the world aware;

There's a crisis faced by one and all of us,
Billions of people are starving asunder...
As climate change rips through like thunder,
The net effect is ever more hunger.

But hungry we are to fix this abhorrence,
From India to Holland ideas flow in torrents.
We're all well aware of food in abundance
But cry in despair that we're drowning in waste.

A change to this stasis is now taking place,
A global community who'll bust a gut to make
A food secure future, nutritious, full plates,
That'll leave, for all of us, a joyous, sweet taste.

Independence Day

A year to go,
to go, to go,
To Referendum,
say no, say no.

Scotland is only as great
As the first in the title of this Great state.

The Syrian Dead

One hundred thousand Syrian dead,
A rifle, bomb blast, shrapnel to head.
 There are no good guys,
Lunatics on either side.

Assad looks to Russia,
The Rebels to the USA.
 Aha! Chemical warfare,
There must be foul play.

Let's go to war, blindly
Fire missiles into this desperate pit.
 The USA decides,
Whether chemical warfare is legit.

Apparently, napalm over Vietnam,
And nuclear fury over Japan,
 Does not fill the criteria,
No mass hysteria.

One rule for one,
Another for the others.
 The USA should have no say,
After years of rampant slaughter.

No matter gunshot, missile or nerve gas,
The crisis in Syria will long be nervous.
 The western powers may well inferfere,
But history suggests we'll just deepen the mere.

Bale out

The world is split in two.

There are some who
Give generously without
And others, who
Take and give nowt.

To Spain, moved Bale
For a Real fee,
While the Spanish purse
Still owes plenty.

Imagine what that money could do...