Hello again.
I had a busy week last week. I went to see The Levellers last Thursday night with some RAH’s (Really aul hawns [old hands]{old friends} I’m such a cultchy) and they were amazing. They played Levelling the Land from beginning to end and we forgot that we are now 50 and no longer 15/16 or so as we were when the album came out. My knees.
They were supported by a band I’d never heard of called The Meffs and they were amazing too. A two-piece, guitarist and drummer. Brilliant, angry, working-class punky goodness.
I also performed in my Improv Troupe on Sunday Night in Lavery’s in Belfast and folks it was very good! We made shit up, people laughed. Mission understood and accomplished.
On Friday night and Saturday was the All That’s Left conference put on by People Before Profit. I was shattered on Friday so didn’t make it but I went on Saturday. Lots of grist for my poetry mill. There may be a villanelle coming up.
I attended a talk called “Enemy Feminism” by Sophie Lewis. I may have mentioned it before but I consider myself aspirationally a feminist and an ally, I certainly would not bestow these accolades upon myself because I have no right. This means I read a lot because I know nothing. A fascinating talk and sadly her book flew off the table and sold out before I could get a copy. Thankfully a friend bought a copy and I am getting through the introduction where I found this line: “feminists who, like me, are committed anti-fascists—or anti-fascists who are also feminists, as they must be—need to know the difference between forgiving enemies and giving up the fight against them”. Which inspired this.
Can’t win them all
There’s a difference between forgiving enemies
And giving up the fight against them,
And realising that you are never gonna please
Those who have pledged their lives to hating.
So save your energy for changes you can make
Don’t bang your head up against a wall
The struggle will leave wins and failures in your wake
It’d tough and you can not win them all.
