Category: general life

you challenge the world

you challenge people to look at the world differently and this is what they do!

I often read this the nice statement in art books. this is an area of London with disused warehouses that at one point attracted a lot of artists.

now it has become a newer secondary financial and commercial area to the city of London.

like the religion that goes to a poor country to teach about Christ is often only the spearhead of an army. which a study of general history will show.

Audie Murphy; poems and songs

Where Has Freedom Gone?

Where Has Freedom Gone?
Dusty old helmet, rusty old gun,
they sit in the corner and wait.
Two souvenirs of the Second World War
that have withstood the time and the hate.

Many times I’ve wanted to ask them,
and now that we’re here all alone,
Relics all three of a long ago war,
“Where has freedom gone?”

Mute witness to a time of much trouble,
where kill or be killed was the law.
Were these implements used with high honour?
What was the glory they saw?

“Freedom flies in your heart like an eagle,
let it soar with the high winds above.
Among the spirits of soldiers now sleeping,
guard it with care and with love.”

I salute my old friends in the corner,
I agree with all they have said,
And if the moment of truth comes tomorrow,
I’ll be free, or by God, I’ll be dead.

Alone and Far Removed

Alone and far removed from earthly care
The noble ruins of men lie buried here.
You were strong men, good men
Endowed with youth and the will to live
I hear no protest from the mute lips of the dead.
They rest; there is no more to give.

So long my comrades,
Sleep ye where you fell upon the field.
But tread softly please
March o’er my heart with ease
March on and on,
But to God alone we kneel.

The Crosses Grow On Anzio

The Crosses Grow On Anzio
Oh, gather ’round me, comrades,
and listen while I speak;
Of a war, a war, a war —
where hell is six feet deep.

Along the shore, the cannons roar.
Oh how can a soldier sleep?
The going’s slow on Anzio
and hell is six feet deep.

Praise be to God for this captured sod
that’s rich where blood does seep;
With yours and mine, like butchered swine;
and hell is six feet deep.

That death does wait there’s no debate;
no triumph will we reap
The crosses grow on Anzio,
where hell is six feet deep.

Notes from Wikipedia
From the biography of Audie Murphy the film star and actor and war hero.

David McClure, his collaborator on the book To Hell and Back about his war time experiences, discovered Murphy’s talent for poetry during their work on the memoir when he found discarded verses in Murphy’s Hollywood apartment. One of those poems, “The Crosses Grow on Anzio”, appears in To Hell and Back attributed to a soldier named Kerrigan. Only two others survived, “Alone and Far Removed” and “Freedom Flies in Your Heart Like an Eagle”. The latter was part of a speech Murphy had written at a 1968 dedication of the Alabama War Memorial in Montgomery, and later set to music by Scott Turner under the title “Dusty Old Helmet”.

Murphy was a fan of country music, in particular Bob Wills and Chet Atkins, but was not a singer or musician himself. Through his friend Guy Mitchell, Murphy was introduced to songwriter Scott Turner in 1961. The two collaborated on numerous songs between 1962 and 1970, the most successful of which was “Shutters and Boards” and “When the Wind Blows in Chicago”.

Audie murphy

Personal notes.

I’ve always been a fan of the Western film. And Audie Murphy’s achievements in this genre have intrigued me recently. And then I find out about his poems and songwriting collaborations. His poems are noble and almost Shakespearian in paers, eg The Historic plays and their soliloquies by kings in battle. Also there is the tradition of war poetry to which these belong to .

Avenue Gardens, Regents Park

Went out yesterday to Regents Park with two friends Kate who is a fashion designer and Carol garden design. The flower bed which I’d never seen before were so colourful, they must represent the best in English gardening design.

Some history from a web search

The Avenue Gardens, located near the Broad Walk, have formal displays of spring bulbs and summer bedding. There are tiered fountains, evergreen hedges and vast ornamental bowls filled with flowers.

The original ornaments in the Avenue Gardens have been restored and some Victorian-style planting has been re-introduced to provide year-round interest.

The Avenue Gardens were originally planted by John Nash as the Broad Walk with eight rows of trees. The trees did not thrive and were inspected by various experts, including the Victorian garden designer William Andrews Nesfield, who put forward a design for new formal gardens.

In answer to Hettie’s question about Birchfield House, why?

And the little garden was in contrast to the L shaped block of flats that was built in the 1900’s to cram as many of the local poor of poverty stricken Limehouse during the slum clearance into the small cramped rooms as possible.
But at least I could look out of the window to see a really nice garden planted about 25 years ago of fragrant shrubbery and tall bamboo.
But I woke up early this week to see it all dug up by a crew of road diggers.
And it was nice to look out of the kitchen window to see a Wren or a Robin or some other little bird attracted to the exotic plants which probably gave them a stopping off point on their journey across the surrounding busy roads
That are used by 100s of trucks every day from the channel ports with all the awful exhaust smoke and pollution therefrom.

Where I live on the ground floor with a squeezed in feeling with black mould on the bathroom wall and a damp musty smell in another room and ever since I moved in here 30 years ago I’ve had worsening respiratory problems that are probably going to shorten my life and walls so thin I can hear people talking in their sleep and you have to ask why???
Thank you for the question that no one else has ever asked before and that it’s been asked by someone who lives 1000s of miles away in Chicago and is a credit to you and a shame on this place.
Which was part of a co-operative until so upwardly mobile people started buying their flats from the council and turning them into even smaller units for students to live in so that they could make as much money as they can – out of the co-operative.
And I want you to know that you’re one of my favourite bloggers because you have not been afraid to ask difficult questions.
So I woke up one morning to find that the most beautiful thing about Birchfield House Co-operative has been ripped away.
And what is a co-operative. Is it where we are supposed to work together, shoulder to shoulder with a communist spirit? defending ourselves from the outside heading towards a bright new co-operative future. but self-interest has led to a corrupted co-operative and a pointless co-operative.
The whole concept has become a place of self-interest and corrupted ideals.
I’m good at writing things down and I can read aloud what I write down but when I go to any kind of meeting I tend to start thinking too much and when you think too much when you’re in a co-operative meeting dominated by selfish people don’t expect anyone to ask you what you’re thinking.
There’s an attitude these days that if there’s something you don’t like you can fix it regardless of the consequences and the government will support you.
The garden: I remember about ten years ago when everything was in bloom, lush and green and scented. Then it seemed to get a council gardener group who like to cut shapes out of the shrubs regardless of the blossom coming into bloom so that they stopped them coming into bloom and then obscene bare areas appeared beneath the shrubbery that was once covered by green leaves. And now this, want to resurface the car park area, – true or false; cut everything down and dig everything up and for what. More car parking space, more pollution in a heavily polluted area.
There are 24 flats in this block and nearly all of them have a car and some of them have two cars and the courtyard is too small for all of them.