Terrorist Psychopathy

They were young and audacious teen-age girls 

bored with the predictable ordinariness of life

when across an ocean there lay unpredictability

and excitement where they would be involved

in a bold enterprise inspiring fear and terror

in observers witness to the stark inhumanity

of atrocities committed against those their

target community considered expendable. A

photo showed them conspiratorially, happily

departing to an exotic destination where every day

would constitute a discovery of just how far human

boundaries could be trifled with. Destined as 

'wives' and enablers to stateless terrorists consumed

with the goal of a heaven-sent caliphate who

stormed the unready ramparts of failed nations to

threaten the world with their ravenous appetite for

uttering dire threats and carrying through to abduction

torture and slaughter, raising their young to savour

the power of life and death in gory lessons to form

character and mission. Beyond salvaging these

savage spirits prepared to portray themselves as

hapless victims with the dissolution of the caliphate

and scattering of its murderous stalwarts, plucking

at the heartstrings of gullible humanitarians prepared

to forgive and forget, on the theory that love and

understanding would prevail to remove the dark

brooding evil from the subconscious of their psyches.

Sagarmatha, Goddess, Mother of the World

Will Chomolungma still be worshipped as Queen

of the Wind and the World when she is no longer 

regally garbed in white robes whose elegance highlights

her height, breadth and royal status leading 

adventurers the world over to her Himalayan 

palace? She is the sublime Everest, all others

pretenders albeit royally magnificent in their

own right as towering emblems of the geological 

immensity and beauty of the Earth, luring those 

for whom exploration of their icy slopes and

formidable extremes becomes a search for 

their own souls sometimes left behind to linger 

and ghost the edifices that nature thrust from the

bowels of this planet. Nothing is forever not 

even the Queen of impossible heights slowly 

shedding her mantle of snow in lock step with 

a changing climate insensible to the immutable 

legendary presence of her divine spirit.

Fleeing the Carnage

It's the way the world turns on an axle

of human tyranny where a cultural revolution 

gains its traction through the elimination of 

countless unfortunates and the ascension

of a new ideology for the masses destroys 

the lives of those same victims while yet

another ideology veering in another direction 

chooses its victims carefully the end result 

quite similar, ridding the world of the existence 

of the unsanctioned. And how readily it is all 

forgotten those countless deaths before the tyrant

resumes his respected place on the throne that 

mass murder, torture, population displacement

and teeming hordes of refugees reoccupy other

spaces in other places. Memory grows dim 

refusing to focus on crimes against humanity

war crimes, genocides for it is all too, too 

mind-wearying and one must after all get on 

with life, the killers complacently picking up 

where humanity left off, fleeing the carnage.

The Nobility of the People's Republic of China

 

In all fairness to peace, justice and

human rights how is it remotely

useful to criticize China for caring 

so deeply about the well-being of its people

linked to the welfare of the Republic?

Beijing wants only that harmony

among its population becomes a reality

that the evil forces of 'splitism' become

a detested, forsworn symbol of an

unfortunately restive past. And

to that end at great expense and

fortitude against criticism from those

outside influences that will never

understand China's goal of presiding over

a population whose pride and satisfaction

with the Chinese Communist Party

endows them with happiness and joy in life

China has the great and good vision to

carry on with nothing but good faith.

Those elements within the population

who are angry dissenters given to

agitating for separation simply require

the opportunity to become re-adjusted with

an altered perspective on life's precious

opportunities. The gift of never having to

bear children, the gift of full employment

the gift of knowing that complaints

against government are both baseless and

useless. All matters fully understood and

heartily supported by the United Nations

where China has been elected to the venerable

and honourable Human Rights Council.

Au Revoir, Winter!

 

We're ingrates, that much is clear.

Still, Winter is forgiving. 

Not that he enjoys popular depictions

as a grumpy old man who refuses

to leave. He grudgingly admits

that Spring, renowned as a lovely

young woman has trumped him in

the public relations sphere but

he keeps trying. March is on the  horizon

nonetheless Winter calls upon his

elements day after day to launch new

snow events. Obtuse to the fact of

weather-fatigue that grips his public.

Where early in his reign there is rejoicing

at the first appearance of that wondrously

brilliant substance that covers the landscape

and enchants the eye as it embroiders

all beneath the sky, sensations shift the

longer Winter sustains his stay

gifting us time and again with the spectacle

of snowflakes lazily tumbling down

shifted by the wind, illuminated by the

winter sun -- oh still beautiful to be sure

but the yearning for Spring renewal

cannot be denied and the jury has

delivered its verdict: Winter must leave.

Predestined

 

I am the fulcrum of your existence

and you are the purpose of mine

from your rib intact symbiosis

Lilith and Eve to your Adam.

Your subconscious searched

and mine responded though it

could have been the reverse

for the bond so imperative the

wisp of that yearning found its place

in our very emergence from

conception to birth. You are my

soul without whom a chasm of

emptiness yawns. Our journey into

the future has been beset with

tense competition between

Lilith and Eve, each in turn

harvesting your love as you turn

to each for fulfillment and theirs

the temptress and the other

who is your mated soul.

Exuent Defined

 

The elements at nature's call

take pride of place in her

trust that they will bring to bear

all that has been entrusted to them

masters of the wind and rain

wardens of the sky and the earth

ushering the seasons to their

assigned time span and

enhancing the verities of distinctive

assignments in awakening creatures 

awaiting departure of winter's long reign

in a return to life suspended far too long

reflecting the reluctance of one

to surrender to the presence of the other

not a contest for popular acclaim

but to proffer relief from incessantly

dire conditions complicating existence 

wearying the impotent held captive

to an endless hiatus whose time has arrived

yet irascibly refuses to exit.

 

The Defence

Small they may be and

terrified of the grotesque apparition

hovering above them

but their courage cannot be questioned.

The monster's heated exhalations

flames spewing horrendously

all threats to the very existence of

other creatures less powerful

but theirs is the spirit of unconquered

heroism and they are prepared

to surrender their lives

for the greater purpose of

saving ours. And so eyes on the heavens

daring the fire-breathing dragon

to descend and confront them directly

where sharp teeth and claws

await attack. Two little

poodles, panicked but fearless

wait to confront the majestic

hot-air balloon that has no intention

whatever of interrupting its

serene passage in the clear blue

ocean of a winter day.

Growing Up in the Ladies Room

Item: 10:00 am sharp, Zoom tutorial

Old, you say? She doesn't think so.

What she brings to her classes

is great knowledge

that inspired her to understand

that in every life a light should shine.

One must but discover that switch

and the light will appear. She

has the experience and the

tenacious will to live; moreover

she lives to learn and in turn

learns to live and thus inspired

brings her joy in life to others for whom

joy expired with age and time and

misfortune but who yet depend

on her for rediscovery of that spark

of light to enliven life giving them

reason to explore their minds

and their options for as full a life as

hers, one among the class so

eagerly devouring the 98-year-old's

sage advice that when she 'grows up'

she plans to be exactly like her mentor

and she has 26 years to fulfill that ambition.

 

 

Soaring Yonder

 

How are we not amazed

at the extent of human awareness

curiosity and imagination

the ingenuity and grasp of the

vast possibilities in nature

and the determination of those 

who would discover and lay bare

the infinite mystery of the cosmos.

Who might ever have imagined

other than those whose minds soar

into the stratosphere to decipher

space and endless time

that brilliant minds in tandem

are capable of meeting nature in

her vast empire on negotiable terms

of exploration whose accuracy and

delicate navigational techniques

are beyond the comprehension of mere

mortals not gifted with the unique

properties of genius given so few?

Did You Know?

 

Extraterrestrials are playing with us.

We have become a petri dish

a giant experiment

a source of entertainment

for aliens who know all about us

and fail to be convinced 

we are to be regarded as a serious

contender in the universal scheme

of planetary civilizations. Our raw

evolutionary existence

so recent in comparison to theirs

fascinates and bewilders them

having detected within us definite

signs of cerebral function

they devise obstacles then observe

how humanity manages 

or fails to

surmount them. Just visiting

these peripatetic beings take 

copious notes leading to conclusions

and in Earth's inhabitants' instance

their notebooks remain blank.

 

 

Mere Words

Words and the power of language to transform the ordinary into the exceptional cannot ever be underestimated. Words give us the power to transform thoughts and perceptions into a landscape of understanding and appreciation for the world that surrounds us. A vocabulary absent of exceptional words represents an individual lacking the wherewithal to fully express himself and the wonder of existence.

Those who have been gifted with the extraordinary ability to manipulate language and make full use of the words available to us as intelligent and aware human beings reward those of us without the gift of the craft of writing. Through the written (or printed) word we access history, the stories of humankind's marvellous journeys toward the present; the trajectory of technology, of science, of philosophy and the arts.

And words take us toward the sublime uplift resulting from creative imaginations capable of taking us to places we will never see; experience through the gift of literature, adventure, the arcane, the explicable and the inexplicable, the pedestrian and the enlightened; the mysterious and the lengths to which people can and will go to manifest their idiosyncratic observations of life on this Planet.

In the time of the Great Bard, there was no publication such as a dictionary that would explain to people what a word was meant to convey, how it was spelled, how spoken, and its usage within a coherent sentence, let alone its secular exegesis, its etymology. Spelling was a casual affair. William Shakespeare had no tome to which he could refer for any of these reasons; he did, however, heavily impact on the English language.

In sixteenth Century England a scholar, Nathaniel Bailey, issued twenty-five dictionaries between 1721 and 1782, in an attempt to bring together the lexicon of English words. His prodigious effort was given the verbiage-laden title:

A Universal Etymological Dictionary. Comprehending The Derivations of the Generality of Words in the English tongue, either Antient or Modern, from the Antient British, Saxon, Danish, Norman and Modern French, Teutonic, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew Languages, each in their proper Characters. And Also a brief and clear Explication of all difficult words ... and Terms of Art relating to Botany, Anatomy, Physick ... together with A Large Collection and Explication of Words and Phrases Us'd in our Antient Statutes, charters, Writs, Old Records and Processes at at Law; and the Etymology and Interpretation of the Proper Names of Men, Woman and Remarkable Places in Great Britain; also the Dialects of our Different Counties, Containing many Thousand Words more than ... any English Dictionary before extant. To which is Added a Collection of our most Common Proverbs with their Explication and Illustration. The whole work compil'd and Methodically digested, as well as for the entertainment of the Curious as the information of the Ignorant, and for the Benefit of young Students, Artificers, Tradesmen and Foreigners ... *

Now there's a mouthful, and more. Demonstrating, however, the ambitious determination of this man's mind. Still he had produced a valuable research tool, as well as one that could be used by the common folk. Previous dictionaries generally highlighted words that were quaint, little-used other than in very polite, distinguished, aristocratic society. Nathaniel Bailey's own quaint olde-English spelling might be thought to have left something to be desired. But his dictionaries were extremely popular and became best sellers of their time.

In terms of effort, production and sheer dedication to the drudgery of seeking, refining, designing and selecting a more perfected language repository and explanation of meanings, this series was followed by what was considered to be the ultimately definitive dictionary edited and assembled by the great Samuel Johnson. In contrast to the inflated title of his predecessor, Samuel Johnson's resulting, and since-used tome was A Dictionary of the English Language.

Like the later and most prestigious publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, Samuel Johnson's compilation was meant to contain each and every word used in the English language. Words with an ancient heritage, those more modern; at least up to the day when they were coined and used. Some have since slipped from usage and have been abandoned, others to take their place.

Language was eventually recognized as a living, changing expression of humanity's communication skills. And so it remains, one of our most precious tools.

* The Professor and the Madman - A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary - Simon Winchester

 

Just Wait

 

Once in a while

on occasion

now and then

you will take a second

thought and regret

not having responded

to an occasion

as you feel you

might have

should have

but did not feeling

yourself somehow failing

as an astute observer

of humanity and events

that unfurl to shame

and belittle which require

a response. Don't be

so hard on yourself

other opportunities will arise

to reclaim your good opinion

of yourself, my friend.

They always do

They always will.

 

 

Racism

 

And to think, a dispassionate nature

as a strictly practical measure endowed

in her creatures the will to survive yet

dismissive of her own maxims that all

actions have consequences such that the

instinct of species survival evolved in

ways beyond apprehension straying some

distance from asserting possession of

scarce resources yet on the other hand

perhaps not so devoid of irrationality in

devotion to that primeval urge priming

humanity to view those not within their

pack as competitors and therefore stark

enemies, extending emotional reaction to

encompass another ingathering in a fury

of rejection, their status that of inferior

beings whose very presence presages alarm

at a ragingly concocted legend of evil

design, needful of mass destruction as

nature looks on in benign fascination.

Himalayan Call

 

Imperiously majestic the mountains

rise from the mantle of the Earth

like imperial crowns reaching

out to the heavens as though to

reunite the planet with its source

an expanding universe unwilling to

reassemble itself in its original

manifestation of impatient atoms

anxious to become wayfarers of an

ancient timeless odyssey, a stellar

adventure of self-discovery and

ultimate alienation from the mother

lode which bore then released them

in a gargantuan spasm of violence

unhindered by the ghostly presence

of  resistance to the cataclysmic

expansion. The monumental stele on

the planet are fixed in situ destined to

remain symbolic of the greatness of

nature to whom ancients ascribed godly

attributes sacrificing lives to propitiate

the spirits. To this day the irresistible

magnetism of the mountains call to

those who cannot resist ascending

unforgiving slopes in worship, in the

process submitting to the inevitable

outcome as sacrifices yet again.

Take Note ... Red Alert!

 

Beware, take care, the hornets' nest of

vigilantes awaits your naive opinion stated

openly on social media platforms and they

are prepared to launch their poisoned darts

of insults and accusations from the sacred

position of victimhood to 'correct' your 

mindless insolence that pierces their noble

beliefs in exceptional goodness as they

fervently declare you and your ilk the very 

personification of the evil that slandered

their forbears with the reputation of having

aided and abetted in the annihilation of yours.

The historical accounts you rely upon from

the written record of both the perpetrators

and the victims are biased, inaccurate sources

whereas their accounts in self-defence are

wholly representative of the truth while 

you are part of a villainous multitude intent

on besmirching the honour of a great people

maltreated, misunderstood, determined to

defend itself. These guardians of reality and

a nation's honour spit their denials and hatred

as venomously as their forefathers did, their

undying spirit of sanctimonious rage indulged.

Survival Evolution

 

As lost causes find solutions this is the 

ultimate perfection for those who press

those buttons of outrage in their targets

and whose clever, piercing claims of racist 

ignominy leavened with sardonic humour

at the expense of those familiar with them

all from cradle to grave can attest there is no 

end to the poisoned darts and arrows singling

them out for scorn, derision and threats 

preparatory to violent upheavals. Wince and 

whine, the once-anticipated reaction that drew 

greater insults and assaults now transitioned

 to a far more effective response, martial and 

unforgiving of all trespasses, past and present

planning for a future when none dare repeat the 

mantras of sinister hate now they're accountable

in measures reflecting the confidence and courage 

of a people whose outrage finally matured to a 

well understood effectiveness of self-defence.

 

 

Expiation Denied

 

One is to be quite specific in reference to those

extermination camps located within Poland for

they must by Polish law be referenced as placed 

in German-occupied Poland a rational choice 

reflecting Europe's greatest number of Jews as

residents. Efficiency, the unassailable logic of 

housing death camps taking full advantage of

conveniences such as a greater local population

sympathetic to the eradication of Jewish life

within a nation where their presence scored a

millennia and more and where pogroms were 

sporadic and deadly as a means of exhausting 

penurious peasantry's rage at their leaders and 

good Catholics held to despise the killers of Christ 

who though living in poverty held great wealth and 

power, murdered Christian children to drain their

blood for Passover matzo, a scourge on the nation. 

That ritual exchanged for the ritual of pogroms. 

Poland will not now nor ever tolerate such earth-

scorching terms as Polish Death Camps, a massive 

slur against Polish honour. History recounting Polish 

militias  honoured to do their part as mobile death 

squads exterminating Jews and village mayors along 

with local parish priests betraying the presence of Jews 

among them are similarly not to be referenced for they 

complied to German directives with no enthusiasm

were themselves martyrs for their homeland. We know

this because Poland attests that this is so and any

who dispute these attestations in favour of history

will be judged unsavoury liars to be punished in law.

 

Address You As What?!

 

Surely we can all agree that creation is an immense 

task, sometimes sloppy and inexact but then what else 

to expect from one very busy architect-designer-creatrix 

whose focus and labour is the timeless universe? There 

have always been and will continue to be aberrations

mutations, corrections, anomalies and re-creations as 

species tentatively evolve, survive (or not) and develop 

taking on a life of their own so to speak. There are 

countless occasions when nature is distracted her 

attention turned elsewhere perhaps exhausted from 

her gargantuan ambitions to fulfill her endless

self-imposed tasks and thus takes little notice when 

minds of their own oppose her designations and turn

elsewhere for identification felt to be more suited to

emotional tastes. Reasonably, nature simply shrugs

carries on under the impression rational judgement

will prevail but no, you insist though I recognize a 

woman that you are actually despite indications to the

contrary, really a man, deserving to be addressed as

such. A matter you should take up with your creator.

 

 

Einsatzkommando 10a/Ek10a

His neighbours doubtless know him as a pleasant

hard-working man who operated a successful

business, raised a family, attended the local

Lutheran church, speculating he gave money

to charity as did they all, a thoroughly decent

man. One who led a sequential-career life he

may or may not have regretted but certainly

was aware of the stigma attached to aiding and

abetting genocide, withholding that detail from

his application for immigration. If living a long

and fruitful life is penance for destroying the

lives of innumerable unfortunates as part of

a Nazi mobile killing unit, Fortune is a warped

assignment in human depravity. One is most

certainly entitled to wonder when he observed

his own children whether he gave a thought

to the thousands of children his service to the 

Final Solution helped annihilate. His career change

led him from a nation intent on obliterating

innocent lives by the millions to another nation

offering countless opportunities to defend

himself from the outcome of the accused in

preventing his return from whence he came.

His right of existence unquestioned despite

the burden of mass murder. The restless dead

seeking justice in their frail memory, denied.

The Amorality of Humanity

 

The bleak horror of institutionalized

carefully planned and executed genocide

laid a black mantle of blame and shame

upon a world that did nothing to prevent

the death of millions slated for annihilation

because they were Jews, galvanizing the

world body League of Nations toward a more

robust and responsible representation of a

world order dedicated to peace and equality.

In the annals of the best laid plans of mice

and men nowhere is there an example more

illustrative of the folly of humankind than

the United Nations which irrationally singles

out the Jewish state for condemnation of a

human rights record that stands as an example

of righteous empathy toward the universal

search for security and equality for all and

nor do the various arms dedicated to human

rights and to judgemental sanctions of evil

 fall far from the tree of injustice pointing

at Israel as the fount of the world's travails

as it struggles to fulfill its role of haven for

its remaining diaspora while those who go on

conspiring against its very existence employ

slander and threats to incite violence against

Jewish lives justifying their hatred portraying

themselves victims empathetically embraced.

Failed Africa

 

Like a tired old beast the genus Homo

that from its African origins once dispatched 

its adventurous youth to wander widely

abroad in discovery of new horizons in an age

long, long gone, while it now shakes its hide

shedding its youth far and wide eager to 

escape a stifling aura of failure to provide the 

very essences of invigorating life proffering

instead an ongoing privation of thought and 

direction its primitive past still informing its 

future in paroxysms of tribal warfare while 

failure of governance proliferates on the continent 

whose sobriquet of 'dark Africa' remains well

earned, compelling children to test escape by

any improbable means -- smuggling their

frail bodies into an oxygen-thin atmosphere

risking the merciless frozen altitudes of

space as illicit cargo aloft for thousands of

kilometres -- some surviving most expiring.

 

 

Eretz Yisrael

 

The ancient tree struggled to survive

challenges to its heritage of the land

claimed as its very own through the authority

of divine recognition, the intervention of a

belief and a faith as guarantor it would be

its own as a timeless landscape of light

in a world of darkness. Until its roots were

severed and its branches sought refuge

elsewhere, everywhere haunted and hunted

forever yearning to return to the fabled

land torn from its grasp. Time is said to

heal all wounds as it ushered the tree back

to health, re-establishing roots recalling

branches to return and the land flourished

calling out as a haven to all its lost souls

the oppressed and the persecuted to come

and we will honour the past to preserve

the future yours to treasure forevermore. 

 

 

There is No Refuge

 

Venal, vain, vexatious and violent

acclaiming themselves omnipotent

those power-and-influence-driven

leaders whose nations quail in fear

lest they draw attention to themselves

remain the bane of existence of those

nations ruled by consent with the favour

of their public committed to equality

and opportunity, security and prosperity

for their people, conditions that draw to

themselves the yearning of the oppressed

who flee the oversight of their oppressors

to find freedom for their future in such

havens. Until the long arm of those they

rejected reach out to their sanctums to

threaten and repress, exact vengeance for

no distance is too far that executioners

cannot be dispatched to renew fears of a

shortened lifespan when the dispossessed

raise their tremulous voices in pain as they

cry out for justice, a blinkered saviour.

The Forest Cathedral

 

From the twilight of early morning

to the dusk of approaching evening

the forest lies hushed within its

winter cocoon deeply snowed

the forest floor humped 

with the ghosts of trees past

their stumps transformed into eerie

shapes and shadows hover nearby

for the forest interior is never so

influenced by a wide blue ocean of sky

where the sun navigates its way

east to west in its daily transit 

and the forest giants of fir, pine and spruce

green-feathered against the dark silhouettes

of poplar and oak raise their spires

reaching to the firmament in this

natural cathedral of live supplicants.

 

 

Managing Risk

 

In the Middle East the issue of tradition

power and politics take up unusual

proportions of Byzantine logistics

as in particular when the antagonists

play a lethal game of hide and seek where

the predatory cat lures the wary mouse

within striking distance and the question

of who is more guilty of assaulting justice

the assassin or the embezzler balancing the 

power of royal authority and privilege 

against the stealth culprit cockily assuming 

his illicit gains will go unnoticed. In exile 

he has found temporarily fraught haven

his life complicated by the certainty that

at some time in the future his executioners

will arrive and his refuge will be as nothing.

You

 

You are the radiant life-endowing

presence that I revolve about 

absorbing the light and warmth 

of your being. Your smile 

nurtures my soul

like a blaze of incandescent heat 

my heart beats to meet.

You are the sum and meaning

of life, the heavenly host 

to my past our present and our future. 

There, deep in your eyes 

the endless reflection of our love.

Between Then and Now

That's us wading through piles of leaves

through the snow, through underbrush to

delight in spring flowers then awed to see

mature trees of great height and antiquity

for these events pursued daily through the

seasons reflect the quality of life for two old

but not decrepit people who in the long-ago

when they were children together shared the

very same adventures and never once did they

encounter a wicked witch nor faced the need

to succumb to scattering a trail of crumbs

to guide their way out of the dim forest with

its overhanging canopy. We ascend long hills 

and gaining height rest briefly before carrying on 

but before we do his arms encircle me to rest 

against him as our two little dogs patiently wait 

for us to forge on in their daily tramp through 

forest trails. Between then and now over the 

course of our years in a tandem of love there 

was everything anyone might ever yearn for to 

share and revel in. Where once all that occupied 

our time and attention was an exercise in efficient 

management we now manage time and life in 

grateful leisure, forever shared and treasured.

Lonely Planet: Smile

 

Oh. You're lonely? Of course you are. And you 

must know a lot of other people are as well. You 

feel the world has a grudge is indifferent about 

your existence and no one would care if you ceased 

to be. You would wouldn't you? You're someone.

There's a lot of someones out there. It's a big wide 

world. Smile much? Nothing to smile about? Give it

a try. Think about it, a morose, sullen face whose lips

refuse to form that right-side-up bow delivers a 

message; steer clear. That can change, you can make 

it change. Practise. Next time you pass a stranger

smile. Condescension is out, smirking too. Think 

Mona Lisa with a bit more of an edge. It can work 

wonders as long as it's genuine. The response is

your reward and it's those rewards that is nature's

gift to you. Others respond to smiles; frowns

send them away. Nothing to lose, much to gain.