Category: Thinkings and poems

See both sides

 

 

 

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAB
By Mike  Flemming

 

 

 

Though the News is very bad and we are governed by people who see, unfit to be in their positions,I think of the people I’ve met here in  the last  8  years and their kindness, their hopes, their goodness and their humour and I feel honoured to  meet you all.Thank you to each person for being  the person you are and I hope you will   be successful not in money but in using your talents and  in your humian relationship and in enjoying this beautiful  universe with all its promise and  danger, too

Let’s hope we can make a difference by using our talents and caring for our neighnours during and after Lockdown
What we learn now will help the next generation

W B Yeats:the second coming

photo of lake under cloudy sky
Photo by Steven Hylands on Pexels.com

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The last days

Come here darling, come here quick,
‘Cos your Daddy’s very sick.
Run as fast as fast, you can,
Get the priest, get Father Dan.
Run,run went my eight year old feet,
Down the lane and up the street
I ran right up to Father’s door,
[Does God live there any more?]
“Come please, Mam said Daddy’s ill”
“Oh”,said Father,”that I will.”
Revving up his motor bike
With The Sacrament beside;
He lifted me up onto the back
And roared off up the church-side track.
It was the best thrill of my life;
If only Daddy had not died. S

Face coverings 1

IMG_20200701_170908I have lost my lap top
Never mind, you can have a skin graft
Can one type on a skin graft?
Why are you alway arguing?
Why are you alway exaggerating?
I don’t know why we got married
You were a good actress
Thanks for the compliment
You were so good I didn’t know how horrible you really were
That’s not very kind
Why should I be kind  to such a nasty wife?
Or  alternatively,  your nastiness has robbed my of my kindness
Why do you always blame me?
Name one example
You blamed me for  a poor Wedding Night because I was menstruating
You could have gone on the pill  to change the date
But we  married for life.Was it so awful to wait a couple of days?
Well,I admit I was tired after the Reception
No wonder, you danced with ten women and left me alone
You are always counting.Nine women,eleven women, what’s the difference?
Two women
You aways were good at sums.
You should not  have shown off at our Wedding
You should be grateful I picked you.
What a nerve.You mean you didn’t love me  the most?
In the dark  what does it matter
Surely  not all women  make love the same way.
So far I can’t tell you, but it seems similar
Of course it’s similar.It’s the emotions, the feelings that count.We are not cats
Why bring arithmetic in?
“Count” means “matter”
As in don’t ” matter”  your chickens before they’re hatched
As in,  to lovers money does not matter
Not till they get hungry
It means money is necessary but not sufficient
Gosh,I  realise you passed the eleven plus
No,I passed out in the exam room so I got an aegrotat based on my course work
You don’t do course work for an IQ Test
Well I did.I began as a moron and ended up as  the most clever of all
All what? Sheep?
You are so cruel
That’s only  the beginning
Did you pass the eleven plus?
I never took it.I was privately educated
Where?
Holloway
I’ve not heard of that
You should.It’s a prison
Why did they send you there?
It was an experiment
To find out what?
They never said but I passed 9 A levels and got a place at Oxford to read maths.
I didn’t know one could read maths
Why would I have all these books?
To impress visitors?
Would you be impressed by ” Thoughts on 4th order differential equations” ?
I    have never heard of such things.Why 4th order?
Three space plus time
Can you add space and time? They are different things.
They can interact.
I suppose it’s like a railway timetable.A three dimensional train arrives at a certain time  at the station
Unless there are leaves on the line
Did Dirac think of that?
I doubt it.Maths is perfect ,elegant and bare
Sounds like a new bride.
Well, take me back and marry an infinite series of irrational numbers
Can a phone have an  irrational number?
Ask BT!
How rational!

Shielded

The clouds hang out together like bored girls
Until they form a shield with  greasy curls
The radio mumbles on about  the old
As if we are  unable to be bold

Do we not have courage as we age
When we have laid our dear ones in their grave?
We edge our way downstairs to make the tea
Sit in bed,imagine we’re at sea

Children play their games and so may we
The bed a boat,the sky as wide as eyes
Where is the navigator, do we drift?
Eclipsed our passage  through  the soft  soft mist

If life’s a Play then we may take our part
To hypnotise  the audience and their hearts

Me,boring!

T

 

 

low angle photography of red metal tower
Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

The history teacher failed my essay on the French Revolutiom
She said it was more boring than a railway timetable.
I l

The head nun was angry when I was top of the class
She said, you don’t look intelligent

When I was being interviewed for university I was asked what I wanted to do a degree in maths for.Research  was my aim,I told them
Both men burst out laughing and slapped their thighs
I’d never seen men with manicured nails before
I’d already done some original work by myself
I did more.

I lost a job offer as I was wearing an engagement ring

I amazed my students by never using lecture notes.I thought I’d be bored just reading it out.Boring one’s self is bad.

Why did I  take a job lecturing when I was a silent person?
I suppose it cured my muteness but I’d  like to get it back  before
I say I hate the government **** **** ****

People do want to learn but many teachers have not got the ability
to imagine what it is like encountering x,y,z   instead of numbers and wisely believe quadratic are meaningless

Maths is like studying a skeleton
But the flesh is what  makes us alive.

 

 

 

Reading the bread

 

 

architecture black and white brighton building
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

A blind man is sitting on a park bench. A Rabbi sits down next to him. The Rabbi is chomping on a piece of matzoh. Taking pity on the blind man, he breaks off a piece and gives it to the blind man. Several minutes later, the blind man turns, taps the Rabbi on the shoulder and asks, “Who wrote this?!!”

source: http://www.jokes4us.com/ethnicjokes/jewishjokes/blindmanjoke.html

Going on

com.google.chromeToday was the anniversary of my husband’s funeral.Someone had said she’s stay overnight.When we came home here she said
You don’t want me to stay,do you?
So I said,no
Then they went and I sat here alone,it was very hot.Everything seemed unreal  like a Play.
I kept  thinking it would revert to normal but there is no normal then
Every night my husband came, he clutched my hand and made me run
Run, run, we must find the car, he kept urging me.Unlike in real life I could run in the dream
Round every corner was  another corner,  then another
we never found the car  park
That went on for a month.
After that we spent a week cleaning the cooker together in silence
With steel scourers.
The oven is a womb, the fire that keeps life going
It can be otherwise, of course.Bring death.
Then he told me he had bought me a new house in Ealing
Draw your own conclusions

His  eyes were  silent,still, and very black

The day his mother died he’d cut his arms 
With bits of pointed glass like frosty nails
The blood  had stained his shirt, yet made him calm
He did not like to  make a scene or wail.

The day his mother died he sat alone
Wondering what  to eat or who to call
Above him was hot sky, a blue, blue dome
Below the earth where very soon she’d fall

The day his mother died he hugged his cat
She alone gave comfort without blame
His  eyes were  silent,still and very black
What hope, what help, where is the nameless Name?

The day his mother died he went to sleep
To dream and wander in the deepness deep

I want to see right round the bends

 

 

Anemonella-thalictroides-Di12799008_673073616165853_2658749854279461515_nAlfred my old cat

She said I drive her round the bend
I have no  driving licence  

He said I was intransitive
Is that an insult?

He said my abhorrence of  fish was a pity
I feel pity for  the dead fish

I have no idea why I am here
But I am here!

I realised  my feelings were absurd

We all  have got the urge to power, to kill
Better go out now and make your will

Jesus was not meek nor was he  mild
God created tigers and  the wild

Why should people fear to say  they’re wrong?
Errors can  arise or come in gangs

I’d like to go to Bournemouth but I can’t
I see the mad profusion   so I’ll skype

I learned to play the cello I loved so
But other plans were made and I let go

The strings were made of gut and they were thick
I played with a long bow, or I could pluck

I did not wish to earn by using words
I realised  my feelings were absurd

I could have written books and  gone abroad
I could have worked at Bletchely breaking codes

I did not realise I was a girl
Despite the  bearing of some golden curls

I liked boys’ games but I am not trans
I like making cakes and washing tins
I liked men to  give warmth to my bed
Although my only true love is now dead
Am I  banned from meeting any more?
They fear my mind and run out of the door.

 

That we may  injure without knowing so

Like radioactive particles ,like seeds
Dropped in error,dropped in fields of  woe
Misunderstandings grow like torturing weeds

When anyone approaches, make them bleed
Let them know they’re neighbours to a war
With radioactive elements imbued

We may need help for  inner suicide
Will kill us or the helpers  near and far
  Misunderstandings like  a bomb, can bind

We cannot see the other too has needs
That we may  injure without knowing so
With radioactive sharps that  make eyes bleed

 From Moses in his basket in the reeds
To Dayan with his patch and his cigar
Misunderstandings like  real bombs,  will  many wound


In the sky above we see how far
Our broken souls are from the  evening star
Like radioactive metaphors ,like seeds
Errors bring forth agonies that breed

 

 

 

 

I have a docile phone

I have  a  glow smile phone for dating
I  have  a  snow  wild phone for going up the Pole
I have a no aisle phone when flying
My phone   has slow smile
What’s  up Nile phone,dad?
Not smart, but beguiling: the story of a  loving lady
I’ve lost my phone again.Well, it is quite mobile you know
I’ve lost my mobility and found my senility [ with sense and sensiblility]
I don’t need no iphone.I don’t need no coke.Send me a letter,French is how i poke
Oh,dear what can the matter be, some loon threw an iphone at me
O little town of wall and phones, how we see thee fall down

We  do not want to hear their their poignant calls

Everything is whirling round my mind,
The lack of government ,  the words unkind
That the poor are  short of food and  clothes
We deny it, everybody knows

Sudden gusts of wind  mock  these old trees
Does the  lure of nature  disappear
When  the butterflies have gone away
Yet the stinging wasps are here to stay?

Once tortured  now abandoned refugees
Can’t make phone calls,  have no mental ease
We make our own defences into walls
We  do not want to hear their their poignant calls

Oh,Lord God take the beam from out my eye
I want to know the  worst before I die

 

S

 

 

I am going to the unoccupied territory

For my holiday, I am going to the unoccupied territory if there  is one

I’d rather stay in bed like Pascal waiting for my vision.

Can’t you see when you get up?

It’s what I see, the kitchen floor, the washing up

Can’t you get help?

Only for writing

That seems odd

I’n in Luck down

I hit my bad hand on a shelf in the fridge

Get rid of it!

Which?

The shelf.

I’ll mull  it over

Goodbye

 

 

It’s the eyes, the thoughts, the innocence we fear.

The fear of judgement makes life harsh with pain.
The eyes that spy, the words we spoke in vain.
When we age we have a wider  view
We’re not so strange  and not so very new.

The dream of being stuck at school once more.
Where  teachers power extends right to that door
We’re imprisoned to maintain a  safe  society;
Creation from  the young  is jeopardy.

We protect ourselves from children’s  open minds
It’s we who’re frightened and we make the bind.
It’s the eyes, the thoughts, the innocence we fear.
Their assessment of our  very hearts endures.

And they are frightened by the Judge we haul
To destroy or mould the newness of their calls.
Till in a mirrored palace we display
The heads of those who wished to change our ways.

Children need protection from the strong
But we , too, need protection from their songs

Is that an answer or an exclamation?

Will I feel any pain after I undress?
Only shame and bitterness

I want to wear my clothes during surgery
Don’t worry we won’t look at your nude body~
Why not?

Patients  must  not text while they are unconcious in the theatre
Which theatre?

Please leave your wedding ring  with the nurse until you are in recovery
From what?

Please insure your phone before you come for treatment
What will you do  to it?

Anything on your mind?
God!
Is that an answer or an exclamation?

Will I feel better soon?
Once the bomb drops we’ll all feel nothing
You are pessimistic,
It may drop  on the other side of the mountain
Let’s hope the mountain  can take it
I can’t

More on morons

 

low angle photography of gray castle
Photo by Matt Hardy on Pexels.com

 

Can you be both a moron and an imbecile?
I can.Not sure about you

Tell me about Poincare, the famous mathematician
He was definitely an imbecile………..
He got his results in  his day dreams
How I envy him.Two for one!
Odd  how the labels are French.But they invented IQ

Alfred Binet portrait

Funny habits

No bikinis allowed on this beach
So  do we bathe nude or what?
What.

You cannot be topless in this  hotel
That is an error, is it grammatical?.We could be.But you would punish us

Please do not go out in pyjamas
OK I’ll take them off!

Please wear a dressing gown   when you  walk about at night
What strange habits you have here.Are you monks?

Breakfast is served from 8 to 10  am
Please may I leave the table?
I  do,generally.

Do you have a hot dinner?
Yes, we  have many curries
I mean hot chips etc
Go to Israel
Why?
They invented chips
I just can’t believe it.We had chips before Israel was declared
to be  a state
Oh, potato chips
Are there others?
Silicon chips
Wood chips
Fish ‘n  chips
Computer chips

Stop pulling my leg
I didn’t know it was yours

Why are you a moron?
I’m an imbecile actually
Congratulations.
For what?
Deceiving the professors and getting a Ph.D
I didn’t do it on purpose!
Try harder in future
Why?

 

 

 

 

Systems

 

 

spiral design on cloth
Photo by Frank Cone on Pexels.com

The people who bind themselves to systems are those who are unable to encompass the whole truth and try to catch it by the tail; a system is like the tail of truth, but truth is like a lizard; it leaves its tail in your fingers and runs away knowing full well that it will grow a new one in a twinkling.” /Turgenev

I like Stephen King

https://www.usefuladdiction.com/post/15-motivational-quotes-by-stephen-edwin-king-on-success

 

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.” /Stephen Edwin King

 

I hope

 

 

img_20200620_132614699Why is adultery a sin?
Because  it’s wrong to grow up

Why  worship false gods?
To annoy the real one

Why can’t the poor steal?
It’s too dangerous diam

Why would a woman want lots of diamonds?
The Gestapo might call.

Why must we worship God?
To stop us worshipping Brent Cross Shopping Centre

Why do Catholics go to Confession?
It’s free though not easy

Why is BoJo’s hair so long?
He wants to hide behind it
Can’t  his fiance cut it?
She charges more than a barber!
I don’t believe you
Neither do I

When will our suffering end?
When we are dead,I hope