Jeanie and the big Eight Oh!
Oh, oh
the big
eight oh!
But
darling don't forget
that every
year
sweet
Jeanie dear
the
lovelier,
the
sexier,
the
friendlier,
the
charminger.
the
lovelier
the
cleverer,
the
lovinger
you get.
Oh,so
the big
eight oh
could
bring the best years yet!
Christmas and the oak tree
When the sun is weak
and the nights are long
You hear Earth singing
a different song
The mist rises white
from the trees all around
And life sleeps deep in
its home underground
The deep dark earth,
soon to be our home,
This is the place from
where visions come.
The visions rise and
seem to me
As solid as the trunk
of the old oak tree.
And none would believe
them if they didn't know
That something like the
oak from dull earth would grow.
And just as improbable
and just as odd
To this dark earth came
the son of God.
Thoughts after the Berlin Killings
This isn't a poem it is a plea. There are thousands of deranged young men who can be persuaded that they can serve God or some other higher cause by killing people. Probably a few deranged young women too. The siren voices on the far right tell us we must pull up the drawbridge and keep them out.
We have to face the nasty truth that trying to live outside the horror is not possible any more. When I was born in the 1930's Syria was several weeks journey from England. Three hundred years ago it was months or years. Today we can do it in an afternoon. Often and for most of us this is wonderful. We can fly down to the med for a few days holiday. But it means those who hate the world can reach out and kill some of us now and then.
Incidents like the Berlin killings are going to happen and are going to get more and more common. But Berlin is still a better place to live in than Aleppo. The solutions of the far right will only maker the world a nastier place for all of us. Men of good will must first acknowledge that more mindless killings like those in Berlin are going to happen, and that, despite this, the world will be a better place if we treat refugees with compassion and strive to find a way to end the ghastly wars thaet still stalk the world. For the first time since 1945 it is clear that we live in dangerous times. We must speak with truth and honesty against dangerous voices. If we do no,t it will be the horrors of Aleppo that bring horror in our streets and not just the horrors of Berlin.
Nick Mellersh Christmas Eve 2016
I regret that I cannot express myself more coherently and more eloquently. But I hope you will join me in speaking up for kindness and compassion amidst the mess the world sxems to be in.
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