Bit of Bud

Should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let him resolutely pursue a solitary course; there is no fellowship with the fool.

Abandoning the dark way, let the wise man cultivate the bright path. Having gone from home to homelessness, let him yearn for that delight in detachment, so difficult to enjoy. Giving up sensual pleasures, with no attachment, let the wise man cleanse himself of defilements of the mind.

Think not lightly of evil, saying, “It will not come to me.” Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the fool, gathering it little by little, fills himself with evil.

Easy to do are things that are bad and harmful to oneself. But exceedingly difficult to do are things that are good and beneficial.

Once We Had Walls

Once we had walls
and a nation pinned up
against it on one side
and for it on the other
and all insides held back
from their sprawls
with bonds that connect
that kept back neglect
we had walls once we shared
but they have succumb
to the hum and corrosive scrawls
that have come and gone
and exposed us and shamed us
and made us defenceless
and live and look and listen
through temporary partitions

Get With It

Under gadget under budget
Hover over cover over
Time keeping time, from time
To time, you leave that you
Get with it,
Pulse tough out like for likes
Like prizes that you
Get with it when you’re with it
You get what’s coming;
Nothing is not good enough,
Just not just yet just get
With it.

Some thoughts on the Middle East

Increasingly frayed media threads of terrorism and war have become at times, blanket news since the ‘Arab Spring’ and it seems like the same old news: another car bomb in Iraq or Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Syria, hundreds of thousands on the streets of Cairo, chaotic war scarred society in Libya and the prevalence of Islamic fundamentalism seemingly eager to take everything to total hell.
I’m sure there are a fair few concerned artistic types like me putting fingers to laptops and guitar fretboards and waxing on about the vast series of calamities that appear to be occurring in the Middle East but I hate to base myself on Newsnight or any other similar info source.
Anyone with any honesty and intellect must be open to the suggestion that our so called leaders are merely puppets and that what is shaping our world, as always is good and evil. I’m beginning to comprehend just how important money is to what I regard as the force of evil at work in our world today (more on that later!)…
A friend of mine who has spent a lot of time in Morocco observed the new generations of aspiring Moroccans who have seen the glitter of materialism and want it. They want the brand names and everything that comes with them. My friend contrasted this with his interest in Morocco and reasons for being there which were the opposite of this, summing it up, he said, ‘they want what we’ve got and we want what they’ve got.’
The Middle East is now the only and the last significant area of resistance to Capitalism on Earth and we are witnessing a series of countries steeped in Islamic tradition that are responding to the pressures of globalised capitalism.
All this revolt and civil war are internal manifestations of external pressures. Russia has gone. China has gone. The Middle East, where all the world’s heroin and oil comes from, is still mainly a  theocratic region and the similarities between Islam and Communism are, I feel worth observing. You just have to swap God for the State and you’ve got almost the same thing; both endorse sublimation of the individual and provide a righteous path that they expect people to follow. It is unimaginable, for example, for Khomeini to have declared ‘there is no such thing as society’ as Margaret Thatcher, his contemporary, did. What a stupid thing to say for a start.
Isn’t this whole ‘Arab Spring’ thing just an epidemic of the thawing of the old by the rise of the new salt of individualism and with it material aspiration? Did Karl Marx see this coming? I bet he did, the old fox.

Lighter

Its infantile to not return;
Be willing to take anything
Except your turn and get off
Living off your own credit;
Hanging onto a dead skin
Too scared to be bare while you shed it,
Like a human black hole
You absorb everything except the toll.
Your soul is hardcore
Tightly packed, you hog it
And hoard every heart beat in fear
Anyone might hear it, you suck in
Any drop of sweat on your skin
Back in to your sedentary and indulgent self.
What you own you are on your own you are on..
The offer is out there to share, fair or unfair..
And you can pass, and defer
But for me it is best to pass through
This life getting lighter.

Josie, tower 2

Josie, Longwood Tower, heather

Recorded

It starts with the speed of light
I suppose, then sound then contact
With the ground around me spun
By the perfect stylus of the sun,
I am on a turn table currently
Flattened and static and yesterday
Revolves in me as today evolves
Like spirals of lists of my reasons to exist.
The grooves are there like tunnels,
Before me; already recorded.

Park-Links-Run

This is a screen shot from my phone that traces a run we believe to be a fantastic off road (mainly) route that takes in the green areas around Marsh, Huddersfield. It is just under 5 miles long at the moment, although we have devised an extension route and can be accessed from any point; there is no designated start and stop point.   The cheesy slightly crazy salesman in me wanted to start this blog with: Are you a Martian? Do you want a running route that is out of this world?..and I suppose I nearly did but if you do live in Marsh, Lindley, Edgerton or round about Greenhead Park then you’ve probably noticed that your environment is essentially urban. Running is either a roadside affair or within the safe paths of the park…Our Park-links-run gets you away from roads and allows you to enjoy the green spaces linking all our neighbourhoods. It is also great if you have a dog and want to incorporate a run with a walk, you know what I mean.
As I write I am freshly returned from doing this run. I had to walk the last mile and a half as my dog has suddenly become very old and couldn’t keep anything like a running pace. A competent runner could do this run in apx 35 mins.
Here is the route explained, as from the point where I access it -Halifax road and Kaffir Woods…

• run through the top path of the small patch of woodland that is Kaffir Woods, heading to exit at Bryan Road
• run along Bryan Road, flat and usually quiet, and exit onto Birkby Hall Road
• take and immediate right down a narrow walled footpath (ginnel anybody? yorkshire word not in the dictionary ..) and take a right on to Clayton Fields
• follow the bottom of the fields, through the trees until you find a path that leads you out to the bottom of Queens Road
• this leads to Blacker Road. Head down Blacker, cross over and go through the cemetery, up and bearing right until you exit via the main entrance
• bear left onto a path that runs along the top of Highfields until you exit on the railed pavement area above the ringroad, by the Tech
• head up Fitwilliam St to Greenhead Park
• inside the park take and immediate right and follow the parameter to the main avenue by the tennis courts. Run up to the memorial and then down and exit by the paddling pool.
• run down Park Drive South and then right onto Park Avenue. This leads you into Springwood.
• Take a left, facing town and then go right off Spring Wood Avenue onto Bow Street. You will see a Public Footpath sign here. Take a right at the signpost. Follow the path down and over a railway bridge. Exit at the bottom of Gledholt Road and go right
• Run up Gledholt until you see an opening by the first houses you come to that allows you to access T P Woods
• Run round the back of the houses and through the woods, cross a small stream and climb the bank up to the large pond then follow the track left
• Follow the track up through the woods that leads to the path and steps out onto Heaton Road
• From this point you could run back to Marsh via a number of routes. My own preferred route is to increase the pain and run hard all the way up Lawrence Road to Westbourne Road but running via the recreation fields just off Luck Lane is another option. This is just how I complete the circle but you can do that however works best for you.

My friend invented this run and we run it regularly. We have built in extensions that take us up to Longwood via rivers and canals. The best thing about it is the hidden nature of the run; it is a green trail through an urban environment.

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