Who does the bell toll for?

In the UK, every day for more than forty years, the chimes of London’s Big Ben have been heard on the nation’s radios at the start of the six o’clock news.

Time to Take Notice
Dong! — Dong! — Dong ! — Dong ! — Dong! — Dong!
The big bell sounds around the nation.
Its deep vibrations reverberate
Through homes, through heads, to souls.
Time to take notice!
Words will be pronounced, statements stated.
Emotional stability will be destabilised.
Inhumanity and mayhem will be rationalised.
Financial shenanigans will scandalise.
But weather forecasts and sports reports
Will reassure that humanity still survives.

We ask not for whom the bell tolls
Wanting only its familiarity to roll
Through our homes, heads, souls,
Settling us, setting us to receive today’s
Heightened reality, abnormal normality,
Vox pop banality, liberally sprinkled
With cutting-edge statistics and opinion polls.
Time to take notice!
We the people, ponder, flounder, all at sea.
Things are wrong, but it’s all right, or am I wrong?
Dong! — Dong! — Dong! — Dong ! — Dong! — Dong!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More of my writing here Afishamongmany

Time to Take Notice was originally published in Scrittura on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Haste now the running life leaves all behind,
Like washed up husks of dead crabs on the beach
Picked clean by the fear of falling behind
The pace which never leaves time to be sure
Who lost the keys to the back of your mind:
“I have forgotten what my mind was for
Because I spent too much of it online,
And now my attention span is too poor
To buy back those important thoughts of mine.
Wait, what was the point of this metaphor?
Was it just to think of a witty line?
My life is too rich to care for the poor.”

Such is the state of a mind short on time,
Constantly bubbling with slanted rhymes.

— Sonnet 10

Hunter Dansin

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Haste Now the Slanted Rhymes was originally published in Scrittura on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

November 4, 2026

Ah, decisions.

Yesterday in the United States, people made big decisions. There are those political things, and there are those personal things.

It seems all our lives we are making decisions of one kind or another. Some are easy, and some are just plain tough.

Here are three different takes on making decisions.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”– Theodore Roosevelt

I can imagine that in the United States this week, lots of people are concerned with painful efforts and grim energy. It’s hard work. It’s hard work to know what directions to take, what programs to create and support. And I can imagine there are some regrets.

Life is just a slide. Back and forth between loving and leaving, remembering and forgetting, holding on, and letting go.– Nicole Lyons

Oh, that back and forth, loving and leaving, holding on and letting go. What have you let go? Was it painful? A lover, a friend, a goal, a dream?

And this from the Lovin’ Spoonful.

Did you ever have to finally decide?
Say yes to one and let the other one ride
There’s so many changes, and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide?

What burdens do you face? What regrets do you carry?

Write then, write about the pain of big decisions and letting go.

Zay Pareltheon

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First Thursday Prompt Making Decisions was originally published in Scrittura on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.