Spite of Christmas Present

The Spite of Christmas


“God bless us every one”
said Tiny Tim
Scrooge begged
“Spirit, let not his place be empty”
And God said,
“Go forth and multiply.”

And the result: his corner of the room
packed out with Tiny Tims
on this and every Christmas
waving their crutches.
Look how their stumps kick out
not weighted down by feet
long since the food of cockroaches and rats.

And how the masters of the blast that
ran away with their mobility
gaze on the symbols of the Nazarene,

and how we know that Odin
was not enclosed
in this or any other tree
to any useful purpose
and is remembered more for thunderbolts
than sacrifice,

and how the babe of Bethlehem
raises a wail
that now sounds more like sirens,
more like the screech of Bedlam.

And how professors sing,
“We cast out demons in your name,
They came to rest in us.
We did not know
forgive our sins
forgive, and give us now this day our daily wad
beseeching thee for alms
that armourers may live to buy the sword and not to die
unto the death
for ever and ever
arm all our men.
Arm men.”



And now we know the meek
will walk the worst of worlds
inheriting a wasted earth
the poor will just die young,
whereas some rich
will splatter on the pavement
underneath their towers
with rasp-brain jelly,
while others will survive
under the bright lights
broadcasting their folly to a world
no longer watching.

The truth will out:
out in the darkness
out of sight and
out of mind
out the damned truth.

And after Babylon has gone
the truth will not survive
not in our brain
not in our hearts or minds
no light, no truth, no righteousness
only a dark oblivion,
or so they think.

Do not look for light
here at this time of year.
We celebrate the death of life
the death of light,
and the demise of truth and consciousness
no love no light no life
except in real rebirth.

No rhythm to our lives
no sun to rise and set
the seasons are all lost to us,
no winter snow
no frost
nature is all held back
all gone.

We’ll lock ourselves into this cell
until the fortresses of our imagination
these temporary notions
come tumbling down
transformed

What does it matter
if the broken heart
should pour out grief
not just in salty drops
but in an offering of words
that everyone can recognise
world wide and for all time?

Or that in music
rich formulae
rivers, cascades and
palaces of sound are raised
like forests holding up their arms
for all eternity?

Or that cathedrals could be carved
from carcasses of millions of diatoms
under an ancient sea
hardened in the hold of time
carved in mathematic tracery
and that they fall when physics and chemistry
are married up with hate?

What if the disregarded subtle breath
should fail and fall to crudity?

And that those crazy diamonds
those fragile lumps of flesh
should slowly file
so slowly now, so very slow
into oblivion?

God blast us every one!
a landmine now for every leg
for every brain a bullet
and for the poor, a sharp machete blade.

This is the Christmas gift our efforts give the world.







(c) Richard Lawson
Bristol Park Street
22.12.2005

Are religions really all that different?

Brahmanism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.: Mahabharata 5:1517

Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.: Udana Varga 5:18

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.: Talmud, Shabbat 31:a

Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.: Analects 15:23

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.: T'ai Shag Kan Ying P'ien

Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good: for itself. : Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

(received via Vera Gottleib from Wazzup)

A Christmas Poem from Long Ago

THE GIRL IN GREY
(After Fulke Greville)

Lost in Ladies Lingerie
In a store at Christmastide
Suddenly a Girl in Grey
Passes softly at my side.

Such a girl as pen forestalls
Such a face as brightens day
“Where,” I ask “is Overalls?”
“Overalls?” she said “that way”

Then she pointed with her hand
Would have nestled in my palm
All my senses’ fires fanned
White, her hand was cool as balm.

Stunned, I turn and walk away
Impelled where her finger showed
In her hand was light of day
And I swear the counter glowed.

Had the pointing finger bent
Loadstone I to her would fly
In a marriage with her blent
Never seen in Lingerie.

Lost in love at length I stop
At the counter where they sold
Overalls & Ladies’ Smocks
Hung on hangers fold on fold.

There I waited for my turn
While the lady chattered on
How much shop assistants earn
What she should have said to Ron.

Fancy weaves itself a dream
Way above her clapping tongue
Drinking at a silver stream
Overhead by oaktrees hung

With a soft white form beside
Moving in a dappled shade
Ploughloam hair and satin eyed
On a couch of moss we made.


Then I saw – what can I say
Breaking in my reverie
Then I see the Girl in Grey
I had seen in Lingerie.

Men say dreams forewarn the man
Of a thing that time will bear
In a dream an angel can
Gather up a form of air.

Spirit forms delight the mind
Bodied forms give joy to sight
Both in one these two combined
Fear puts speech and sense to flight.

Shop girl eager and refined
Holds a smock up to her breast
“Was this what I had in mind?”
Brown eyes wide at my behest.

Millstreams that the weir has checked
Smooth in utter calmness lie
Happy merely to reflect
All that passes in the sky.

I a millpond to her sun
(Customers are always right)
Nylon, shapeless, colour dun
Over heart’s drum hear “Not quite.”

Then she laughs and puts it back
Mournfully the hangers crunch
Smiling leaves me by the rack
And glides away to have her lunch.

Now the lady comes to me
Can she help in any way
Thinks I want Maternity
No I want the Girl in Grey

She a fast dissolving form
In a Christmas shopping nation
Lovely, witty, graceful, warm,
Lost through palsied hesitation

None will ever touch those hands
While he just adores and stands.


(c) Richard Lawson
Ca. 1969

Green Party Debates Capitalism

Jonathan Porritt's book on capitalism and sustainability is stimulating a debate in the Green Party discussion lists. Here is today's snippet:

RL: "Greens find our political reference point in ecology, that is, in the relationship of the human species and its living environment. This is a wider reference point which allows us to resolve the individual/social antithesis"

BO: I don't agree. Ecology is paramount in establishing the sustainability imperative. But within the recognition of that imperative there is virtually an infinite scope for playing all the possible variations of the individual/social balance -feudalism, tribalism, socialism, despotism.

RL: Let us just address our present predicament, as that is enough of a problem to keep us in the UK occupied. Feudalism and tribalism belong to history, as, to a great extent, does socialism. Certainly the Communist brand of socialism did not show any regard for ecological sustainability. I challenge the notion that despotism could be ecologically sustainable. Is there any example that can be given? Despotism drives the despot mad as his amygdala becomes hypertrophied. He becomes megalomanic and builds palaces for himself and his friends, and diverts his resources into "security", he starts wars with his neighbours, and he oppresses the poor until they rise up against him. Despotism is not sustainable.

BO: And we are only partially a social species. One has to "descend" to the level of the most advanced social insects to find truly social species.
RL: If you are arguing that the hive is the model for the socialist, I am proud to disown the label of socialist.

BO: In humans - as with all other social animals in the higher orders - there is an inherent conflict in playing the individual versus the societal card in terms of maximising the individual's survival prospects.
RL: Exactly; and the Individualist-Socialist dialectic plays out that conflict without hope of resolution, but we Greens can resolve it by synthesising it in our realisation that we humans are a part of a wider ecological system. We place both individual and society in relation to the environment which sustains both.

BO: Thatcherism's error was and remains in increasing the pay-off for those "succumbing" to their own selfish motivations. This is detrimental to society in the long run. "Nature" worked this out long ago - which is why
most of us have a built-in healthy propensity for putting the interests of the society of which we are a part so high up our personal agendae.
RL: Agreed.

I think the bottom line is that we need to define what we mean by terms like socialism and capitalism. Both have acquired a potent emotional charge from decades of controversy, so that their meaning is lost, and the debate becomes unclear.