Blog Friday 19th August 2016
Last Sunday we had a classy, Kew Gardens picnic, courtesy of Liz, with my daughter and friends, and visited The Hive, to empathise with all about bees. The gardens are such a magical place – beautiful trees from all around the world, striking in their individual personalities, humbling in their presence, a certain spirit in their names.
I noticed that, proudly written on every waste bin in the gardens, were details of the sorting, separating recycling and burning of waste…none to landfill! Because when you throw something away, think of it – there is no away! Aluminium cans and most plastics thrown away today will last many times longer than something as expensive as a car, and even outlive everyone of us, before they show any signs of decay.
Only the week before we were welcomed to a talk by Ellen at the exciting and original, Cross Pollination Project, which has received Heritage Lottery Fund support. Search for @crosspollinationproject on Facebook.
Last night, more of the Olympics – women diving – nothing short of miraculous – raising a handstand slowly, gracefully, at the edge of the high diving board, then pushing up and away, twisting, somersaulting and plunging perfectly vertical into the water. Beautiful.
And then to the cycling: Jason Kenny and Laura Trott – what a combination!
Listening to Don Henley, Boys of Summer…
Contrast the headline of yesterday’s Daily Star, spotted on a supermarket shelf (not that I ever read it!) ‘B.Bro Sam’s Secret ‘Nervous Breakdown’ Medics called into house over meltdown. (‘Secret’ because Channel 5 wont broadcast it – and a good job too!). On page 9 the headline and story beside a nude picture of Samantha Fox (remember her?): Sexy Sam ‘On the Brink of Breakdown’. It appears, allegedly, that she suffered a ‘panic attack’ in the Big Brother house, such are the pressures in her life, and in that place – she was given medication.
TV bosses were accused of a ‘cover up.’ This really seems to be sick, salacious voyeurism at its worst, to want to watch someone suffering. Thankfully it wasn’t shown – that it should make the front page when there’s bombing in Aleppo from Russian planes leaving Iran, is, I would say, surprising. But is it, really, in this paper!? Shouldn’t I realise that this is typical of the kind of reporting that bludgeons the senses, boils sensitivity down into an emotional sludge. Of course, in some places there might be more analysis, even sympathy and understanding, of possible causes for ill-health. But if it were me, being ‘trapped’ in that house would be enough!
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Employees with mental health conditions earn up to 42% less, says a recent HR study…(more next time)
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Looking forward to the publication of my poetry pamphlet, later this year, When the Change Came. The title poem is about transformation, describing change in the human spirit through a process of animal transfiguration, from man to bear to man again. And the new man is stronger, empowered by the shamanic spirit of the bear.
In this sense the Change embraces the spirit of the Green Man, the druid-like ‘Knower of the Woods’, and connects with the natural environment, from the relative fragility of the human frame, to that same frame through living Earth spirit.
It is also about the equally powerful change, or transition, which can occur through psychosis – only perhaps to be controlled and subdued by molecules of antipsychotics like olanzapine (see below) which, together with the ionic compound of lithium carbonate, may help to moderate bipolar affective disorder, for example.
See how this ‘companion’ since 1997 appears…
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Just to be
Just to be in silence
in the woods at dusk, embraced
by the scent of damp grass –
the last sun sinking –
earth firm beneath body,
to celebrate the turning
of the day, the cycle
of the moon, only broken
by the faint sound of deer shifting
as fallen twigs snap under cloven hooves
and the world spins ribbons of new tomorrows.
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And last, but by no means least, check out this link to The Poetry Shed and a review by Jill Munro of Abegail Morley’s, highly acclaimed, The Skin Diary