PERSEPOLIS

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

PERSEPOLIS

all you
know

is cement
and rent

so you
think
nothing of
reducing to
rubble our
human
history

(your University
living
in a
circus tent)

MESUSA REVISITED

Tags

Medusa, mythological, poem, poetry, psychoanalytical, woman

MEDUSA REVISITED

the snake-strands
of Medusa’s hair
snapped and spluttered
spat and hissed
at each other

which neither comb
nor brush
nor any implement
availing for
pompadour styling
might resolve

Plato, Socrates, Aristotle
travelled far, at special rates.,
to proffer the best in
psycho-philosophical consultation
but nothing
spoken or written
could this raucous, deadly
discord help resolve

unless
those big-screen eyes

whose depth
deeper than the subtext
of Thrones or Sopranos

might suck them in
pamper them like morsels
on the plate

of Chef Ramsey

mere morsels

if anyone can do this
it is he
who will untangle the
multiple Gordian knots of their
frantic spaghetti

bring to
state of succulent peace far
from the concept
of rock
or of stone

MEDUSA REVISITED

Tags

hair, media, mythology, poem, poetry, snakes, television, wordplay

MEDUSA REVISITED

the snake-strands
of Medusa’s hair
snapped and spluttered
spat and hissed
at each other

which neither comb
nor brush
nor any implement
availing for
pompadour styling
might resolve

Plato, Socrates, Aristotle
travelled far, at special rates.,
to proffer the best in
psycho-philosophical consultation
but nothing
spoken or written
could this raucous, deadly
discord help comport

unless
those big-screen eyes

whose depth
deeper than the subtext
of Thrones or Sopranos

might suck them in
pamper them like morsels
on the plate

of Chef Ramsey

mere morsels

if anyone can do this
it is he
who will untangle the
multiple Gordian knots of their
frantic spaghetti

bring to
state of succulent peace far
from the concept
of rock
or of stone

RECITING HOMER

Tags

Ancient Greece, Boris Johnson, Classics, Homer, poem, poetry, satire

RECITING HOMER

for Homer
recitation
is creation

Gutenberg Bible
dispensed with that

and Nietzsche’s rage
against the softness
of a post-heroic age

where kennings neither
flowed like wine-dark waters
clipped together, like
bronze armour

story of the lithe young crazed Achilles
greatest of the Greeks whose
spear strong enough
to find its way
through any shield

yet whose immortal weakness
Paris exploited

recite enough and
there shall be a moral
a way of
allegorical inflection

to fit the truths of
our parable age

NARRATIVE THE SAME

Tags

Caesarian, Julius Caesar, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

NARRATIVE THE SAME

despite all
our best efforts

history keeps sprouting
Julius Caesars
conquerors of Gaul,
tyrants of Rome

whose high
philosophical views
of themselves
can only exist
in perpetual motion
creating the wave
of Empire

whatever the
species or genus
phylum or kingdom

whatever
the mutation

the crossing
of the Rubicon:

narrative
the same

AT CLEOPATRA’S HOUSE

Tags

Egypt, Julius Caesar, poem, poetry, power, ROME, scorpion, Snake, spider

AT CLEOPATRA’S HOUSE

Caesar
is always
less than
Caesar

a little
or a lot
depends
on what
you got

this I was
mediating upon
at Cleopatra’s
house

whilst the
Roman Republic
was in
great debate

and I saw a
spider, a scorpion
and a snake
in a dispute
for
absolute power.

ROME

Tags

classical, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, power, ROME

ROME

beautiful city

where Greek marble
captured an ideal

Roman marble
drank blood

and so much of it
to go around

so many battles,
conspiracies and
coups

and city of such supreme power
and yet there always
a darkness to threaten

God and the Devil
equally comfortable
in the gold of your aura

equally fluent in
the absolute nature
of your tongue

GERMANE

Tags

Boris Johnson, Britain, classical, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

GERMANE

found you in the pack
not as King, Queen or Jack,
Empress or Emperor
just as red-
faced joker, populist pretender
marching behind Julius
on his power-hungry path

which was, I presume, whilst
you did study the Classics
to speak the
power to truth
with ever glib
Imperial phrase

No a smidgen of Achilles here,
Hector, Homer, Ovid, Horace

just
hanging from ripcord and balloon
like buffoon from
The Clouds

ah, yes, there
is your praise-singer
poet of perfect political
proportions

let me
re-iterate in
this little
semi-public forum

Plato’s dissection of the oligarch’s
matter of necessity
descent into tyranny

hardly
more apposite

more loved by the lictors
of such
surreptitious sagacity

so
serendipitously germane

SYMPOSIUM

Tags

love, Plato, poem, poetry

SYMPOSIUM

“Fearing their power, Zeus
split them into two separate
parts, condemning them to
spend their lives in search
of their other halves.”

came to
prove

a point philosophical

about
power and

resistance

but so
loved your

touch

the politics of
our pleasure

the aesthetics of
control not

an issue
at all

MAENADS

Tags

classical, female, Metaphor, mythological, poem, poetry, psychoanalytical, Repression, sublimation

MAENADS

what do Maenads do
on their day off

but
cool down

cannot go around the whole day
tearing to
shreds the whole day in
celebration of
Dionysus
(Aetna and Vesuvius
could not stand comparison
with such
steaming
and smoking)

but is that not
gold
streaming out
down South,
pouring
out
of
Africa

and so it is, Aphrodite
settles back on a chais longue
(always
go French!)
taking a
bit of a break, a holiday

so many golden girls walking the streets
the sure touch of Midas
much to do
with that making