One Thousand Pictures of the Ocean. ( Plus newly extended note). Illustration for August on my Japanese Calendar.

The world of my childhood is stone cold dead,
Miniaturised computers have destroyed it,
Reduced it to the shadow-lands of memory.

The fishermen in this print by Hokusai
Are so far back in time they might as well have been
A long lost variant of what we call humanity
To the high-tech wizards that we have now become.

That does not mean they lived without technology,
They studied the clouds and followed the arc of the sun
When they put out to sea.
But wooden oars, and ropes, and sails of oiled cloth
Were all they ever needed,
To set an accurate course and then complete their journey.

The shoals of fish were always where expected;
Speed was dictated by currents, the state of the weather,
And time was measured by the seasonal length of the day.
They slept at night and got on with their tasks in the morning,
Having plenty of time to sit and watch and play.

The fishermen in this print are slumped in rest,
Cooking a meal over a smouldering brazier
While rippling waves knock their little boat
Against the wooden quay.
The evening sunlight reveals a soft horizon
Fading to yellow as the sun sinks in the west.

When a child I enjoyed many such simple hours.
Rod in hand I stood by a shadow flecked river
Watching the line for a sudden flicker or dip.
That time was a century after the death of Hokusai,
And thirty four years before I touched a computer;

But I was happy then in the calm of the long hazy summer,
At ease in the quiet simplicity of the moment,
The slow easy melding of day into untroubled day.
My bag was heavy with books, with apples, a Thermos of coffee;
I had yet to find room for the products of Silicon Valley.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter. 
June 11th. - July 8th. - 9th. - 10th. - 12th. 2019.  

Note.In the light of Climate Change and the chaos of present day Capitalism, I have recently come to the conclusion that the Romantic Socialism, (or Pacific Anarchism), described by William Morris in his book News From Nowhere, is perhaps the most sensible way forward for the Human Species if we wish to survive and prosper on this planet. Money and Property were abolished, Land farmed in common for the good of all, Everyone was truly equal, Traditional Arts and Crafts flourished,  Massed Produced factory products confined to the waste bin of History. The Houses of Parliament became a storehouse for dung, and the ugly monuments to politicians removed from Westminster Abbey. Morris was writing just before the advent of the universal availability of the motor car and the characters in the book travelled either by horse drawn transport or simply walked. They lived long healthy lives, thought the desire for great wealth infantile and barbaric, and had abolished all class distinctions and poverty by treating everyone equally, including visitors from abroad. To save the planet we certainly need to adopt radical solutions, and living a simpler way of life is certainly a step in the right direction. Nanotechnology, although initially funded by capitalism, will help create a more radical and equitable form of universal equality and human rights than we have at present, but in time some people will wish to live even more simply and perhaps adopt the William Morris view of a fulfilling life style. When super powerful miniature computers, or motes, can do all the day to day work for us, from cleaning the house to actually building the house from earth and water, and all free of charge, then many people will think it a great joy to make their own clothes and furniture by hand. Art, philosophy and religion will survive the Nanotechnological revolution because human creativity comes from deep within us and makes us human. Mote sized computers will look after the practical things, small scale and large, and will regenerate and improve their technology when we ask them to do so. This will be the end of the filthy industrial society that we have become addicted to and is currently frying the planet. There will be room at last for humans and other species in a much cleaner world, and both obscene poverty and obscene wealth will be abolished because there will be no need for either of these evils to exist. We are on the very edge of this new world, let us bravely and joyfully embrace it. Neither Marxism nor Capitalism were ever so radical, that is because they were products of the old industrial society, the society that is now being superseded by advances in science and our awareness of the damage that the old filthy industries have caused.
Trevor John Karsavin Potter. July 11th. - 16th. 2019.