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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Patience


I always knew you could see inside me
Look upon the darkest corners of a soul
Yet still find within you; empathy and love
Even if; I could not see it there myself
But what patience may secrete in guile
Our impetuous notions unravel in haste
Days may rise like spectres of ugly chance
But no ghost shadows this mirror of vision
That is emptied of reflected opportunity
Silvery and silent as water at a still dawn
Where peace hides in dread of awakening
I should find it and let it seize the day
No discontent is worth an unclaimed life
This precious liquid of life must flow free
A New Year is upon us; let it not leach away

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Graceful


When the head moves so gracefully
Inclined in its outlook of soft concern
It reveals nothing of its battle for calm
For entombed within a raging sprite seethes
Conflict and peace battle for high ground
But ever the war is won inside your certainty
I envy you the tranquil retreat of reason
For it does not exist in me; nor could it
Unless be it be the false peace of the fool
The hairsbreadth of desire that ensnares vanity
A torch ignites and I shall no more, know peace
Ah, but I remember your poise; it is forever serene
And that will hold a soul in hope till the end
What I may not have; shall be your abundant joy

Friday, December 27, 2013

Goodness


What makes someone significant?
And how may I judge
For goodness is not born or instinctive
Nor is it learned in disappointment
It comes without announcement
Though you do not ever sense it
But you possess it in abundance
Even if you do not know it
Excellence is the aura of your soul
It sifts teardrops into sunbeams
Walks gently beside me at dusk
Holds my hand through the winter
Weeps in joy at shooting stars
And more important than all this
Has never understood why

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas


A message of opportunity and consideration
A promissory note of a better world to come
It is the whisper of a new year
It is the deep reflection of the soul
It is faith and love and honour in all 
 
Of everything that we hold true;
Christmas is held ever the tightest
We know the fragility of intention
Yet we honour its message
For it seems good, to dare to hope

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Compassion



How far we may come in compassion?
When the greater planet is long at peace
To reflect on a harm that sullied its grace
Concealed within plain sight is the truth
If there is a fate; it is lack of knowledge
That we, who fail to learn from events,
Are thus ever doomed to repeat them
Though one pardon does not excuse sincerity
It is still a hope, that in a small way
We learn that no matter our importance
If the world is against us in writ and act
People may fall short of expected greatness
And who now would wish to believe
That only 60 years ago ignorance held sway
But no law changes the incontrovertible fact
That to be human is to be in need of love
And who would not seek out its comfort
So perhaps he was the most human of us all
In his own way he fought an unseen enemy
In the peacetime trenches of unawareness
For he helped make a better, fairer world
Though he paid a terrible price for it
So they forgive him, but we never will forget


He was the father of modern computing whose work on the Enigma code at Bletchley Park is said to have shortened the Second World War.  But he was also gay and in those less enlightened times was chemically castrated by an ungrateful nation after being convicted of “gross indecency” with a man in 1952.  Now, nearly 60 years after his suicide from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41, Alan Turing has been officially pardoned by the Queen under the little-known Royal Prerogative of Mercy. It follows a sustained campaign by scientists, including Stephen Hawking, and a petition to Government signed by more 37,000.

The pardon comes after a change of heart by ministers who had previously insisted that Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. A pardon is usually granted only when the person is innocent of the offence and where a request has been made by someone with a vested interest, such as a family member. But Turing’s pardon has been issued without either requirement being met.
 
Announcing the change of heart, the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said Turing deserved to be “remembered and recognised for his fantastic contribution to the war effort” and not for his later criminal conviction. “His later life was overshadowed by his conviction for homosexual activity, a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and which has now been repealed,” he said. “A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man.”
 
The pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy will come into effect today. Since 1945, only three high-profile pardons have been granted in England and Wales under the Royal Prerogative: to Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Michael Shields.

 

Monday, December 23, 2013

So it rains


So it rains in the heart when the night comes
Of the compassion let-out I seek no redress
Save the clown smile that seeks an approval
Or the bat at dusk that flies one last sortie
It is the benevolent nun who gave me bread
The ducks on the water that chase mayflies
It is more than the sum of the new question
It is calculation of a lifetime lived in wonder
So it rains in the heart when the night comes
But it serves me; washes away all the questions
So I can begin at the new dawn tomorrow reborn

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Platitudes


But what spurs this false sycophancy
This want of need to enshrine tribute
I posted a picture someone else made
It was no more perfect than others
Yet status covers over a clumsy ego
Lifeless dreams that haunt the reality
Platitudes are perhaps superior flattery
But none the less still imitation of fact
That a thousand miles away a thought
Takes shape in the mind of another
That a connection has been made
Tenuous and fragile, though it be
But understand that I do this for myself
Technology just brings you closer to mine
Our words are the cipher to our souls

Friday, December 20, 2013

Unrequited


Merry, merry England and all her kin are wont to make light of winter
So gnaw on wonder till it eschews guilt; but do not ask for forgiveness
Not till a cockscomb swells red and stands up proudly, throbbing on the head
Not till maidens giggle and blush at very mention of dangling wattles
That would decorate any throat most assuredly; even where a jewel fails
May even temper loose tongued winds from resonating chambers of envy
That crow away unremarked though the dawn still comes heralded by night
And the sweet desperation of unrequited dreams never made a day look so fair

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Sonorous


With sonorous intent of concern
Take what is left of the dark
Seize the lesser part of sunrise
Before the waxing light reveals 
Your sweet desperation of night
Of all things to feel the truth of
It is this; your unremarked liaison
It bit passion but did not swallow calm
Without love there is no lasting dawn
So leave mistakes to hide in sated bliss
But for me still asleep in the arms of joy
Unaware the new world has already left
Never did a day to come ever look so fair

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Twelve Days of Christmas


If only.......


On the first day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
The world renewed in fraternity

On the second day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity

On the third day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the fifth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the sixth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the seventh day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the eighth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Eight rainforests regenerating
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the ninth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Nine nuclear reactors closing 
Eight rainforests regenerating
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity

On the tenth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Ten seas with levels falling
Nine nuclear reactors closing 
Eight rainforests regenerating
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Eleven politicians not lying 
Ten seas with levels falling
Nine nuclear reactors closing 
Eight rainforests regenerating
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity
 
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Twelve wars finally ending 
Eleven politicians not lying 
Ten seas with levels falling
Nine nuclear reactors closing 
Eight rainforests regenerating
Seven fair ways of employing
Six religions agreeing 
Five continents co-operating
Four corners of the globe smiling
Three superpowers at peace
Two polar ice caps not melting
And the world renewed in fraternity

Cedars


Stare not back at me words
From this half written page
You do not propagate
But hang impotent and incomplete
More do not rise within me;
The tide of swelling literacy fails
I may gaze out a window
Over the cedars of Lebanon
They watch back, outside time
Will not grant me muse or inspiration
To rest a heart into the bloom of calm
Nothing I see will aid my quest for insight
The cipher of enlightenment is the soul
Yet I cannot empathise on its intent
Blank space; empty white page; mock
I fragile and unsure of my immediacy quail
Then at my lowest ebb of nothingness
Word flow again like anointed spring rain

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Stars


The night breathes exhaling cosmic starlight
And celestial air chimes in reverenced music
I shall lie down to watch over the heavens
Shall commit each star to memory for all time
I shall ponder of which one I originated from
Always my heart is warm though the night chills
But it cannot shrivel a thought that takes shape
Oh! To have a plan to fly a soul to heaven by
One that comes from the very universe itself
But truth comes slow like dawn over frosty hills
Witless I wither reason in the icy domain of night
For the route is within each and every one of us
Written in every star forged atom that makes us
It is the want of a life to return to the stars
Though it takes billion of years to revisit there
I shall lie down to watch out over the heavens
For one day I will make the long journey home

Friday, December 13, 2013

Sobriety


Lest sobriety fails to unleash its planned intent           
Ensure that humour does not abandon purpose
Yet even so, tis but only game, played in haste
And we play the parts set us, till the crow calls
The world, (our world,) is soon to again restored
For we have just the spark of aptitude to complete
All of its harsh levels of trial till we are remade
Then sobriety and its temperate watchword ‘denial’
Shall never have seemed so sweet a thing to dream of

Thursday, December 12, 2013