http://www.lyricsdepot.com/nina-simone/dont-smoke-in-bed.html
Nina Simone
Thursday, 30 November 2006
20th Century Russian Poets
http://www.richardboffin.com/poets/ in Russian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_language_poets
List of Russian language Poets ( In English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_language_poets
List of Russian language Poets ( In English)
A POISON TREE
A POISON TREE
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
I WAS angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunnèd it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
I WAS angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunnèd it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
Questions From a Worker Who Reads
Questions From a Worker Who Reads
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times?
In what houses of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great RomeIs full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.Was he alone?Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War.
Who Else won it?Every page a victory.Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man? Who paid the bill? So many reports. So many questions.
Bertolt Brecht
Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times?
In what houses of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great RomeIs full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom Did the Caesars triumph?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.Was he alone?Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War.
Who Else won it?Every page a victory.Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man? Who paid the bill? So many reports. So many questions.
Bertolt Brecht
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
Feelings
Feelings
The feelings i have i have
The feelings i don't have, don't matter much right now
The feelings you have you keep to yourself
The feelings that matter are suppressed
If you can have the courage
to tell the one you love your feelings
relations change
Peter Burton November 2006
The feelings i have i have
The feelings i don't have, don't matter much right now
The feelings you have you keep to yourself
The feelings that matter are suppressed
If you can have the courage
to tell the one you love your feelings
relations change
Peter Burton November 2006
Tuesday, 28 November 2006
The Poetry Kit
http://www.poetrykit.org
Great resource for courses,competitions,events, festivals magazines etc etc etc.
Great resource for courses,competitions,events, festivals magazines etc etc etc.
Sunday, 26 November 2006
Poems about Poets
A Portrait
Myth as collective unconscious
a representer of mass culture
a parody of English realist novel
using stylized language
demonic vernacular urban
carnivalesque tolerant experimental prose
transcendence from mundane reality
through rebellious poetic words
scorning nationalism
scorning state and church
through celebration of the body
Peter Burton November 2006
"Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly " LH
Harlem Renaissance Man
Passionate clear humane
Harlem renaissance product
subtle and ironic
humorous and prolific
perceptive representer of black
musics' emotions
through immersion in African-American culture
crying loud against racist Southern " Justice"
with words as weapons
Scottsboro boys
hypocritical philanthropists
Jim Crow YMCAS
"Coloureds not admitted" signs
no part in 4th of July speeches
The "Weary Blues" of black mens' souls
"laughin' to keep from cryin' "
"The human soul entire, sqeezed
like a lemon or a lime drop by drop,
into atomic words" LH
Peter Burton November 2006
Imagine
Autonomous imaginative finely tuned visions
intensely lyrical intensely profound
confronting power with divided self
skeptical idealist urbane conversationalist
emotionally literate elevated prophet
agnostic ironic celebratory skeptic
Jupiter as Urizen
all reality a phantasmagoria
Imagination our eternal redemption
Peter Burton September 2006
Swansea Bohemian
Thirties Bohemian Celtic Bard
dedicated representer of human emotions
autodidactic original Swansea stylist
brought up within national oral tradition
surrounded by raging London Blitz fires
craving for mythical golden age past
with conflicting archetypal images
the old and the innocent
the " Loud Hill of Wales"
Peter Burton October 2006
' Mind forg'd Manacles '
Orc the enemy of
Urizen and Albions' Angel
fire consuming the tyrants' palaces
Orc rejoices at their shrieks and groans
despiser of all despotic oppressors
false hearted Enitarmon
undeclared Rintrach
jealous oppressors and cruel deceivers
ruling by fear and unjust laws
seflish envious brutal authority still
nothing prevents their howls of despair
in these visions of the 'cloudy heavens of Albion'
Peter Burton September 2006
Myth as collective unconscious
a representer of mass culture
a parody of English realist novel
using stylized language
demonic vernacular urban
carnivalesque tolerant experimental prose
transcendence from mundane reality
through rebellious poetic words
scorning nationalism
scorning state and church
through celebration of the body
Peter Burton November 2006
"Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly " LH
Harlem Renaissance Man
Passionate clear humane
Harlem renaissance product
subtle and ironic
humorous and prolific
perceptive representer of black
musics' emotions
through immersion in African-American culture
crying loud against racist Southern " Justice"
with words as weapons
Scottsboro boys
hypocritical philanthropists
Jim Crow YMCAS
"Coloureds not admitted" signs
no part in 4th of July speeches
The "Weary Blues" of black mens' souls
"laughin' to keep from cryin' "
"The human soul entire, sqeezed
like a lemon or a lime drop by drop,
into atomic words" LH
Peter Burton November 2006
Imagine
Autonomous imaginative finely tuned visions
intensely lyrical intensely profound
confronting power with divided self
skeptical idealist urbane conversationalist
emotionally literate elevated prophet
agnostic ironic celebratory skeptic
Jupiter as Urizen
all reality a phantasmagoria
Imagination our eternal redemption
Peter Burton September 2006
Swansea Bohemian
Thirties Bohemian Celtic Bard
dedicated representer of human emotions
autodidactic original Swansea stylist
brought up within national oral tradition
surrounded by raging London Blitz fires
craving for mythical golden age past
with conflicting archetypal images
the old and the innocent
the " Loud Hill of Wales"
Peter Burton October 2006
' Mind forg'd Manacles '
Orc the enemy of
Urizen and Albions' Angel
fire consuming the tyrants' palaces
Orc rejoices at their shrieks and groans
despiser of all despotic oppressors
false hearted Enitarmon
undeclared Rintrach
jealous oppressors and cruel deceivers
ruling by fear and unjust laws
seflish envious brutal authority still
nothing prevents their howls of despair
in these visions of the 'cloudy heavens of Albion'
Peter Burton September 2006
Wilfred Owen Association
http://www.1914-18.co.uk/owen
I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big- gun gears;
And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
And rusted every bayonet with His tears.
And there were no more bombs, of ours or Theirs,
Not even an old flint-lock, nor even a pikel.
But God was vexed, and gave all power to Michael;
And when i woke he'd seen to our repairs.
I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big- gun gears;
And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
And rusted every bayonet with His tears.
And there were no more bombs, of ours or Theirs,
Not even an old flint-lock, nor even a pikel.
But God was vexed, and gave all power to Michael;
And when i woke he'd seen to our repairs.
Saturday, 25 November 2006
The Charge of the Blue Locusts
The Charge of the Blue Locusts
Half a mass picket, half a mass picket
Half a mass picket onward
All in the Battle of Orgreave
Rode the mounted police
Charge for the scabs ! he said
Into the valley of beatings
Rode the striking pickets
Forward the defiant miners
Was there a striker dismayed
Not tho’ the miner knew
TUC tops has blundered
Theirs not to defy
Theirs not to hear the cries
Theirs but to fight and try
Into the valley of beatings
Ran the striking pickets
Mounted police to the right of them
Riot cops to the left of them
Ranks of blue locusts in front of them
Marched and thundered
Charged at with baton and shield
Boldly they dodge then yield
Into the jaws of authority
Into the ranks of blue locusts
Ran the striking pickets
Flash’d all their truncheons bare
Flash’d as they swung through air
Thumping on their shields there
Charging a miners’ army while
Most of the country wondered
Plunged into the cavalry-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke
Miner and striker
Reel’d from the truncheon blows
Shatter’ed and sundered
Mounted police to the right of them
Riot cops to the left of them
Ranks of blue locusts behind them
Marched and Thundered
Charged at with baton and shield
They that had fought so well
Facing a bloody coppers’ hell
All that was left of them
Left of the battered magnificent miners
Peter Burton
Half a mass picket, half a mass picket
Half a mass picket onward
All in the Battle of Orgreave
Rode the mounted police
Charge for the scabs ! he said
Into the valley of beatings
Rode the striking pickets
Forward the defiant miners
Was there a striker dismayed
Not tho’ the miner knew
TUC tops has blundered
Theirs not to defy
Theirs not to hear the cries
Theirs but to fight and try
Into the valley of beatings
Ran the striking pickets
Mounted police to the right of them
Riot cops to the left of them
Ranks of blue locusts in front of them
Marched and thundered
Charged at with baton and shield
Boldly they dodge then yield
Into the jaws of authority
Into the ranks of blue locusts
Ran the striking pickets
Flash’d all their truncheons bare
Flash’d as they swung through air
Thumping on their shields there
Charging a miners’ army while
Most of the country wondered
Plunged into the cavalry-smoke
Right thro’ the line they broke
Miner and striker
Reel’d from the truncheon blows
Shatter’ed and sundered
Mounted police to the right of them
Riot cops to the left of them
Ranks of blue locusts behind them
Marched and Thundered
Charged at with baton and shield
They that had fought so well
Facing a bloody coppers’ hell
All that was left of them
Left of the battered magnificent miners
Peter Burton
The Cockle-pickers and the Gang-Masters
The Cockle-pickers and the Gang-masters
The moon was shining on the sea
Shining on that fateful night
But there was nothing odd about this at all
As workers worked through the night
The sun had long set in the sky
Just like every day before
As cockle-pickers made their way
Unto that killing shore
The Cockle-pickers and Supervisors
were walking close at hand
The former wept like anything
to see such quantities of sand
O Cockles come and walk with us
The workers did beseech
Come walk with us in quantity
Along this silhouetted beach
But no cockles followed them that night
Without backbreaking toil and sweat
Persuaded back in China to
A lifetime of regret
It seems a chance the gang-master thought
To play them such a risk
After we’ve brought them out so far
And made them work so brisk
O workers said the gang-masters
You’ve had a pleasant run
Shall we be going home again
But answer came there none
But this silence was not odd at all,
Cos they’d drowned almost everyone
Peter Burton
The moon was shining on the sea
Shining on that fateful night
But there was nothing odd about this at all
As workers worked through the night
The sun had long set in the sky
Just like every day before
As cockle-pickers made their way
Unto that killing shore
The Cockle-pickers and Supervisors
were walking close at hand
The former wept like anything
to see such quantities of sand
O Cockles come and walk with us
The workers did beseech
Come walk with us in quantity
Along this silhouetted beach
But no cockles followed them that night
Without backbreaking toil and sweat
Persuaded back in China to
A lifetime of regret
It seems a chance the gang-master thought
To play them such a risk
After we’ve brought them out so far
And made them work so brisk
O workers said the gang-masters
You’ve had a pleasant run
Shall we be going home again
But answer came there none
But this silence was not odd at all,
Cos they’d drowned almost everyone
Peter Burton
The Confidant Man
The Confidant Man
Not pantomime but Charades
a wild goose chase
for
unassailable reliable testimony
infallible evidence
But there are no guarantees
in this world
only people choosing their parts
before reciting their lines
All evidence
Potentially suspect
trust, honesty, fidelity
unprovable intangible qualities
certainty leading to dogma
an essentially honest person wronged
or a diabolically plausible
abuser of trust ?
a necessary preservation of a stable core identity
or vain confidence trickster ?
Peter Burton August 2006
Not pantomime but Charades
a wild goose chase
for
unassailable reliable testimony
infallible evidence
But there are no guarantees
in this world
only people choosing their parts
before reciting their lines
All evidence
Potentially suspect
trust, honesty, fidelity
unprovable intangible qualities
certainty leading to dogma
an essentially honest person wronged
or a diabolically plausible
abuser of trust ?
a necessary preservation of a stable core identity
or vain confidence trickster ?
Peter Burton August 2006
Poems about America
Not so long ago
Exhausted farms abandoned
to the banks and the birds
A Mass army of immigrants
sharecroppers, farmers and
unemployed moving west
Travelling through the
highways and the Idaho
hills
Highways 30 and 66
Old Spark, El Paso and every
westward trail
They came in old beat up dodges
La Salles and Model T Fords
With every possession that
they owned strapped
to the running boards
But the banks had
got to California and Oregons’
valleys’ first
And the farmers
had to compete in line
fearing the very worst
For the first time in their lives
the lines of farmers talked and talked
of unions and real dignity
and the need to fight and organise
Pete Burton June 2006
To Two martyrs
It was the year 1920
And the need for examples
Was in the air
Sacco and Vanzettti
Became the heroic
Murdered pair
Of labour organisers
In Massachusettes charged
With murders they didn’t commit
Even the prosecuter and judge
To this they did admit
Opposition to war
And labour organising
Was the real charge over there
And two innocent men in 27
Then went to the electric chair
Peter Burton June 2006
I don’t hear America
Those of mechanics , each one ground down by
Downsizing and fear of the same
The carpenter silent as he signs on for welfare
The mason silent as he searches for work
The boatmen silent when there is no boatbuilding
The hatter silent, hats not in fashion
The woodcutters silence as this is mainly done
In the rain forest now, the ploughmans going
Nowhere anytime soon
The silence of the mother, ground down by
Drudgery and insecurity
Each introspective and worried about the future
Silence with closed mouths and post 9/11 thoughts.
Peter Burton
Exhausted farms abandoned
to the banks and the birds
A Mass army of immigrants
sharecroppers, farmers and
unemployed moving west
Travelling through the
highways and the Idaho
hills
Highways 30 and 66
Old Spark, El Paso and every
westward trail
They came in old beat up dodges
La Salles and Model T Fords
With every possession that
they owned strapped
to the running boards
But the banks had
got to California and Oregons’
valleys’ first
And the farmers
had to compete in line
fearing the very worst
For the first time in their lives
the lines of farmers talked and talked
of unions and real dignity
and the need to fight and organise
Pete Burton June 2006
To Two martyrs
It was the year 1920
And the need for examples
Was in the air
Sacco and Vanzettti
Became the heroic
Murdered pair
Of labour organisers
In Massachusettes charged
With murders they didn’t commit
Even the prosecuter and judge
To this they did admit
Opposition to war
And labour organising
Was the real charge over there
And two innocent men in 27
Then went to the electric chair
Peter Burton June 2006
I don’t hear America
Those of mechanics , each one ground down by
Downsizing and fear of the same
The carpenter silent as he signs on for welfare
The mason silent as he searches for work
The boatmen silent when there is no boatbuilding
The hatter silent, hats not in fashion
The woodcutters silence as this is mainly done
In the rain forest now, the ploughmans going
Nowhere anytime soon
The silence of the mother, ground down by
Drudgery and insecurity
Each introspective and worried about the future
Silence with closed mouths and post 9/11 thoughts.
Peter Burton
What a waste !
White working class prisoners exit
Through the revolving door
Vowing never to come back
But I’ve heard that before
Back to the run-down schemes
To face the same choices
With a criminal record
And few representative voices
Its £ 30,000 a year to
Keep a prisoner banged up
But no boss would pay that
No matter how hard they worked
It’s a system of contradictions
and conflict built in
It’s a crime, a huge waste
And a terrible sin
Sacre BLUE !!
Mr Orange saw red and was determined
to show that he was not yellow and remain
in the black and the whole country was tickled pink
Rosy? Flat Bloody chance
Nae wonar am feelin depressed
Nae wonar am feelin’ down
Surrounded by you’se knaves and fools
Liars, cheats and clowns!!
( Unison had one day strike over pensions and called the rest off)
Tigger ain’t such a wonderful thing
Tigger Tigger you can’t fight
Doesn’t matter whose wrong , whose right
Cos you’ve got privileges and perks too
And you’d jump from a high rise
If a goose said boo!
Change of Direction
I’m glad its been regenerated
But with Tesco and Wimpey houses?
Glad they’ve ended the long decay
But with Tesco and Barret houses?
Don’t want to complain about the change
But Tesco and Wimpey houses?
Perhaps some day decay
will not end this way ?
With Tesco and some houses.
Teaching by Numbers
We have a rising 4 rating as an
Educational school
No one leaves here for sure
Feeling like a fool
Cos we get bums on seats
“By any means necessary”
We even have a shanghai force
In case the numbers are lessening
So if you think that you are
in a position to enrol
Please come to us , not to them,
We may even send the Rolls
During Holocaust memorials
Learn the Lessons
Industrialised mass murder
Of Six million Jews
By faceless bureaucrats
Following orders
Conforming from fear
To the diktacs from
Hellish superiors
Scientific “experiments”
On human cargo
By conscienceless beasts
Of depravity
No parallels
from the past
History as progress ?
Only if we learn
Blairs’ reference to praying to God
Gods to Blame
Gods to blame
He told me to invade
And anyway, Iraqis’ free now
If not, then Gods’ to blame
Chain of Command
Speak angrily to your
Subordinate
And bully him when it pleases
Subordinates need to know
whose boss until hell
bloody freezes
Racist Zapper light
Some bars ought to have
A fly-zapping circular light
That is big enough and
Strong enough to
Attract the racist right
White working class prisoners exit
Through the revolving door
Vowing never to come back
But I’ve heard that before
Back to the run-down schemes
To face the same choices
With a criminal record
And few representative voices
Its £ 30,000 a year to
Keep a prisoner banged up
But no boss would pay that
No matter how hard they worked
It’s a system of contradictions
and conflict built in
It’s a crime, a huge waste
And a terrible sin
Sacre BLUE !!
Mr Orange saw red and was determined
to show that he was not yellow and remain
in the black and the whole country was tickled pink
Rosy? Flat Bloody chance
Nae wonar am feelin depressed
Nae wonar am feelin’ down
Surrounded by you’se knaves and fools
Liars, cheats and clowns!!
( Unison had one day strike over pensions and called the rest off)
Tigger ain’t such a wonderful thing
Tigger Tigger you can’t fight
Doesn’t matter whose wrong , whose right
Cos you’ve got privileges and perks too
And you’d jump from a high rise
If a goose said boo!
Change of Direction
I’m glad its been regenerated
But with Tesco and Wimpey houses?
Glad they’ve ended the long decay
But with Tesco and Barret houses?
Don’t want to complain about the change
But Tesco and Wimpey houses?
Perhaps some day decay
will not end this way ?
With Tesco and some houses.
Teaching by Numbers
We have a rising 4 rating as an
Educational school
No one leaves here for sure
Feeling like a fool
Cos we get bums on seats
“By any means necessary”
We even have a shanghai force
In case the numbers are lessening
So if you think that you are
in a position to enrol
Please come to us , not to them,
We may even send the Rolls
During Holocaust memorials
Learn the Lessons
Industrialised mass murder
Of Six million Jews
By faceless bureaucrats
Following orders
Conforming from fear
To the diktacs from
Hellish superiors
Scientific “experiments”
On human cargo
By conscienceless beasts
Of depravity
No parallels
from the past
History as progress ?
Only if we learn
Blairs’ reference to praying to God
Gods to Blame
Gods to blame
He told me to invade
And anyway, Iraqis’ free now
If not, then Gods’ to blame
Chain of Command
Speak angrily to your
Subordinate
And bully him when it pleases
Subordinates need to know
whose boss until hell
bloody freezes
Racist Zapper light
Some bars ought to have
A fly-zapping circular light
That is big enough and
Strong enough to
Attract the racist right
Short Poems
Underdeveloped ?
I arrived at the gates of hell
to witness the doomed battle
against the drug barons of Medellin, body
counts multiplying amidst
the inferno of rival
barons, guerrillas, hired
assassins and marauding
teenage gangs , crime 10 crimestoppers 0
greed and power
twin kings but only a vision
of raw, blood and guts capitalism
in reality
Peter Burton June 2006
Freedom !
Possible return to the Victorian nightmare
Of extreme wage-slavery
Scapegoated powerless immigrants
Eaten up by
Late British Capitalism
Swallowed down whole by
Corruption and greed
Destroyer of dreams
Creator of bitterness
And crimes
We all need socialism
ALL!
Peter Burton July 2006
The History Man ?
I once went for an interview
as a young man lacking guile
The two man interview panel
kept me waiting quite a while
They then asked me why I wanted
to teach history so very much
I replied that historys’ lessons
were what kept humanity in touch
With where we’d been
and where we’re going
and how to get us there
They looked at each other
then back at me like
I’d come to them
as part of some mad dare
Peter Burton June 2006
Some Men
Manipulate , play the game
Come across as a nice guy
Bed them, don’t wed them
And then you say goodbye.
Peter Burton
Zimmermann
Rimbaud, Verlaine, Thomas and Shelley
Ferlingheeti, Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsburg
Williams, Presley, Guthrie and Johnson
Brando and Peck , Dean and the Bible
Just some of the things that influenced you
Underdeveloped ?
I arrived at the gates of hell
to witness the doomed battle
against the drug barons of Medellin, body
counts multiplying amidst
the inferno of rival
barons, guerrillas, hired
assassins and marauding
teenage gangs , crime 10 crimestoppers 0
greed and power
twin kings but only a vision
of raw, blood and guts capitalism
in reality
Peter Burton June 2006
Freedom !
Possible return to the Victorian nightmare
Of extreme wage-slavery
Scapegoated powerless immigrants
Eaten up by
Late British Capitalism
Swallowed down whole by
Corruption and greed
Destroyer of dreams
Creator of bitterness
And crimes
We all need socialism
ALL!
Peter Burton July 2006
The History Man ?
I once went for an interview
as a young man lacking guile
The two man interview panel
kept me waiting quite a while
They then asked me why I wanted
to teach history so very much
I replied that historys’ lessons
were what kept humanity in touch
With where we’d been
and where we’re going
and how to get us there
They looked at each other
then back at me like
I’d come to them
as part of some mad dare
Peter Burton June 2006
Some Men
Manipulate , play the game
Come across as a nice guy
Bed them, don’t wed them
And then you say goodbye.
Zimmermann
Rimbaud, Verlaine, Thomas and Shelley
Ferlingheeti, Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsburg
Williams, Presley, Guthrie and Johnson
Brando and Peck , Dean and the Bible
Just some of the things that influenced you
Ali
Courageous , charismatic, principled and straight as day
“Ain’t no Vietcong called me nigger” you said
And showed your countrymen the way
The House that Jack built
( or chief puddin)
O How ad like to slap yer face
Great puddin o the Scottish race
Ye stand up there
Dodgin beams
And spoutin forth so much
Tosh and reams
of lies and spittle
A great first Minister in Jack McConnell?
We’d be better aff wi Daniel O’ Donnell
The man with the iron mask (1)
Affable, intelligent
popular as well
But underneath that mask you wear
Your as sectarian as hell !
Ali
Courageous , charismatic, principled and straight as day
“Ain’t no Vietcong called me nigger” you said
And showed your countrymen the way
The House that Jack built
( or chief puddin)
O How ad like to slap yer face
Great puddin o the Scottish race
Ye stand up there
Dodgin beams
And spoutin forth so much
Tosh and reams
of lies and spittle
A great first Minister in Jack McConnell?
We’d be better aff wi Daniel O’ Donnell
The Man with the Iron mask (1)
Affable, intelligent
popular as well
But underneath that mask you wear
Your as sectarian as hell !
I arrived at the gates of hell
to witness the doomed battle
against the drug barons of Medellin, body
counts multiplying amidst
the inferno of rival
barons, guerrillas, hired
assassins and marauding
teenage gangs , crime 10 crimestoppers 0
greed and power
twin kings but only a vision
of raw, blood and guts capitalism
in reality
Peter Burton June 2006
Freedom !
Possible return to the Victorian nightmare
Of extreme wage-slavery
Scapegoated powerless immigrants
Eaten up by
Late British Capitalism
Swallowed down whole by
Corruption and greed
Destroyer of dreams
Creator of bitterness
And crimes
We all need socialism
ALL!
Peter Burton July 2006
The History Man ?
I once went for an interview
as a young man lacking guile
The two man interview panel
kept me waiting quite a while
They then asked me why I wanted
to teach history so very much
I replied that historys’ lessons
were what kept humanity in touch
With where we’d been
and where we’re going
and how to get us there
They looked at each other
then back at me like
I’d come to them
as part of some mad dare
Peter Burton June 2006
Some Men
Manipulate , play the game
Come across as a nice guy
Bed them, don’t wed them
And then you say goodbye.
Peter Burton
Zimmermann
Rimbaud, Verlaine, Thomas and Shelley
Ferlingheeti, Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsburg
Williams, Presley, Guthrie and Johnson
Brando and Peck , Dean and the Bible
Just some of the things that influenced you
Underdeveloped ?
I arrived at the gates of hell
to witness the doomed battle
against the drug barons of Medellin, body
counts multiplying amidst
the inferno of rival
barons, guerrillas, hired
assassins and marauding
teenage gangs , crime 10 crimestoppers 0
greed and power
twin kings but only a vision
of raw, blood and guts capitalism
in reality
Peter Burton June 2006
Freedom !
Possible return to the Victorian nightmare
Of extreme wage-slavery
Scapegoated powerless immigrants
Eaten up by
Late British Capitalism
Swallowed down whole by
Corruption and greed
Destroyer of dreams
Creator of bitterness
And crimes
We all need socialism
ALL!
Peter Burton July 2006
The History Man ?
I once went for an interview
as a young man lacking guile
The two man interview panel
kept me waiting quite a while
They then asked me why I wanted
to teach history so very much
I replied that historys’ lessons
were what kept humanity in touch
With where we’d been
and where we’re going
and how to get us there
They looked at each other
then back at me like
I’d come to them
as part of some mad dare
Peter Burton June 2006
Some Men
Manipulate , play the game
Come across as a nice guy
Bed them, don’t wed them
And then you say goodbye.
Zimmermann
Rimbaud, Verlaine, Thomas and Shelley
Ferlingheeti, Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsburg
Williams, Presley, Guthrie and Johnson
Brando and Peck , Dean and the Bible
Just some of the things that influenced you
Ali
Courageous , charismatic, principled and straight as day
“Ain’t no Vietcong called me nigger” you said
And showed your countrymen the way
The House that Jack built
( or chief puddin)
O How ad like to slap yer face
Great puddin o the Scottish race
Ye stand up there
Dodgin beams
And spoutin forth so much
Tosh and reams
of lies and spittle
A great first Minister in Jack McConnell?
We’d be better aff wi Daniel O’ Donnell
The man with the iron mask (1)
Affable, intelligent
popular as well
But underneath that mask you wear
Your as sectarian as hell !
Ali
Courageous , charismatic, principled and straight as day
“Ain’t no Vietcong called me nigger” you said
And showed your countrymen the way
The House that Jack built
( or chief puddin)
O How ad like to slap yer face
Great puddin o the Scottish race
Ye stand up there
Dodgin beams
And spoutin forth so much
Tosh and reams
of lies and spittle
A great first Minister in Jack McConnell?
We’d be better aff wi Daniel O’ Donnell
The Man with the Iron mask (1)
Affable, intelligent
popular as well
But underneath that mask you wear
Your as sectarian as hell !
Friday, 24 November 2006
Swansea Bohemian
Swansea Bohemian
Thirties Bohemian Celtic Bard
dedicated representer of human emotions
autodidactic original Swansea stylist
brought up within national oral tradition
surrounded by raging London Blitz fires
craving for mythical golden age past
with conflicting archetypal images
the old and the innocent
the " Loud Hill of Wales"
Peter Burton
Thirties Bohemian Celtic Bard
dedicated representer of human emotions
autodidactic original Swansea stylist
brought up within national oral tradition
surrounded by raging London Blitz fires
craving for mythical golden age past
with conflicting archetypal images
the old and the innocent
the " Loud Hill of Wales"
Peter Burton
Mexmode
Mexmode
Markups and Mistresses
Profits and Yachts
Bonuses and Bentleys
Outsourcing and Sweatshops
Contracts and Goons
Speedup and Exhaustion
maggots and beatings
self-respect and dignity
fighting-back and organising
flics and false judges
sackings and threats
of closure and re-location
demands and strikes
exposure and embarressment
Solidariy and Justice
and Victory for the workers!
Peter Burton
Markups and Mistresses
Profits and Yachts
Bonuses and Bentleys
Outsourcing and Sweatshops
Contracts and Goons
Speedup and Exhaustion
maggots and beatings
self-respect and dignity
fighting-back and organising
flics and false judges
sackings and threats
of closure and re-location
demands and strikes
exposure and embarressment
Solidariy and Justice
and Victory for the workers!
Peter Burton
Universal Alliance
Universal Alliance incorporating the Vision Quester News Agency & Phoenix New Life Poetry
http://www.universalalliance.org.uk
Good Radical US E-zine poetry site
http://www.universalalliance.org.uk
Good Radical US E-zine poetry site
Tuesday, 21 November 2006
Harlem Renaissance man
"Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly "
LH
Harlem Renaissance Man
Passionate clear humane
Harlem renaissance product
subtle and ironic humorous and prolific
perceptive representer of black musics' emotions
through immersion in African-American culture
crying loud against racist Southern " Justice"with words as weapons
Scottsboro boys
hypocritical philanthropists
Jim Crow YMCAS"
"Coloureds not admitted" signs
no part in the 4th of July speeches
The "Weary Blues" of black mens' souls
"laughin' to keep from cryin' "
"The human soul entire,
sqeezed like a lemon or a lime drop by drop,
into atomic words" LH
Peter Burton November 2006
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly "
LH
Harlem Renaissance Man
Passionate clear humane
Harlem renaissance product
subtle and ironic humorous and prolific
perceptive representer of black musics' emotions
through immersion in African-American culture
crying loud against racist Southern " Justice"with words as weapons
Scottsboro boys
hypocritical philanthropists
Jim Crow YMCAS"
"Coloureds not admitted" signs
no part in the 4th of July speeches
The "Weary Blues" of black mens' souls
"laughin' to keep from cryin' "
"The human soul entire,
sqeezed like a lemon or a lime drop by drop,
into atomic words" LH
Peter Burton November 2006
Monday, 20 November 2006
Sunday, 19 November 2006
The Kate Adams
The Kate Adams
Massive red paddles beat the water
Great billious smokestacks fill the sky
Nightime furnaces throw flames across
silhoutted dark waters as a
calliope whistle interrupts the chattering of
fancy dressers, cotton millionares,dapper ladies,
tricksters ,circus characters
drifting in a semi-wilderness
down the Mississippi
inspiring Delta bluesmen
to write songs
as the white money factory floats on by.
Peter Burton
Massive red paddles beat the water
Great billious smokestacks fill the sky
Nightime furnaces throw flames across
silhoutted dark waters as a
calliope whistle interrupts the chattering of
fancy dressers, cotton millionares,dapper ladies,
tricksters ,circus characters
drifting in a semi-wilderness
down the Mississippi
inspiring Delta bluesmen
to write songs
as the white money factory floats on by.
Peter Burton
The Mask of Blair
The Mask of Blair
I met bloodshed dressed up as prayer
He had a smile like Tony Blair
Very happy he looked , yet false
Lies and intrigue and not much else
Next came ambition and he had on
a penguin CBI conference cresanthomom
cuts and Bank of England independence
and for former reformist sins -repentance
clothed with a sergeant like bullys' creed
next came ex-steel town no hoper John Reid
we pleaded and begged him to " Save the Craig" !
and got a war and refugee dawn raids
And many more new Tories played
in yet another masquerade
spinners , fat cats, Lords and Peers
all living off workers very worst fears
Peter Burton
I met bloodshed dressed up as prayer
He had a smile like Tony Blair
Very happy he looked , yet false
Lies and intrigue and not much else
Next came ambition and he had on
a penguin CBI conference cresanthomom
cuts and Bank of England independence
and for former reformist sins -repentance
clothed with a sergeant like bullys' creed
next came ex-steel town no hoper John Reid
we pleaded and begged him to " Save the Craig" !
and got a war and refugee dawn raids
And many more new Tories played
in yet another masquerade
spinners , fat cats, Lords and Peers
all living off workers very worst fears
Peter Burton
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Man in the Iron Mask
prevaricate and overstate
equivocate and exaggerate
fabricate and ostentate
wear a mask and be a fake
double life and double dealing
big black lies will leave them realing
perjury and huge betrayel
Hope i don't end up in gaol
spinning, weaving ,circumvention
falsehood, bad faith, self-deception
disingenous and perfidious
deceiptfulness and meritricious
be dishonest , break the faith
ham it up and simulate
misrepresent and misreport
belt it out until I'm hoarse
perfidy and mendacity
cant and real duplicity
trickery and facade
could it be that I'm going mad ?
dress it up and put it on
never admit that i am wrong
evasion ,cant and gritting teeth
conceal the truth and make believe
economize and trump it up
Hope i don't run out of luck
fraudulence and quackery
cunning, guile , hypocrisy
juggle ,conjure, hocus-pocus
hope their eyes are out of focus
elusive , delusive and collusive
engage in lots of dodgy ruses
fiddle, diddle, swizzle sell
my lifes become a bloody hell
coin it ,forge it, tongue and cheek it
weave and hatch and hope i sneak it
invent, concoct ,fake and cheat
see and saw and cold and heat
duck and dive and dodge and deal
I wonder how her bum would feel ?
maybe i can just brass neck it
even if it means i wreck it
Oh what a tangled web they weave
when leaders start to bloody deceive !
Peter Burton
prevaricate and overstate
equivocate and exaggerate
fabricate and ostentate
wear a mask and be a fake
double life and double dealing
big black lies will leave them realing
perjury and huge betrayel
Hope i don't end up in gaol
spinning, weaving ,circumvention
falsehood, bad faith, self-deception
disingenous and perfidious
deceiptfulness and meritricious
be dishonest , break the faith
ham it up and simulate
misrepresent and misreport
belt it out until I'm hoarse
perfidy and mendacity
cant and real duplicity
trickery and facade
could it be that I'm going mad ?
dress it up and put it on
never admit that i am wrong
evasion ,cant and gritting teeth
conceal the truth and make believe
economize and trump it up
Hope i don't run out of luck
fraudulence and quackery
cunning, guile , hypocrisy
juggle ,conjure, hocus-pocus
hope their eyes are out of focus
elusive , delusive and collusive
engage in lots of dodgy ruses
fiddle, diddle, swizzle sell
my lifes become a bloody hell
coin it ,forge it, tongue and cheek it
weave and hatch and hope i sneak it
invent, concoct ,fake and cheat
see and saw and cold and heat
duck and dive and dodge and deal
I wonder how her bum would feel ?
maybe i can just brass neck it
even if it means i wreck it
Oh what a tangled web they weave
when leaders start to bloody deceive !
Peter Burton
To Joe
To Joe
“The only band that mattered”
That group “ they changed my life”
Rebellious , uncorruptible, intelligent
A real passion and zest for life
Led by a rock and roll ball of energy
With Topper on the drums
Iconic, extroverted, crazy
Heavy soulful , punk reggae young guns
Peter Burton
“The only band that mattered”
That group “ they changed my life”
Rebellious , uncorruptible, intelligent
A real passion and zest for life
Led by a rock and roll ball of energy
With Topper on the drums
Iconic, extroverted, crazy
Heavy soulful , punk reggae young guns
Peter Burton
Maggie
Maggie
The papers say you are senile
That you can remember long ago
But not 10 minutes before.
This means you’ll remember
When there were miners and printers
Dockers and Car workers who made useful things
Strikes and riots and class ridden
taxes, Spivs and greed and too much crime
to explain
Maybe you’ll remember the creation
of homeless and agency working
for private profiteers
Somehow I find it hard to feel pity
You changed all our lives in such a terrible way.
Peter Burton
The papers say you are senile
That you can remember long ago
But not 10 minutes before.
This means you’ll remember
When there were miners and printers
Dockers and Car workers who made useful things
Strikes and riots and class ridden
taxes, Spivs and greed and too much crime
to explain
Maybe you’ll remember the creation
of homeless and agency working
for private profiteers
Somehow I find it hard to feel pity
You changed all our lives in such a terrible way.
Peter Burton
Paradox land
Paradox land
A wine Bar in Frisco
Opens out to the street
On a hot summers night
White wine in iced buckets
And plates full of oysters
Well-heeled people eating
From super-sized plates
One can hear the clink
Of glasses and chatter
And admire the beautiful clothes
As neat waiters eager to please
Rush around
Asking if “everythings just right”
While on the pavement right in front
of them
Lies a black man face down
Invisible or so it seems.
Peter Burton
A wine Bar in Frisco
Opens out to the street
On a hot summers night
White wine in iced buckets
And plates full of oysters
Well-heeled people eating
From super-sized plates
One can hear the clink
Of glasses and chatter
And admire the beautiful clothes
As neat waiters eager to please
Rush around
Asking if “everythings just right”
While on the pavement right in front
of them
Lies a black man face down
Invisible or so it seems.
Peter Burton
Vorkuta
Vorkuta
You organised great hunger strikes
In Stalins’ hellish slave labour prisons
And improved the rations for everyone
Including the non-political prisoners
Until Stalinist guards one day
Following Kobas’ murderous orders
Frogged marched you out of there
to the nearby waiting forest
where you were made
to dig your graves
before being shot and burned
but time is on your side my friends
and history is far from done
Peter Burton
You organised great hunger strikes
In Stalins’ hellish slave labour prisons
And improved the rations for everyone
Including the non-political prisoners
Until Stalinist guards one day
Following Kobas’ murderous orders
Frogged marched you out of there
to the nearby waiting forest
where you were made
to dig your graves
before being shot and burned
but time is on your side my friends
and history is far from done
Peter Burton
Spartacus
Spartacus
You forged a slave army
by the force of your personality
You subverted the Romans
view of dumb ignorant slaves
You defeated ten of their
best trained armies
using weapons forged
with metallic booty
Your martyrdom
set the example for
others who came after
the class fighters who brought Rome
to its knees
Today those in power
fear the modern day slave
the worker who toils but who
also has power
Learning from history
they try to avoid martyrs
but at the dusk of the system
their fate will be the same
Peter Burton
You forged a slave army
by the force of your personality
You subverted the Romans
view of dumb ignorant slaves
You defeated ten of their
best trained armies
using weapons forged
with metallic booty
Your martyrdom
set the example for
others who came after
the class fighters who brought Rome
to its knees
Today those in power
fear the modern day slave
the worker who toils but who
also has power
Learning from history
they try to avoid martyrs
but at the dusk of the system
their fate will be the same
Peter Burton
To the martyrs of 1820,Swinging Sixties, Maclean
To the martyrs of 1820
Riots for food,
Child labour
Soaring prices
Workers trying to live
On a shilling a week
Open and secret meetings
Reform pamphlets
United Scotsmen and Glasgow green drills
Hardie and Baird led the fight
For reform
With a march organised on the
great Carron Ironworks
But soldiers from Stirling
Cut off the reformers
And a great bloody battle
Then did ensue
In the square off Broad street
Under the walls of the Castle
Hardie and Baird paid with their lives
Hung drawn and quartered by the authorities
On ‘evidence’ submitted by government spies
But not before defiantly demanding
their countrymen’s’ rights.
Thrown in a shallow grave near Stirling
Lying there for a long twenty seven years
disinterred by Glasgow radicals after
they found you
then buried in Sighthill with the respect
you deserved
Peter Burton
Swinging sixties?
Greensborough Segregation
SNCC creation
Huac Demonstration
Pacifist orchestration
Bay of Pigs invasion
Desegregation
Voter Registration
Washington demonstration
SDS statement
Cuban Missile derailment
Birmingham protestations
Washington demonstration
Mississippi Murders
Harlem ghetto rebellions
North Vietnam bombardments
SDS projects
Berkeley free speech movement
Johnson bombing Vietnam
Malcolm X murdered
University Teach-ins
Montgomery bloody battle
Washington anti-war prattle
Oakland protest troop trains
Watts’s rebellion contained
Draft card burnings
Anti-war self-immolisation
Anti-draft sit-ins
Black power expulsions
Black panther party
Mass draft card burnings
Be-ins and hippies
Detroit and Newark
Oakland repression
Pentagon storming
Women’s’ liberation billed
Orange black students killed
Bobby Hutton killed
Martin Luther killed
Democratic convention riot
Precision stockade rebellion
SF college strikes
16 Black Panthers killed
Destruction of peoples’ park
Hundreds beaten after dark
SD splitsNew York imperial buildings hit
A million protest in
Washington and Frisco
Peter Burton
Maclean
Tales of the clearances
And your mothers’ oppression
Calvinism, Huxley and Spencer
Created the fire in the belly
Of the young John Maclean
Marxist education a lifelong obsession
Understanding the need for radical change
Neilsten thread mills
Singers Strike
Solidarity
Then your anti- war agitation made you a
A household name
“I have been listed in the socialist army
for 25 years God damn all other armies”
You proclaimed to Sheriff Lee
Then sent to prison for the first of five times
rejecting leniency
3 years penal servitude followed
your sentence cut short by public outrage
On trial again in 1918
Asked if you objected to any juryman you replied
“I object to the whole of them”
Made Bolshevik consulate
With tens of thousands
At Buchanan street station to greet you
The workers replacing the horses
Waiting to pull the carriage along
And thousands lined the Shaws in 23
to respect a socialist martyr who lies
in Eastwood cemetery
Peter Burton
Riots for food,
Child labour
Soaring prices
Workers trying to live
On a shilling a week
Open and secret meetings
Reform pamphlets
United Scotsmen and Glasgow green drills
Hardie and Baird led the fight
For reform
With a march organised on the
great Carron Ironworks
But soldiers from Stirling
Cut off the reformers
And a great bloody battle
Then did ensue
In the square off Broad street
Under the walls of the Castle
Hardie and Baird paid with their lives
Hung drawn and quartered by the authorities
On ‘evidence’ submitted by government spies
But not before defiantly demanding
their countrymen’s’ rights.
Thrown in a shallow grave near Stirling
Lying there for a long twenty seven years
disinterred by Glasgow radicals after
they found you
then buried in Sighthill with the respect
you deserved
Peter Burton
Swinging sixties?
Greensborough Segregation
SNCC creation
Huac Demonstration
Pacifist orchestration
Bay of Pigs invasion
Desegregation
Voter Registration
Washington demonstration
SDS statement
Cuban Missile derailment
Birmingham protestations
Washington demonstration
Mississippi Murders
Harlem ghetto rebellions
North Vietnam bombardments
SDS projects
Berkeley free speech movement
Johnson bombing Vietnam
Malcolm X murdered
University Teach-ins
Montgomery bloody battle
Washington anti-war prattle
Oakland protest troop trains
Watts’s rebellion contained
Draft card burnings
Anti-war self-immolisation
Anti-draft sit-ins
Black power expulsions
Black panther party
Mass draft card burnings
Be-ins and hippies
Detroit and Newark
Oakland repression
Pentagon storming
Women’s’ liberation billed
Orange black students killed
Bobby Hutton killed
Martin Luther killed
Democratic convention riot
Precision stockade rebellion
SF college strikes
16 Black Panthers killed
Destruction of peoples’ park
Hundreds beaten after dark
SD splitsNew York imperial buildings hit
A million protest in
Washington and Frisco
Peter Burton
Maclean
Tales of the clearances
And your mothers’ oppression
Calvinism, Huxley and Spencer
Created the fire in the belly
Of the young John Maclean
Marxist education a lifelong obsession
Understanding the need for radical change
Neilsten thread mills
Singers Strike
Solidarity
Then your anti- war agitation made you a
A household name
“I have been listed in the socialist army
for 25 years God damn all other armies”
You proclaimed to Sheriff Lee
Then sent to prison for the first of five times
rejecting leniency
3 years penal servitude followed
your sentence cut short by public outrage
On trial again in 1918
Asked if you objected to any juryman you replied
“I object to the whole of them”
Made Bolshevik consulate
With tens of thousands
At Buchanan street station to greet you
The workers replacing the horses
Waiting to pull the carriage along
And thousands lined the Shaws in 23
to respect a socialist martyr who lies
in Eastwood cemetery
Peter Burton
Know thyself
Know thyself
Self as Mask so intertwined
self-quarreling to reality
except for those whose
pleasure lies in Lathe's wharf
Self as is
Self as it longs to be
representation of lifes' tragedy
a perpetual phantasmagoria
a traditonal form in style
shakespearean tradgedy as zenith
mixing faith and skepticism
with antinomies of the feminine
Peter Burton
Self as Mask so intertwined
self-quarreling to reality
except for those whose
pleasure lies in Lathe's wharf
Self as is
Self as it longs to be
representation of lifes' tragedy
a perpetual phantasmagoria
a traditonal form in style
shakespearean tradgedy as zenith
mixing faith and skepticism
with antinomies of the feminine
Peter Burton
Poem for Vietnamese
Poem for Vietnamese
Military technology against human beings
Independence the continuity thread
Domino theory guarantees conflict
South- East Asia a resource paradise
Phu Quoc Qui Mhon
engineered Tomkin affair
A bomb gets dropped for every civilian
My Lai 4 My Lais' everywhere
as stressed up GI'S succumb
to racially stereotypical sub-human propaganda images
Marines hit the ground firing
from swirling helicopter gunships
russian roulette, bamboo prisons , underground tunnels
sex
death
drugs
hard liquor
"Yet one more turn of the screw"
" LBJ LBJ How many kids did you kill today?
" Ain't no Vietcong ever called me Nigger"
" We won't go, we won't go" !
" Have your draft card back" !
" Sometimes to be silent is to lie"
Underground newspapers Student General strikes Army refuseniks
" I ain't gonna kill, its against my will "
Black armbands, fragging, Vietnam Vets against the war
winter soldier investigations , concerned officers
pilot refuseniks, Kovic anger spirals as
war profiteer frontman Johnson gets nervous and
Vietnam is lost in the Mississippi Valley
Peter Burton
Death of a Human
Death of a human
Ordinary men as heroes
ground down
by
raw Capitalism
an American nightmare
represented by
naturalistic form
and realistic time
money the measure of all things
materialism
debt
alienation
solitary death
the sold
American " dream "
Peter Burton August 2006
Down the Rabbit Hole
Punctillious
waistcoated
White Rabbit
followed
down
the
rabbit
hole
by a portion
consuming
practitioner
of logic
attempting continually
to reason
with unreason
a typographical mouse tail
a hookah-smoking caterpillar
a Duchess nursing pig
a tea-drinking mad-hatter
a cheshire grinning cat
a march-hare squeezing
a dormouse into
a teapot
a flamingo-mallet croquet
playing murderous queen and
a dolorous Mock turtle
I'm on the far left- Alice had it easy !
Peter Burton August 2006
Heroic witches
Heroic witches inducing ambition
to expose the hierarchical class society
based on oppression and war
witches ethereal outsiders from
the social order subvert through
language and subversive subconcious
trying to change his identity
exposing male will to power
represented as evil by society
with lady as egoistic bourgeois
in opposition to collective identity
tradition and loyalty struggle with
desire and tear them both apart
Peter Burton August 2006
Ordinary men as heroes
ground down
by
raw Capitalism
an American nightmare
represented by
naturalistic form
and realistic time
money the measure of all things
materialism
debt
alienation
solitary death
the sold
American " dream "
Peter Burton August 2006
Down the Rabbit Hole
Punctillious
waistcoated
White Rabbit
followed
down
the
rabbit
hole
by a portion
consuming
practitioner
of logic
attempting continually
to reason
with unreason
a typographical mouse tail
a hookah-smoking caterpillar
a Duchess nursing pig
a tea-drinking mad-hatter
a cheshire grinning cat
a march-hare squeezing
a dormouse into
a teapot
a flamingo-mallet croquet
playing murderous queen and
a dolorous Mock turtle
I'm on the far left- Alice had it easy !
Peter Burton August 2006
Heroic witches
Heroic witches inducing ambition
to expose the hierarchical class society
based on oppression and war
witches ethereal outsiders from
the social order subvert through
language and subversive subconcious
trying to change his identity
exposing male will to power
represented as evil by society
with lady as egoistic bourgeois
in opposition to collective identity
tradition and loyalty struggle with
desire and tear them both apart
Peter Burton August 2006
Desire
Desire
O Whistle an' I'll come to you , my girl
O Whistle an' I'll come to you , my girl
Tho' partner and parents an a' would go mad
O whistle an' I'll come to ye, my girl.
Peter Burton August 2006
( Rabbie helped wi this)
The Confidant Man
Not pantomime but Charades
a wild goose chase
for
unassailable reliable testimony
infallible evidence
But there are no guarantees
in this world
only people choosing their parts
before reciting their lines
All evidence
Potentially suspect
trust, honesty, fidelity
unprovable intangible qualities
certainty leading to dogma
an essentially honest person wronged
or a diabolically plausible
abuser of trust
a necessary preservation of a stable core identity
or vain confidence trickster ?
Peter Burton August 2006
Shark Attack
How dothe the big long shark
Improve his shining teeth
By selling you what you don’t need
More skillfully than any thief
How cheerfully he seems to grin
How deftly he then sucks you in
He milks your kindness
and its far from funny
Then he quickly departs
Once he’s got your money
Peter Burton July 2006
O Whistle an' I'll come to you , my girl
O Whistle an' I'll come to you , my girl
Tho' partner and parents an a' would go mad
O whistle an' I'll come to ye, my girl.
Peter Burton August 2006
( Rabbie helped wi this)
The Confidant Man
Not pantomime but Charades
a wild goose chase
for
unassailable reliable testimony
infallible evidence
But there are no guarantees
in this world
only people choosing their parts
before reciting their lines
All evidence
Potentially suspect
trust, honesty, fidelity
unprovable intangible qualities
certainty leading to dogma
an essentially honest person wronged
or a diabolically plausible
abuser of trust
a necessary preservation of a stable core identity
or vain confidence trickster ?
Peter Burton August 2006
Shark Attack
How dothe the big long shark
Improve his shining teeth
By selling you what you don’t need
More skillfully than any thief
How cheerfully he seems to grin
How deftly he then sucks you in
He milks your kindness
and its far from funny
Then he quickly departs
Once he’s got your money
Peter Burton July 2006
Photography as Art
Photography as Art
An all-encompassing way of seeing
defying limitations of technique and technology
an infallible means of creation
old controversies with painting dying
as skilled photographers
represent everything and anything well
art as cultural document
photography legitimised as art
beyond recording and informing
facilitating profound examination of world
and the self.
Peter Burton July 2006
An all-encompassing way of seeing
defying limitations of technique and technology
an infallible means of creation
old controversies with painting dying
as skilled photographers
represent everything and anything well
art as cultural document
photography legitimised as art
beyond recording and informing
facilitating profound examination of world
and the self.
Peter Burton July 2006
The Betrayal
The Betrayal
Twas down in Barcelona no so long ago
when an anti-fascist popular front
came steppin' through the floor
This countrys' awful tragedy
i' ve learned so terribly well
The colour of its flag was black
it became a fascist hell
The NKVD they dragged them there
into Kobas' torture cells
Trotskyists Militants Anarchists murdered
with a brutality to terrible to tell
Stalins' henchmen then sealed their fate
there was to be no Spanish Revolution here
misleadership betrayal and treachery mixed in with
a dictatorship of fear
The Left it must unite now against these crimes
Unite with no more delay
next time a Workers State will be formed
and a Workers Party will lead the way
Peter Burton September 2006
The Paranoid Man
paranoid jealousy
overreading all signs
obsessively hunting for hidden knowledge
to control events
endlessly frustrated
in absence of any real mystery
jealousy perpetually bending
the ' evidence 'for its own ends
Peter Burton September 2006
Twas down in Barcelona no so long ago
when an anti-fascist popular front
came steppin' through the floor
This countrys' awful tragedy
i' ve learned so terribly well
The colour of its flag was black
it became a fascist hell
The NKVD they dragged them there
into Kobas' torture cells
Trotskyists Militants Anarchists murdered
with a brutality to terrible to tell
Stalins' henchmen then sealed their fate
there was to be no Spanish Revolution here
misleadership betrayal and treachery mixed in with
a dictatorship of fear
The Left it must unite now against these crimes
Unite with no more delay
next time a Workers State will be formed
and a Workers Party will lead the way
Peter Burton September 2006
The Paranoid Man
paranoid jealousy
overreading all signs
obsessively hunting for hidden knowledge
to control events
endlessly frustrated
in absence of any real mystery
jealousy perpetually bending
the ' evidence 'for its own ends
Peter Burton September 2006
Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha in 1925
You were forced to flee
white supremicists twice
before the age of five
Your fearless father was murdered and
Your mother then went insane
Eight children then got fostered out
But no one got the blame
You wanted to be a lawyer and you
Graduated the top of your class
But your racist ignorant teacher
Was much worse than a pain in the ass
So you drifted into crime in Harlems’
Tough mean neighbourhoods
Running numbers ,narcotics,prostitution
The main leader of the hoods
You got ten years with your buddy
Malcolm “ Shorty “ Jarvis
Serving seven in reality on
A host of burglary charges
While doin time for all these crimes
You had a religious conversion
Accepting Elijah’s Muhammeds' teaching
And the Nation of Islams’ version
Of analysis and enpowerment of Afro-American blacks
While the long feared “Black Messiah”
then crisscrossed the States
Buiding the NOI
Brilliant oratorical skills
and many wise insights
Then brought the activities of the State
And an agenda of a shortened life
Then the test of faith arrives
Elijah is no living prophet
Affairs and children everwhere
And warm comfort from good profit
You broke with the Nation Of Islam
And founded the Muslim Mosque
Returning from Mecca in 64
Preaching unity to beat the boss
But this new message of unity
Made you a bigger threat than ever
The NOI then moved against you
And the State was boxing clever
Slaughtered in the Audobon ballroom
in the year 1965
A second man is caught by the crowd
But he was never ever tried
Laid to rest in Fernhill cemetry
A martyred “Black Messiah”
The powerful just could not let you live
And feared your love and fire
Peter Burton September 2006
Dignity is everywhere
Shabby ,run down, crowded ghettoes
poverty lurking from tenement ends
paint-peeled windows
bare-bulb shadows
decorate the cold drab struggle
anger bitterness envy resentment
fuel the drug ridden
alcohol buildings
Yet people live there just
as in all Ghettos
with honesty and self-respect.
Peter Burton September 2006
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha in 1925
You were forced to flee
white supremicists twice
before the age of five
Your fearless father was murdered and
Your mother then went insane
Eight children then got fostered out
But no one got the blame
You wanted to be a lawyer and you
Graduated the top of your class
But your racist ignorant teacher
Was much worse than a pain in the ass
So you drifted into crime in Harlems’
Tough mean neighbourhoods
Running numbers ,narcotics,prostitution
The main leader of the hoods
You got ten years with your buddy
Malcolm “ Shorty “ Jarvis
Serving seven in reality on
A host of burglary charges
While doin time for all these crimes
You had a religious conversion
Accepting Elijah’s Muhammeds' teaching
And the Nation of Islams’ version
Of analysis and enpowerment of Afro-American blacks
While the long feared “Black Messiah”
then crisscrossed the States
Buiding the NOI
Brilliant oratorical skills
and many wise insights
Then brought the activities of the State
And an agenda of a shortened life
Then the test of faith arrives
Elijah is no living prophet
Affairs and children everwhere
And warm comfort from good profit
You broke with the Nation Of Islam
And founded the Muslim Mosque
Returning from Mecca in 64
Preaching unity to beat the boss
But this new message of unity
Made you a bigger threat than ever
The NOI then moved against you
And the State was boxing clever
Slaughtered in the Audobon ballroom
in the year 1965
A second man is caught by the crowd
But he was never ever tried
Laid to rest in Fernhill cemetry
A martyred “Black Messiah”
The powerful just could not let you live
And feared your love and fire
Peter Burton September 2006
Dignity is everywhere
Shabby ,run down, crowded ghettoes
poverty lurking from tenement ends
paint-peeled windows
bare-bulb shadows
decorate the cold drab struggle
anger bitterness envy resentment
fuel the drug ridden
alcohol buildings
Yet people live there just
as in all Ghettos
with honesty and self-respect.
Peter Burton September 2006
Poem to Woody
Poem to Woody
Out of vibrant Okemah
You bounded precocious and unconventional
Profoundly touched by Claras' death
a keen observer of Oklahoma surrounds
You went through the decline of
your influential mother
hastened by financial ruin
creating a permanent rambler
a projector of wry humour
Pampa, Corn Cob trio and Mary Jannings
then followed
all lost to the Great Dust storm
poor refugee ' Okies' moving west
Freight train hoboing, hitch-hiking ,walking
to meet with Californians' parochialism
feelings expressed in ballads and radio broadcasts
as self-promoted lifelong " outsider"
The rambler inside takes you
to "The Big Apple"
the left branding and embracing you
for your "authenticity"
Leadbelly, Houston , Ives ,Seeger
Will Geer, Sonny Terry , Brownie McGhee
Singing songs of Protest
Songs of Freedom
And for what you believed in
Lomax ,Moses Asch,Folkways
performances with
the Almanac Singers,The legendary Weavers
establishing against the stream
folk music as commercially viable
Proud Noble Gifted Woody
Peter Burton August 2006
Out of vibrant Okemah
You bounded precocious and unconventional
Profoundly touched by Claras' death
a keen observer of Oklahoma surrounds
You went through the decline of
your influential mother
hastened by financial ruin
creating a permanent rambler
a projector of wry humour
Pampa, Corn Cob trio and Mary Jannings
then followed
all lost to the Great Dust storm
poor refugee ' Okies' moving west
Freight train hoboing, hitch-hiking ,walking
to meet with Californians' parochialism
feelings expressed in ballads and radio broadcasts
as self-promoted lifelong " outsider"
The rambler inside takes you
to "The Big Apple"
the left branding and embracing you
for your "authenticity"
Leadbelly, Houston , Ives ,Seeger
Will Geer, Sonny Terry , Brownie McGhee
Singing songs of Protest
Songs of Freedom
And for what you believed in
Lomax ,Moses Asch,Folkways
performances with
the Almanac Singers,The legendary Weavers
establishing against the stream
folk music as commercially viable
Proud Noble Gifted Woody
Peter Burton August 2006
After the Flood ?
After the Flood ?
Federal Budget cuts and the Louisiana
National Guard deployed to Baghdad
In the face of warnings of Hurricane Katrina
Wreak havoc on a magical city
A mystical city of REAL culture-
Blues and jazz funerals
Parades and sexuality
Graveyards and voodoo
A city of kindness and hospitality
Of social networks and support
A city of racism and corruption
of Jerald Thomas and protests
A city of black filled hellholes
infamous Angola State Pen
and Orleans Parish Prison
The rich flee from Katrina
And the poor in their 4 by 4’s
And SUVS while
The poor nowhere to go
And no way of getting there
Suffer demonisation for
Committing the crime of
Surviving
The media
Deflecting attention
From (ir)responsible corrupt city fathers
With Images of blacks as “ loot” ers , marauders
Criminals
conveniently forgetting to report the complete
absence of contingency
Planning
Public workers again act as heroes
with Police as exception lying through
fear about the location of life-saving buses
dispersal of groups and protection
of abandoned property their
thinly disguised goal
While greedy Halliburton
voyeuristically looks on
planning a long desired
white-washed
French quartered corporate
Restructured Disneyland
amid visions of super-gated rich
compound enclosures to protect
the rich from an angrier poor
Cultural genocide racial cleansing
Corporate plans
Vie with grassroots organisations’
resistance to Disney-fication
getting organised
by diaspora activists networking
to fight for their community
vision of a newer New Orleans
Meanwhile a Biloxi man
Finally lets go of his wife’s hand
as she tells him to
“look after the children
and grandchildren”
Peter Burton August 2006
Federal Budget cuts and the Louisiana
National Guard deployed to Baghdad
In the face of warnings of Hurricane Katrina
Wreak havoc on a magical city
A mystical city of REAL culture-
Blues and jazz funerals
Parades and sexuality
Graveyards and voodoo
A city of kindness and hospitality
Of social networks and support
A city of racism and corruption
of Jerald Thomas and protests
A city of black filled hellholes
infamous Angola State Pen
and Orleans Parish Prison
The rich flee from Katrina
And the poor in their 4 by 4’s
And SUVS while
The poor nowhere to go
And no way of getting there
Suffer demonisation for
Committing the crime of
Surviving
The media
Deflecting attention
From (ir)responsible corrupt city fathers
With Images of blacks as “ loot” ers , marauders
Criminals
conveniently forgetting to report the complete
absence of contingency
Planning
Public workers again act as heroes
with Police as exception lying through
fear about the location of life-saving buses
dispersal of groups and protection
of abandoned property their
thinly disguised goal
While greedy Halliburton
voyeuristically looks on
planning a long desired
white-washed
French quartered corporate
Restructured Disneyland
amid visions of super-gated rich
compound enclosures to protect
the rich from an angrier poor
Cultural genocide racial cleansing
Corporate plans
Vie with grassroots organisations’
resistance to Disney-fication
getting organised
by diaspora activists networking
to fight for their community
vision of a newer New Orleans
Meanwhile a Biloxi man
Finally lets go of his wife’s hand
as she tells him to
“look after the children
and grandchildren”
Peter Burton August 2006
Saturday, 18 November 2006
The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues
by Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
by Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
Friday, 17 November 2006
First Selection ( 20 Poems here )
http:/www.paulineconspiracy.com
Birth of a Union
Myth and fantasy
intertwined with
storytelling
of customs
and feelings
ambiguously
dissenting
and conforming
simultaneously
glorifying but burying
dead romantic past
grafting Britishness on
paradoxically
in opposition to
challenging cultural nationalism
through realist fiction novel
creating shared myths
and moral values
forging
a nation of strangers
with mediocre characters
romantic realism
representing
abstraction of
nature and culture
church and state
recent memories
of Highland clan
extinction and lowland
capitalist development
as future
Dotheboys
Grotesques and moral ogres
Amiable idiots and perverts
Sadistic dwarfs and drunks
Freaks and eccentrics
Servile servants
Interconnected isolation
Of the city
Criminal underworlds vie
With middle-class respectability
Anarchic excitement
With bourgeois safety
Pathological death obsessed
Macabre extremes
Identities fixed and imprisoned
Hypocritical
Oppression of children
Exposed as victims
False patriarchy
Beaming paternalism
Carnivalesque anarchic emotionally
Spendthrift families of protection
And microcosms of greed and violence
Exposure of “society” as
Oppressive and unreal
Baptism required
For true identity
To shine
Bread and circuses
Fairy-tale paternalist
Charity mongering
Amidst the
Frankenstein social order
Far from the Towns perception
Perception of idyllic
Rural settings as
Picturesque stable
Tranquil and secure
Belies the real affair of
Poverty, unemployment
Competition and exodus
Sexual competition
Snobbery
Vanity all
Escape the day trippers’
Gaze upon
“idyllic nature”
transforming work
objectified desire
flesh and spirit
in conflict
oppressing
ostracising
social
conventions
unintended consequences
of conscious social choices
no appeasing
happy ending here
Prejudice from pride
Actions not intentions
Or feelings form the
Ethical life
Dependent on truth
In a world of deceit
Sympathies
With empathetic
Characters
Condemning selfishness
With satire
Ambiguities
Rebellion
Against
Aristocracy
Love within acceptable
Class parameters
A balance
Between behavioural pressure
And rampant individualism
Combining instinct with education
Idle harming rich
Imploding rural gentry
Forgetting their manners
Conserving realism
The “Decisive Moment”
Silhoutted “decisive moment”
combines with incisive composition
instinctive and intelligent
geographical triangular forms
Representations of expressions of freedom
while striving for visual perfection
his gaze to him was everything
his gaze was who he was
Peter Burton August 2006
To be or ……?
Paranoid Jealousy
Over-reading all the signs
An obsessive hunter of hidden knowledge
Tryin to control events
Endlessly frustrated
In absence of any real mystery
Jealousy perpetually bending ‘evidence’
For its own ends
“Did ye get Healed”
A Shaman heightening our senses
Using Incantation and rhythm
Searching for spiritual epiphany
total passion in his voice
A mystical misfit naïve and majestic
Alternatively beautiful and venomous
Caledonian soul and Yeats as mentor
An Eden misty and wet with rain
King of the Delta Blues
You would play to a single female
In the audience
Using the most complex original strings
Picked out for her beauty
And the hope of a later fling
Your lyrics could not fail to impress
And your face was pretty too
You’re the legendary Robert Johnson
The King of the Delta blues.
Brando
They voted you the actors’ actor
By about a million miles
With your mean moody magnificence
And occasional transforming smile
Honest, radical ,principled and bright
Your performances and life radiated light
Goodnight Irene
Released with a pardon
So the legend goes
After singing to the Governor
In the most powerful ,moving tones
Fighting, bragging, whoring, brawling
Turning hard men into jelly
But nobody could sing the blues
Quite like Huddie Leadbelly
Plain English ? Does that Add Value ?
Flexible learning
Lifelong learning
Widening access
Social inclusion
Quality assurance
Adding value
Validation
Verification
Accreditation
and best practice
programme reviews
enhancing frameworks
personnel development
strategic opportunities
and teambuilding
cross-school networking
equal opportunities and diversity
hierarchies
power maddies
cowed workforces
double standards
big fat salaries
two tier workforces
temporary contracts
student fodder
running businesses
gravy training
teacher blaming
finger waving
motivation waning
curriculum varying
better know the lingo
if you want to be professional
I’M A TEACHER !
GET ME OUT OF HERE !
Shark Attack
How doth the big long shark
Improve his shining teeth
By selling you what you don’t need
More skill-fully than any thief
How subtly he gets under your skin
How cheerfully he seems to grin
He milks your kindness
and its far from funny
Then he swiftly departs
once he’s got your money
Play safe
Stay comfortable with your misery
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Hide your vulnerability
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Pursuing happiness is for others
Play safe, don’t take a risk
There’s too much pain
If it doesn’t work out
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Never near a farm
There are far too many people around
Carrying Farmfood Plastic bags
They always seem to be headin hame
And have a tendency to smoke fags
Their inner contents look mysterious
It just doesn’t look like food
But then knowing Farmfoods as I do
There is no way it would
Scottish News story .
Pi Pick up a Penguin ?
The researchers were on the news the other day
Telling us that male penguins like to play away
What a relief it is , you have to say
That men don’t think and act this way
Cover it up in cover it up land
Cover it up, cover it up
How is it going to look?
Cover it up, cover it up
How are we going to pay?
Cover it up, cover it up
What does this say about us?
Cover it up cover it up
Maybe it’ll all go away ?
Out of shape blues
Well ma baby done left me
Says a was hastlin her to get fit
Well ma baby done left me
Says a was hastlin her to get fit
Said to me at seventeen stone
You are a hypocrite
Yes you are a hypocrite
Well I said to ma baby
Why don’t we form a pack ?
Well I said to ma baby
Why don’t we form a pack ?
I’ll get in shape if you do too
What do you think of that?
Yes what do you think of that?
Well ma baby done left me
seems packs are just not hip
Well ma baby done left me
seems packs are just not hip
Wonder what ma babys doin now
And what she thinks about it
Yes what she thinks about it
Sexy Lady
The sexiest woman I ever did see
Was ten years , at least, older than me
The sexiest body with its all over tan
And beautiful clothes to turn any man
You were off limits, married, unfree
But oh what lust I had for thee
Vulnerability
Conceal your feelings
Fight your feelings
Never open up
Suppress your feelings
Deny your feelings
It will only lead to hurt
But pain and loss are complex things
Suppression rarely works
Please tell me beautiful lady
Did ignoring your heart work ?
Gods to Blame
Gods to blame
He told me to invade
And anyway, Iraqs’ free now
If not, then Gods’ to blame
Birth of a Union
Myth and fantasy
intertwined with
storytelling
of customs
and feelings
ambiguously
dissenting
and conforming
simultaneously
glorifying but burying
dead romantic past
grafting Britishness on
paradoxically
in opposition to
challenging cultural nationalism
through realist fiction novel
creating shared myths
and moral values
forging
a nation of strangers
with mediocre characters
romantic realism
representing
abstraction of
nature and culture
church and state
recent memories
of Highland clan
extinction and lowland
capitalist development
as future
Dotheboys
Grotesques and moral ogres
Amiable idiots and perverts
Sadistic dwarfs and drunks
Freaks and eccentrics
Servile servants
Interconnected isolation
Of the city
Criminal underworlds vie
With middle-class respectability
Anarchic excitement
With bourgeois safety
Pathological death obsessed
Macabre extremes
Identities fixed and imprisoned
Hypocritical
Oppression of children
Exposed as victims
False patriarchy
Beaming paternalism
Carnivalesque anarchic emotionally
Spendthrift families of protection
And microcosms of greed and violence
Exposure of “society” as
Oppressive and unreal
Baptism required
For true identity
To shine
Bread and circuses
Fairy-tale paternalist
Charity mongering
Amidst the
Frankenstein social order
Far from the Towns perception
Perception of idyllic
Rural settings as
Picturesque stable
Tranquil and secure
Belies the real affair of
Poverty, unemployment
Competition and exodus
Sexual competition
Snobbery
Vanity all
Escape the day trippers’
Gaze upon
“idyllic nature”
transforming work
objectified desire
flesh and spirit
in conflict
oppressing
ostracising
social
conventions
unintended consequences
of conscious social choices
no appeasing
happy ending here
Prejudice from pride
Actions not intentions
Or feelings form the
Ethical life
Dependent on truth
In a world of deceit
Sympathies
With empathetic
Characters
Condemning selfishness
With satire
Ambiguities
Rebellion
Against
Aristocracy
Love within acceptable
Class parameters
A balance
Between behavioural pressure
And rampant individualism
Combining instinct with education
Idle harming rich
Imploding rural gentry
Forgetting their manners
Conserving realism
The “Decisive Moment”
Silhoutted “decisive moment”
combines with incisive composition
instinctive and intelligent
geographical triangular forms
Representations of expressions of freedom
while striving for visual perfection
his gaze to him was everything
his gaze was who he was
Peter Burton August 2006
To be or ……?
Paranoid Jealousy
Over-reading all the signs
An obsessive hunter of hidden knowledge
Tryin to control events
Endlessly frustrated
In absence of any real mystery
Jealousy perpetually bending ‘evidence’
For its own ends
“Did ye get Healed”
A Shaman heightening our senses
Using Incantation and rhythm
Searching for spiritual epiphany
total passion in his voice
A mystical misfit naïve and majestic
Alternatively beautiful and venomous
Caledonian soul and Yeats as mentor
An Eden misty and wet with rain
King of the Delta Blues
You would play to a single female
In the audience
Using the most complex original strings
Picked out for her beauty
And the hope of a later fling
Your lyrics could not fail to impress
And your face was pretty too
You’re the legendary Robert Johnson
The King of the Delta blues.
Brando
They voted you the actors’ actor
By about a million miles
With your mean moody magnificence
And occasional transforming smile
Honest, radical ,principled and bright
Your performances and life radiated light
Goodnight Irene
Released with a pardon
So the legend goes
After singing to the Governor
In the most powerful ,moving tones
Fighting, bragging, whoring, brawling
Turning hard men into jelly
But nobody could sing the blues
Quite like Huddie Leadbelly
Plain English ? Does that Add Value ?
Flexible learning
Lifelong learning
Widening access
Social inclusion
Quality assurance
Adding value
Validation
Verification
Accreditation
and best practice
programme reviews
enhancing frameworks
personnel development
strategic opportunities
and teambuilding
cross-school networking
equal opportunities and diversity
hierarchies
power maddies
cowed workforces
double standards
big fat salaries
two tier workforces
temporary contracts
student fodder
running businesses
gravy training
teacher blaming
finger waving
motivation waning
curriculum varying
better know the lingo
if you want to be professional
I’M A TEACHER !
GET ME OUT OF HERE !
Shark Attack
How doth the big long shark
Improve his shining teeth
By selling you what you don’t need
More skill-fully than any thief
How subtly he gets under your skin
How cheerfully he seems to grin
He milks your kindness
and its far from funny
Then he swiftly departs
once he’s got your money
Play safe
Stay comfortable with your misery
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Hide your vulnerability
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Pursuing happiness is for others
Play safe, don’t take a risk
There’s too much pain
If it doesn’t work out
Play safe, don’t take a risk
Never near a farm
There are far too many people around
Carrying Farmfood Plastic bags
They always seem to be headin hame
And have a tendency to smoke fags
Their inner contents look mysterious
It just doesn’t look like food
But then knowing Farmfoods as I do
There is no way it would
Scottish News story .
Pi Pick up a Penguin ?
The researchers were on the news the other day
Telling us that male penguins like to play away
What a relief it is , you have to say
That men don’t think and act this way
Cover it up in cover it up land
Cover it up, cover it up
How is it going to look?
Cover it up, cover it up
How are we going to pay?
Cover it up, cover it up
What does this say about us?
Cover it up cover it up
Maybe it’ll all go away ?
Out of shape blues
Well ma baby done left me
Says a was hastlin her to get fit
Well ma baby done left me
Says a was hastlin her to get fit
Said to me at seventeen stone
You are a hypocrite
Yes you are a hypocrite
Well I said to ma baby
Why don’t we form a pack ?
Well I said to ma baby
Why don’t we form a pack ?
I’ll get in shape if you do too
What do you think of that?
Yes what do you think of that?
Well ma baby done left me
seems packs are just not hip
Well ma baby done left me
seems packs are just not hip
Wonder what ma babys doin now
And what she thinks about it
Yes what she thinks about it
Sexy Lady
The sexiest woman I ever did see
Was ten years , at least, older than me
The sexiest body with its all over tan
And beautiful clothes to turn any man
You were off limits, married, unfree
But oh what lust I had for thee
Vulnerability
Conceal your feelings
Fight your feelings
Never open up
Suppress your feelings
Deny your feelings
It will only lead to hurt
But pain and loss are complex things
Suppression rarely works
Please tell me beautiful lady
Did ignoring your heart work ?
Gods to Blame
Gods to blame
He told me to invade
And anyway, Iraqs’ free now
If not, then Gods’ to blame
The Worker pays for all
The Worker pays for all
As I sat thinking all alone
On my dozing bed
Some usual thoughts
Came into my sleepless active head
And rising from my slumber, I
my thoughts did recall
I knew I saw before my eyes
How workers pay for all
I many riches did imagine
In this strange scary dream
Yachts Clubs Bentleys and Mansions
Were a part of the theme
What of it you might ask of me
Its been this way since the Fall
Is that the truth I grimly asked
Why workers pay for all
I thought I saw a fantasy
A vision that was a fable
That workers so exploited are
And must pay more than they are able
I thought I heard them cryin say
Their wages was so small
For rich men always gain I say
And workers pay for all
I thought I saw how rich men
Did beat the workers faces
And greedily did feed off them
With no pity for their cases
They work and work until they’re soar
For money that’s far too small
The rich men in their clubs they roar
But workers pay for all
I thought I saw a spiv there
Walking in his pin-stripe suit
His power and wealth affected him
His only love being his loot
His wealth he by extortion got
Ensuring others took a fall
He had worked for it all not
And workers pay for all
I thought I saw an Ascot lady
Go proudly amongst the throng
Strutting like a peacock there
No wisdom on her tongue
The rain it makes her plumes all fall
She ruffles out in pride
Pride may well come before a fall
But workers pay for all
I thought I met discontent there
While talking to a fellow worker
No time for a cup of tea he said
You’d think I was a shirker
I’ll see what I can do , I said
I’ll go and talk to the Brick wall
The bosses riches aye increase
While workers pay for all
Peter Burton November 2006
As I sat thinking all alone
On my dozing bed
Some usual thoughts
Came into my sleepless active head
And rising from my slumber, I
my thoughts did recall
I knew I saw before my eyes
How workers pay for all
I many riches did imagine
In this strange scary dream
Yachts Clubs Bentleys and Mansions
Were a part of the theme
What of it you might ask of me
Its been this way since the Fall
Is that the truth I grimly asked
Why workers pay for all
I thought I saw a fantasy
A vision that was a fable
That workers so exploited are
And must pay more than they are able
I thought I heard them cryin say
Their wages was so small
For rich men always gain I say
And workers pay for all
I thought I saw how rich men
Did beat the workers faces
And greedily did feed off them
With no pity for their cases
They work and work until they’re soar
For money that’s far too small
The rich men in their clubs they roar
But workers pay for all
I thought I saw a spiv there
Walking in his pin-stripe suit
His power and wealth affected him
His only love being his loot
His wealth he by extortion got
Ensuring others took a fall
He had worked for it all not
And workers pay for all
I thought I saw an Ascot lady
Go proudly amongst the throng
Strutting like a peacock there
No wisdom on her tongue
The rain it makes her plumes all fall
She ruffles out in pride
Pride may well come before a fall
But workers pay for all
I thought I met discontent there
While talking to a fellow worker
No time for a cup of tea he said
You’d think I was a shirker
I’ll see what I can do , I said
I’ll go and talk to the Brick wall
The bosses riches aye increase
While workers pay for all
Peter Burton November 2006
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