Competition: a definition of Cornwall

Cream on first then the jam
'c'us I'm a proper cornishman.

How to serve a scone

Cornwall: A Picasso, beautifully framed (the coast/ Tamar) with a canvass full of colour and vibrance, that you can't quite make out, or put into words that give credit.

Home

When I was 10 years old, my late Grandrather took me to the top of Carn Brea and told me, 'All you see is your land, they can never take it from you. You are it and it is you.'

To my beloved Kernow


As solid as rocky Carn it is
As deep as Dozmary Pool
As plain as the surf on the sea it is
The love I have for you

As fresh as new cut hay it is
As broad as widest bay
As true as fisherman’s compass set
More love than I can say

As straight as longest furrow in field
As strong as coast winds blow
As clear as view from Trencrom Hill
My love for you just grows

(c) Mike Chappell

Glad to see you are back off strike Graham. Power to your elbow for your stand. Interesting now to see that an organisation in Yorkshire is forming calling for Home Rule up there. I support their call fully.

Miner Jack looks out to sea and through the mist of a vivacious cobalt blue sea he hears a small trawler chugging out to sea, dark clouds encroach above.

BTW - here's the Yorkshire website: https://www.yorkshireindependence.com/ interesting stuff.

Dreaming of yesterdays history
that tomorrow they may take revenge
The Nationalist determined with their endeavours
while the Cornish people stand by and just cringe.

I see a stream
Red with the Land’s blood
Tin in it’s bones

I see the Sea
Blue grey
The fisherman’s blood
Kingly in death

I see the clay waste
A dry skin to the Land’s flesh
Dazzling in the Sun’s kiln

I see maidens
Grey their laughter
The sound of granite

I hear pipes
An empty echo in the full silence of the church
The wooden body of the piper
His swift hands unquiet
The intense restlessness of the eager dead

I hear a song
Whispering sure harmonious words
Purity of the tin
Flow of the sea
Hardness of the granite
Incessantly turning to virile flesh

(c) Mike Chappell

"Kernow yw konna tyr orth penn Breton Veur. Kernow yw bro Geltek ha Kernewek Agan yeth."

Cornwall is a peninsula at the end of Great Britain. Cornwall is a Celtic Country and Cornish is our language.

T shirt slogan seen the other day: 'Kernow Rydh' - 'Free Cornwall'

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"Next to Devon.Like Somerset"

Mr Chappell, lovely poems.....here's one of mine

Saltashgaz writes on here Mr Chappell to aggrieve,
But if you throw a stick for him I think that he may leave,
He comes on here to insult his life is in a trough,
cut backs are to blame for this,
His carer has been laid off.
When he sees this,
round Saltash he will flounce,
But remember he has a problem,
too hard for me to pronounce.

Searching for respite we find acidic regulation breakers, 30 is that rule, humourless Muppets seem unable to exploit English. Let’s blame the Welsh education system, for imposing Kermit on us.

@Graham

You wrote: "I wonder if the "nationalists" and "anti-nationalists" (I fear I've been unable to think up better labels)"

Well you could always use Cornish nationalists on one side and then English and/or British state-nationalists on the other. You yourself I suspect are a British state-nationalist in that you wish to see the preservation of the UK as it is and consider you national identity to be British. Do correct me if I'm wrong. Equally we could consider you an English cultural nationalist if you promote the English county version of Cornwall's identity.

In the new atlas for stateless nations that has just been released (in French at the moment) we have the interesting suggestion of 'positive nationalism' and 'negative nationalism'.

Positive nationalism: A stateless nation that wishes to be recognised and respected. It is about empowerment and self-determination.

Negative nationalism: The desire to impose on others ones own vision of the nation and national identity.

I wrote the chapter on Cornwall for the atlas BTB.

T-shirt

GENOCIDE don’t be PARANOID

"Did Trelawny live?,
No.actually, he died.
In his bed, aged 71,
With not a whimper, nor a sigh."

O failed flag of blood red cross
Cause of many a Cornish life’s loss
With face as white as sun bleached bones
Despised in all good Celtic homes

Alban, Kembry, Kernow all hope
For freedom from the Angles yoke
The right to determine own destiny
No shackle of Sawsnek autocracy

I have to agree with P_Trembath: home.

Cornwall for Cornwall
and never the slave
Lets stand shoulder to shoulder
and show we are brave

It is in our genes we are different
not like the rest
Haven’t you noticed the Cornish
always know best?

Sew what you did, Graham?

You rattled Mr Chappell's cage.

Now we have his "poetry"

"Despised in all good Celtic homes"

@GrahamSmith

Thanks for the reply but I'll need a few more details before I can be sure.

You say you're an internationalist. How does this manifest in your political choices and opinions exactly? What do you think are the appropriate political structures for the UK, England and Cornwall? For you is Cornwall part of the English nation and are the people who think otherwise wrong? Perhaps these questions require a level of honesty too high for a BBC journalist to be able to answer but lets hope not. Anyway answer me these and I'll tell you what kind of nationalist you are.

There are really very few true internationalists around but I think I do quite well in that I wish for all nations that which I want for the Cornish.

BTW in the new atlas Cornwall is described as a stateless nation. Equally it is described as a constitutional duchy administered as a county of England.

"BTW in the new atlas Cornwall is described as a stateless nation. Equally it is described as a constitutional duchy administered as a county of England."

In whose "new atlas"?

"A new atlas has been produced by a Breton organisation"

Oh, THAT "new atlas"!

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Now that is censorship.....'Bro Goth agan Tasow'........ can't be posted here......?

Places defy definition in the abstract sense, whether it be England or Cornwall or France or Spain. Some people call it Kernow others Cernyw, Cornovaglia, Kernev Veur, Cornouailles or Cornubia. Some people see Kernow as place to go on holiday, to surf to swim and to drink. Other see it as where they grew up and their forefathers, where they work and raise their families. Some politically would like to see the people of Cornwall further assimlated into the English way of life and others quite the opposite. Without a common point to relate, there is no definition of Cornwall or to put it more eloquently 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.

This simply is the reason that Mr Orwell titled his piece the Lion and the Unicorn, is that nations and places have no objective definition which is why they identify with symbols. Personally I've always like the Lion and Unicorn as symbols, to me it's message on the one hand we are hard and the other we're full of it.

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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Morning Graham for me Cornwall is like

The last mouthful of pan fried sea bass, cooked in extra virgin olive oil, washed down with Gothic Alsace gewürztraminer wine.

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Cornwall is a lovely place,
Though we don’t grow many apples.
What we grow,
is Rowes and Rowes,
and daft ha'porths
Like Mike Chappell.
:-)

Pasties, beaches, Eden, sea, sun, cliff tops, happy people, long summers, Truro cathedral, Fish & Chips, moors, farms, tin mines, Humphrey Davey, Lands End, merry maidens, Minack, Tamar bridge.

"..Negative nationalism: The desire to impose on others ones own vision of the nation and national identity.."

Which is much more advantageous, than having exiles living in bunkers in Paris, imposing nationalism on the Cornish because he is home sick.

Cornwall is sheer pink frilly knickers and long smooth legs leading to pair of olive green wellingtons.

Cornish nationalism is like using humpty dumpty to make Custard

@Rialobran, you talk of censorship, the comment I made regarding your post, partially re-posted below, was censored due to it not all of it being in English.

Rialobran wrote:-
"Now that is censorship.....'*** **** **** *****'........ can't be posted here......?"
House Rules, everything has to be written in English.
Go stand in the corner, with the "Cornish not" around your neck!

And in another thread, Graham Smith talks of Irony!
Looks like I'll be joining you in the corner, "Cornish not" and all.

Graham Smith wrote:
In matters of faith, is Cornwall now Church or Chapel?

A more personal thing I think Graham

T- Shirt slogan

https://i983.photobucket.com/albums/ae315/tractministries/jesus.jpg

Mary has her degree, asks "fries with that?" Bright Cornish lass told to stay in Kernow and give birth; she wants more, so saves for a ticket and accommodation up-country

The Celtic Nation and Duchy Of Cornwall - a land next to England, like Scotland and Wales, whose language is redacted and denied expression by the BBC.

Come now graham give him the award nobody reading the forum would have guessed he would say that, what it lacks in originality it also lacks in passion and delivery, its like X factor all over again

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Graham Smith wrote:-
"I wonder if the "nationalists" and "anti-nationalists" (I fear I've been unable to think up better labels) will find anything to agree about."

I fear that the above few posts would indicate that you wonder in vane.

Graham Smith wrote:-
"Please accept that as part of the challenge."

Haha, looks like it's become a break the House rules contest.....and nationalist bashing!!

Rialobran I think post 43 was far from bashing anything or anyone, it had been left up for sometime.

The other postings I take your word for it.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

House Rules, everything has to be written in English.....so what constitutes English? My last post was written in Anglo-Saxon, why has it been taken down Mr/Mrs/Miss Moderator? It was not defamatory, unlike many posts here, it was simply written in the language of the rules, English.

The Tin Miners Vision

A tin miners life was treacherous and most times grim
working deep underground digging out the tin
Just earning enough that could be called their own
the tin miners worked their fingers to the bone
With faith that was never ending guiding each step of the way
deep into the bowels of the darkness, shutting out the light of day
Families brought up the Christian way, like the Cornish truly know how
determined and steadfast with hands firmly at the plough
The light that gives us true vision can only come from deep within
when our true and only Saviour cleanses us, from all our worldly sin.

© YC

And the Duke takes double taxes from our sweat, our blood and our tin.

Jez 8 left for work at 5am with sister and father to shovel his life away
Walking past the tombstones of associates
Talked of being 'Cousin Jacks', increasing the pay

One Cornwall at one with the world and not cut adrift to appease the mutinous 10

Boarded shops and flood systems
Council estates and old people's homes
God gave you a brain now bloody go and use it
Rise from the slums to a pioneering expectations

Seeing as there is no tin produced in Cornwall calmer Boot, and seeing as the levies imposed by the duke ended centuries ago, your view of Cornwall is one you have never seen.

Mind you without the duke you'd have no duchy, so are you, or are you not, willing to support your duke, Carbon Team?

Battered by time, holiday homes, OAP's and Caravans
An artist's revelation
All donations given to Emmet Eden kingdom
Neither nation nor Duchy
But a chocolate box quickly forgotten

Andrew Jacks wrote:-
"One Cornwall at one with the world and not cut adrift to appease the mutinous 10"
One Cornwall, at one with the world, standing proud and equal to all. Not submerged in a grey uniform "one size fits all" culture and ethnicity to please the small number, and small minded, Kernowphobes.

Sad, sort of sums up you anti - nats, very sad.

With Irish kilt and Scottish pipe,
A bit of Welsh and Celtic hype.
Their tears for what might have been,
Before a British Empire, English Queen.

Slimslad wrote:-
"..........English Queen."
Interesting, the Queen, current, is:-
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
No mention of England or English there.
Did you mean British Queen, or were you referring to a different Queen?

Victoria?
Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India.
No mention of England or English there either.

Queen Anne?
After 1707:- Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.
No mention of England or English there either.
Ahh, but before 1707:- Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.
So, you must have been referring to a Queen 300 odd years ago, or maybe one before that?

Elizabeth 1?
By the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.

Mary 1?
Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol.

Surely not Lady Jane Grey?
Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head

Or perhaps your going back to 1141 and the Empress Matilda?
Lady of the English.

Just wondering.

Athelstan was quite a bloke,
Had all England under yoke,
Until he reached the Tamar's shore,
Then a dragon said, "No More"!

Mr Trembath: I think he meant to write 'Ethnically Trans-European Queen'
Slimslad: Not a bad ditty, sounds a bit Nationalist for you though

'Athelstan was quite a bloke,
Had all England under a yoke,
Until he reached the Tamar's shore,
Then a dragon said, "No More"!'

One of the best there so far, Slimslad.
And one of the less predictable, too.

That Celtic Voodoo may be working.

You may even have (with a bit more work) the beginnings of a children's book there!

Kernewek on the left page - English on the right.

I thought it was quite subtle.

What with dragons being mythical, just like much of Cornwall's history.

I look around the Cornwall I love
A joyful society
On the internet
I see radicals with nothing better to do
To Emmet's everywhere
Cornwall is a serene English Shire

A County,Duchy, perhaps a Nation?,
All this causes aggravation.
Tearing paper, no more pasties,
Cursing all those English Nazis.
Wishing for what might have been,
They stamp their feet, and scweem and scweem!

I counted 33 slim perhaps they use undecimal base 11 up north, down here we still use our fingers, so the rule is two cousins fingers plus your own

Red sunset sets into the west
White candle burning bright deep into the night
Blue skies viewed from Chappel cliff
As we wind down into Gorran haven
My Cornish heaven

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Hesitantly Penberthy approaches Tamar Customs, in his Orange P reg Rover 420 turbo diesel delight, passport in hand, Kernow flag gleams bright the last thing to leave the duchy tonight

Which are the limericks, Mr Smith?

What would Orwell have made of this one :

'A 'Cornwall' 'reporter' called Smith
Developed a worrying lithp
While spouting on air
He lost some more hair
The mike shorted and the retht wath pure blith.' ?

Will that do?

There was an young man from Redruth,
Who thought English was very uncouth.
So he learnt some Brethonic,
'Though his accent was chronic.
And talks to himself, that's the truth.

There was a young man christened Blair,
Who wondered if life was that fair.
Changed his name to George O.
Wrote a book we all know.
That showed that he really did care.

The tourist trade the life blood
pumping through Cornish vein
seed sown on departure of the
Paddington to Penzance train.

Emmet's caravans blocks Penberthy's path in Kernow next to Englandshires. Tourist can't hurt him he carries the MCR1 gene. Stannaries and Gorsedd talk in alien tongues of conspiracy from Padstein.

There was another wordsmith called Blair
Who came up through the ranks by wind fair
When he got into position
We all know the transition
People lie dead here, there and over there.

Graham Smith had an idea
To stop people talking diarrhea
He set them Comp
With great pomp
The nats went stomp stomp

Tom, siestas within a derelict fish market, as the doors to the seaman's mission open time for a wash, food, respect and lessons in Cornish costing £650 a throw

From Gunnislake to Lands End
All non-nats are round the bend
They pontificate
about Britain Great
But TRUE Cornishmen they do offend

There was an old man had a gene,
To tell whom his ancestors had been.
When he found with a shock
They were not Welsh or Jock.
The Cornishman moved to Spain(?)

'Speen' has greater historical resonance:
british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1644-second-newbury.htm

And, quite importantly for a limerick to work Slimslad - it rhymes.

There was an Englishman in the West,
Who wore a union flag on his vest;
When they said, 'It doesn't fit!'
He replied, 'I know I'm a tit!'
That Englishman with his chest

Nationalists offer what they think is best
without a crumb to invest
They live in the past and think it will last
to hell with us and all the rest.

There was an old man from Penzance,
Whose Limericks hadn't a chance.
His name Rialobran,
Whose lines didn't scan.
What a laugh,what a fool, what a dance.

'There was an old man had a gene,
To tell whom his ancestors had been.
When he found with a shock
They were not Welsh or Jock.
The Cornishman moved to Spain'
©'Slimslad' 2010

Less of the old from Penzance
And your Limericks leave me askance
I haven't the time
for a scanning rhyme
So stick that in your pipe and and smoke it.......

Youngcornwall, Slimslad and Jacks
As close as ferrets in a sack
Their heads pop out
And look about
Sniffing out their next 'nats' attack.

Looking out from the range at tregantle fort
Where so many battles have been fought
To Looe island a paradise resort
Where me and my children cavort
Beauty in an abstract thought

Isn't Looe primarily a year round working fishing port, Tregantle?

How many battles have been fought at Tregantle Fort?

AccurateChronometer your dismal attempts to attack any comment not from a nationalist is truly miserable and deeming to the Cornish movement, even I have heard of Looe island, I think sisters saved up and bought it, I was going to say it is good to see you have found a sense of humour (93) but as usual the bitterness rears its ugly head, Peter just ignore AC and let's put it down to poetic license.

Demeaning not deeming apologies. AC has this affect on most who read his rabid comments

As the sun sets over C24,
We lesser mortals can only stand in the long shadows,
In wonder, at the mythical talents of these Aged Ones.
Inheritors of Jennor, and some other blokes,
Nobody has heard of.