Passion for poems

The day did not start well; I was forced to go into the all-people lane for my swimming, all the real lanes having been taken my others.  This meant of course that I swam grumpily.  This means that I powered my way up and down in a careless way.  Unfortunately there were no other people in my line of swim to be careless about – but the attitude was there, even if the way in which I could have shown it was a little lacking.

            My stroke is certainly more powerful than it was and I swim a damn sight further in my strictly controlled half hour than I ever used to.  The impertinent people in the other lanes were no match for my speed.  There is much to be said for being a young retired person – at least compared with the others who are in the pool at the same time as me.  I am the young tyro swimming with a vigour that my fellow swimees can only think back upon!

            I will need to do an extra swim of three this week as I have given in to low impulses and eaten a beef burger, two chicken burgers and a plate of black rice.  To add insult to injury I have also had a glass of beer.  That glass would have been churlish to refuse as it was given to me by the place where I bought the beef burgers.  Free, gratis and for nothing!  And following the traditional Rees philosophy I didn’t refuse a good offer.  It is nice to see that my legendary charm can still work its magic on the odd occasion.  And to hell with the calories!

According to Spanish time, the deadline for sending in the latest TMA has now past and tomorrow I will post my submission for the assignment on the forum in the hope to prompt my fellow students to post theirs.  Share the pain!

            I am working on a sequence of nine poems which are related to the Muses.  This is not my choice, you understand, but one of the exercises in the Big Red Book which is the bible of our course.  I have already written a few poems based on the Muses (again an exercise not choice) but this present sequence will be a more controlled piece of work.  I hope. 

Some of the work has been done by producing Freewrites (a particular torture, the use of which still does not convince me) which are pieces of writing which are closer to flow of consciousness pieces than any form of structured expression.  The idea is that you write them and then ‘excavate’ taking out of them any gems that you might have produced.  You then work up the gems into something which is worth reading. 

That is the idea; it doesn’t always work out in reality.  But it is a useful starting point.  The poems I have to write are short.  Though there is no indication about what ‘short’ might actually mean.  I will find an interpretation and then will post them on the public forum to general consternation!

It says something for the situation in Spain that we turn to the horrors of Kiev with a sense of relief.  From the top to the bottom of high society in this country there is corruption and a total contempt for any who can be defined as ordinary – or not part of the rich and political who rule this country.

            The farce of the Royal Family continues with the Infanta’s evidence to the judge about her alleged (Ha!) corrupt deception containing 500 variants of replies to questions of the “I don’t know” or “I can’t remember” type.  This is, of course a form of contempt for the legal system – but being the Infanta she stands a bloody good chance of getting away with everything.  Our repulsive president or prime minister or standing joke has already said that he thinks that she is innocent.  Justice!  Ha!

            A lying member of PP (the party of government) has been shown to have a Swiss account with one and half million Euros in it which obviously slipped his mind as he denied having one in a televised interview.  He has resigned (!) which is almost unheard of in our corrupt system but not because he is a liar, but because he can’t stand being hounded by the press!  Poor thing.  If it wasn’t for the press we wouldn’t be able to pronounce the word ‘Justice’ let alone mourn its absence in this benighted country.

            The head of the Civil Guard has been lying his head off about what happened in the Spanish enclave in Africa when his police fired at immigrants swimming towards the Spanish beach.  He denied they did any such thing of course, but luckily we have mobile phone evidence which shows him to be the lying rat that he is.  Has he resigned?  This is Spain.  And that is your answer.

            A variety of corruption trials drag on with the criminals pointedly not going to jail.  One lives in deluded hope.

            I might mention bankers, but they are no worse than the scum in Britain and just as greedy about using our money to finance their disgusting lives.

            It goes on and on relentlessly, but Spanish prisons are never going to be overfilled with the guilty politicians, bankers and businesspeople who seem to be negatively charged against the power of the bars that should enclose them.

            But the sun shone today and I cannot be truly bitter when my favourite star shows itself!