Poetry – Codas, Cadences and Clues – Through review

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My new book of poetry and commentary has now passed its review and is moving on to the processing procedures.

It will soon be available on Amazon.

In the meantime if you are desperate to own an Opher book you can purchase the others through Amazon. You will find my full range of books available at very reasonable prices. I can guarantee the range of acerbic comment, wit, tales, stories and thought provoking novels.

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-ent

Thank you and please leave a review.

My Poetry Books – They are not poetry books.

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These are the five books of poetry I have so far published. They are not merely books of poems. Each of these poems is accompanied by an extensive commentary. It covers everything facet of human existence – love, hate, passion, biology, science, religion, travel, the environment, sex, antitheism, social issues, politics, death, travel, the universe……..

There is nothing off limits

They make you think, make you laugh, make you cry and make you smile.

This is unadorned passion. I speak my mind. I am in these books.

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-ent

Poetry – There is a mystic – a poem of wonder

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There is a Mystic

I am an antitheist. I believe that there is not only no god but that religion is all about power, is man-made and creates more harm than good.

Having said that I recognise that there is a strange connection at work.

I feel attracted to the beauty of rocks, trees, gorges, sea, lakes and sunsets. I am not alone in experiencing these feelings. Our ancestors worshipped these things before they invented gods. There is a majesty about them.

I can lie on my back and peer up into the night sky and experience awe as I whirl with the stars.

I can peer up at the moon and feel some lightening of my thoughts.

It is no wonder that primitive people, without the knowledge that science has brought, would experience these feelings and imagine the power of moon, sun, rocks and trees as possessing the spirits of gods.

I hope we have put this type of superstition behind us.

But Physics has shown us that there is more strangeness in the quantum world than we ever could have imagined.

I believe there is a lot more for us to discover. We are at the very beginning.

I do not have other words to describe the power that resides in these things. There is a mystic at work.

I cannot find words to express the delight in contacting a human being, or an animal. There is wonder, awe and mystery. There is warmth and communion beyond mere friendship.

There is something I will call mystic.

There is a Mystic

 

There is a mystic

In the sun and sea;

A mystic

In a grain of sand.

 

There is a mystery

In the rock and tree

And in the grasping

Of a hand.

 

Opher 22.3.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

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Poetry – Take me back to – a poem that reworks the theme of disilluisionment

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Take me back to

As I walked around the deck of the Marco Polo and thought about the immense changes that have taken place in the last two hundred years I kept reworking this poem.

I’ve travelled through oceans that once teemed with life and are now empty.

I visited islands where British ships replenished their larders by bludgeoning to death all the indigenous creatures.

Two hundred years ago life teemed. Now it is hanging on by its talons.

I am aging in fits and starts on a slow decline towards an inevitable death. The planet is on a similar trajectory.

In the next two hundred years we will have paved it all, caged what’s left and be living in an artificial, plastic paradise, as free as any good consumer can be.

Take me back to where I can breathe and wonder. I want out of this nightmare. 

 

Take me back to

Take me back to the African plains;

Away from the bombs of the insane;

Away from the craziness of god’s refrain;

Away from the missiles and blood stains;

Away from every human brain;

All the bones of the animals we have slain;

The trees that rot where they’re lain.

I’d send the whole lot down the drain

And start over again.

So I could wonder at the universe

In one sand grain

And find the will

To refrain

From slaughter.

 

Opher 22.2.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

Poem – Papa Jose – The only good addiction is love

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Papa Jose – The Only Good Addiction is Love

Jose Majica is an old man, a past President of Uruguay, a fat old contented man, living modestly in a little house no bigger than most of his compatriots. He is a man who spurned the trappings of power and wealth. He is a man that has been shot three times for his beliefs and refused to die. He was a terrorist rebel. He stood for fairness, justice and equality.

He is one of the few who put those values into practice when he achieved power. For Jose it was not rhetoric.

He was a liberaliser and a pragmatist.

He legalised marijuana but insisted that it was not good. He stated that the only good addiction was love. But it was better for the health of the people if the drug was controlled and the money taken out of the hands of the underworld.

He chuckles a lot. He is old and fat but still full of fire.

I wish he ruled the world.

Papa Jose – The Only Good Addiction is Love

 

Love

Is the only

Good addiction.

That is the magic of Mujica.

 

Fairness

Is the only

Thing worth being shot for.

That is the magic of Mujica.

 

Equality

Is the only

Struggle worth a bean.

That is the magic of Mujica.

 

Freedom

Is the only

Dream to hang on to.

That is the magic of Mujica

 

Hope

Is only one

Of the gifts

That Jose Mujica radiates.

 

Opher 29.1.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

Poetry – How? Why? What? And Who?

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How? Why? What? And Who?

I am always intrigued by the workings of my mind – where do the thoughts originate? How do words form in my head and find their way to my tongue? I am always afraid that when I speak publically the words will cease to present themselves, my head will be empty, and I will dry up.

It is a process that I am not in control of.

I do not like not being in control of it. Yet it usually seems to work very well. It is only the fear that holds me back.

I am also intrigued by the idea of personality. Is there something intrinsic to each one of us? Or are we nothing more that the products of our culture, upbringing and experience? What is the essence of ourselves?

What is it that makes me hold back from joining in with this society? Why do I not wish to fit in? Life would be easy. It can be easier if you conform. Yet I find myself questioning the morality and motives of our leaders. I do not trust them. I do not wish to be part of this machine of modern society. I do not trust this relentless progress towards apocalypse.

I hold a lot of things dear. I do not know why I have a leaning towards those values, attitudes and feelings. I find many experiences pleasurable and get intensely upset by other things. Why do I find the destruction of the natural environment and slaughter of our wild-life so distressing? Why are so many others quite happy to inflict pain on animals and gain immense pleasure out of doing so?

Something has made me care and others not.

Something has made me wish to do something about injustice while others merely seek to exploit any weakness for their own gain.

I am the person I am. I do not know how I became that person. Was it genetic? Or was it the life I have led?

I live. I dream. I try. I die.

How? Why? What? And Who?

 

How do I think?

How do I speak?

Where do the words originate

From those I choose to seek?

 

Why do I question?

Why do I try?

Why do I believe

The whole world

Is one big lie?

 

What gives me pleasure?

What causes pain?

What makes some men

Live for nothing more

Than selfish gain?

 

Who is this person?

That I think of as I?

What makes me tick?

And when will I die?

 

Opher 29.1.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Poetry – embrace the strange – a poem about being open and positive to new experience

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Embrace the Strange

They say that travel expands the mind. That may be true for some. It may be the opposite for others. It may foster greater understanding and respect or it may merely reinforce prejudices. It depends on the attitude of all concerned.

To visit a new culture with excitement, eager to sample what it has to offer, is a positive frame of mind. To gawk as a tourist without touching its soul is exploitative.

Experience is what life has to offer. If you do not reach you cannot grow.

I am involved in the experience of tasting South America. It is such a brief taste but the flavour lingers and explodes on the palate.

We are all evolved from the same mother though her children have many hues and spirits. It is good to reconnect, no matter how briefly, and know we are siblings.

It is good to absorb the nuance of colour, light, flavour and attitude. It lifts the soul.

Distance creates stereotypes, division and hatred.

Closeness can only be good.

Embrace the strange and grow.

Embrace the Strange

 

All around

The strange architecture

Of a different land.

The Colours, smells and language;

Customs, dress

And South American sway.

 

Perhaps Buenos Aires will provide the answer?

Perhaps another beer?

A glass of wine?

Or meeting of happenstance?

Whatever it may be.

Go with it.

Open the mind

And go with the flow.

 

If I arrive with a smile,

With eyes prepared to see,

I might find what it is I seek;

The solution

To a better way;

The adventure and

Touching of spirits.

We might break down

The barriers

And even melt

The razor wire

That separates

Our minds.

 

Opher 29.1.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

Poetry – I will scream – a poem about torture and making a stand against it

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I Will Scream

I am a writer, a blogger, an atheist free-thinker, a left-wing socialist, a trade unionist and an open critic of State and religion. All of those things would put me at the forefront of the people to be rounded up, tortured and ‘disappeared’.

Fortunately I live in England and that is not likely to happen though the possibility always exists.

I have studied torture and I know I would not last long. I would do anything to make it stop.

But I also know that there would still remain a small part of me that would remain opposed to everything the fascist torturers stand for.

At this moment in time I am aware that there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of people undergoing the most terrible torture imaginable.

That is an indictment of all humanity.

My only hope is that we are slowly becoming more civilised and less barbaric and callous. Looking back through history, where cruelty and the most obscene torture were common, it is possible to discern an improvement. Even taking into account the inhuman behaviour of ISIS we can detect a universal improvement. Perhaps one day our species might evolve into a caring, compassionate species. Hopefully that will happen before we destroy the whole planet.

Until then I shall stand against all abhorrent behaviour.


 

I Will Scream

 

I will scream.

I will beg and implore.

And I will be hopelessly broken like most of the others.

I do not have the bravery to do otherwise.

I know the agony will melt my mind.

And I will tell you everything.

I will do anything to bring it to an end.

I will betray my friends and family –

Even my wife and children.

I will not be able to stop myself.

I know this.

My mind will shriek in white agony until it falls apart.

My terror will dissolve me.

I will be utterly destroyed.

I am no hero.

I do not have the strength of a hero.

I am much too weak and my imagination too strong.

 

But know this:

Through all that happens,

No matter how much I mean every word I shriek,

Every promise and betrayal,

There will be a tiny part of me

That will be forever

Resolved against you

And all you stand for!

 

Opher 28.1.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

Poetry – This moment – the third in my humanist secular ritual poems for all people.

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This Moment

To give thanks for life is enough. It is not necessary to attribute a creator. To give thanks for the universe does not need to imply an intelligent force. To acknowledge the beauty and wonder does not require a supernatural force.

It is sufficient to feel it, take joy in it and exalt in the beauty, wonder and awe.

Each one of us is free to believe whatever they like.

Whatever a man or woman may believe does not detract from the ecstasy of experiencing each moment to its fullest extent.

Each moment is precious.

Life is short.

Our task is surely to maximise our experience and love, love, love.

 

This Moment

 

Through many roads and twist of fate

We come to this moment.

We are thankful

For the string of moments

We will possess.

For these moments

Are our window into the world.

 

It is better to experience

Than not.

It is our time

In this moment

To soak in the wonders

Until our spirits

Are saturated

With wonder.

 

We are thankful

To have evolved brains

That contrive consciousness

And reason,

A body that has evolved

With the ability

To realise the splendour

Of this planet.

 

Opher 14.3.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

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Thank you and please leave a review.

Poetry – Each Moment – the second humanist poem for a secular ritual.

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Each Moment

This is the second of my secular ritual poems I talked about with Dave Kingsbury. I think the balls in his court now. He’s got to devise the rituals that aren’t too cheesy and silly to go with them. Best of luck.

To give thanks for life and to be grateful that we have evolved eyes to see and senses with which to witness something of the majesty of the universe – to be thankful that the universe exists.

There are mysteries all around us and we use our senses and the instruments we devise with our intelligence to understand and marvel.

Each moment here is heaven. We have no need for more.

Intelligence is rare. Life might be so rare we will never contact another race. But we can imagine, feel and experience the enormity of infinite possibility.

That is exalting in itself.

We should have rituals for each and every sunset. They are precious.

 

Each Moment

 

Each moment is precious –

Each and every moment.

Each moment is a great gift from fate,

Born of chance.

We are thankful for this great opportunity to breathe,

This chance to soak

In the dreams of life.

For what we have is more precious

Than we can imagine.

We are thankful

For the opportunity

To see oceans,

Sunsets,

Mountains

And sky.

We are thankful

For plants, animals

Moors and forests.

We are fortunate;

We have the great fortune to live.

 

Opher 14.3.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-ent

Thank you and please leave a review.