'Recovery Position'

You can listen to 'Recovery Position' here.

There's a man on TV, all shiny and bright,
tells me things are on their way to being better.
Business, he tells me, is back on the up
and the fat cat bankers have cleaned up their act
and licked their paws clear of the cream. It's a fact.
It's only a matter of time before we turn the corner;
and the workers, they must do their bit,
have a little faith, keep holding on.

But, Mister, I don't see things that way.
I don't buy what you're trying to sell me.
What I see is this: the rich guy getting richer by the day;
and the TV and the papers, they stink of it;
they stink of lies and corruption and cruelty.
Yet there's this shiny, slick news guy
who smiles and smiles and tells me
what they want me to think.

Night after night, they spin their spin,
pretending all this other stuff ain't happening:
there ain't no riots, not anywhere that counts;
no marches, and  no protests on the street;
and no one much is sleeping rough;
and our children are not going hungry.
We're in this together and we'll be all okay -
so say the news men from the BBC.

Abigail Wyatt

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/31/george-osborne-reforms-economic-recovery
w.westbriton.co.uk/Unfair-welfare-reforms-hit-poor-hardest-say-city/story-20905433-detail/story.html

Important Notice
As from today we will be accepting Soundcloud files to post as an addition to the text of the poem sent in by our contributors. We have decided to embrace Soundcloud because it is really easy to cut and pace and Hamish and I have to consider the constraints on our  - unpaid - time. Providing us with a Souncloud link is by no means essential to get your poem published but we think this is an important step forward. My poem above is published as a kind of trial run. We look forward to seeing - and hearing - your work.

Sunday Review

We started this week with 'sugar tax' by Philip Johnson , a response the 'news' that being overweight is increasingly being seen as the norm. My own take on this is that it is just another example of the tyranny of the food industry which seeks to maximize profits by hooking us into addictions and then, when we grow fat and unhealthy, passes us over, first to their chums in the health food industry and then, when they have sucked us dry, to an increasingly privatized health system which is also about maximizing profits. Do I sound angry and disenchanted? You can bet your extra large pants that I do.

On Tuesday, Sue Norton gave us 'Budget Speech Omissions' which provided us with a timely reminder of  just a few of the things that were conspicuous by their absence from the chancellor's budget announcements.  Thanks, Sue. It's good to see that other people are also getting. I posted a link to this poem to Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance page on Facebook. As you might imagine, the piece was well-received. 

Wednesday brought us to a rather different story, 'Out of the Fire' by Dianne E. Selden, an account of an apartment  fire in Houston, Texas featuring a construction worker's daring escape. This is a powerful poem which brings home to us the man's terror and the moments of breathless waiting endured by the onlookers as they hung on the outcome. Is it fanciful, however, to say that it also brings us face to face with our own eagerness to be spectators at the scene of disaster.  It isn't attractive, is it, our fascination with deadly danger?  

Thursday's poem, 'Environmental Intercourse', was the work of Laura Taylor, a piece about the dangers posed by fracking and highlighted by a recent study of 'orphan' oil wells. This is another angry poem and, in my book, rightfully so. Here's a little taster. Of course, you might want to click on the link and read the whole thing again.

'Environmental intercourse

will make our wallets fat.

We’ll cock up all your fundaments

then sell you back the gas.                 

We don’t care about your children

or your future or your health

cos we’re busy wrecking Gaia

to increase our massive wealth.

Yes we’re busy fucking Gaia

and we’ll please our fucking selves.'

Finally, on Friday, it was 'The Grayling Damnation' by Neil Fulwood. This was a pithy and telling response to the prison book ban. Form me, the closing lines of the poem tell us about the spirit which informs this change in policy.

'words were the whetstone

on which minds could be sharpened'.

Well, that's all until Monday, people, when there will be some news coming your way, Have a productive week. 

Abigail Wyatt