Without Love

Who are we without love,

Souless,

Without an ounce of compassion,

Without a hand ready to help those in need,

Who are we?

Who are we without love?

What are we today if we ignore those who suffer,

If we turn away,

With a heart so cold,

Who are we without love?

Who are we without love,

If we don’t give second chances,

Second glances,

If we don’t reach out our arms to comfort others,

If we lambast, lampoon, mock, condemn,

I ask again, who are we without love?

Holding back the waves- #dropthebill

Nurses, midwives, many people and now Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home are now against the NHS bill. So when will ‘Canute’ realise he cannot hold back the waves of opposition and drop this bill?

The tide is rising,

Discontent,

A wave of disatisfaction building, building out to sea,

The tide is rising,

Building hour by hour.

The people are speaking, using their power,

Foolishly he sits upon the shore,

As the distant waves continue to roar.

Canute why try to hold back these waves,

For these waves have a will and will sweep you away!

National Library Day

Today has been National Library Day, a day given added significance in the light of library closures occuring due to the government’s relentless cuts. Dan Jarvis MP has tirelessly battled to save libraries in a time where they have faced a more uncertain future than they have for decades. As a writer myself, I fully appreciate their importance and I write this poem as a protest and call to save many people’s only access to books and reading.

The Library’s Closed Today

Library’s closed today,
Alice isn’t in wonderland behind bars,
Knowledge too high a price to pay,
The library’s shut today,
An order from on high says so,
No journeys to Narnia,
No flick of Harry’s wand,
No Pinocchio,
Yet in the Palace some noses still grow.
The library’s shut today,
The wardrobe shut forever,
Knowledge, culture a price too high to pay.

Big Ben

Big Ben is leaning say the engineers,
they say it has been for years,
you may not notice from a distance, but get closer,
You can see cracks in the wall,
You can see the lean if only look critically,
If you get closer.

Big Ben is leaning they say,
how do we make it straight I pray,
Experts, MP’s scurry,
Holding meetings in a hurry.

Big Ben is leaning, what are we to do,
Cracks are appearing too,
Foundations are rotting away,
How do we make Big Ben straight again,
Straight again today?

Would you speak? A poetic commemoration of holocaust memorial day

Would you speak?

Would you speak if they came for me?
I may differ in colour to you,
In costume,
I may not dress like you,
Sound like you,
But would you speak for me?
Would you have the courage of a lion,
Courage of your conviction?
Who would speak for you when they come for you,
For one day they will come for you.
I may believe in a different god,
But our belief in justice bind us, you and me.
So if they came,
pistols and rifles loaded to take me away,
Would you speak out,
speak out for me today?

Tags: Holocaust

Labour- why I’m proud of our family!

A family can disagree, a family can have members so diverse they may not have much in common on the surface. But they are family nonetheless. Over the past few days, as a lefty, I was dismayed by Ed Balls and his seeming change of stance, whilst not quite embracing cuts, it seemed to surrender to ‘received wisdom’ , stating that he wouldn’t be able to reverse all cuts. So for a couple of days, I wondered how to respond. Then I realised something, something that the defection of Luke Bozier brought home to me. We are a party of all political stripes. Like a family we have our rows, we dont always see eye to eye. But we are a family.

A lot of words have been said today but the wisest came from Kevin Meagher on labour list:

We hold on to our values, willing to stand our ground and state our case. But we also recognise ours is an eternal battle between what we want to do and what we need to do to become a party of power. Finding the right intersection between those two competing demands is what we are currently working out as a party

We are a work in progress no one can deny it, but deep down, no matter their stripe, all labour people have a basic desire for a fairer Britain, a British promise under threat like never before under this Tory government. Think of it this way, many colours can make a masterpiece. Yes we may face choppy seas but if we stick together in common bond, we will chart a course to a brighter future. I’m proud to be part of our diverse family, we may not always agree but we are family!

Family

We may row,
Scream and shout,
Completely disagree about what were about,
But we’re family.
We may be different,
So different we may not see eye to eye,
But deep down there’s a love we can’t deny,
We are family.
We may have our ups and downs,
Smiles and frowns,
But when worst comes to the worst,
We stick together,
For we’re a family.

All in this together- poem

All in this together

All in this together,
Hmm, I challenge you to live our life,
Where jobs are a rarer commodity than gold,
Can’t afford the heating so we’ll have to go cold.
Have you eaten today,
For there’s no food in the cupboard kids,
No not today.
Yes this is our life,
Skipping a butty so you can get a bus,
Not a ministerial car, a rickety bus,
Where despondency and despair lie heavy in the air,
You can smell it,
So while you’re wined and dined
Chauffeured on seats of leather,
Remember those on the bread line,
remember we’re all in this together!

Identity- the Scots referendum and the ‘English Question’

This week has seen the issue of Scottish independence once again rise to the fore, with Cameron and Salmond tussling over the timing of the referendum which he desires to be in 2014, versus Cameron’s wish to get it over and done with, whilst the issue of whether such a referendum would be legally binding or purely advisory.

Whether Scotland votes for full independence, or whether they opt for greater fiscal powers under ‘Devo max’ remains to be seen, however this raises the question of what lies ahead for England’s political future?

On labour list, Anthony Painter raised the ‘english question’ stating:

What can not get lost in all this is England’s political future. The constitutional and national future of Scotland is for them. England’s civic communities should have the same power of self-determination. A poll published earlier this week for the new charity, British Future, run by former Fabian Society General Secretary, Sunder Katwala, found that 51% of people want an English Parliament. If Scotland goes for further devolution or home rule, this is likely to increase. What’s more, if it does so then the Westminster parliament will be a de facto English Parliament. It is only a matter of time before it will be a case of English MPs for English laws.

He suggests various methods of addressing such a question, such as that in some places, ‘regional government may be suitable. In others it will be city or city-region. For some it will be a county or local level. Clusters of political authority may also come together in, as yet, unimagined ways. Once again, the core principle is self-determination. That is itself could provoke an English democratic revival.’

These are interesting ideas and seem to be rarely discussed. I agree with Anthony, whether Scotland vote for independence or not, the appetite for an answer to this question will increase. Our politicians must be ready to debate this.

Identity

What is my identity,
Not something made clear to me,
Many Flags, symbols are shown to me,
Yet which should appeal to me.
North and south Lions roar as they always have,
Yet where I stand is a mystery.
What is my identity,
Some have louder voices,
Some have greater choices,
Yet many questions remain,
The time has come to answer,
To redefine identity

Love on the wasteland

Love on the wasteland

We made our love on the wasteland,
Gravel, amidst the weeds,
No Garden of Eden, no promised land,
Yet who needs Eden when I’m holding your hand?
No bed of roses deeply red, but our passion will blossom in any old bed.
No romantic candles, yet streetlights flicker,
Knackered bulbs, yet still they smoulder,
As I touch your shoulder, as I kiss your lips,
A light fills me, brighter than any flame.
No Paris for sure,
Windows boarded up, broken,
Yet to you my heart is always open.
May have no job, may not have a dime,
We share pleasure so priceless when your body meets mine.
Ecstasy gets me so high when I take your hand,
No Eden in sight but amongst the streets that night,
Grasping at hope, we made love on the wasteland!

Where is the fire- Poetry in politics

Happy New Year one and all. Today an article on the Guardian came to my attention named ‘In praise of… poetry in politics’ – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/01/in-praise-of-poetry-in-politics?CMP=twt_gu in which it was stated that ‘ like a sculptor’s chisel or a fisherman’s net, language is the statesman’s essential tool’, yet many aspiring leaders are ‘content to spew out dry management-speak that has become the stale norm.’ They add that politicians such as Churchill and campaigners such as Martin Luther King grasped the power of emotive language and as such this is something politicians need to re-embrace.

As you all know, I’ve long been the advocate of a relationship between poetry and politics and I hope that one New Years resolution of those who would lead is to embrace the tool that is language and use it to articlaute meaningful sentiment, not just the dry bland soundbytes devoid of real meaning. Its time for blandness to be spiced up and the whole political discourse of this nation also. People need inspiration.

Where is the fire?
No passionate flame rising high,

To warm the cold,
A light in the darkness,
Where is the fire?
How do you inspire,
Do you dare to add spice to your bland words,
So bland that its tasteless, noiseless, hopeless?
Add the spice to life,
Light a candle to this darkness,                                                                                              With meaningful words inspire, 

Ignite the match,
LIGHT THE FIRE!