Updates

I am trying to get the Sunday Scrapbook Show, starring Various and supported by me, online for those that have missed it - or enjoyed my fast paced nervous renditions of some of my poems. And my fantastic attempt to sound clever but saying "singer songer" as a new form of artistic movement. And would you like to relive the short history of Burnley I gave. I would.

Well I am trying to make it in to a movie and then split it into six parts, whack it on Youtube and then slap it on here. And all the while attempting to write something new for group and for Glor.

In the meantime I am scouring the earth, Facebook, for guest Bloggers and persuading Dan to do another post, but on what? Suggestions?

If anyone noticed that I put up a Blog sometime over the weekend and then it promptly vanished, like a blogging version of Lord Lucan or Richey James. The reason I took it down was simply the draft was funnier than the end product. We strive for, and more often than not miss, perfection.

The land of Honey and Cheese or Daniele Simoni's blog post

Due to laziness and a desire to widen the scope of my world view, I will start to have guest bloggers. And yes, I did steal the idea from DO.

The intention is to widen the scope of this blog, to bring in different ideas other than my own idiosyncratic view. It is to look at the familiar with a different set of eyes and to see something new in the staleness.

First to post is Daniele Simioni and his blog about Dante’s Inferno. Dan is Italian, about five foot odd and a former flat mate of mine.

Also, in other news it is my Polish Name Day so everybody sing ‘Sto Lat’.

Inferno

Being Italian the word “poem” soon recalls La Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri. Some info: The Comedy is one of the greatest epic poems of the Medieval Literature and it describes the journey of the protagonist through the afterlife, this intended in the Roman Catholic terms of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, or as we say in Italian: “Inferno”, “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso”.

As a student, and an adult, I have always found the Inferno to be the most interesting of the three: this is because of the humanity which it expresses. All of the sufferings and the stories told are genuinely part of the universal human experience. The first place Dante walks through is the Limbo, where all the people who died un-baptized are. This is not a place of sufferings but it is a place of sighs, where neither happiness nor sadness is really known. Souls live in the constant hope of being saved by God. This is the place where the major figures of Poetry and Philosophy of the pre-Christian era can be found from Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Ovid and Seneca and many others.

Regardless, what are the moral implications of this stage of the Inferno? I believe that the Limbo stage is a paradigm of our society. We live in the society of knowledge, where science and technology replaced literature and philosophy. What does this mean? We are still looking for the truth, whatever the shape of it can be. We are still pushing our boundaries towards places where we hope we will find the light that can lead us all. In the final instance the need that few of us have of writing Poetry is an expression of it; this is the need that gives us the opportunity to discover ourselves and to be who we are meant to be. It is a constant tension towards the unknown.

We don’t accept any given answer: believing in God as it is described by Religions is a comfort zone, let’s get out of it.

In this respect, does it make sense to profess ourselves Atheist, Christian or anything else? And most importantly why every time I am with Matt watching Burnley play I assist to a massacre?

Football, Football, Football

Today it is Burnley, my beloved team, play my missus team.

So it is:

Burnley Football Club

Versus

Liverpool.

Those Left Behind

This is a transcription of the poem I read out on Various' Radio show at the weekend (thanks Various for letting me on BTW).

I am looking into getting the show itself on here. But, I just need the technical know how. Well, my mate to tell me how.

Those Left Behind

What do you say about a man you hardly knew?
But in your span was in view
At family events or with my Dad for a Sunday brew.

What do you say about a man who hardly knew you?
But knew enough to swipe
At the arrogence of academics and youth.

What do you say when he's not there?
Those left behind are never prepared
And stories of his youth don't relate.

What do you say when you don't want to go
But seven days later
You have a box on your shoulder?

What do you say to those younger?
Who have seen death but need closure,
When all you can offer is a stronger shoulder.

When in the silence of the viewing room
And the buzz of the lights and the shell you hardly knew
Lies there still, questioning you – what do you say?

What do you say to your distraught father
When you have shed no tears
And you won't because you ought to.

What do you say when standing at the front
Lines and rollers and fires burning the nape
But you cannot think of a damn word to say.

What do you say to a man you hardly knew?
Sorry, but you was there
Without ever actually being there wasn't you?

When memories are mentioned,
When times and friendships and loves
Are anecdotes and fables?

When “I'm sorry” is empty.
When you search for meaning
And find nothing.

When relatives grieve
And you just want to leave.
But, you cannot and you will not.

Better Politics

Apparently, most politicians are scum on the make... who knew? Not me but I pay little attention to anything. However, some people don't. Some people still believe they can make a difference and change things.

This site I stumbled on, www.betterpol.com, aims to do just that. It is mainly British in its political orientation but its principles are, sadly, universal. If you join then you can complain about the Irish, American, Zimbabwean or European parliaments.