Lost in wild surging seas

Mandraki beach on the wild and windy western side of Skiathos.
Where most of Xerxes european invasion fleet ended up after being defeated and scattered by the Athenean and Ionean navy. Lots of surging currents around the island.
 I imagined being an exhausted persian galley slave, as our barque burst its shell against the jagged rocks. Chained to the oar as the timbers around me started to shatter and split with the foaming blue surging in.. grasping my last breath as the tyrene wallowed ever deeper.
Lungs burning as I watch my fellow oarsmen scream the last terrified oxygen bubbles from their wide open jaws.
Probably a Greek prisoner, maybe even from Skiathos in the first place.
Reminded me of T.S.Eliot. From the Wasteland.

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,

Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell

And the profit and loss.

                                   A current under sea

Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell

He passed the stages of his age and youth

Entering the whirlpool.

                                   Gentile or Jew

O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

Flat out of Hethel

I had a bit of a flat day today.

First day back at work and a long old drive across the fens to a new job in Norfolk.

I met some old mates, had a health and safety talk, had my photo taken. Then found out that the hours, rate and rigid rules and conditions were not as I was told.

So I said cheerio and chugged my way back home. Ah well!

This isn't Norfolk, it is nearby to the setting of my soon to be published Story.

Just north of Glencoe, on holiday last August.

Tartan Clash

This is a screenshot from the artwork of my short story.

It is quite a long short story, and will be published on kindle next weekend after its final edit this week.

It is about professionally orchestrated violent encounters. Using ancient vendetta and grudges from the past, and playing them out wild and vivid in the present.

Salty Nutsack

We didn't go over to the small Banana nudist beach.
 We stayed on the Big Banana, non nudist beach for a couple of days.
But I do like a good skinny dip as much as the next person.
I have thought of a good name for my new beach boys tribute band if anyone wants to join.
I was inspired by my uncomfortable speedos that are past their best.

Thinking Global

Just got back from a week in Skiathos.
Swam all over the island, thoroughly immersed ourselves in the fresh salty Agean sea.
Staring out at the curve of our azure blue globe on a boat trip, I wondered.
Is that the actual curve of the Earth, or is it the curve of my eyeball?
I put this to my new pal Yannis, who attributed the phenomena to the strength of the Sangria that he had made for the trip over to Tsougria.

After a lay off from the blog. And an industrious last few years working in central Bohemia. Buying a house, mowing my lawn and all kinds of other domestic drudgery.
 I have just returned from a swimming trip up in Scotland. Bathing in the Glen Brittle Faerie pools on the isle of Skye. And in the river Etive near Glen coe.
And I have been writing a bit of poetry too.
This poem is a look at what happens when the oral tradition is replaced by the written and recorded.

See What You Think.

Oral tradition brought to line.
Structured into geometric angles and loops
looping on lines, rhythms and rhymes
from ages before, an archaic prosaic,
quickly forgotten time.

The storytellers art, quantified and objective.
Homogenised, examined and taken apart.
Re-combined into lingual score
re-construed into print. quickly tran- slated
as the franca-de-lingua power planes shift.

Easier to censor than tales told, soft by a fire.
Eyes all wide as outside, elements and oceans
battle and clash..

Wide eyes follow as lips, shifting ideas,
exposing morals tell of
Dragons hot teeth or
Lions with wings.
Allude to the weakness of Pharoes
the double standards of Kings.

Powers greatest weakness!

It's human crave for applause
ignore all the flaws and allow our media masters
to draw for us..
Our own simple conclusions