https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/31/michael-rosen-guide-to-having-a-happier-day-in-bleak-times?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

BBC News – The little-known Welsh writer who was a Nobel nominee https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62n4n1r4ngo

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/18/are-we-living-in-a-golden-age-of-stupidity-technology

When doubts and drawbacks struggle in the mind
And certainty seems but a demon dream,
When the faith to love is what no-one can find
For even when asleep, the mind still schemes

When darkness and defeat seem close at hand
And lights dim even as we pray for peace
when wrecks and ruins rile the native sands
When in this life we feel we've lost our place...

Then at the saddest depth we see the light
Surrounding with such warmth,with love adorned.
The path that seemed so wrong now leads us right
And in our hearts, warm feelings are new born

Within each storm there is a calm still eye
From there we see the fiercest clouds blown by

Little plants that grow near to the earth

By storm and tempest rarely are destroyed

They hold themselves to be of little worth

They do not wish to bully or annoy

These little plants will flower and make their seeds

As beautiful as any garden rose

Every living thing is made to breed

The wisdom of the humble we must know.

Walking on the paths across the hills

We trample on these flowers but don’t destroy

These wild flowers revive they are not killed

By walking boots that still this earth annoy.

These little flowers are holy and they say 

The proud may be in error in their way

https://www.etymonline.com/word/wry

I took my temperature yesterday morning and it was rather low that is it was about 35.4 centigrade so I thought I’d better take it again in the evening

I looked at the thermometer and it was 41.1 so I talked to myself oh my god I’ve got sepsis!

I was too tired bother ringing anybody like 111.

I took it earlier today and it seemed to give the same reading but when I examined it closely I realized that somehow I had converted the scale into Fahrenheit.

The reading was 97.1 Fahrenheit so beware. I do find it difficult to read certain types of instrument or on various sorts of surface

Mary and Annie had invited a new neighbour for tea.They got out the big teapot and some blue cups and saucers made of china
Is there enough milk,Annie enquired?
Yes,I’ve got six pints, my finger must have trembled when I was ticking the box for the order
Milk keeps much longer now than it used to Annie cried plaintively
Maybe the cows are given preservatives .Mary mused
You mean the cows eat them,Annie asked?
Well, it’s just one possibility,Mary thought out loud
Now, where shall Edna sit?
You sit on the sofa with her and I’ll sit in this swivelling chair
OK,Annie muttered as she shook the door mat and brushed Emile the cat
The doorbell rang.There stood Edna in a purple wool coat and red hat
Come in,Mary whispered.Let me take your coat
Edna went and sat down by Annie while Mary carried in the tea tray
Have you had your vaccination yet, she asked Edna gently
Oh, don’t talk about it,I can’t bear injections Edna said in an argumentative manner
So don’t you have blood tests,is that wise?
For God’s sake, don’t mention blood ever or I’ll scream
Are you afraid of it?
I don’t want to discuss it, nor urine, Edna said as she swigged the tea and filled her cup again
I’ll be glad when Donalld Trump leaves,Annie said in an effort to change the subject
Why don’t people like him,Edna asked furtively.
He is a rich man with a beautiful wife
I don’t like people merely because they are rich.Mary informed the ladies
I don’t mind them, said Annie, unless they are vulgar, greedy, liars, and sons of the devil
That is a very prejudiced view,Edna told her.Everyone is entitled to behave exactly how they want
Well,Annie said,I’d like to lie down on the grass over there by the river and have sex with that psychotherapist who lives across the road But it would cause scandal unless lots of people did the same
Has your imagined lover got no bed,Mary teased her?
I think that’s disgusting , in a an older woman said Edna.I suppose that’s why you have that teal eyeshadow and mascara on not to mention your rose lipstick.I’ve seen it in Harrods
I got them in Channel supplies in Birkenhead.They are near the Mersey Tunnel
It’s a long way to go,said Edna.How do you get there and why is it nor called Tunnel Supplies
I follow a man on Facebook and he often drives up there so I get my car out and keep behind him all the way on the M1 etc
Does he know about this?
No, he’s not following me on FB any more
I wonder why that is, Edna mused with a strange sneer
He is paranoid,I suspect
No wonder,Mary said.He thinks he is imagining you.
I hope his imagination is as pure as the driven snow,Annie answered
Well, we’ll never know.Look at Princess Diana….she had many lovers..
I hate her, said Edna viciously
Oh,dear. said Mary.Did she hurt you?
No, she was cruel to Prince Charles.Her mind was innocent then and she had no repertoire of the sexual arts
Many women were virgins when they were single.How would they know such mysteries?
They could look at porn,Edna said rudely..
Do you look at porn, Annie asked her kindly?
Well,I would if I had a lover,Edna murmured shyly
Maybe they should teach it instead of algebra,Mary suggested, though once it was an instinct
The parents might be angry,Edna said sadly if their children knew more than them
But intimacy is not merely sex,Annie told them politely
It’s being able to to reveal yourself to the other person without fear
and I don’t mean wearing see through nighties
Emile mewed loudly
Mother, don’t you wear one.The milkman might see your body
I find them too cold anyway,Mary giggled sensibly
If I get another man he will have to like wincyette or fleece
Well,good luck, said Edna.No English man would want either of you
Edna you are very rude,What is wrong with you?
I’ve got pre-traumatic stress disorder and there is no cure
Well,use your common sense or just keep quiet and sulk silently
And so say all of us.

https://theconversation.com/anger-management-why-we-feel-rage-and-how-to-control-it-50209

Anger disorder

There is no clear diagnosis of an anger disorder, but the psychiatric diagnostic manual does include “intermittent explosive disorder”, which is characterised by recurrent behavioural outbursts representing a failure to control aggressive impulses. This affects 7.3% of the population at some point in their life and 3.9% in the past 12 months.

Anger, however, is a common clinical presentation that features across an array of different mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders and many more.

If you begin to notice that you are on edge quite a lot, do things that you later regret, are quick to react instead of respond, and that you have people in your life who have told you that you tend to get angry, it might be helpful to do something about it.

Halfway between a doodle and a script

The clouds make curves and lines across the sky

One looks like a face with sultry lips

We are nothing sailing in our ships

The universe is terror ‘vall’s awry

I can’t read this writing what’s the script?

Even Einstein could not give us tips.

All I do is let them sail on by

One looks like a face with sultry lips

Interpretations flounder, don’t know why

Little drawings doodles idle scripts

In the world of meaning there are cracks.

Light gets in but dazzles human eyes

This looks like a face with sulky lips

The clouds were slow but now they seem to fly.

Do they look at us as they go by?

Halfway between a doodle and a script

I see your face with swollen sensual lips

As he crossed the room a cynical smile played upon his lips. When she looked up her heart jumped into her mouth.

I hope I don’t lose my mind she sought anxiously. Can you fasten your mind on so it can’t drop off?

I’ve never liked cynical people she thought moodily. If my heart doesn’t go back into place I will choke. And if I lose my mind who will find it?

I felt my body turn inside out with fear when I was in bed last night. Why can’t we lose our fear the sumo

She didn’t know what was happening to him as they lay tensely in bed

He was beside himself with anxiety as she looked as if she had swallowed a gobstopper. One of the cobbles from the road outside their first house would have done the job better that is it would have killed her instantly.

But could you get a cobble into your mouth? I don’t think so.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when her husband slammed the door. Her mind was absent at the time.

I wonder where absent minds go to?

I was out of mine completely.

I could see it calculating pi to 100 decimal places but why that was important I simply cannot tell you. It would be one of the seven labours of Hercules because however long you spent calculating more and more decimal places for pi you would never get to the end. So why even start? Well the concept just blew my mind

I found it easier to concentrate or mathematics and to maintain my focus and it stopped  my within thinking about multiple sin mortal sin and convenient sin and invaluable sin. I’m trying to say venial. What about ingenious sin? Moral sin is only one t away from mortal sin.

Do you know there are some thoughts that are like gnats on the surfaces of a lake.. such thoughts are useless but thoughts from the deeper level are no longer egocentric. It’s important to try to get away from the superficial thoughts which are usually very selfish or just simply boring

But once you’re standing back and looking at them that will give you a new perspective.

You might be able to see it from somebody else’s point of view.

There’s no time like the present

Be present it’s your birthday

First we had grow your own and now it’s kill it yourself.

We had paint your own pictures then it was draw your own blood.

Write your own books then
Read your own palm.

We used to make love now it’s ensure your own climax

We used to  talk to each other
Now we message our others
We used to share bedrooms
Now we are alone with just Zoom
We used to have fantasies now we have pornography
We didn’t see our own vulvas
Now we get plastic surgery so they look good for anonymous strangers.

If we do everything ourselves and nothing for each other where will that lead to in the end?

MARY OVERSLEEPS

Annie went onto Mary’s patio at 10 am and began to water her many tubs.The watering can was filled with rain water though the weather was now a little drier.

Emile ran behind her admiring her tight black jeans from Calvin Klein and her red blouse from Bowlands of Wrath.

Suddenly the bedroom window opened and Mary leaned out.
Hi Annie,I have not gone away after all.
Why not? asked her caring and dear neighbour
Well,I completely forgot because I was out last night meeting a man from Soul-mates and got home so late I slept right through the alarm.
A pity you didn’t bring him back,said Annie licking her lips.
I can’t bring any man here so soon,Mary informed her.I rang the hotel and cancelled my booking.With the weather so odd even Blackpool Illuminations would not cheer anyone up.I didn’t know which clothes to take either.
Isn’t it interesting that as we get better off we get problems like that,remarked Annie. When we were young we had so few clothes we had no trouble packing.
Mary laughed.My first year after University I bought two cotton dresses in Woolworth’s.I thought they were ok but later discovered they were almost transparent.Anyway I wore themn But now few women wear dresses.

7

Look at you in those jeans and you a pensioner!
Annie gazed up to Mary, revealing her thick Revlon skin polish and L’Oreal cream rich foundation in golden grey-beige.Her parted lips were coated in moisture rich coral lipstick by Mussolini and Co. of Argentina and Vienna.
Mary was wearing a long nightgown made of pure nylon decorated with photos of cats of all breeds.Emile had given it her for her birthday.He had managed to type it into the google box on his laptop paying with Stan’s credit card from the Bank of Vichy and Nice,France.
I want some tea,Mary said.

Soon she appeared in a polyester house dress from Daxon of Paris and the Ruhr. lt was covered in pictures of snakes.
Why,those snakes are rather horrible, Annie said.
I know snakes are in fashion but I shall avoid them.I saw some trousers in Marks but they might give a man the wrong impression.
That is sexist ,Mary told her shyly.They might give a lesbian the wrong impression too.
Oh,dear. Isn’t life hard now when we have to be so careful what we say.I wonder if it is because of social alienation and the rapid changes in demographics that we need rules when before we knew all our neighbours and they knew us.With strangers we need more rules.
I agree, said Mary defiantly.And I just saw a book called “Compassionate Assertiveness Training”She laughed.
Shall we send one to Donald Trump.Can you believe what America is like if a man like that can be President?
Well,it’s a democracy so if Satan lived there he could stand if he had the money..
The two women suddenly fell silent.Emile was puzzled as they rarely paused like this once they got going
Is he the anti-Christ, purred the little cat.
Satan or Donald Trump? asked Annie.
Well …. we’ve never seen Satan as yet…But we must watch out in case he comes here to punish the weak and the sick.
Well that gave them all a moment of wonder before Mary grilled some bacon and cut some bread from a loaf she got in the Victoria Bakery.
Here you are,she said to Annie,handing her a sandwich.Better eat anyway,whatever happens.Give me some hot tea,quick
And so pray all of us.
For he’s a Bally Woodfiller,
He’s a Wooly Sad Triller
And all day so are us.

God voluntarily turned himself in at one the governments vans asking illegal immigrants if they want to go home.Lawyers are assessing the cost of shooting God up to heaven from the top of Snowdon or Great Gable.
God declined to say how he arrived in Britain though his burkha gave us a clue .
She signed in for benefits as Jessy Christ and said she had two husbands.At the time she was labelled as border-line schizophrenic but the Father and the Spirit were found in her council house. helping some beggars to cook a nice dinner.To have a council house in Walthamstow is a miracle in itself
God will be getting a reduction in her housing benefit
He can sleep in one bedroom if the bed is bigger.The judge says he does not accept that each person in the Trinity needs their own room.
Why God came here is not known as yet.Why he stayed is even more puzzling given the native dislike of foreigners and illegal immigrants where ever they come from,
However God has been a great burden on the Economy as he has so many children that the Social Services can’t count them.Though many do seem to be employed gainfully or helping the sick and elderly
His English is ok grammatically but we were told he has a “foreign accent”
and had no papers or identity cards though he did have with him an archangel who spoke English with a Lancashire accent.
God has asked that all the Mediaeval Cathedrals be returned to the Catholic Church as his son does not like Anne Boleyn very much and thought Henry V111th was a narcissistic ego maniac with delusions… he
We’ll let you know more about the drain on the Economy and whether God caused the Recession in the next day or two.He certainly does move in mysterious ways…..that’s why no-one saw him arrive.
Watch out and keep your doors barred in case he tries to move into your house or garden shed with a few companions.You can recognise them by the golden glow around them and possibly their wings.Photos accepted.
Britain for the British.Have no mercy.Have no love of your neighbour.Everyone for himself or herself.He has to realise it’s a market society and that he needs PR and an advertising agent and a nationality and passport.
Keep Britain free from foreign invasions.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/12/try-these-habits-to-reinvigorate-your-reading

write down and look up the meaning of unfamiliar words, which makes me tortuously slow at reading. I also like to reread certain phrases or sentences and think about them for a while. I enjoy books that are not mainstream too, although one of my favourites has been Orbital,.

After

Peeling

Hemlock

Raw

Or

Dried

Iris

Tried

Electricity

Minuets

Interest

Nobody

Unless

Everybody

Takes

Sides

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/13/poem-of-the-week-my-mother-by-claude-mckay?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Mastering the art of writing poetry is impossible

In fact you can’t master any art

Nobody with any common sense was even try

Ideas themselves maybe a torment rather than a contribution

Must we despair if we cannot be the master of all?

Ultimately we hope to give joy to someone somewhere In The world

Mentioning this is possibly a mistake

Instead we should lose ourselves and the sea of words as long as we can swim

Don’t deny your talents and gift s out of modesty

Expectation is probably an enemy but idleness is worse.

After all we are all human beings living for a while in this tragic world

That’s the best way to look at it

BBC News – Want to feel calmer? How 20 minutes outside will help https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg0yvdjgn5o

BBC News – How to keep adult friendships and stop ghosting – BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyr971q7rxo

Are you a bad enough parent? We’ve heard of good enough mothers through the work of Dr DW Winnicott, but surely mothers need to be bad as well and fathers do but how bad do they need to be?

Murdering their children will be too bad, but never disagreeing with them will be too good

Be bad enough to others to make sure you are respecting your own boundaries you know it makes sense and you read it here first in a similar manner you need your baby to be bad enough because if the baby is too good she will be ignored and made use of by unkind parents

Everybody needs to be a little bit bad enough to preserve their own self while living in this curious unequal society

My husband was in the hospital and he tested positive for  TV

That’s all right you can turn him on whenever you like

The surgeon drained my knee with a lozenge. Or was it a Syrian?   I wish I’d learnt to read when I was blunder

Did they put a primula in the back of your hand first?

She said your knee is twice the normal size, are you in any discomfort?

I knew my stockings were too tight, so I said, no.

She said, you don’t seem to realize the toll this is taking on me.

So I suggested she should change her job.

I was having a problem  distinguishing between myself and other people.

She said, all this pain is bad for you. Would you like a morphine patch on your shoulder?

I said, what about putting it on my bladder I would really like that better

She said I’ve never been so consulted in my satired life. You have to put the patch on your skin on top of some blood vessels

So I said, what about putting it over my heart?

Maybe you could inject it right into my heart directly.

That will be assisted dying and it’s not even legal yet so I will be committing murder.

I didn’t realise morphine was so dangerous. And it can make you feel depressed as well as killing you

Have you noticed now that nearly all the doctors are women and they work part-time and they tell you at 8:00 p.m. in A&E,

stop talking because I’ve got children working for me at home.

Is it my fault if they employ foreigners as  underage slaves?

Anyway I think I might be going deaf when I recover from all my ailments I  have to go to the doctor and say

I can’t hear you

And she will shout

What?

Modern slavery in Britain a serious things l

By the way there are people here we brought from Africa tempted by the offer of money and they are working as carers being paid the minimum wage and their own money to the company that brought them over claiming their needed it for their visas.

It’s a form of modern slavery in my opinion and it’s disgusting I have met some of them and they are lovely people some are qualified teachers and other professionals

The poverty in their home country is great and the life expectation is not very long but this is no reason to exploit them.

I’m learned from my experiences in the nursing home especially those I had with two very old ladies with dementia but also with a lot of personality as well. one of them said to me if only I could have visitors who didn’t keep talking I would just like to have someone there like my son in the room but not constantly talking. I was glad that I was able to be with her for an hour and a half on her last day of life. she was conscious but in severe pain and I sat by her until the nurse asked me to to leave because they had to wash her. When I got to the door she said say goodnight everyone. It was only 3:30 in the afternoon but I did what she wanted as I said on her behalf goodnight everyone good night it was a great privilege to know this Welsh school teacher who was a mother of three children the other woman was more severely affected by dementia I learnt from observation and experience that I could communicate with her much better if I was present snd fully aware of my own body. You could say when I was indwelling in my body. then she would respond even when she seemed mentally disturbed. through this being present I became fond of her I would say that in the end I loved her; she was very different from the angry person who swore at me when she finally said: you are so gentle, I love you K

O

While the priest annointed him with oils
I played in the gutter all alone
I hoped to find the marbles we had lost
Or from the melted tar to pluck a stone

The summer was so hot the cobbles baked
Looking like a row of fresh made loaves
There were no fishes in the millstream’s rush
Nor a place where bread and Saviour rose

I found a florin in the cobbled street
I found two marbles lying near a grid
I found a daisy squashed in a wide crack
I saw a spider hanged in its own web

To summarise ,my father went away
The Queen was crowned and we just had to play

I remember you boys rolling marbles down the gutter

And how you prized them, have beautiful they where when you rolled them on your hands in the sunshine

I remember you climbing  fences and falling off walls while I stood by to admire you

We found a well in someone’s allotment covered over mr by tin.

You frightened me with tales of boys vtorturing frogs.

Maybe you were frightened of the prospect of national service.

Sometimes you talked about the Nazis

But you could never have said  to anyone that you were afraid.

Before that I remember you climbing up the piano trying to get to the Christmas tree on the top.

You seem so full of energy alive so happy and yet it was not true

Later you developed panic syndrome I could hardly believe it

And then you died with Parkinson’s disease

You were lonely in the nursing home. I hoped when you drowsed that you remembered the marbles and playing rounders in the street

You taught me how to bowl over arm. I wanted to play cricket but it never happened How full of possibility the world seemed, the energy, the joy, the lust for life.

Now just a handful of dust

A brother

Northern Ireland coast

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/09/the-poems-of-seamus-heaney-review-collected-works-reveal-his-colossal-achievement

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/06/positive-thinking-can-make-success-feel-like-the-only-acceptable-option-but-humility-allows-for-grace?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other