Friday 13 May 2016

Thursday 12 May 2016

Civil disobedience


( a few thoughts that just drifted by)

Beyond voting,
And the convenience store of conscience,
We can slip outside the gates, 
With no room for control,
Disobey the rules, 
Follow another  path,
Sometimes things need to be bent,
For something else to to be put in place,
In compliance  we can be left  without grace,
With civil disobedience, we can break free,
Shake of their chains of obedience,
Do do not be afraid to stand apart.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Michael. S. Harper ( 18/4/38 -7/5/16) R.I.P - Here where Coltrane Is.



Sad to hear that Michael S Harper acclaimed poet and writer has passed away, known for his innovative use of jazz rhythms , cultural references and personal narrative has passed away.For Harper history and mythology were related. The mythology of white supremacy for instance. 
As an adolescent he was forced into awareness of racism in America. His familt moved from New York to Los Angeles where African Americans were the target of racial violence.
During high school he began experimenting with creative writing. He later attended  the famous Iowa workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa city. As the only African American student in the poetry and fiction workshop classes, he endured misunderstanding and prejudice. However these experiences motivated him to confirm  the dualism instead in being an African American writer. He refused exclusive containment in either the African American or in the American category. Rather he affirmed his identity in both groups.
Harper's writing manipulated old European and  American myths to create new ones. His first poetry collection was called ' Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970) for Harper, John Coltrane who he knew personally is both the man and his jazz. Harper included the music of poetry to affirm and articulate suffering in black life and culture, to gain from it and survive it, drawing attention in his work to the many injustices faced by African Americans in the course of his country's history.
Michael S. Harper  was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1993, and was and will be continued to be regarded as a significant powerful voice in contemporary poetry.
The following poem is from his 1971 collection ' history is your heartbeat,' combining philosophical and social concepts and cultural references that is uniquely representative of the Civil Rights movement, mentioning Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and of course John Coltrane, out of this painful and tragic legacy he makes song.

Michael S Harper R.I.P

Here where Coltrane is 

Soul and race
are private dominions,
memories are modal
songs, a tenor blossoming,
which would paint suffering
a clear colo
r but is not in
this Victorian house
without oil in zero-degree
weather and a forty-mile-an-hour wind;
it is all a wet-knit family:
a love supreme

Oak leaves pile up on a walkway
and steps, catholic as apples
in a special mist of clear white
children who love my children.
I play 'Alabama'
on a warped record player
skipping the scratches
on your faces over the fibrous
conical hairs of plastic
under the wooden floors.

Dreaming on a train from New York
to Philly, you hand out six
notes which become an anthem
to our memories of you:
oak, birch, maple,
apple, cocoa, rubber.
For this reason Martin is dead;
for this reason Malcolm is dead;
for this reason Coltrane is dead
in the eyes of my first son are the browns
of these men and their music.


Tuesday 10 May 2016

In the Circle, we are all equal.


                                           Image by Jane Ray

In the Circle, we are all equal.
There is no one  in front of you and there's  nobody behind you.
No one is above you, no one is below you.
The circle is Sacred  because it is designed to create Unity.


- Lakota Wisdom

Sadly some still gets golden parachutes,
Influence is daily up for sale, 
The rich get richer, leading to inequality,
Government policies still dividing all,
The earth in the 21st Century,
Still not a common treasury.  
Life is full of double standards;
The dark side of capitalism,
Our mainstream media fails to expose
There's something rotten at the core
The poor and the weak ridiculed
Who all  deserve dignity, respect,
Time to take down the barriers
For collective welfare, 
The system must fall,
Fill the world with beauty.
For everything and everyone to share.
In rich diversity, we are all still human
In the circle we can all be equal again.

Monday 9 May 2016

In the garden of love


 ( for the mighty furbster, Jane for her birthday )


The moon is now in pisces,
This is a water sign,
Now is a good time to sow,
A sprinkling of jazz,
Positive vibrations.
Side by side
As clouds float past,
And the west wind blows,
Singing of dreaming and waking,
The smell of the earth rises. 

Planting bulbs,
Our memories will be forever stored,
Tucked in corners,
Mingling in the future,
Together will always run.
Peace by piece,
Our love will grow,
Following Pan's footprints,
Fireflies casting glow.

In the garden of love,
Wildness rules,
With all our strength,
We will nurture,
Take care,
Give all that is needed.

Sunday 8 May 2016

40 years after the American Indian Movement surrenders at Wounded Knee: Leonard Peltier's injustice continues.


                                 participants of 1973, Wounded Knee occupation.

On this day - 8 May - 1973, the American Indian Movement's  (AIM) occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota ended with the surrender of some 120 Native American and Lakota activists.
Initially provoked by the corruption of the Government's approved tribal governance , their goal too was to protest injustices against their tribes, and the many violations of various treaty's with the United States  government and current abuses and repression against their people. In the 2 years prior to the confrontation more than 60 Indians at the Pine Ridge reservation had been killed, without anyone having been bought to justice for their crimes. The occupation began on February 27 lasting for 71 days and was symbolically located at  Wounded Knee which was the site of a US government massacre of 300 Lakota in 1880. In addition to its historical significance , Wounded  Knee was one of the poorest communities in the United States and shared with the other Pine Ridge settlements some of the country's lowest rates of life expectancy.
The actions of AIM acclaimed by many Native Americans. The 200 activists from AIM soon faced a federal government force including Marhalls, the FBI  and the Nebraska National Guard who responded to the occupation with a full scale military style assault. In the resulting melee two fedral agents were shot along with two brave warriors - Buddy Lamont and Frank Clearwater - died during the siege, where over 200,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at the protestors. Also 2 federal agents had been shot during the standoff. This use  of military force by the federal government later ruled to be unlawful..


After AIM's eventual surrender Leonard Peltier, a member of the Lakota Ogkla Sioux was arrested and charged  with the murder of the two FBI agents on the  flimsiest off evidence. Leonard Peltier is now one of American society's  longest serving political prisonersi, considered to be the Native American peoples  own Nelson Mandela, who though admitting to being there at the time, to help protect his community from continuing violence, has always proclaimed his innocence of actually shooting anyone.
Still in jail today despite the protests and claims of AIM and human rights groups, including Amnesty International. His prosecution and conviction  is felt by many to have driven only  by his participation  in the American Indian Movement. He has continued to be a victim of the racism and corruption embedded in the US criminal justice system. But Leonard Peltier is not simply a victim, he is also a fighter, writer, activist, grandfather, Nobel Peace Prize nominess, and was the Presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in 2004 whose spirit refuses to be beaten. Leonard his friends family and comrades have fought over the years for real justice to be done. In the years since his conviction, millions upon millions of people around the world have come  to learn of his case, agree that he is innocent and demand his freedom. 
With failing health I hope he is given his freedom soon, and the injustice that continues to be metered out finally ends. 40 years later despite serious concerns about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction is time that President Obama grants him clemancy on humanitarian grounds and in the interests of justice.

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info 



                                       
                                           Leonard Peltier

Friday 6 May 2016

Congratulations to Monster Raving Loony Party in Wales, but alarmed about UKIP's rise.


Following yesterday's Welsh Assembly elections I would like to congratulate the Monster Raving Loony Party for winning more than two National Front numpties in the South Wales East region.
But very worried about increased vote for UKIP, these dangerous draconian, anti-immigrstion, anti-foreigners, Little Englander party whose vote is up by 11.5% here in Wales. Resulting in their first Senedd seats. There are  8 of the bastards now. Including former Tory's Neil Hamilton, a liar and cheat, a man so dodgy that even the Tories kicked him out of their party and Mark Reckless. Then you've got the racist Graham Bennett, recently embroiled in a race row, when he blamed Cardiff's rubbish problem on Eastern European immigrants. And five bloody more in various shades of dubiousness The ugly whiff ot racism combined with the stench of xenophobia never far from UKIP's doors.  Votes from disgruntled Tories or just from people who have been fooled. How can anyone though  be fooled by their anti-Europe, anti-refugee, anti-immigrant shit. Mark my words they will  to shit on any form of democracy that lies in their path. Is their a risk that their policies of blame and division will now become normalised here in Wales. We can't allow this to happen.
I think the people of Wales should hang their heads in shame or at least wake up.