OF THE WINE-DARK SEA

Tags

Alien, mythology, Narrative, Ocean, poem, poetry, Reader, sea, Universe, writing

OF THE WINE-
DARK SEA

I regaled the aliens
with the epics of Homer

saw the look on their faces
when they first encountered
the concept of
thousand-ship beauty

nod in agreement when
finding easy cosmic equivalents
from their intergalactic experience
of the
wrath of Poseidon
and seemingly
infinite immensity
of the wine-dark sea.

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VIDI VICI

Tags

Julius Caesar, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, populism, ROME, satire

VIDI VICI AND THE REST
THAT IS IN CHARACTER
(mais je ne suis pas venu)

so you got a smattering
of Latin
most of the conjugations,
declensions off pat

and now you
parade yourself through
every forum
that will have you
as if
you are
Julius Caesar

thrice-refusing everything
in imperious third person

and I get it, I get it:
the obvious similarity
given the purple toga
and the way
you now comb your hair

but as far as I can gather
you are a bit behind in your conquests
more gall bladder sufferer
than scourge of all Gaul

and not much of same mettle
though the gods in
their wisdom giving
you some character armour

but when
Caesar walked into Senate
that Ide March day
he knew when
they came for him

wasn’t satire
they’d be carrying, sworn to
journalistic exposure

stuff that our good democrats
(not of the populist pseudo-variety)
would be
aiming to assassinate
with

saving the man
slaughtering
the character

POEM ON WORKERS’ DAY

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, ROME, slavery, slaves, socialism, socialist, Spartacus, workers

POEM ON WORKERS’ DAY

so I pulled into Rome
on workers day
to debate liberty
with some slave owners

wore red
which I had difficulty explaining
would be our colour

not the colour of Empire, of
its soldiers and legions

there, within earshot, a Thracian gladiator training,
his sharp Greek philosophical mind
listening to the debate
taking

as he dies on the cross of ultimate rebellion
all that was said to its logical conclusion

AGAIN

Tags

Alien, Aphrodite, classical, mythology, poem, poetry, sexual symbolism

AGAIN

For years I dreamt of first alien contact
viewed through the mythology
of classical times

(our world hardly having progressed much, going for
much flimsier structures, shabbier ideas,
reintroduction of slavery,
poetry that
anyone with half an ear
would not wish to read)

and so I scanned the stars once again
carefully, but not exhaustively,
looking for signs
and signals yet
conserving my energies

no sense in arriving home dead
and dispirited
unable to rise in
mortal human homage

should Aphrodite care to visit
(honoring me again).

THOUSANDTH

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, Spartacus

THOUSANDTH

I was the thousandth gladiator
to insist to Crassus
that I was Spartacus

or perhaps
I was just an extra in
the Kubrick movie

death by crucifixion
tends to mess with memory

turns history into something
one might forget for a while

THE LIGHT

Tags

BREXIT, Britain, British, classical, Marcus Aurelius, philosophical, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, stoicism

THE LIGHT

uncalled for
the light still comes

settles upon me
as it did upon Marcus Aurelius
philosopher king

whose acumen missed
in this mother of all bawdyhouses
where words are without weight
(float like
condom balloons
across the chamber
where the ceiling manages
to restrain them)

and where
the politics of the people
is but a plaything

the orb and scepter
gilded sex toys

and meaning whatever
you think it might mean
(the country beyond stoical
in living through

this desire
to self-harm, deny, run
wild with the assumption
of absolute authority

the sun settling, reminding me
a day here
ready to be squandered
ours for the idiocy

TRUMPUS EST

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

TRUMPUS EST

Trumpus est
Augustus with
barbarian
rumpus

Nero, but
not quite the musician
no
artist-hero

Crassus
without all the
gold in the world
to
swallow

this not
my Parthian shot

but let me have
my own little
rave serious

for man infinitely
more
anus of
Commodus than

common old
Marcus Aurelius

WHAT THE THUNDER THEN ADDED

Tags

art, Fascism, fascist, poem, poem poetry political moral, T S Eliot, Ted Hughes, The Wasteland, Universe

WHAT THE THUNDER THEN ADDED

It may sound like it but
it was not a T.S. Eliot creative moment

reading Ted Hughes whilst
a fascist was playing Franz Liszt’s
Duo Sonato, solo on violin,
without piano, without
a friend

on the TV (or maybe it was one of
those old 1930s radios) a politician
from the English Home Counties
was assaulting Europe and
the very concept of
the good European

I was almost waiting for Nietzsche
to miraculously pitch up, grab
him, shake him,
throw him into the abyss
by the scruff of his neck
along with that fake Boudicca
who masquerades as his leader
(how she
could lead anything
so totally beyond me)

and then came the flashback to
my Matriculation Certificate English Examination
some serious nutjob choosing
a piece from “What the Thunder Said”
for our unseen poetry analysis

and here I am meeting
this ocean of reference
for the first time

scrambling through a hostile burning desert
in the company of unknown hope
unrecognized resurrection

whilst
the sea rises, swamps
drowns the coast

despite itself, despite all the auguries
maybe a line
can be drawn

maybe the poem can embrace
understand everything
in its own
limited, incomparable way.

RED, GOLD

Tags

49ers, loss, poem, poetry, power

RED, GOLD

Red, gold
all that Sun energy
a sight to
behold

so much so
the gods thought
hubris, the gods
got jealous

the dark gods of
the raven, the bear,
hawk and panther

the old Viking gods
with their falcon and
eagle feathers
and armour forged
from ancient Pittsburgh steel

gods who could not bear the thought
of our team turned titan, our team become giants

and so
they
used their powers, as angered gods do,
to hurt and
humiliate, destroy the hope
of something bright, something new

players of light, players
of fire,
players bright as sapphires

diamonds
dug from our Niner mines

to mock them with their fragility, frailty
remind us that they are human
all too human
the golden thread of

their sports’ glory

so easily
cut.

SPARE THE ROD

Tags

macho, poem, poetry, pride

SPARE THE ROD

spare the rod
and spoil
the little
Dictator, Empire Builder,
Corporate capitalist

playing on his
abacus

balancing power, privilege, pound
profit
against each the

need to
inflict quite
necessary pain