{reading right to left}

Tags

1871, 2018, 9*, autumn, blue, brown, chimney stacks, chimneys, confusion, Crystal Palace, damp, dark, decline, draft, drifting, fire, flag, flagpole, garden, gas, high, London, passing, people, Pissarro, progress, reading, sand, shrub, sky, smoke, society, streetlamp, streets, Sydenham, the British Empire, wind

The Crystal Palace, London, 1871

                deep eaves in Sydenham the
                chimney stacks raised high

                to draw the draft – splendid
                in counter – front-garden shrubbery

                left tangled to riot and dampened
                from autumn, seems stuck in

                foreboding brown conflagration;
                the clean stroke of streetlamp

                under sandened sky will not
                be sullied by slimey gas until

                after dark – controlled, controlled blue –
                but, we read in the right direction:

                look, the flag from some
                turgic land of the Empire swaves

                away from its pole – the dirty
                heavens cry – the dwarfed

                chimneys, here, their smoke of
                coke and belch drift

                in the same direction conjuring
                transparent edifice where mens’

                seriousness loom in smudged
                silhouette, foreboding to behold,

                and others scuttle about the
                bright, wide street coming

                and crossing in all direction –
                pushchairs and carriages to hold

 

The Crystal Palace, London, 1871 by Camille Pissaro

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

autumn wormhole: La Route de Louveciennes, 1870
blue & society & streets wormhole: on facing the Have
brown & wind wormhole: SPRING AND ALL I by William Carlos Williams
garden wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – pageant of the trees
London & sky wormhole: London, 1809
passing wormhole: SPRING AND ALL XI by William Carlos Williams
people wormhole: only
reading wormhole: early // Minoan & Mycenaean Exhibitions in the British Museum – diptych

 

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Sheffield Park Gardens

Tags

2016, 9*, air, black, blue, bluebells, branches, Buddha, Carol, children, contemplation, copper beech, creation, daffodil, dandelions, discovery, duck, eyebrow, face, family, fields, flag, future, garden, gem, girls, glance, green, hair, Have, humanity, India, kalpa, lake, land, life, limbs, living, mauve, May, name, passing, petals, plants, pollen, primrose, promise, rhododendron, seeing, serendipity, settlement, shade, Sheffield Park Gardens, sitting, society, stone-chat, talking to myself, transluscency, tribe, voices, walking, water, yellow

                Sheffield Park Gardens

                we walked
                upright
                across wide fields

                in scattered groups,
                family and tribe,
                private longing

                under shaded
                brim for a land
                of silk and money

                8th May 2016, with

                only childrens’ voices
                we walked into
                the garden

                dispersing to
                our hides to make our own
                discoveries

                by happenstance
                and peripheral glance
                held cold and fresh

                before name:
                that stone-chat
                that makes the

                copper beech
                transluscent;
                the cool stretch of branch

                yet to bud
                before the haze
                of dusty pollen;

                what to make
                of the solitary dandelion –
                butter yellow life –

                amid
                fain clusters of primrose; and
                there in the shade,

                mauve-bells and
                daffodil stalks make in-
                visible a steely blue;

                bluebells
                like raised eyebrows, relaxèd
                to see a future;

adult voices pass, now, talking ways of life; young girls practise handstands and routines in the fields;                

                let’s sit by the lake awhile:
                where a duck’s
                head

                sits
                just out the shade of exotic plants
                (let’s say, from India)

                the water lapping
                anywhere (let’s say, oh,
                 two thousand

                 five hundred
                 years ago), tucked
                immaculate

                black
                letting nothing out
                but the feint

                of blue
                or green that will form a gem
                in kalpas

                of contemplation;
                across the water a willow rests
                like a flag

                (girl’s hair
                 recovers from each upswing from each
                 hand-stand);

                turning home
                Carol stooped
                to smell the rhododendron flower

                “oh, …”

                pushed her face
                into the petals with lust
                was it

                because I’d
                said the branches
                were an orgy of slippy limbs

                or was it just me
                making things up
                as we walked along?

 

I know, I know, it’s mid February, and the poem was written and set in a May; it’s not seasonally right, but this was the next in line to be printed: them’s the chops …

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

air wormhole: Batgirl –
black & blue & Carol & passing wormhole: travelling // arrival
branches & voices wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich – Plumstead 220211
Buddha wormhole: om muni muni maha muniye soha
family wormhole: out
garden wormhole: slightly / uphill
green wormhole: The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J Redford – Working
hair wormhole: two profiles
Have wormhole: Coleton Fishacre
life wormhole: sweet chestnut
living wormhole: ‘still …’
mauve wormhole: snapshots about Totnes
seeing wormhole: glide
sitting wormhole: amid
society wormhole: green and / luminant / to behold
talking to myself wormhole: ‘God, who am I …?’
walking wormhole: loss
water wormhole: without any buffet at all
yellow wormhole: greedy

 

clear as vista

Tags

2014, apocalypse, breath, buildings, city, effect, flag, Have, movement, openness, place, relief, seasons, skyline, space, time, view, vista, wind

                buildings of the skyline
                nonchalant and upright

                heave breath through season
                own skyline in years

                wave flags and storey
                benign and unquestioned

                to the wind and the space
                which is safe from view

                the impossible interface be
                tween Have and Open

                for space fits around
                and wind is just movement

                from nowhere to nowhere
                when seen in effect

                when seen in relief their
                built-in apocalypse

                of gathering obsolescence
                is clear as vista

 

this poem was found within the above image which was the most recent in a series of ‘Wordless Wednesday’s by Vanessa Foster in her blog, Unguarded Moments: have a look – https://vgfoster.com/2014/09/17/wordless-wednesday/ – and ‘related’ back to her previous ones, too: they are beautiful

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

breath wormhole: breathing through hypnagogia
buildings & city wormhole: between
Have wormhole: is there anything to write?
openness wormhole: in the Java ‘n’ Jazz
skyline wormhole: the silent night of the Batman
space wormhole: I keep / waiting to be discovered and get lost in anticipation
time wormhole: circuitry
wind wormhole: step

 

the // orange rose

Tags

2015, 7*, being, clouds, communication, creativity, flag, Herstmonceux Castle, listening, metaphor, orange, passing, patience, realisation, rose, sculpture, smell, stone, talking, thinking, time, writing

                we talked, you have to listen
                to the stone, said the sculptor,

                you have to have the patience to
                start and the patience to stop;

                like working with a blank page,
                I said; “but the page was not

                formed by weight of time,” I
                thought, cleverly doing myself

                out of a metaphor; I wandered
                on and stopped to smell the

                orange rose and noticed the
                clouds drift heavy and close

                above the nations’ flags, to
                realise I was wrong to equate

                the stone with paper …

 

the second of four in the Herstmonceux Triptych (uh oh); on this day Hilary Manuhwa was exhibiting his works in the grounds of the castle; we had a lovely scattery conversation under the windy trees; have a look at cultureinstone if you are interested

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being & stone wormhole: may the supreme and precious jewel bodhichitta … // … take birth where it has not yet done so … // … where it has taken birth may it not decrease … // … but may it increase infinitely
clouds & passing wormhole: occa / s / i // o / n / a // l // l // y
communication & time wormhole: pine // gladioli // [&] wisteria
creativity wormhole: No
listening wormhole: returning home handsome
orange wormhole: 1968 – orange sand and mauve mist
realisation wormhole: comfy
smell wormhole: that comicbookshop … // … in dreams
talking wormhole: to rescue something
thinking wormhole: was there a moon / on the alleyway wall / confused in front of / the city skyline?
writing wormhole: holiday

 

listen willya

Tags

2012, 7*, allowing, anxiety, budget, buildings, business, care, communication, consumerism, creativity, David Cameron, education, evaluation, exploration, extension, flag, Have, history, inclusion, innovation, investment, justice, knowledge, learning, lesson, life, listening, love, management, Margaret Thatcher, market, money, nurture, ownership, politics, privatisation, professionalism, prospect, public service, public service cuts, reform, slogans, society, speech, statistics, status, talking, teaching, time, tolerance, Tony Blair, understanding, value-bled education, value-led education, values, vision, wisdom

                                listen willya

                David Cameron, Tony stupid Blair, Margaret bloody Thatcher,
                and all your snivelling Secretaries of Career, and learn this, now –

                                                   don’t go!__
                                business ) education

                you’ve created a RIGHT MESS trying to make it go
                and you’ve spent a QUARTER CENTURY trying to make it go

                trying to work it out with long division, taking everything apart
                to make it go; it just has no value anymore

                nothing has any value anymore, no one cares anymore, we are
                all just anxious; dy’know

                you said KUE* every lesson, I said don’t be so silly,
                I spent five years making it work, I said I’ve made it work

                you said don’t be so silly – it doesn’t influence the statistics;
                I have to go to school now and pretend I’m a professional

                in all sorts of ways to make it look like it goes,
                but it just doesn’t; y’know we’re going to have

                to start all over again if we want anything like education in society again,
                right back to the drawing board; and no history; let’s see –

                                                           _creativity_
                                              nurture ) education

                                               exploration_
                                listening ) education

                                                          _wisdom__
                                              tenure ) education

                           _inclusion_
                vision ) education

                                                                    _innovation_
                                              management ) education

                                                    _extension_
                                exploration ) education

                                 _allowing_
                creativity ) education

                                                            _tolerance_
                                              wisdom ) education

                                                       ___love___
                                              care ) education

                                   _prospect_
                investment ) education

                                        __justice_
                                love ) education

                oh I could go on and on; and – no offence – but stuff your statistics
                and your statuses and your budgets and your slogans

                and your privatisation and your reform, screw them up
                into one huge ball and throw them

                in the bin, and let’s just have some
                honest communication now; you, all of you, went wrong

                as soon as you thought that public service should be value for money,
                (should save money, should make money), but no –

                                               ___don’t go!___
                                business ) public service

                a society that is alive, and rugged, makes money
                to build public service, not own it, to run public service,

                not demand of it, gives service to the public, not a market,
                gives life to society, not just consuming it

                you lot don’t know the first thing about big society, none of you,
                public service should absorb money, it should be

                soaked with money, it should lose money: the only reason
                money should exist is for public service,

                because the service it gives is always far more important
                than a big building and a flag;

                so, stop playing your endless games of balance and measure –
                you’re wasting far too much human –

                and start saying something alive, start doing something truthful;
                c’mon now, you look ridiculous

 

* Knowledge Understanding Evaluation

                                                   don’t go!__
                                business ) education

it might well be that the above format won’t make any sense if you are anywhere under the age of 45: it is the revered and ancient way of setting out division calculations in Mathematics; it ‘reads’, “business [divided into] education [=] don’t go”, where you might more readily have “5 [divided into] 60 [=] 12” … the result appears ‘on top’, leaving the space below to do the working out of long division (“17 [divided into] 43.6299 [=] 2.56646470588”; ‘show your working-out, boy’ thwackk)

I first wrote this in 2012 when there was industrial action over teachers’ pay and conditions – just about the time I started completely losing my emotional marbles at work; I have slightly reconfigured the piece and re-posted it on the day that the NUT is taking industrial action over teachers’ workload, pay and budget cuts: what does the government respond: ‘we are spending more than ever on education’!? … ‘show your working-out, girl’ thwackk!!!

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

allowing wormhole: need
anxiety wormhole: what I am about to say is true / what I just said was a lie
buildings wormhole: the policies came to nothing
communication & politics wormhole: B le tch l ey P ark
creativity & life & love & society & teaching & time wormhole: ashramas
education wormhole: the coming of ‘The Boats of Vallisneria’ by Michael J. Redford
evaluation & understanding wormhole: the Apple
Have wormhole: Jericho
history wormhole: currency of generations
justice wormhole: dedication
knowledge wormhole: Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters] – introdepthion
learning wormhole: aghh – we’ve been infected / it’s spreading through the system / we’re losing our files … / it’s taken out the processor … / I, I can’t open with this program anymore … / it’s scanning me – / I’ve got to buy a Virus Protection Program / from it …
listening wormhole: plop!
management wormhole: dry rot
money wormhole: tired
professionalism wormhole: dash
speech wormhole: a crack of lightning / in the dark of night
talking wormhole: “Darling” – poewieview #28
value-led education wormhole: Totnes
values wormhole: Dear Sir/Madam,

 

wriving

Tags

2011, being, breathing, flag, identity, life, living, others, poetry, school, seeing, talking to myself, teaching, world, writing

 

 

 

                                              wriving

                when I try too hard people just get annoyed
                     I only got average grades at school

                my writing is not to prove me to the world
                     not to be sent through boarding school

                not in writing not in teaching not in my worth
                     that touch the lives of people

                I do not have to raise a flag in the world to be
                     I create privately sufficient unto themselves

sufficient for to see, sufficient for to breathe …

                                     …

                                                                  write
                                                             write a huge book of poems
                                                                  unorganised and all over the place
                                                                               sufficient just to be

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being & writing wormhole: open window
breathing wormhole: travelling
identity wormhole: the Conqueror
life wormhole: fantasia
living wormhole: Totnes
others wormhole: dedication
poetry & teaching wormhole: the stance of Buscema // qualitatively
school wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich 121114
seeing wormhole: start where / you are II
talking to myself wormhole: escape from Flat Planet
world wormhole: Bodiam Castle

 

wriving

Tags

2011, 6*, being, breathing, career, creativity, flag, identity, others, poetry, school, settling, talking to myself, teaching, writing

 

 

 

                                                              wriving

                           when I try too hard people just get annoyed
                                I only got average grades at school

                           my writing is not to prove me to the world
                                not to be sent through boarding school

                           not in writing not in teaching not in my career
                                that touch the lives of people

                           I do not have to raise a flag in the world to be
                                I create privately sufficient unto themselves

                           sufficient for to see, sufficient for to breathe …

                                          write
                                     write a huge book of poems
                                          unorganised and all over the place
                                                   sufficient just to be

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being wormhole: holiday
breathing wormhole: LET’S GO!
career wormhole: returning home
creativity wormhole: muse
identity wormhole: eighth birthday // now
others wormhole: preee- / senting // en- / senting
school & teaching wormhole: nightmare
settling wormhole: the sea plant
talking to myself wormhole: thy will be done
writing wormhole: Versatile Blogger Award