poets for change - Cellar bards - watch out theirs a teifidancer about

Here's  the cellar bards and friends reading out their  poems on the theme of change in Cardigan West Wales UK at 4pm Saturday September 27th 2014 on the Quay on the banks of the Teifi. Oh and a rare  look at teifidancer  out in the wild.

Dannie Abse - Poet Doctor R.I.P (22/9/23 - 28/9/14)

' The human race is the only one that knows it must die and it knows this only through its experience. A child bought up alone and transported to a desert island would have no more idea of death than a cat or a plant .'  - Voltaire

It is with sadness that I  have heard of the passing of poet, playwright, doctor  and novelist Dannie Abse at the age of 91.
Born and  bought up in Cardiff, he  drew on his career as a doctor, his Welsh roots and his proud jewish inheritance to establish himself as one of Britains most popular poets. Many of his themes  were international  in outlook,  combining  elements  of loss, love, the passing of time, his rich medical understanding and its moral implications. This  gave him a compassion for  the suffering of the world. His awareness and humanity gave him  a conscious awareness.
The brother of Labour M.P Leo Abse, much  of his life was spent in loving devotion with his wife, Joan who tragically died in a car accident in 2005, and like many of us he struggled to deal with his grief, but managed to write elonquently a lovely collection called the  'the Presence' which won the Welsh book of the year award in 2008.
His two autobiographies 'Ash  on a Young Man's sleeve'  and 'Poet in the Family' are now rightly  considered to be classics. I recognised his account of his medical training  through my own fathers who was to become a G.P. Alongside a deep understanding of the world, ran an overwhelming sense of humour, awash  with  an experience of thought.. Like Dannie Abse I also undersood some  of his themes of exile, he moving from Cardiff to London  and personally me having at a very young age moved from Cardiff to here in West Wales.
There is a richness at the heart of his work  that  I will forever  cherish, which I also know will continue to endure.I have been fortunate to hear him read  on a few  memorable occassions.
He died surrounded by his family after a short illness. The Welsh  nation and the world  has lost a truly great poet of real conviction.
Dannie Abse R.I.P

from Anniversary

' What happens to a flame blown out?
What persists? Only the view,
never my  my magified hand  in yours.'

Dannie Abse - A Simple tribute

Dannie Abse reading poems for Oxfam

Specks of hope

Yesterday  I was  one of thousands of poets around the world  who participated  in 100-Thousands  Poets for Change day. I took part in a reading  organised by my local  live literature group, the cellar bards, in conjunction with   our local  community bookshop, Leafed Through   in an event   that took place between 4 pm and 5pm, at  Prince Charles Quay here in Cardigan, West Wales.In an inspiring event  we gathered to celebrate and promote peace and sustainability  and call for much needed serious social environmental and political change with poems written on postcards. It was good to be involved in something so positive, with hundreds of cities representing and  over 100 countries signed up to the 100 TPC global initiative.More details here :- http://100TPC.org
The poem I read is included below.

Specks of hope

With this pen
no walls are drawn,
unity's breath spins
cancels out division,
solidarity's comfort lifts
and a strong flame burns,
showering the earth with reason
releasing leaves of hope,
gently  painting the sky
in rivers of language,
opposing injustice
in whirling devotion,
planting smiles on an ugly world
spreading seeds of peace.

Why the UK parliament should say no to bombing Iraq

David Cameron  will ask MPs in the UK parliament to vote to join the US bombing campaign against Iraq, Chris Nineham from Stop the War coalition, interviewed by the BBC on 24 September 2014, asks, has nothing been learnt from the disasters of wetern inttervention in Iraq, Afghanistan  and Libya. He urges MPs to vote  no,  like they did last  year, when Cameron wanted a bombing  campaign against Syria. To save lives  and protect human rights the genocidal fundamentalists  of Isis must be stopped, whose barbarity shows no limits but surely there are other ways. Do we  repeat past mistakes, do we all become complicit in the end. Ultimately war is  not civilised, war is failure.
There are no  easy answers. But there is this certainty, killing people rarely kills peoples ideas.

The illusion of choice

The above chart might look  familiar, that’s because it originates from a well-circulated report that Oxfam International puts together to show consolidation in the mass consumer goods industry.
I am sharing it because I believe it is important for you to be aware of who is supplying the different brands and goods served on your dinner table.
Click to enlarge it shows that most products  we buy are controlled by just a few companies. Despite a wide array of brands to choose from, it all  comes back to the big guys.Ten mega corporations control the output  of almost everything you buy; from household products to pet food to jeans. These corporations create an illusion of choice, a chain that begins at one of  10 super  companies. Lets not forget that 90% of the media is now controlled  by just six companies,  down from 50 in 1983. Yes it is indeed a funny old world. Daily now I continue to consume and use social media platforms run by globalists like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc but be switching off in bit and heading back to the garden, But Globalisation is just another word for monopolisation. Do we actually have a choice in choosing , or is it just the case of free market capitalism destroying any  real sense of freedom?  

Stand up for the Earth - Gary Snyder( b 8/5/30) on Ecology and Poetry Parts 1-4

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Throughout his life the poet and activist,Gary Snyder has used his work to act as a  strong voice for the planet, using a simple message, that is  beyond urgent,  it is so  necessary right now. Above he  talks about a great  number of issues and also discusses, some of his work and his beliefs. This week an international conference  for climate change meets. At the end of the day will anything shift, now is the time  the world needs to reorganise, I fear  though that it is already to late.
Because of this I feel, we cannot  fail to ignore  the urgent issues that Mr Snyder brings up. We must keep working together to put an end to the destruction of the Earth by forces  of human greed and ignorance, and remember too the devastating effects of capitalism  upon nature.

Threads

Poem  read out at above event, this afternoon where I joined  over 150 people gathered  at ParcAberporth to mark Intenational Day of Peace. A symbolic 'drape the drones' took place,   and we called  for an end  to militarism, no to drone warfare,  and a halt to plans to spend £100b of  taxpayers money on rplcing the Trident Weapons system.

Standing together
threads unwrapped,
impenetratable, not complicit
we  remember innocents lost
to remote controlled  killing machines,
from within sources of passion woven
richness of colour, keep us dreaming
stitches of time, spinning,
searching clearly for waves of hope.
As winter grows near
something already is being changed,
tomorrow will be time, for light to shine
together tracing unity's  breath,
touching horizons. North, South, East and West
from this place, like singing birds
faith is restored, love rekindled,
as voices  float freely through the sky,
we continue following paths of  heddwch, peace.

wonder who this could be