XR London ...

I should be there -

I've had this thought every day since I got back -

I should be there -

This afternoon, I felt ashamed -

I remembered the fearless voices -

The singing before the kindly barricades -

The importance of being there -

A tiny part of history -

There, in the forgiving streets -

I should be there - 


Sunday 13 October 2019


West Holme
Dorset

Breaking a butterfly on a wheel ...

I remembered the words from The Times -

Who breaks a butterfly on the wheel -

The words were just as true -

The young man lay next to the long black car -

I spoke to him as he lay there -

I saw his nervous smile -

How he rolled, nonetheless, a devil may care cigarette -

The police waiting nearby -

Blank faced, with grasping hands -


Monday 8 October 2019

Trafalgar Square
London XR 

Another city ...

There was music in the joyous square -

Dancing and truth telling -

Flags held by bronze hands -

Gentle rebels -

It was as though I walked in a different city -

No longer wounded -

No longer cruel -

Although it was Autumn, it felt like summer -


Monday October 7 2019

Trafalgar Square, London XR 

Gentle villages ...

I visited the gentle villages -

The wind blown tents under the plane trees -

I'd walked past the statues of dead generals -

Past the marble lairs of hirelings -

Mounted police had guarded the boulevards -

Here, truths were told in welcoming gazebos -

A banner set amongst greenery said courage -


Monday 7 October 2019

XR London
The Mall

I obey orders he said ...

In the park, in front of the severe palaces, by the river, were the police -

They waited in their sinister vehicles, their breath steaming the windows -

They walked in pairs across the joyous square -

I saw them approach the bridge -

Blank faces and whispering radios -

I spoke to one, not far from a gentle nana, cherishing her grandchildren -

I obey orders he said -


Monday 7 October 2029

Lambeth Bridge, The Faith Bridge
London

At Lambeth Bridge ...

I saw them walk towards the bridge -

The crowd drew back to let them pass -

Awestruck perhaps, as I was -

It was as though I saw angels -

Each angel bearing witness -

Wearing their silence as they wore their robes -

With beauty and strangeness -

Bringing legend into the wounded city -

Leaving their mark in the dreams of all who saw them -


Monday 7 October 2019

Lambeth Bridge, The Faith Bridge
London

The monumental misremembering ...

I looked down from the pristine gallery -

There, far below in the Turbine Hall, was the fountain -

Sharks swam in its white basin -

The sable Venus -

The anguish of the ships -

The slave's head like a pearl in the opened shell -

It was as though I looked down upon all the cruel kingdoms of the world -

Fons Americanus -

The monumental misremembering -


Monday 7 October 2019

Tate Modern
London