Book Launch – Fighting Words

Posted on by Opher

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.

A Shitstorm

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A Shitstorm

There’s a shitstorm on the streets

                The poets are all asleep

The world run by a clown

                Keeping their heads down.

The red caps came for Jeff

                But the singers are all deaf

It couldn’t happen here

                To the migrants and the queer

But the victimised

                Are normalised.

They are coming for the migrants

                Women and infants

They are coming for the woke

                Soon the other folk

There’s a shitstorm on the streets

                The poets are all asleep

Opher – 29.1.2025

A madness seems to have taken over. We’ve forgotten about kindness and compassion.  All you need is love. Those were the days.

All you need is hate is the new mantra.

They are coming for the migrants. They are coming for the woke.

They are busy burning books.

They will soon be attacking the queer.

Intolerance  rules.

They’ll be stonings in the square.

They’ll be burnings in the stadia.

The Bright Bits of Harry

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The Bright Bits of Harry

Harry was bright as any bell

The army taught him how to yell

Around poor Harry they all fell

Making Harry quite unwell

Left looking very pale

Had PTS for a spell

He thought he too might catch a shell

Too late for that alarm bell

They blew poor Harry all to hell

Victim of the big hard sell

A trillion droplets off the scale

Bravery holds no parallel

While catching missiles from the infidel.

For Harry – one last death knell!

Opher – 14.8.2024

It’s just a game, deploying meat to the old meat grinder.

Poetry & Philosophy

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Poetry & Philosophy

Those who would philosophise

                Most seriously

With dreams and schemes,

Must tread the earth

                Precariously

To smell

                The putrid stench

                                Of pointlessness.

Opher -13.1.2025

That’s life!

All Right!

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All Right!

All right! Alright!

                I’ve been better!

All right! Alright!

                Water’s wetter!

Shazam!

                Magic word!

Sesame!

                Phoenix bird!

All life in a sunset.

All dreams in the night.

All possibility

In the spectrum of twilight.

Opher – 15.12.2014

I always find that an open fire or the glow of a sunset release the mind so that it can wander free. That’s magic.

It opens doors into thoughts and renews the spirit.

Fires and sunsets heal.

Your mind can wander through memories and thoughts, drift effortlessly, at peace.

That glow is magic.

Everything?

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Everything?

Everything?

                Five senses.

                                Something.

Everything?

                The spectrum.

                                Part.

Everything?

                The universe.

                                One planet.

Everything?

                Life.

                                Short.

Everything?

                Understand.

                                Nothing.

Opher – 10.12.2024

Here we are – tiny microbes in an infinite universe totally beyond our comprehension.

We see next to nothing.

We experience next to nothing.

We live a miniscule span.

We understand so little.

Yet we think we know it all.

We believe that what we do see is somehow all there is. We do not comprehend that we perceive a tiny portion of the spectrum. Reality is so much more.

Stranded

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Stranded

Stranded

                On the shore.

Marooned

                With psychotic apes;

Demented

                Paranoid beings;

Intent

                On destruction;

Overwhelmed

                With greed,

Lusting

                For power;

Adrift

                From reality;

Wondering

                What to do?

Opher – 20.11.2024

Every now and then I stand back to take in the whole of human history and the present state of play.

I have to assume that as a species we are completely insane.

All I see is cruelty, torture, war, lust, greed and power. It’s completely psychotic.

The world is a wonderful place. There is more than enough for everyone to live happily and well. Yet we don’t.

A small number have more than they could ever possibly need; a majority live in poverty.

We are surrounded with beauty and wonder and do our best to destroy it.

We create religions, political systems and use them to divide, breeding hate, war and fear.

We invent weapons of mass destruction and tools to elicit maximum pain.

We misuse resources and practice cruelty as entertainment.

We are still fighting wars and acting like barbarous monsters.

Those who have want more. They never have enough.

Those who hold power want greater power and to crush all opposition.

We elect sociopathic, narcissistic psychopaths and expect them to care for us.

Is there a way out of this mess? I used to be optimistic. Can we not control our worst impulses? Don’t humans also possess a kind, caring, altruistic side? Couldn’t we elect nice people for a change? Do we have to withdraw into our own little cocoons, protected from the insane masses, in order to live our lives?

Is nowhere safe?

Our Breath

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Our Breath

My breath,

                Our breath,

                                The rustle of leaves.

My heartbeat,

                Our heartbeat,

                                Susurrations on the breeze.

My dreams,

                Our dreams,

                                Green splendour of nature.

My life,

                Our life,

                                Defying all nomenclature.

Adrift on a cosmic island,

                Wondrously

Alive

                Myriads

                                Interconnected

                                                Wonders.

Opher – 20.11.2024

Sometimes you simply have to stand aside and gasp. Here we are on this tiny rock spinning and spiralling through space at colossal speeds.

Once, just once, the chemicals came together.

Now we have this vast interconnected web of wonder, spawning consciousness, self-awareness and beauty.

So delicate, so unlikely, so marvellous.

Incredible. I am incredulous.

We are part of this. We are all one. My breath; our breath.

Snow! – The view from our window this morning!

Posted on by Opher

It’s bloody cold!! We had our first smattering of snow. It did make everything look very beautiful! I opened the curtains and this is what I saw.

Recommended Albums – Roy Harper – Stormcock

Posted on by Opher

Recommended Albums – Roy Harper – Stormcock

537 Essential Rock Albums cover

It would be great if we were to share our best albums. So if everyone put forward a view of what they love. I’ll put them up here for everyone to share. I’ll have a page of recommended albums (with connections to You Tube where possible).

Now it just so happens that I’ve already done this with my book 537 Essential albums. It was also a bit of synchronicity that Andrew suggested Stormcock as Stormcock is also my number one album of all time.

https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/card?preview=inline&linkCode=kpd&ref_=k4w_oembed_00Sdv7H7SBfPyC&asin=1502787407&tag=kpembed-20

So that is a good place to start (This is an extract from my book 537 Essential Albums). This is my number one recommended album.

  1. Roy Harper – Stormcock

Roy Harper is the greatest British song-writer and poet. There is no one who even gets close. His acerbic lyrics and social commentary are unsurpassed. He rivals Bob Dylan as the greatest songwriter of all time and is greatly undervalued. This is not surprising as he has constantly shot himself in the foot and sabotaged his own career. He remains the foremost British dissident and commentator on the human condition. His epic songs are legendary and the music sublime.

Stormcock is arguably his best album but is strongly pushed by both HQ and Lifemask. I would place at least ten of Roy’s albums in my top 400 albums. He’s that important to me.

The Stormcock album features only four tracks but the album is one of his masterpieces. It consists of brilliant songs with poetic imagery and wide canvasses that challenge your imagination. The music and musicianship was innovative and of an excellence that puts this album top of my top ten thousand. It is one of four Harper albums that would make it into my top ten albums of all time. I have a penchant for great meaningful lyrics put to brilliant music and this hits the spot. I never tire of hearing these songs and simply cannot understand why Roy has not been lauded from on high. I love the depth and insight he brings to bear and the risks he takes in developing his ideas through epic songs. Few people can match it. Roy’s shorter songs are also great but these four songs show how Roy has matured and taken his art to another level. ‘Me and my woman’ is one of the very best tracks ever recorded. The scope is immense and Roy was at the top of his game. I am fully aware that not everybody shares my opinion. I can see that it is never going to be commercial. Roy’s work is thought-provoking, intelligent and musically intricate. You have to concentrate. It’s not your catchy pop song – fortunately! But it is well worth the effort. For me Roy is the James Joyce of music as opposed to Simon Cowell’s Barbara Cartland.

Catch ‘Me and My Woman’ on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC5gebGthAs

This is ‘Same Old Rock’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlBr1eVYq90

OK – Now it’s your turn. I’ll put out some more of these. But I want to hear from you with your favourite albums, a reason why and if possible a You Tube connection.

That will be fun and interesting – Looking forward to hearing from you!