Pathway

(Picture Credit - Miriadna com)

Come with me,

Along this path:

Through the forest,

Towering over us on either side.

Smell the greenery

All around.

Orchestral accompaniment

From countless birds.

Hope you feel engaged

As we stroll along.

And now the pathway branches out!

Six new paths,

Six choices.

Let’s take one.

Off we go.

We risk being lost.

What wonders

Or horrors (!)

Will we find?

The woods suck us in,

Further and further forward.

Punctuated by pesky gnats.

Expect itchy red spots

When you get home.

Onward and onward.

Bees and butterflies.

Sun streaming through the branches up above,

Trees topped by fleecy white clouds.

At last – a clearing!

Can I hear the sea or just a lake?

Or is there a stream nearby?

I see a golden parting of the ways,

A little land beyond forever.

But what do You see???

Paul Butters

Political Puzzlement

(Picture Credit - The Mind of James Donahue)

I was a Communist kid back in the fifties

And a seventeen-year old Socialist.

The Americans made me laugh even then:

Afraid of “Commies”

When they really meant Soviets.

For me Socialism meant

Equal Shares

And humanitarian Christianity,

With the fall-back of a Welfare State.

All Good.

But as I’ve got older I’ve come to appreciate

The other side of the coin.

Not Fascism as such,

But with Socialism

Where is Aspiration?

Where is the Incentive to do more

And better?

We don’t want a society of clones,

Sitting on their backsides

Living on the dole.

But then again, what should we aspire to?

Should I have aimed to be a mega-rich dictator

Of some parasitic world empire?

I’m all for developing talent to the full,

Encouraging people to make a positive contribution

To the wellbeing of all.

And there’s the rub.

There doesn’t seem to be a political system – yet,

That is just and fair

Whilst helping us all to blossom.

Until we invent something better,

A bubbling cauldron of Socialism and Free Enterprise

Is the best we have to work with.

Unless you know better.

Paul Butters

What Price World Peace?

Oh for a world without wars!

Free of terrorists.

Where each and every one of us

Can go about our daily lives

Without any fear.

But I read somewhere

That there may be a price to pay:

Loss of Freedom.

Think of the USSR, or better still, Yugoslavia.

Ruled by rods of iron

These counties showed us facades

Of calm.

But once those dictatorships disappeared then

Those underlying differences emerged.

The Balkan States were a case in point:

When Yugoslavia went

All hell broke out!

So when I suggested that

A benevolent world government

Might cure our ills,

A warning was shot across my bows:

“Be careful what you wish for!”

For what good is “Peace”

When no one dare speak out

Or act in a “different” way?

“1984” soon springs to mind:

Droves of mindless clones

Dumbed down by drugs

And Media driven hypnosis.

Totalitarianism at its worst.

What we really need is an end to violence

And every other form of Abuse.

Free thought

Married with respect and tolerance

To our fellow men

And women.

World Peace only comes free

When the people are free too.

Freedom of the individual

Based on mutual respect

And better still

On Love.

Paul Butters