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This I can tell you: a word is rarely harmless. It can strike like a match in dry grass, or, it can steady your shaking hand in the dark. It can build a bridge or load a gun. Socrates said it plain, misuse a word and you bend your own soul. Twist language into bait, […]

In the west, across the wracked Atlantic, a sickness rises like steam from a slaughterhouse, and I, an insignificant man from a small green country, watches as a giant stumbles, piss-drunk on its own lies. I know corruption, indeed, all nations have kissed that serpent. But what festers now in the White House isn’t scandal, […]

I once believed I’d poured my deepest love and faith, into the four lives I helped bring forth. But life replete with its trickster grace  has given me six reasons more. Each grandchild, a mirror, a wonder, a mystery, a new dawn breaking – on an old, old shore. . Not replacements. Not echoes. But […]

In Cardiff’s crown, beneath the dome,Where choirs once burst in our dragon home,Last night a different chant was stirredNot “Calon Lân”, but Gallagher.While rugby ghosts weep for Wales demise,Oasis’ crowd turn up in bucket-hats and Levi’s. The brothers arrived with snarl and two chords,And conquered with just cigarettes and alcoholWith denim worn like ancient mail,They […]

I heard those who speak like alarms, others who whisper to the skies. I prefer the latter to slice softly through delusion while the world applauds louder lies. . I raised no flag. I looked into a mirror that refused to flatter. They build. We bomb. They heal. We hoard. They lay tracks. We lay […]

Some forge their weapons in offices, slick tongues sharpened, honed to a politician’s gleam, smiling lies like oil slicks on honest seas. Every syllable slung at the soul for profit, for control, for greed. But not me. Not us. Not the kin of story. We who live by the shudder of language, who hold each […]

(Wrap ‘im in a nappy and don’t ask questions, sit ‘im on a khazi to release his tensions, til, earlie in the morning). Thinking about intoxication levels. We start at the stage which is merely convivial when you’re chatting with family, strangers and rivals, consciously avoiding being too critical. Less about the serious, more about […]

The Bata drum is traditionally associated with the worship of Sàngó, one of Yoruba’s Orisha (ie. God). Sango is the Orisha of thunder and lightning, fire, rhythm, vitality and dance. The drum’s beat is a call to spirit, echoing through generations and symbolizing both resistance and joy. ‘Take This Bata’ is my attempt at a […]

On the valley’s hillside lie shadows of tragedy.Phantoms, memories of a generation lost in sorrowthe black rock they clung to turned murderousAs they were served slurry for breakfast. The pit, and its treasure they clung to for succour, for workbetrayed them, gave forever anguish,blanketed their fathers with the blackest dustand served them slurry for breakfast. […]