Gone

[Dave]

In all due respect to Philip Larkin and his poem 'Going Going'
and with apologies-

Gone
 It has not lasted my time –
the sense that fields and farms
beyond the town would always feed
the spirit of louts who climb
such hills and dales not worn down;
No one heeds the loud alarms

in the papers about private streets
and out of town shopping,
but some metro stores have been left;
The old retreats and bleak high-risers
burn and fall but there is no escape
from the toxic earth and water.

Nature is tougher than we are,
justas climate will always respond
however we mess it about;
chuck plastic in the sea, if you must:
the tides will carry it back to us.
What do we do now? Recycle? 

Or choke, simply? The crowd
is young in the internet café;
Their kids are demanding love –
more likes, more songs for free,
more selfies, more degrees.
On the Business Page, a score 

of spectacled geeks approve
some tax saving scheme that entails
only profits and shareholder wealth
hidden in off-shore havens: move
your works to unregulated Asia
(government bribes) and when 

you try to protect the jobless
from slavery…
It seems, just now
to be happening so very fast;
despite all the hard work
not for the first time I feel somehow
that it isn’t going to last,

 that before I freeze my sperm,
the whole of Britain will be walled in
to everyone but oligarchs –
isolated from Europe, a role
with which we can’t win
with a cast of crooks and tarts 

And that will be England gone, 
the values, the caring and sharing,
the open welcome, the rural spirit.
There’ll be takeaways, the smell
will linger on in darkened alleyways,
but all that will remain for us
will be petty gangs and knives. 

Most things might never happen.
This is all improbabe but greed
and lies are too thick-strewn
to be swept up now, or invent
solutions for all them needs.
I just think it will happen, soon. 

[Colm Roe]

The original (which I listened to on YouTube) was less pessimistic than yours. (And thanks for the link)
It's an interesting progression, albeit a more depressing one. 
Who knows, maybe with Brexit you'll rediscover that green and pleasant land...sadly, I have my doubts.
A well written adaptation Dave. 
On the brighter side, some things are changing for the better...or so they say 

[Dave]

Thànks Colm indeed the intention was to move things further to the end than Larkin. Frankly i admire your optimism. I cant be optimistic with the tories anywhere near government.

[Matty11]

Can't deny the bleak relentless truth of this Dave, though I vaguely remember someone on TB, perhaps Colm or Indar, saying that a better side of our human natures is shown in many 'small world' ways.

best

phil

[Dave]

I will be honest that while pessimistic about britains post brexit chances, i only see it as an inevitable final stage in post- empire life. I love britain but live in germany. The bleakness though does not reflect me as a person. I am anything but bleak. In britain there so much talk about immigrants but so little how all the assets were sold by conservatives to wealthy overseas investors. Anyway germany has its problems looming and the USA frankly is a mess. Thank the gods for ireland(my true face). And oh by the for me it was a poetry exercise

[Tim J Brennan]

...not versed enough in Britain's problems, Dave, we have enough of our own over here. But I like the language.

"Nature is tougher than we are" is true no matter where one lays the head down.

[indar]

Hi Dave,

I keep coming back to this one trying to sort out my reactions to it. The biggest influence on how I think of poetry probably is still from freshman English class at art school in 1969. Protest poetry was a little iffy as I remember which is ridiculous considering those who worshipped Ginsberg's "Howl" and Ferrenghetti's work.

I hear the phrase "dystopian vision" a lot lately and this piece of yours has the potential to illustrate a multi-national obsession with doom. For good reason.

I think the ship can be turned around. 

I'm responding to your post today in particular as a kind of remark on a significant event here in the US. This evening the polls will close and results will be televised. Reactions, accusations, celebrations, fear and loathing will be on full display. 

Once I recover I'll come back to this---I hope with a lifted heart.