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

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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

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Blackwell's, Edward Bawden, mural, Oxford

Taking A Liberty

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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

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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!

 

 

 

 

Details from Theresa May Collage

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collage, Donald Trump, Robert Rauschenberg, strong and stable, Theresa May

 

Don’t ask me ‘Why?’  No one asked Robert Rauschenberg

that question….  Did they?

Quote for the Day

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An Account from my Hut, Kamo no Shomei, quotation

From The Miscellany of a Japanese Priest by Kenko,

14th century, referencing Kamo no Chomei)

‘When reforms bring no benefit, it is better to leave things as they are.’

 

Topical artwork

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Man of Sorrows, Mexicans, Mother of Exiles, Statue of Liberty

Provocative artwork?

The Ivy

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Genji, Kaoru, Mura, Wistaria Lady

(Metropolitan Museum of Art; Chapter 49: Tale of Genji)

 

She who was known as

The Wistaria lady

had just one daughter.

Would she succeed where she’d failed?

She would not find out;

all too soon, she passed away.

The motherless girl

had no strong support at court:

the frost-fringed chrysanthemums

a chilly comment

on her sad predicament.

Kaoru was chosen.

The Emperor summoned him

and asked him to pluck a bloom.