Liberté, Égalité, Humanité
putting a face on
can't hide what happens beneath
St. Louis' broken heart
~
n.b. In a city with many elegantly carved superstructures that are all boarded up, this building in the city centre has been cleverly painted to look as if it has a facade carved from stone. It is merely make up that is beginning to flake off. It is initially impressive, but like The Arch, it’s just a hollow sham.
CLP 27/09/2022
late-night traffic halts
blues on red, no one around
still, they sit and wait
~
n.b. Chicago police are recruiting. The bus company is recruiting. Most bars, restaurants, shops seem to be recruiting. Trucking companies are recruiting. Everyone is recruiting.
In the UK, it seems the over-50s, who have cleared off mortgages, been well-paid enough to save money and found a way to step out of the work–place, the meaningless drudge of commuting, the long hours present at a work station, (missing daylight, weather, loved ones), are to blame for the lack of workers (NOT the million, or so, young Europeans who went back to Europe after Brexit?). As a consequence, the government is going to try to make it harder for the low-paid, low-wage, home-renters to leave the workplace.
If that’s the UK problem, what’s happening in the USA?
CLP 23/09/2022
fens drained for farming
commons mopped up by gentry
raindrops or teardrops?
~
n.b. First the common land under James I, then the water boards under the Tories. If we need it, they control it. Through legislation for the landed gentry, by the landed gentry, generations of people remain in the thrall of robber barons. Time for change.
CLP 27/08/2022
this land is our land
presidential palace sacked
let's find the kitchen
~
n.b. No attempt on The Capitol this, but the need to feed overrides the politics of greed. People of Sri Lanka only want what’s fair, enough of the extortion and corruption. “The president was not at home...”
CLP 09/07/2022
changes of colour
cannot disguise reality
working a treadmill
~
CLP 29/10/2021
going nowhere fast?
there is an alternative
to the free market
~
n.b. How can it be free when it’s costing the Earth?
~
CLP 26/10/2021
this is ours
the canvas that fills with cumuli
where delicate cirrus decorates our moon
where Sun drags its heat from dawn to dusk
the venue of Venus, the field for Mars
where Saturn plays perpetual hula hoop
dance floor of Jupiter and its spinning jewels
backdrop for all our stars
this is our space you build in
concreting our view
damping our days
darkening our nights
boxing the light
constricting our breath
into narrow alleyways
you, who have enclosed our commons
now prepare to steal our sky
~
n.b. Time to draw a line to protect our light. Walls are being built on river banks and coasts for the few who are buying up our common views, breathing space and sense of space.
Norwich is being slowly smothered by these concrete and glass blocks. The Wensum is being enclosed.
Watching the building foundations being sunk is fascinating until you realise how deep the piles go and then the horror takes over; the sky is being taken from us.
~
CLP 15/10/2021
constant spinning web
silk threads entangle us all
we await spider
~
n.b. Mountains shown are in France…national borders are just lines on maps after all, or mountains, or rivers, or wastelands, or shores.
CLP 28/09/2021
what do we call it
when forty plus hours isn't
enough to pay rent?
~
CLP 28/08/2021
Based on ‘Words’ by Tadeusz Różewicz
(translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston)
Published by archipelago books (New York, 2007)
Herds
Herds are rounded up
treated as fodder
for innocent smiles
reduced to mere patties
sold by a clown
.
macerated with machined steel
compressed into packets
wrapped
conveniently for
shipping
.
distant forests
have been cleared
reduced to pasture
for consumers
who know not this work
.
soon
disposed of
through the human gut
‘though residual traces lie in wait
still living
.
converted blood
converted bone
converted to something
else we use up
converted from living
creatures to
foodstuff
~
n.b. 
Day 5 take a poem and convert its shape and sound into something of your own, using the first letter of each line from the original to start your own poem. I have taken the shape of a poem and used it as a template for my own, but using my own first letters. Not the original prompt, but as with all prompts, a starting point, not a proscriptive set of rules, (for me…). Also the original poem is not out online for you to cross reference, as far as I can find, sorry.
~
CLP (05/04/2021)
Voyage des Mots 