Poets Cornered

  A poem about the pointlessness of war whether the cause be religion or politics. Governments always work the partiotism scam on us but is there really anything noble about dying for one's country, flag or religion? There is only one justification for war and that is the spontaneous rebelion against oppression and tyranny by the people. Above the land bold flags are rising, Old men speak, their words despising Enemies beyond the shore. From dawn 'til sunset fanfares ringing Echo sounds of children singing Songs of glory, songs of war   From city, town, village and valley, Ardent for victory young men rally To defend their nation's cause, Marching to their fields of glory To repeat the age old story And sing again the songs of war   Distant sounds of warplanes bringing Payload of death from far lands winging Filling minds with fear and wonder. Far from conflict and the slaying In churche...

 Ian R Thorpe, A few notes at the end explain the symbolism which is based in Celtic myth. CHIMERA. You take my hand and kiss my lips then like a starburst you are gone; flown on psyche's coloured wings to outshine the dazzling sun. And when I find you once again where, as night's dark mares hold wake, you rest; tranquil as the moonlight reflected on a still, deep lake. And sometimes like a timid deer and sometimes like a butterfly you change, fearing to know yourself while I must love you constantly. Though you may come as summer's nymph, clothed in colours of Lammas - day or as a sullen silent shade cloaked and cowled in sorrow's grey. In memory's cavernous fears where monsters haunt your sleepless head whispering with voices from the past, wearing dead faces that you dread to drive you a million miles from the sanctuary of my light, love's timeless, purifying flame will ...

by Ian R Thorpe A cautionary tale presented as a piece of whimsy    The Pompous Toad   A pompous toad squatted atop a large turd believing it to be an ivory tower; the absurd amphibian seldom deferred to good sense, insisting pomp is power. A passing terrapod astutely observed that the toad owed his lofty position not to reason, logic or rhetorical skill, but a random act of excretion. The toad, undeterred by a critical word or the peril of his precarious situation chose to pontificate and thus irritate humbler creatures of similar station.   A warning word blurted might have averted the disaster that was to befall but though other creatures saw danger approach, the toad had offended them all Tired of being hectored, harangued and lectured none felt inclined to help when danger flew, by so they turned a blind eye as an ignorant crow swooped down very low and swal...

Statistics, Graphs and Hockey Sticks by Ian Thorpe Once again climate change is the scare story of the week, with politicians and the academics of "climate science"  screaming about saving the planet. How are they going to do this you might well ask? Through the magical intervention of their god Mathematical Modelling. Statistics, graphs and hockey sticks combined to make a case that the human race are laying waste the planet that is our home... Rome   was not built in a day, nor did it disintegrate overnight. So might it be with civilization, a gradual degeneration of all good things we have built. Life copies art a wise man said but when science led it tried to go to places where life could not, would not follow. The hollowed egg, the hybrid embryo, the throwaway technology. A clone, an unthinking automaton the epitome of human development? Surely that is not what Darwin meant ...

Pavlov's Cat Ian R Thorpe Probably the best known animal experiment behaviourals science was Pavlov's Dogs which is said to show all higher mammals have the ability to learn in the same way humans do. Things have progressed since then and now scientists are using snacks to teach mice, rats and even crocodiles how to get snacks. It's fun but is it science. They may feed and shelter me, groom and pet and pamper me, make my bed on satin pillows, adorn my neck with pretty bows but still I shall not fetch thrown sticks nor perform amusing tricks and beg for treats from master's hand; nor march to King or Priest's command. I will not work 'til I am old to earn myself a scrap of gold but go the way of my own choosing and thus gain more than I risk losing. ******** And while we extol the virtues of thinking for oneself, the academic fascists of medical science are cooking up new ways to control our minds. The latest is a pill to erase traumatic or ...

 Time Travellers or Hamlet's Mill (Metaphysical Love and the time travelling mind - ) You visited my dream last night, beyond boundaries of time and space, sliding between layers of sleep and consciousness, to find a place where infinite dimensions meet. There dancing constellations trace magic symbols on the boundless sky. We stood; and watched time pass us by, saw past and future all as one unravelling before our eyes. We sailed the Nile on a reed barge, watched Sarum's great henge arise, and saw self - righteous cant betray a human being's sacrifice all for the sake of greed and lust. And Hamlet's Mill ground time to dust. Your hand found mine, the stars moved on and neither of us said a word. For an hour, or maybe for all time what passed between us could be heard through the entire universe. All things were one, death seemed absurd as our bleak world moved far away. We wanted nothing but to stay, Love was the unifying force and we, no lon...