POETS UNITED - CHANGE

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” - Barack Obama

This week, Poets United has as its Midweek Challenge motif, “change”. All things change, and no matter how hard we try not to, we change too. Some change is good some is bad, and if we wish to make the best of the shifting, coruscating, ever-metamorphosing world, we should be the agents of change ourselves. Anticipate change, catalyse it, be part of it, make it ours, own it and be positively influenced by it.

Metamorphosis

I choose to walk away from that image
Looking at me pitifully
Within the silver depths of mirror.
I shed my yellow countenance
I strip my flabby skin
And much like a snake erupting,
Freeing itself from its constricting,
Worn, outgrown, ugly old shirt,
My inner self slips lightly by, and is liberated.

Kicking the pile of hateful flesh
Laughing at the bewildered
Idiotic stare of moon-faced image
In the looking glass,
Resolve has effected change:
Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis…

At last I soar free and beautiful,
A brilliant butterfly,
Unfurling multicoloured wings
Tasting the joys of flight
Grateful for the mystery
Of metamorphosis.

MOVIE MONDAY - SCI-FI FILMS

“Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.” - David Brin

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a “literature of ideas.” It usually avoids dealing with the supernatural, and unlike the related genre of fantasy, science fiction stories historically were intended to have at least a faint grounding in science-based fact or theory at the time the story was created, but this connection has become tenuous or non-existent in much of science fiction nowadays.

Science fiction is not new. “True Stories” (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata; Latin: Vera Historia) is a parody of travel tales, by the Greek-speaking Assyrian author Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the 2nd century, the novel has been referred to as the first known text that could be called science fiction. The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth.

Since that time, authors have been writing science fiction, with examples in the “Arabian Nights”, Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, Shelley’s “Frankestein” and many others. The genre fired the public imagination with the novels of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne who created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Since then, it has become broader and even more popular, with several sub-genres now included under the umbrella of “science fiction”.

It is not surprising that this genre of fiction was very quickly translated to the silver screen almost as soon as movies were invented. It seems the medium lent itself to the genre, even in the early days of pioneer film-making. Georges Melies’ 1902 “A Trip to the Moon” employed trick photography effects and looked at a typical space travel scenario. The next major example in the genre was Fritz Lang’s 1927 “Metropolis”, being the first feature length science fiction movie. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies. After Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 landmark “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the science fiction film genre was taken more seriously. In the late 1970s, big-budget science fiction films filled with special effects became popular with audiences after the success of George Lucas’s 1977 “Star Wars” and paved the way for the blockbuster hits of subsequent decades.

Similar to the literary genre, science fiction film (aka Sci-Fi movie) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life-forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. In many cases, tropes derived from written science fiction may be used by film-makers ignorant of or at best indifferent to the standards of scientific plausibility and plot logic to which written science fiction is traditionally held.

I like a good science fiction movie, especially one where the viewer is immersed in a plot where the genre is free to examine philosophical or social issues that have a relevance to our society today. Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1971 movie “A Clockwork Orange” is a good example of this type. It is dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain.

But having said that, I am also partial to well-made escapist science fiction that is simply a rollicking good tale. A typical example of this is the 2012 Andrew Stanton film “John Carter” based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “A Princess of Mars” (the first in a series of 11 novels by this author).

We humans thrive on tall tales. Since ancient times people have crowded together and have amused one another by relating stories that are speculative, imaginative, invented. Whether they are myths and fables, fairy tales or horror stories, tales of distant imagined places on earth or other planets, these tales amuse and satisfy our sense of wonder and answer that magical question, “what if…?” Science fiction novels and films will keep on being written and we shall keep on reading and watching them. But please, authors and film-makers, make them good ones!

POETS UNITED - ACCEPTANCE

“Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” - Michael J. Fox

This week, Poets United is looking at the theme of “Acceptance”. Acceptance is when we accept what is offered to us, even if we know how bad that thing or situation may be; we accept an idea or a belief, even if we may not agree with it; we accept a difficult situation and we learn to live with it. We accept something if we live with it and we change our life accordingly so as to make it better, despite the differences that we have to cope with, the transformations that we go through, despite the rebuilding and reshaping. Adaptation forces us to evolve and evolution can make us better human beings.

Acceptance

The Moon!

How it has changed of late;

Still white and bright,

Shining clear and pure so high,

But cold and sterile,

So empty of meaning

Devoid of its mystique of old...

The Moon!

How I have changed, so gradually;

Less willing to believe,

Still hopeful and attentive,

But resigned to the facts

And able to accept

The Moon’s uncompromising frigidity...

POETS UNITED - CLIMATE

“Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” - Bill Nye

For its Midweek Motif, Poets United has set the theme of “Climate”. My poem below:

Climate

The Earth shakes, shudders, sick

Covered in dark pall of smoke

Lost in hopeless contemplation

Of an uncertain future.

The moon looks on

And mirrors her sister’s fate

As stars impassively

Witness the decadence.

The Earth dejected, weeps

Black tears; coughs up polluted phlegm

Regurgitates poisoned food

And dies an ever-quickening death.

The oceans froth and spew up

Choking fish, dead algae,

Mercury-tainted jellyfish,

Suicidal whales by the score.

The Earth despairs, breeding

Sterile offspring, mutated monsters,

Dead plants, addled eggs,

Species driven to extinction.

The air is charred, ice melts,

Cyclones, bushfires, earthquakes

Vie with Tsunamis and errant climate

As to which will seal our fate.

The Earth remembers, wistful,

Past springs, all green and flowery;

Summers golden with ripening grain,

Autumns replete with bountiful harvest.

The Earth recalls, regretful,

A million birdsongs, playful fish,

Pure rain and limpid waters, 

With winters when snow was still white.

EDUCATION

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” - Mark Twain

educate |ˈejəˌkāt| verb [ trans. ] (often be educated)

Give intellectual, moral, and social instruction to (someone, esp. a child), typically at a school or university: She was educated at a boarding school.

• Provide or pay for instruction for (one's child), esp. at a school.

• Give (someone) training in or information on a particular field: [ trans. ] The need to educate people to conserve water | A plan to educate the young on the dangers of drug-taking.

DERIVATIVES

educability |ˌejəkəˈbilitē| noun

educable |-kəbəl| adjective

educative |-ˌkātiv| adjective

educator |-ˌkātər| noun

ORIGIN late Middle English: from Latin educat- ‘led out,’ from the verb educare, related to educere ‘lead out’

Education is universally regarded as something that all people should have, something all should experience and derive benefit from. While hardly none would disagree with this, the model that is used to educate people at various levels of schooling gives rise to great debate. Different models of education, widely varying in their approach coexist side by side and are more or less effective. Public and privately funded educational systems have their supporters and opponents, and each has its merits and pitfalls.

Preschool and primary school education is regarded as the foundation-building stage, in which basic skills in literacy and numeracy are acquired. The child at this level develops not only the intellectual skills needed to deal with the influx of new fundamental information, but also the motor skills required in the process of writing legibly, social skills that underpin a harmonious co-existence with other people and the beginnings of higher mentative processes, such as those that are needed for ethical/moral discrimination, artistic and musical appreciation, etc.

Secondary schooling allows for the development of a broad acquisition of knowledge in the humanities and sciences. Language and art, history and literature, physical and biological sciences are introduced at suitable levels throughout the school career and training in independent critical thinking processes begins, with logical and analytical skills being honed, especially so in the later years of this educative process. The character development that was begun in primary school is fine-tuned here. Secondary students have to deal with a large variety of issues, including the obvious biological one of puberty that will impinge on their learning.

Tertiary level education involves the student in a journey of self-discovery where thoughts and mentative processes can be examined in detail, where information is not only passively acquired, but where it is analysed, critically evaluated and reprocessed. The world versus the self are contrasted and the student will need to deal with the conflicts that arise therefrom. The tertiary study experience should act as the springboard for original thinking and problem-solving in unfamiliar situations, and should result in creative intellectual activity, and in organised and logical thought.

Having worked as an academic at a University for many years has given me an immense sense of responsibility towards my students, my colleagues and the community. I try to uphold a certain standard of educational experience in a system that has come under a great deal of pressure and stress in the last few years. We have survived various forms of reorganisation, rationalisation and changes of management. We have redesigned the curricula, updated programs and courses, and have had to cope with several changes in the way the students are selected for admission. To be an academic in such an environment is extremely labour-intensive and often frustrating, but at the same time it is infinitely rewarding. One certainly does not persist in being an academic for the pay involved!

One of my concerns in recent years is the declining academic standard of the average university student. The question arises of why this should be so, even if one is aware of the increasing pressures of government, society and family to push more secondary students into the tertiary sector, rather than directly into the workforce. I suspect that the basic problem arises in secondary and primary school level. There are students in secondary schools that have basic literacy and numeracy skill deficiencies. The wife of one of my colleagues teaches in a secondary school (admittedly, it is in a lower socioeconomic class suburb), but she maintains that even children born here, from families of native speakers of English, have immense trouble with basic reading and writing. She complains that when these children come to high school from primary school, some of them can barely read and write.

We live in a society that is increasingly reliant on technology. A society that will depend more and more on an educated population in order to cope with the information revolution that has changed our lives dramatically in the last couple of decades. We require specialised, analytical, quick-thinking, problem-solving educated people in our society and yet we find that we have rather poor raw material in our universities to work with. How can such a problem be resolved?

What is to blame for this deterioration in educational standards that seems to be occurring worldwide? What do you think?

POETRY JAM - TIME

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” – Theophrastus

Poetry Jam has prompted its contributors for the final time this week. As this poetry site is having a rest (only for a while, I would like to believe), the parting prompt is all about TIME… I would like to thank especially Mary, Peggy, Gabriella, Alan, Sumana and Brian who have prompted, encouraged and appraised poetical efforts. I would also like to thank all other participants for the fine offerings every week, and also all readers of the poems who have the time to read, ponder and comment on each other’s poems.

My contribution for this week, below is a villanelle, its cyclic nature perhaps the most suitable for the depiction of cycles, things beginning and ending, and above all the inscrutable passage of time as all things change:

The Time of Change

The time of change is here:

Awake, renew, revise,

I feel the freshness near.

There is no need to fear,

Look up with cloudless eyes

The time of change is here.

Smile brightly then, my dear,

Gone are the endless sighs

I feel the freshness near.

Sweet songs again you'll hear,

The truth defeats all lies –

The time of change is here,

Wipe clean the frown and tear.

As darkness ebbs and dies,

I feel the freshness near…

As we defeat night drear,

Our hope will climb and rise;

The time of change is here

I feel the freshness near.

POETRY JAM - PEBBLES

“A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.” - Andy Goldsworthy

The theme for this week’s Poetry Jam contributors is “Pebbles”. Here is my poem:

Pebble

A pebble was once
Sharp,
Angular,
Hard,
A piece of jagged rock
Arrogant,
Strong,
Self-important,
As a diamond renitent.

My advancing years, are as a pebble
Rounded,
Smooth,
Polished,
Engendered from years of friction, on my
Haughty,
Vigorous,
Cocky,
Youth – its naivety embarrassing…

A pebble is now wise,
Experienced,
Weathered,
Beautiful,
Made even more enlightened because of its
Composition,
Structure,
Geology,
All identical with its jagged, parent rock.

I’d rather clasp a smooth pebble in my hand,
Than a piece of sharp, angular rock.

OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” - Les Brown

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

There would be:

• 58 Asians
• 21 Europeans
• 17 Africans
• 4 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
• 52 would be female
• 48 would be male
• 70 would be non-white
• 30 would be white
• 71 would be non-Christian
• 29 would be Christian
• 98 would be heterosexual
• 2 would be homosexual
• 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from USA
• 80 would live in substandard housing 
• 70 would be unable to read 
• 50 would suffer from malnutrition
• 1 would be near death
• 1 would be near birth
• 1 would have a university education
• 1 would own a computer...

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent. The following is also something to ponder...

• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. 
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. 
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. 
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ...you are richer than 75% of this world. 
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. 
• If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States and Canada.
• If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. 

Consider donating some money to charity, because you are able to and because there are millions upon millions of people on earth who need support in order to survive just another day…

MERCY SHIPS

“Here are the values that I stand for: Honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.” - Ellen DeGeneres

I recently became aware of a fantastic initiative that promotes health and well-being in some of the most needy and disadvantaged populations in the world. It is the Mercy Ships, which is an international charity that was founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens. Mercy Ships currently operates the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world, providing free health care, community development projects, community health education, mental health programs, agriculture projects, and palliative care for terminally ill patients. Mercy Ships has operated in more than 70 developing nations around the world, with a current focus on the countries of West Africa.

The organisation has its International Operations Center (IOC) in Garden Valley, Texas. Mercy Ships also has 16 national resource offices in countries that include Spain, Britain, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Australia. A major inspiration for Mercy Ships founder and President Don Stephens was the work of the international hospital ship SS Hope. Stephens’ research showed that 95 of the 100 largest cities in the world were port cities. Therefore, a hospital ship could deliver healthcare very efficiently to large numbers of people. The birth of Stephens’ profoundly disabled son, John Paul, also inspired him to move forward with his vision of a floating hospital. A visit with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, further deepened his commitment to serving the world’s neediest people.

Mercy Ships currently has one vessel in service: the 16,500-ton flagship Africa Mercy, which measures almost 500 feet long. The Africa Mercy has greater capacity than all three previous Mercy Ships combined. The Africa Mercy is currently serving in the port of Pointe Noire, Congo, where its field service will last from August 2013 to May 2014. The ship was previously docked in Conakry, Guinea from August 2012 till May 2013. Before that it was docked in Lomé, Togo, for the first months of its 2012 Field Service. The Africa Mercy docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone for its 2011 field service, which lasted for 10 months. At the conclusion of each field service, the Africa Mercy goes into dry dock, where it is resupplied and receives any needed repairs or upgrades before heading to its next port of call.

Early in 2010, the ship was docked in Lomé, Togo for the 2010 field service. In August 2010, the Africa Mercy went into shipyard in South Africa, where it was equipped with new, more efficient generators. In 2009, the ship was docked in Cotonou, Benin from February to December, providing free surgeries and medical care. Mercy Ships also worked with Beninese citizens on agriculture and water development projects on the ground in Benin. In 2007, the ship made its official maiden voyage to Monrovia, Liberia, from the shipyard in England.

In 2008, the Africa Mercy continued its service to Liberia, offering free surgeries, assistance in healthcare infrastructure development, and community-based preventive health care programs that benefited thousands of individuals and many communities. More than 1,200 surgical procedures and 10,000 dental procedures were completed, along with community health projects such as HIV/AIDS prevention and construction of wells and latrines. Before the Africa Mercy arrives in port, flyers are distributed to alert the public to the ship’s upcoming visit. An advance team begins a massive screening of thousands of prospective patients, to see which men, women and children qualify for a surgery. It is common for people to walk for days (and even from neighbouring countries) to find out whether they may be eligible for surgical treatment.

The video below shows the ship and describes some of the work carried out by the dedicated staff that sail within.

Please share this and if you can, donate and help to continue the good work that is carried out by these worthy people.

MOVIE MONDAY - THREE DOLLARS

“Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.” - Richard M. DeVos

For Movie Monday, today an Australian film made in my home city, Melbourne. The film is Robert Connolly’s “Three Dollars” (2005). It is based on Elliot Perlman’s novel of the same name, which I haven’t read, but which I was motivated by the film to read and hopefully will be doing so shortly. The film stars David Wenham, Frances O’ Connor, Sarah Wynter, Robert Menzies, David Roberts and Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik. The film was recommended to me by a friend who described it as “really good and thought-provoking – an intelligent film about modern-day problems and choices we each make in our lives”.

The plot involves Eddie (David Wenham), who is a typical “good guy” in his thirties, living in a large City (Melbourne but could be any other large Western city). He is a public servant in a government environmental testing agency as a chemical engineer. His latest assignment is to investigate soil samples, in what looks to be a lovely country spot, so that a large residential development can go ahead. Eddie’s wife, Tanya, is an academic and they have a young child, the adorable (and scene-stealing!) Abby. They also have a mortgage, problems relating to long-term financial security, career development, relationship stability and generally coping with the small and large problems of the modern-day urban lifestyle. The main premise of the plot is how much pressure a modern-day “nice guy” (who wants to do the right thing by his conscience and his integrity) can take before he succumbs to the temptation of corruption. Will he, won’t he?

I found the film a little tedious. Overlong, with too many details that weakened the plot and many scenes that diluted the central theme and distracted the viewer. For the first 90 minutes of the film (and it is 118 minutes long) there is little that happens and the humdrum details of everyday life are stretched out to the point of making one yawn. There is some distracting flash-back/flash-forward nonsense that is meant to enhance the plot, but that also was a distractor rather than adding to the artistic merit of the film or serving to build up to the climax. It is becoming an annoying habit with novelists and film-makers to do this flashing back and forth in order to “build tension”, but the device so often falls flat on its face…

Much is made of the “three dollars” of the title, and the three coins turn up in various scenes, but I found this a lame ruse, and ultimately devoid of the huge significance given to it by the writer/director.  The tagline of the film is “It’s about change…” – an obvious pun and as far as puns go a weak one. Director Connolly says of the film; “it’s an epic story of an ordinary man”. Hardly epic, and Eddie is not too ordinary by modern urban standards…

Now for the good points. The acting was well done on most counts and as I mentioned earlier young Abby was played extremely well by Joanna Hunt-Prokhovnik. There is a cute scene, homage to Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” and I liked seeing my hometown on the big screen. With a bit of re-editing and lots more film on the cutting room floor, this movie could be improved dramatically. If you have not seen the film I won’t spoil it for you, but for those who have seen it, don't you think that the beginning of the film really weakens its whole plot development?

POETRY JAM - PATH

“Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.” - Oprah Winfrey

Poetry Jam this week has the theme of “Path” as its stimulus for all contributors who choose to respond to this creative writing challenge. While lots of ideas came into my mind when considering the topic, the most obvious is what generated the poem you see below as my contribution (with obvious inspiration from Robert Frost):

The Path not Chosen

And I wonder what would have happened
Had I taken that other path?
A life lived differently, is another life,
Another's life, after all.

Would all have been better, brighter,
And the other me, happier?
My memories different, memories strange
A stranger's memories, after all.

Would I still be living or now dead,
Had I trodden a different path?
My choices disparate, a wealth of options unexplored,
Someone else's selections, after all.

And yet the path I follow,
Has given joys, as well as sorrows;
I've stepped on roses, not only thorns,
I've heard sweet songs, not just dirges,
After all, my path has been eventful.

The path not chosen, may have promised much,
But life is a great leveller,
And mixes dark and light, honey and poison;
It's up to us to make of our path a smooth one,
After all, I am grateful for my choice.

POETRY JAM - TRASH OR TREASURE?

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” – English Proverb

Poetry Jam's topic for this week is: “Think of something that was trash/junk to you and a treasure to someone else, or vice versa – someone else’s trash/junk as your treasure. Write a poem about the experience.” Here is my offering:

Keepsakes

A closed drawer opened:

A dirty, crumpled envelope;

A dried-up mouldy flower;

A piece of faded fabric torn;

A Cracker Jack ring made of tin;

And a little stone heart, broken.

All trash; they were thrown out.

All trash; they were thrown out,

With other junk found all about

In house locked up in silence,

Disturbed by renovator’s violence.

A dirty, crumpled envelope;

That holds a treasured note,

Where words of tender hope

With love you fondly wrote.

A dried-up mouldy flower;

Once cut with sweet affection

In rosy, fragrant secret bower,

To mark our joy’s perfection.

A piece of faded fabric torn;

From summer dress then worn,

My finger’s wound to stanch –

Caused by the thorny branch.

A Cracker Jack ring made of tin;

Given in earnestness of youth,

Was good enough your heart to win,

Its tinny falsity concealing truth.

And a little stone heart, broken –

That signals doom, betrayal

Of vows of love then spoken

And of our play’s inept portrayal…

Our story’s ended, new ones start

With players fresh and young of heart,

Not mindful of the sad portent

Of closed drawer opened.