Labi Siffre - Into The Light

The Way

“It’s a bucket of pistols”, said the sergeant. “Just take one. Take anyone!” his voice rose, exasperated as Johnson’s hand wavered and wandered from butt to butt.

“For God’s sake Johnson, pick one, then get your ass over there, choose a prisoner, put the barrel to the back of his or her head, pull the trigger and see them dead. That’s all there is to it.

That's why we're here, doing this course in “An Appropriate End To Torture”
and frankly your scores up till now have been crap
but this is your chance to redress that
so MOVE IT!!
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art life

some of his poems
do what he wants them to do
some don’t

the poems that do
what he wants them to do
are few

and those that don’t
are many

the days
are the same
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politically correct politicians in contempt

Britain and several other European Union countries have rejected calls for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Incidentally and immaterially, I disagree with their decision. I believe we should boycott the opening ceremony and probably the games themselves; but that is merely a difference between the opinions of those politically influential politicians and this politically impotent, little known writer.

However, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitri Rupel, who is hosting the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brdo, outside the capital Ljubljana, insisted that sports should be separated from politics.

While there are aspects of human activity that politicians choose (out of wisdom or cowardice) to avoid, there is no human activity separate from politics.

War crimes, environmental destruction, slavery, people trafficking and, most pertinent to Beijing 2008, despotism, state murder and the repression of human and civil rights, are crimes which cannot be separated even from the Olympic games.
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G'bye Abby & thanks

"I believe that a writer worth his salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world in which he lives, not only to comment, but maybe have a shot at reshaping the world."
... Abby Mann screenwriter, director and producer.1927-2008
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form and/or, purpose

these are not real people
these are sparrows

the sparrows peck
as people are specks
of colour on a dry day

the canvas is wet    the sun is mild

separately this leg has a decorative function;
that it is a human leg stands in the way
of a more positive approach
for example, poached

and so
regardless of an incidence of nothing to do
Ola behaves as he must
with accompanying perspiration.
cold it is
and with less than adequate funding his limbs
insist he exercise his tongue.
judicious the day; though as ever
heel and toe speed the way.

as for orchestration:
the songs are trying we all agree but
the tempo is vast and there is no requirement
to neglect more than acceptable manners    thus,
arm-chaired but prepared for imaginative leaps
family members, with love in their pockets
stand by with ice cream cones
and donuts    and breath
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disturbioso

“some viewers may find these scenes disturbing” the news performer says, an Oscar losing expression of concern on her face as she doesn’t say “some viewers may find these scenes  exhilarating, funny, sexy, pornographically arousing, informative, vital or dull” or her script insulting (look away, look away, look away, pixie land)

is her patronizing for everyone or just those who expect everything to be sanitized for their benefit, who feel they have the right to live in a world of soft pillows and sherbet and it’s everybody else’s duty to help them stay there

and now she’s having a little joke with a foreign correspondent but she isn’t funny, she’s crap at stand-up and the foreign correspondent doesn’t get it and looks irritated in that barren land, barren of hope - but she barrels on

it’s my own fault, i naively expected more from her, after all, just because the network make their women news performers dress up as high class hookers shouldn’t necessarily mean she’s dim as a Toc H lamp
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conceptual literature

in an art space (and by following the following
any space you use will be an art space)
in an art space
take some heavy tables and some big books
put the big books on the heavy tables
turn the tables upside down. now
you’ve turned the tables
on the books      move
from heavy table to heavy table lifting one
side of each and searching underneath till
you find and grab a dictionary (there is
always a dictionary with precious words and
occasionally inadequate definitions). look up
the word “pointless” and (still holding up the
one side of the heavy table) with a pencil
write in the margin what it was you were
doing before this that was so worthwhile
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surprise

Chinaski writes life
is an endless war. funny
i never read him
as being that optimistic
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entity

i find online and in other media that i am dead, have a daughter, deal primarily or only with homophobia and racism, am a one hit wonder, inspirational, a soul singer, an r&b singer, an mor singer, a racist, a christian, south african, courageous, fled apartheid, am a genius, insane ... a good feeling it must be, the journalist said, to have so many people know me
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In Lieu Of An Interview

The foe is neither god nor God, concept, metaphor or non-existent force. The foe is mundane: Man, generically and boringly of course

As for the rest, we do not choose what we believe. Belief is not a matter of choice. Belief is like love and flu   you catch it or you don't (perhaps it catches you) and when you catch it   then the choice is yours   you have to choose what to do

As to belief in general: though billions boast beliefs, few know what their beliefs are, as the opportunity to know what one believes arrives only in extremis; arrives only when the ordure strikes the rapidly rotating cooling device

At those moments when choice involves a lethal danger to love, to life, to security, one is shown perhaps an intimation of one’s beliefs and even then, when shown, one may be unable to see the surface let alone the strata, the sub-strata of what one believes

Fortunately, few must climb that in extremis Himalayan scenery (“ordinary” death being a mere get it wrong almost every time, everyday, painful cliché) and in the meantime though we prattle on and on about our beliefs

it matters little
that something is true
or not
till someone says you must live a certain way
because they believe
something is true
or not

Inescapably, this demand is the subtext to human congress in every-day permanence as person "A" judges person "B" by the beliefs of person "A" and vice versa (sadly there seems no other way)

Which is perhaps why, as you may recall, I propose a morality based on what we know as, in comparison with what we know, what we believe is at best impertinent and at worst the current state of affairs
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Ahead of the game

Seraphim flew down in a blaze (“of glory”
It says here) and with power celestial
Broke the children’s toys

“We are goodness itself” the seraphim said
As the children shed tears, “gratitude we don’t
Expect but punish those who withhold it”

Letting slip no sign of having heard the word
The wise child, who discarded toys immediately
Upon receipt of them, played quietly with the boxes
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De facto

Removed the eyes today we did
To be precise this afternoon at four
Minutes past half past three
Not using them were we    not
For some significant time of length
No tears were shed
In addition as yet there have been
No expressions of regret

Tomorrow the tongue we remove, next Thursday
The lungs (before one a.m.) after that we regroup
To compose a refrain of harmony in five parts   last

Week with chisels and pliers we removed toe
And finger nails then wrote letters of apology
In each other’s blood
As yet unposted these graphic displays line several drawers
In a chest in a room with a window without a view   all this
In studied silence

On further reflection several of us complained at the lack
Of dedication displayed by those with foreskins and/or nipples
The vote of censure demanded has yet to be resolved
With either knife  space  or unsubtle gun
A lack of act understandably responsible for understandable
Dissension

All will be well
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The benefit of smaller and smaller nets

Is it dishonest to demand the condemnation of
A particular act of violence in
Isolation from all or any other
Particular acts of
violence
?
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La vieja

She weighs maybe ninety six pounds man
Handles him in his wheelchair through
The supermercado aisles like a veteran
Seventy five if she’s a day i wonder how
She kicks the Catalan kerbs i know
From pushing Peter how merciless
They can make road crossing an SAS
Training course up mountain crags
Without ropes or pitons

Her husband weighs two hundred eighty
Maybe more is he angry with his useless
Limbs like Peter is with his and grateful
And resenting feeling so while she
Doesn’t mind the lifting and the pushing
And the strained muscles in her hip
And back and the messy accidents
And the Catalan kerbs and his frequent
Flights of temper and hers
And the pointless guilt
And the constant fear of losing.
She’s grateful for every day.
As long as he’s here
She’s ok
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Reprisals

Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan and Belgium's King Leopold II
(To name but three of many) would have laughed
Aloud at international laws like UN resolution 2625
And in the 21st century their attitudes
Cosmetically disguised thrive

Ten for one (at least) was their reprisals policy
Against native resistance in lands they had invaded
And occupied

And as tradition is key to the occupation song
And for some strange reason these days invaders
And occupiers are considered the good guys
In Gaza/Palestine (and elsewhere)
The ten for one reprisals policy
Lives on
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accurately defined

Politically Correct
_(adjective)

1) That which is sanctioned by the state.

2) That which is sanctioned by any group
is politically correct within that group
for example: being sexist, racist, heterosexist,
ageist, and disableist while at the same time
demanding respect, is globally politically correct.
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