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Dear Father
I’m alone in a very scary place
And I’m not certain how I got here.
I lost sight of the footprints I was following
And wandered off the pathway you laid out for me.

The wind is cold and the sky is dark.
I just heard screeches from the nearby woods
And this path ends in only brambles.
Kneeling on the rocky ground
I beseech the Lord to rescue me.
He either doesn’t hear my cry
Or this is where I need to be
To learn to never take my eyes
Away from the light that guides me.
ljm
Day 5 trying to post this.  Feeling lost.
With Israel’s decapitation strike on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure, the Middle East power balance has been violently redrawn. Iran reels from assassination, bombardment, and psychological defeat. Yet one final move remains on its board: blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

This narrow waterway moves a fifth of the world’s oil. Iran doesn’t need to close it permanently — sporadic harassment and mine warfare can create economic shockwaves. Missile batteries, fast-boat swarms, drone strikes, or selective targeting of flagged ships could ***** insurers and markets alike.

The global response would be fierce — U.S. and Gulf navies would move rapidly, oil prices could spike to $150, and fragile supply chains would splinter. Nonaligned powers would scramble to secure their energy interests while pleading for restraint.

Yet the motivation for Iran’s next move may not be logic — it may be survival. Rage, not reason, rules the streets of Tehran. If the regime cannot retaliate meaningfully, it loses face, influence, and control. That’s why the Hormuz threat — the nuclear option short of nukes — must be taken seriously.


M@Foxglove.Taranaki.NZ
Result of an angry back and forth between colleague's who care about sanity and write to salvage reason and order in a world gone mad!
I believe I have reached a point
of creative decline. Been on HP
since 2013. Close to 350 poems.
I may have thought and said
about all I have to offer.

Hard to come up with any real
original worthy material, the
old well might have run dry.
Or maybe my brain is growing
addled. That happens in our 80s.

In idle times I will still look in
on you all. I have enjoyed my
time here and made some fine
and talented writer and poet
friends. Thank you.

Adieu good and gentle people.
No illness or anything dire.
Just tired. I am thinking of
taking a pottery class.
You can feel the bond binding
The Sisters in tune,
See familiarity
Permeating the room.
Chatter colliding
Like magpies in Spring
And the dancing of eyes
Is a wonderous thing.

Nurses together
At lunch in the sun
On a hillside Okato
Where the gossip's begun.
A unique sense of humour
Shared amongst they
Who delve, resolutely,
Into lifesaving fray.

A breed of Sisters
Who willingly give
Of themselves for others
So that others may live.

Magnificence here
As the chatter surrounds
While the old world sails on
Unaware of the Crowns...
Crowns, so deserving,
So desperately due....
To these Sisters of Mercy
Who look after you.

M@Foxglove.Taranaki.NZ
For the magnificent coterie of magpies
who gathered together, noisily, at our table this Sunday lunchtime,
All quite oblivious of the deep regard in which, each and every one of them is held by all who dwell in their, Oh so demanding, world of Professional Nursing.
For Annie, Deb, Helen and my darling Janet
All NZRN.
A moment, long ago, so vivid, so utterly vivid.
That tiny moment, in time, when everything in life,
Coalesced to an instant of perfection.

When she laughed and tossed her auburn hair,
Her lovely face, framed in scattered sunshine
Filtered through brilliant, Autumn leaves.

The very air, crisp with a freshness,
Emblazoning the gloriousness of the surrounding
Vaulting, snow clad, high peaks.

This moment, worth more than a year of mundanity,
More than a lifetime of ordinariness.....
Shone with a graceful and unique radiance.

A brilliance, forever remembered, forever treasured.

M@Foxglove.Taranaki.NZ
June 15 2025
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