Poetry – There are Those

Posted on by Opher

There are Those

There are those who would bomb

And those who would talk;

Those who would hate

As savage as a hawk.

Those who would build

And those who destroy;

Those who are friendly

And those who annoy.

Some are the torturers.

Some are the dead.

Some will say anything.

Some are just led.

Under the power of those who control

We obey all our masters and go out on patrol.

Man all the ovens – apply electricity

For that’s what it takes to keep our land free.

But when we remove the head from the hood

The face that peers at us is from our own neighbourhood.

Opher 29.6.2018

My mum used to say that it takes all sorts to make the world go round. Unfortunately some of those sorts are none too pleasant. They manipulate us in order to gain power and wealth. It is hard to tell the genuinely nice from the positively evil.

Fascists always look for a scapegoat to blame. We have problems with immigration and terrorism. That makes for a handy excuse to ratchet up the fear. Our culture is under threat. It’s the bloody Muslims!

Meanwhile who is it that is gaining the power and wealth?

I think the real threat is nearer to home.

Poetry – There’s Enough

Posted on by Opher

There’s Enough

There’s enough

For me and you

To share

If we are fair.

There’s no need

To grab too much –

To snare

More than our share

For if we truly care

And help our fellow men

And nature too

They’ll be more than enough

For me and you.

11.2.2017

There’s Enough

I yearn for fairness and equality, an end to arrogance and selfishness.

I crave a better world where a tiny minority are not exploiting everyone to cream off more than they can ever be worth.

I want a world built on sanity where nature is protected, where everything is not up for grabs and run for profit.

I want a happy world.

There’s enough for us all and nature if we only learn to do it better.

There’s nowhere near enough if we continue to destroy it all with impunity. We will destroy ourselves.

Poetry – Whatever you have

Posted on by Opher

Whatever you have

Whatever you have

                Is never enough.

You can’t have

                                                Too much stuff.

Whatever you own

                Can never suffice           

                                Is never enough

                                                To fill the hole in your life.

You can own the world

                Rule everyone

                                But that’s not enough

Though everything’s better than none.

For you can never have enough

                Whatever the cost

                                Even if it means

                                                The whole future is lost.

Opher – 11.5.2021

Is it human nature? Is greed embedded in our psyche? Will that be the cause of the end of the world?

Poetry – War

Posted on by Opher

War

Eating ice-cream in Vietnam,

Belgian chocolate in Ypres;

Sipping beer on the Killing Fields of Cambodia –

A damn sight better than blood and screams.

Sitting in a deserted pillbox

Surveying the beauty of the beach and sea

Through an oblong slit;

Walking through a forest of majestic unbroken trees

In the woodland at Vicksburg

Where thirty seven thousand men were blown to bits.

Photographing butterflies and birds

On the flowers on the battlefield of Culloden

Where two thousand suffered

The agonies of slashing wounds or death.

A damn sight better than being pierced by steel,

Slashed, smashed and shattered.

Then Hiroshima, Dresden, the London Blitz, the Crusades

And Jihad – What was it all for?

The IRA, Black Panthers, Weathermen and Baader Meinhof  –

Who won?

Shrapnel, chlorine, uranium, steel, bombs, bullets, missiles, napalm, knives, swords, machetes and indoctrinated will.

War

What is it for?

Enemies become friends.

Time changes everything.

Passions cool.

Nothing is gained.

Agony, blood, sacrifice and early death.

Such a waste.

Standing on the scene of such terrible carnage

One is reminded of the stupidity, tragedy and uselessness.

War

What is it for?

Eating ice-cream in Vietnam where Agent Orange destroyed so much, twisted thousands of lives and created nothing but misery, I was struck by the pointlessness and waste.

I would rather be eating ice-cream and photographing flowers.

Opher 4.8.2016

War

There is nothing quite as stupid as humanity. History gives perspective to everything. To stand on a battlefield and look around one sees nothing but stupidity.

Culloden was a beautiful meadow full of grass, flowers and shrubs on which the birds and butterflies flitted. Back in 1746 two armies charged each other with blind hatred. They slashed with swords and hacked each other to death. They inflicted terrible injuries and horrendous agony. They were driven by patriotic passion.

Vicksburg was the battle that was a major blow to the Confederacy. Men were shot and blown to pieces. Limbs were blown off. The mud was sticky with blood.

Hiroshima melted people alive. People stumbled out of the city with their skin dragging behind them like grotesque shadows. They were half cooked alive.

Now ISIS is using medieval methods to kill slowly to inflict the greatest agony. They burn people in cages, slowly drown people, slice their heads off, bury them alive, crucify them and slowly crush them.

War. What is it for? Time robs all of these maniacs of their purpose. Today Vietnam is a tourist trap, Scotland is part of the UK, the USA is united and Japan is a friend from which we buy our cars and TVs.

Tomorrow ISIS will be a dim distant memory. They will be remembered with disbelief and disgust. All their obscene ambition will have been seen to be pointless.

All those wars; all that blood; all that agony – all pointless! There was nothing that could not have been sorted out through intelligence and humanity! Jaw jaw – not war war – as Churchill said!

There are no easy answers or quick fixes. War is the last resort!

The Tory Party – Patrons of Wealth and Privilege.

Posted on by Opher

How on earth can people believe that a party set up by the wealthy and privileged to protect the wealth of the privileged, who have successfully been protecting that wealth and privilege since 1834, would in any way represent them?

It’s beyond me!!

This greed and sleaze is evident throughout their entire reign. They always cut public services and give tax cuts to the wealthy. They protect tax loopholes and ensure the privileged are looked after.

If it wasn’t for a Tory-owned media spewing lies and propaganda they’d never get in.

Poetry – The Ballad of David Cameron, Brexit and Green Swill

Posted on by Opher

The Ballad of David Cameron, Brexit and Green Swill

My name is David Cameron

I’m a jolly Bullingdon boy.

I’ve come from a world of privilege

Where your lives are just a toy.

I’d do anything to gain power

To keep the ERG on side.

So I promised them a referendum

To let the country decide.

I arrogantly assumed

The government would be hung

Just as the polls predicted

But the momentum had swung.

I never thought we’d win.

I thought we’d be in coalition.

Then I could blame the lib-dems

For changing my position.

Blow me down – it all went wrong!

Somehow we pulled it off.

That slim majority

Made the going rough.

So I gave them their referendum.

I never thought we’d lose.

But decades of toxic lies

Had poisoned the public’s views.

We’d given them years of austerity

With ‘We’re all in it together’.

I simply had not thought through my case

To surmount this stormy weather.

The ERG were ready.

They’d been planning this for years!

They had duplicitous Johnson

To honey the public’s ears.

With loads of lies and scare stories

They mounted their campaign.

While the Cameron team floundered

With no arguments to sustain.

Everything we brought up

Was labelled ‘Project Fear’.

The Tabloids beefed up Boris’s lies

The xenophobic message clear.

With the Machiavellian Cummings

To dream up silly slogans

Like ‘Take back control’

It conjured up the omens.

The vote went against us

Leading to years of chaos.

Seeing what was coming

Osborne and I jumped bus.

The moderates were ousted.

The country hopelessly divided.

Extremists pressing for hard Brexit

As ideologies collided.

Osborne and I headed off

Into the pastures green.

Leaving the mess behind us

And all that might have been.

Now we’re both making millions

From endless dodgy deals.

To use our former positions

To get our snouts in swill.

‘We’re all in it together’

Means cuts and food banks.

We’ve left you that clown Johnson

While we’re filling up our tanks.

I nearly made £45 million

From the Greensill deal.

I certainly don’t have to worry

Where I’m getting my next meal.

I’ve got the government on speed-dial

So I can sell the inside story.

Osborne tells them how to avoid tax.

It’s wonderful being a Tory!!

My name is David Cameron.

I messed up the whole nation!

But I’ve come up smelling of roses.

I’m the overnight sensation!

Opher – 19.4.2021

Corruption, sleaze and arrogance!!

That’s all you need when you’re a Bullingdon boy.

Being a Tory politician is a revolving door into a world of plenty!

Poetry – It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

Posted on by Opher

It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This

It doesn’t have to be like this!

We live in a world of guns, shit and piss.

The world is run for a precious few.

The rest of us can go screw.

While kids play in the sewage and waste

Others live on luxury yachts.

It’s a disgrace.

The wealthy and powerful control what we do.

Take too much and they take it off you.

It doesn’t matter that they have it all

They always want more and you’re just a tool.

Without a thought for the future or the misery they cause

They take centre stage to milk the applause.

Heartless, cruel, thoughtless and mean

They take what they want with no in-between.

But it doesn’t have to be this way

There’s more than enough to go around.

We can build a fairer, kinder world

If we can just find the common ground.

There are many of us and they are few.

With one combined voice we can start up anew!

It doesn’t have to be like this!

Opher – 27.3.2021

Having travelled the world and witnessed the poor living in unbelievable squalor, the destruction of the natural world and the contrast with those with immense wealth, it all seems so stupid.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

There is more than enough to go round.

We do not have to destroy the natural world.

We do not need this gross inequality.

We can all be happy and not destroy the planet.

It needs better organisation.