To succeed in
academic life
you need three things –
genius, hard work
and luck. By far
the most important
of these is luck.
To succeed in
academic life
you need three things –
genius, hard work
and luck. By far
the most important
of these is luck.
No country can
consider itself
modern if
religion plays a
major part in the lives
of its people.
Politicians rely
on the public having
the memory span
of an adult Mayfly.
They are right
to do so.
The grasshoppers
are worried that
Summer is ending
and they are nearly
out of time.
The best poetry
happens when poets
know exactly what
they mean but
the reader
hasn’t a clue.
Amazing how
arrogant most
religious people are,
thinking their strong,
unfounded, belief
in an imaginary
being, demands that
they control the lives
of everyone else, and
kill any who disagree.
I try to save
the lives of ants
and beetles and
butterflies; frogs and lizards
and turtles and birds;
and sheep and mice
and kangaroos,
when I can.
Oh and people
too, if needed.
One moment
you’re secure in the
cocoon of youth:
no ailments, at home
in your body, watching
time pass so slowly,
seeing old people
as another species,
knowing you will
never change.
The next moment
you’re not.
More frightening
hot weather is
on its way.
All you can do
is hunker down,
wait it out,
hope for the best,
fear the worst.
And send a curse
at those who have
stopped all action
to prevent climate
change.
I had a friend
who didn’t make
it to twenty.
Another never
reached forty.
One more was
gone before fifty.
Finally there was
the friend who
fell short of seventy.
I am closing fast
on my next landmark
of eighty years.
Lucky.
Sad.