Books, Blogs and Butterflies

 

PICTURE TERROR

H. W. Bryce

 

The principal pleads

But the schoolyard kids

Gather round the two boys

And cheer on the bully

With their inaction,

Urge the stripling

Fight! Fight! Fight!

 

The crowd fills up

With empty shirts.

 

Picture devastation now,

It is in the blood on the

Schoolyard floor, the teeth,

The spittle, the hate, the

Stentch of death as the bully

Takes down the stripling.

 

But,

The stripling fights back,

Fights back, fights desperately

Back, his spirit to survive this

Attack come alive.

 

And the schoolkids’ hearts

Are chilled, but, honour aside,

They dare not intervene

For fear of reprisal to them.

 

Picture determination now.

Picture raw couraage now.

It is the stripling’s bloody face.

 

Picture surprise, picture possible

Defeat…

It is the bully’s shameful face.

 

There lies no logic in the schoolyard.

There lies only disgusting reality.

 

Picture stress

It is in this father’s face

Picture fear

It is in this mother’s face

Picture terror

It is this child’s face

Picture desperation

It is the face of Truth

and Love and Righteousness.

— —

It was raining bombs

The wind was a rocket

The thunder was a tank

The dream ship of hope and

Its cargo of love sank.

 

It is brutality at its best

It is the worst of humanity

— —

Picture

Desperation now. It is the face

Of the pregant mother dying, being

Hustled out of a bombed hospital

On a stretcher, losing her baby.

 

To be buried later,

Alongside the death of humanity

Prayed over by the empty shirts.

 

Picture courage now, the face of

The ordinary man fighting for

Survival, the ordinary man tending

The wounded midst bombardment.

Picture the shirts bulging with heart

And pride and duty and action.

 

Picture a world without them.

 

Image: https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/drapeau-ukraine-guerre-paix-soldat-7036018/

 

 

 

 

WE CAN NEVER BE HAPPY

 

H. W. Bryce

 

Red mini comp Dec 24,21 –

 

We can never be happy

As long as babies are left to cry

We can never be happy

As long as husband beats wife

We can never be happy

As long as Peter has to pay Paul

To pay rent

We can never be happy

As long as nation faces nation

With envy and holds him as enemy

 

We can never be happy

As long as respect is not practiced

We can never be happy

As long as the elderly are left to die

As in a pandemic

We can never be happy

As long as dignity is not granted

 

As long as drugs scour the world

And take our children

 

We can never be happy

As long as lost children, murdered

And missing women are not found

We can never be happy

As long as discrimination scars our world.

 

Or as long as police behave as thugs and

Beat and kill and rule with brutality…

 

Or as long as people claim supiority in the

Name of religion…we can never be happy.

 

And we can NEVER be happy when a single

Macro ego lives in a previous centry in his

Head and lets his heart wilt but rains bullets

And bombs and rockets upon women and children

And bread lines and marked shelters

 

As long as war lords exist and continue to rake

Over others’ lands to spread their evil power

 

 

Inspired by Martin Luther King’s famous Freedom speech,

“We can never be satisfied…´(as long as discrimination lasts…etc”)

As heard during the Cdn docu-tribute to Oscar Peterson, in the segment

Hymn to Freedom (words by Harriette Hamilton).

 

WHAT MAKES US HAPPY

 

What makes us happy is acceptance

And tolerance, and a chance given freely,

 

What makes us happy is a hand offered

In friendship, and a welcoming smile

and acceptance

 

What makes us happy is working together

As one in union and companionship

and acceptance

 

What makes us happy is a hug and a hot drink

In the quiet of the day, relaxing, together\

In acceptance

 

What makes us happy is guiding our children

In the art of peace and co-operation

and acceptance

 

What makes us happy is the feeling of belonging,

Of being one with another, feeling free and unfettered,

 

And song and dance and laughter and visiting

Back and forth and always feeling welcome

 

And never feeling put down or criticisised,

Never being nagged or carped at or the need

To weep in regeret for discrimination or bullying,

 

Never having to fight to defend Right and

Dignity or to quarrel or to live without respect

But being one in unity with all, midst love

with acceptance.

 

What makes us happy is when giant egos shrink

And learn the meaning of humanity, which includes

All people,

Just the very basics of life.

That’s all.

— —

There will be no happiness

Till tyrants are put out of business

It is not the business of mankind to destroy

But to create

It is not the business of mankind to put down

But to build up

It is not the business of mankind to hate

But to love

(Here I then recalled Jacob Marley)

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” Marley rues the wrong priorities he held in life.

 

 

And may Putin die as he lives, in ignominy.

Congratulations Putin,

You are hereby awarded the prestigious medal of
World’s Most Evil Bastard.

— —

Image:

And Junkfeed: http://www.junkfed.com/being-jacob-marley/

 

 

 

IF I HAD THE CHARMS                                                               blogged mar 14, 2022

 

H. W. Bryce

 

If I had the charms,

I would tame all the wild bees,

If I had the charms,

I would heal the ache in broken hearts

If I had the charms,

I would teach all bullies gentler ways

If I had the charms,

I would bring peace unto the world.

I would charm the dictators of the world,

I would teach them better ways, I would

Take the bully out of them and teach them

That respect and dignity that we all crave

And deserve, and I would talk them out of

Their armaments of war and teach them how

To shake hands sincerely and that their hand

Shake is their bond and that their fellowmen

Are indeed their fellows, not targets.

 

If I had the charms.

Meanwhile, I lament that hard people

Use their charms to seduce other people

Into doing bad things, like making young

Boys become armed soldiers to fight for

Domination of their people; like seducing

Young people to seek euphoria in using

Artificial drugs, into an artificial stupor

Of delusions and desperations; like

 

Charming young girls to have sex and

Accept money and keep, and yes, even abuse

As a way of life, out of which there is no exit.

I lament the use of charms to offer lifts

In their vehicles for young women hitch-

Hiking north to take a job, or on their way

To a better life, then charming them into

A “relationship,” which they end with

Strangulation, not of choking them with love,

But with hard-core beatings, anger, rage,

Revenge or whatever twisted excuse that

They use as reasons to resolve the hate

In their hearts.

 

I I had had the charms, I would have

Stopped those priests and nuns and

Collaborators who stole the Indian

Children and drilled them with white

Propaganda with canes and belts and

Hard core rape and stole their lives

From them in humiliation and shame.

 

If I had such powerful charms,

I would convert these monsters’

Mysogenies and twisted thinking,

Their misgivings and self loathing

Into honesty, remorse, and dignity,

 

For I lament that the force and power

Of their abilities are not applied to

The betterment of their fellow men

And women…

When I think what they could and

Should be offering to society

 

If I had such powerful charms,
I would work them for the good.

If I had such powerful charms,

I would…I would rescue all of those

Taken girls and women,

And I would mend them,

And I would bless them,

And I would show them real love,

Teach them all self respect and dignity,

And how to make a decent, worthy

Life, with hope and aspirations and

 

Possibilities.

 

Oh, God, If I Had The Charms!

 

Image: https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/paix-symbole-p%c3%a9tales-ukraine-7043225/

 

by Bozena

Dear Friends,

This amazing poem, and its reading, moved me

so much that I am making an exception to my

rule of reserving my blog page for my poems.

Please, give it a listen.

 

Bozena Helena

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IkDPj4AS4L43Yy38gXXHC9f76ICfsXYM/view?usp=sharing

You can alsol access a video of this work at:

https://www.facebook.com/bozenahelenam

Thank you for your compassion.

 

It is the Eve of Destruction

 

And Man hardly holds his breath,

He ignores the warning tingles

In his toes, the sharp /twinge inside his nose

He overrides that breathless feelingi n his gut

Because he is too busy making his next buck.

 

Too comfortable in his king-sized bed,

Too busy inside his head to notice warning signs

Erupting all around to be laying plans ahead,

Not seing the shadow climb into his bed.

 

Too busy is he now to stop the cannons’ run,

He calls out the reserve of warning words

But the border now is about to be over run,

And too busy to get in shape are the nerds.

 

The children know not why their adults  are partying

Avoiding news, arguing

They feel the tingles of the oncoming doom,

They shiver despite the heat in their room.

 

For now it is the eve of Destruction

The hail of fire out of Hell is about to fall upon our heads

We will never see it coming, we’re far too busy

Having fun and rolling togetherin our beds

 

And so the shadow figure walks into the light

He carries guns and hauls his cannons

 

And so the world well may end,

And we will die, not with a bang,

But with a pathetic whimper,

With our pants hanging down,

Filled with regret we didn’t bother

To read the signs of death

On the eve of destruction,

 

—Written before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Jan. 18, 2022.

Image by Pixabay

 

 

EVEN THE WINNER LOSES

 

Some thoughts on unrest, personal, local, regional,

national, international/From Ottawa to Kiev to the Kremlin.

 

BEAUTIFUL CITY

Beautiful city the centre and crater

Of European confusion,

O you with your passionate shriek for

The rights of an equal humanity

How often your Re-volution, has proven

But E-volution

Roll’d again back on itself in the

Tides of a civic insanity

—Alfred Lord Tennyson

1809 – 1892

(line breaks may differ from some print editions)

—

I come to you, as poets do,

Mayhaps to leave /or find a clue,

To sing a song of a different hue,

And leave you, mayhaps, a happier view.

—H. W. Bryce

— — —

 

THERE IS NO VICTORY

 

There is no Victory

in anarchy

There is no victory

when it is taken by aggression

There is no victory

without action, for or against

There is no victory

when children are used as shields

There is no victory

when leaders fail to lead

There is no victory

when /companies/groups/governing bodies indulge in in-fighting

There is no victory

when there is no legitimate cause

There is no triumph

when a group takes the law into its own hands

when bully tactics are employed

when disrepute is brought upon legimate leaders

when  leaders betray their group

When any group tries to overpower a legitimate government

when tyranny is screamed out by a free people, then call

Ror freedom and employ tyrannical invasion on a people while being free

 

There is no winner here

When opponents hurl insults at each other

When you refuse to talk to your opponent

When you refuse to listen to your opponent

When you divide us all as us and them

When you bring shame on your country

When you flaunt/abuse/your flag

When you trample your country’s reputation

When foreign support and money and emblems interfere

 

There is no victory here

not even for the righteous

 

There is no hero

in aggression

 

There can be no peace

without mutual participation

in sincere and meaningful dialogue,

a meeting of minds, not just bodies filled with

biases to defend.

There can be no peace when you speak sweetly and carry a big grudge

For in conflict, even the winner loses

 

Moderation for peace

Moderation works. Without which, we, as a people,

A species, continue to lurch from crisis to crisis

Love and light instead

You may disagree       But throw no stones.

—H. W. Bryce

— —