ACTIVATE!

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” – Ovid

The New What’s Going On Blog has given the challenge this week of writing about making a statement about asserting one’s rights, fighting for freedom, raising one’s voice and become active in bringing about change in a world that is unfair, unjust and steeped in inequality. It is a message of becoming united with fellow sufferers and making wrong things right. Here is my offering:

Activate

Get up, and mobilise, 

It’s time to verbalise

And voice your discontent!

We live in times that stress us

Have leaders that distress us,

And lifestyles that aggress us,

Depress, and downright regress us!

Get up, and mobilise, 

It’s time to verbalise

And voice your discontent!

Your silence means consent,

So, talk! Talk loud, talk clear

This is no time for fear!

Our time has come to shine,

Our strategy streamline,

To organise, combine,

Draw on the sand our line.

Get up, and organise, 

It’s time to verbalise

And voice your discontent!

Your silence means consent,

So, talk! Talk loud, talk clear

This is no time for fear!

Get up, and march together, 

In any place or weather,

It’s time to change for better,

To free and to unfetter.

And seeing that it was a song that was given as an example to be inspired by, I set the above poem to music and you can listen to it in my “Otidorchestre” channel on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, and other music sharing sites.

NOCTURNE

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” - Plato

Poets and Storytellers United this week asks us to “pick a picture and write about it”. What has inspired me is a painting by Henri Rousseau, the French naïf artist, called “The Snake Charmer”. It is done in his signature style and is a wonderful mysterious image, all about the power of music.

And since it’s all about music, you can hear this poem set to music in my “Otidorchestre” sites on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Flo, Pandora, etc.

Nocturne

In the stillness of the night

To the silvern moon’s delight

Sweetly does the flute resound

Spilling music all around.

Ebon skin and hair that shimmers

Shiny glance that softly glimmers,

Sinuous and sweet’s the air

Luring beasts from out their lair.

Music makes the jungle tame

Calms and yet ignites a flame.

Music soothes the savage beast

Rouses passions in the priest.

Neath the moon’s resplendent orb

Flowers music’s strains absorb.

Snakes start to slither, slide,

Right up to the flautist glide.

She charms serpent, beast and bird

With her music not her word;

Now the snakes around her creep

Up they climb, roused from sleep.

Music heals the deepest wound

Makes the air around perfumed.

Music calls to arms and strife,

Yet assassins drop their knife.

And each gentle leaf unfurls,

Flower twines and softly curls;

As the music upwards floats

Rhythm, melody, sweet notes.

In the stillness of the night

To the silvern moon’s delight

Sweetly does the flute resound

Spilling music all around.

TRAVEL TUESDAY 498 - ELIZABETH TOWER

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” - Samuel Johnson

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, It is also known as the 'heart of British politics'. The Palace lies on the northern bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London.

The Elizabeth Tower, in particular, which is often referred to by the name of its main bell, "Big Ben", is an iconic landmark of London and the United Kingdom in general, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and an emblem of parliamentary democracy. The Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.