I always understood the Danish people to be sensible, tolerant people so it is very disturbing to receive a message that seems to indicate that an influential group of Danish Politicians are not. Have a look at this website which contains an open letter to President Elect Obama. I am sure it does not apply to the majority of Danish People but it is a matter that should be known.

 http://www.panhumanism.com/letter_to_obama.php

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

 

FROST ON THE GRASS

 

It was a break frost meeting

On cannabis and Police informers.

No one came,

Only the Flower People,

Warm in bed,

Making peace and love.

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

Okay, Dundee University conducted a survey which found that babies in away facing buggies were more likely to grow up as stressed adults. This was part of a campaign to get parents to talk to children more. So that is the first doubt cast on this as a genuine piece of research.

And did a buggy seller fund it? They could not lose, whatever the result, as doting parents out of step with the findings would rush off to replace their existing buggy. Is this just another ploy to boost sales in a recession or am I just being cynical?

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

I’m afraid I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to snow and ice on the roads and as a consequence I missed opportunities to hear Martin Wyndham- Read at both Robin Hood’s Bay and Mickleby. I gather Robin Hood’s Bay Folk Night was quite hilarious as Vin Garbutt turned up unexpectedly.

Anyway, managed to make the Station at Whitby on Sunday night on Shank’s pony. A good night with lots of people from all over, London, Lancashire, Barnsley as well as Whitby. Young Rupert from London is one to watch; a singer guitarist he performs traditional material in a vocally very inventive way as well as the odd self penned song. Unfortunately, he and his companion were only up for a week but he hopes to come back in the future, maybe Folk Week.

Off to Saltburn tonight, weather permitting, to find out what is happening to the copying of my new flute CD.

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

I was driving along the other day and got to thinking about the habit that has grown up in the UK of placing flowers by the roadside where a road traffic death has occured, something at one time only seen in Catholic countries where a roadside shrine was created for religious reasons. When I pulled into the car park at the end of my journey I wrote the poem that follows:

FLOWERS 

They laid the flowers by the road,

A sign of sorrow, sympathy, respect.

They knew so little

There was little to forget.

 

And everyday, and everyday,

The people pass that way

And ask, “Who are the flowers for?”

And more and more the answers come,

“I do not know. I do not know.

I never knew.”

 

They laid the flowers by the road,

A sign of sorrow, sympathy, respect.

They knew so little

There was little to forget.

 

And in the dew of night

The plastic sparkles in the lights

And every night the people pass

And less and less

That question ask,

“Who were the flowers for?”

 

They laid the flowers by the road,

A sign of sorrow, sympathy, respect.

They knew so little

There was little to forget.

 

And as the wind and rain

Blow through the Wintertime

To Spring

And the birds to nest and sing,

There lies a dishevelled mound

That seems to some, at dusk,

A broken, human form

No one remembers

Which was never born.

 

They laid the flowers by the road,

A sign of sorrow, sympathy, respect.

They knew so little

There was little to forget.

 

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

I read the other day that some researchers had concluded that sparrow numbers were low because people were concreting over their gardens and there was a scarcity of the bugs sparrows on which feed their young, which were being hatched and starving to death.

My memory is that when I and Adam were lads the back to backs in Towns were covered with sparrows, and not a blade of grass or a bush in sight. People these days do not have a sense or knowledge of how things were, history. The real reason is that there are few desireable nesting sites available to sparrows. In the old days sparrows used to nest in great colonies in peoples’ tiled roofs there being plenty of access to scrabble under the old pantiles and broken slates. Now roofs are made to be completely sealed, no room for nesting sparrows. So, sparrows have to pick less well protected nesting sites, if they can find any. In the old days people and sparrows had a symbiotic relationship.

Modern roofing equals no sparrows.

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com
 

TONIGHT, at the Black Swan Folk, Club,York - the famous All Comers Acoustic Night - singers,musicians,poets all welcome. Get there early to get on the list and not be disappointed. Doors Open 8pm.

Tony Morris, MC will be playing his Native American Style Flutes,
David Swann, your door host, will be playing his beautiful self-penned Folk songs.

BUT MAINLY YOURSELVES!

AND,OF COURSE, 
FOLK WHO WANT TO JUST LISTEN ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE EVENING

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

Just been talking to the Director of the Ryedale Folk Museum and he tells me they are trying to raise £2.3million. This is one of Yorkshire’s treasures and Mike Benson, the Director is  a real ‘go-getter’ which he will need to be if they are to raise this sort of money. The Museum is opening free with lots going on on 6 and 7 of December 2008. It is a large site and a lot of it outdoors so wrap up warm and get there. It is almost a Village in its own right, in the middle of Hutton-le-Hole. Tell all your friends.

There’s a link to the Museum website from mine.

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com

Interesting few days. Tom McConville and David Newey at the Black Swan York last Thursday were a joy to listen to and a jopy to MC. Tom McConville is not only a fasntastic fiddle player but also a very nice fella to boot. David Newey is an up and coming new talent to watch.

In preparation for my new CD of music with an English Pastoral Theme played on Native American Style Flutes, I had ordered CD Mailers from a firm offering free 24 hour delivery. I waited in for them all Tuesday and rang the firm Wednesday as they had not not arrived. The Firm rang PDS, which is Parceline by another name, and got the reply that delivery had been refused. This was impossible as no one had come to the door. It meant that they had tried to deliver the box to the wrong house. Anyway, as I was going to York on Thursday I arranged to pick up the box from PDS depot. This turned out to be tucked away in an obscure corner of the Clifton Moor Industrial Estate. It took some finding I tell you. It was also fortified with a very narrow turnstile gate that caught the back of one’s heel as one went through. When I complained that this was a Health and Safety risk (I could have been lamed), the only response I got was,”Yes, that’s happened to me.” What sort of and answer is that? When I was given the box I was told that the driver had not been able to find the house, different from ‘delivery refused’. Getting the box out through the narrow turnstile was also a problem.

If you don’t laugh at the crass amateurism of these companies that are supposed to be providing a service one  may  go stark raving bonkers.

Tony Morris
www.tonymorrispoet.com