Singapore has a higher per capita than the US and can afford to buy its food. The more interesting things about Singpore include:

In 1952 I was 4 years old. We lived in social housing on a dirt road off Albert Royd Street in Rochdale. The biggest fire in the town's history broke out in the Clover Cotton Mill. Above the mill was an enormous dam that supplied the great quantity of water needed to feed the giant steam engines that drove the machinery. Being 4 I just thought it was a good place to sit to watch the fire. My father led mum and me to enjoy the tragedy, along with the entire neighborhood. Dad

My first lesson in the power of words Fortunately, I don’t remember potty training or other embarrassing events of early childhood. This despite the best efforts of my father to embarrass me at family gatherings, with tales of my babyhood excrescences. I do remember my mother restricting my freedom at the age of 4. Though pretty, Mum was a powerful, Junoesque woman. She could walk on her hands, do cartwheels and other gymnastics. My grandfather told me, ‘When she was six, s

2016 The year was the wildest of rides, UK people took sides. The referendum left all dumfounded. Brexiters’ promises abounded In the US, Trump burst onto the scene. As a candidate, he was most obscene. The system’s so sick Instead of giving him a kick, they elected the prick And Hillary was confounded. For the poor people suffering from war, Instead of less they got more. Nothing was resolved. But governments were absolved, By the spooks,

Poetry is difficult. Like many, I am awestruck by the likes of Shakespeare, Auden, Tennyson, Wilfred Owen and Dylan Thomas, just to mention those that spring to mind. Some like Kipling are frowned on as unsuitable for modern times. Tosh! So called 'blank verse' often seems to be an excuse for those who cannot be bothered to write prose properly. For me, combining meter, rhythm and rhyme seems impossible. A Bill Dark doom-filled favorite poem is 'This be the verse' by Philip