Poem for Port Talbot

I'm surprised they let you go on for as long as they did belching your filth and smell. 

'Odour de Port' is what I remember best about travelling passed you on the M4,

 in a vehicle made out of what you produced.

If you hadn't, I would have had to walk.

When I see you, I think of Aberavon Rugby Club and Tai Bach

You, the workers are Wizards, Merlins at your metal

and I salute you for your graft 

I couldn't do it, for pretend poets

do not have calloused hands.

Your futures are now in the hands of politicians and businessmen.

They couldn't do your work either.

You're all pawns in the game.

Shame.

some of my best friends are automata

http://www.artomic.com/automata/automata_page.html

Eeee! He's got some good titles this fella, whatever is he going to be talking about today? 

Definition of automata:  "self-operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to follow automatically a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions".

What got me to thinking about today's Bank Holiday Blog Post was hearing the discussion as I dozed ont radio about Mental Health, the nature v nurture debate and the amount of funding that goes into research. 

"A simmering row over the underlying causes, and best approaches to treatment, of mental illness has broken out into open warfare after a leading academic accused the Medical Research Council of bias. Today’s Science editor Tom Fielden reports and we speak live to Dr Rob Buckle, head of Regenerative Medicine at the Medical Research Council, and Professor Dame Til Wykes, professor of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation at KCL".

The discussion wasn't that inspiring but the debate behind it is fascinating. As you know I am no scientist and I favour the nurture side of the debate as to the causes of mental distress. It is too easy and too convenient for Her Majesty's Scientists to lay the cause at 'Chemical Imbalance & Brain Disorder'. This abrogates society from any responsibility in causing anguish, distress and mental ill health in its citizens. "It's their fault, their family history, their genes and genomes" and here's a tablet and the keys to the local mental health facility. They will be blaming garden gnomes next. You have to have an artistic bent to see that social inequality, poverty, austerity and all the other 'ity' are implicated in fragile, delicate, vulnerable human beings' distress. If we perceive something to be unfair and unjust, then it upsets us. If we are particularly sensitive then all of the worlds ills pumped into our living rooms via 24 hour news can make us seriously unwell, can make us mentally ill. This combined with a number of unfortunate personal life experiences, trauma, bereavement can cause a cocktail of toxicity in our holistic systems that the Medical Research Council funded by Tory Policy can call 'Brain Disorder'.    

My non-scientific hypothesis is "If you are not affected by these things, then you must be automata". If you do not experience extreme sadness, nay, despair, at the state of the world's plight in light of recent bombings, killings and climate change, then you must have a clockwork mechanism going on behind that fizzog of yours and you must have a wooden heart". Yet I am the one who has been given a Mental Health Diagnosis and you are the one who is allowed to wander around Poundland unaccompanied. Now how is that fair?

Killjoy

Sorry to be a killjoy, but why break the habit of a lifetime. The Killjoys in Brussels yesterday have shone a torch on what people take for granted, travel, travelling to work and travelling for leisure. There will be a Euro 2016 game in the French city of Lens on Thursday 16th June between England & Wales, 73 miles from Brussels as the injured crow flies. What better target for a couple of brotherly suicide bombers?  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/ticketless-wales-fans-urged-stay-11004871
Because Wales, the country after which this blog is named, have not been anywhere competitively since 1958, the brouhaha in the UK media will be of the 'We will fight them on the beaches' nature but we all know what happened on a Tunisian beach last year. Before I am accused of being a Quisling and an appeaser to the Islamic state, I wish to state that I was calling them 'bastards' as I listened to the unfolding stories on yesterdays news but there is a difference as I have said before between fighting a known and an unknown enemy. They have sussed the white west's psychology and they know that indiscriminate bombings, be-headings and the use of social media will ultimately trickle through to panic and paranoia. There are so many of us that it is going to take a thousand years at least to get rid of us all and our filthy capitalistic, fascistic and some would say Christian thinking. Even though they do not respect 'us' perhaps we should think about respecting our own safety. Chris Coleman do ave banned the Wags like (apologies for the vernacular)
 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/22/wales-chris-coleman-bans-wags-european-championship
I hope that he will also have the good sense to ban any killjoy bloggers from the game as well.     

Cheap Date

Dwi ddim yn gwybod beth ydy Cheap Date yn Gymraeg ond rhywbeth rhad yn y bôn. Mae Leighton Andrews yn cael ei adnabod fel bruiser. Anodd iawn ddehongli beth sydd yn mynd ymlaen tu ôl i sbectol tylluan yna. Well i fi ddatgan o'r dechrau nad ydw i yn aelod,  nag yn cefnogi un o'r ddwy blaid blentynnaidd yma ond mae'n amlwg fod angen 'bastards' yn rhengoedd Plaid Cymru i gymryd ymlaen hetiau caled Llafur, asgell dde Cymru. A oes wir le i wleidyddiaeth fel hyn gan drafod mesur iechyd? A beth mae'r Arglwydd Dafydd El yn meddwl gan ddweud ei fod wedi cael ei bradychu? Os oes unrhyw un wedi cael ei bradychu, aelodau werin datws y Blaid oedd y rhain pan aeth o off i Dŷ’r Arglwyddi! Ydych chi wedi clywed am unrhyw beth mor chwerthinllyd na 'Blaid Genedlaethol' yn anfon ei aelodau i Bastion Brydeindod? Mae hwn yn fel ar fysedd tew Carwyn gan etifeddu ei agwedd nawddoglyd tuag at 'The Party of Wales'. Un ffaith sydd ddim yn hysbys iawn am yr hen Leighton ydy fod o yn gyn Rhyddfrydwr cyn droi ei got at Labour, yn wir gymaint o ryddfrydwr fel gwnaeth o sefyll iddyn nhw yn Etholiad Cyffredinol 1987 yn sedd Gillingham sydd yn bell iawn o Gymru fel mae braen yn cytuno. Sai’ nabod y dyn ac yn ôl bob sôn mae o yn wleidydd galluog a pwy ydw i ond wallgofddyn ond faswn ni byth yn defnyddio'r term 'cheap date' hyd yn oed os oeddwn wedi bod ar un. Mae'n dangos diffyg 'class' yntydi? 

McRetail round the Bend.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/shops-mcarthurglen-bridgend-8608727

Now it's been a long time since I have been to McArthur Glen, the just out of town, shopping, retail, eating and cinema complex named after a Scottish beauty spot, straddling the M4 like a colosus , up the road from my home town of Bridgend. I was there last Saturday, down town and I had a shock. I thought it was rough as a badger's arsehole. This was a Saturday and it was like a ghost town. The whole place reeked of poverty and austerity as I flounced around like a middle class fop with my nose in a handkerchief pomander and when I got back to dingy St Mary Street in Cardiff, I suddenly had an idea.>Perhaps, McArthurGlen has taken all the footfall away from the centre of Bridgend like St David's 2 on the Hayes has done to Heol Santes Fair.< Now the definition of Gentrification is as follows: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents. Well in this case the poorer residents are still there in Bridgend Town Centre and in St Mary Street and the middle class affluence is going to St David's 2 and McArthur Glen. Now how can you stop this from happening? Perhaps they don't want to stop it. Perhaps the Councils, because I presume that is who is responsible, have planned this deterioration quite purposefully.For what reason? I would have thought it counterproductive to have your town centre and your main city thoroughfare looking like a blot of bleached concrete. Visitors and Tourists will be the first to write blogs and go on tripadvisor. The last time I remember down town deterioration like this was at the height of the 1983 recession/depression.I told a friend about Bridgend and he said he didn't like it because it reminded him of Rhyl and we both remember the Rhyl of 1983. I still get cold shivers down my back thinking about it. If you live it and breath it,perhaps you don't notice it so much but when you are an occasional visitor the starkness of our surroundings hit us. With Gideon George planning more belt tightening tomorrow perhaps there could be a little more thought into town planning so that our towns resemble thriving communities instead of ghost towns. A little re-greening here and there would not go amiss. Pull up the concrete and plant trees. Make somewhere look pretty, green and welcoming and who knows, perhaps it won't get trashed! It won't get trashed if there are plenty of things to do. This all takes money you idealist shark fisherperson. Well it does no harm to mention it I suppose.It's my Blog and my Hometown and I'll moan if I want to.       

The United Reformed Chapel is now just another Pub.

Bus to Porthcawl

BUS TO PORTHCAWL

Am I going to go all the way

or will I get off at first base

Bridgend?

birthplace of fifty years ago

where Mam had burnt toast for brecwast

born at ome I was

upstairs, front room

Dad was at a meeting in work

too squeamish or too cowardly to greet his youngest 

with a handshake.

a boy

but they were expecting a girl, 

to be named Harriet who didn't show

Instead a 'bardd talcen slip'

prosaically popped on to the potty and he has been anal ever since.

So what will it be, bracing sea air to the strains of Paul Robeson's transatlantic telephone call at the Grand Pavilion,

fish and chips and charity shop heaven,

or will I get off in Pen-y-Bont ar Ogwr?

Certainly not Waitrose,

 I mean Cowbridge, which is up its own arse and always has been,

but I'm still in Ely as I write, dressed in a vest and knotted handkerchief

Morris Minor's fortnight with the bank oliday on the orizon.

Got a lifetime to make a decision,

the speed this bus is going.

Principality

PRINCIPALITY

Municipality

Patter cake, Patter Cake 

Baker's Van

driven by

an Emerson Fittipaldi lookalike

smoking roll ups made of

Frangipani.

There's Fanny Caradog

ready to bake for the boys

cos it's match day.

She's a helluva girl,

that's why they like her.

Treating them as if she was their Mam

but also giving them a secret suckle on the teat

round the back, out of sight

milk as white as the Prince of Wales feathers

heaving and kneading into yeast

with oil and wintergreen

crouch touch pause engage

scrummage

and it's all over

for the new young hooker

no longer to be teased by the back row.

The television pixelates back in the club house

the West Wales whine of Davies and the Bombast of Butler

Brains

They're all legends in this place

"As long as both sides get something from the game"

Nid dim llai na chwyldroad

Annwyl Gary

Dwi arddeall fod chi am drafod iechyd meddwl ar raglen prynhawn yma (Gwener) ag hoffwn gynnig rhai sylwadau mewn e-bost i chi efallai cysidro.Mae'r Cynulliad am wybod sut allan nhw helpu pobol sydd yn dioddef! Yn fy mharn personal ac fel cyfarwyddwr artistic cwmni theatr Red Button sydd yn ceisio gweithio o fewn y maes ac i ddyfynnu Saunders Lewis

'
'Nid dim llai na chwyldroad'

sydd ei angen yn ein cymdeithas gystadleuol, gyfalafol. Rydym wedi byw trwy un o gyfnodau mwyaf erchyll a treisgar erioed yn hanes dynol rhyw gan ddechrau gyda 9/11. Rydym ni gyd wedi gweld lluniau treisgar a chlywed storiâu mwyaf erchyll ac mae cymdeithas yn disgwyl i ni fynd i'r gwaith fel petai fod ddim byd wedi digwydd. Sut ydy bobol yn meddwl gall hyn i gyd ddim cael effaith ar feddyliau pobol ifanc yn benodol. Maent yn ceisio tyfu fyny mewn byd mwyaf bygythiol ac wedyn rydym yn synnu pam ei bod yn mynd yn drist ac yn isel ac yn meddwl bydd tabledi o'r Doctor yn ei gwneud nhw yn well. Sticking Plaster ar friw agored ydy hwn. Mae rhaid gwella cymdeithas, mae rhaid dangos i bobol ifanc nag nid dysgu, gweithio, cenhedlu, cystadlu ydy pob dim. Yr economi sydd yn ein harwain. Mae pobol yn rhedeg ar ofn ond ofni be ydym ni yn y bôn? Ofni marw? A thyle’r Cynulliad rhedeg sesiynau trafod marwolaeth yn enwedig marwolaeth yr iaith Gymraeg. Sut all neb ddisgwyl i bobol fod yn iawn ei meddwl gydag un o'r pethau mwyaf sylfaenol, mwyaf eneidiol yn ei bywydau dan fygythiad sef yr iaith maent yn cyfathrebu ynddo. Fydd rhaid i'r Cynulliad ddelio gyda gwreiddiau ein problemau ni fel cymdeithas nid y symptomau.

Fel rhan o strwythur delio da hwn mi allai'r Cynulliad gyda chymorth eich rhaglen chi ffeindio Cymry Cymraeg sydd wedi dioddef iselder ag afiechyd meddwl. Maen nhw wedi bod yn ffonio eich rhaglen yn ddiweddar. Hyfforddwch nhw yn sgiliau advocacy. Nid bobol broffesiynol, feddygol sydd ei angen fan hyn ond bobol reddfol, dosturiol sydd wedi bod yn y mannau tywyll. Pobol sydd wedi gwisgo'r Crys T ac sydd dal yma i weud ei hanes. Rhowch arian tu ôl i rain! Rhowch arian tu ôl i Gymry Cymraeg i fynd allan i siarad â'i gyd Cymry  am y pethau pwysig mewn bywydau fel teimladau, fel iselder, fel diffyg pres a gwaith diddorol sydd werth ei wneud a thranc yr iaith, yn lle parcio a siopa a phapur tŷ bach. Anghofiwch y manion. 

Mae rhaid i ni edrych ar ein cymdeithas artificial a gwirdroi y cwrs mae arni! Dim ond ysbryd ag enaid bobol sydd ddim yn obsessed ag arian a gyrfa all wneud hyn. 

Yn Gywir

Dafydd Williams

Cwmni Theatr Red Button  

Pantomime Politics

As a Socialist Republican who would like to see a Wales free from the United Kingdom, I have to say that I actually feel sorry for UKIP. I used to be one of those who got enraged when I saw a Purple and Gold flyer or sticker but not any more. I think, that despite their despicable politics (Daffy Duck) they might bring a bit of colour to a grey and listless all Wales Council in Cardiff Bay. Neil Hamilton of Fleur de Lys, Blackwood and various day time television programmes might be gracing the air waves again. Mark Reckless, a man with a great name for a politician might get in as well. Gethin James with a gap in his teeth and a Welsh Speaker to boot actually seems like a nice bloke. I, of course would like to see a Green representation having been the voice over for the video of the last Assembly Elections. 

    
Yes, that is me prior to having my nasal polyps removed. I can't pinpoint my accent either which is somewhere between Cardiff and Liverpool. The twang is definitely there. So if I don't make it as a Performance Poet, Actor, Pantomime Villain, I could always go into politics, where everybody else seems to end up. 

Come Piss in my Pension Pot

Come piss in my pension pot

for I do not wish to suffer the 

same fate as Refugees.

Come piss in my pension pot

but not before I sail the high seas

in the yacht I had been saving for.

I fought for this country on the daily nine to five.

wedged on the Kent coast commute

it was only my pension and pocket defibrillator that kept me alive. 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the growing of the pension pot for one has

garden centres and cruises and grandchildren to look forward to.

I have paid for this wine with my time.

Stand aside, hold my jacket,

no European migrant on benefits 

is going to deprive me of what is mine.

I'm not a betting man but on this occasion 

the Chancellor personally assured me 

that I was right to have my eyes on the prize.

Come piss in my pension pot

because Doreen, the wife, is making tea

 and because gold, is the same colour, as wee. 

Didn't he do well?

Well, the reading at the Performance Studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre went well on Wednesday night. I read 3 poems from my new anthology of 101 poems. Started off with 'Bottom of the Ottoman'. Then into the environmentally political 'Porpoise Pink Potel' and then rounding off with 'Elvis Powys'. Two of the poems reference a 70s TV programme and a Rock & Roll Singer who died in 1977 so you might well have a point if you rudely comment "You're living in the past".  The only contemporary reference was to the dumping of Vanish off the coast of Cornwall. It was a very enjoyable night, a real variety performance and for an affordable £5.00 an example of good practice so congratulations to the organiser and of course thanks for letting me read. So what to the future for the 'Bardd Talcen Slip', the Bard of the Bus Stops ? I'm getting involved with all sorts of things that won't make me any money. There must be a moral in there somewhere! 

Tuesday's child is full of grace.

Spose I should write a blog post today seeing as it's St David's Day and my Birthday but I'm feeling like 'Eeyore' today having cycled from Grangetown to Canton and got soaked in the process, to throw the bike in the old jalopy to head down West to see how everybody is doing, to go and thank the lady who gave birth to me 50 years ago today to the day. It was a Tuesday and Tuesday's child is full of grace. She reminds me that the only thing she had for breakfast that day was burnt toast. I wonder whether that's why I have a thing for burnt toast. Well I need to get my 'tigger' back for tomorrow night because I am hoping to go to this and if I get there early enough and get my name down I might be able to read 3 minutes worth of poems from my 'tigger' coloured book of poems.  I was an Eeyore for decades and I still don't buy the chemical imbalance in the brain business. I buy the 'sensitive soul' line battered and bruised by a cruel uncaring world. That is why I write doggerel. I'm not ashamed to write it. It amuses me, even if it pisses off the more serious bards. So if you'll excuse me, I've got some recitation to practice.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/david-williams/101-poems/paperback/product-22577731.html