Loveable Rogue The Mind cupboard

 Dear Reader,

The Hippie movement started around 1967.  Its fundemental ethos including harmony with nature, communal living, artistic experementation particularly in music, sexual experimentation and a wide spread of recreational drugs, spread around the world during counter culture of the l960s, which had become closely associated with subculture.

Its origins may be traced to European social movements in the 19th and early 20thcentury such as Bohemiams with influence from Eastern religion and spirituality. It is directly influenced and inspired by the Beat Generation and American involvement in the Vietnam War.

By 1969 the hippie movement had become more radical and militant with many hippies participating in protests and demonstrations.  The movement had also become more diverse, attractin people from various social and economic backgrounds.

                                                                                  *

 From Thomas Hardy  June 2nd  1865 in London

'Walked about by moonlight in the evening.  Wondered what woman, if any, I should be thinking about in five years' time.'

From D.H. Lawrence  June 3rd 1918 in Derbyshire

 'I love the yellow rock roses: but they are so frail.   I wonder if you will ever see them as they areally are.  I am afraid they will be all withered.   They are pure flowers of light - and they cover the dry, limey hills...the yellow pansies.....grow sprinkled close all over the tiny meadow just under the house, and so glitterery standing on the close turf - like a Fra. Angelico meadow.'

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Loveable Rogue

 

 

Jeans jacket, black trousers

long curly black hair

an impish smile

sparkling white teeth.

 

A world traveller

worked in a kibbutz

surfed in Australia

sold jewellery in India,

Nepal and Afghanistan.

 

He had a finger in many pies,

he said, done many deals,

made friends, made enemies

walked the Silk Road.

 

The ladies loved him

he twinkled at them

made jokes

got on with their dogs.

 

He told good stories

wore silver rings

had a rose tattoo

on his arm, a cross on his leg.

 

This loveable rogue

was charming,

uninterested in the truth

and wandered through life

conscience free.

 

The Mind Cupboard

 

My mind cupboard overflows

with unwanted debris.

It needs a spring clean.

 

I will brush away the cobwebs

of cheerless thoughts.

Scrub out the stains of childhood.

 

I will replace the brass hooks

corroded with salt tears,

empty all the screams

hoarded through the years.

 

I will replace the accumulated ashes

from the worn shelf-paper,

with virgin tissue.

 

I will chase and catch the wasps,

relieve them of their stings.

I will refill this cupboard

with love, and learnt, brighter things.

 

 

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia

 

 

 

 

 

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