Politics of Slime

Politics of Slime

They love their tractor porn.

                They love their cash.

Corrupt to the core

                They defend their stash.

They steal from the nurses,

                Teachers too,

To give to their chums

                In the banking crew.

Allowed enormous profits, quite obscene

                CEO bonuses grew

Pub landlords and PPE

                Money for nothing – it’s true!

Lies and spin

                Propaganda and skew.

Dark Arts, dirty tricks

                Tory political stew.

Politics of slime

                Where nothing is true.

Tories in the gutter

                Where all the turds are blue!

Opher – 4.5.2023

I have never heard of a government more corrupt, sleazy and incompetent than this Tory one (maybe Trump).

Money for questions, money for honours, money for wallpaper, money for holidays, money for mortgages.

Tractor porn and sexual sleaze, partygate and nepotism.

Chucking money at friends, at family and donors. Wasting billions on bogus PPE, or covid trackers and Dildo Harding, pub landlords and Russians.

Allowing enormous profits for companies. Allowing tax loopholes for the wealthy.

Destroying public services.

Cuts and austerity.

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

P1060257

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:

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.

Poetry – There is a mystic – a poem of wonder

Wonder

P1020298

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:

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.

Prose Cons and poetry cover
610WNe0dsFL__AA160_
Vice and Verse cover
IMG_6343
61U89AzgoAL__AA160_

Share this:

Wonder and Awe – Human Evolution.

Wisdom of the Ages

evolution
evolution6

We were not always alone as we are now. Although we share 99% of our genes with chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest living relatives, we are different. The prime difference being the size of our brains and our intelligence. Once there were a whole host of different humans.

We evolved in the Rift Valley in Ethiopia. We are all of African descent. We are all one species.

The fossil and DNA evidence is conclusive. Racists and creationists have nowhere to hide. All they can do is deny.

A mere five million years ago our common ancestor split off from the chimp line. The Australopithecines had a brain weight of 500 grams (slightly bigger than a chimp). By 1.8 million years ago there were numerous groups of hominids living in the Rift Valley region. We were not alone. They included Homo habilis and Homo erectus.

Life in the Rift Valley was precarious. There was a lot of climatic change.

By 1.4 million years ago only Homo erectus had survived. But their brain size had evolved to 1000 grams.

800,000 years ago Homo heidelbergensis had evolved. Their brain weight had jumped to 1400 grams (comparable to modern man). They gave rise to both the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

Homo sapiens evolved with a brain weight of 1500 grams only 200,000 years ago. We lived alongside our close, and more intelligent, cousins Homo Neanderthal until 45,000 years ago.

We have only been alone for 45,000 years. What a mess we’ve made of things in such a short time!

We are so new that if you took a baby from 200,000 years ago and brought them up in the present day they could be a nuclear scientist, president or rocket scientist without any trouble. We haven’t changed. Our brains are the same.

I like to imagine that somewhere, in a secluded garden of Eden, hidden away, a group of surviving Neanderthals have set up home. Despairing of the destructive violence of their cousins they cloistered themselves away.

I wonder what they would make of the world we have made and our invention of war, religion, pollution, overpopulation, politics, climate change, cruel ways to kill other animals and enough greed, selfishness and power-madness to destroy the planet.

Perhaps with their wisdom and intelligence they could convince us that there is a better way of living. We could take a lesson from the whales and dolphins. We could be gentle and live in a self-sustaining manner in harmony with each other and the planet.

I hope we find them soon. I’m scared of being alone with the megalomaniacs raging around me.

Poetry – The Sun Just is.

The Sun Just is.

The sun just is.

                The story reads itself.

Any dream is as real.

A mind roams the universe.

                We feel

                                We think

                                                We see.

Everything adds up to nothing.

Nothing contains it all.

                We wonder

                                We taste

                                                We conjure.

Reality is inexplicable.

Consciousness an illusion.

                We touch

                                We think

                                                We disappear.

I just am

                When I am.

Opher – 7.12.2021

Explaining infinity, consciousness, dreams or reality requires magic.

We exist.

There is no explanation.

Perspective

Perspective

Like an ant on a leaf

                Contemplating what may be underneath.

Life is too brief.

Like a bacterium in a toilet bowl

                Trying to fathom some higher goal;

Stuck in a minor role.

Life, life is so weird;

                Stranger than we feared.

The universe is not geared;

                                                Understanding is never neared.

Space is so vast

                Though light is so fast

We see into the past

                                                But it leaves us all aghast.

Like a moth around a light

                Understanding the orbit of its flight

With all its might.

Like duckweed in a pond

                Thinking about what may be beyond;

It can’t abscond.

Like a human in his small life

                With work, child and wife;

The daily strife.

Looking for a purpose

                Above the daily curse

That doesn’t make things worse.

Life, life is so weird;

                Stranger than we feared.

The universe is not geared;

                                                Understanding is never neared.

Opher – 25.8.2022

Given the amazing size of the universe and the tininess of our brains it’s incredible that we understand any of it.

In the past we created religions and gods to make sense of what we fail to understand.

We’d rather believe in mysticism than reality.

Yet the universe has enough wonder without us creating layers more.

Life is miraculous enough without us imagining unreal layers.

We are no different to the ant, bacterium, moth or duckweed.

The Journey Pt. 19 – A sling for Singapore – Photos

The Journey

Arriving in Singapore was great, apart from the lengthy customs clearance. After the overcrowded bustle of Vietnam with its poverty, decay, masses of scooters and pollution it was quite a contrast to arrive in a city that was clean, well-organised, well looked after and so full of interest. The MRT was cheap and provided the means to explore Little India, China Town, the Arab quarters and the Marina bay area with its fantastic super trees and modern architecture juxtaposed with the old colonial buildings. They’ve done a great job. It is an amazing city that we wouldn’t mind going back to. We cable carred, trained, bussed, walked, boated, ate, drank and saw the sights!

It is obvious that huge amounts of money have been poured into Singapore. It is a complete contrast to most of the rest of Asia and Indonesia. One is left with the impression that unless the overpopulation problem is solved soon something drastic will happen – the collapse of the ecology of the area? A virus pandemic? Mass starvation? There’s a tipping point. Something bad is about to go off. But Singapore appears immune. The modern buildings and infrastructure nicely complement the old. The underground takes away a lot of the traffic and it seems almost serene. It seemed like a modern city not suffering stress and decay.

First stop was Little India with its shops of spices and trinkets, flowers and tourist goods (including a gruesome pile of dried lizards, fish and other exotic creatures – killed for tourists), peacock statues and brightly coloured housing and shops. The gaily decorated Hindu temples, which were in the midst of ceremonial celebrations, with their flowers, ceramic gods, paintings, offerings, foods and smells were a delight on the eye. The women in their brightly coloured saris and a street sculpture of equally bright parasols provided a real splash. The cows and half naked priests harked back to ancient times as the throngs flocked to worship.

Then it was the Arab sector with its mosque and another set of worshippers in different garb and different customs but equally adamant that their book and ways are the only way; the true word of god – whatever he may be.

I did not concern myself too much with the esoterics of fictional deities but focussed on the art and architecture, which was sumptuous, before searching for the blue cheese flavour ice-cream I had enjoyed on my last visit. Like god it was nowhere to be found.

Next stop was the Buddhist Temple which supposedly had a fang from Buddha as an artefact. Something to get your teeth into. It was also full of worshippers in yet another set of garb, incense, chanting and idols, but at least there were no gods here.

We made our way over to the Marina Bay and the hotel that is a ship on three towers with the amazing array of surreal sci-fi Eco Trees.

They round the bay past the Lion spouting water to the centre and the dock area with its conjunction of old colonial and new. Never has such a marriage worked so well. Night was falling and we settled at a table overlooking the water to partake of beer and crab – an ideal combination.

Then it was back to Marina Bay for a sight of the Eco Trees performing as they danced with their light show!

The next day we boarded the cable car up to the top of the hill, for a view over the surrounding area, and then over to Sentosa Island with its funfair, artificial beaches and tropical forest with a backdrop of ships queuing up for the container port! On the second cable-car ride we went straight over our ship!

By the time we got back a storm was coming through. The sky darkened menacingly and warm rain splashed down in great globs. It created quite a scene as we pulled away. We were leaving a great city. We loved it.

Next stop Kuala Lumpur.

On The Boardwalk

On The Boardwalk

On the boardwalk,

Where the blind man watches the sunset,

The imperious gulls supervise proceedings,

Their beady eyes aloof are all-knowing.

They understand

That there is no need to analyse

In order to comprehend.

They intuitively recognise

That there is as much beauty

In the crushed dog-ends

In the muddy puddle

As there is in the scattering light

Shed by our nearest star.

The day just is.

It exists for us to survive

In a world

Where there is life in a soggy bread crust

And death in a moment’s inattention.

Opher – 10.9.2022

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Probably also in the species of the beholder.

Is it only those who are secure and have plenty who are able to spend precious time appreciating wonders?