I do not apologize for basing my Sijo this week on News story: Jan. 24, 2023, at 2:14 p.m. LONDON (Reuters) -British voluntary aid workers Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were killed during an attempted humanitarian evacuation in eastern Ukraine, Parry’s family said on Tuesday, weeks after they were reported missing in the war-torn country.
THE FORTUNE OF WAR.
Caught up in the theatre of war, two heroes gave their lives for others. Winter showed no pity, the enemy gives no quarter. Four seasons witness atrocities, the miss fortune of war.
Our host,LindaGHill, for Stream of Consciousness Saturday said :”Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cozy.’” Use it any way you like. Have fun! (And Merry Christmas if I don’t come back before then!)”
So
to Linda and you all.
Christmas isn’t always cosy because life can’t always be cosy. But we can do our best to make things cosy for those we love. We can reach to those who are lonely, ill, those who have lost loved ones, are homeless, poor or unloved, drug, alcohol and gambling addicts….
This week August 28, 2022 , the prompt for Jim Adam’s Song Lyric Sunday has been suggested by Greg’s Blog : Better with Age: Failed or Overlooked Songs that Eventually Became Fan Favorites .
So the first so first song that springs to mind is Kate Bush’s (Deal with God ) Running up that Hill. Which was originally released in 1985 from her fifth Album Hounds of love. The single reached number three.
In 2022, “Running Up That Hill” received renewed attention when it was prominently featured in the fourth season of the Netflix series Stranger Things. Its appearance led to the song’s resurgence on charts around the world, reaching the top three on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping the charts in eight countries, including the United Kingdom for three consecutive weeks, Ireland for seven consecutive weeks and Australia for nine non-consecutive weeks. All the information you need is on Wikipedia
Thus taking thirty seven years to reach number one and be the massive hit it is. I have featured all this before. I cry every time I hear this song because it means so much to me…its helped me more than once for reasons I don’t care to share. Such a great song here it is again with Lyrics.
Ralph McTell – Streets Of London (1968-1974)
In 1968 I had met hubby, by 1974 I was married, had our first and was expecting our second. This song is just amazing. Hubby’s uncle was a Vicar and a friend of Ralph McTell he had a fund raiser at his church and Ralph McTell agreed to perform there, we were lucky enough to go. It was magical listening to this great performance in a small Church. A never forgotten experience. This another song that always makes me cry.
Streets of London” is a song by Ralph McTell, who first recorded it for his 1969 album Spiral Staircase. It was not released in the United Kingdom as a single until 1974. McTell himself noted that there were 212 known recorded versions of the song. The song was re-released, on 4 December 2017, featuring McTell with Annie Lennox as a charity single for CRISIS, the Homelessness Charity. Roger Whittaker also recorded a well received version in 1971.
The song was inspired by McTell’s experiences busking and hitchhiking throughout Europe, especially in Paris and the individual stories are taken from Parisians. McTell was originally going to call the song “Streets of Paris”— but eventually London was chosen, because he realised he was singing about London; also, there was another song called “The Poor People of Paris“.
McTell’s song contrasts the common problems of everyday people with those of the homeless, lonely, elderly, ignored and forgotten members of society. In an interview on Radio 5 with Danny Baker on 16 July 2016, McTell said that the market he referred to in the song was Surrey Street Market in Croydon.
“Layla” is a song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, originally recorded by Derek and the Dominos, as the thirteenth track from their only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). Its contrasting movements were composed separately by Clapton and Gordon. The piano part has also been controversially credited to Rita Coolidge, Gordon’s girlfriend at the time.
The song was inspired by a love story that originated in 7th-century Arabia and later formed the basis of The Story of Layla and Majnun by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, a copy of which Ian Dallas had given to Clapton. The book moved Clapton profoundly, because it was the tale of a young man who fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful young girl, went crazy and so could not marry her. The song was further inspired by Clapton’s secret love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his friend and fellow musician George Harrison. After Harrison and Boyd divorced, Clapton and Boyd eventually married.
“Layla” has since its release experienced great critical and popular acclaim, and is often hailed as being among the greatest rock songs of all time. Two versions have achieved chart success, the first in 1972 and the second (without the piano coda) 20 years later as an acoustic Unplugged performance by Clapton. In 2004, “Layla” was ranked number 27 on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“, and the acoustic version won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song..
“Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.”
Welcome to Colleen’s Tuesday Tanka. This week Colleen said : “Create Your Own Syllabic Poetry Form & Teach Us How to Write the Form”
I thought about this and finally settled on a poem of two stanzas . Each stanza is of seven lines, each line is made up of seven syllables. The lines in the stanza do not rhyme but the lines in the first stanza do rhyme with corresponding line in the second stanza eg. First line stanza one rhymes with line one stanza two, second line stanza one rhymes with second line stanza two and so on . I have called my poem a Septex. This poem is about all the refugees all over the world past and present.
Gently falls the silent snow Covering all the traces Of the plight of the faceless Hidden, easy to forget. The refugee’s plight is plain Unseen crushed under the boot Of those who started this strife
Ceaseless they’ve no where to go. Fear written on their faces Children to their sides are pressed Some bring their beloveded pets. They look for rest, all in vein. The bombs fall and soldiers loot The remains of their once life.
This poem is in support of all those in the Ukraine and was inspired by Jane Dougherty’s poem, On Days of Wind . Please read Jane’s poem. I have borrowed the painting Jane used which is a painting by Franz Marc, killed at Verdun in 1916.
The washing hangs abandoned In the Ukraine, blooded and singed Cowering not from the wind but from the bombs . It is tethered to a line, an invisible line Everyone has forgotten and it stays Abandoned in the cold wind and snow.
It’s a symbol of the people Made refugee Hanging between life and death Bombarded by those with no conscience Empty promises of safe passage Hanging on the invisible line We must not dessert them.
It’s Saturday again and time for Linda to give us our prompt for SoCs, she says: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “rest.” Use it any way you like. Enjoy!
.
As I sit here in my quiet kitchen, in my quiet house in a quiet road pondering what’s happening in Europe. I didn’t get much rest last night but at least I have my own roof over my head and there are no Russian tanks or bombs or troops out side my door. Unlike the people of Ukraine who have had no rest or quiet since Putin decided to invade.
I, like the rest of world hold my breath as we appear to be on the edge of war. Putin waited his moment, he waited until the China Winter Olympics were over to invade, his troops had been on “manoeuvres” on the Russian/Ukraine boarders.
It all came home to me the other day when our eldest son rang me, his first words were, “Hi Mum, I went to bed normally and woke up to war” I agreed with him this is a serious situation.
Personally I thought we had put the dogs of war to rest but in all honesty the ghosts of war never rest. They lie in wait for a mad, bad, evil, dictator and then they slip their leash. Sadly another, who we have known of for years finally crossed the line and crossed the boarders.
Hidden in basements, underground carpark and train stations with their children, dogs and cats, forced out of their homes…no rest for them. Quques of people walking and driving to cross the boarders of their home country no rest for them. Quques of men young and old and in-between waiting to sign up to defend their country. Many of these men have never seen or had any training for war many will holding a weapon for the first time. No rest to for them.
I cannot rest watching videos of the people of the Ukraine telling us their stories and asking why they have received no help or support, no troops from NATO or the U.S. coming to their aid. I do understand that any movement to assist the Ukraine will be the excuse Putin wants to declare war on the rest of us.
So many times throughout history this has happened not least in Europe but all over the world. ‘It only takes a few good men to do nothing for evil to prevail ‘ a slight miss quote on what Edmund Burke said but it is true.
I shall rest my case here and though I try not to mention political subjects but my conscience will not let me rest.
I am with 12 years of experience and ready to achieve any type of works such as, converting any form from JPG, PDF, ...etc into Excel,Word, PowerPoint and other editable forms, In addition to having a deep experience in inserting and managing data
willowdot21 