Mary was trying to find an online shop where she had once bought a red winrer coat~
Instead. she landed on Amazon
Oh, there’s a nice frying pan,she thought.
She enlarged the screen and saw the words,Amazon Echo
That’s a strange name for a pan, she muttered
Then she realised it was a new fangled device which may be collecting messages& images for MI5
I wonder if my email has anything suspicious in it?
I have written to two people weekly then my sister and my six brothers
Are any of them under suspicion?
Soon,Mary realised that the Echo would not collect anythbg unless you had one installed in your home
I suppose it’s a bit like God.We can read about him,
go to church or pray but meeting him would be totally different
But Jesus hinted that if we fed the hungry or washed the feet of a beggar we were meeting God
In Knittingham all the beggars have shoes, she murmured
Maybe I could wash their hair?
God may be right here,but just as the blind can’t see colours we may lack some sense that would enable us to see God or even angels.
Annie knocked on the window.
Shall we have a cup of tea? Oh.I say, are you getting an Echo?
I don’t think I need one, unlike a shadow.I thought it was a frying pan
I recall you have burned two plus 7 milkpans
Don’t keep going on about it,Mary begged
Annie made some tea and Emile wandered in
Would you like tea,Emile?
Only if it’s green, he mioawed
I thought green was mould on food,Annie said
But tea is not food, is it? Emile cried
Only the milk and sugar,Annie mumbled
I’ve never seen green milk,Mary said nervously
There’s always a first time, the cat uttered in a manner resembling the Oracle
at Delphi.
But can you even buy green milk?
They all sat quietly meditating until the door bell rang
Mary picked up the phone
Hello,I am your door bell
She put the phone down and told the others about this new kind of crime where non-human objects would try to persuade you to wash them or put oil into them.
I can’t believe it ,Annie said as she stared round the room wondering which gadget
might phone Mary next.
Her mobile rang,
Would you like to pay for your Funeral?
I’m not even dead yet, she replied.When I am I’ll call you.Do you do 3 for 2?
Do you think Trump might phone?
Yes, he needs money to pay his lawyers
Well.I am not going to give him any?
Yet Jesus mixed with sinners
They were thieves & whores…. just ordinary people, not like Trump
I wish you were a whore,said Emile
How horrible,said Mary, why did you say that?
Well,I long to see Jesus, Emile smiled to her
He will let you know the time,she informed him.Meanwhile just keep living the best life you can

And so say all of us

.

Did anyone believe blind rage expressed
Could benefit the agent without harm?
Did anyone read Freud and then digest?

Feelings need the heat of blacksmith’s fires
Held inside until they find their form
An image worthy of our right desire

As well as rage, we should mistrust love too
Be backward in expression till more’s known
Or risk an avalanche of cruelty.

Take care of others, they are not our fools
From sacred meetings all mankind has grown
We misuse folk to test our worth and tools

Holding in the inner fires our wish
The blackness of the heart can turn to gold
No contradiction hides such sacredness

Take your love and in your arms enfold.
The future of the world is growing cold
We liked to have the choice for rage and death
Until we found the charred remains of bliss

The Times declares that Johnson is obese
Distract us from the politics of gain
Wandering round the buffet we will eat
The Times declares that Johnson is obese
The readers joke he has a strange disease
Can he go on benefits and claim?
The Times declares that Johnson is obese
Distracts folk from the way they can Remain

A greater Britain cannot now exist
Boris is the immigrant we missed
Why not invite all his family?
Turkey is not the safest place to be

Europe is our enemy again
We have no Empire,God save our young men
If we wound or harrass France or Greece
Germany will follow where they lead

Britons have few manners and no sense
We are all too angry and too tense
The poor are full of shame, the rich are dense
Tax the rich & lower the Council’s rents

Boris are you here or have you gone?
Your Dad is French, this fiddling is foregone

Katherine villanelle  

In the dark street with its glaring lights
Deserted pavements, cars that multiply
I see two of everything in sight

Twenty dogs two owls that fly by night
Two black cats  with amber eyes run by
In the dark street with its glaring lights

As I walk I sing  to cats’ delight
I sing Joan of Arc,I wonder why
I see two of everything in sight

The song takes seven minutes,or it might
If I sang like Leonard ,  if I sighed
In the dark street with its glaring lights

No-one can detect my wandering sight
Yet now and then I wail or emit cries
I see  more than you do with insight

These little deaths mount up as our time flies
In  the end we step with shuttered eyes
In the dark street with its errant lights
I see two of everything in sig

The intersection of disease and age
The spot which is a signpost is seen clear
Some fall down and others are enraged
Where is the writing, where the dreaded page?
The intersection of disease and age
Passed by those who’re otherwise engaged
With friends and with creation to treat fear
Why, these intersections are the rage!
The place which was a signpost is now dear

Katherine villanelle  July 28, 2017 [editd]

Without your love, I’m nobody I know.
Our inter-self, dismembered,  broke apart
Give me courage on the journey slow

In good times , we lose our self in flow
To be self-conscious lets shame rule the heart
Without your love, I’m nobody I know.

Do we have no self when partners die?
Bewildered, can I find the way to start?
Give me courage on the journey slow

Where is the path where I discover hope
The way to mend a self,  holed by grief’s darts?
Without your gaze, I’m nobody, I know

Like a ship   strikes rocks deep down below
I risk getting killed without new charts
Give me courage on the journey slow

Will I know myself in inner space?
Who will now console me, gone your grace?
Without your love, I’m nobody, I know.
Give me courage in the darkest low

This morning my mobile rang coming from Bradford [fake] phone nr
A man with a threatening voice told me he was from HM Customs
and if I didn’t press number 1 onmy phone I’d be in prison by next week
He has an English accent but obviously doesn’t know about how long it takes
to go to court etc
Even though I knew it was spam, it was unnerving

The first line is the hardest to compose
The mind flies here and there like a wild bird
Or settles down, enjoys a little doze
The first line is the hardest to compose
Breaking the blank page my fears arose
Until with my own ears the music’s heard
The first line is the hardest to compose
The mind flies here and there like a wild bird

I read a sad story yesterday written by a woman whose father died after waiting 4.5 hours
for an ambulance & he had covid 19
She mentioned that the first time he was in hospital they said his blood sugar was too low.She replied, that was impossible as he was taking all his diabetes medication correctly
This shows how little people know about diabetes
Diabetics have too much sugar in their blood.The medication removes some of this sugar
but it can reduce it too much.Then you can faint, fall etc
The tablets do not cure they try to control
My husband had this and had many falls some serious when he fainted onto the War Memorial
and injured his brain, broke his nose & cheekbone and damaged his eye
also left a large pool of blood which my neighbours saw coming back from work
I studied diabetes and possible various treatments
On the other hand my brother had it & after the best diet ,he was no longer
classified as diabetic.
If you are on such meds,carry a few sweets and if you feel faint suck one chew one
Then, as soon as you can, eat a sandwich with protein
If you go out for the day take a sandwhich as you can’t miss a meal
You’d better not believe just me.Look it up and find out for yourself

The sky is yellowy pink but tinged with grey
The sun is gone and we feel stark dismay
We can’t meet friends in person any more
Only shout as we stand by the door

I think the source of Covid  is just cash
Money laundered less, the notes unwashed
The coins are black as coal in devil’s  claws
Don’t leave  the tip that kills , nor money gnaw

I used to suck a shilling while I worked
I  tapped my  fingers  where it would not hurt
But now the sight of pounds makes   me feel sick
Never use old notes nor lovers lick 

Throw your money into a black hole
You may starve but this will save your soul

Today is yellow ochre,tinged with grey
Not much contrast from the soft silk sky
No birds nor any brightness, light won’t play

The ones who act so manic are not gay
If there is no truth, there are no lies
Today is yellow ochre, languid, grey

In the sun on Sutton Bank we lay
My acts outcry, my grief I shall defy
No birds nor any life. the light n’t play

Who is born a hunter.who the prey?
The lion has lost the unicorn nearby
Today is yellow ochre, damped to grey

I think of brexit, oh the blush,shame
The spirits flatten;rise up,do not die
No birds nor any life, the light won’t play

I wonder what the loss is or the gain
I wish we were in Suffolk by the Bly
Today is yellow ochre, soon to grey
No birds, no life ,I’m anguished, would you stay?

Creeds have danger, action is what counts
Love your neighbour subtly and with care
Tell the truth in suitable amounts
Good deeds are done in secret,God’s about
But views of him are hidden and are rare
Creeds are minor, action is what counts
Do not offend nor patronise nor doubt.
The beggars in the doorway room nowhere
Tell the truth in suitable amounts
Live a secret life but sing and shout
Write a letter clear and tinged with flair
Creeds are minor, action is what counts
Hunt no beast,admire the mad March hare
Tell the truth in suitable amounts
.f you meet a stranger, do not stare
If you meet an angel be prepared
Creeds have danger, action is what counts
Tell the truth in suitable amounts

My own art

Tersa Rima

I was almost drowned  by deep,dark  grief
I have wept  at home and wept abroad.
I lost my early childhood to these deaths

I have  known grief  spread like rivers wide
I ‘ve been  wracked  by   painful spasms of  tears
I have felt the absence of  my God.

I’ve known grief for  more than sixty years
My father and his brother were the first
I have met no  being who’s been spared.

Yet we have no permission  here to weep
I long for ritual like  my writer’s pen
I ache  to dream of them  while I’m asleep.

Like a fox hides in a hole or den
I would like to hide  when day begins
Uncontained  by  his love  again

As a tree mourns for each little leaf
As God mourns his human life so brief
I have been demolished  by  wild grief
I have  seen lost ghosts, yet still believe

I have got more and more incontinent.
Do stop admiring Europe

I don’t want to kill a virus.Jesus said: love your enemies
They had no viruses then

I love bacteria.Is that a crime?
Well, it’s hard to have sex with one but it may be a sin

Why do the government tell us to eat more fruit and veg?
To help evacuate he Common Market from our bodies


Why do the government not have enough beds in hospitals?
They can’t all go to sleep at once

Why don’t the government buy more beds?
For their castles?

Why are people upset by isolation?
They feel like lepers

Why do we eat food?
What else could we do with it?

Why are the fishing men so upset?
They thought Boris Johnson told the truth

Why do people think truth does not exist?
Soon they will stop believing even that!

Is logic better than emotion?
That is meaningless

I’d love to play the viola
And how long have you felt like this?
For years
Take these tablets and come back next week
Shall I bring the viola.doctor?

Elena,a baby wrapped in woollen clothes.
On the last train,Warsaw to Moscow,
[ change Niegoreloje.]
1939.Father,mother,brother
You passed through the Arctic Wastes of life.
Still as if travelling on a train
To an impossibly far destination.
As you left the German Army crashed into Warsaw
Lost,your aunts
Your cousins.
Your culture.
How does God select the damned?
You had your own baby,here in England,
Not lost like all those others.
Your father died by his own hand,
The hand of history;
The fingers twitching,
Not sure where to point.
Then settling into frozen grief
A sculpture only your mother saw.
You saw too,Elena.
You always saw,though you can’t remember;
The long journey, your mother’s breast,
Your father’s silence.
Only the dead know that silence.
Only the dead weep
With the rocks and stones .
And the ice in each eye
Fell like snow down your cheeks
As you held your own infant.
Warsaw to Moscow,
Moscow to Jerusalem.
Always journeying
Looking for what they can never find:
The home they left behind
The presence of the dead
Lying in gaunt heaps
Like rubbish
Your aunts, Elena.
Your cousins.
You never knew them.
But there’s a hole in your mind
Through which the Polish wind forever blow

There are no hours and minutes in a day
Whatever Nokia Lumias  might display
Babylonian  clocktowers hover;
Cracked a wall , now built in Dover,
There are     sixty cuckoos to gainsay.

Day and night, or hey, what black and white
People range in hues of  fruits delight
I like  olive  and    Greenpeacers
Wearing  hats  from crowns off steeples
Day and night,oh  shall we take a  flight?

I see the Berlin Wall is coming back
Mexico   has  ordered   ten sick    plaques
Trump has  promised work forever:
Dangerous walls  from Hell to Dover
Even God has  been electro-shocked

No ,these demons cannot get across
They’re stuck in an inferno; what is worse……….
God  now  can’t  be  omnipresent.
He has  high  walls   around Grace Crescent.
Holy Moses,who  can take this flak?

If you miss yer dinner,don’t it hurt?
Same as if yer finger gets a cut
Refugees with their  feet   bleeding–
Christ,we’re underwhelmed in feelings
Get a barbed wire fence, and kick them back.

The Lord’s THEIR shepherd, so we’re gonna pay.
He  watches  US  like  NEVER  from today
We’re   ex-colonial looters
We’re Self-esteem Unlimited.
Now the Devil’s comin’ out as grey.

Oh,someone jumped the Central Line today
Could not take this life so  full  of play
Oxford Street was blocked by walls
Of vehicles  sent to the Call.
What is my vocation,what my Play?

←

The bricks of the old wall, while crumbling, live
Five hundred years of history passed them by
While plants grew in the cracks below, above
Apart from people, this is what I love
That ancient structures stand and do not die
The bricks of this old wall while crumbling live
A little beauty will do well enough
This cheers my heart and lifts my spirits high
Wild flowers grow in cracks below, above
We fill our minds and homes with shop bought stuff
Gaze on bricks and cracks, what will we spy?
The bricks of this old wall while crumbling live
Like old complexions, older bricks are rough
The Vicar cannot smooth them though they try
Holes for plants inscribe these cracks with love
From generations past, ghosts wander. shy.
Looking for their graves, they whisper,sighT
he bricks of the old wall still crumbling live
Tenacious weeds shall wave below, aboveShare

Oh,transcendental numbers, are you gods
You show the complex world that drives us nuts
If only the circumference could be
The radius squared, then multiplied by three.

How simple Science would be because straight lines
Could wrap round the “circles” well defined
All the world would be a different shape
The Earth itself would crumble as we gaped

Come to that we would not be alive
For women would have bosoms like road signs
The womb would be a cube and not a sphere
The corners would endanger life obscure

Our heads would be like Rubik’s cube in shape
Our minds would be aghast and emigrate
So here would lie the ruins of the West
No devious politicians could invest

Men and women could not join in sex
That would make the adults feel quite vexed
Procreation would be IVF
Look it up, it’s no fun for the guest

We would need no hats upon flat heads
A dinner plate would sit up there instead
But if we bring back pi, will all be well?
I cannot say while living in this hell

Stupid, evil men are on the loose
The air is nauseaous with a smell diffuse

feelings, poetry, politics, reflections, society, sonnet, story, 

Roman roads connected in straight lines
The cities they had built in wealthy times
The remains of one  goes past my garden gate
Do ghosts of Roman legions pass at night?

I like to see connections,maps and roads
Others  love  old cities ,walls and moats
My road ran to Lincoln  near the Wash
Migrating birds and swans  go there to rest

Going South, there is the Pilgrim’s Way
Canterbury, Becket,murder, prayer
Julius Caesar, Deal,  the Roman hordes
Boudicea,  and her fighting Lords

Layers of history, meaning,love and death
Still we argue  what should be our path

Axes are useful, real and imaginary.Does our earth have them?
Borrow one in sums.Not nice.Arithmetic sucks
Calculus is based on non-understanding of first principles which may not be understandable like certain j
Drawing graphs is an art and a science.
Euclid has frightened some and delighted others.And a  right angle to you as well.
Flatland is a book set in an imaginary two-dimensional world.Fractions frighten
Geometry gave way to algebra.Godel studied axiomatic systems.
God was a Word not a number……. think about it.
Hard as maths is, there is a non-sensual beauty in there somewhere
It takes your mind off the pain when you try to visualise 4 dimensions.Be aware some never return.
Jokes are not often found in our textbooks except the biggest.. that God likes jigsaws, geometry and juggling.
Kurt Godel went mad.He proved maths cannot have a complete set of axioms with no contradictions.So don’t go there
Logic is not identical  with mathematics.
Multiplication tables were sung by children at school in the past.Matrices are rows and columns of numbers.
Number theory is harder than one would imagine from counting one’s digits.
Operators are imaginary concepts which have an effect on other imaginary concepts which then contribute to nuclear physics, and a few other things like the end of the world.
Probability seems to be part of the nature of the world despite Einstein’s famous words. God does not play dice.
Quantitative methods were what they called maths to stop the anxiety students felt.But it’s a bad name.
Reason is only   part of mathematics
Straight lines can meet.
Theorems can be interesting if you know why you are learning them
Why? Why indeed.Wranglers are top mathematics students at Cambridge.
X or x is often the unknown we look for.
Y is like X  just by historical  usage
Zero as a concept with a sign is more abstract than One.Hence its late arrival on the human scene.
Nothing can be symbolised. Ain’t that  wonderfulStraight lines can meet.Straight lines can meet.Straight lines can meet.

Positive Change using Biological Principles Pt 2: The missing Community Principle

Daniel Spinnett was a newly  homeless man in a horrible  wealthy but cruel country called the Reblighted Kingdom.He had been married once but his wife often  used to hurl his hot dinner at him if he was a bit late home and she also had four lovers into the bargain.When she was made Head of Uncivil Service UK he decided he was leaving her and hoped for a second chance and maybe a child as well with a gentler woman
At first he was truly happy in his new  commodious flat and also with  meeting women on the Guardian Solemates website; all too  soon his firm was affected by the recession and he ended up with no money to pay his rent ; his ex-wife was completely unsympathetic. though she was absolutely rolling in money and men or both !
He went to the Council to seek for cheap accommodation
I have nowhere to live.The rents in Lone-don are so high.. can I get a council flat?I am on job seekers allowance of £70 per week…
A council flat?The man behind the desk laughed sarcastically like a dying flea.
There ain’t no such anymore,mi duck…didn’t you know the Trying Lady sold them off.
Did you not build more using that money,he enquired courteously and logically. as was his wont
Sorry,chum, we spent it on wine, women and bling… gold watches, golf clubs, moats, you know
Daniel felt very upset so he set out to walk to Lightwebbs Forest a couple of miles away for a time of  green beauty and quietness…He fell asleep under an old oak ; he was nervously exhausted ,no doubt
When he woke up a huge cat was standing near him staring curiously
Hello, the cat said in a kindly but loud voice
Hello,I am Daniel from down the road
Well, the cat said,I’m a lion from the circus.We have escaped and we are living here in the woods.
But what do you eat? asked Dan.
Well,we forage around and we find food left out for house cats.;we also have learned to cook leaves and grass over a fire in a double boiler.
The lion smiled down at Daniel showing a light in his amber eyes
You look very thin.Why don’t you come with me to have dinner?
Daniel was  afraid of the lion but he had no alternative in mind.
After a circuitous walk they reached the deepest,densest  most magical part of the wood.There were four lions,two tigers and four  leopards all looking happy
Is this our dinner,they cried excitedly as they gazed at Daniel.
No,this is a poor starving man with no home.
Well.lie down Dan and eat this leafy risotto..
Absolutely delicious,awesome, he cried greedily as he used his hands like a child with no table manners
Then the first lion asked Dan to come with him to his own den.
When they got there he said piteously
I have got a problem and none of the animals here  can help.I have got a piece of barbed wire stuck in my tail and I need a human with fingers to untangle it..
Daniel looked and there was about 12 inches of barbed wire which hit  and beat the old  lion as he walked or ran.Dan managed to untwist it and uuntangle it.He got some water from the stream and washed the lion’s backside where the barbs had cut into him..I have no Elastoplast, he muttered anxiously.The fresh air will heal it, said the lion gently….

And that was how Daniel came to be living in the lion’s den.
He says he prefers it to living with his dominating wife.
He certainly looks fitter than before and is considering asking for surgery to change into a lion on the NHS as there is a lady lion whom he has fallen in love with.No doubt lions don’t get married in church but they do love each other very deeply.
Just go to the forest and take a look next time you fall asleep.
Now the lions enjoy even better food because Daniel has  recipe books and unlike the lions,he can read.They found some old sauce pans at the recycling centre so he can do cheese sauce using milk from the sheep on the edge of the wood,
If you knew what went on in our many woods,you’d definitely get a big surprise..I can tell you