if you think this is democracy,
this quango land
insult to our history,
this emptiness
of false celebrity,
this wretched shallowness,
this shattered ignorance
of all that shines from our fought-for heritage,
this media connivance
and bone idleness,
this following of the fast buck,
this grovelling to the greed of capital,
this sickening homage to materialism,
this lack of human spirit
in our city centres,
this brutal selfishness
encouraged by a government
that denies our European roots,
that scans the wonder of the vast Atlantic
for feeble ideas to run with,
this rat race of a society
that puts self above solidarity,
these feeble careerist substitutes for activism
who have lost any real will for change,
who have become corrupted by a power-lust,
who lack any passion
other than to climb grimly up their greasy poles,
clinging on to their self-delusion,
ignoring, in their centrist way,
the true beauty of community,
handing out their gongs to the servile
and rubbishing the selfless folk
who work their little miracles every breathing day.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
http://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/arts/poetry/item/2441-you-ve-got-to-be-joking
Libby Wattis Loved your poem. My thought about our current predicament exactly - but expressed a thousand times more eloquently than I could have done!
Lindy Pin The ending is lovely, opening the heart.
Kim Schroeder Yes, the ending is just lovely. Keith Armstrong is talent-packed, lol. The poem is very pertinent to the political state of play in the UK at the moment.
David Henry Excellent! Keep it up! Are you going to record this one on Soundcloud, Keith? I'd love to hear it.
Michael Arnell Brutally honest, cruelly accurate.
Really is thought provoking top draw stuff Keith. Well done.
Brian Hall I am sharing this new piece from Dr Keith Armstrong, one of our region's best poets and writers, who is not one to pull his punches.....worth a read, for sure. And Keith somehow is not exactly ever popular amidst the Establishment elite in the north east.....I wonder why!!! Keith......this is brilliant.
Stuart Morland That says it the way I am feeling about it all just now.
However you draw me to contemplate the beauty of community and the little miracles that provide the
oxygen for the fight and the reasons for anger rather than despair.
