July 2015 – Stumbling along the sidewalk

Cake, You Must Make a Mistake

Sting fling cha-ching bring a thing Ming

You wuz step loosely arrange falsely

Mear weird real adventure stab loads

Absolute into view beaut root loot view

Stew is new you welcome hue a blast

Howdy dude rude lewd mewd cue blue

Happily root envelope sued cocktail

Love mountain stalactite apple reach

Hell of a squid town talent able strewn

Quiet allowed cube bottom quid laud

Album weird crunchy walk lots cute

Blotted favorite quell Cuban wack too

Crying wiped cackle stupid prevent true

Vacuum brought zoo point stood zoot

Clue back whelp strell value well help

New yelp drill tell yell gel trell people

Nottingham starting low flow stowed

Bells flat near true goggles grew ip

Pall Jack stain tallow Ghandi crab sear

Pillow toy you jack poll follow who Indian

Tube few rack yellow green blue youth

Podcast really gamer poodle James

Pond tie dye you are you not growl

Peeeee-yooo roll stroll topple grande

Hug kick quick stick hick stripped step

Flap type fruit winter trial style mile isle

Dabble yikes wall wheel steel meal creel

Made in the tall cup hup up dowel rowdy

Punch lunch munch hunch heather

Weather rib steak cake you must make

Is Capitalism the New Communism?

More deep thoughts. Have to think on this for a while.

Mediolana

The Ljubljana-born philosopher Slavoj Žižek – a commentator who is nothing if not inventive and prolific – recently caught the attention of our CSO with a Guardian piece entitled Why the free market fundamentalists think 2013 will be the best year ever (17th February 2013). One of the many points raised in this near-freestyle article is that free-market capitalists are utilising similar logic to that traditionally used by communists to explain away the inefficacious nature of a ‘collapsing’ system: capitalism is malfunctioning because its principles are being respected only in the breach. Ipso facto, if the ‘laws’ of capitalism were actually applied, then we would have no need to concern ourselves with an ultimately ‘impossible’ financial crisis.

Žižek is correct to point to the sometimes ludicrous measures that defenders of political or economic ideologies will employ when faced with the stark reality that their quasi-religious beliefs have been proven…

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The End of Capitalism, But Not As We Know It: A Response to ‘The End of Capitalism Has Begun’

Boggles the mind! But truth prevails, for or against!

Mediolana

It is by now a truism that we live in an era of flux, with the number and frequency of pivotal years for global society (think 1989, 2007, 2011, 2015) increasing beyond our collective ability to make sense of them. It was therefore with great pleasure that we read an essay forwarded to us by a key associate that at least struggles to do exactly that: the former BBC economics correspondent Paul Mason’s The end of capitalism has begun (The Guardian, 17th July 2015).

Mason – who is regarded by some as the most iconic chronicler of the world’s continuing fiscal stupor – posits that capitalism is unravelling because of three interlinked factors: (i) the rise of information technology, which he claims is lessening the need for ‘work’ as conventionally understood; (ii) the subversion of scarce markets by abundant information; and (iii) the rise of collaborative production, a phenomenon which…

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It Sounds Like Heaven

Strike a life down,

You will earn a frown

From every soul

That cares for his own.

Laugh off a bet

That you blew,

And it wrecked,

All the lives

Of those who confide

In you with their best.

Make a new start,

Give away to those

In need of a heart

To help them a bit.

It’s all worth it.

Follow the lead

Of those who will free

Prisoners and thieves,

Druggies and miscreants,

And you will see

Freedom in ecstasy.

We all belong

To be together,

Living as one,

Living in love,

Sharing all wealth

To those in need,

Not clawing and scratching

Their way to the top.

You must give of yourself,

Give to others

What has been given to you.

You are privileged

With what you have,

So share those things,

Which are only

Temporarily yours.

Things are not meant to just stop,

But they should constantly flow

From one to the other,

Back and forth,

Building a beautiful web

Of generosity.

Doesn’t that sound

Like heaven?

Poetry challenges

These are ideas for monthly poetry challenges. Matthew Heiman came up with most of them and then I edited them a little, adding and subtracting a few words, here and there. They are for our Big Bend Poets group.

1. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
2. Alcohol, prescription and street drugs: good and bad effects

3. Comical stories of a friend, a pet, or a friend’s pet

4. The social divide in our country and/or around the world

5. Gravity’s effects on your day to day life

6. Religion’s effects on you and whether or not you understand it

7. Music’s ability to make all aspects of your life feel different

8. The organization of your mind and how it works

9. A battle worth fighting

10. The rainbows of life

11. What makes you, you

12. Will we see light of the new day?

13. What is class warfare and how does it affect us?

14. Privacy

15. Marriage, married life, divorce, or living single

16. Is there more to life than what we can experience, perceive or understand?

17. Health and well-being (physical, mental and emotional)

18. Is America the best country?

19. Can we ever see the mind of the creator?

20. Desire

21. Mother Nature

22. Will love find us?

23. Emotions

24. The natural beauty of things

25. Will they end free speech in America?

26. Will life end when you die?

27. Can we change the world with our writings?

28. Power: the different types and how they affect us in daily life as well as the long run

29. Is there more to life than just existence?

30. Will freedom come to an end in our country?

31. Can poetry keep the world free?

32. Is the violence of the world coming to America?

33. Where did the spark of Creation come from?

34. If we are alone, can we find true peace?

Kicking Citizen’s United to the Curb

My country’s a wreck,

So what do I do?

They blame Obama,

But they have no clue!

Barack, I know

You’re giving your all

To heal this country

From its great fall.

So many years

Of war and strife,

Trillions of debt,

So you spend your life

Cleaning it up,

The mistakes made

By former leaders,

The war in Iraq,

The money bleeders.

The rich get richer,

So we pay more.

It’s got to stop,

And you couldn’t do more.

But, now, I see,

You have indeed,

Kicking Citizen’s United

To the curb, where it should be.

Let us all

Pull together.

Get the word out.

It’s now or never.

Stop injustice

In its tracks.

Make real the promises,

End the silence.

It can be done.

Fired up!

Ready to go!

Lick

Bawl foul flock flip yawn yet irk leak

Rile flow smoothe sight moat squal

Mile earl laid eerie stab few quill beer

Mile near Nile beak seer swat mew

Right if fall eek slink sweat what spear

Weed imbue fault float wheel rot knock

Slow mat mark mole mute insipid start

Steep peep swipe sweet swoon foot

Jug big luck leery mutt rid mellow wit

Meat tight neat mitt knit vilify beat blink

Cough quit clink cripe few ex wood

Mull butt socks rule hood huge lick

Yuck

Crumble why stop held wrong meander

Life realm instigate withhold into

Nice entail rude sure lease tight not

Quite laud reap wall wipe sing mouth

Veer calliope X-ray zip vow eat endear

Psyche avalanche sight swallow even

Yet yikes yellow ick eel ask kick read

Might follow mike slight fight fall muck

Into reich resist walk wallow bite ride

Ill ink white road meek slink confide is

Smite marsh mall mock wide fear flick

Abba mar much sweet scar feet tool

March ball beauty rib swear wack meal

Stipend weird walk flight smear watch

Mean slug flick mill swill feel wobble

Squawk ember slot powerful sleek

Punch fleet much switch cower yuck

Hoof

Mack yore love yet teak yell mood pit

Yes poop shorts you sick rearrange

Yikes create dresser street ambulance

Building get tree highway scenery

Laughing sort cloud saint sift stab yet

Written book ate restaurant slow slew

Parking slick start football yonder slot

Sticker tick stack under racket shoe cry

Ting softer cracker shirt slot clock yet

Hat strange clue ack light muck move

Rocket moo Yule crock soot mate roof

Matter moon yellow permanent rain

Peepers trolley pool pepper sleeve pic

Pencil socket cubit stool marker hoof

Mine

Piece loud sift mean rowdy large

Apple lean arrange aim bored ending

Leave tube saint below render made

Orb mark mend elbow sob puff tub

Bubble soothe stab arbor sound till

Labrador follow found bobble marble

Roar arc moor ocular might soccer elf

Leaf find quite paper proof still mine