immersed in Ernaux
everything seen in context
lives in parallel
~
CLP 19/02/2023
on time
Tag Archives: France
on light
snow-cold breathes of wind
carry the echoes of cranes
setting ice-white sun
~
CLP 18/01/2023
on heat
wonder at mankind
trains to Paris undersea
pylons lift cables
systems of power
connect us to each other
bind us to our fate
~
n.b. Standing here overlooking Rainham Marshes, watching another bloody sunset, you can hear the electricity cables crackle as they carry charge towards the City of London.
If you listen really carefully, you can hear the insane laughter of stockholders celebrating multi-billions of profits being divvied up by BP, Shell and a few other energy companies, while the Earth’s climate spins inexorably out of control.
Nearby at Wennington, the scenes are of burnt houses, charred trees, scorched earth. Scenes familiar to residents of France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, California. What more proof does this once green and pleasant land need that things have changed, that we must change?
People blithely talk of access to air-conditioning, not aware that more energy is now used on such cooling equipment in summer than that used in winter to heat us. It is we who are being conditioned by the air.
Things have changed. Something’s gotta change.
CLP 04/8/2022
Desert Dust
Shifted from south of the Sahel Disarmed by Sahara's unruly winds Riding out the arid rolling waves Heading north on the Scirocco Slipping through the wires at Ceuta Negotiating the Med, island by island Crossing France, fence by fence Sleeping by day in shallow ditches Embarking from Blériot Plage to Blighty Where your humble lives are valued As grains of sand
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2022 Day Sixteen prompt: write a curtal sonnet. Ten lines tied up by a shorter eleventh, rather than a more conventional fourteen line sonnet.
Here, my curtal sonnet touches on the UK Government announcing a policy to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda where they will be placed in holding centres, rather than working with them on these shores to provide a safe haven. The UK was ranked the 5th wealthiest country in the world in 2020, according to Credit Suisse S.A.
The photograph shows the remains of a rubber dinghy washed up on the coast, the sort of fragile craft smugglers use to get people to England regardless of risk.
CLP 18/04/2020
on Ukraine xvi
Kyiv to Channel
you new Burghers of Calais
held by paper chains
~
n.b. UK Border Force, your first contact with England; all forms – no compassion.
It is possible to see England’s famous White Cliffs of Dover from the French Coast. Refugees trying to reach family members in the UK are haunted by England’s proximity, taunted by British bureaucracy.
CLP 10/03/2022
Dream #4
Bonjour madame
Monsieur, bonjour
Je voudrais un pain au raisin et un pain au chocolat, si vous plait
D’accord. À boire, monsieur?
Ah, mais oui! Une tea, merci.
Merci, monsieur.
Et un vers d’eau, aussi?
Sorry, mate, would you speak in English? I can’t take your accent anymore. Thanks for trying.
~
n.b. All errors are deliberate…it’s supposed to be light-hearted. I don’t want Académie Française on my case. Thank you to the Foreign Languages Editor, Woody for support with Dream #4.
CLP 31/05/2021
In the (U)SA (viii)
From France, as a gift
Statue of Liberty
Now Paris flares up
.
CLP 03/06/2020
In Boulogne
Did the artist understand
Hands extended across the waters of La Manche
Would be a friendship
So easily diluted?
.
n.b. This piece of ironwork is a suitably trite jokey comment on the tenuous connections between England and France that stands in Boulogne-sur-mer.
Boulogne was an assembly point for the invading Romans, the forces of Napoleon’s armada that did not set sail, as well as the likely jumping off point for the Nazis, who thanks to the RAF (with its young pilots from the UK, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Poland and Czechoslovakia (amongst other places), also never set sail.
The economy of Boulogne was hit hard when cross-Channel ferries stopped calling there following the opening of the “Chunnel”, the 50km railway tunnel linking England with France. This wondrous feat of Anglo-French engineering started after UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Jacques Chirac signed off the project in 1987.
Following Brexit it is likely that smuggling will prove lucrative once more between the coasts of Northern France and Southern England, an industry that was prolific over 200 years ago when trade barriers and protectionism was in full force.
Incidentally it was protectionism enforced by the English on its thirteen colonies of North America that led to the Revolutionary War of 1775 – 1783. The French weighed in successfully on the side of the colonies from 1778 to ensure the Americans won their independence.
However, the expense of joining this colonial war contributed to the impoverishment of the French treasury leading in part to the French Revolution of 1789.
Who knows where Brexit leads? The notions of “United” and “Kingdom” both look increasingly fragile.
.
CLP 27/02/2020
On the Horizon
These fields of France
Such broad expanses one sees
Curvature of Earth
.
Journey of Words 