The Quest of Milarepa

PART TWO

-

Obeisance to their lordships
the teachers

Especially do I pray them
of their grace to be my refuge

-

When ye look at me

I am an idle
idle man

When I look at myself

I am a busy
busy man

-

Since upon the plain
of uncreated infinity

I am building

Building the tower
of ecstasy

I have no time
for building houses

-

Since upon the steppe
of the void of truth

I am breaking

Breaking the savage fetter
of suffering

I have no time
for ploughing family land

-

Since at the bourn
of unity ineffable

I am subduing

Subduing
the demon foe of self

I have no time
for subduing angry foe men

-

Since in the palace of mind
which transcends duality

I am waiting

Waiting for spiritual experience
as my bride

I have no time
for setting up house

-

Since in the circle
of the Buddhas of my body

I am fostering

Fostering the child
of wisdom

I have no time
for fostering snivelling children

-

Since in the frame
of the body

The seat
of all delight

I am saving

Saving precious instruction
and reflection

I have no time
for saving worldly wealth

-

Since upon the mountain
of limitless truth

I am tending

Tending the wild horse
of self knowledge

I have no time
for tending sheep

-

Since out of clay
of flesh and bones

I am building

Building up
the miraculous reliquary

I have no time
for molding sacred images

-

Since upon the apex
of the triangle of my heart

I am raising

Raising the butter flame
of clear light

I have no time
for offering the sacred fire

-

Since in the temple
of the undifferentiated void of bliss

Before the image
of the tranquilized mind

I am offering

Offering
perpetual oblations

I have no time
for formal worshipping

-

Since upon the sheet
of pure mind

I am writing

Writing
desire-less characters

I have no time
for painting sacred pictures

-

Since in the skull-cup
of the very void

I am churning

Churning the poison
of the passions

I have no time for churning holy butter

-

Since in the close retreat
of good intent

I am cherishing

Cherishing as friends
the sentient beings of the six kinds

I have no time
for cherishing kinsfolk

-

Since in the presence
of the fathers the teachers

I am burdening

Burdening my soul
with counsel

I have no time
for growing old in ordinary ploys


[taken from "The Message of Milarepa", John Murray, London, and Grove Press, Inc., New York, 1958 republished as Songs of Milarepa by Dover Thrift Editions, 2003]

Disgust

Don't let this poem be successful
as a work of art

Lest the circumstances
and complaint
which led to its creation
be things you come to celebrate
as good things in themselves

Hope

A poem written in two times

In one time now
your grief is ever present

In the next
this thing it was
that you lost will have been
restored to you

Poetic Mood

Poetic mood
foretelling doom

Up on the moor
and in this room

I walk my dog
and talk with God

Outside the door
Thy staff and rod

Will lead me to the valley

Beneath the Sun

Turn the flower
to the left or to the right

It depends which way
you're looking at it

From above or from below

-

Beneath the sun

This is
how the flower
that you planted grew

Your tea is ready
for you now

-

Two armies
crossing at the border
occupy each other's land

They're two completely
different things

Too late to sleep
perchance to dream

Extinction of Man

Meat is murder

Murder me

With candle light
blow out the candle

Dig my grave
with broken sandal

I'm not waving now

I'm drowning

-

Go away a little closer
to your Father and your Mother

If you take just one step closer
that will be one step too far

Not for you but for me

Metal monster in the forest

Burning is too good for you

Time Together

She might be doing any number
of ten hundred thousand million
billion other things

So why do you think she necessarily
wants to speak to you ?

It's time
you spent
some time together

-

In the belly
of every rich man
dwelleth a demon of hell

Try to have as little
as you can to do

With fast roads
air travel pest control plastic bags
measurements of information

Grasping after other people
grasping at yourself

Alter Ego

Directly understanding
that I don't exist

Or seeing all the world in signs

That point to the same meaning

Clearing cleaning
being feelings
of the
alter ego

Each Side Portions Blame

Each side apportions blame
unfairly to the other side

Subject in their feelings
to the influences
and limitations
of the natural order

Creating new relations
by their own free choice

Modified in unseen ways
by the choice of others

-

In a dream once I saw
a vessel on the sea
at midnight in a storm

Flying uncontrolled
with torn sails and broken spars
through the wild sleet and winds
and waves of the night

And on that awkward deck I saw
holding to the rail
fast fading in the dim light
and flashes of the lightning strike
the figure of a woman dying

In the beauty of her face
by what strange uncanny vision
did I see that now
she seemed to find
enjoyment in this terror ?

In the dislocation of her mind
of which she was the centre
and the victim ?

(adapted from "The Flying Dutchman" by Walt Whitman)

Manly

You see now
what the friendship
of the world is

What all ceremony
embraces
and plentiful professions come to

You are no more
to believe a professing friend
than an enemy
who threatens you

And as no man hurts you
that tells you
he'll do you mischief

No man you see
is your servant
who says
he is


"The Plain Dealer" by William Wycherley 1676

"Drama in Performance" by Raymond Williams 1921-1988
Open University Press 1991 (p.89)

The Middle Way

(from the Majjhima Nikaya)


Ariyaparisyesana Sutta

Lord Buddha gives an account
of his quest for Enlightenment and how
he began to teach the Dharma


Kakacupama Sutta

Lord Buddha says that "a mind of hate"
goes against his teachings

Even if bandits are sawing off your limbs

He uses the example of Vedehika
seen as gentle and peaceful
until the day she loses her temper


Angulimala Sutta

Talking of bandits
we'll meet Angulimala

Who through meeting Lord Buddha
abandons his life as a homicidal criminal
and helps a pregnant woman to give birth


Culamalunkya Sutta

Malunkyaputta threatens to abandon
the spiritual life unless Lord Buddha
answers some big questions

He doesn't get what he wants
but Lord Buddha explains why


Kosambiya Sutta

The monks in Kosambi are quarrelling
and brawling and stabbing each
other with verbal daggers

Lord Buddha investigates

Shame

David
when he sees
how your government colludes

With the atrocities of Israel

Baby Ivan weeps in Heaven

Mother's Wishes

-1-

Blessed is he who tries to do
what his Mother wants him to

On her knees once she held you
clothed you fed you till you grew


-2-

To be a man through and through
you must respect both old and new

Now you owe her what is due
the foot is in the other shoe


-3-

By your first steps full well you knew
your Mother's wishes went with you

From birth to death you know it's true
she only wants what's best for you


-4-

So blessed is he who tries to do
what his Mother wants him to

And woe betide the ones who choose
their own way for they're bound to lose


-5-

A man may be a Father too
and do just what he wants to do

But blessed is he who tries to do
what his Mother wants him to

Eid Mubarak

They say Ebola is indiscriminate
although Europeans do seem
to have some degree
of immunity

There is no cure
for this virus

There are no treatments for it

In Liberia now at last the people
are starting to bring out
their sick relatives

It is very difficult to eat
to sleep to wake up

She like so many others
is infected isolated

Fighting
an unseen killer

-

While peace is an empty word in Israel
it's business as usual for the rest of us

How can we sleep at night ?

I think we can all go
straight to hell boy

In Gaza war is the only word
they want to hear

A blessed word
full of promise for the future

-

Extreme right-wing
groups taunt the crowds
of anti-war demonstrators

Now there are
no schools left in Gaza

Now there are no children
left alive to go to school

Even now
won't you apologise ?

After the death of so many
innocent civilians ?

No I won't

I'm sorry about that
but I won't apologise

-

Born from the womb of her dead mother
who was killed two days ago
a baby girl survived

But today she died

They buried her next to the body
of the mother she had never known

-

What do we want ?

And when do we want it ?

I'd like a nice bowl
of fart flavoured soup

With a vomit burger
deep fried foetus and placenta

And lashings of ultra violence
with blood piss and shit

That's a Bug

Oh my God - you're so judgemental

That's a bug ! That's a bug !

The Man Who Wasn't There

-1-

As I was walking up the stairs
I met a man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today
"I wish that man would go away"

-2-

As I was coming down again
I asked him if he'd be my friend

He said, "Why not? Since I'm not here!"
Then I saw him disappear

-3-

Now I see him in the hall
He isn't really there at all

If he isn't there today
I'll ask that man to go away


Adapted from "Antigonish" (1899) by William Hughes Mearns (1875–1965)

My Self Pity

Tathagata Vajrasattva
delights in my self pity

Nothing could delight Him more

Than to revel in the Glory
of my impure mind

Enjoying
through this association

With the darkness of my delusion
and self craving

My despair

My loneliness
and feelings of self pity

All the Secrets of my Heart

-1-

I can walk
I can talk

I can sing
I can dance

Play the game

Take a chance
in the dark

-

I can cook

Read a book
Write a sentence

Take a look
at the trees

And the flowers
in the park


-2-

I can speak
I can listen

If I don't know
what I'm missing

When I stop

Then I'll know
how to start

-

I can think
I can question

To explain
the confusion

I can tell you

All the secrets
of my heart


-CHORUS-

Tomorrow tomorrow
I love you tomorrow

You're always
a day away


-3-

I can run
I can jump

If I get
a little grumpy

I can always try

To tell you
how I feel

-

I can call you
on the phone

And invite you
to my home

For a chat

With some wine
and a meal


-CHORUS-

Tomorrow tomorrow
I love you tomorrow

You're always
a day away


-4-

I can laugh
I can cry

Say hello
and goodbye

See you later
alligator crocodile

-

I can wait
for the moment

I can even keep
my silence

Give the customers
good service with a smile


-5-

I can swim
I can ski

I can skate
on the lake

In the summer

I can take you
to the park

-

I can eat
I can drink

If I don't know
what to think

I can tell you

All the secrets
of my heart


-CHORUS-

Tomorrow tomorrow
I love you tomorrow

You're always
a day away


-6-

I can swim
I can ski

I can skate
on the lake

In the summer

I can take you
to the park

-

I can eat
I can drink

If I don't know
what to think

I can tell you

All the secrets
of my heart

The Eskimo and Inuit

The Eskimo and Inuit
use their intuition

To guess emotions and intentions
of those who inhabit
warmer regions
to the south

Who sometimes come to visit

First they ask do you know how
to build an igloo in the snow

And when you answer yes or no
then can you get into it ???

On Mossy Bank

On mossy bank of gentle stream
lay your body down to dream
of ordered ranks of angels
standing giving thanks
to God and Man

In recognition
that the river
from the streams
where waters gather
flows out to the never never
where the future can't be found

Bullied by Statistics

This person in the future
that we always want to be

He isn't really you
and he isn't really me

If you stop to think about it
then I think you'll see

That this person in the future
may be just a fantasy

-

After all it doesn't really matter
if we never get there

If those we meet along the way
can find their own way home

-

Your future self
isn't really you now is it ?

So do what you're told

Be kind to your future self

Why should I or anyone
be bullied by statistics ?

To Strangers

To strangers
who don't know me
I appear as a ghost

In myself
I am none other
than the primordial union
of common and ultimate perception

But those who know me well
just call me by my name

And heap up
upon that one short
syllable of human sound

A mountain of unjustified abuse
with vicious condemnation fit for Kings
and indeed even such insults that would shame
the lowest creatures of the gutter

While from time to time
I seem to hear
the murmur
of faint
praise

Gaza South Sudan

I woke up around one

I can't believe

I can't believe
today is a good day

-

Back from the future
three days before
the bible ever was

Which means the end
of the beginning

Back before the future
of the first three days

Back from the beginning
of the end of the beginning

Which is starting
when you're lifted
from an early grave

-

No one's gonna
look after me now

No one's gonna
care for my baby mama

-

Climbing up
over the edge

You reach the top
of the hospital fire escape

Fertile barely legal

Now your body's just a number
in another news report

All Roads

All roads lead to all roads
All roads lead to one road

One road leads to all

All roads lead to all roads
All roads lead to every road

Every road leads to every road
Every road leads to all

Satori

I paint with my hands
and I write with my mouth

I spit it out

Syllable by syllable
until you get the point

Until it pokes you in the eye

The Egoist

If I wasn't such a coward I would kill myself
'cos I hate my life and I hate myself

If I wasn't such a coward I would kill myself
'cos I hate my life and I hate myself

I hate my life
and I want to die

I hate myself
and I wish I was dead

Posterity

At the age of 61
he died and was quietly buried
in the churchyard of the village
several miles outside our town

Of mourners there were few
but in time many famous writers
and critics of the day would come
to recognise his talent and his genius

And soon there after
people came from far afield
to show their admiration

For the poems and the stories
of this fragile unhappy
and neglected
solitary 

man

Here we see them even now
standing silent in respect

Face to face
with the headstone
of his unmarked grave

Beneath our Feet of Clay

With golden talk of peace and love
and silver tongues of fire and war

With singing bowls of bronze
and copper in our hands

And swords in scabbards
made of steel

We test the metal of our minds

Giving praises to the Gods

Without true knowledge of ourselves
by force of circumstance and chance

How can we call our work divine ?

-

With shame we walk upon the Earth
in search of crystal springs of water

Where we sit with Mother Nature
weeping for our sins

We try to wash away the past

These sediments of broken glass
gathered here in reservoirs

Beneath our feet of clay

The Wolf

First of all we can start
by giving something back

Perhaps by not trying
so damned hard

To keep it all
just for ourselves

From the top down
to the bottom up

From the tallest highest branch
of the giant redwood tree

To the grain of black dust
which is the seed of the poppy

From tiny hatching turtles
to top ranking birds of prey

For their own sake
and for our better nature

Let the wild places flourish
and a thousand flowers bloom

Attempting
to understand them

One among them
in the pack

A habitat of
trout filled lakes

And forests roamed
by grizzly bears and moose

In the clearing there ahead
stood a solitary wolf

The Echo of the Starting Gun

-1-

We'll give no quarter
till we're done

And by God
expected none

Said the Father
to the Son

Before the game
was half begun


-2-

We'll give them all
a damned good run

For their money
just for fun

And see them fall down
one by one

From break of dawn
till setting sun


-3-

They'll hear us shout
come on come on

The race will soon
be lost or won

And then they'll know
who's right or wrong

And hear within
the victor's song

The echo of
the starting gun

Before the Flood

Behold the Cross
upon the line

Between
the light and dark

A curve of motion
through the Ocean

Swimming
like a shark

Who scents the smell
of flesh and blood

We tell our tale
of hate and love

From time
long past

Before the Flood
when Noah built the Ark

From Head to Toe

In between eternalist and nihilist extremes
meaning feeling in the moment now
or so it seems to me

Cleaning cobwebs from the ceiling
where the paint is peeling off

I don't know what I'm perceiving
but I like to dream

Agree or disagree believing
this achievement
is complete

Appearances
can be deceiving when
you're staring at your feet

We Believe

Observe this 

We believe that you'll find it fascinating 

I don't know who you are 

Either of you 

But yes you do 

You know them well 

They are you 

The man who regrets 
and the man who forgets 

They are your past and future selves 

Gallifrey shall fall no more 

Tough Love

No one knows what you know
and if they did they wouldn't tell you

No one knows what you know
and in that act of knowing now you come

To understand how you are called to serve
the wishes of your God

Trust in Me

Passive aggressive

Everybody has a faith
Everybody needs someone

If you don't need me
around right now

It won't be long before
you need someone else

Liking or disliking
is a two-way street

If you repeat yourself too often
then people find you boring

But if you break
your promise to them
then they won't trust you

Sometimes it takes a long time
to get your vindication

In Good Faith

I'm glad to know
you have a faith

Yes I'm an anarchist
in the same way I'm a good vegetarian

Because I eat meat

What can you say when people tell you
that their teacher disappears in photographs ?

The best ones are always the ones
you didn't think worth writing down

So now you can't remember

Young Ones

Undeterred by the critical
bottom burp it received

Our four influential young Turks
set out once more

Riding the last train to oblivion

We can do exactly whatever
we bloody well want to do

And you know why ?

Because we're the young ones

And what we want to do
is have a fucking good time

Folk Art

The crowds were pleased

The King and Queen were jubilant

All human life is here in Blackpool

Polished turds
bums willys boobs

Gigantic cans of soda pop
with arms and legs

Backsides of cows and horses

We get away with murder don't we ?

Only we can pull it off

The great repression of the British public

Bred and fed by Madame George
and bacon sarnies

Standing by ye olde wishing well

Incredible bizarre peculiar surprising

And what's wrong with that ?

Midas Touch

The story is told
and you watch it unfold
as you live with it
day after day

Silence is golden
but not when you're cold
when your cold eyes
have nothing to say

You're bought and sold
with my pieces of gold
if I touch you then
you'll have to pay

My hand's so cold
but it's not when you're
holding it that's what
you're longing to say

Now I am old
I have riches and gold
but I cried when
my love went away

Sleep

A child who would not go to sleep

And here his Dad takes on the role
of sitting up with him all through the night

He had him curled up on his lap
in an armchair in the kitchen

At the time it seemed to him
that this torment and ordeal
would never end

But now when he looks back
he sees so well

How these long silent patient hours
spent together with his child were in fact
the most precious hours of his life

-

Counting my toes
on each foot
in turn

Starting with the left foot

First the big toe on my left foot
then the big toe on my right foot

Then the next toe

Then the next foot
and so on

Then back again
starting with the smallest toe

And then again
but this time starting with the right foot

And so it goes

Trying different ways
to exhaust all possible alternatives
to explore every permutation and paradigm

In this hopeless endless task I set myself
to seek out and achieve a final balance

To find fairness and symmetry

And then at last to go to sleep

Year on Year

Year on year
from branch to branch
and tiny twig dormouse
eating spangle gall
of ancient oak

Before mid-summer then till
favourite fruits and nuts
come into season
in the autumn

They will eat and eat
and gorge themselves on hazelnuts

To build up fat in preparation
for the winter when for many months
they will not feed at all

The Beacon (Don't Let Me Die)

Don't let me die in the city

Don't lay my body in the ground
under forecourts and car parks
and lay-bys and driveways

Burn my body in a pyre

Pile up the rough hewn timbers
under round and above

A great stack of ready firewood
cut down in proper time

From those self-same trees

Which I myself had planted
and tended over many years

By the labour of my own hands

Let me die in my country

The country of my Fathers

Let it be not far from home

But should it be so
then choose well

The aspect of
my point of leaving

On a hillside
well within clear sight
of the ocean or the sea

It's a comfort now
for me to know

Dear Mother

It's a comfort

It will always be so

Now for me to know
that you will be there too

To oversee the rites at last

To see that I'm sent off in style

In blaze of fire by night
and on into the early rising dawn

When dust and ashes
blow upon the sea breeze

And the merry wind
comes a blowing in
across the waves

To greet the newly broken day

The day that I could never know
when life went on without me

Nothing More

If you become aroused 
please allow 

These words 

to be your guide 

Be released 

In relaxation 

Breath 

You may well find 

discomfort now 

- 

This pleasure and this pain 

will very soon be no more 

Indeed it's nothing more 

than one passing moment of sensation 

- 

Nothing more 

Just one more 

One more event on the timeline 
in this causal chain of life 

Which must be known 
to you alone 

And which 

when all is one 

you can never share 

-

Observe this private fascinating 
state of physical arousal 

With these words 
gently naturally spontaneously 

Draw it up 
from the region 
of your sexual organs 

Gathering dissolving 

Drawing in and lifting up 

Don't waste it 

Use it well 

Be skillful 

- 

Starting with direct experience 

of the authentic sensations 
in these places 

Breathing in and out 

Be mindful of the downward voiding wind 

- 

By force of habit 
now come many other thoughts 

They are only there 

because of links 

made by association 

- 

Anticipation of excitement and the bliss 
and release of sexual congress 
with your consort 

Now here it is 

This is exactly 
what you asked for 

Again and again 
so many times in the past 

This is the thing 

And now you see 
here it is 

So take it and finally 
release yourself 
from suffering 

Nicola's Particular

Nicola's particular
about her choice of words

Funny ha ha or peculiar
uncommon or absurd

Merry or hilarious
gregariously learned

Or serious deliriously
speaking out of turn

She'll make you giggle

With a wiggle
and a wriggle of her nose

You'll be guaranteed to smile

From your head
down to your toes

Sexual innuendo pointing
to the bees and birds

Yes Nicola's particular
about her choice of words

When she's done

You'll rub your tummy
just below your shirt

That's because
her jokes will make you
laugh until it hurts

Crush

Summer days on our estate
of ice cream van and vapour trails
and girls in pink with pony tails
and cans of drink and painted nails

And after rain and sudden hail
dried up worms and slugs and snails
get trodden under foot and fail
to find a better future

-

What from this can we conclude ?

That little girls do as they should
but boys aren't nearly half as nice

Ask them once
They do it twice

So if you want some good advice
give sugar to the girls and spice

For little boys are far too rude
and slugs and snails should be their food

-

Now summer days are getting late
and here's a man who's found his mate
but neither he nor she can wait
to start their new adventure

For after rain and sudden hail
come girls in pink with pony tails
and who would think that they could fail
to find a better future ?

Subverting the Genre

Happy ending

Happy friend

Oh happy turn of phrase

A twist of fate
in the game

Of playing frame by frame

With the reader's expectations

At the Open Mic

Twelve noble rivers
of the county

And one more

A river of loose morals

This poem is too long
you say in just so many words

---

If you want to be my friend
I'll take that as a compliment

But if you don't
then you should know
I'll take it as an insult

Remember May 35

June 4 1989

The spectre of Tiananmen
hangs over Eastern Europe

Gorbachev says
to the Communist Party of Poland

Now we have
the Frank Sinatra doctrine

"Do it your way"

But everyone's asking
how far can they push it ???

Stability but with reform
Retrospective explanations

In the People's Republic of Amnesia

There's always gonna be
some things that you just can't say

Remember May 35

Patience Training

Oh God
It's all just too slow

It just is
It's justice

The Dharma
The diamond cutter

Mutter mutter secret tantrum
with a mantra from Sri Lanka

Happy banter on the sofa
in the Ipswich Buddhist Centre

Sitting on the doctor's couch
you rage and rant and spew and spout

And every other word you utter
thinly sliced like bread and butter
offered to the Buddhadharma
at the meetings of the Sangha
is your chance to work off karma
loving and befriending them

To carry on until the end
and keep calm

Take refuge in the Triple Gem

Prayer for Syria

War weary
withered wasted

Worn out by fatigue

Factions fight
and people suffer
from the politics of greed

To get one over on the other man
by stealth aggression and intrigue

It can't go on
forever like this

One day peace must be restored

O Lord forgive us for our sins
and re-establish rule of law

Grumpy Mole

-1-

Grumpy mole
Three worms in a bowl

Here's a grumpy mole
and he's living in a hole

Yeah grumpy mole
I'm a grumpy mole

Grumpy mole
with three worms in a bowl


-2-

I'm a grumpy mole
inside my hole

And I'm not coming out
till they've all been sold

So take them to the market
and see the pretty girls

And tell that my tunnel
is dark and cold

-

Dark and cold
Dark and cold

Tell them that my tunnel
is dark and cold


-3-

So hey pretty girls
with your ribbons and your curls

Come and meet the mole
with a bowl of worms

Well he may not be good looking
and he may not be kind

But a better match
would surely be hard to find

-

Grumpy mole
Grumpy mole

Come and meet your husband
He's a grumpy mole


-4-

Hey pretty girl
come down my hole

Come into my garden
I'm a grumpy mole

Yeah grumpy mole
I'm a grumpy mole

Come into my garden
I'm a grumpy mole


-5-

My dear Mister Mole
well bless my soul

How could you do such honour
to a poor young girl ?

Would you be so lucky
could you be so bold ?

To be married to an animal
who lives in a hole ?


-6-

Well he may be ugly
and he may be old

(He's quite) blind but in my eyes
he's just a man of the world

And everybody knows
'cos they've been told

Somewhere deep inside
he's got a heart of gold

Ten Years (2004-2014)

When I lived and worked in Russia, for a short period of time, as a teacher, I counted

among my friends Stalinist White Russians, Buddhist New-Agers, Kalmyks, and Tartars.


But the thing I loved the most was the tantalising prospect of travelling, across

land, into the far off wilderness of the Siberian North-East.


Now if you asked me where, if anywhere, I would like to live, I should say that I

would like to go and live, for the rest of my days, in the new land of Western

Ukraine.


Let the mafioso scum have the Eastern regions. Let them have their holiday resorts,

their casinos, their nightclubs and prostitutes. Let them have their place in the sun,

while on the line from foreign countries, like Syria and Somalia, their evil minions

do covert deals in weapons of destruction. Let them burn in the sun and debauch

themselves on their nationalistic machismo.


We shall complete the promise of the Orange Revolution; and everywhere renew the hopes

and dreams which were stirred up and then so cruelly broken by the ending of the Arab

Spring.


We shall complete the promise of the Orange Revolution; a permanent revolution; to

inspire the world, by our example of peaceful co-existence, with art and music,

agrarian reform, respect for the land, productivity, poetry and permaculture.


We shall invite Jews from Israel and America to come back again and resettle their

traditional homelands. Yes, we shall invite the Jews and the Gypsies, and gay men and

women from Uganda, the dispossessed from every land, and all transgressive people to

come to us from every authoritarian regime. No visa will be required; no paperwork or

passports. We shall invite all people of good faith. And all shall be made welcome.


We shan't mind at all when rich bankers from the City of London make rude remarks

about the unmanageable level of our sovereign debt.


We shall build a new wall between the East and West; a wall of flowers, laid out to

keep marauding hordes at bay.


There we shall plant holy groves of gentle trees, well tended orchards lying either

side of a crystal stream, in season bearing fruit and fragrant blooms, to mark the

passing of each year, while on either side the gardens grow and children play in the

pastures and meadows, where cattle graze contented; the milk cows and their bull, the

ram and his ewes, the billy goat and nanny goats, the horse and the donkey; and pigs

and chickens, ducks and geese and songbirds gather, round the feet of the farmhand, in

the farmyard every morning, when he brings them their feed.


In this land, once again we say, all shall be made welcome; in this land which, by a

dictator's order, saw rural famine, during the 1930s, in the heart of the bread

basket; in this land which first, alone, and uniquely among all others, chose to

voluntarily and unilaterally give up possession of the curse of its nuclear deterrent,

and yet, which still must suffer the poisonous effects of the Chernobyl disaster for

another thousand years or more.


If I could live in a country like this, this would be a country I would be proud to

call my home.


If they would have me, I'm sure we could make it happen... but it might take some

time. Yes, it might take some.


Oh dear Lord, give us more time.


Ten years should see the difference.

Only Means (A Short Essay on Social Injustice)

"there are no ends
 only means
 there are no means
 only ends"

And I blame philosophy, if not for all our ills, then, at least, for all our woes.

Yes, philosophy would seem to be exclusively the preserve of intellect and language, but, come on now, let's think again...

Or to misquote Jesus; we must do philosophy with all our heart, with all our strength, with all our mind.

As Nietzsche said, "others do philosophy, as if they were riding on a train but, as for me, I am the train!"

We have institutions and interventions.

Some people like to say that we have values that we choose to live by in a civilised society; that it all comes down, in the end, to the choice we make collectively, to choose what kind of society we want to live in.

This last sentence is an example of a thought form produced by established discourse.
We could go on... but, in the end, it's humbug.

Wire up and plug in your bullshit detectors.

Turn up the dial to the max!

Some form gives pleasure; some form gives comfort, and some form will take it all away, so that nothing that is left is ever quite the same again.

Forms that intervene in the smooth running of outmoded institutions, no longer fit for purpose, relics of the past; in these forms we find the fountain head of new life; that strange mixture of energy and consciousness, the mind and the matter, that constitutes the world.

All things being equal, and things being as they are, I think there would have to be something seriously wrong with you anyway if you didn't have a total mental breakdown at least once in the course of your life, or contemplate the act of suicide from time to time.

And, once you have attained a certain degree of self-knowledge, and insight into your condition, I think it is only fair enough that you should be blamed and held to account for the consequences of your actions, even though you are unwell, if your condition causes you to harm yourself or those around you.

Crisis management and support for people recovering from mental illness;
what's not to like about that?

It's a hopeless situation. Yes, but let's work with it a bit.
Let's look at the left and the right, and see where it takes us.

But first, we must question our motivation.

When you read this, are you hoping to find answers?
Is there something that you want?
Will you ever get it???

What is money? What is time?
Do you have enough money? Do you have enough time?

Yes yes yes. Of course contentment is my practice;
joyful effort, in service of others, realising emptiness and bliss.

But if I were to offer you more, do you think you'd take it?

Do we want to believe? In scarcity? Or in abundance?
How can there be a scarcity of love???
Or a scarcity of ideas???

And what sense can we make of your faith in the protean rational economic agency of man?

In the production, distribution, and consumption, of goods and services; we can look at all things two ways. We can look at the demand side; and we can look at the supply side.

If psychological experiments are leading us to question our assumptions about rational economic choice (and thereby lose faith in nineteenth century notions of the balance of nature, maximisation of marginal utility, opportunity cost; equilibrium expressed by the meeting point of two sloping lines on a graph; one line rising, to show supply in terms of rising price, and one falling, to show the corresponding fall in demand); if all of this is now being opened up for re-evaluation, then let's try to look at things another way.

Let's get back to ideology and culture; back to the mental furniture, conditioning where we like to rest our bones, where we like to stand, and what we like to say.

What is our habit? What makes us feel at home?

And now let's use philosophy to make an intervention...

In British politics today, we have reduced our thinking to little more than a display of sloganeering, for either one of two brands of intransigent conviction, with regard to what works best to our advantage, in stimulating growth on the supply side.

On the right we have the brand of competition; on the left, the brand of public service.

Ultimately, both claim to be kind;
if we will allow that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

In either case, if they are correct, then we could deem the outcome to be a social good; so it is not easy to say, here and now, who is being more compassionate.

If the end justifies the means, then it's hard to say who holds the moral high ground. It all depends on who is right; or as David Cameron likes to say, "what is the right thing to do."

Well he would say that, wouldn't he!
See how they play with words - see how they delight in them!!!

But, "in the end", the end can never justify the means. And why do I say that?
Because there are no ends - only means!

So which side do I come down on?

Of course, I am in favour of public service. And yes, of course, I am against competition.

But I think, perhaps, I need to explain my position in more detail; because I do understand why competition would appear, to some people, to be a necessary evil and an instrument by which we can leverage lumpen humanity, to achieve something better for itself; while on the other hand, there are many misgivings I have about signing up wholeheartedly for public service, as the panacea for all our ills.

Political ideology, in all its forms, is something we must unmask.

As they say at GCHQ, "if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to be afraid of." If ideology could do its work without obfuscating itself in the process, then, perhaps, there would be no harm done. But the hubris of human kind seems to know no bounds.

Let me end with a tribute to Tony Benn. He said there are people who create wealth by hard work. (I suppose they would be the "honest hard working families" we hear so much about these days.) Then there are those people who own the wealth...

And the problem, as Tony Benn saw it, was that the people who own the wealth have too much power.

Winter Olympics

Weather the storm
the icy blast and angry swollen rivers

Emergency evacuating livestock
and protecting property

Saving lives must always be
our aim and top priority

The PM said today
that money is no object

This is not a blank cheque
said the Secretary of Transport

Money's not the issue
but someone disagrees

And here again we have
the rhetoric of prudence and good sense

With reference to good housekeeping

While hiding under cover
of frank discussion and genuine concern

As always they continue
to pursue their own agenda

Core voters who support
the small state ideology

And all the while the rains falls
unabated on the saturated ground

In the work being carried out
to deal with this crisis

Who knows what is right
and what is wrong ?

When the war goes on in Syria
and Korea has the bomb ?

-

What do nomadic tribesmen think
when they see gay women ski in Sochi ?

And far away in space
a probe is landing on a comet ?

-

Who can you trust these days ?

Is there someone out there ?

Someone you can trust
and someone to admire ?

Raymond Williams ?

Stuart Hall or the legacy of Thatcher ?

What plays to the public ?

Who cares ?

Well I do for one
and also so does everyone

This is the spirit of our time
which brings us all together

When we're pumping out the water
and fighting for our homes

Hubris

Would we do well to heed the call
and take up arms against this tyrant ?

Or is this what enables us
to find a husband or a wife ?

To raise our children and discern
the meaning of our lives

Should we be guided
by Churchill's definition of success ?

To go from one failure to the next
without losing confidence

Or losing concentration

Or will such good advice
just lead us down the path to self delusion ?

It sounds to me more
like the motto of the man
who would lead us into war

No more than hubris in extremity
the pride before the fall

A recipe for King's
who lose their heads

Or burn their buns
as prelude to disaster