State of origin - Views in Verse on ...that certain something!

Rugby League State of Origin (or Origin as its locally known) was once again fought out this week and finally won by NSW after eight gruelling years in which Queensland Maroons had gleefully taken home the prize. Eighty five thousand fans packed out the Sydney Olympic Stadium to see New South Wales Blues win the second game in a three game series.

The participants are regular combatants in the national (NRL) competition playing for individual clubs. So while the fitness and skillsets are remarkably similar, the winner must really exert a certain will to win. The Queensland team has been said in this decade to have a mortgage on 'passion'. But this week NSW dragged themselves from a demoralised eight years; a situation that could easily have become a decade without the spirited revival we saw this week.

What was the catalyst in the reversal? It is hard to tell why "winning is a habit" and "losing is a habit" as we so often hear in sporting circles. However what this highlights is that something special has to really happen to take a psyche from downtrodden to be ...dominant! Whatever it is if you could bottle it ...you could sell it! for heaps!!!

Serendipity

Since going my own way
I do ok
but I can at times relapse
Today the crossword I do each morn'
Was the trigger to such a collapse

The early clues began this slide:
'regret,  loss and  ...falling'
No matter
what I did from there
The trend just kept on forming

Words  like 'rejection' and 'scorn'
Provide for further fuel
While... 
'promise, growth and ...hope'
Point towards renewal

Progressively though
my eye was drawn
To the 'mystery word of the day'...
An eleven letter teaser...
That steered my thoughts away

After much 'to-ing and fro-ing'
Addressing thoughts absurd
It seemed to me
without question at all
'Serendipity'
was surely that word

I note that this is a term
related to 'sudden joy'
A state of mind 
I must say
not felt since I was a boy

It struck quite a chord
I must admit
In looking beyond the 'mundane'
to truly envisage a richer life
built on a 'serendipitous' plane

The sound of children playing
A reassuring vibe
Suddenly reminding you...
 "yes I am alive!!!"
Life is jellybean colors
Fireworks in the sky
A silvery beam is shining
Out of a wondering eye

They say ...we set our goals
far short of what we presume
Instead if we were to
'shoot for the stars'
We might just
'hit the moon'

Forwarded from my Iphone - Grahame J Flynn

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ... let's get the priorities right!

Views in Verse

on Priorities

Let's celebrate our economy ...but let's get the priorities right!



Australia's fresh new Liberal Coalition government this week produced its first budget and, despite our lowest government debt standing in the western world & firm AAA rating, went straight to work on a budget deficit ...gutsy stuff featuring:

- getting more young unemployed people trained to work
- creating a massive plan for infrastructure building to offset our peaking mining boom
- opening a firm funding discussion for what can be afforded over time in health & education spend
- hitting 3% highest income earners to address immediate fiscal debt (3 years only)
- involving middle class to share in longer term budget savings
- opening a new medical research global centre of excellence as a centrepiece for new markets

All sounds good despite some frenzied discussions about broken election promises here or there but...

The buck stops at pensioners. Mr Abbott's insistence that ALL Australians share the weight of this recovery is commendable but amending the indexation base for pensioners and removing standing bonuses is just not fair. These people have paid their taxes ...leave them alone.

And despite the firm view of the Government that they have really considered lower income earners; let's keep a close eye on this end of the spectrum ...many of these people have NO tolerance for adjustments to their income AT ALL. Let's not presume anything!!!



SOLSTICE

Enter the darkest of seasons

As a draft cuts cold

 'neath the door

Winter

brings a need for reflection

...just like others gone before

But how does one 

fathom the years?

Let alone 

make sense of it?

The lethargy builds

as the months go by...

not helping one little bit

Beyond ....to the window 

my meanderings drift

People rush along through sleet

Covering their heads 

as best they can

A spray fizzing up from their feet

I see a weathered gent

with much slower steps

His greatcoat hides his all

He stops to sit 

for reasons all his own

beside an unwelcoming wall

Below me the leaves have all fallen

They await a day in the yard

There they will stay 

till spring comes again

Right now 

it seems far too hard
 

Forwarded from my I phone - Grahame J Flynn

It's good news week?

Views in verse -

What's happening with the taper?

Not again!!!

Give me some real news please!







Not that tapir! - the Fed's taper - will they won't they? What's the impact?

What about China ...is it good or bad?

Why not show another square mile of the Southern Indian Ocean?

Give us a break ...where's the real news?

The tapir may have something to offer. Perhaps not!


I've been lacking a little inspiration lately guys ...iterative loop.

nothing creative sorry...

however I did note lately that the High Court has advised me that if I choose I can now live my life as neither a man or woman but as anything I choose in between ...well that was news ...?

but look,

when in doubt let's sink into a little memorabilia shall we:


Good News Week

It's good news week
Someone dropped a bomb somewhere
contaminating atmosphere
and blackening the skies
Someone's found a way
to give the rotting dead a will to live
go on and never die

Who's won that race?
whats' the weather like today?
Doctor's finding many ways
of wrapping brains
in metal trays
to keep them from the heat...

Perhaps not

Grahame J Flynn

Verse by - Hedgehoppers Anonymous

Views in Verse on perdition road

 













     The artful rogue...   "So see me not ...yet know I'm here ...I'll take your pride then go"


There has been an alarming trend in Australian public life these past few decades where noticeably unsavory characters have been surfacing among us who seem to carry undue influence compared to their peers. Their perceived power being not in keeping with their own lesser roles in government. Pride of place in the news over many years appears to be a recurring theme.

The common factor - active interests in the commercial world and also in the political world. One foot in either camp. Their common driver - greed!

The most disturbing factor going forward ...how hard it must be to use 'the law' (as we know it) to stop 'seeming' criminal activity as it crosses back and forth over private/ public life and through the chasm that's between. Which government bodies really police this ...?????? Do we need a new one? Can legislation alone do it?


For folk from other parts of the world, I now sense that you may be wondering: why this concern may be the least bit surprising ...?

Well, I might say that we have always had somewhat higher expectations of our politicians, perhaps not with morality, but at least in relation to perceived criminal activity. Perhaps naive ...but a real expectation just the same.


Perdition Road

Neither black nor white am I
just a slip in-between
you'll not see me coming
nor know where I've been
You'll think of me as one of you
but won't know what you've seen
I'll live there about you
familiar and serene

I'm moving, you're not watching
my hands move expertly
the light shines not upon me
the shadows cover me
Your own unwilling scent
may indeed hold the key
for I carry something with me
a fragrant stench indeed

I slid into the darkest well
A place few others know
I saw no reason to abstain
t'was tempting me so low
So see me not...yet know I'm here
I'll take your pride then go...
there's others waiting for me there
along perdition road


from my desktop Grahame J Flynn

Views in verse on the 'metro male'

Is changing 'how we look' making us better at 'how we act'?

Will a 'new look' bring a lasting change 'for the better'?

And/or does a bloke in the main just really...'struggle to keep up'?



Well, Shane Warne has certainly given most of us a few questions to ask ourselves during his time with super-glam model Liz Hurley. What lessons can we all draw from it though?

My view? ...of the three questions above, I expect that the answer to each is probably 'true'. Given a few qualifications - 'for how long?' would be the first - as in Shane's case it seems. But I think that the first two questions have a precursor; that a strong woman will 'keep raising the bar' and thereby the significance of the third question really does come into play. Thereby 'survival of the fittest'. Sorry, Shane.

But all in all, it doesn't seem to have done Warnie any harm at all. On the recent South African cricket tour where he put in a cameo appearance with the Australian team. He appeared in high spirits and yes "still the same old Warnie" (although indeed looking a lot sharper!).




The answers for the rest of us are there to follow: Simple...



...listen up!, shape up! and hang on! ...and most of us happily do!

The Tadpole song

 (Ode to Elle)

I was watching the late news
alone one night
When a tanned vision spits white light
From out of my set she pouts at me
Calling from a beach longingly
A white bikini paper thin
Came alive on soft brown skin

She sure got all the moves
She sure got all the grooves
Nothin' she got that you can't see
Everything she got does it all for me
In no time at all
A mindful stroke
And I nearly dropped my tadpoles folks!!!

But I wasn't the only one put to the test
The network bounced back to the anchor desk
To a dude in a suit look'n flustered as me
Clearly feasting on what he'd see'd
Splutterin' forth with mindless glee...
he says to the world untidily:

She sure got all the moves
She's sure got all the grooves
Nothin that she got that you can't see
 ...What she's got ...does it all for me...well , well...
..splutter ...choke ..."there's my career up in smoke
'cos I've just dropped my tadpoles folks"

The facts are plain for us to see
A man has his needs that he must feed
It's on our minds a lot they say
Far too much in a given day
Our thoughts turn to it every ninety seconds
A little too often I think
...don't you reckon?

Wait on a buzz is coming to me now
That ain't good
as I'm telling you how...
With too much time
These thoughts come along
Need to cut down
this very long song
To a shorter one
that would do just fine
Gotta get it down to
a minute twenty nine!!!

But 'look here girls' this is just a ruse
In fact ...amongst this lot ...there ain't much truth
We do love you true with all our parts
Even our dusty lusty old hearts

So take us home, forget the alarm
Go on muster that sultry charm
No need for makeup, pearls or beads
A simple man has simple needs

Summoning that rush begs little chance
Really It takes just a sideways glance
To fire up your man and you will see...
And go and set those tadpoles free

You've sure got all the moves
You've sure got all the grooves
Everything you got is what I see
All you got ...is all I need

You do it, you do it ...just for me

That's all folks !



Sent from my iPad - Grahame J Flynn