A spring poem

Redemption Songs

The sun shining brilliantly,
on the grass.
Rays bounce off the remnants of the dew,

I am a Writer?

That’s what the facebook test said, well a writer writes I guess.  Tonight I am too tired to write, i have a post about 1/3 finished but here is what I give you tonight, one of my poems that i wrote a while ago that I like a lot, (AM I allowed to like my own poems).  Who cares I do and if you do as well then hey its a bonus, if you don’t then… it’s ok as well!

 

Words falling

from my mind,

from my heart,

from my fingers.

Sometimes slamming onto my slate,

searing their mark,

with clouds of smoke and

streams of sparks,

tiny meteors,

sending shockwaves of surprise,

coursing through the synapses of my mind.

Messages formed by life, love and wonder.

Wonder at the beauty I see,

wonder at the pain I feel,

wonder at the things I know,

wonder at that which is mystery,

in my life.

Words of danger, denigration, desire,

derision, despair, deprecation.

Falling from my mind,

confined, by doubt,

set free on a page.

Words falling from my fingers,

Fluttering, flying and fleeing,

From my quotidian life,

Refugees from mediocrity.

Finding safety as they land,

Never reaching the edge,

Never quite finishing their fall,

ready to rise again,

stirred by the wind of hope,

blowing through the corridors of my mind.

Given wings of

life, love and wonder

Words falling from my mind.

Sieg Heil, a cause for concern?

Values, what are they today? I am applying for teaching positions at the moment. The last vacancy I applied for came back to me asking what qualities would I bring to the position.  Iwas a  little surprised at first, partly I think as a result of being a little overwhelmed by a big week with some emotional and physical challenges in it. 

The poems have gone,

I sat in my bed the other night and tried to put together some words, ones that don’t go to the edge of a page, a poem to be precise.   It should be a relatively easy task as my mind and heart is full of my mother, plenty of adjectives to describe her and her life but the words were gone,

Am I becoming my mother?

I attended a 21^st birthday part on Sunday and found myself in the kitchen for most of the party.   To be fair I was asked to co-ordinate the food, and I didn’t really know the birthday girl very well.  In saying that however I do often find myself in the kitchen. 

Stephen Dudley, Counting for Nothing, the cost of an over tolerant, society that lacks moral fibre.

I am enraged, Stephen Dudley’s life counted for nothing in a courtroom in Auckland this week. Justice Helen Winkelmann demonstrated her complete lack of touch with reality in discharging the second of two brothers without conviction.  This was no petty misdemeanour, not a boyish teenage prank, this was an unprovoked attack on a vibrant young man that ended in his life being lost and Justice Winkelmann in her manifest wisdom decided that to enter a conviction against the main instigator of this would be a consequence out of keeping with the crime.

Her reasoning behind this, is that fights like this occur every day in schools around New Zealand, this indeed is the heart of the matter, never mind the asinine judge (Peters Principle probably) because she in the end only reflects societal view (around school yard violence).  I have no doubt that these brothers are remorseful, that they have suffered consequences, (exclusion form a prestigious school they attended so I am led to believe), family and church consequences.  They walk free in time they will become anonymous and whilst they have to live their lives in cognisance of their actions so do Stephen’s family.  From whatever side you look at this it is a tragedy that is seemingly without cure.

Stephens’s family think that their loss has been made even worse, salt has been rubbed into their raw and gaping wounds, and they think a law change is necessary.  The offender’s family think that justice has been done and the consequences of this moment of madness will be with the boys and the shame of it on their family for ever.  The reality of this situation is that it is broken forever and cannot ever be fixed.  If Stephen’s life is to count for anything however there must be a change.

What is it about our society that creates a norm where violence is endemic and an incident where a young man loses his life is labelled as just another school yard fight like hundreds of others every day.  Yes it has been going on for a long time but it only continues because we as a society condone it.  We condone violence in our school yards and our homes, the same as we condone abuse and all  the other social ills that blight our society like an invasive cancer.

When it manifests itself we wring our hands and look inwards for a moment and nothing changes, there is no accountability for any actions or violence.  Schools are left with very few options to try and mop up the mess that starts in the home and is accepted by the community.

Recently I walked from the security of a full time job to go back to day to day teaching because of a school that at its heart had developed an acceptance of violence and disrespect. In my teaching I confront and challenge the narrative of violence that underpins our society.  In my opinion assault is assault and it is time that it was treated as such.  Punch one of my children in the school yard and I will refer it to the Police and expect accountability, should my children offend I will hold the same position and ensure they are held accountable.

See below for more posts on a similar vein

Murder up close and personal

Five years, and change for incinerating a man alive

Rest In Peace Robyn Alma Grace

Lord, protect me from my friends

I liked the way this was written. It fits in with a few of my posts. KIA kaha

alygeorges

“Lord, protect me from my friends, because I know who my enemies are.”

This is a prayer I see people post a lot on social media. It makes so much sense. We all know who our enemies are, but with all the beautiful masks our ‘friends’ hide behind, it becomes difficult to tell the real friends from the fake ones; most of the people we regard as friends are just wolves masquerading as sheep (pardon me for the expression; I just thought it perfectly describes frenemies).

Naturally, friends come in different sizes and colours; it just becomes difficult to tell who’s real and who’s not. Some friends will only stick around when everything’s okay, but the instant things start going downhill, they start vanishing one by one, as if by magic. At the end of the day one finds themselves alone, without a shoulder to lean on.

It’s during these…

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Popularity contests are not won by the truth.

This should not be some earth shattering, bubble breaking, life changing surprise, however it sometimes takes an unfortunate incident to reinforce it. I certainly took time to learn this, however is not new wisdom. Luke 6:26 tells us that “there is trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them and doing what indulges them”.

Too honest to be kind (and too kind not to be honest)

Ever had that moment, someone shares that they told another person that they were going to do something, did something, made a decision, and that friend/partner/ spouse, says that so and so said what a bad idea, then they look at you and say something along the lines of , what would they know? Inside you gulp,