contents:
Mother Love
Circles
Heron
Gypsies
Best of British Technology
Happy Christmas, Happy Concepts
Lammas
Women in Bhopal preparing to burn an effigy of Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson - still absconded, still no compensation. Fifteen Years since the Gas leak killed thousands, and continues… Mother Love... home Deep in your heart a well of sadness lies Around your dreams, uncloaked, a living hell You gave your precious treasure up for skies That seemed to promise Heaven - yet, they fell Tenderly, tenderly, the softest touch brings pain A flash of bright-eyed laughter, a moment gone And now you live for days when measured gain Shall give your tears release, where rainbows shone On cheeks now wet, now wreathed in smiles once more… He plunges into your arms, heart beating, boy… Your precious burden, running to your door… Then turns as swiftly, Oh! To favourite toy... It is a dream, the treasure now has gone Bereft, you're left, paste on your brittle smile Bleached bones beside a graveyard soaked in tears Fixed, frozen-faced, taste gone, for a little while For Union Carbide's Gas choked off the years... The growth to manhood of your little child Bhopal's gas disaster from Union Carbide's pesticide plant Still no proper compensation as UK Lawyers stop the grant So far they've had more money than the victims ever did Though thousands died, and more are maimed, the perpetrators hid By Jane Johnson, copyright.2000.
CIRCLES home This is a thread on the theme of 'round' The Earth who is circular, also the Ground Our Globe is spun around the Sun Whorled world whirled while we're all unwound This is a theme on circles and cycles On spinning plate halos and archangel Michaels On whirring wings wearing and weaving the sky As small rotund children ask 'Why?' Look at the Day spin the Moon spin the Night Our eyeballs, round pupils, letting In Light Look at the year spinning round Father Sun, As Galaxies spin, around Universe spun. The alchemist's stone; flax spun into gold The spinning wheel thread, of a yarn, a tale told The whirlpool like clockwork, the spiral of sound The matrix of movement - everything's ROUND!!! The Spiral Nebula sweeps out her arms She floats evanescently with all her charms Her substance expanding, To embrace understanding The Depth of the Diva soothes spirit and calms The point of power in the Endless Now The Heart of Eternity here showing how As the One Point expands within Virtual Hands One Loves' consummation, One Heartfelt breath… 'WOW!' By Jane Johnson c. March 2000
HERON home I saw a heron in the garden The other day Around the twelfth of June when Mac passed away I didn't know it then but I see it now A heron is not a Garden bird somehow As I opened the door he Took fright of me As I stood on the step he Took flight from me Such a great bird, a Blue Heron We often sat in the garden, Mac and I But usually he sat alone watching Time pass by Mac, singer and player of the Blues He had no time to lose But he took the time to choose To keep on rocking in the free world Mac, the angels rock on with you Michael 'Mac' McCreery 1st May1942 - 12th June 1999 Requiem Mass @ Our Lady of Glastonbury Saturday 4th September 1999 Rest in Peace From Jane Johnson who would love to have been a better friend
Gypsies… Jane Johnson copyright 1999 home As children, when we went out to play The clapping game, we'd chant and say 'My Mother told me I never should Play with the Gypsies in the wood If I did, she would say 'Naughty little girl to disobey!' But when the children bullied me To the trees I would return Where branches shielded open sky And bracken bonded with fronds of fern To offer me a sanctuary Reassuring me of their concern With tiny creatures I would hide Their names and calls I'd learn I'd feel their trembling deep inside At the passing of the Hunter, Herne And the touch of Man upon the land Self-made god, the giant Cerne The Gypsies were wood-creatures, too They knew the landscapes' ways The turning of the tides of moon Numbered their weeks and days They loved the rain and blessed the sun And hid not from his rays They learnt from Mother Nature's School Her wanton summer mantle spun In Dervish dance of life and death Till, cruel or kind, all life was one All creatures breathing with one breath Beneath the bright sun's gaze
Best of British Technology… home At such a cost… By Jane Johnson Copyright 16th March 2000 We can't alter the seasons, but we can change the rainfall. In the dustbowl of America there's no more rain at all, Since tools and fuel industries have now laid waste the land Snatching rivers and trees away, and leaving only sand, As coal to California is now sent underground, Through pipelines carrying rivers lost, no more to be found - (From their British inventors we hear not a sound…) Yes, cyber-tools make pig farms efficient and quick Euro pigs grow to 56 kilos, even though they're sick, Plaited pigs live in a pen with no room to turn round, Then in five months they're bacon, and more piglets found. Machines feed the starving? Have I heard that before? 'Foreign Aid' aids dictators - oh, that's what it's for, UK's arming their armies, when the starved ask for more. Agricultural machines and computers - Monsanto's the worst - They supply patented sterile seeds, hitting India first - Now wiser, after harvest, the farmers' hearts all burst As their saved seed won't germinate, they realise it's cursed. Now suicidal, they die; wives and children ask why? This Brave New World's future is barren and dry Rich nations don't care for despair, are too fatigued to cry… Brave new world of Transport - now let's look at the trains! (They ran on time much better, before being wired to mains) In India's vast continent they're still mostly on time But UK's Great Train Robbers can no longer commit crime A gang that swept from hiding place would find… Train isn't there! 'Staff shortage', 'late,' 'upgrading' - or else no one to care… It seems, even for robbers, that life isn't fair… Brave New World of computers - let's see, that's going great guns But whom is it helping? I think we're the ones… Relying on computers, wrong kidneys are cut An ingrown toenail? Dangerous! Now, take his leg off! ... 'But...' That's just supposing computers a bed in there have found, Or leaving frail old ladies to slide trolley-bound to the ground... The last journey to nowhere, buzzer-less, without a sound… Feed the world? With computers? To increase our yield Computers dictate rules for Euro Hedges in fields They take out all the wildlife, and cut the hedge back sore, Euro crops, Euro farms - with no trees any more They feed us - with their supermarkets, posh nosh and pap There's nothing left that's wholesome now, and most of it tastes crap Farm shops are in decline these days, for where they were before Is just another car park for another superstore You know I love computers - for my music and my art For writing poems and thinking, of what is in my heart But I trust Mother Nature, much more than machines She is our Life Source; they're for our dreams Machines feed the world? With World Leaders in charge? (Too much fear is curled hidden, deep in their hearts, For the liberal and caring, the socialist and sharing,) They love power more than peace, for their greed is too large…
Happy Christmas home Happy Concepts This is the Concept tree With lights and Decorations glowing. Parcels a-foot, like rivers flowing A stream of packaged, addressed ideas A dream of skilfully woven fears Dressed up as children's playthings, Justified and brought to attention... God consciousness? Hardly a mention For this is the kingdom of Baal down here... Like chattering thieves, consumers, shopkeepers, Raise challenge to Death not to cull us nor reap us Endlessly processing fairy fools-gold- 'Tis tinsel and glitter, not water we hold - We get more run down as our well runs dry We live like machines till our batteries die... Eating the concepts, eating the leaves, Letting head forget what the heart believes, While the Baal puppet-master just laughs at our cry As the pain and the friction make sparks and wars fly... Is this the gold that the fairies hold? Then why the echo in my soul saying "Sold!" The one-way ticket to paradise? Where you and I, my beloved, fly Untouched by such poisonous fruits as these... * * * * * * * * * Copyright: Jane Johnson 24 October1994
Lammas, 1st August 1999 home Copyright Jane Johnson1999 Underneath the ash and willow With the soft grass for my pillow Branches stretch against the sky The stillness calls a dragonfly With gauzy transparent fairy wings... High over midfield a lone lark sings... As the cracked and sunbaked earth below Gapes, gasping to slake thirst, deep and slow... Yet the brackish ditchwater, shrunken in slime, Shows the summer's heat, that bides its time As I lie full length in the meadow's shade With the peace of trees in a leafy glade And rest for a moment, pure and long... No beginning, no ending, where I belong In Natures' carousel of beauty driven By love of life, the life that I am given A heavenly moment. Idyllic... Summers' song...
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