While alive

No human being is perfect, yet we strive
We pray and fast, denying that we sin
We aim to be God’s equal, while we live

It may be fear which alternates with pride
Blocking out the good that lives within
No human being is perfect, yet we strive

Donations to the poor  we sometimes give
Yet this alone  gets no attention
We aim to be God’s equal, while  we live

Terror acts as an unworthy guide
And,similarly  acts pretension.
No human being is perfect, yet we strive

God is  perfect, souls too proud explode
Acknowledge and admire the great divine
We cannot be God’s equal, dead, live.

Ourselves or friends we foolish idealise
No human  should be thought  of as all wise
No person can be perfect, yet we strive
We want to be God’s equal, while we live

Like sea and sandy shore

https://www.britannica.com/event/Synod-of-Whitby

 

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My blue mug’s striped like sea and sandy shore
I love my memories of expansive sands
The mug is round  so it can hold much more

The image of the mug opens a  door
To access spaces where my dreams command
My blue mug’s striped like sea and sandy shore

Stretched blueness  takes me to my deepest core
Where by my inner  heart I understand
The mug is rounded well and gives me more.

On the beach, the salt stuck to my pores
Like Whitby where  my spectacles were gummed
My blue mug’s striped like sea and sandy shore

 

The Synod  of historic Christian lore
Held at Whitby  where tall cliffs descend
Reminds us how the inter-faith’s  still sore.

And how my deepest thoughts are made disband
To submit to God and  that beloved hand
My blue mug’s striped like sea and sandy shore
The mug is holding memories that allure.

 

 

Because of human stares,  the sky was flushed

Shy of human eye,  the sky was flushed
A rosy red more delicate than grace.
Why, high above the earth, its blood had rushed

By electronic media, light out-pushed
Until we seemed to see a tortured face
Shy of human eye,  the sky was flushed

Towards this  bleed, this rash, the trees rose lush
Like forests of the tropics, they embraced
Where high above the earth, the blood had rushed

Its weight could sink Titanics, even crush.
The moon and stars would, screaming, be effaced
Because of human stares,  the sky was flushed

Too much has risen for the  heavens to grasp
And down the blood will stream .vermilion traced
Downfall follows, hear  our warheads  crash

Well, tell us what exactly is the case
You say an unknown being lost their face.
Where shy of human eye,  the sky was flushed
Why, high above the earth, its blood had rushed

 

 

 

That’s life

33xv

One said she was going to gas herself
I told her this North Sea gas won’t kill you
The other imagined sleeping pills
But Valium won’t do it either.
Life is so hard now for hysterical women who are not afraid of God.
They have to walk off a cliff but there are none near here.
So I tell them, that’s life, my dear.
Why not move into a 24 storey tower block?
That will broaden your scope.
While there’s life there’s hope.

This is not it

Impossible to move on because
Between any two numbers
There are infinitely many other numbers.
Time does not consist of equal increments
I saw the car fast moving towards me
And time slowed down, it was ten minutes
Before it hit me.
Elegantly I flew  into the air, second by  infinitely long second
Down below I saw life on a huge TV Screen
I was no longer there.I saw a Hand turning a wheel
Clockwork TV, I knew it.
I was flying orthogonally to the earth
I had a new perspective.No fear
A calm and endless peace held me.
Gravity interfered.Thin as I was,
I was not infinitesimal
Otherwise, I would never have come back
All I knew is, this is not it.
The tortoise won the race.

To imitating men by caring less

16174721_851533688319844_842650217940363345_nWomen won the freedom to conform
To imitating men by caring less;
To political correctness,  dress, reformed

Everywhere the male is still the norm
And that is how we females have to dress
Women won the freedom to conform

Though secretly, we aim now to suborn
Unwilling to admit the weariness
Of political correctness,  dress, reformed

Now it’s  sexual harassment reborn
To admire women, more or less.
We all won the freedom to conform

The book of rules is burned, by gum, it’s warm
Trousers are the “holy” way to dress
For political correctness and a life reformed

No more will matrimony be well blessed
The arts of love no longer are addressed
Women won the freedom to conform
By politically correct new slogans ,arm to arm

But not delivered Saturday unless you pay £3.50 more!

I have bought something and asked to collect from Argos.It is sitting at the Royal Mail depot because today is Saturday and the seller did not look at the website where it is possible with skill to find Saturday is ££3.50 more.
Argos is !/2 mile from the Sorting Office.But nobody can collect the parcel till Monday

From Royal Mail website

Royal Mail Special Delivery [Nothing about SATURDAY HERE]
Guaranteed by 1pm®

100g£6.
45500g£7.25
1kg£8.552kg

£11.0010kg
£26.6020kg£41.20
Read more at http://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/uk-guaranteed#v5q9RgWeWmlwU6F1.99

 

It is only if you read further down the page you see Saturday mentioned.

Quote:

Do you have a letter or parcel that is valuable or needs to be there the next day? Choose our Guaranteed services when you need:

  • the item to arrive next day
  • to track important items online and get proof of delivery, including a signature
  • the assurance of compensation for valuable items
  • seller protection if you are selling online

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®

Get the peace of mind that comes with knowing that important post has arrived safely – use Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®.

Why use Special Delivery Guaranteed?

  • Follow your letters and parcels from the moment it leaves your hands to the second it arrives with Track & Trace
  • Choose to have your item delivered by 9am or by 1pm
  • We’re so confident your item will arrive on time, you will receive a refund if it doesn’t*
  • Your item won’t be delivered without a signature, which can be viewed online 10 minutes after delivery

What else is included?

  • Up to £50 compensation cover for Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed® by 9am
  • Up to £500 compensation cover for Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed® by 1pm
  • Guaranteed Saturday delivery (additional costs will apply)
  • Increased compensation available for up to £2,500
  • Consequential loss (compensation for financial consequences of damage or loss) of up to £10,000 available for an additional fee

Read more at http://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/uk-guaranteed#uSrxgmGeAfeev3tj.99

 

Royal Mail Special Delivery
Guaranteed by 1pm® with Saturday Guarantee
100g £11.94
500g £12.90
1kg £14.46
2kg £17.40
10kg £36.12
20kg £53.54

 

Category Max weight

Read more at http://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/uk-guaranteed#zO77y7z8udqS1RcL.99

I wonder who thinks calculus is part of geomorphology ?

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Topology, a branch of mathematics, is sometimes called rubber sheet geometry.
It’s a sad world when mathematicians have to study the sheets of those of us who have leaky bladders.
However, if Tracy Emin’s bed is a work of art it extends the possibilities for scientists and mathematicians.And this needed because with all academics having to publish very frequently they might run out of topics.
So we might have a study of duvets and the different shapes they might assume when they are covering just one person, two people, three people and since we are mathematicians, we could study their shapes when covering an infinite number of people.
Alternatively how about the effect of one person being covered by an infinite number of duvets?
Would it be aleph-null the infinity of the rational numbers or aleph 0ne [the infinity of the real numbers]?
Aleph one is the bigger of the two .
Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet… and it is used because mathematicians already have used up the Greek alphabet.
So now we use the Hebrew one which is slightly different.
If you learned calculus you will recall all those delta x’s and delta y’s.
This makes me think calculus is part of geomorphology and I do believe that geomorphology which studies the surface of the earth is linked to the love and study of the mother’s face and body by human infants.
So calculus is linked to the studied love of babies.Can it be that if you had a disturbed infancy you will find mathematics very hard? Plastic geometry and plastic surgery will be dealt with later but obviously again it is linked to love or hate of the body though our bodies are not usually made from plastic but who knows the future?

Better in bed

16113925_850061061800440_3115568331247535304_n

They  have asked me to help a woman doing a maths degree at the OU
I said,I have forgotten it all
But she has cancer, they report.
I still can’t remember much except
Most numbers are transcendental
They are infinite in number yet we have only discovered a few
Pi and e are two
The other numbers also infinite in number yet are a “smaller infinity” than the first I mentioned.
As for addition and multiplication
It’s better in bed!

Apparently, there is a rubber band inside it.

Did you  know that
A self-defrosting refrigerator
Just has a channel and a little hole in the wall
Behind that is a small  sponge
So much for modern technology.

 

Now my DVD player won’t open
Apparently, there is a rubber band inside it.
They gradually dry out
Then the machine won’t work
Do they think I will take it apart?
I’ll go the cinema and see a film there
One might have thought after Einstein and Heisenberg
And Goya, Picasso and Paul Klee
We’d have found a better way
Of dealing with the every day.

Poetry, illness and death

In Memory of W. B. Yeats

W. H. Auden, 1907 – 1973


III

Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.

In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;

Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.

Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

From Another Time by W. H. Auden, published by Random House. Copyright © 1940 W. H. Auden, renewed by the Estate of W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Thought to me is vision without words;

13920761_10208628903333444_6196718056528026069_n

Thought, the vision of the inner eye,
Peers behind the mask of mundane view
A choosing of the best of what comes by
Not the monsters on the Daily News

Thought to me is vision without words;
Needs silent presentation and review.
The words  translate the images  that surge
Then fall back to the ocean where they grew.

Like coloured visions of the  deep seabed
Where fishes reel and dance, where life is new.
What we  mean  with difficulty’s said
Yet evocation summons  it to view.

Let my  words evoke my love  of you;
And answer me with many kisses new.

Smaller than the pebbles drowned sea moist

An agnostic yet I need my God
For many parts of life cannot be voiced
Without the sacred language, I learned of.

More a place  and less a cruel Rod
Willing us to have the rights of choice
An agnostic yet I need my God

Lesser than both lower and above
Neither is he man, nor girl nor boy
In the sacred language I learned of.

Greater than  the mountain tops  of love
Smaller than the pebbles drowned sea moist
Me, agnostic, yet I need such God!

Wilder than a stallion newly shod
Quieter than that little, still, small voice
In the sacred language I learned, read.

As by our own science, we are hoist
There’s humour in that  secret, still embrace
I agnostic, need  to walk with God
And use the sacred language I learned  of.

 

A fever and intensity of will

After many hours of patient  thought
An image  of bright power  came to my mind
Enabled by  techniques  my study bought
Without such language, anyone is blind.

A fever and intensity  of will
Made my brain catch fire and flash, ignite.
And yet the image glowing was quite still
As if to demonstrate perpetual light.

As I lay in bed the vision came
Unprovoked, not known of, gave me sight
Many years of patient study  gained
The power of signs and symbols, their delight.

The vision came inspired by will and art
To motivate  me for the travails of the heart

Will it make a difference that I wrote?

Does it matter if I cast my vote
The polling station is a common ground
Will it make a difference what I write?

If our writing’s good it should throw light
On whether politicians are unsound
Or if it matters, should I  go to vote

Today the atmosphere in Britain’s not too bright
We are from chaos just one single bound
Will it make a difference what I write?

Ideas like shadow’s on the walls of caves
Need capturing immediately they’re found
Does it matter if I use my vote?

In our country, all our nerves are taut
A little noise will wantonly resound
Will it make a difference what I write?

The politicians strident still abound
The agents of derision lead their hounds
Does it matter if I cast my vote
Will it make a difference that I wrote?

 

 

I

Political poems

P1000268

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69857/political-poems

Extract:

Plato wanted to banish poets from his Republic because they can make lies seem like truth. Shelley thought poets were “the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” and Auden insisted that “poetry makes nothing happen.” This collection of poems point to the many different kinds of political poems, and the reasons for writing them.

 

Ushering In: U.S. Inaugural Poems
JFK requested Frost, Clinton invited Angelou and Miller, and Obama asked Alexander: read the four poems that have been read at presidential inaugurations.

“Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

from “On the Pulse of Morning” by Maya Angelou

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,

“The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost

Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves

“Of History and Hope” by Miller Williams

But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how
except in the minds of those who will call it Now?

 

How not to write[ or how to write]

Horse

The pathos of the bull

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/7-things-will-doom-novel-avoid

Do thesee exercises

  • The Five-Minute Nonstop. Write for five minutes, first thing in the morning if possible, without stopping to think about what you’re writing. No correcting. Just write.
  • The Page-Long Sentence. Choose something to describe (a room or a character) and write a page-long sentence about it, not pausing to edit and instead going on whatever tangents present themselves.
  • The List Maker. Whenever you’re stuck for an idea to pursue, make a list. Brainstorm ideas without assessing them. Turn off your filter. Get lots of ideas, then pick the best one.

Writers who have dulled the inner critic don’t worry about getting the words right. The only thing they worry about is getting the words written.

 

I’m European

14358802_771751279631419_3882779368589461324_n

“The people” have chosen to exit
The Europe to which we belong
My husband is fuming
His identity’s human
We’re not English cos our name is too long

My big  head is   a gift from the Vikings
The bones in my feet are all Celts
My blue eyes are Irish
My lips are  quite smilish
So  being European was a help.

The man who delivers the parcels
Puts Mary down as my surname
For even the Londoners
Hear it with wonderment
It’s Danish, I say, try again

Thwaite is a puzzle to many
Like Hebrew names might be to me
For  vowels are guessed at
Just how brilliant is that?
You  just have to believe it to see

 

I

Distidy

d5b58-myfeet

I have got three odd shoes in my bedroom
Though all of them seem to be black
Where have their partners gone?
What on earth have  I done?
I must be distidy, what luck!

When I take them off in the late evening
I should peg them together right then
They like to go wandering
Leaving me wondering
If I should really be a  stray man.

For  women used to do all the housework
Being  tidy should be up our street
I f God made a mistake
Why can’t he remake
My brain and recreate me more neat?


 

How to save money … distress your own jeans at home

IMG_3495_large

1, This is for women- have your hair cut short in May in a decent hairdressers.You will be cooler in the summer and by November it should have grown about 3 inches.Have it trimmed but keep long so your head will feel warmer in winter

Savings: The minimum charge here is £35.A new place opened where it is £52.If you only go 2 or 3 times a year instead of 8  you will save £175.
2.Make a loaf of bread  at home.You don’t need a machine.Quality bread here  in a proper bakery is £2.50  for a large loaf.Buy dried yeast and strong flour… save  maybe £60 a year
3 Become a supporter of your newspaper online.ThGuardianan asks for £5 per month.The daily paper costs £2, more at the weekend.So potentially large savings…
4.When you go out make sure you go to the loo before coming home.For people who work from home or are retired,  it means your water bill is much higher.Go into Starbucks and use theirs! Or any other big chain.What a pity Amazon haveno coffee shops!
5 Don’t use toothpaste.It is not essential.Brush well.
6 Combine last year’s autumn clothes in different ways.Just buy a new scarf or knit one.Knitting is quite expensive nowadays though you can buy wool from places online….
7 Have only 2 meals a day.Plus fruit or carrots.
8 Reuse every bit of paper you can.
9 Write letters.The stamps are expensive but phone calls are too.
!0.Borrow/share books.

Disrationalia

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150413-the-downsides-of-being-clever?ocid=ww.social.link.email

Extract

Mental blind spots

The harsh truth, however, is that greater intelligence does not equate to wiser decisions; in fact, in some cases it might make your choices a little more foolish. Keith Stanovich at the University of Toronto has spent the last decade building tests for rationality, and he has found that fair, unbiased decision-making is largely independent of IQ. Consider the “my-side bias” – our tendency to be highly selective in the information we collect so that it reinforces our previous attitudes. The more enlightened approach would be to leave your assumptions at the door as you build your argument – but Stanovich found that smarter people are almost no more likely to do so than people with distinctly average IQs.

People who ace cognitive tests are more likely to see past their own flaws

That’s not all. People who ace standard cognitive tests are in fact slightly more likely to have a “bias blind spot”. That is, they are less able to see their own flaws, even when though they are quite capable of criticising the foibles of others. And they have a greater tendency to fall for the “gambler’s fallacy” – the idea that if a tossed coin turns heads 10 times, it will be more likely to fall tails on the 11th. The fallacy has been the ruination of roulette players planning for a red after a string of blacks, and it can also lead stock investors to sell their shares before they reach peak value – in the belief that their luck has to run out sooner or later.

(Credit: Thinkstock)

Members of high IQ society Mensa are not immune to belief in the paranormal (Credit: Thinkstock)

A tendency to rely on gut instincts rather than rational thought might also explain why a surprisingly high number of Mensamembers believe in the paranormal; or why someone with an IQ of 140 is about twice as likely to max out their credit card.

Indeed, Stanovich sees these biases in every strata of society. “There is plenty of dysrationalia – people doing irrational things despite more than adequate intelligence – in our world today,” he says. “The people pushing the anti-vaccination meme on parents and spreading misinformation on websites are generally of more than average intelligence and education.” Clearly, clever people can be dangerously, and foolishly, misguided.

(Credit: Thinkstock)

 

 

A card to be their presidential meme.

Sometimes I am glad that you are gone
You would be startled to perceive  the strange new scene
That a nation educated  could choose one
A card to be their presidential meme.

Leonard Cohen hung on with his frail thread
But fell when  dreaming of the latest polls
And you, too, are  perhaps comforted  in death
You don’t have  to vote for  shipwrecked fools

Yet we who’re strong must live and hope for good.
The virtues of the noblest minds aid ours.
We must cultivate the tender buds.
And not assume ourselves to be mere cowards.

For one good  person, God would not destroy
The Sodom   we’ve  created in false joy.

Virtue must by terror  cruel be ruled

If they ordered children to be good
We thought it must be possible and right
So virtue must by will power   be oruled

We assumed that adults understood
Our feelings and our nature and our sight
When they ordered children to be good

Our selves were growing like the flowers in bud
Tender, wild and vulnerable to blight
When virtue was by will power  harshly oruled

Yet school is   a mere prison in the flood
Of growth towards the sun and its great light
Yet they ordered children to be good

By watching other people and their moods
We noticed how obsessively they cried
That virtue can by will power  be  ruled

They frightened us by saying when we died
God would judge us harshly   in his Pride
If they  believed that fear would make us good
Virtue must by terror  cruel be  ruled

And that can’t be right