BE A DEMON by D H Lawrence (1929)

Oh be a demon

outside all class!

If you’re a woman

or even an ass

still be a demon

beyond the mass.

Somewhere inside you

lives your own little fiend,

and woe betide you

if he feels demeaned,

better do him justice,

keep his path well cleaned.

When you’ve been being

too human, too long,

and your demon starts lashing out

going it strong,

don’t get too frightened

it’s you who’ve been wrong.

You’re not altogether

such a human bird,

you’re as mixed as the weather,

not just a good turd,

so shut up pie-jaw blether,

let your demon be heard.

Don’t look for a Saviour,

you’ve had some, you know!

Drop your sloppy behaviour

and start in to show

your demon rump twinkling

with a hie! hop below!

If, poor little bleeder,

you still feel you must follow

some wonderful leader

now the old ones ring hollow,

then follow your demon

and hark to his holloa!

NOT LONG TO GO NOW!

I am so excited. Thrilled. For the first time in one thousand years, I, as an ordinary person, have just been invited to celebrate my freedom and sovereignty. I will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder, for the first time ever, with British aristocrats. I will be equal – for a few minutes, at least – to the nobility, to the elite, of British society.

I am still overcome with the reality of it all.

I’m told that I will be part of a truly radical act. As inclusive as you can get, in the privacy of my lounge, or outdoors on the patio – weather permitting. Next Saturday I will be able to join with millions in the UK in swearing. A posh kind of swearing!

As KC3 – nothing to do with KFC – will be crowned king, we, the people, are being crowned as well. We ordinary folk will also be able to swear allegiance to the new British monarch in our homes.  Actually, for my generation, every home did have a ‘throne room.’ How often did we hear the phrase, across the nation, that so-and-so was currently ‘on the throne’!

Allegiance? There is actually a more medieval word, a posher word, a more subservient word for allegiance. ‘Homage’, although you don’t pronounce the ‘H’. It’s Omage! O mage. Oh my!

‘Never before in our history’ (I’m swooning already) has the public (you and me) been offered the chance to pay homage in this way’, said the HQ of the established English religion in Lambeth. The same Lambeth borough where 33% of the working age population live in poverty.

But that doesn’t matter, because Justin, the Anglican Archbishop in Lambeth does have a job and he’ll be in charge of religious proceedings on Saturday.

Armed with the actual words – courtesy of our nation’s  newspapers – Justin Cantuar, as he is known, will directly ask little-old-me, not only to ‘Pay true allegiance to KC3,’ but also to KC3’s heirs and successors, according to law’. And then the punchline, ‘So help me God’, although the service sheet doesn’t explain which God it is, or maybe it should be Goddess, in this all-inclusive society of ours!

This is a lot to take on board, but someone has described it as ‘democracy in action’, so it must be OK: KC3, KW5, and even tiny KG7, who is currently nine years old. True allegiance or truly daft?

Then I have to shout – after all, our house is about 130 miles from Westminster – ‘May KC3 live for ever’. Forever? My Mother and Father didn’t get to live forever, but, that’s not surprising, because they didn’t get that special holy oil poured on their heads, hands and breasts.

Pantomime in May!  Why not, after all, it is a royal pantomime.

Geraintus Cambrensis, Archdruid of Cambria, Lord of Bannau Brycheiniog, Protector of Llaregub and Duke of Azard. 1 May 2023

This could be a picture of Archdruid Cambrensis et al

Here it is

The margins of the forest are beautiful,
as if painted onto the green slopes.
I walk around, and sweet peace
rewards me for the thorns
in my heart, when the mind has grown
dark, for right from the start
art and thinking have cost it pain.
There are lovely pictures in the valley,
for example the gardens and trees,
and the narrow footbridge, and the brook,
hardly visible.  How beautifully
the landscape shines, cheerfully distant,
like a splendid picture, where I come
to visit when the weather is mild.
A kindly divinity leads us on at first
with blue, then prepares clouds,
shaped like gray domes, with
searing lightning and rolling thunder,
then comes the loveliness of the fields,
and beauty wells forth from
the source of the primal image.

The Shrine of the Fugitive Stag at O.T.H.

Pont Shem earlier in the year

This is the house.  On one side there is darkness,
On one side there is light.
Into the darkness you may lift your lanterns—
O, any number—it will still be night.
And here are echoing stairs to lead you downward
To long sonorous halls.
And here is spring forever at these windows,
With roses on the walls.

Words from Conrad Aiken’s ‘House of Dust’. Thinking of Western politicians, even should they suddenly champion the light in 2023, it is, sadly, too late.

Music, a sudden glissando, sinister, troubled,
A drift of wind-torn petals, before him passes
Down jangled streets, and dies.
The bodies of old and young, of maimed and lovely,
Are slowly borne to earth, with a dirge of cries.

Down cobbled streets they come; down huddled stairways;
Through silent halls; through carven golden doorways;
From freezing rooms as bare as rock.
The curtains are closed across deserted windows.
Earth streams out of the shovel …

Conrad Aiken 1889-1973

‘While the Shadow & Bone adaptation doesn’t spend too much time on the history of the Stag, the novels clearly outline its importance to the Ravka people. It is an ancient and white, glowing stag that only appears at twilight. The Stag can talk and even grant wishes to those who capture it. Because of its magical qualities, the Stag was believed to be a myth by the Ravka’. (Brynne Ramella 28.04.21) .

Jessie Mei Li born in Brighton 1995 to an English mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father. Li was diagnosed with ADHA in early adulthood.

True to life? Yes, sadly.

The Brest Fortress was the first military site in the Soviet Union to be hit by the German army on 22 June 22 1941. Completely cut off from the main forces, its 9,000-strong garrison put up fierce resistance for more than a week. Individual soldiers continued to fight almost until the end of July.

The movie was shot jointly by Russian and Belarusian filmmakers. During the shooting, which took place on the territory of the original fortress, the remains of Soviet soldiers, unexploded bombs and shells were discovered.

The film is told from the perspective of an old man telling his grandson about the battle that he had lived through whilst the same age as his grandson. The main character ( at the time of the battle) is an orphan who lives in the Fortress with his older brother, both are in the Red Army .

DIRECTOR: Aleksandr Kott was born on 22 February 1973 in Moscow, USSR [now Russia]. He is a director and producer, known for Test (2014), Fotograf (1998) and Insayt (2015). He is married to Anna Tsukanova-Kott. They have one child.

Aleksandr has a twin brother, Vladimir, who is also director and writer.

The Occupation (2020) tells the incredible true story of Sara Goralnik, a 13 year-old Polish Jew, whose entire family was killed by Nazis in September 1942. Michael K writes: A very well made film which shows what life was like in a peasant farming community in occupied Eastern Europe during WW2. The settings and characters provide strong authenticity and the story line illustrates the terrible collateral damage war extracts on innocent civilians.

PERSIAN LESSONS (20210 inspired by true events. This moving story about a Jewish prisoner in a prison of war camp in France is harrowing at times but the main characters are excellently portrayed and keep you enthralled. Well acted and filmed which give a feel for the conditions the prisoners were kept under. Nahuel P Biscayart plays the prisoner and a German favourite of ours, Lars Eidinger, plays the Officer (Watching him also in ‘Faking Hitler’ and Berlin Babylon 4 at the moment).

ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR (2019) Horrendous in part, the film is based, on the Sobibor revolt which occurred in 1943 in German-occupied Poland. The main character of the movie is the Jewish-Soviet soldier Alexander Pechersky, who was a lieutenant in the Red Army. In October 1943, he was deported to the Sobibor death camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. In just three weeks, Pechersky planned an uprising with prisoners from Poland and other locations around Western Europe. This uprising was partly successful, allowing roughly 300 prisoners to escape, of whom roughly 60 survived the war – Wikipedia. Only when reading up did I ‘place the face’ of the cruel commandant – Christopher Lambert, who is now 65. Tarzan! I thought those eyes looked familiar.

LOCAL SKIRMISH (2017) another film from Russia, directed by Aleksey Kozlov. World War II, 31 December 1943. A quartermaster squad of five Russian soldiers, trailing the front line by 20km or so, march into a tiny, mostly abandoned village on the road to Pskov. 

I’m going to quote madmonty12345 in full, as he encapsulates what we felt: ‘Now and again a little movie comes along which manages to convey more about a subject than any big blockbuster. I thoroughly recommend it, and I argue in its hour and a half, does a better job telling a soldiers story in war than many Hollywood war movies I’ve seen, no histrionics , none of the American style ‘a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do’ guff , no flag waving or chest beating here and its all the better for it. Its a small budget movie,so there are some scenes where the acting isn’t top notch, but in a way it makes the film feel all the more real, especially its small location of the farmstead.’

YES, A SMALL FILM WITH A BIG HEART.

A French-Belgian series from 2022, with Audrey Fleurot, ‘WOMEN AT WAR’, a Spanish production with Milena Smit and Jose Coronado, ‘SNOW GIRL’, (2023) and the 2022 Irish production set in 1862 Ireland, with Niamh Alghar Kila Lord Cassidy, called ‘THE WONDER’. What a variety and well worth watching.

All three series ***** for plot, characters, actors, cinematography etc. Excellent all round. Ticks all the boxes. So glad we hesitated with BB, so we were able to watch BCS first of all. Yes, three mini series of the highest order in all departments. Thank you Amazon Prime and Nexflix. Ardderchog yn wir. Binge watching at its orgasmic best!

If I long for a shore in Europe,

It’s a small pond, dark, cold, remote,

The odor of evening, and a child full of sorrow

Who stoops to launch a crumbled paper boat.

(From Rimbaud’s ‘The Drunken Boat’)

Now I, a little lost boat, in swirling debris …

True, I’ve cried too much …

Bruno Amadio’s ‘Crying Boy’

Arthur Rimbaud 1854-1891