In the last couple of weeks I have had a poem included in Irish poet Kevin Higgins' excellent e-anthology '21 Poems for Jeremy Corbyn and, coming up, they'll be another called 'The Long Road' in a Plaid Cymru e-book.
Is this the cultural equivalent of entryism?
Well, I'd say not, of course.
My claim is that, just like the Scottish referendum, the candidature of left-winger Corbyn has brought out a new spirit of unity and solidarity on the Left, similar to that achieved by the Occupy movement.
I made it clear to Kevin Higgins that I was no Labourite. I have , after all, spent most of my politically active days campaigning against their reactionary politics.
But, I really do want the Left to become more united.
Ultimately not under leaders such as Wood, Sturgeon or Corbyn, but with people themselves pushing for action on the many issues which are seriously affecting us today.
I've no faith in leaders to deliver.
This is not only because I know the system will alter them, not they the system - as singer-songwriter Rod Tolchock said , 'You gain power only to discover how little power you gain' - but because I realise fully that, at the last resort, it's the City and multi-nationals who rule this country and not the politicians (unless they do their bidding).
I'd like to see a peaceful revolution in my country , Cymru, to set up a republic run on anarcho-syndicalist lines, not just because these are my ideals.
No, whatever anyone says about 'dreamers' or 'utopians', I would adamantly reply that true change can only be achieved from below. It cannot be imposed from above, because people's consciousness will not have been altered.
I would use education as a prime example.
Yes, Corbyn rightly pronounces about the need for a thoroughly comprehensive system ; but here in Cymru we have predominantly comprehensive education, which is only that in name.
What's vital is to set out a totally different education system where failure is not built in.
Again, I quote Rod Tolchock - ' If one person fails, the system has failed.'
I have blogged about this many times and a genuine comprehensive system is one with no private schools, exams, uniforms or hierarchies. It should mean schools run by pupils and teachers.
No reformist politician is going to propose these policies, yet they are essential for the future well-being of our children.
Who can defend a system where any child is deemed a failure?
When I think about Corbyn and his laudable emphasis on policies - many of which I closely identify with - I can't help but think about my late, lamented friend and comrade Jack Gilbert.
Jack, I'm pretty certain, would now be rejoining the party he left years ago, when they abandoned Clause Four.
Jack hailed from Derby and stood for Scargill's party on Harrow Council after he'd left Labour.
He soon became disillusioned with Socialist Labour , when Scargill refused to co-operate with other groups and parties on the Left.
Jack thrived in the Welsh Socialist Alliance in Merthyr and stood as an Independent Socialist for Merthyr Council.
Plaid condemned him as representing the 'loony left', but Jack was anything but.
He worked tirelessly in his community of Quaker's Yard and Treharris to help set up a community allotment, drop-in centre and Credit Union.
He always believed in the kind of grassroots activism epitomised by Cymru Goch and espoused vehemently by the WSA.
He was understandably devastated when the latter broke up.
Like myself, Jack's politics were an amalgam of many philosophies, among them socialism, anarchism and republicanism.
Yes, he surely would've tried to join Labour, but I'm sure that, like thousands of others, he'd have been stopped from voting for Corbyn.
His background in other parties and groups would've meant they would have barred him.
Jack was no reformist either, yet he did recognise the need for a platform and also that parliamentary politics can achieve some notable triumphs.
There are areas where Jack and I would have differed I'm certain, most definitely about the British state.
I would argue that any solution based on the British state is doomed to failure, because Britain is held together by capitalism, monarchy and war.
While Jack would've claimed that the British working-class need to stand together in a common cause, I'd say that a global economy requires global solutions and that is why we have to embrace the IWW, and the notion of One Big Union.
I wish he was around today so we could have that debate.
He was never dogmatic or aggressive and saw gentle persuasion as the way ( Corbyn is a similar character, in fact).
Maybe Jack would have joined the IWW and also tried to rejoin Labour.
I like to think his dream of greater Left unity is that much closer.
DEAD STAR
i.m. Jack Gilbert
The star I can see
has long gone, exploded
into minute particles ;
yet clear this night
as touch in dream.
Passing through the station
again on the way
to another game,
you are not standing
in improbable mauve jacket
squinting at the blur
of the carriages' movement.
It's your light remains
in the circle as we talk
and drink ale you defied
(its sugar your poison);
luminous among these people
who would give their bodies
to build the barricades.
You, among those allotments
were the welcome sun,
or in the community centre
where the bare bulbs hung ;
your stellar energy so near
yet millions of light years away.
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