Hope

The world stirs, breathes
and moves in its own way,
in measured moments of
unexpected being and

becoming, where fear
and hope walk side by
side, and sometimes
share a smile of new

understanding; for they
were forged in the same
fire, and honed by the
same hammer, beaten

through the molten
days, until they took
shape and form in
this strange, beautiful

and mysterious cosmos;
where life dances to
its own unique tune-
perfect in its own way,

despite the tangled
flaws, of brokenness,
and its fraying dreams,
and bright, worn edges.

https://dversepoets.com/2019/12/17/poetics-new-year-new-world/#comment-192921

Scent

The sense of it enticing,
full measure of delight,
the scents of it inviting;
perfumed dance requites.

In aromatic envelope,
your body lingers still,
drifts of distant memory;
grief can never quell.

In fabric folded gift,
clothes no longer worn,
you stay with me eternal;
lost life forever torn.

The sense of it enticing,
full measure of delight,
the scents of it inviting;
perfumed dance denied.

Echo

Life is small, tiny in the truth of itself, 
and yet, the sound it makes, eternal
in that echo of being, resounding, and
bouncing off the hollow walls of time

is enormous, and we stand, listen
and hold to awe, reflecting that so
much can come, from so little, and 
that even in the smallest things is 

something great, with a voice which
calls throughout the corridors of ages
and demands we listen; holds us to
account in this great, cosmic play. 

https://dversepoets.com/2019/12/10/poetics-echo-echo-echo/

Black

Black sucks in all things,
refusing to reflect, to
allow the light to bounce
back in a colouring of

being, where all is con
sumed and devoured, in
a great swallowing of
being, whether cosmic

hole, clothes, night or
the caverns of depression
which allow nothing to
be released and all is

held, contained, trapped,
imprisoned in life's
refusal to allow expression...
such is blackness.

https://dversepoets.com/2019/11/05/dverse-poetics-on-shades-of-black/

Words

Words emit, rent air, claims,
calls and warnings of doom
in a world which has long
forgotten how to be, and,

in the doing, demanded
more and valued less, as
waste piles ever higher
and fear towers above

all of it, drowning in
that ocean of desire,
demand, and utter
hopelessness, where

the angels whisper of
hope, but remain unheard
as the clamour grows for
someone to step in and

save us, to do some
thing, when what is
needed is for us to be,
in the fullness of love.

Feathered

https://dversepoets.com/2019/09/03/poetics-art-as-inspiration-introducing-beverly-dyer/

Removed, released, abandoned
falling to the earth, lost in flight
descending, shuddering to
birth. So in death abundance,
new ways to be known, drowned
in ink, enamoured, stories to
be told. Feathered are the minutes
of that final flight, tossed on
breath of angels, drifting out
of sight. Delicate abundance,
whispering to the wind, calling
to the dance of life - so it all
begins........

Does it matter?

Does it matter, what
we think, or want, or
even do? In terms of
any plan life may have
for us, or are we just
like puppets on a stage,
with lines written, set
in time and stone, with
string being pulled by
something else, to make
us move in certain ways,
at certain times? Does
any of it really matter
beyond how we feel on
this stage called life,
and even then, does it
really matter and how
can we know what matters
and what does not, or
if the truth is that
everything matters and
nothing matters in that
paradox of existence?

Summer

Creep of warmth at dawn,
sucking away the last of a
cool night, huddling under
the rise of bright sun, so do

Summer days begin, and
wait, in slow heartbeats of
rising temperature; sodden
in their promise of a raging

day, where curtains will be
pulled to imprison darkness,
holding at bay the bright,
white, light from a burning

beating, brutal solar master;
as the hours pass in quiet
reflection, and dreams drift
on soothing, cool breezes.

Summer in the great South
Land, where huge wastes
of desert, reflect in pitiless
constancy, the searing heat.

https://dversepoets.com/2019/07/30/hot-time-in-ye-ole-pub-tonight/#comment-175068

to move

To move beyond the moment,
embrace the touch of time,
surrender to eternity; such
destiny defined. And yet

in seeming silences, I
wait and ponder why, the
moment demands leaving,
when staying is required.

To move beyond the moment
seems surely to be wise,
and yet the heart calls halt;
suggests I wait awhile.

This constant inner battle,
this tussle of the soul, oils
the cogs of sanity, leaves
madness at the side.

And then in whispered
minutes, the pull of life
ensures, that moving on
is destiny; to stay is not

allowed. For straggling
in the hem of days, are
stories to be told, brushed
clean by steady movement:

all doubt is now resolved. 

Time

Is there such a thing as
time; measuring out of
moments, where some
thing concrete is made

and holds fast, regard
less of whether we are
aware of it, or if we
are awake or sleeping?

Time can drag through
seeming eternity, or
vanish in an instant at
the moment of sleep.

Where does it go, and
did it ever exist when
its form and shape are
so unreliably existing?

Time mocks, consoles,
weeps with us and
rails against itself, in
endless, full motion.

And it is silent beyond
the slow ticking of its
heart, which beats in
rhythm with our own.

Reduced

We are reduced, brought
down into small places,
long ignored in the days
of youth, if indeed, ever

imagined. But time trims
and prunes inexorably, to
bring the minutiae of life
into our minds, in order

that the trivial, banal and
inconsequential, can be
known for what they
really are - the building

blocks of our being; the
atoms of our soul; the
threads offered for slow
weaving in allotted days.

Wintered

As the days draw tight
and darkening, calling
to the remnants of
light, to remain in

shadowed hope, so
does the season pass
and we are wintered;
cold soil beckons to

remaindered leaves,
sucking final songs
of warmth from a
mellowed sun, even

as we grieve for the
loss of what once
was known, and in
silence wait, for new

beginnings, which
have yet to push their
way through chilled
unforgiving memory.

Words

When there are no words
to convey, hold, nourish
the feelings, then, what
do we have, but lingering

emptiness and the sense
of being unfulfilled,
where grief sits sullen,
sodden, sorrowing and

cannot lift her skirts to
walk beyond the misery
of the moment....such
is the gift of words. 

Positioned

https://jhurlbert.com/

Positioned neatly on your
simple shelf of reality, so
do I sit, dangling over
the edge of that wooden

mind, beakening you to
return and enfold me in
your arms, wrap tight
the empty naked space

I have become; before
the tears fold through
shuttered eyes and fall
down into that other

world, where my weeping
will go unheard, in this
drop from great heights,
to unfeeling oblivion.

https://dversepoets.com/2019/06/18/meet-jackie-hurlbert/

Fret

Anxious, alarmed, grimly

haunted, so does the heart

fret, as time plays sorrow’s

song, demanding that the

fingers be placed just so,

across the bars of cold

memory; sounding bitter

notes of hope, reflected

in bleak, stark shadow

lines across mind’s sad,

sullen symphony. 

https://dversepoets.com/2019/06/17/quadrille-82-fretboard-of-poetry/

Wintering

as the days breathe chilled
air through the cracks of
hours, so do we settle
into the chest of Winter,

pulling close to its slow
beat, huddling to warm
moments, nestling into
hibernation of soul, and

frosted self; such is the
way of it when this
season calls and holds
us to its ancient breast. 

Decay

Slow at first, hardly seen,
the creep and chew of
decay; inexorable break
down, entropic destiny,

from which there is no
escape, whether soul,
self, frail body, or some
abandoned timber, lying

forlorn at the uncaring
feet of weather, where
time toys with edges,
plays with substance,

demands change and
disarray, as if order
were some offence,
and rotting life's true

path, where what was
is slowly brought down,
transformed into other,
yet strangely familiar,

with its crusted kiss,
pouting patiently until
there is no choice but
to surrender. 

trimmed

I trimmed my life
with small, pointed
scissors, cutting
tight to the edge

of reason - neatly
removing untidy
pieces, which had
frayed through

years of neglect,
as if, in the doing
I could restore
the illusion of

what I called
control, but which
had little power
to influence, let

alone dictate.
And so, the years
were neatened and
brought to order.

Or so I told myself.

Stability

Form shaped by years,
where place is known
and held, despite the
passage of time...

so do we recognise
and inform our spaces;
so do we create that
sense of familiarity

which breeds content,
and masquerades as
home, as something
stable and known. 

Pulled

Pulled into small places,
held by time and circumstance,
required to be something
unexpected, if not unimagined,

Such is the way and weight
of the years, which rock in
slow, determined motion,
urging me into position. 

Moving

Surrounded by upheaval,
no longer in their place,
the bits and pieces hover,
reveal in lack of grace.

This world was once so
ordered, reality defined,
and now it is in disarray;
a challenge to my mind.

Invisible

Watching me. Did I see those eyes,
holding deep in bitter iris, the word
' yes,' as if they promised something
I did not deserve, forming only to

mock, as if betrayal were a badge
I wore, unseen only by me, marker
made invisible by denial; disguised
tattoo, carved, curled, stabbed ink

into flesh, waiting, desperate, for
a sign, a symbol that I existed,
even if only in the arms of pain,
even if only in shallow hurting;

slicing flesh as I had done myself,
so many times, nicking and then
cutting deep through bursting blood
and patient flesh, searching down,

down, down, hoping to find in
the roil of bleeding, a surge of
life which would tell me I was
real - made manifest in and of

material being, formed solid so
a hand could touch, hold and
know truth of Self, surely enough
for heart to whisper: 'This is me.'

And yet, in those times of sullen
sleep, those dark days and bright
nights, where all blurs in deadly
weeping, the voice calls ever

louder, that the heart too can lie,
that nothing can be believed in
any certain way; that I am only
real when I am watching me.

In that certain gaze I can no 

longer be, invisible, and so I

dare not blink, for in that act

I would no longer exist.....


https://dversepoets.com/2019/02/05/poetics-invisible/

Questioning vaccines

I have been asked more than once by new parents who know of my interest in vaccination, for my thoughts and have put something together which might be useful for others who have questions.

First and foremost, do not let anyone talk you into vaccinating or talk you into not vaccinating.

This is a decision you must make for yourself, based on what you believe is in the best interests of your child. Your child is unique and you will sense from the moment they are born, what is right for them. They deserve better than a decision sourced in fear, whether that decision is for or against vaccines.

Do the research, across the spectrum, apply common sense and whatever decision you make, and whatever outcomes there may be, know that you can tell your child you thought carefully about this and made an informed decision with only their welfare at heart.

Asking questions matters even more because in the vaccine age we have rates of serious and chronic disease in children in ways never seen before. Less Measles, for the moment anyway, and more Brain Cancer. Diabetes at astronomical levels, Allergies, Asthma, Auto-Immune Diseases, Coeliac Disease and growing rates of Arthritis in toddlers and heart disease in young people.

Whatever modern medicine has achieved in the max-vax age, it is not better health or less disease.

The reality is that unless we have a Thalidomide 'moment' involving vaccines, we are not going to halt the onslaught which has risen from a couple at older ages in the early Seventies, to more than fifty in the first five years of life, nudging around 70 if a child is vaccinated according to schedule, by the time they are 18.

If that does not make sense, and increasingly it does not to many people, then what we have to do as a society is ensure that vaccines are safe, and we are not there yet, and that people can decide for themselves if they have them, and, if they choose to be vaccinated, how many they have, when and in what form, i.e. single not multiple.

Research across the spectrum gets harder and harder because most people look for information online and increasingly the system is set up to provide pro-vaccination information and to hide anything which questions vaccine theory or process. So, it will take time but the information is out there.

I think the most important question is: Do you believe vaccines are necessary? Yes, I know the Government, much of science and most of medicine think they are necessary but do you believe that without them tens of thousands of children would die, in ways of course, they did not in the times before vaccination.

I don't. In fact I had a GP tell me when I refused his dozen vaccines before heading to Malawi, where, at the time I had to have Yellow Fever to get into the country, that at my age, without them I would probably die. I ignored him and clearly did not die as predicted.Neither did I get sick.

The next question is: Do you think that vaccines are properly studied and we know enough about how the body works to ascertain their safety? I don't, and more so because in this day and age most medical research cannot be trusted anyway. Editors of both The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine have said the same.

Without a reliable science-medical system it is even more important for the public to do its own research and be as informed as possible. What the doctors and scientists say, simply cannot be trusted, and never more so than on the topic of vaccines.

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Indeed, when vaccine theory and methodology were invented it was not known that the brain and immune system were connected physically via lymphatics. It was not even imagined. This discovery was made about two years ago and at the time, experts proclaimed that, 'the textbooks would have to be rewritten.'

But not it seems the vaccine textbooks which does not make sense to me. There may well be rigorous research going on as I write but I have not yet heard of it. And surely common sense decrees, given that we are now injecting in utero, before babies are fully formed, and then within hours of birth, that we need to know what manipulating the immune system, as vaccines are designed to do, might in turn do to the brain through that physical lymphatic connection.

https://news.virginia.edu/illimitable/discovery/theyll-have-rewrite-textbooks

But you must make up your own minds and do what you believe is best. What I think or what someone else thinks does not matter. What you think matters.

This is worth watching.

http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Informed-Choice/vaccination.html

Judy Wilyman is a valuable source.

http://vaccinationdecisions.net/

https://avn.org.au/

Questions to research and consider in light of the following:

1. Until the late Sixties vaccination was rare and generally at older ages. In the early Seventies when I had children it was a couple at much older ages. I did not bother with them much but had not done the research at that time and had more trust in doctors. Also, vaccines were not as experimental.

2. My generation was not vaccinated and we had all the minor childhood diseases with no problems. I know no-one who died or even went to hospital. My children had some of them and likewise no problems.

3. We have gone from 2-3 vaccinations at older ages in the early Seventies to more than 50 (recommended) in the first five years of a child's life, ramping up to 70 in childhood if regulations are followed, before the age of fourteen which is when it is believed the immune system reaches maturity.

Children were not dying by the thousands before the max-vax age. In fact, records show that incidence diminished where living conditions were improved and mortality plummeted and was flatlining for decades before vaccines.

Negative statistics for the so-called vaccine-preventable diseases, are inflated by Third World data. In other words, poor hygiene, sanitation and nutrition in the less developed world makes diseases more common and more deadly. Just as they once did in the Western world, before living conditions were significantly improved.

The minor childhood diseases, for which children are now vaccinated, were in decline in terms of incidence and had plummeted in terms of mortality, long before vaccines.

For example:

By the time the vaccine was patented in 1963 in the US, the mortality rate from measles was about 1 in 500,000, which interestingly, was less than the risk of death from falling off furniture.

4. In other words, these minor childhood diseases were considered by doctors to be minor before the vaccination age. There is new research showing that having them in childhood protects in adulthood against Cancer, Heart Disease and Stroke, which is hardly surprising from an evolutionary perspective. Indeed, the protective factor of Chicken Pox against Brain Cancer, now the top Cancer killer of children and young people, in ways never seen before, has them planning a Brain Cancer vaccine using the Chicken Pox virus.

http://vaxinfostarthere.com/childhood-infectious-diseases-protect-us-cancers-later-life/

5. Vaccination bypasses the first lines of immune defence in ways impossible in nature and for which no human has ever evolved. No disease has ever before been injected into a human body in this way for quick uptake by the bloodstream. And no human ever 'contracted' half a dozen diseases at the same time. Multiple vaccines or vaccination are 'telling' the body it is threatened by something impossible in nature - in the case of the MMR, Measles, Mumps, Rubella all at once.

Has a child in human history ever had his or her immune system confronted by Measles, Mumps and Rubella at exactly the same moment? Highly unlikely, but that is what the MMR vaccine presents to the immune system. Or rather, pretends to present to the immune system for it is all trickery.

https://thevaccinereaction.org/2016/11/the-immune-system-the-bodys-battlefield/

6. Vaccines are designed to trick and confuse the immune system into reacting to a non-threat. The Adjuvant is a poison, which has the task of 'triggering' a response which it is then believed, confuses the system into also reacting to the pathogens in the vaccine, which, even if weakened are not a threat. Mercury and Aluminium, and Mercury is still in the Flu vaccine, are known neurotoxins and Aluminium has been linked to both Autism and Alzheimer's.

And since Cancerous cells are confused cells one must question what a confused immune system might do.

https://www.hippocraticpost.com/infection-disease/aluminium-and-autism/

https://www.hippocraticpost.com/ageing/autism-aluminium-din-silence/

7. Vaccines contain various chemicals, tested in the singular and deemed to be safe but never tested in combination. Any chemist knows something alone is different to the same thing in combination. Neither do the levels deemed 'safe' take into account the common practice of giving four, five, six vaccines in a session, with some parents reporting as many as twelve.

Vaccines also contain residue from animal, bird and human material from aborted foetal cell lines, which, is being introduced to the body in ways impossible in nature and for which no human has ever evolved. Few people would drink it and yet most allow it to be injected.

http://vaccinationdecisions.net/do-you-know-whats-in-a-vaccine/

8.Some humans are more robust than others and 20% of the population are considered to be highly sensitive. One presumes this group is most at risk but, there is no way of knowing which group your child will fall into.

When I had babies in the early Seventies I knew none who had Whooping Cough. One of my siblings had it in the early Fifties but that was it. He was fine. Now Whooping Cough is common in a heavily vaccinated age.

Research into the 'shedding' factor of vaccines is also worth doing.

https://www.westonaprice.org/studies-show-that-vaccinated-individuals-spread-disease/

9. For those who do choose to vaccinate some sensible rules are:

1. No vaccines until the child is one year old.

2. Breastfeed where possible. This is even more important now that most mothers have not had these diseases as children and have no immunity protection to pass on.

3. Only single vaccines, no multiples like MMR.

4. No more than one vaccination given in any session and a wait of 3-4 months before giving another.

5. All vaccines are experimental and most are unnecessary, decide which you believe are necessary and ignore the rest.

But, pretty much, take your time, do your research and make a plan. Vaccination is new. There are plenty of us alive today who were not vaccinated in childhood. Some might argue too many. My parents had five children who had all of these minor childhood diseases - I had Mumps on Christmas Day - and a lot of the time never called a doctor. They made house calls then.

For those who seek to frighten you into vaccinating, remind them that in previous generations doctors advised parents when outbreaks occurred to expose their children so they could get the disease, get over it and have lifelong immunity. One even told me that in the early Seventies. now they would be struck off. The question is what is so dangerous about knowing that in generations past these childhood diseases were considered to be minor, indeed, in the view of some doctors, important health milestones for a developing immune system.

In the Fifties and Sixties, people thought kids getting Measles was funny. The Donna Reed Show in 1959 had a skit on Measles and The Brady Bunch did a whole segment, believed to be seriously funny at the time, when all of the kids got Measles. So much for people today thinking it is the Black Death. In the age before vaccines, from the 20th century at least, these diseases were not feared.

Does anyone seriously believe that if Measles were the threat it is said to be today, that it would have been the butt of jokes? I mean, that would be like making a hilarious comedy show about kids getting Brain Cancer today. It would not happen.

No-one disputes these childhood diseases were feared in the 19th century but many things were feared in centuries past which we no longer fear today. Vaccination 'fear-mongering' is sourced in a fear which has not been relevant for a century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDb0ZS3vB9g

And I know kids today who have not been vaccinated and who are healthy, indeed, often healthier than the vaccinated. One thing I have noticed with unvaccinated babies is that they are more alert and they sleep better.

When I had babies we expected them to pretty much sleep through from six weeks and they did. My mother had the same experience. Now I know many parents with kids aged three or more who are still not sleeping through. Yes, they are the vaxxed ones.

In the max-vax age we have levels of serious and chronic disease never seen before. Both Autism and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome were virtually unknown before the vaccination age.

And when someone says, 'but what about Polio,' direct them to research Polio Provocation, which was recognised at the time of the Fifties epidemic of severe paralytic Polio, and is reluctantly acknowledged today.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/polio-provocation-the-health-debate-that-refused-to-go-away

In essence, Polio has long been with us and in 92% of cases manifested as mild-Flu-like symptoms. What changed in the Fifties? Links were made between the removal of tonsils and adenoids, common from the early 20th century when antibiotics made surgery safer and doctors realised fortunes could be made whipping out millions of them, on the basis, erroneous as we now know, that they did nothing useful.

Links were also made between vaccination and severe paralytic Polio with paralysis often beginning at the injection site. Warnings were given but largely ignored in a bid to, maintain public faith in vaccines. Pity the poor kids who were sacrificed in that cause.

There have been later links made with pesticides introduced into agriculture in the decade before the Fifties epidemic. Whatever the truth, there is strong evidence that the Fifties Polio epidemic was an anomaly.

More to the point, Polio is still with us, just with a different name and often spread through vaccination.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/28/534403083/mutant-strains-of-polio-vaccine-now-cause-more-paralysis-than-wild-polio

The human body needs a robust and natural immune system to keep us well. We have no way of knowing what so much interference in an immature immune system will do to a human body.

Choosing not to vaccinate is hard. You will agonise more than most every time your child falls ill. If you end up in Emergency because your child is injured you may be harassed because they are not vaccinated and will need to hold your ground.

Most don't talk about it for fear of being abused by the fearful who truly do believe without vaccines their children would die. Have compassion for these people because they truly are frightened. They believe what they are being told and despite the fact that the vaccinated are supposedly safe, they live in terror of the unvaccinated because of the propaganda they hear.

I am always struck by the irrational nature of this fear since even with 99% vax rates for children, there is probably only 50% really vaccinated. Some 20% do not react to vaccines as intended and are not considered vaccinated; vaccines wear off in 21-10 years and most adults do not get the boosters which are required because vaccines do not immunise.

Even more to the point, unless a nation seals its borders allowing no-one in or out, it is irrelevant if 9% are unvaccinated or 59% are unvaccinated. The world does not have and will never have 99% vax rates.

Vaccination is one of the hotpoints of debate in this day and age and opting to limit or reject vaccination is not for the fainthearted.

But, there are more and more parents who are questioning and opting to limit or reject and I believe those numbers will grow.

It is a journey but a worthwhile one for your child. And whatever decision you reach, know that whatever the outcome, whether you vaccinate or opt to limit or reject, that you will have done your best and acted in what you believed were the best interests of your child.

No parent can do more than that.