on christmas day in the morning

Wandered down the stairs.
A robin redbreast was on the bird table at the kitchen window looking directly at me.
He waited a moment and flew off.
I hadn't seen a robin for months.
In my heart I felt the robin was by the grace of God bringing a greeting from my mother who died five years ago.
Later a neighbour called.
She said: "I came downstairs at 6am and there was a robin at the backdoor just looking at me. I hadn't seen a robin for months."
I asked her what she thought that meant.
She said: "I thought it was a message from my Mam and Dad. They died years ago but every now and then something happens like this and I just get a feeling. If you're open to it, I think you can see signs like this all the time."

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

(Photo by Irina Kuksova)

satan's fear

The devil is really terrified.
He's really terrified that people will spend Christmas thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ in the world and in their hearts.
He's really terrified.
That's why he engineered the murders of children in America this week.
It's why he works so hard to get people to commit suicide.
It's why he wants me to hate Muslims.
If for even a moment our hearts are touched by the beauty of God, our heaven would begin right now here on earth.
All the creation is calling to us.
The glorious signature of God in every created thing.
People.
Cultures.
Animals.
Spirituality.
Rabbi Dalin.
Faith.
Hope.
Love.
Anthony Flew.
David Bentley Hart.
Philosophies generally.
Atheism.
Rationo empirical conceptions of the universe.
Richard Dawkins.
Lucia Lozano.
Chiara Tosto.
Evgenia Tarasova.
Beautiful Judith.
The universe itself.
Music.
Languages.
Friends.
Enemies becoming friends.
Prayer.
Prayer for friends.
Prayer for enemies.
Spiritual ecstasy.
Trees.
The stars.
The Wicklow Mountains.
Rome.
The colour blue.
Any colour.
A side street in Dublin.
The guy diving into the river to save his rabbit and the fire brigade saving both him and the rabbit.
Everything.
Everything proclaims the truth of God.
Everything liberates us eternally with the light of love.
The devil has to work awful hard to stop us noticing.
Otherwise this war would be over tonight.


********
(Originally published 14th December 2012)

free verse

the evening light has made magical
drab mullingar
i have seen the cities that men build
from the window of a nissan motor car
and all the blighted wonders of this tawdry world
how nothing they are
the evening light has made magical
drab mullingar

let me walk again
the tumbledown portals of socialist housing estates
where cats and dogs and children crowd
the cracked up pavements and the rusty gates
and the door is always open and the music loud
in the half light of that hell hole clancys bar
the evening light has made magical
drab mullingar

what are little jihadis made of

As Muslim Jihadi's launch their usual end of year murder spree across Europe, an odd reflection comes to mind.
I am thinking of the dynamic to Jihad that involves dysfunctions in our own culture and freedoms, specifically disruptions to adult masculinity stemming from Hollywood and European films generally.
I remember hostages kidnapped by Hezbollah Jihadis in Lebanon during the 1980's with survivors being released in the 1990's, stating that their captors had spent hours each day watching Rambo movies and similar fare.
The recent attack on the concert hall in Paris involved Muslims spraying the crowd with machine guns using a methodology reminiscent of a scene from a Quentin Tarantino film entitled Inglorious B-------.
An ex Jihadi has commented on Irish television this week that the men who involved him in Jihad were very taken with a movie called The Matrix.
Of course the Muslim Jihad against humanity predates Hollywood.
But I would suggest that the psychopathology of the modern Muslim male is infernally linked to the violence and porno of contemporary film making.
We cannot be sure of victory over these people.
We can only deserve it.
At the moment we do not deserve it.
Frankly, I think Tarantino's films are not worth the life of any human being.

top ten times i've disagreed with donald trump

1. Mr Trump's criticisms of former President Bush's military intervention in Iraq are hollow. If Mr Bush had not mandated decisive action against Saddam Hussein's murderocracy in Iraq, we might now be facing a Saddam Hussein armed with nuclear weapons. That would be even less fun than the international Jihad we currently face, a Jihad which was already well underway decades before Mr Bush ended the Saddam regime. The only effect Mr Bush's policies have had on the international Jihad against humanity is to bring it into plain view.

2. I disagree with Mr Trump's mean minded criticisms of fellow Presidential nominee candidate for the Republican Party, Ben Carson.

3. Er, that's it.

a brief monograph on miss universe

Last night the Miss Universe pageant crowned Miss Columbia Ariadne Gutierrez as the new Miss Universe.

Then the presenter, a capable fellow called Steve Harvey, announced he'd made a mistake.

The crown was taken off Ariadne Gutierrez.

The crown was then placed on Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach.

I suggest that the mistaken announcement was staged deliberately by the contest organisers in order to generate public interest in the Miss Universe pageant.

It is a standard tactic now at large scale televised events to stage some sort of controversy in order to attract attention.
I do not believe either of the two contestants was in on the scam.

The correct thing to do now in any case, is to award two titles, that is to make both Ariadne Gutierrez and Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach joint holders of the Miss Universe crown for the year.

strange visitors

come with me
to the darkest most beautiful night
that the world has ever seen
and ever might
we can sit on the straw
we'll get warm from it
and watch the stillness draw
a cloak of peace
through a time of war
lambs are calling in the fields
that this night is forever
and forever yields
to this night
we are there
caught in the warmth
from things that are old
and things that are rare
look look my friend
gold
frankincense
and myrhh

mystic pizza

News has come through that an IRA mafia capo who styles himself Thomas Slab Murphy has been found guilty of tax evasion in the Special Criminal Court of the Republic of Ireland.
I admit to being somewhat surprised that our IRA infiltrated courts system was capable of convicting him of anything.
No surprise of course in the decision to let him out on bail over the Christmas period.
Rah men love to be loose at Crimbo.
One aspect of the case did give me a wry smile.
According to the Irish Independent newspaper this man's home address is in a townland called Hackballscross.
Not for the first time, I am struck by the queer synchronicity that gilds our wraith like passage through the cosmos.