Month: Aug 2013
You’re So Naïve
YOU’RE SO NAIVE! That was the title of a song I wrote on 2nd December 2008, addressed to the mesmerised masses across the world who were rejoicing at the thought of Obama being elected to the presidential office for the first time. When that happened, most of the world thought that their Messiah had come. But some of us knew it was just another cheap trick worked by behind-the-scenes strategists to make people think there had been some kind of sea-change when really it was a clever way of maintaining the status quo. Since the time of President J.F. Kennedy (who was plainly assassinated because he was prepared to stand up to the CIA and organised crime), the message has been clear: Presidents are tools and puppets of the real powerbrokers in this world (the Powers-that-Be, PTB) and have no power of their own whatsoever. As events develop now in the world as it is today, maybe many more will come to realise this too. The melody of this song resembles one of those football chants sung by crowds at matches. Here are the lyrics:So now you have a leader who is “young and black and real”
“Change we can believe in” is the mantra that you feel
But how come I am standing here with heaviness of heart?
It’s a tragedy in Grecian style and we all have a partYou’re so naïve!
The PTB are laughing up their sleeve
You’re exactly what they need
Their power-games you feed
You’re so naïve! Continue reading…
Curtain Call [poem]
A cow will never languish in a snail’s shell.
A dragon would look silly in a spider’s web.
A horse cannot be hiding in a pimpernel.
A skunk could not be snoring in a featherbed.
Contrary to what most normal people claim,
square pegs can neatly fit in rounded holes.
The problem’s not the fit but wasted space
spent trying to play some unbecoming roles.
When to Open one’s Mouth
It’s quite an art in life knowing when to open one’s mouth and when to keep it wisely shut — recognising that even silence can speak with a thousand words. Never being led by one’s tongue but tethering it for when it will be useful. Never using it as an unyielding whip, idle gossiper or badmouth backbiter — knowing that words are living things which can build up the weakest heart or break down the biggest bully. Our words, as much as our eyes, are the window to our souls. Daily I tell myself: “Don’t speak because you have to say something but because you have something to say”. Some days it’s harder than others to obey myself 😉
Dark Side and the Pathway of Light
There is an easy way to tell the difference between the Dark Side and the Pathway of Light. For the Dark Side always has an affinity for acquisition and accrual. It loves to accumulate things — whether it be power or material objects. The Pathway of Light, however, involves renunciation. Acquisition and renunciation are the two diametrically-opposed qualities on which darkness and light pivot. When I see statements all over Facebook about techniques for “manifesting one’s desires” in abundance (i.e. creating wealth) I see the Dark Side. They are simply motivational get-rich-quick schemes dressed up in psychobabble and “spiritual” clothing (often involving some kind of pyramid-selling scam or getting you to attend some “energy alignment” sessions in order to become a session leader yourself and make loadsamoney — thus creating a self-perpetuating cult which sees itself as the ultimate answer to humanities ills!).
Your Green and Yellow Hats [sonnet]
The hat you wear is green, perched on your head —
a beacon there for all the world to see.
You could have worn a yellow one instead;
both hats would show your colours glaringly.
People often ask me…
People often ask me why a number of my songs seem to be “sad” and why I don’t write happy songs to cheer people up. Firstly, I don’t believe that my songs are genuinely sad at all; although I readily confess a number of them are tinged with melancholy. Sadness and melancholy are very different qualities. Sadness in its classic form generally involves a kind of self-centred hopelessness whereas melancholy (if rightly identified and understood) is ultimately outward-looking, subtly hopeful and stimulating creativity. Melancholy is merely mournful whereas sadness is solely sighful. Melancholy is like smiling softly and forgivingly through tears whereas sadness has an austere streak of bleak remorselessness. Sadness is cynicism dressed up in sackcloth and ashes whereas melancholy is sensitivity clothed in temporary darkness. Sadness bleakly has no ground to till and bears no fruit whereas melancholy is the death-throes of wintertime before the buds break through. Sadness is a woeful winter of endless discontent whereas melancholy — like Autumn leaves — is tinged with brown and already hopes for springtime.
