Author: celfypridd

Take the chance Take hold Sometimes life Makes the most Of the situation.

Taking Hold

In the drought

even wasps have a need

for a slurp

a deep drink

into the bird’s water bowl

they are after all

just another of us

trying to make it through

RobCullen05082026.

The dog had woken and was restless And you said in the dark it’s an owl Of course the dog knew differently And persisted licking the fingers Of my hand to waken me Out of that place of deep darkness. I followed her down over the stairs And saw the cat play with the […]

Rescuing is a goodness of its own

This collection is dedicated to my late and much loved sister, Maeve.

…

“Sleep is a kind of swooning out of this world.”

Mary Oliver Upstream

We are all migrants; everyone comes from somewhere.

Everyone crosses seas at some point.

We carry our stories with us.

Hind Rajab, May 3rd, 2018 – 29^th January 2024.

Denial of Responsibility. Denial of Knowledge. Complete Denial.

Looking pleased with themselves they all stand together

Shaking hands on the podium, reassuring hands-on shoulders

They shake hands again, they smile to the camera

As if they are friends, intimates even, maybe not so far.

The voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab pleads

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Has she been forgotten?

…

Ceasar parades his Prefects, the rulers of the new Empire,

Starmer has wrapped himself in the robe of Pontius Pilate.

He sees nothing and has washed his hands, in any case.

Nothing to see, he gives nothing away, his face expressionless.

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab pleading

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Has she been forgotten?

…

The New Caesar shows the plans for Gaza’s future.

Eighty thousand people were killed and butchered in this place. No matter.

Many bodies have not been found, bones buried under rubble.

Bones that were once children, mothers, fathers and entire families.

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab who pleaded

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – Why can’t you come and get me?

Has she been forgotten? Is her life forgotten?

…

Hegemon Netanyahu says it’s unfair that the Palestinians force

The Israeli army to kill them – they brought it on themselves.

If they didn’t live there in our land, we wouldn’t need to remove them.

No one sees we are being forced by Palestinians to kill them.

Victim blaming. Denial of Responsibility. Denial of Knowledge.

Complete Denial. It’s not our fault. They brought it on themselves.

…

Remember the voice of five-year-old Hind Rajab who pleaded

with those on the phone, the emergency services,

to rescue her, to save her – why can’t you come and get me?

Has she been forgotten? Is her life forgotten? Is she forgotten?

Rob Cullen   27/01/2026

…

….

I walked past the bench today on the old pathway

a place we’d sit surrounded by woodland’s stretches

Where I’d listened to you talk of Poland before the war

…

Of the Germans, Auschwitz and you as a teenage boy

delivering bread from your father’s bakery

to the Waffen SS barracks I remembered in sepia tones

…

Photographs only. And you’d lose some loaves behind

the wire fences – no more words, no more details.

you did what was needed to be done. No questions.

…

What else could you do. Nothing more to say

Advertisement

Privacy Settings

The old bench is falling away now, the pathway a mire

of boot marks washed in black mud by the rains

…

constant falling and your days my dear Stanislaus

are getting forgotten too. Are you listening to the way the rain

is falling again today. And so with thoughts of you  I walk through

…

the heavy leafed trees weighed by the gathering rain

I’m lucky I’ve been surrounded by people like you

who through their actions mattered, your words of kindness too

…

Remembering you I often wonder how your fathers bread tasted,

how it smelled in that place where burning flesh consumed the air

where burning human flesh and the violence could not be ignored.

…

And as you told me once silence kills – imagine a life with that?

Stanislaus Pipkin was originally from Poland. His father a baker

was forced to supply bread to the SS Barracks in Auschwitz

…

Concentration Extermination camp. Stanislaus as a teenager

helped his father by delivering bread to the barracks.

He also gave bread to the inmates although to do so

…

meant certain execution if discovered. Stanislaus

didn’t talk much about his activities.

After the war Poland was overran by Soviet forces

…

 and Stanislaus was eventually forced to escape to Britain.

He came to live in Wales where he worked in the mines.

He married, raised a family in Pontypridd.

…

When the communists were ousted from Poland

Stanislaus was able to return free from the fear

of reprisal for his activities.

…

Stanislaus Pipkin was honoured by Poland as a National Hero.

©robcullen30062020