Oh Bob (Zimmerman aka Dylan)
OH BOB (ZIMMERMAN aka DYLAN)! YOU’RE JUST A SHADOW OF YOUR FORMER SELF! I remember buying your album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” in 1963 as a fragile teenager and it woke my poetic soul and filled me with heartfelt passion for truth, peace and life. Why don’t you go down to that slaughterhouse of the world, euphemistically known as The White House, and play your masterpiece from that album, “Masters of War” (lyrics below), to the present murderous occupants (who received a Nobel Prize like you, for nothing)? Then use your great wealth to fly across to Sweden and visit the Saab Dynamics Corporation in Karlskoga (where most of the world’s battlefield weapons are made) and play it with passion to the board of directors, not for entertainment in concert circuses like you usually do but to sear consciences with its laser-like lyrics and tear down walls round hardened hearts. Then see if they would still give you a Nobel Prize!
e. e. cummings
My favourite poet ever… I’ve been in love with his work since 1963, when, in school, I discovered the sledgehammer of his writing.
From the Sun [poem]
The only thing
that’s going to change
this broken, crazy,
dazed and fading world
is one humungous
ghastly shock
beyond what’s ever been
experienced on earth before —
some cataclysm or disaster,
jolts to haunt us ever-after,
something which will throw us
all down to the floor —
an angel of death
going door-to-door
Continue reading…
To continue what I wrote on November 9th
TO CONTINUE WHAT I WROTE ON NOVEMBER 9th, MANY HAVE BEEN SAYING, IN RESPONSE TO THE US ELECTION VOTE (and also to the so-called “Brexit” voting) that “democracy is starting to take a dangerous turn”. This seems to mean that people don’t like the way that the voting has gone. The thing is that if one wants to live in even the limited kind of “democracy” which one believes that one has, then one also has to accept it when the vote doesn’t go the way one likes it to go. I have watched with interest how so many on social media avidly badmouth the candidate they won’t be voting for (or didn’t vote for) and will also accept ANY propaganda or obvious lie which is told about him/her on the internet. I have seen this very many times lately, even among my ‘friends’ on social media. It’s just crazy — taking sides like that and then getting so horribly caught up in it that it becomes a real conflict and takes over one’s mind. Facebook, for example, has lately been absolutely resounding with these drama kings and queens! 😀 What a business it’s all been! People only seem to like the present (faux) democracy which they claim to support if the vote goes their way. If it doesn’t, then they start getting all worked up about how “fascism has returned” and other silly propaganda. (In fact, fascism — if by that term one means autocracy or totalitarianism — never really left but has always continued to work under the radar; but I won’t develop that here as it needs a paper all to itself 😉 ). However, the reality is that THERE IS NO REAL DEMOCRACY ANYWHERE. True democracy involves the people being active and welcome participants (or at least privy to the entire workings of the system) at all levels; but nothing could be further from the truth. The idea that the people are empowered by being able to vote for whichever politician matches their chosen ideology, or who they have been inculcated to vote for by a biased media, or who has sufficiently deceived them with lies is frankly ludicrous!
Dear People who are either Depressed or Celebrating Today
DEAR PEOPLE WHO ARE EITHER DEPRESSED OR CELEBRATING TODAY as a result of the US election circus… I have a message for you: You have been played — deceived, taken for a ride, conned by propaganda and psychological warfare. It has all been a piece of entertainment to blind you to the reality of life in this world today. You see, presidents are of no original importance to the future of this world, for they have no actual power. They are merely puppets who have to do the will of the secret power elite which really controls everything. You refuse to believe that because your conditioned view of reality would come crashing down around your ears. But it’s time to WAKE UP! If you cannot see how the power elite has been messing with your minds in these elections (the same with the Brexit bullshit too) then you need to reassess your worldview.
The Source of Love [words & sonnet]
It’s a life-changing epiphany to realise that when we love someone, that love is not a thing that started when they came into our life. The other person merely made manifest what is already within us constantly (though mostly we don’t see it with our hearts). For in everyone there is a golden box of love which can be opened wide, or closed, kept locked and in the dark, if we so choose. Various experiences that we have in life cause us to make defensive choices about that golden box which leave us feeling loveless and longing for a love which we falsely think can only come through someone else. Thus, when some other guy or girl turns up in our “love life”, we’re riding on a high and become dependent on them to experience love and are fearful of being abandoned (again, a feeling which goes back to bad early life experiences). If they desert us or go off with someone else, we then believe that love has left us too and we feel heartbroken, utterly bereft and alone. But this is a terrible illusion! For there is already a powerhouse of love within us which is available to be experienced constantly.
“How can I Deal with All this Shit?”
“HOW CAN I DEAL WITH ALL THIS SHIT?” this man said to me with tears on his face. Then he went on: “I just can’t take it anymore. Sometimes I wish that I was dead. There’s always something waiting right round every corner just to slug me from behind as I go past. So many nasty people. How am I supposed to deal with everything?” His forehead fell onto my shoulder as he sobbed his heart out desperately. I put my hand on the back of his neck and held it firmly, as if the power of my grip would give him the strength he needed. My mind was razor-sharp. There was only one thing I could say to him. For there is only ever one answer about how to stand in the face of even the worst hurricane (human or otherwise). “With love”, said I. “Just handle it with love. It’s the only way”. I felt him stiffen up at the mention of the word. He scoffed into my shoulder: “Love?” Then he drew back and looked me full in the eyes. His face was distorted with anger — puffy and red with his veins sticking out on his neck and temples. “I don’t even know what love is anymore. Everything’s bullshit!” Continue reading…
Basic Facts about the 2016 US Election
I HAVE BEEN WRITING AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE UPCOMING US ELECTION because so many of my friends seem to be in a fluster about it and this has concerned me. But it has got rather lengthy, so I thought I would make a bullet-point list of the essential headings in the article and place them in an image which can easily be shared. So here it is attached. Please click on it to read the smaller print and then, if you wish, please share. Thank you!
Dear Universe [poem]
Dear Universe, are you now mocking me by
thrusting forth a form before my failing eyes
that you already knew would mesmerise me as
the long envisioned countenance to galvanise
my dormant seeds reluctantly to spring to life
and turn from dark to light the course which
they had taken for perhaps 1000 years before
(or maybe you are testing out my readiness)
[I’ve watched with in ter est the sparkling trail]
but yet would now sprout leaves to no avail?
Variety of Questions and Messages I’ve received in Recent Weeks
HERE IS A VARIETY OF QUESTIONS AND MESSAGES I’VE RECEIVED IN RECENT WEEKS, which I’ve concatenated into a single paragraph, since they all dovetail into each other. (Then please see my reply below). Here are the questions and messages: “It’s all hopeless, man! The world is totally cracked! Everything has gone crazy — so crazy that I can’t even recognise the world anymore as a place that I want to be in. I’d rather disappear in a puff of smoke forever. It’s just not worth writing anything anymore. I try to talk to people about what’s really going on in the world — the manipulation, lies and stupidity — but they just treat me as if I’m mad. The level of people’s gullibility right now (especially in the countdown to the pretended US election) is STAGGERING! There is so much virtue-signalling and hypocritical posturing by folks wanting to big themselves up. Ugggh! Your lyrics and poems are very beautiful and noble and all that stuff. But what is the point of writing them? Seriously Alan, why bother? Hardly anyone looks at them and those who are interested in them already understand what you are saying, so what’s the point? All genuine artists are simply wasting their time. They’re banging their heads on a brick wall. Do something else in life and benefit yourself. Go back to Tenerife and bathe in the sun and sea, while writing an occasional candy-floss sonnet to titillate the masses. Any serious message today will be almost completely ignored, while anything irrational, superficial or nonsensical will flourish hugely. If I was to photograph my cat or my tattoos, or criticize Donald Trump, I would be inundated with hundreds of “likes” and ridiculously flattering comments. But when I’ve tried to start a profound discussion about the essence of true spirituality, there is a wall of silence. It just makes me want to give up on everything. What’s the point of anything? What is the world coming to?”
The Naked Troubadour 