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at the gymnasium
WOW! Look at those gunsWhen you gonna use them, boy?I mean, what’s the point?~n.b. Too much power, too big an arsenal, too many guns, aircraft carriers, tanks, fighter jets, bombers, drones, missiles. They were never going to just sit in a shed. Old men with nothing to lose…how does this happen? CLP 17/06/2025 →
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on peace
what in Hell is going on in the Unholy Land?Who The Devil is in charge?The Demonocracy has Trumped democracyHistories are being spunLies are being spunMy head is spinningI’m getting dizzyThe Earth spins on~n.b. The attack on Iran is by extrapolation an attack on the peace-loving citizens of Israel who must now be prepared to take →
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on Ukraine
Punch, counter-punchStab, thrust, bombAll the mothers knowLottery of life and deathHolds them at knife-pointIs this the final dice rollOr just another false dawnA fake news dayEdging then along until they hearThe boy’s key in the lockOr the postie’s fateful knock~ n.b. And so it goes on, more vicious by the day, more so by night. →
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on May
it is a long monthwe have enjoyed warmer daysbut now pray for rainto Europe’s east warWe need human resourcesnot just munitionsnowhere is safe nowKyiv is attacked day and nightonly the dead restin the Holy Landa new testament writtenin blood of childrenthe wringing of handsringing of cash registersversus body-countnow The Genocideassumes a new currencycafé talk topictelevision →
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on Ukraine
What day is it?Does it matter?It’s raining bombsWhen the children are playingWhen the churches are openIs anyone still watching?Talk is cheapLives are cheapWhen money stalksThe Land of The FreeKyiv can’t buy a break~ CLP 25/05/2025 →
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on Ukraine
the killer declares “Truce”(for it is EasterOrthodox or not)while re-loading every last guna python tightens its gripat every exhalation of its prey~ CLP 22/04/2025 →
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Prayer
Oh perpetually pugnacious people of this planetPrepare to make the supposedly impossible possiblePurge all pandering to past prejudicesPurge all previously held political positionsSimply place your person in the predicament of your purported opponentPrepare for peace~n.b. To dream the impossible might just make it possible. This poem is prompted by NaPoWriMo 2025 Day 15 CLP 15/04/2025 →
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Gernika: Wiederholungszeichen
Somewhere a Palestinian Picasso daubs a canvasOr chisels stoneNeedles coloured thread through linenScribbles out a poemScratches notes onto stavesAs fragments of shells are pickedFrom the hands and feetThe crown and sideOf the freshly crucified~n.b. NaPoWriMo 2025 combining art and music in poetry. Gernika April 1937, twinned with Gaza, April 2025. CLP 13/04/2025 →
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on Ukraine
Palm Sunday, SumyHoly Week preparationThe Devil rides in~n.b. Moscow moves from supposed ‘military operation’ to full-blown terrorism. Churchgoers and a full public bus, guilty of getting in the way of a double missile strike on an ordinary street in Sumy, this very morning. CLP 13/04/2025 →
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on reconciliation
to wipe the slate cleanopen your eyes to their painwash their wounds with your tears~n.b. Coventry cathedral, blitzed and rebuilt with this sculpture ‘Reconciliation’ (Reunion), by Josefinaq de Vasconcellos (1977). It imagines a couple embracing over a line of barbed wire. CLP 11/04/2024 →
Journey of Words 