Tea haze-phases work maelstrom to past troubles

as craic-anticipation glee-encourages

‘phone arrangements – chip supper piss-up with cards,

the whole gang’re going, all of them’ll be there.

Chip money extraction goes smoothly whilst we fight

over cider/wine/beer – grog dilemmas frazzle

anticipatorial fun-minds mid Two-Four.

Harully-chat car-participants scan the road

f...

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The worker, at their decreed hour, keys a code and wakes their beast.

The worker has limitless thought, deed and future potential.

The worker has incredible power at their fingertips.

The worker’s permission is to use barely one thousandth.

The worker keys customer choices into a closed system.

The worker is fed from an ever-replenished stack of forms.

The worker keys an account ...

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I saw the TV news the other day –

A man stabbed some people

In a park in Reading.

Those poor folk had died,

rushed to hospital in vain,

nothing could be done and they perished.

An atrocity and most probably needless;

horrific and unfathomable,

strange but yet too common

in our curious, sometimes violent society.

I wondered about what might drive

a pe...

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Poems have been written, protests held,

People have been killed, words spoken,

Folk have mobilised, only to be smashed,

and still we find deaf ears amidst those who rule –

and whilst love rules, the baton kills,

and whilst higher minds transcend, power has brutality,

and whilst force against force isn’t the path,

the pound and the fist do dictate,

the vested interest will n...

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Sunlight indicates the dawning of a new day’s potential,

striking the hill across the valley, alerting me to life:

sparrows peck in the strawberry bed, flutter in the birdbath

and the blackbird seeks vital food for her hedge-hidden chicks.

A new dawn’s blessings break for me every twenty-four hours,

I am guilty of taking many for granted, trusting fate

to bring me another, a...

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Everything novel turns normal, over time;

nature’s repetitive familiarity

making us ignore Earth’s every day beauty.

Birds fly in thin air – so too gnats and dragonflies;

dragons – as per legend – used to fly above us,

fairy tale creatures linked to the health of our land.

Fairies also fly, bringing wonder to children

yet to lose their magic, yet to have hope destroy...

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Leaf-litter quiet; hornbeam coppice-spell silence.

Rustle-crunch footpad tread alarms creatures sharp –

signal felt – the woodland dim-listens:

woodpecker hammer-tat halt,

coo-choked wing-beat flap-clap dodge-tree

pigeon escapees furrow apprehension

 through tepid woodland confidence –

response to my fumbled caution, fumbled stealth:

human incursion: def-con ten.

Tw...

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The Climate is changing, affecting the whole world,

affecting every living thing on the Earth,

with very many losers, most of whom will be

unrealised, unrecognised and uncounted.

Climate stats start with the number of people who

are impacted – nations displaced, islands gone, plains

flooded, livelihoods destroyed and peoples distraught

and we hear of folk’s plight weekly,...

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Strange how we’re like shire horses, so much in

common with our fellow beasts of burden.

The story goes that shire horses, pulling

brewery drays, learn their routes, learn their stops.

More than that, they remember the order

the routes go, according to the week days.

On Tuesdays after a bank holiday,

the Shires would try following Monday’s route.

The horses have a mental ma...

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It's already too late.

Too late to put the oil back in the ground.

Too late to re-bury all that coal.

Too late to unbleach the coral, freeze the meltwater, suck the carbon out of the air.

The forest has already burned.

The plastic is already there.

It's too late to remove the poison from our rivers, the litter from the whale, or the people from the wrong places.

Species are al...

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Some of us have incredible judgement, rightly

earning the distinction of authority and

influence, enabling society to

benefit from their wisdom, knowledge and talent.

Guiding corporations and businesses, these

folk are trusted to use the power imbued in

them to make balanced decisions, driving forward

their companies, benefitting society.

These decisions shape our...

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We are an outward expression of our values,

moral compasses navigating circumstance,

life experience refining understanding,

enhancing behaviour – our outward expression:

our values manifest in our reputation.

A few billion individuals roam Earth,

each with a unique value set – truly diverse

lives and cultures – recognising and valuing

behaviour in different degrees, b...

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Ever since I remember, the forests have burned,

governments have suppressed, and the Markets have ruled,

and ever since I remember, there’s been a groundswell,

a movement – resistance in the face of inevitable doom,

and ever since I remember, nothing has changed, nothing has been done,

the Forests burn, the oceans warm, the ice melts,

and, ever since I remember, we edge past poin...

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Rain blurs the horizon, murky opacity

shrouding distance imperceptible, lash talons

curtain-thrash to heather hill across the harbour.

Gulls hacker-love and swopper-kosh the cliff face lash,

dip-flung round the headland, clinging to land’s safety,

seeming wary of the mist-drifting, smash-pounding sea.

Tides dance white horses rockwards, crash-battering

geological bru...

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Stand at a high place and look.

Hair-rush winds lung freshen.

Wind, neither warm nor cold, they’d call a gale.

No bother weather that’d put the good folk off.

Stand in a jumper when they’d insist on a coat.

Wind: releasing tension’s grip;

ferreting out knickety burr-wrinkles;

soothing skackety skick-crinkles.

Breathe Height; ride groundswell.

See aeons str...

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I am a crime – the planet is my victim, even in my intent to save her.

Until now, I’ve had the defence of innocence – now removed in new awareness.

I care about clear-felled virgin forests, species loss, carbon release, destruction.

I eat plant material and plant based foods, plentiful and affordable.

I avoid meat and dairy, not contributing to the awful consequences.

I joined the u...

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Woops – there goes another one.

I’m not the first to notice.

Hopefully, I’m not the last.

I’d hate that, can you imagine?

To be the last human to notice

Another species going extinct.

Just think about where and when that would be.

I really don’t want that to be me.

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We’ve argued whether to leave or remain,

opinion reigning where fact is scarce or false,

creating division between fellow peoples.

Our society is complex; divided, too –

we have purposefully created an out and in,

with no real reason to pit one against other.

We’re people sharing a planet – that’s the point;

plastic is synthetic; politics is as well –

unlike plast...

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I hurt someone today, you know what, I did.

I purchased a T-shirt, cotton, from Egypt.

They used up water from artesian wells,

Now dry, in the desert, away from the Nile.

The cotton was picked, nearly for free,

And so it was made, least it seems thus to me.

Three pounds fifty is what I forked out,

An amount you’ll agree isn’t a spree.

I can clothe my fam...

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Stress related illness, mental hardship – life-battle against grain wears down resistance.

Going through the mill and getting stuck between the grindstones shatters, defeats resilience.

Time off – to heal, away from the harum and the scarum, away from rush-hassle.

Calm self-space to drift-chill away-bob in mind-meander thought-loops.

Luxuriant mind-doldrums feather deep-release easy ch...

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The thought’s the baddie – truth cuts, reality bites

but the blade’s now dull, the teeth worn, the maw weakened

through over use, in eager, demented mind-gnaws.

Paranoia nurdles into your head, lying,

makes-believe pain awaits, humiliation traps

the brave, forcing hunker-fear and isolation.

Your thoughts won’t happen, reality is not that:

seek and find, ask and recei...

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Humans have a place in Earth’s systems,

we’re designed to play a role in Earth’s cycles.

Original populations had everything to hand,

anything a human could ever want can be found on this planet.

Eden has been traded for technology,

integration with nature for science.

What’s driving this exodus?

What’s distancing us from Eden?

Economic growth drives gov...

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As a child, authority has the right to judge, to impose a world view on you.

I followed the wrong advice, from the right person: I crashed and never recovered.

My adviser remained unblameable, my ingrained behaviour protected them.

I played the role of shamed dunce, my adviser triumphant, a respected icon.

Exposing their manipulation, their cunning, would have hurt too many people.

...

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In a crowded bar, we nab a table,

acquiring a seat, in case we lose out.

Taking for self incurs disadvantage

for others, as we take their rightful share.

So we look out for ourselves, determined

that we gain advantage through selfishness.

Making us fight for everything drives

division, isolation and mistrust.

We compete for resources, just in case

som...

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We’ve had a relationship with the natural

world since the dawn of our species – longer, perhaps.

Stone, an artefact of Earth, is a case in point –

stone tools, stone houses – stone henge; cathedrals of stone.

Plastic figurines are not the same as sculptures

crafted in stone – people don’t respond the same way.

Energy of some sort flows between us and stone;

humans respond to n...

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Allow your family to earn pride from your life,

but don’t let that drive your future – disinherit

yourself from the dread pawn shop of parental pride.

Yesteryear’s values are manifested today,

as we’re taught that previous generation’s life

strategies should be our perpetuate creed also.

Ignore the towering expectation, which would

propel you into adulthood living el...

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Time’s passage ignites my consciousness,

my moment the confluence of past

and future.  Ageing toward my fate, time’s

experience-gale savages my

awareness.  We all die, it just takes time -

we’re transient: catherine-wheels on posts,

we make sparks fly.  Some hit tindered ground,

causing satellite conflagrations -

together we make a fire, burning

out in time’s onslaught, ...

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Harvesting our garden’s verdant bounty

is our intention – we arrange planting,

watering, bedding – all toward our goal:

to indulge keenly in nature’s harvest.

Stretching front and back, our garden surrounds

the safe fulcrum of our lives: our dwelling

is characterised through the commitment

we put into this, our sanctuary.

Enjoying a barbecue with a friend,

taki...

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Seagulls gyre – wocker-challing and crocker-calling,

skiffer-wheeling, wind-kiting and hoarse-calling

keer-wails into a bluster-buffet, ear-sharked, eye-grit gale,

blowing smithereens out of the sea wall,

the surf and the pebbles that make up the beach,

grind-clockering and ratter-schacketling back and forth,

to and fro in weather’s storm-force mayhem.

In the air gulls cry caw...

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Over the hill, perhaps, though not long in the tooth.

The hill’s steep.  On the ascent you encounter

ice falls, overhangs, precipices and chimneys,

interspersed with long, sloping meadows, thick wooded

rises with warm, safe shelters with hot fires, soft bunks.

Air’s fresher up on a hill – clearer; providing

moments of crystal clarity, waking senses –

opening the sinuses, power...

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Grey light.  Cold trunks.  Leaf litter in the damp

morning.  Chainsaw gloves smell of oil, petrol,

wood shavings and exhaust.  Gloves stiff with cold,

infused with toil and woodland management.

A deer crosses, silent stealth, picking soft

through the green-tinged, spring-poised coppice.  March is

in touching distance, harvest will cease while

flowers grow.  No one sees th...

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You can’t see what’s behind the

front, you’ll never know what’s there,

my secrets preserved, reasons

my own, suffice to say these

circumstances demand self

defence; were I to let on

reality, I’d crumble.

So I control what folk see,

protecting them from my truth,

no need to burden all with

harshness and gloom, that’s secret,

my safety inherent in

that secret...

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Life in the night – trees unseen, the

woods a hidden myth, staggering

from step to unsure step, your path

is faith, your direction trust.

Safety: a myth, security: fib,

walking in darkness, way marks hid,

headway is made past obstacles

obscured, dark’s blackness: fear complete.

So rises the dawn, return of

the light, letting you see the way

through the trees...

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Science scrutinises minute component parts,

learning wholes work through collaboration.

Cells make organs, organelles make cells, organs make

bodies, molecules make cell organelles.

Some of our tech – cogs, springs and pins – make clocks function,

making precise time keeping possible.

In turn, enabling commerce, coordination,

society and collaboration.

Few know how tech wor...

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Step from the gloom, come out of the darkness,

we can see your pain, we can see you fight,

determination in every vein, illness will not win.

We see your trepidation, you are hesitant and slow.

Welcoming, tolerant - we just want you back.

Ignore the doubt, paranoia and insecurity,

just walk forward into light, walk forward into our love.

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Holiday – first morning, first walk, bright and early,

up on the sea wall, taking in nothing, seeing it all:

soaring wing-gulls tell of their morning, their lives a tale to tell,

gliding over cliffs or diving into storms, sitting quiet on rolling swell –

wishing your soul was with them, to sail hover-currents over bob-seas,

into lobster pots laid by able seamen, provisioners of deli...

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None of us are who we think that we are.

All of us portray our inner beliefs,

our fundaments, the bricks with which we’re constructed,

we can’t help but be people defined by our thoughts,

our beliefs and principles,

subliminal prejudice,

we are who we are no matter how hard we try,

to be the person we like to think that we are,

because it’s the way that you act that means w...

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Comfort-satisfaction steam-feathers my mind;

my mug has this aura, a soul - 

a presence that, when I see this crafted, ergonomic beauty,

I enjoy pre-consumptive, pre-experiential, pre-appreciative mind-flutters,

I feel the blood-tingle, the brain sparkle,

the caffeine induced dull-relief sharpened clarity.

My mug.  I feel you. I would love you.

Had I not shattered you upon my ...

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Folk Cut, folk thrust, folk fight

for a slice of life,

for peace and quiet,

for their health,

status, safety.

And folk cut you, slice you,

dice you and fry you

to gain relative wealth,

advantage,

their own ego.

So where you might be prone

to help, support and

nurture, advantage is

taken and

you get shafted.

Trust destroyed, isolate,

li...

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This morning, bringing in the milk, the air

was cold.  A snail had crawled into our small

wicker milk bottle holder.  I pulled the

poor lass away, to chuck in the herb bed

and her foot was all rumply, a mold of

the wicker work.  Hopefully, given snail

anatomy, that’s not an injury.

But I did worry there’d be slime on the

lid.  Tasted OK, straight from the bottle.

Good mo...

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Tea steam – I risk daze-distraction.  Pot-brewed,

warm. Loose leaf.  Pottery pot, hand made, wood

fired.  Warm in my hands.  Earthen mug.  Tactile.

Warm in my throat. Warm.  In me.  My plants’re

waking up.  Spring April day. My berries

growing shoots, little leaves – greengage blossom,

damson flowers.  My grass is long. Doesn’t

matter – beetles love long grass.  Guests who’re

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Beachwards we race – work’s done, day over, coffee made

and travel-mugs filled.  Today’s sky is clear, sunset’s

not over water; beach-dusk, though, is beautiful.

And tonight, we sit chatting nothing until, by

degrees, topics turn to honest thought, true feeling

and we discover our love once more.  We talk dark

into a chip-escapade, race home – this is life.

The true religion. ...

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I’ve counted my friends and I am fortunate.  Blessed

by life with true relations.  In trouble, through gaps

in time, over distance and under-maintained.  I’m

still lucky.  To’ve known life and to experience

friendship.  True friendship – beyond infatuation,

beyond duty’s bond and loyalty’s clasp, beyond

life-joined unity.  Upon the rocks at the true

depths, the limits of human...

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Dawn cries to our hill, foretelling of day,

with deep shadows brightening, tree tops enlightening

the jackdaws, whose wing flaps and foot hops prepare them

as aerospace sky-students pre-warming to fly.

Bed clothes reject us, for now we must rise

to gulp down our porridge which tells us – surprise –

no need for our satchels, our bonnets, our books –

we’re here for our holi...

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Come sit with me, Ted, and I will tell you of a boy’s world’s wonders, waiting to be yours.

Of bouncing balls, sunny days, mud-cake kitchens and rainy-day holidays.

Of water-hoses giggle-sprayed in paddling pools and grinning-faces, of soaking-clothes and sopping-feet and people dodging, cackle-fleeing.

Of fishing trips to beaches made of rock and sand, where eels patrol and mackerel swar...

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Look how far we’ve come.  Children educated

so fast they’re not ready for work.  We are now so

thoroughly modern we have non-governmental

organisations to take care off our guilt.  So

awfully civilised with our celebrated

towns and idolised cities, inequality

illustrated in blatant artistry.  And we

still pay women less than men, for doing the same

job, with the same skills...

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So many programmes and news feeds tell us that in

our lives, almost anything we do has a marked

detrimental effect on the world around us.

Consumption consumes.  Waste pollutes.  Food has miles.  Clothes

sweat.  Journeys emit.  So we all, collectively,

know this.  However.  Nothing changes.  Mainly, I

think, because we’re largely – individually –

unable to make a difference.  ...

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Some folk have something about them we all admire,

recognise or respect.  Bravery is, perhaps,

too simple a term.  Lack of choice – necessity -

draws out the hero in all of us.  Frequently,

all of us are amazed at what can be – and is –

done in extreme circumstances.  Living through a

particular time, fighting one of life’s spectres –

ill health, bereavement, disadvantage – or...

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Coal-warmth creates ease from eve-gloom

drizzle-wind, frost and face-sting skin-pierce

driven-drizzle blast weather.

Thermal ticks of stove-warmtn metal-clicks

promise heat and unguent to pink-red

ear-bearers.

The afternoon's gone, the light's fading fast.

Damp wool and sodden fleece

tell of walking in the wilds.

The dog's mud-caked and happy to be free,

for shrieks o...

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Spell-binding hammer-pounded sunlight retina-

flinches squint-eyed revel-faces.  Crowd folk lost in

head clouds slow-revolve whilst time is on leave, passing

without fail – stopping to tell me not to hurry,

moving on unnoticed, startling late-crowds with

midnights and an early, well spent sun rise.  Band-lulled

we join a synchronised gyro-walk, pacing the

flow-gyratory past fo...

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