society

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The Unknown Citizen and Refugee Blues

First published in 1939 and appearing in his collection Another Time (1940), ‘The Unknown Citizen’ by W.H. Auden can still be considered relevant and stark in its satirical treatment of the ‘ideal’ member of modern society – the acceptable, unobtrusively conformist citizen.

 

 

The collection also includes, among other notable and well known pieces, ‘Funeral Blues’, ‘Spain 1937’ and this, read by Sheila Hancock for Holocaust Memorial Day 2017. Again, as moving and as relevant as it was nearly 80 years ago.

 

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Of follies and fascism.

Despite the heartening reaction from so many quarters, it’s the incessant repetition of times like this that leave me with a bone-tired weariness and despair at the continued spinelessness and stupidity of ‘humanity’. That so many would accept the same fallacies, so often, by so few.

There is beauty in silence; but one should not confuse the silence of listening with the silence of inaction, acquiescence or appeasement. Ultimately, there comes a time when silence is submission. And with that thought I’ll leave you. In peace.

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Reflection is contagious

A senseless series of suppers

I wouldn’t normally reblog my own post but this seems relevant today after the murder of a Member of Parliament outside their constituency surgery. The silencing of those who tirelessly advocate for others is something that I find truly abhorrent. Another voice lost, another sad stain on our society to sicken the soul.

the jericho roads

Would you have chosen the same

if you had known? Blown by the winds

of change and dissatisfaction.

A little goat’s milk, perhaps

some hard boiled eggs.

Would you take direction

from those who would document

your campaign or refrain

from hot sauce and hot topics

to settle for some corned beef?

Would it be a release, a relief

to know of your ultimate consumption?

Sit me up, turn me loose

the proof is in the pudding.

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