VENEER

Tags

Christian, poem, poetry

VENEER

poetry has surface
be my guest surf, slide across it
or if
not that smooth
take every bump
in your stride

don’t worry about what the words
mean and all that symbolic and
conceptual shit, just
listen to the flow of the syllables, or
their roughness
and rock to that rhythm basically
mellifluous is such
an absolutely beautiful word

poetry
has surface
wood
has veneer

you can splinter that wood
with nails will
not look that good
in your lounge, place of
dining or
of lovemaking
hard to sleep when the wood
has been penetrated by iron,
has blood soaked into its fibers

Oh that horizontal plus vertical arrangement
you thought as
perfect for huge windowpane
or supporting structure
now starts to
assume disturbing, accusing proportions
is not going to
conducts to your comfort
dovetail with that world which
is absolute answer
to your stylistic needs

I think you
know now where
this is headed

I think you know how
a Roman cat
of nine tails can flay your skin

which is
of course the correct answer to
the question that this poem, in defiance
of the idea it should
do so much
and no more

is asking
asking
asking

aren’t you glad I was
charitable enough to give you the answer?

WITH THE VERY BEST

Tags

Christian, Empire, KFC, poem, poetry

WITH THE VERY BEST

This my little eulogy
my praise poem
celebrating the history
of secret herbs
and spices

which time devised in order
to preserve the condition
enhance the taste

of all that fall
under the heading of “mortal flesh”.

But as Cantos go
this paltry effort so thin
on ancient and Renaissance
aesthetic, on
sweeping socio political reference

things Greece, Rome
Italy
pinned its faith on

and other imperial dynasties that follow
of less artistic consequence
(unless pop the plastic weasel goes
stuck with shaky clone or
plain bad replicant

star and
strip stripe me
jack
me up the
union)

what herbs and spices burnt
into that cloth

when tomb yawned
when stone was blown like a bubble
from stupendous mouth

what
tomb
you ask?
and right that you should

this
preservation at
its very best

would enhance your soul to
bear that in mind

carry each day to truly remember
anoint you there with the very best.

VITAL SIGN

Tags

Auschwitz, Christianity, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, political, poverty

VITAL SIGN

stigma
stigmata

what King
ever came
for the poor?
this a
contradiction
in terms

nothing more
ephemeral, evanescent
as bank balance
no balance with
greater
disequilibrium
to be fair

Oh, the chains that bind us
perhaps they are atomic, molecular,
or maybe they are tensile steel
and come with a collar

scar where
the wounds of sanctity openly bleed

tattooed number
of the dignity of labour

as they
always say
honest work makes you free

IN YOUR ELEMENT

Tags

air, earth, elements, Fire, God, philosophical, poem, poetry, spiritual, Water

IN YOUR ELEMENT

these scars
on my arm
are where
my skin burned
when you
touched me
lifted me
up out of
the ocean
and we
walked
for that moment
hand-in-hand

this is the water
I can still taste
you
bade me drink
until
flowing through my body
water and I
were
as one
sometimes I sense it
is there
a drop that
will never leave
has remained

it’s molecular structure bonded
in a place of perfect light

and this
the air

vehicle for the word
across which
your voice carries

through which, all
being well
I am meant to ascend

but for now
where I juggle things

this poem
this breath

every
aspect of myself
all that
must be weighed, judged
called to
balance
come to rest

and lastly, by no means finally
this earth that enfolds
ground from which the
child in me outgrew
where my
feet feel time’s sand, fertile loam,
kick up
some dust
(and who
knows what
gold
hidden
in such dust?)

this the
floor to

who knows
what ceiling

this the dark door
where you yourself were
made human, died
and were entombed

THING IS

Tags

Christian, metaphoric, poem, poetry, spiritual, The Fall

THING IS

thing is
I planed
I lathed

I smoothed
I cut, I sawed
I hacked away

shaped my life
to fit a
planet this size
an oxygen environment

tuned my body
best I could
for night day
night
twenty-four hour
twenty-
four frames
per second
thirty-day cycles

but twisting and jiving
to make everything right
wouldn’t you
just know it?: a
screw came loose,
fell out of its housing

perhaps, dare I say it,
carpentry never really,
barely my thing
not cut out
even to
fit horizontal to
vertical
get a
T shape together

maybe
that screw
was the deal
that screw always loose

maybe if
nailed to
the wood

would never
have fallen
so far

from the tree
(every tool
at my disposal, but
scattered around me)

EASTER POEM

Tags

Biblical, Christianity, Crucifixion, Israel, poem, poetry, ROME, slavery

EASTER POEM

iron commandments
land of
milk and
honey

temple to
the Almighty
and there
the Ark of
the Covenant
parked
within

but then they came
these men of power
military machine
the likes
of which the
world had
never seen

spreading like fire
spreading like a plague
to subject
the world to
their rule of
virtue

accept their
shelter
or

be enslaved

and history always
brings back this city
in one
shape or
another

cruel crucifixion
having made it eternal

city
always fashioning
deepest truth

in its own image

today
I would gladly make
my pilgrimage there
to pray

TREELINE

Tags

Crucifixion, Metaphor, poem, Poet, poetry, symbolism, tree, writing

TREELINE

don’t read
any further

go
direct

to the source;
follow me
to the tree

see how well
this theme is here expressed

the growth
slow, painstaking,
yet a
joy to
all

sorry that
my pen should
so wound you

that here you
bleed
for all to
see

your stigmata
my poetry

EASTER POEM

Tags

Christian, Fascism, fascist, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry

EASTER POEM

the fascist vans are
riding around
free and easy
Christmas carols
out their megaphones
and it isn’t even
Easter

and there in the library
your books still stand
not being burnt
on the street corners
quietly excised neither

and so, forgive me,
I have to ask you

what the fuck
what the fuck

are you
doing wrong?

SCROOGE BBC 2.0

Tags

A Christmas Carol, BBC, Britain, British, Dickens, poem, poetry, satire

SCROOGE BBC 2.0

“…no degree of progress allows
one to ignore that never before,
in absolute figures, have so many
men, women and children been
subjugated, starved or exterminated
on the earth.” Jacques Derrida

Scrooge
was
sexually
abused

was shot up at
Isandlwana, Colenso
or the Somme

caught gonorrhea
from a teenage whore

is desperate not to be included
in a ghost story of global proportions

what the dickens?
this tale
not Dickens

(what writer
knows anything about
social and
economic conditions?)

can figure upon
a world where
you can lose all
your money with
reputable trading
make it back
in spades
with slave traffic, theft
of colonial assets
things the
future
used to frown upon

Oh those chains Marley bringing
cannot be real
must be fantastic-
delusional rabid Marxist thinking
to suppose
it was
all
free lunch, all
perfectly above board

the powers that
rule the
soul of man
going to
close that
credit line
wipe the slate spanking clean

IF ONLY

Tags

Christian, poem, poem poetry political moral, satire

IF ONLY

if only could be as
cruel as God
they thought

watching the Passion
from afar

if only could be
sure as
a divine
robot

nail their colours
to that mast

absolute in
everything

no space
for doubt
or
heart

‪