The current mood...

You don’t need me to tell you that the mood of the UK is febrile. This is something I’ve written a lot about. More than I would want to have write if I’m being honest. These are two of the more recent pieces I’ve posted about the dire, verging on dystopian situation that we’re in:

Please…don’t get played… 26.2.26

I realise that telling people who have to deal with the tension at the interface between two communities that have very little to do with each other at best, and at worst are openly hostile, to take a few steps back is not going to go down well with some. All I can say is that if people carry on allowing themselves to get played and manipulated into ever more confrontation, we’re heading for a very dark place. That’s why I’m willing to risk the flak I may get by asking people to pause and ask a few questions about what agendas are being served before stepping over the brink. Because, as I keep trying to get across, we are being played…

Civil war? 20.2.26

As I’ve written more times than I care to remember, too many people are allowing others to press their buttons, reacting immediately to any rage bait that’s put before them. It really does feel like those who presume to rule over us are doing their utmost to get people riled up. It strikes me that it’s not through being tone deaf or ignorant – it’s being done knowingly to provoke a reaction, thereby creating a situation that will need a ‘solution’ – an authoritarian one at that.

Writing these kind of pieces exacts a toll, that’s for sure. It’s necessary to do this, if only to try to point out how people are getting played by elements with nefarious, toxic agendas. But, there’s only so much of this I can take before having to take a step back for a week or so to get my head in a better place. There are times when only the medium of poetry can adequately express how I’m feeling. This is one of them. Here are a couple of poems that I hope describe this feeling:

Something feels...off...

Feeling anxious, feeling stressed, feeling pressure
Too much is happening...it’s hard to keep up
Feeling I need to get away from it, but...
Also knowing I have to confront and deal with it

In all my decades, I've never felt like this
The pressure build up is relentless, frightening
Last summer's turmoil bubbles under...
Threatening to rear its head again on the streets

The drumbeats of war get louder by the day
As those who presume to rule over us, strut and pose
Knowing nothing of the peril they’re leading us into
Fools and charlatans driving us to oblivion

What was once sound has turned to sand
Who we thought we could trust, we no longer can
Division, suspicion and hate are rife
Certainty is nothing but a distant memory

It feels that everything is up in the air...
Where and how it will land...who knows?
All we can do is work to find our own truth
All the while, seeking new, trustworthy connections

All I know is that I need to step back and rest...
I need the space to find my inner peace
I need the wisdom to find my inner strength
Then when I’m ready, I'll return for the final fight... 

Ride out the storm...

Tensions escalate
Strife spreads
A momentum gathers…
...all of its own

Where will this lead?
Ask the manipulators
Divide and rule…
...is the name of the game

Warnings unheeded
Consequences disregarded
Thinking suspended
...it really is a shitshow

Just a ‘conspiracy theorist’?
Well let’s just see…
...who’s right in the end
Not that it matters

Once it spreads
...there’s no stopping it
Repercussions?
...they’ll come soon enough

Here’s our grisly fate
...surveillance
...a clampdown
...the digital grid

Could it be different?
...no one’s listening
...wise voices are derided
What’s the point?

Keep my head down
…stay out of trouble
...don’t take sides
...ride out the storm

So there you have it...me being honest and open about how I feel at the moment. In just over a week, the two of us behind this project will be taking a short break down on the coast for some rest, long walks along the beach and trying to get our heads in a better place in order to deal with the shitshow that the rest of the spring and the coming summer will be serving up for us.