Don’t come out, Mr Cameron!

Tags

Brexit, Conservative Prime Ministers, Cotswolds, David Cameron, Referendum, shepherd's hut, writer's retreat

… all is not forgiven.

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart. All Rights Reserved

Waiting for a taxi in Brexit Britain

Tags

bicycle built for two, Brexit Britiain, idiomatic expressions, Metroland, rain, summer 2019

Photo by Husband of Candia – under strict instruction.

At present it really is raining cats and dogs, stair rods or

whatever non-EU idiom you care to employ.

The automobile is finished.  For those who can’t afford

a carriage, they’ll just have ‘to look sweet on a bicycle

built for two.’

Metroland becomes Retroland.

Wolf Hall Understudy

Tags

Hilary Mantel, Mark Rylance, Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall

Candia understudies Mark Rylance- takes on his ‘mantel!’

Photo by Candia’s Significant Other

Devolved Parliament

Tags

Banksy, Brexit Day, Bristol Museum, chimpanzees, devolved parliament, House of Commons, Laugh Now

This gallery contains 3 photos.

A Clerihew For Our Times

Tags

Beckett, clerihew, Mrs May

Oh, Mrs May,

what are we to do when there’s only one day

left, until we’re floundering,

jusqu’aux cous in merde; unable to sing?

 

 

Dog Toys

Tags

Boris Johnson, dog toys, Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn, political satire, Theresa May

as seen in an Oxford shop window today!

Photos by Candia

Edward Bawden mural, Blackwell’s, Oxford

Tags

Blackwell's, Edward Bawden, mural, Oxford

Taking A Liberty

Tags

anarchy, Andromeda, Animal Farm, Burne-Jones, Cassiopeia, casuistry, censorship, Diaz, Dr Atl, etymology, free expression, guerilla warfare, hacendados, Heaven, Hell, Liberty, liberty/licence, Pre-Raphaelites, Prometheus, revolution, volcanoes

Another poem inspired by Prometheus Unbound

by P B Shelley:

Andromeda by Burne-Jones: Wikipedia

 

A wheel will come full circle, you will find.

The outcome’s in the etymology

of ‘revolution.’  Think ‘Animal Farm.’

 

‘You seize the flower; the bloom is shed,’ Rab said.

Heaven and Hell are one’s inner landscapes.

Give a man an inch; he’ll take a mile.

 

Liberty/ licence – where to draw the line?

Free expression/ censorship : who can judge?

Anarchy is based on casuistry.

 

Prometheus played with fire and was burnt.

Imagination versus tyranny.

He who is king over himself is free.

 

Cassiopeia took the liberty

of a frank assessment of others’ looks.

Say nowt if you can’t say anything nice.

 

Why did the Pre-Raphaelites feel free

to create soft porn from mythology?

Liberty bodices off; shackles on.

 

‘When tigers are unleashed, who controls them?’

said Diaz, while Dr Atl opposed

slaves’ exploitation by hacendados,

 

exploding guerilla warfare into print,

like lava from his beloved volcanoes –

but he still became a neo-Nazi.

 

So, I’m suspicious of all these Titans,

larger than life, whose words stream in the wind.

They’re the self-acknowledged legislators,

 

crying, ‘Liberty, equality… (Blah!)

prior to being overthrown – not by a coup –

yet everywhere men are free, but in chains.

 

Unique Nobility

Tags

Demeter, dichotomy, Fennel, Free Will, Golden Age, liberty/licence, Mecone, nobility, Pandora, Persephone, pomegranate, Prometheus Unbound, Shelley, tax havens, Titans

A poem to celebrate the bi-centenary of ‘Prometheus

Unbound’ by PB Shelley:

 

 

We always want slightly more than our share,

whether it’s food, or perceived liberty

and we, like Prometheus, play tricks,

but gods fore-know what is our little game.

 

Everyone wants to live in Mecone,

in a Golden Age of wealth, abundance,

with a personal cornucopia;

or to be on the same standing as gods –

expressing a modicum of Free Will;

able to question who has sovereignty.

 

The problem with challenging Order is,

it often involves (slight) deceit.

Liberty!  Desirable; dangerous!

 

There is shame in personal ownership:

else, why do we hide sparks in fennel stalks,

or in off-shore tax havens, for that matter?

The flames of liberty need to be fed.

They will consume us, as they are consumed.

 

Demeter found there was a compromise.

Persephone, you lied.  You were not forced

to eat pomegranate seed.  You screamed rape.

Pandora, with a thief’s temperament,

you actually had the soul of a bitch.

 

Is it better to reign in Hell, or serve

in Heaven?  Prometheus, your attempt

just raises the age-old dichotomy:

liberty / licence.  Where is the balance?

Some can subsist on sacrificial smoke;

Titans and men require sustenance:

labour, nourishment and nobility.

 

Salisbury Collage

Tags

collage, found objects, poisoning, Salisbury, Skripal, spy, subliminal, trefoil radiation symbol

I have never noticed that there is a kind of ionising radiation

trefoil symbol on one of the buildings in the roofscape.  Unintentional,

I’m sure.  In line with ‘found objects’ and the subliminal, I only saw it after

I had pasted it on!