Fighting Words – Kindle/Paperback/Hardback – Out Today!!

New poetry book now available in 3 formats – Kindle, Paperback or Hardback!

Just £2.88 for Kindle £5.97 for a paperback £12.80 for a Hardcover

Fighting Words

Fighting Words

by Opher Goodwin  

Kindle Edition

Price – £0.00 (with Kindle Unlimited)

Or £2.88 to buy


Hardcover

Price, £12.80

FREE delivery Mon, 24 Feb


Paperback

Price, £5.97

FREE delivery Mon, 24 Feb

Amazon.co.uk : Opher Goodwin fighting words

A Friend In Need

How quickly alliances are betrayed!! Friendships Betrayed!

It’s almost as if Trump is working with communist Putin! Fellow authoritarian totalitarian dictators.

How quickly friendship is betrayed!

A Friend In Need

A friend in need

                                Is a friend to bleed!

No helping hand;

                                Just cash and land!

Bully your partners;

                                Bully your allies!

Curse your friends

                                And spit in their eyes!

Trump and the far-right philosophy!

Self and greed – plenty for me!

A friend in need

                                Is a friend to bleed!

No helping hand;

                                Just cash and land!

Opher – 22.2.2025

How foolish of Ukraine to fight back when it is being invaded!

How ridiculous that they don’t hold elections in the middle of a war, with a third of their country under  Russian control, daily missiles raining down and cities blown to rubble.

And Churchill should have given Europe to Hitler! That would have saved a lot of agro and death!

We should always roll over when an aggressor rumbles into town!

We must remember this if ever Mexico or Canada decides to invade the USA!!

He’s only concerned about the slaughter of all the young men and women! Of course he is! It’s nothing to do with the mineral wealth or reconstruction contracts!

A friend in need can soon become an enemy!

Fighting Words – an extract

I think this one has to be recited out loud!

Too Much News Blues

I’m drowning in news

                Coming at me from all corners.

Plenty of views

                Trying their hardest to warn us.

Putin is dying.

                Trump is bound to lose.

Gaza is frying.

                I’ve got the too much news blues.

The planet’s heating up.

                Trump’s turning up the gas.

Drinking from an evil cup

                Dancing to rotten jazz.

Can’t turn on the TV

                Without blown up tank crews

Death and destruction:

                I’ve got the too much news blues.

The Tories left a black hole.

                The Republicans are all mad.

Results wrong in every poll.

                Feels like we’ve been had.

Wallowing through the info

                Trying not to blow a fuse.

Seeking out the truth

                 I’ve got the too much news blues.

Billionaires spread disinformation

                Manipulating us.

Brain inflammation:.

                Thrown under the bus.

Scratting a living

                Paying all our dues.

Life is unforgiving.

                I’ve got the too much news blues.

Opher – 15.11.2024

Never has a world been so full of news and reporting. Never has there been so much disinformation. Various factions vie to tell us lies. Governments and politicians, businessmen and media. Most of it is wrong; some of it is deliberate misinformation meant to confuse us.

Algorithms kick in to boost whatever view we take.

Our beliefs are magnified, nurtured and distorted.

We’re being manipulated by devious people for their gain.

Nothing is clear. Nothing is black and white.

We’re being lied to.

We can’t believe anything.

Conspiracy gets dafter by the minute.

It threatens the very fabric of society.

                 I’ve got the too much news blues.

Fighting Words eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Fighting words. Fighting life. Fighting meaning. Life not death.
Fighting justice, fighting freedom, Fighting for breath.
Fighting arrogance, fighting violence, Fighting Hate.
Fighting for my principles before it’s all too late!
Fighting greed, fighting oppression, for fairness and ice-cream!
Fighting for fun, for love, for tolerance – fighting ‘til I scream!
Words are my weapons. Words have many meanings.
I’m fighting words. I’m fighting words.
These are my words.

Book Launch – Fighting Words

I bring out my new book FIGHTING WORDS out TODAY!!

Fighting Words eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Here’s a sample!!

How to repel Trump’s Nazi thugs

Put books on the shelves and educate the kids,

Discuss science and art and acanthocephalids.

Talk about compassion and helping our fellow man.

Tell them in our community, we do all that we can.

Spray the whole house to remove all Musk’s bugs.

That’s how to repel horrid Trump’s Nazi thugs.

Train your boys to treat women with respect

Your girls to stand tall and shout ‘What the Heck!’

Demand their rights regardless of gender or race.

Tell fascists they’re a complete disgrace to their face.

Connect the door knocker to the electricity plugs

That’s how to repel Trump’s horrid Nazi thugs.

Study nature in all its wonderful ways

Introduce your friends – the straights and the gays.

Talk about ecology and the impact of man.

Share with them the recycling plan.

Play them good music from Harper to Suggs

That’s how to repel Trump’s horrid Nazi thugs.

Discuss equality – the rich exploiting the poor;

The history of franchise and calamity of war.

Make them empowered to stand up for themselves.

Ban superstition – Jesus, Mohammed and elves.

Don’t forget to give them plenty of hugs;

That’s how to repel Trump’s horrid Nazi thugs.

Welcome foreigners and travel the world.

Share all your dreams, with your hopes unfurled.

Taste all you can taste from cultures and realms

With an open heart so nothing overwhelms.

When the racists chant you won’t need your earplugs.

That’s how to repel Trump’s Nazi thugs.

Opher – 5.11.2024

It’s November 5th. The fireworks are happening in the USA this year!

They’ll be bonfires in the Capitol if Trump gets his way!

All around the world Trump’s philosophy resounds! Nazi philosophy – walls and tariffs – isolationism and sucking up to despots and tyrants.

This is either the age of the Nazi or the era when we put the lid on this hideousness.

The evangelists are in the wings with their Project 2025. They want women back in shackles.

It’s either back to the cruel hypocritical puritanism of the 18th century (with its brothels and men’s clubs and women in chains) or it’s forward to a joyful 21st century!

We’ll see.

Caving in to Putin!!

Buffy St Marie – Never more True

When the people vote for a convicted felon, an inveterate liar, an uneducated fool, a narcissistic sociopath, a conspiracy spreader, a fascist dictator and a greedy conman we know that it is the people who are killing the country.

Buffy St Marie – My Country Tis of Thy People You’re Dying

Orwellian Double-Think

I can’t believe the level of double-think. It is very Orwellian.

The American people actually believe a convicted felon with a long history of law breaking is completely innocent and is a victim of political chicanery.

They believe a businessman who has had multiple bankruptcies, business failures and has lost millions is a great businessman who will lead the country to prosperity.

They believe a morally corrupt individual with a conviction for rape, multiple sexual offences and a known friendship with paedophiles (Epstein and DiddY) a history of cheating on wives and a relationship with porn stars (Stormy Daniels) is a moral man.

They believe a man who has been caught out lying more times than Pinocchio is the only purveyor of truth.

They believe a man who has married two immigrants and who employs cheap immigrant labour is the only one to stand up against mass immigration.

They believe a obviously greedy multi-millionaire conman, who uses every opportunity to sell tacky shit and exploit squalid business opportunities, for huge personal gain, has the interests of working people at heart and is working in the Whitehouse for free.

They believe a tax evader who has been brought up with expensive private education, private healthcare, private security, cares about the services provided to the poor.

They believe a man who spends most of his life on the golf course or banqueting with the wealthy is working hard for America.

They believe that a man who hangs out with billionaires, gives massive tax cuts to billions, is one of the working people and understands them.

They believe that a man who lives in a grandiose mansion with a gold toilet, a private jet and multitude of flunkies is one with working people.

They believe that a man who associates with and admires tyrannical, authoritarian, despotic leaders like Putin, Netanyahu, Kim Jung Un and Oban, who has tried to overthrow a legitimate election and instigated an insurrection that killed people, is a legitimate benevolent democratic leader.

They believe that a man who actively spreads conspiracies about global warming being a con, covid being a con and vaccination being dubious, that all the media is giving out fake news and every institution is completely corrupt, is the best person to uphold, truth and the state.

They believe that a man who is putting the future in old polluting industries, instead of investing in new non-polluting industries, will move America forward into the twenty-second century on a firm basis as world leaders. Drill baby drill.

They believe that a man who sides with extreme ultra-right, White supremacist, Nazi groups – like the Proud Boys, empowers right-wing groups, deploys them to march against the capitol, whose father was in the KKK all his life, is not a racist Nazi.


This man is obviously the most crooked, immoral, greedy, self-serving, lying, cheating conman in the United States. What does it say about the morality, education, thinking abilities, ignorance and delusional thinking of the American people? Is it total moral decay? Is it a collapse in intelligence?

It’s called Double-Think. It’s what Big Brother did in George Orwell’s 1984. They’ll probably ban it!

Bodies in a Window – Paperback/kindle

Well, I missed out the really sexual part of the girls. That was based on a real account but I thought it was far too explicit for a blog. I’d probably get banned.

I’ve skipped on to a different character. The novel is a mosaic that all comes together. I am standing at the side of mt dead father.

Excerpt – Bodies in a Window Paperback

I was brought up Catholic. It’s all I know. I go to church every Sunday without fail. When my girls were at home I made sure they went and had confession every week. I have brought them up properly. My Bill isn’t a Catholic. He doesn’t go to church. I don’t really know what he believes in. We never talk about it. He is not the type of man you have conversations with let alone talk about God, for sure. He’s a good man and that is good enough for me and it’ll have to be good enough for God too, or I’ll want to know why. My Bill is a simple man. He’s not one for thinking, or praying, come to that. He is a groundsman and is very handy with his hands. Bill is very loyal and quiet. He’s not one for telling you what’s on his mind. He spends most of his free time out in the garden on his own. We have a lot of garden with many hedges, vegetables and flower beds. He does a really good job. We might not be the wealthiest on the estate, in fact we are among the poorest, but we do have the best gardens of anyone. Bill ensures that. He’s at one with nature and I believe that is where you’ll find God.

I take people as I find them. I don’t care who they are, rich or poor, Christian or Jew, I treat them the same. Our next door neighbours are Jewish and they are fine people no matter what our priest says about the Jews. He’s a dappy sod anyway, that old priest. I think he’s a man who is too fond of the booze with his big red nose. At the blood of Jesus a bit too much if you ask me. I’ve never known anyone as stingy with the confessional wine. I think he begrudges every drop. He told me that God forbids contraception and that the Jews killed Jesus. Well I told him straight that our next door neighbours haven’t killed as much as a fly and that six girls is quite enough for anyone. I’m friends with them, Jews or no Jews, and from now on my Bill wears a hood. He didn’t like it much but he soon shut up and got used to it. I’m one for straight speaking. No priest was going to lay the law down to me. He could see my mind was made up. I saw what having twelve kiddies did to my old ma. I don’t wish that on anyone. God wouldn’t want that. I go to confession and do my penances. I reckon I’ll be alright with God when my time comes.

I’m friends with Madge too. She’s one of the few I have any time for round here. She’s like me – has no time for all this pretence and putting on airs. She calls a spade a spade and I like that. You know where you stand with someone like that for sure. Not like with most of the silly sods on this estate. They are all trying to be something they’re not. My priest tells me I shouldn’t consort with her either. Madge is a spiritualist. I don’t hold with all that mumbo jumbo spiritualist stuff myself – talking to the dead sounds peculiar enough to me. My priest says that it’s the devil’s work. Well that’s rubbish too. I just think it’s daft but I don’t think there’s any harm in it. Madge tries talking to her poor mum who passed away. If that helps her come to terms with missing her poor old mum then that is OK with me. Besides, it’s no difference to what the Pope and the Cardinals do when they have their holy communion. As far as I’m concerned she can do what she likes. It’s no business of mine what other people believe. Madge is a down to earth woman. She’s not evil. There’s no harm in wanting to speak to yer ma, is there? That priest of mine talks out of his arse sometimes. Don’t the Pope and all those bishops hold séances? They talk to the dead. What’s the difference? I think he consumes too much of that communion wine myself. I’ve never seen a man with such a red nose. I don’t hold with this spiritualism, and talking to the dead myself but I don’t see how it can be evil to want to talk to your old mammy. There’s not an evil bone in Madge. She’d do anything for you. That’s the proof of the pudding for me.

As far as I’m concerned a person gets on with their own life and leaves others to get on with theirs. If everybody in the world did the same thing we wouldn’t be having all this trouble. That’s my honest view and I tell that to the priest. There’s good and bad sorts everywhere. The Catholic Church hasn’t got a monopoly on goodness. There’s good and bad everywhere. He’s at a loss. He doesn’t know what to say to me, for sure. But I’m like Madge – I call it as I see it.

Bodies in a Window: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781986269544: Books

53 and imploding – I believe in fairness

Every day is a critical time in life but some days, some years, feel like watersheds. 53 years of age was a watershed. At least that’s how it felt. I wrote this novel as a biographical antinovel – a journey into a mind – a stream of consciousness. I wanted to destroy all structure.

Excerpt – 53 and imploding

I have decisions to make. I am making this up as I go along but the ideas are beginning to gel. I have a lot of anecdotes and ideas that have come together. The rest of the book is coalescing in my thoughts. You see I am conceiving this as a book. I can already visualise it sitting on the shelf with crappy photocopied cover that I will design, spirally bound on the cheap binder and arranged along with all the other ‘books’ I have produced. Jan views them as more clutter, junk and dust gatherers. I view them as accomplishments.

I conceive chapters. I have already placed this in a period of time. I have selected characters. They are real people – my friends and acquaintances. Real places, real anecdotes. The time sequence is a little jumbled up. The problem is the names. Should I stick with them or change them? Some of what I am going to describe might not be considered flattering or accurate. It can’t be accurate. I am describing a poorly remembered event. I am embellishing without even being aware that I am. In trying to be accurate I am bound to misrepresent. I am already working out how to simplify the myriad of possibilities by amalgamating things. The chronology is hopelessly jumbled. Should I use their real names? I cannot use real names because I am going to jumble things together. These characters are amalgamations. None of them are real.

I have just taken two annadin extra for my hangover that is busily getting worse. I have made a coffee and have a plate of bread and humus. I have no hope that the headache will ease in the foreseeable future. These sorts of headaches rarely do. It will go when it is ready. I should be fine after tea.

Jan is tidying her room next door. My sister arrives tomorrow evening with my mother. There is much to be done in preparation. I should be helping. I am writing.

The Humus is delicate and tangy. The dog waits patiently for a tit-bit. He has his head on my thigh and he is drooling. He never takes his big black eyes off me.

We are products of our culture and our upbringing. We are taught, no – trained, to believe and do what we do. Even our rebelling is programmed. We have no escape.

Religion is hot-wired into our very cortex’s. When we pray and worship chemicals are released that alter our brains, our states of being. We are biologically programmed to worship. That’s very worrying!

I’ve just returned from New Grange, near Dublin, I’ve seen the Mexican pyramids, the cathedrals, temples and henges. Is nothing sacred? Is nothing more holy than a fix? Is there nothing behind that enormous expenditure of energy involved in the construction of such monumental edifices?  The universe seems such a cold and empty place.

There are things I believe in with religious fervour.

I believe in fairness.

53 and imploding eBook : goodwin, opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Reflections from a ditch Kindle/Paperback

I wrote this novel based on my daily journey through the country roads into work. I imagined my protagonist trapped in a car, upside down in a ditch, slowly dying, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Excerpt – Reflections from a ditch 

The whole damn world is run on exclusive little clubs geared to keeping people down – making outsiders of them. The real power resides in grubby little dives and huge faceless palaces. Quiet thin lipped men in suits look down their nose at you and feed sops from the table. Here nothing is important except power and power can be bought if you have the price and know whom to ask – having the right name and connections help. Behind the overt corridors of power there lurks a dim recess of real power. Narrow eyes watch your every move. The games are played out with winners and losers but the strings are pulled by the faceless power brokers. They use religion. They use drugs. They use politics and they are patient. They sit in dingy leather chairs and think in terms of centuries. Fashions come and go. Life goes on.

Love and intrigue? Nothing matters except the hypocrisy of the meetings behind the scenes. Rich or not those rooms are sealed to all but the necessary. You may even rise to sit at their table, but voice your views, as they smile, tilt their heads and acknowledge your genius, and it slides off them like shit off a window. Jeff and Blackie are meaningless little snotty kids with no value, worth or purpose other that to be manipulated like pawns on a board. Little pageants played out on inconsequential stages, which will not touch the minds of the masters – the fashioners of destiny. Us little zits, pimples on the face of the universe, worthless units to become consumers, their work force, and then die our grovelling little impoverished deaths in the meaningless mediocrity of everyday nowhereism. Suckered with the carrot of possibility – ‘You could become one of us – if you work hard – get lucky – get rich’. Bought with little sops – ‘Find your place in life’  ‘Be happy’  ‘There’s a place for you in Heaven’.

Bullshit.

And we are all, masters included, pimples of inconsequence, self-obsessed simpletons. In the face of a raging eternity, before the cataclysmic silence, we scream and stand our ground with the magic Tantric repetition of the word ‘I’. We are just leaving our mark for eternity, a name for ourselves, our place in history; just changing the world, imposing my views, sharing my perspective.

What I have to say and do is important, worth listening to.

 Listen!!!

Every true story is a work of fiction.

            Nothing matters in eternity. The sun will grow and the Earth will be subsumed. The sun will die. The universe will die. There is no God. Even a life made of air will fade away. Some way off all there will be is darkness and cold lifeless space. Long before that we will all be dead. There will be nothing to leave for eternity to mull – no fossils – no archaeology for future civilisations.

What does it matter if that’s a million years hence or four zillion.

What the fuck does it matter.

Every moment in the whole universe has contributed to this moment. This is true magic.

Reflections from a ditch eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store