Tag: david roberts

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Promoting poetry – a good idea being developed in Shoreham

Marilyn Stafford, photographer
Marilyn Stafford, photographer

Marilyn Stafford, distinguished photographer

Promoting poetry - a good idea being developed in Shoreham

The basic idea is to present a poem, by a local author, on a display board in an arts centre and change the poem every month, additionally to display a local poet’s poem on the local rail station, also changing the poem every month.

A very active organisation of arts enthusiasts based in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, UK, run a whole series of arts and cultural events and have developed a big following over the years. They call themselves Shoreham Wordfest.

A founder member was Marilyn Stafford, the distinguished photographer who has an international reputation. (https://www.marilynstaffordphotography.com/about-marilyn/) It was her idea and wish to promote local poets. She died in January this year (2023) at the age of 97, and the plan is being put into action in her memory.

My good fortune
I was fortunate to have one of my poems chosen for the first display this May/June at The Shoreham Centre. Entitled Love is its own reward I wrote it as a tribute to the countless carers and carer professionals who work without regard to the personal physical or emotional cost to themselves. It seems to me that such people, people that society depends on, are insufficiently recognised and rewarded. They generate so much love but they deserve more from society.

Poem requirements
Poets are invited to submit poems of up to 16 lines
They are invited to send a picture to accompany the poem.
They should put their name at the end of the poem and may mention the source book and a website.
More information for poets in the Shoreham/Adur area: https://shorehamwordfest.com/shoreham-wordfest-poetry/

poem poster - Love is its own reward, David Roberts

One of the first poems selected

Hope you will click the link to Amazon, buy the book and give it a star rating! Thank you if you do.

Link to Poems about Love. How could you know?

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Poem for Northern Ireland

Stormont
Stormont
Stormont Parliament building where the politicians have been refusing to meet for 18 months to govern Northern Ireland.

A Poem for Northern Ireland

Backward Vision

Sadly I see your future:
supervised political arrangements
finely tuned,
perfectly balanced,
fair,
but, introduce your politicians
and the will isn’t there.
They have problems with fixed mindsets,
old animosities
transparently disguised.
Every move is guarded,
They bicker, and are bloody-minded.

The problems you face are vast,
but you can’t step into the future
because you are rooted in the past.

15 August 1999

David Roberts
from Kosovo War Poetry, 2000, Saxon Books

I wrote this poem about an agreement between the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs, but I remember I had in mind what was happening with the new “Good Friday Peace Agreement” in Northern Ireland. Undoubtedly a step in the right direction but some people have a real talent for disagreeing. Thankfully most people and most of the world do not behave in this bloody-minded way.

www.warpoetry.co.uk

Note for non-UK residents about the background to this poem

Northern Ireland is a separate province of the United Kingdom and has its own parliament (Stormont).

For several decades up till 25 years ago there was a bitter and violent disagreement between two factions:

1. those (mainly Catholics) who believed that Northern Ireland should be combined with and governed as part of Ireland,

2. those (mainly Protestants) who believed that Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom.

For a long time the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland were discriminated against which led to deep-seated anger.

Each side was so convinced they were right that they formed militarised groups (often funded by criminal activities) and set about killing opponents. Over 3,500 people were killed and 47 thousand were injured before 1998 when a peace agreement was reached and politicians with opposing opinions agreed to work together and form a government. The agreement was called the Good Friday Agreement and was signed 25 years ago this week, on 10 April, 1998.

It was clear that not everyone could resist violence. The call to give up and hand in weapons was resisted by many. Killings have occurred since the agreement but have been greatly reduced and for much of the last 25 years Northern Ireland politicians from a range of political parties have met at Stormont to govern Northern Ireland.

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Love Poetry Extraordinaire

LOVE POETRY EXTRAORDINAIRE

I believe that many people may find a lot to relate to, argue about and be moved or amused by in my new book.

How could you know? Poems about love has just been published by Amazon. It’s available as an ebook kindle download, or as a 100 page paperback.

How do I know?

I’ve been people-watching all my life, starting with my parents’ own troubled marriage. Looking through folders of poems I had scribbled over a lifetime, I discovered that I’d written rather a lot about love, and maybe at my age I have a few insights into the topic.

A few of the poems were written over fifty years ago but most were written in the last 20 years as I observed many relationships, their difficulties, tragedies, successes and triumphs, so this is largely a book of observations, but also speculation, imagination and a little bit of personal experience.

It’s a very varied and unusual book of love poetry because it goes beyond the normal kind of love poem. Some poems are thoughtful, even complicated and philosophical, others are lighter – suggestive or facetious with one or two that are surreal, or even bizarre.

How could you know? is the title of one of the poems, and if people ask how I might know so much about love to be able to write a book of love poems I have to say that like most other ordinary people I’m just an observer of life, fascinated by what is going on in the world and add this to my awareness of my own experiences.

I may have seen more than many people because I’m 80 years old, but these poems were written over a long period of time so they are not all written with the alleged wisdom of old age.

I have been married for over 50 years and live with my wife, Julie, in Hurstpierpoint, UK.

Poems include, Fifty kinds of love, [and I’m hoping readers will think of many more to add to the list], Love is its own reward, Does love exist? How could you know? Don’t vanish with the dawn, A heart in winter.

A new departure for me

I’ve spent over 25 years as an editor and publisher of war poetry so I am very pleased to have change and take on a topic that is positive and cheering. I hope readers will enjoy these very varied poems and leave comments on the Amazon website. 

Finding on Amazon

You can visit the books entry on the Amazon website by clicking here.

Or search on Amazon for “Love poetry David Roberts”

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Poem about Iraq

A poem about Iraq in 2003

Tony Blair's visit to Southern Iraq early in 2003. He explained the wisdom of the war.

MY  POEM

A Message from Tony Blair to the People of Iraq

(Written a few days after the start of the attacks by US and UK forces, March 2003. It has been claimed by Tony Blair and others that the problems caused by the invasion could not have been foreseen.)

Note, 2019. I wrote this bitter, sarcastic poem shortly after the first bombing of Iraq feeling extremely angry about the sanctimonious arrogance, dishonesty and criminality and cruelty of Tony Blair. I feel the same way today and regret that he has not been brought to trial as a war criminal. – DR.

A Message from Tony Blair to the People of Iraq

​Poem by David Roberts

Look into my honest eyes.
Listen to my honest lies.
Look into my angel face.
Just hear the sincerity in my voice.

​I want you all to understand
the better future we have planned.
We bomb with Christian love, not Christian hate.
We come,
not to conquer,
but to liberate.

​It is essential, and I want to make this very clear,
that our first aim is to make the world a safer place.
And with precision bombing you need have no fear.
And though you’ve not actually uttered threatening words
to Britain and America, or indeed the world,
and though you haven’t acted yet,
we believe you pose a threat
a threat that cannot be ignored.

​I tell you frankly that so great is the threat
that act we must, while there is still time,
or we may live to reap the bitter harvest
of regret.

​I’m sure you will appreciate
that we have the right
to remove regimes
that we dislike.
We have the right to assassinate.
We have the right to decide your fate.

​So the purpose of our mission,
now that war has started,
is also perfectly clear:
we come to bring you hope
and take away your fear.

​Your army, as you know, is hopelessly outgunned.
Resistance by your soldiers is completely senseless.
We’ll simply massacre. We’ll wipe them out.
They cannot touch us. They’re defenceless.

​We wreck your homes, your lives, your infrastructure.
You needed help.
Without it you would have had no future.

​Our peace, justice and democracy
you will soon enjoy and celebrate.
Remember, we come,
not to conquer,
but to liberate.

​Your cities shake and thunder with our bombs.
Tumbling buildings. Plumes of flames.
Roaring jets and shrieking men.
The crash of glass and children’s screams.
We see the mushroom clouds again.
Now you can appreciate the genius of our civilisation.
Remember, this isn’t war:
it’s liberation.

​We destroyed your tv station. We cut your phones.
Your power and water supplies we cut.
We destroy public buildings and private homes.
You see billowing smoke and conflagration.
But it isn’t war:
it’s liberation.

​Your hospitals overflow. They cannot cope.
We are killing you softly with our love.
Death and destruction are everywhere.
Your future fills with hope.

​And if you cannot comprehend this desecration.
Just try to understand,
it isn’t war:
it’s liberation.

​Cruise missiles, depleted uranium,
pulse, cluster and bunker buster bombs
may shock you.
And perhaps, you’re just a little awed.
But please understand we come to help
and this is your reward.

​Regrettably we can treat nothing as sacred:
it is a fact of war.
No artefact of God or man,
no suffering, no pain, no law
can impede the progress of our plan.

​One advantage of our attack
is that we will build for you
a new Iraq.
So don’t worry about the scale of the destruction.
Our companies will make it all as new
and your oil will pay for reconstruction.

​Look to the future.
Your children will not easily forget
how we came to help.
Round the clock bombing
may have left them traumatised
and perhaps a little mad,
but soon we are sure they’ll realise
just what luck they’ve had.

​Some ask if I’m untouched by human suffering.
I can tell you my sleep is undisturbed,
though I deeply mourn the thousands killed.
I am not shaken,
and I am not stirred.

​So finally I say,
that for a brighter future
a little bombing is a small price to pay.

​Ignore the carnage, terror and destruction.
Our purpose
is not
domination or exploitation.
This is not
a war of conquest.
It’s a war of liberation.

​David Roberts
28 March-9 April 2003