On June 14, 2025, Donald Trump turns 79 and demands a military parade for himself—echoing authoritarian shows, not democratic traditions. This coincides with the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, overshadowed by his personal spectacle. The same day marks 40 years since the Schengen Agreement, Europe’s promise of free movement now challenged by rising border controls. Meanwhile, protests...

Read and leave comments (2)

At the recent meeting with the German chancellor, dumb Donny Trump didn't know what D-Day was and is. Perhaps someone will inform him about history outside the USA, especially if the USA once played a decisive role in the victory over Nazi Germany.

One day past eighty years, the beaches breathe The grit of those who stormed the world awake. Steel met the tide; beneath the cliff and heat...

Read and leave comments (3)

This parable is used here to portray Ribbentrop's mistake – especially his fatal misjudgment of the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, namely Operation Barbarossa.

On this day, eighty years ago, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces, marking the end of a reign of terror that cost millions their lives. Yet today, as right-wing extremism rises again across Europe and beyond—w...

Read and leave comments (1)

Yesterday, 80 years ago, at 3:30 p.m., Adolf Hitler chose cowardice over facing responsibility, taking his own life in the Führerbunker and ending the war he started. His suicide marks a stark reminder that no dictatorship, no matter how powerful it seems, can endure forever. History has shown time and again that those who rule through fear and oppression will ultimately face their reckoning. Whet...

Read and leave comments (2)

For your information; the video below is sung in Yiddish, with English and French subtitles.

 

In forty-eight, I came into this world,

whose peace, they say, was won at cost immense:

I’m told that I should genuflect and bow,

to those who worship those old gods of war,

yes, I should heed the Christian warriors’ words,

who preach from pulpit and from podium,

and show respect ...

Read and leave comments (4)

Eighty years ago, Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated, revealing the horrific suffering endured by thousands of victims. Under brutal Nazi rule, countless lives were lost to violence, starvation, and forced labor. The liberation marked both an end to this chapter of terror and a solemn reminder of the depths of human cruelty. 

Eighty springs have bloomed and gone, Since gates wer...

Read and leave comments (1)

We can’t escape it, don’t know what to do.

People at each other, guess it’s overdue.

Yeah, we’ve read about it.

Is it here? I doubt it,

but I’m here to tell ya that it all is true.

 

Cuz the world’s falling fast into decay.

Makes me wanna stand up, shout to say -

I don’t really know man!

Where we gonna go man?

We can’t keep going on and on this way.

 

They make ...

Read and leave comments (1)

 14 June 1946 — the day malice was given human form again. It reflects on the vile nature of that birth and demands that this parasite be torn from the earth before more harm is done.
 

It was not a beginning, but a rupture. On 14 June 1946, the earth trembled as something rotten forced its way into life, a creature made from the worst parts of two people. There were no cries of happin...

Read and leave comments (1)

Bodies are burning their oil lamps brightly

from the windows overlooking the church  

their silhouettes shape-shift on the bedroom walls

as they move from room to room,

neither stand still long enough for you 

to grasp who or what they are,

televisions flicker in accord

as if planned in some way, it’s strangely romantic

as if part of a passion play – and I am the only one h...

Read and leave comments (1)

The limerick recounts Elon Musk’s modified Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration at the Capital One Arena, drawing attention to the unsettling revival of fascist gestures in a modern political context.

There once was a mogul named Musk, Whose fame turned increasingly brusque. At an oath-taking spree, He gestured with glee, A shadow from history’s dusk.

Read and leave comments (1)

Acknowledment to Branwell -

his poem on cliches bump-started my grey matter into action:

"just get something on page - anything, I thought...."

 

Poor Anne of the Thousand Days,

wouldn’t stick to King Henry like glue,

the second of eight old clichés,

that fat git she just would not woo,

to his will, feisty Anne wouldn’t bend,

well, all the world’s a stage,

cut a long ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Wachefeld

 

Let’s start at the beginning

In a land of ice and snow

Where a brave band of armoured warriors

Set sail with sword and bow

To forge a new life far way

And settle in a land

Where the gods had promised riches

For each and every man

 

We sailed the mighty North Sea

And  by the grace of Odin’s beard

Landed safe in England

Where our kinsmen were ri...

Read and leave comments (4)

 

All along the railed paths from Regents Park to Notting Hill,

we feel the gaze of those long passed whose sightless eyes are on us

 

Still.

 

Through the Parks of Royal note St James up to Marble Arch,

we tread the lawns as lowly folk and take our pause as Soldiers

 

March. 

 

Beneath broad streets unpaved of gold from Camden Town to Bethnal Green,

we transi...

Read and leave comments (4)

 

These dunes have been draped with flesh,

some on summer days surrendering to lovers

some under the gun by blood brothers.

The days between then and now are in the sand,

each footprint, each drop of joy and blood still here.

Children rush the shoreline chased by foamy waves.

We built monuments and carved men’s names

where beautiful children share happy games.

 

Beyon...

Read and leave comments (5)

One struggles beneath the ever-bearing hand of tyranny.

One rises up in revolution, wanting to be free.

 

One gives his life a soldier so the rest might live in peace.

One celebrates in freedom as they cheer throughout the streets.

 

One starts his life from nothing but is free to make his way.

One has more than his father at the ending of the day.

 

One worked for very ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Dim lit, damp and distant corner

torn from dream of vapor’s fold.

Slow descent to worlds divided,

nothing hot and nothing cold.

 

Long ago this soul forgotten,

cast off in the ides of youth.

Un-forgiven deeds left hiding

beneath the stone of burden’s proof

 

Wait to see if fate redeems her.

Wait to hear if time repeals.

Sentence passed down just to mar her.

W...

Read and leave comments (1)

a wise history is a wise,
decision in the making
a wise decision is a wise,
point of decision
in the making is in the making, 
of a wise sense
history is a sense of history

a galaxy is a decision in the making
a galaxy is history in the making
a wise sense is a wise sense of history
a galaxy is a wise sense of history
history is a fact of history
history is a wise fact
a wise fact i...

Read and leave comments (0)

Tread gently beneath the fragile fanlight

With its curving carved ribs

framing rippling glass

 

Glance up to the Venetian arch with its Canaletto morning sky

And the uncoiled mahogany staircase

Treads echoing to the creak and clatter of murmurous ghosts

 

Peel the plaster skin from the wall

Withies within, woven by dead fingers

Stiff reeds droop with the stilled pro...

Read and leave comments (2)

Combination of ideas birth of the creative mind

Expressed through Arts

Representation of traditions

Mix of all mankind

Historical revolutionary excitement of all who break through

In the heart of the now. Relived by me.. expressed by You

A picture painted and expressed through performance

Examples of blessings through strength and endurance

Lessons results built on improvem...

Read and leave comments (0)

passionate generals boom their blasphemies;

aim thy cannons at our godless enemies

burn their homes, set fire to the trees

kill every last living thing

start with all the "human beings"

kill every doe, bird and bee that breathe

breeding in the miasma stream

in their demonic energy

fear not, for 

heavy is the hand god feeds

waifers and wine

defenders of the make be...

Read and leave comments (0)

Yes, a mandatory retirement age in Congress

I believe it's time has arrived

We will base the age on FDR's fireside chat

And if you heard the broadcast live

Read and leave comments (0)

Sleepless nights and the

Monsoon rain, drops after drops

Sharing little secrets besides

Greenwood trees. All alone!

 

I, like the other homo sapiens

Behind the closed doors with

Abandoned theories of truth

In conversation with myself.

 

Under all the hidden floors

History with frozen steps

May start its own story

Hushed and covered up!

 

The obvious is ...

Read and leave comments (0)

 

I am the only one, all alone

With none to be substituted.

I am the solace of the sufferers

Everywhere around everything.

 

I know the secret numbers

To unlock the mind.

I know the dark chamber

Of the soul in eternity.

 

I overwhelmed the waves of

Our history, surviving along

The time scale of nuisance

Standing erect over the debris

 

Of beliefs fro...

Read and leave comments (0)

We don’t trust them.
Those giants who rule the Earth;
those fallen ones who stole our dominion.

We don’t trust them.
Those royal descendants of “gods”;
those of the divine blood line.

Why should we trust them?
They live in castles even today,
while we still cower in caves.

Why should we trust them?
From days of old,
we die in their wars,
we beg to consume what they own.

Why sh...

Read and leave comments (2)

Read History

as if you were the perpetrator

and you will find,

how carelessness and apathy

add up into atrocity

 

Listen to History

as if the stories were your own

and you will find

even the best of us have things to learn,

trials to push through, and opportunities unearned

 

Know History

as if it was the back of your own hand

and you will find

raw huma...

Read and leave comments (0)

Missile Ways

What's up the sky and the Russian planes?

Before they're splashed by Stinger missiles

Whoosh! Missile away go go go kill a jet

Or chopper bring it down in the water

Let the crew freeze or drown

Some burn alive or get killed in the crash

How dare they invade Ukraine!

Teach them all a lesson forever

Some things not to be forgotten

Like Duncan in Dune 2021 d...

Read and leave comments (0)

Dot To Dot

Join the dots all in a line

Where do they all lead?

Afghanistan

Land of failed empires

Defeated armies

Opium production

Terrorism central

Forget Lebanon

Afghan is number one

Ever since the 70s

The Soviets started it

All the rest added to it

You know the nations

Shall we bet who’s next?

 

from LIZARD SNAIL 124K
Nick Armbrister and other...

Read and leave comments (0)

Neoblastic Rituals

We gather high upon the hill

To do our ritual and spells

It’s dark up here with a breeze

Just like it was five thousand years ago

Our ancestors met up here

And did what we did here

One long connected circle line

We add to that each year

The veil thins and we chant songs

Their words have meaning

Carefully put together for this act

Reaching out ...

Read and leave comments (0)

She's gone again, I dont know where

Her nightly walks a bit of a mystery,

I wonder if there's some fancy man

After all, she has a bit of a history

 

If I had any sense, I'd try to follow her

Difficult to think its come down to this,

Yet we dont communicate anymore

To be fair, it was never married bliss

 

A copper at the door with bad news

They've found a woman in t...

Read and leave comments (1)

Moved in, hired a skip

In here time stood still

Dealt with the daughter

Her dad gone, taken ill

 

Bathroom has lead pipes

Ceilings tobacco-stained

Window timbers rotten

Wet-rot well-engrained

 

Valuers took the quality

I'm left with foisty rugs

Sixties-style bric-a-brac

A zoo of domestic bugs

 

Fifty years in this semi

Kids married, wife dead,

Mak...

Read and leave comments (2)

A bow to The Poetry King,
who thinks he doesn't 
mean a thing 
in the grand scheme.

Wears his heart 
on stained sleeve,
makes paupers feel
like royalty.

Waxes poetic about 
life, love, and history
that would otherwise remain 
unsolved mysteries.

More than just a dream,
The Poetry King
lives eternally,
in you and me. 

https://youtu.be/0FT3SmZ_zx0

Read and leave comments (4)

When I saw your wayward ways

My heart switched into reverse

This was far from what I wanted

An outcome so plainly perverse

 

Yours was a heart with no history

We were strangers, noon till night

The one I married was a mystery

A mirror that reflected no light

 

Tales you told me of your past

Turned out to be little but fiction

I stood next to a stranger when

T...

Read and leave comments (0)

Born of pain cursed to live that way

A forgotten name marked with shame

Guilt by association becomes your fame

 

A stolen name becomes the scares on the back of a forgotten man.

Fading away to become the dust of another land

Bitterness replaced by forgiveness justice is a slap of the back of a hand.

 

Born of pain the mind struggle the mental slaying 

The community broke...

Read and leave comments (0)

Penetrating through soft light clouds: airspace; blended for all who dare to impress.
Assiduous Amy Johnson did just that: a derring-do role model: a legacy;
relative in the minds of many that still lives on.
Renowned for her solo flight: London to Australia in 1930.
Transcended the hitherto, male domination, seizing world-recognition.
Flying away from ground possessions, flying amongst the s...

Read and leave comments (1)

I've tended to have an old fashioned view of libraries - a very positive one, but limited to book borrowing, quiet spaces for reading and a children's corner. Of course, there is much or to a modern library than that and I have become involved with a couple of aspects of Surrey Libraries of which I was previously unaware.

The first of these is a poetry blog. This is a regular feature which incl...

Read and leave comments (3)

Sell Me Something More Than Snake Oil And Lies

 

They say that pulling down statues

Is rewriting history

As though the sculptors who made them

Were historians

And not some commissioned artist

Doing what he was told

 

Sell me something more than snake oil and lies

 

It is a form of history

Cast in the wealthy viewpoint

From the stance of the privileged

It’s...

Read and leave comments (6)

Re-writing history's a

Picnic Cromwell's

Puritans

Henry V111 and the

Monasteries

Pol Pot Stalin

Mao Tse Tung killied

Millions when they

Pulled down the statue of

Saddam Hussein how that

Transformed Iraq the

Taliban blowing up the

Buddhas made Afghanistan a

Model state simply

Toss a lump of metal into the

Canal

Read and leave comments (1)

Judging the crimes of

History is easy just

Pull down a statue but

Who's judging us?

We get away with murder:

Inequality rife

Vice condoned

Old folk choking

Starving kids

Mass extinctions the

Planet going to hell,

Hourly we

Bequeath fresh skidmarks for

Our kids to

Topple

Read and leave comments (0)

A stroll around Kirkby Lonsdale with me

Take-away a bacon butty and a cup of tea

Start at Devils Bridge among the motorbikes

This is where we will begin our short hike

 

The pathway along the River Lune is our walk

Ending up the Radical Steps, breathless, unable to talk

A view made famous by Ruskin and Turner long ago

Across to Underley Hall and the Lune Valley below

 

...

Read and leave comments (2)

In layers of strata lie the tracks of history

Archaeologists hunt for artefacts and bones

I cut off your flex and buried you with ceremony

Lamenting the demise of your dulcet tones

 

Sentinel moonlight lit the private interment

Your laser will exhume Miles Davis no longer

Millenia of chords traversed that plastic portal

You left me deaf, my hearing aids get stronger

 

...

Read and leave comments (0)

The Overland Launch:

In the land of Coleridge and his Ancient Mariner,

    In a time of coal fires, wooden boats and horsepower,

There is a story of the Lynmouth Lifeboat Louisa

    And the night horse and man over 13 miles pulled her.

 

Two of the afternoon clock struck a chime,

    On January 12th, 1899.

The wind howled and the sea it roared,

    Flooding ports and rai...

Read and leave comments (2)

On the cold winters morning thermal boots are pulled on

The radio announced…ground frost and the promise of snow later in the day

And yet she is happy…

Happy because she is doing what she loves

The market is freezing in December

Icy winds blow and there is no sunlight to warm frozen hands

It’s the people you see

Fellow workers on the market, pleased to see her

Customers sto...

Read and leave comments (0)

9th November 2019

 

1961

A wall of shame

cut through a city and a people

a bleak new division:

we and the world turned away

 

1989

A wall fell

remade a city, a people, a history

a bright new union:

we and the world rejoiced

 

2019

Now we fashion

our uniquely British wall

a tragedy of repeated history:

the world wonders, shrugs

 

2047

A...

Read and leave comments (1)

We used to chat

On a green screen

In the pre teens

On 3310

As it was 

Back then

SMS texting friends

Was the 

big trend

So relieved

To read

1 Message Received

During break

Used to

Play snake

Read and leave comments (3)

Liverpool Song                    

 

Liverpool,

A city of wild hopes and dishevelled dreams,

Reclines by the riverside

Waiting for the tide of its times.

 

A seabound, wavecrowned, tidebound city,

City of white spray and foam,

Crested by gulls, and smiles, and screams,

City on its long way home.

 

A restless, relentless, unrelenting city,

Troubled by the sou...

Read and leave comments (2)

Come down from among the Clouds

Come down from among the clouds and seat yourselves.

I will set plates for y'all. There will be no wooden flatware,

no metal cups, certainly no raggedy napkins. The ceramic

made in China, flatware in the USA, tempered glass in 

Argentina, and napkins cut and sewn by a little old colored

lady in Little Rock, Arkansas, while her great granddaughter

...

Read and leave comments (0)

I rejoice to see that old wood five-bar gate

that still stands guard beneath the ancient beech

to a field sloping gently down the hill.

 

The gate from an old farm track - now lost to time -

has seen so many seasons, so many harvests pass

and must have known an age of scythes and stooks

of horse drawn harrows, ploughs and wooden carts.

 

What could it tell of the village...

Read and leave comments (2)

version without the Welsh folklore

 

Under the yellow-green of sunlit beech

between banks of bluebells' hazy blue

where supple crosiers of new fern reach             

over verdant moss still damp with dew

a grassy lane runs beside the river

 

In the mystic quiet of a leafy dome

of grey bark ash, beech and mighty oak

a far cuckoo calls all walkers home

but we pass u...

Read and leave comments (1)

Biplanes Attack!

The roar of the Nazi automatic guns

That threw their exploding flak shells

Mixed with the shout of our engines

And bone dry rattle of our machine guns

Gave the French battle scene life

As we strafed and bombed our enemy

To give our troops more time

Our biplanes were made to fight the last war

Not a Blitzkreig but a target was a target

We went after th...

Read and leave comments (1)

You aren't a stranger
But still a jigsaw
Learning your edges
And roller coasters ways
I want to find your treasures
And what makes you, you
My sight see's great
My heart feels this is it
Waiting for you to take me back in time
As I listen
And capture your past with memory
Not a picture as you will be exposed
Only by identity we matched
I want to study you like a history book
Maybe te...

Read and leave comments (0)