Reflections
A Knight’s Code to Live By in 2022
AS ANOTHER WATERSHED YEAR WINDS DOWN — having once more shown the true colours of many institutions, organisations and people, and as a new year looms into view — what could be better than living by a code of sanity which immediately sets one against the rising madness of this world. You can see such a code in the image accompanying these words. It promotes some qualities which are less common today, such as honour, duty, honesty, gallantry, diligence, fidelity, cherishment, self-scrutiny, valour, steadfastness, charity, grace, empathy, compassion, etc. Some years ago, I found what was a very brief but pithy 1000-year-old medieval English Knight’s Code of Chivalry which, over the years, I have substantially adapted and built into the code you see here. I have sworn to exercise it with conscientious dedication and to live by it, to the best of my ability. It is not a charter for mere virtue-signalling, for it demands the highest dealings between one human and another and between oneself and one’s conscience. In many ways, I think it sorts out the wheat from the chaff. I hope you find this helpful and encouraging and that you can even adapt it for yourself. I wish you a very fulfilling and growthful year of 2022.
2021 New Year’s Resolutions Revisited
IT’S ALWAYS REVEALING (AND OFTEN EMBARRASSING!) to re-examine one’s previous year’s New Year resolutions. So above is an image of my resolutions from this time last year. It seems that I fulfilled 12 out of the 14 points. However, instead of publishing a book of poems, I began to write a book (on the Book of Revelation), now up to almost 370 pages and 120,000 words, hopefully finished by March. The music album ambition has to be shelved until the madness of the world is more favourable (if ever!). So, all in all, not a bad score. The same resolutions again for 2022, though now including the publication of a book 
and something unspeakable that I’ve never done before… 
Another Tasteless Kitschmas
EACH YEAR, FOR MANY YEARS, I’ve added more verses to a carol I’m continuously writing, entitled “Another Tasteless Kitschmas”. This year, it has increased by 25% and now has 30 verses. (See below). This is the only Xmas card you’ll get from me! 
Although, on the surface, it looks somewhat tongue-in-cheek… on another level, it is deadly serious. I hope it brings you some seasonal thoughtfulness. Love to you from me. 
Recently I noticed something
happening in the streets:
A guy was on a ladder
using acrobatic feats.
I wondered if this was some kind
of urban culture craze.
But then I saw him hanging up
some Christmas light clichés.
I Am With Child (again)
EVERY YEAR, AS THE 11TH DAY OF NOVEMBER APPROACHES, I feel a strange enshrouding pall descend (or is it a‑scend from the pit of hell) upon my mind and soul, and poetry begins to form inside my heart — a kind of tribute to the role of all the Wilfred Owens of this world who barely lived yet left their art in verbal gemstones twinkling in the blood and mud and dirt. This year, that poem (a war poem, as it’s called) has even now begun to weave its spell inside my pen — ‘The Trenches of Our Time’, this time it’s called. I’ll publish it this many days from now (that’s ten), no matter if it’s fully formed — a grim gestation’s bloody foetus skin and bones, though few will grab the rusty old defibrillator hanging on the wall (for out of primal swamps most folks won’t crawl).
Read the rest of this entry »Logic Comes From the Logos
WHAT IS MOST LACKING IN SOCIETY in the 21st century? *LOGIC*. If the majority of people had not been so dumbed-down that they cannot think logically, governments would not have been able to pull off the stunt which they have throughout the past 17 months. Frankly, sharing a world with so many who are unable to apply logic means feeling not only like a complete alien on one’s own planet but also as if one is imprisoned in a medieval lunatic asylum!
Read the rest of this entry »‘Woke’ is a Joke!
‘WOKE’ IS A JOKE (and it’s a religion)! You know how it goes: You invite a ‘woke’ friend to your house and they spend their whole time checking your lifestyle. First, they chastise you bitterly for using paper kitchen towels (which they spotted in one of the drawers they went through the moment they first arrived). Then, when they use your bathroom, they come out shocked that you use toilet paper which hasn’t been recycled a sufficient number of times and they checked out all the “utterly harmful ingredients” in your toilet cleaner and tell you that you are completely destroying the environment and how irresponsible you are and the planet doesn’t have much time left because of people like you.
Read the rest of this entry »The Two Principal Industries of So-called Civilisation
THE TWO PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES of this “civilisation” are armaments and pharmaceuticals. One exists to keep the world in perpetual murderous conflict; the other exists to ensure that society is perpetually life-threateningly unhealthy. For our idea about how to create the greatest peace is just as screwed-up as how to be in optimum health. The warmongers and politicians tell us that maintaining the peace is about waging strategic and proxy wars “for freedom and democracy”, with spooks and militaries acting as agents for armaments manufacturers (rather than encouraging personal change so profound that conflict on all levels would become redundant). Scientific “experts” and medical administrative bodies tell us that preserving the health of society is about administering drugs after people have got sick, with hospitals and doctors openly acting as “dealers” for the pharmaceutical industry (rather than encouraging changes in personal lifestyle — such as diet, exercise, supplements, outlook, etc., — which are so profound that merely treating symptoms would be seen as superficially stupid compared to taking into account the condition of the whole person and the reasons for the illness in the first place).
Read the rest of this entry »There is Nothing More Attractive…
THERE IS NOTHING MORE ATTRACTIVE in a human being than the intense desire to improve and grow… Read on below…
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Time to Trim Your Wick
OVER THE YEARS, I have tried to be patient and loving even with people who were nasty and destructive when they didn’t agree with me, and even though my determination to avoid giving like-for-like often made them behave even more unpleasantly (for they are addicted to the thrust and the joust). I always realised that their comportment was dictated by damaged elements in their hearts which they did not comprehend; therefore I had sympathy and empathy. But something has changed in recent times, and I am no longer inclined to be so indulgent. This does not imply a withdrawal of essential human love; but I will no longer be railroaded by their games, grudges and goadings. For now the lines are being drawn very differently and we are moving into a rapidly degenerating world in which those people — instead of being reasonable objects of sympathy and help — are not only energy-leeches and time-wasters but also would-be snitches to the authorities (or some other even more sinister kind of threat, as they casually haunt the edges of violence).
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The Naked Troubadour 