In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Language

  • Who’s Human ?

    Posted:

    The quote towards the end of this new poem is from “Requiem” by the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, translated by A.S. Kline, 2005. She was writing of the Stalinist purges. Her poem of witness was not published until decades later, in her old age.… continue reading

  • I See Everywhere the False

    Posted:

    I thought this was true in 2014, when it was written. I did not know then that the truth can become truer.… continue reading

  • Counting

    Posted:

    This poem seems to follow on a bit from the previous one uploaded here. But whereas I wrote “I Insist my Ribs…” over three years ago, “Counting” has been written in the last few days. I have a vague idea of what was in my mind as I wrote this latest poem. And looking at…

  • Might Labour be the Force to Renew UK Politics ?

    Posted:

    Our democratic politics isn’t working and, in my view, its dysfunction is one of the major causes of our present national crisis. In so many ways, our political structures and democratic processes – not just here in the UK, but manifestly in other countries too – are under attack and also in question. We have…

  • The Lying Toad is Back, the Tousled Look, the Winning Smirk, Our Leader…

    Posted:

    The prose piece that follows begins with the mismatch in the UK, between the present Prime Minister’s relative popularity on the one hand, and his long established disregard for the Nolan Principles of ethical conduct on the other. The piece provides a reminder that our Prime Minister has previously been sacked twice for lying  and…

  • The Deployment of Force

    Posted:

    Still on the subject of feet and their deployment, I ask myself this question : where am I to stand in the hallways of The Lie ? Here is my answer : on the hyphen between I and Thou, my surfboard in the endless storm.… continue reading

  • The Establishing of Ground

    Posted:

    The reference here is to a book and an image I keep referring to. It is called “I and Thou” and is by Martin Buber. Buber compares two essential ways of reaching out beyond the Self to meet the world : one is I – It (my object) and the other I – Thou (my…

  • Britain’s Return to Health

    Posted:

      I want to talk about the British Labour Party which – despite everything – still occupies the ground I look to for the beginning of this nation’s regeneration and return to health. But “ground” is one thing ; the withered and stunted vegetation I see presently over-running and littering that ground, is another. To…