Donna Ashworth gives good advice. I don't expect my friends to change. Indeed, I don't want them to. How they are is why I love them as they are. So, I want all my friends to make a New Year's resolution to just carry on being them, and living their best lives
Today British Culture lost the great writer and poet, Benjamin Zephaniah.
He wrote so much, both serious and fun, and I don't believe he'd want the seriousness or sadness, especially this close to Christmas. So here is one of his poems to bring a little lightness into a dark day...........
Copied as he wrote it, from his own web-site, hence the colour change. Can't be a*sed to edit the html at the moment.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas
Cos’ turkeys just wanna hav fun
Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked
An every turkey has a Mum.
Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas,
Don’t eat it, keep it alive,
It could be yu mate, an not on your plate
Say, Yo! Turkey I’m on your side.
I got lots of friends who are turkeys
An all of dem fear christmas time,
Dey wanna enjoy it, dey say humans destroyed it
An humans are out of dere mind,
Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeys
Dey all hav a right to a life,
Not to be caged up an genetically made up
By any farmer an his wife.
Turkeys just wanna play reggae
Turkeys just wanna hip-hop
Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying,
‘I cannot wait for de chop’,
Turkeys like getting presents, dey wanna watch christmas TV,
Turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain
In many ways like yu an me.
I once knew a turkey called…Turkey
He said “Benji explain to me please,
Who put de turkey in christmas
An what happens to christmas trees?”,
I said “I am not too sure turkey
But it's nothing to do wid Christ Mass
Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be
An business men mek loadsa cash’.
Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
Invite dem indoors fe sum greens
Let dem eat cake an let dem partake
In a plate of organic grown beans,
Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas
An spare dem de cut of de knife,
Join Turkeys United an dey’ll be delighted
An yu will mek new friends ‘FOR LIFE’.
Seem to be on a bit of a poetry kick at the moment. Yesterday, wandering around a local town, I spotted the name of the local pharmacy - Day Lewis, and it reminded me that I haven't featured any of his works here. This is one of his most meaningful for me, and with it being only a couple of months until Remembrance Day looms large, and the probability of a general election next year, now may be the time to beg people to really think hard before casting their votes.
So anyway, here it is: Will It Be So Again? , written by Sir Cecil Day Lewis
Will it be so again
that the brave, the gifted are lost from view,
and empty, scheming men
are left in peace their lunatic age to renew?
Will it be so again?
Must it be always so
that the best are chosen to fall and sleep
like seeds, and we too slow
in claiming the earth they quicken, and the old usurpers reap
what they could not sow?
Will it be so again -
the jungle code and the hypocrite gesture?
A poppy wreath for the slain
and a cut-throat world for the living? That stale imposture
played on us once again
Will it be as before -
peace, with no heart or mind to ensue it,
guttering down to war
like a libertine to his grave? We should not be surprised: we knew it
happen before.
Shall it be so again?
Call not upon the glorious dead
to be your witness then.
The living alone can nail their promise to the ones who said
it shall not be so again.
Verbal abuse is bullying.
No matter who does it or to who.
It's getting worse, it's worrying.
I can’t prevent it, can you?
Verbal abuse is a real thing,
Just as hurtful as blows can be.
Your head aches, your tears sting
Your eyes, till you can’t see.
No, I know you don’t believe it.
He’d never let you see
That when he’s angry or upset,
He takes it out on me.
I know I’m not the only one,
There’s plenty more like me
Who feel their life is done
And they just don’t want to be………………….
