Paul A. FreemaN - chaucerian inspirations - Blog - Poetry / Limericks, etc

Elegy for Gaza and the Occupied West Bank (October, 2024)

12/8/2024

Stand up for Palestinians

Elegy for Gaza and the Occupied West Bank (October, 2024)

While settlers build more homes on land not theirs,
and outposts spread like mushrooms after rain;
while hundredfold comes vengeance, Gaza bears
the brunt of an unquenched Israeli pain.

While soldiers and policemen sent to keep
the peace take sides with zealots and with thieves,
a pummelled strip of debris makes us weep,
where innocents lay dead like autumn leaves.

To bomb a child, a woman, or the old,
to kill, by chance, a tunnel rat below,
is cowardly, unconscionable and cold,
not actions of the noble, but the low.

A neutered world is looking on, aghast,
as Palestinians live the Jewish past.

Like much of the Global South and an increasing number of people in the West, I can't understand how this out-of-control, disproportionate punishment can be allowed to continue.

Below are links some of my work:

Exodus Mortis is a disturbing look at a refugee camp worker's experiences.

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

A Day for Decisiveness, is a prize-winning romantic-ish tale about a young man looking for the opportunity to speak to the woman who infatuates him.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness-1.367803/

A Nice Run is a deceptively mundane 100-word story that will leave you slack-jawed.

https://www.fridayflashfiction.com/100-word-stories/a-nice-run-by-paul-a-freeman

Tomorrow's Fossils is a poem, a sonnet to be more precise, examining Man's place in the great scheme of things.

https://www.cornicemag.com/content/tomorrow's-fossils

Happy Writing

Magaluf - A Rondeau

8/24/2024

Local residents on many of the Spanish island holiday resorts have been demonstrating against 'rude' tourists and general over-tourism. Below is a poem I wrote on the subject from the point of view of a resident:

In Magaluf - A Rondeau

In Magaluf, the English come,
get drunk on beer and shots of rum,
tequila, whisky, cheap champagne,
an annual Balearic bane
that makes my town a ghastly slum.

They drop their pants and flash their bum,
they binge until their brains are numb;
they act as if they’re half insane
in Magaluf.

They strew discarded chewing gum,
litter, spew and make us glum.
They swamp the beach, the country lane,
they bear the chavvy Mark of Caine;
but we’re no longer staying mum -
in Magaluf.

Below are links some of my work:

Exodus Mortis is a disturbing look at a refugee camp worker's experiences.

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

A Day for Decisiveness, is a prize-winning romantic-ish tale about a young man looking for the opportunity to speak to the woman who infatuates him.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness-1.367803/

A Nice Run is a deceptively mundane 100-word story that will leave you slack-jawed.

https://www.fridayflashfiction.com/100-word-stories/a-nice-run-by-paul-a-freeman

Tomorrow's Fossils is a poem, a sonnet to be more precise, examining Man's place in the great scheme of things.

https://www.cornicemag.com/content/tomorrow's-fossils

Happy Writing

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What’s in Store for 2024? A Sonnet

1/12/2024

Mauritanian Wall Pattern

Let's hope it's not too late to dwell on what most folk probably want this new-ish year.

An end to wars and a proper, stand up fight against climate change and global warming without any baulking and short-term petrochemical profiteering.

It's a fight we're all in together, the main enemy being disinformation and an older generation of climate change deniers.

What’s in Store for 2024?

by

Paul A. Freeman

A new year dawns. Imagine there’s an end
to war, let Jews and Muslims sample peace;
let Russians and Ukrainians suspend
hostilities and UN troops police
an armistice which holds, then climate change
can be addressed by focussing our sight
on fixing Earth, whose seas and skies grow strange
with heat and greenhouse gasses, day and night.
Let global warming’s damage be reversed,
let wind and solar power move from strength
to strength. Let carbon capture blunt the worst
of footprints and reduce their breadth and length.
Improbable? Man’s ingenuity
is only matched by his sanguinity.

END

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

On Turning the Page of a New Year (2023-2024) - A Sonnet

1/1/2024

The Hour Glass Turns

On Turning the Page of a New Year - 2023-2024

The hour-glass is almost void of sand,
a rounding of the sun described in grains
that drain away. Now little time remains
as New Year stalks the browns and greens of land.
Don’t ask me with what warring tribe I stand,
the sting of every squirming conflict pains;
our fragile, blue-white world’s enwrapped in chains
of humankind’s unique destructive brand.

Upturn the glass, let’s put the planet straight,
or is this too naïve a goal to set?
Make disaffected adversaries, friends,
damp down the ire that feeds and nurtures hate,
for we’re in Mother Earth’s perpetual debt,
not she in ours, as one more orbit ends.

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

COP 28 – Climate Change for the Uninitiated, and not 28 Columbian Pesos

12/3/2023

COP28 - UAE

COP28 will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - Dubai to be exact - from the end of November until December 12th, at Expo City.

‘So, what does COP28 mean?’ I hear you ask, and it's not '28 Columbian pesos', like my Read Aloud program keeps telling me.

Ahem! COP28 is ‘the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’.

Well, that’s a bit of a mouthful, so let’s break it down.

Firstly, conferences on climate change are held under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). COP28 will therefore be the 28th such conference. This tells us either 1) that to make a course correction on climate change, the world’s in it for the long haul, or 2) that there’s been a lack of substantial progress in tackling the negative effects of climate change since COP1, in Berlin, Germany, in 1995.

Actually, it’s 3), a bit of both. But more on that, later.

The delegates involved in COP1 came from 117 Parties (countries) and 53 Observer States.

COP28, on the other hand, will involve 200 countries interacting and working together, comprising 70,000-80,000 delegates, 140 heads of state and 5,000 media professionals.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few decades, you may ask what problem COP28 seeks to address.

The overabundance of CO2 in the atmosphere, mostly!

Yep, CO2 is one of the main culprit gases that have succeeded in making the first week of July this year, the hottest on record. In fact, this year is set to be the warmest, worldwide, on record. Carbon dioxide - the gas we breathe out and plants absorb, just as we learned about in high school biology. All’s well and good when the amount of the gas that animals breathe out, and the amount of carbon dioxide plants convert to oxygen and expel is balanced, but not if excessive CO2 and other ‘greenhouse gases’ are being added to the atmosphere at an inordinate rate.

Look at it like this. In the distant past, your average Stone Ager would light up a twig-and-branch-fed fire to cook whatever he hunted that day, or to keep the cold and the predators at bay. Fast forward to the late eighteenth century onwards, and we have the factories of the Industrial Revolution, artificially-lit cities, and, later, automotive transport, all powered by fossil fuels (coal, gas and petrol, respectively), emitting mucho CO2 into the atmosphere.

CO2 is called a greenhouse gas because it traps the heat from the sun that has entered the Earth’s atmosphere, much as the glass of a greenhouse keeps in the heat. This raises the temperature of the air and the surface and the oceans of our home planet. Since 1880, it’s estimated that the rise in average air temperature has been 1.1oC, or about 2oF. This does not seem a great deal until you realise the average air temperature of Earth in the 20th century was 13.9oC. That said, Earth experiences variations in temperature for a number of reasons, but these are slow, averaging something around a 0.5°C increase over the past ten thousand years.

To offset the rapid rise recently in global temperatures, at COP21 in Paris, in 2015, 194 parties (193 countries plus the European Union) signed the Paris Agreement, a binding accord agreeing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (in addition to CO2, methane is another greenhouse gas, largely emitted in the form of cow and other livestock flatulence), to begin or to continue moving towards the use of renewable energy sources, and, by the end of the century, to limit global warming to 1.5oC above pre-Industrial levels.

Alas, those temperature figures from the first week of July tell us we have a lot of work to do. To this end, much of the refocusing and reconsidering of our approach to tackling climate change will be happening in Dubai, at COP28, later this month.

So, what are the main problems associated with global warming, and what can we, as humans, do about them?

The most serious problems may appear insurmountable and even seem overwhelming at first glance, but we have a whole world full of people to work upon and solve them.

The burning of fossil fuels leads to an increase of greenhouse gases warming up the atmosphere. Marginal lands become uncultivatable, pushing more and more people onto less and less viable land. Added to this, the polar ice caps are melting, raising the sea level and gradually submerging lower lying islands and coastal areas.

The answers to combatting land degradation and to stop, if not reverse, the polar ice cap meltdown situation, we need either to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching as quickly as possible to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and / or to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through carbon capture and carbon sink technologies.

Then there’s the deforestation of, especially, Earth’s primal tropical forests. Rainforests are often likened to the lungs of the planet. Illegal logging needs to be stamped out, felled forests replanted and a general greening of our towns and cities undertaken to get back to the cyclical balance of animals expelling carbon dioxide and plants converting it to chlorophyl and expelling oxygen.

More controversially, adopting a diet more reliant on plant-based nutrition will reduce our reliance on high carbon footprinted, flatulent livestock.

Of course, nothing will change unless we all (or the vast majority of us in the world) get on board, and many of us are more than half way there.

Remember, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and single steps, one after the other, for months, years and decades, is what will safeguard our planet’s currently fragile future.

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

Arabian Noir Crime Fiction Anthology

11/27/2023

Arabian Noir Anthology

Well it's sort of out and available for pre-sale - Arabian Noir, the Gulf Chapter anthology of the CWA (Crime Writers' Association).

I have both a poem (Murder in the Middle East), which lists some of the numerous meme-ish deaths that could befall you in Arabia - a bit like the film A Million Ways to Die in the West, and a short story titled Solid Evidence, concerning a frozen body and its identification.

I'm appearing in the anthology alongside 13 other fellow crime writers including Michael Lynes and Alex Shaw, who together were the brains and much of the effort behind getting the anthology compiled and published.

And what can I say about the cover? The Dubai skyline, a crescent moon and a Philip Marlowe-looking character in a trilby and a raincoat, his identity hidden in shadow, while smoking a cigarette, the smoke from it looking like a genie emerging from a lamp.

Here's the presale link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CP1KN5WG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1F97KMKLK62F3&keywords=arabian+noir+lynes&qid=1701063370&sprefix=arabian+noir+lyne,aps,296&sr=8-1

It's been a while since I've had a story in a book and my Detective Inspector Williamson Yarn is a doozy. So why not check it out?

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

The Imperial Strikes Back

9/11/2023

Imperial Measurements

I wrote the poem below after several pro-Brexiteers suggested we go back to Imperial measurements such as inches, feet and yards.

Although we still use miles and pints in the UK, since the mid-1970s we've been using the metric (SI) system.

The only countries still using Imperial systems of measurement to any extent are Liberia, Myanmar and the USA.

So should we revert to Imperial measurements? You decide:

The Imperial Strikes Back

Let’s emulate Liberia
with measurements superior;
once more we’ll weigh our cereal
in ounce and pound imperial.

And why not copy Myanmar -
use p.s.i. and ditch the bar?
Farewell to Celsius’s scale,
let Fahrenheit’s degrees prevail.

We’ll mimic, too, the USA,
where inch and foot and yard hold sway.
Re-join our ancient, fabled roots;
swap forty-three for size nine boots.

The metric system’s made us dense,
so let’s use shillings, crowns and pence.
The past returns, what’s old is new,
like passports which again are blue.

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

The Ghost and the Darkness Film Summary - by Dr Seuss

8/27/2023

The Ghost and the Darkness

'The Ghost' and 'The Darkness' were the names given to two man-eating lions that terrorised and killed dozens (if not more than 100) railway labourers who were constructing a railway from Mombasa and through the interior of British East Africa, in 1898.

The 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness starred Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas, and in my view is a highly underrated film.

For a poetry competition, I summarised the plot of the film in the voice of Dr Seuss. The plot summary is below, but beware spoilers.

Dr Seuss Summarises 'The Ghost and the Darkness'

In Kenya, two lions
are causing a stir;
at nighttime they chillingly
let out a ‘Grrrr!’
They prowl in the bush
where a railway line
is being laid down
and on laborers dine.

Most thrillingly, hunters
are hired to pursue
these legendary big cats,
Lion 1 and Lion 2.
‘The Ghost’ and ‘The Darkness’
they come to be known -
that claw at the flesh
and bite to the bone.

Nocturnally stalking,
they kill,
kill,
kill,
kill
and feast on the dead
till they’ve eaten their fill.
The labourers, fearing next sunset,
take flight,
leaving the lions
and the hunters to fight.

Concealed in the treetops
the two huntsmen wait,
they shoot dead one lion,
but one hunter’s fate
gets sealed which incenses
his rifle-armed friend,
who with one last shot
brings the film to an end.

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

Lost and Found - Found at Last

5/18/2023

Lost and Found - Published June, 2023 in 'Mystery Murder'

Lost and Found - Found at Last

Have you, dear writer, got a short story you’ve sweated over, toiled over, imbued with and lavished with love, cried over - and yet you can’t sell the darned thing? That favourite short story which you feel rises head-and-shoulders above the herd of other short stories in your archives, but which receives rejection after rejection after rejection?

Of course you have! Don’t lie!

I’ve got around half a dozen myself. Take The Island. Three thousand words of nail-biting horror as the survivors of a shipwreck discover the island they’re stranded on is populated with carnivorous plants. It’s every vegan’s nightmare! The ultimate betrayal! It’s Nature in reverse. Alas, no horror magazine or anthology has so far embraced my Nature bites back tour de force. Scaredy cats!

That said, with persistence these homeless gems can find a not inconspicuous abode. Thus my sci-fi classic, Fong Goo, a comic tale of first contact, initial worldwide optimism, trans-galactic misunderstanding and ultimately human annihilation, debuted in print after a decade of subbing in the Sunday People’s Love Sunday supplement.

And so to Lost and Found, a piece of crime fiction ‘based on true events’ as we like to say these days, though the true events it’s based on were rather more run-of-the-mill. In a nutshell, my best friend visited a London gym for a workout and returned to the changing rooms to discover his clothes had been stolen. Cue the less than sympathetic gym manager who furnished my friend with a mismatch of lost property clothing items to wear on the Tube train journey back home. Suffice to say, my BFF told me he looked and felt like a vagrant.

It’s here that the tale of my friend and Lost and Found’s protagonist, Geoffrey Dallow, diverge. In my story, on leaving the gym, Dallow disappears, seemingly without a trace, and it’s up to Detective Inspector Williamson, my go to, short story, low-key hero detective, to locate him… (spoilers end here!)

So how, you may wonder, did I manage to place this orphan story? Simple! Persistence!

Every now and again, like coppers reopening a cold case, I send stories out into the big wide internet ether, stories that I deem deserve a wider readership than just the wife and kids. That’s how I came across Mystery Magazine, a Canadian-based publisher of crime fiction. Their magazine is available monthly, either in print or digital format. I discovered them through websites that specialise in publicising magazines, anthologies and competitions that are putting out calls for short story and poetry submissions.

So I submitted, and Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt, Lost and Found had found a home. The money’s now in the bank and the story has been unveiled to a potential global audience of seven billion plus readers - though expect in reality the number may end up being a bit less.

I’ve now managed to whittle down the list of short stories I feel deserve a first outing and an elusive home to just a few old favourites. In addition to The Island, these include a story about a ghostly bear eviscerating those who’ve inadvertently dissed him, a psychotic snowman out for vengeance, and a discontented biology teacher who has a deadly surprise for his students involving his nagging wife’s body parts.

What I’m trying to say, and I hope I have said it in an entertaining though long-winded way, is that you should never give up on a piece of writing you have faith in. No matter how atypical, nerdy or off the wall a short story may be, the markets and publication opportunities are out there.

So here’s to Lost and Found being found at last!

And if anyone out there can help me find a home for The Island, …

NOTE: Lost and Found is due for publication in Jun, 2023 - see cover Picture above

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!

Don't Get Gulled!

4/15/2023

A little bit of frivolity. I've started writing 'drabbles',which are hundred word stories.

I write them in my head while out jogging, and type them up after I'm showered and spruced up.

What I like most about drabbles is that a later date you can write them up to a different wordage, from a few hundred, to a few thousand!

Sign of the Times

James shrugged. “Perambulate the prom with pleasure,” he read from a sign.

“It’s a gimmick,” I said. “Yargate’s a Victorian seaside resort. It means ‘enjoy your seafront walk’.”

“There’s another sign, Mum!”

Its message, with several undulating, wing-like flourishes above it, read: ‘Don’t get gulled!’

“‘Gulled’ means ‘conned’ or ‘cheated’,” I explained, checking the promenade for dubious-looking characters. “Now let’s get some lunch.”

As we left the chip shop, dozens of sea birds descended, knocking our bags of chips from our hands, then gobbling down our food.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked James.

“Because we just got gulled, Mum!”

Below are links to my short-listed story for the National newspaper and for a couple of stories that appeared on the Every Day Fiction site - where you can leave a comment and a rating if you so desire. WARNING - Exodus Mortis is a bit disturbing:

http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/short-story-a-day-for-decisiveness

https://everydayfiction.com/oh-christmas-tree-by-paul-a-freeman/

https://everydayfiction.com/exodus-mortis-by-paul-a-freeman/

Happy writing!