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Well, Pat, I don't know if you have as much of this public ostentatious display of grief as we do, for people you don't know. I feel like I'm from another planet. As a teacher, I would agree that many students are more broadminded on matters in lots of ways but the media is much worse, it seems to me, in the last twenty years or so. Bill On 28/01/2015, at 9:20 AM, Patrick McManus wrote: > Bill how about a companion piece showing how great things are today!! > we even have poetryetc-I seem to remember my early days as so > mean-limited-small town religious intolerance- say compared to my > granddaughters now > cheers P > > -----Original Message----- > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On > Behalf Of Bill Wootton > Sent: 27 January 2015 21:23 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Howling from the perimeters > > A companion piece to last week's 'Offshooting': > > Scarcely tilting at windmills, > but when my mates downed > Coke, I sipped Fanta or Leed. > > Banana Splits oiled > my gums with gloop, > not icy Choc Wedges. > > Such choices pepper > my life, the most popular > so eschewable. > > Neither Holden nor Ford; > my first car, a front- > wheel drive Morris 1100. > > Football? Cricket? > I settled for volleyball. > School team even. > > Until jeans got under > my defences. Couldn't wait > to get legs out of Amcos, > > into Levi's or Wranglers > or Lees. The big three. > Western gear garnered me. > > Not sure why. Perhaps > the unpretensiousness > of screen cowboys appealed. > > The way they arrived > at their own codes and stuck > by them, under starry skies. > > Today's soup of commercial TV, > Radio with ads, talkback, > how can this attract? > > At stopwork meetings, > never voted for the resolution. > Supported forlorn amendments. > > Floating with the current > provides false momentum. > I value my tributariness. > > But how much difference > are we talking about? > How wide my preferential arc? > > Am I just another trimmer > of tall poppies? Espousing > an illusion of superior taste, > > my nuanced selections > riding proud over roughshod > popular addictions? > > Trouble is the mainstream > tends to obliterate > independence of thought. > > Consent so easily > manufactured nowadays > that objectors seem stolid, > > predictable, naysayers. But > what passes for positive > so often protects privilege. > > Polls would have us believe > harsh asylum seeker > policies keep us all safe. > > Why can't we forget the taste > of fear? Back ourselves in? > The gushing middle deserve > > to be regarded with wariness. > Who loads those bouquets > at Sydney's Martin Place, > > by roadside death spots? > Why was remote Diana mourned > as a breeze-blown candle > > when Boko Haram snuffs > out lives by the hundred? > Mass outpourings of grief, > > apparent hunger for rampant > public mourning rituals must > spring from somewhere. > > Or do such displays > only reveal the vacuum > at the heart of the centre? > > bw >