An Invisible Machine
I wrote this poem on the way back from a Roy Harper gig in Scotland. We discussed the environmental damage being wreaked upon the world by the selfish, greedy minority who control the capitalist machine that is destroying the planet.
Five billion people live in poverty and despair while a few hundred thousand squander everything in a senseless orgy of extravagance.
The forests, lakes and seas are being consumed. The chimps, elephants and rhinos machine-gunned.
I suggested Roy wrote an epic song on this subject. He told me that he was writing one about what goes on in people’s minds. That is where the madness is conceived!
As we are distracted with booze, sex and TV, religion, psuedodemocracy and talent shows, tribute bands, muzac  and nostalgia, fashion, glamour and celebrity, the real world is being ripped apart before our very eyes!!!
I refuse to be stupid!
An Invisible Machine
There is an invisible machine
Relentlessly churning around the world.
Into its maw goes forests, lakes
And whole oceans.
Out of its rear
It excretes plastic trinkets
And control.
Its gears drip with blood and sap.
Sitting astride this behemoth,
This slow-motion holocaust,
The gleeful sneering drivers spray champagne down upon us.
In its wake the controlled
Buy trinkets and are distracted
By the addictive effluent
As they desperately strive to climb on board.
Their dream
Is that they too might live to spray champagne.
When its job is done
And all the wonders have been transformed to junk
It will consume itself.
Opher 18.9.2016
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
Sorry – I forgot the title!
You and Plato are like to peas in a pod! Hopefully we won’t be around to see the end… I know. That sounds fatalistic, doesn’t it… I don’t have your energy!
You seem to be suggesting that there is not the slightest possibility of halting the machine. I don’t believe that.
I believe that the people need to wake up to the illusion they are being sold – the aim of life is not to be wealthy but to be rich in love, experience and creativity.
Once people stop fuelling the machine we can start to put an end to this relentless destruction.
Well, I sure hope I’m wrong. But what’s it gonna take to get their attention?
Mass realisation! The internet. Disquiet! Lots of us shouting. Plus all the people actively doing protest.
I’m in line right behind you, Opher!
Cheers Raili. I know you are.
Reminds me of all the dystopian literature I’ve read, from Forster’s ‘Machine Stops’ to Orwell’s ‘1984’. They all offer a glimpse of the simple, natural love that could defeat the machine …
Let us hope there are enough nature lovers to put a halt to the machine and restrict its relentless destruction.
Where are Wordsworth and Coleridge when you need them?!
Well we’ve got Dylan and Harper. Roy does a lot of environmental stuff. But you are right what we really need is someone who can encapsulate the beauty of nature, bring tears to the eyes, and rouse people to do something about it, defend it.