AROUND

Tags

Humanity, hypocrisy, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, religion, satire, War

AROUND

it was a mess
a downright mess

fiery angels
parachuting down
fighting the fiery
warriors of God

no quarter given
so much of God’s armoury
many of God’s soldiery

viewfinders, night-sights,
radars, scopes and trackers
to find, isolate, target evil

not much sense
of God around

Advertisements

WE

Tags

Humanity, hypocrisy, poem, poetry, religion

WE

we have been
found out

they tapped up
gently and
found we were
empty vessels

knocked us
and we fell apart
and so we turned
to the gods of
deception
because, sad
as it is,
they never really die

YET

Tags

poem, poetry

YET

tonight
this night

the stars in
undistinguished
or special
configuration

but
howsoever
they
find themselves

I am brought here
to see in myself
the entire
history of
my species

strength and
beauty
worst and
best

great moments
of insight
and fragility

the poetry we
are, were
have nor written yet

ALONE

Tags

evolution, Humanity, philosophical, poem, poetry, satire

ALONE

mistake
biological

or
philosophical

can’t tell
from the
error code

whether it’s
thing of
brain or
thing of bone

and now
about to
deprive the
Universe of
our company

leave the stars
so alone

since
at its root

what we
are

cannot evolve
will not
compute

THE POOR

Tags

Humanity, poem poetry political moral, poetry, poverty, power, satire

THE POOR

the poor
are below

out of sight

they had
their dignity
we took
it from
them,
right

because they
have no value
no purpose
do they serve

no hope of
striving for
humanity
the rich
have
made
their own

CLEAR

Tags

Humanity, poem, poetry, satire

CLEAR

I closed my eyes
and the Universe
became clear

it is
what it is
blind to
our joys
indifferent
to our
hopes and fears

a happy coincidence
with our species
since this is exactly
how we are
to each other

MIRRORED

Tags

Humanity, identity, narcissism, poem, poetry

MIRRORED

we love our
humanity
(we say)

but hate those
mirrors that
do not show
our divinity

by which I mean
my divinity

by which I mean
the projection of
my idea
of divinity

that I love,
loathe, fear
hate
to see

mirrored as I see it
mirrored so differently

SCRABBLE

Tags

Humanity, irony, poem, poetry, satire, thermonuclear

SCRABBLE

you thought
scrabble
was a word game
scored a shitload
of points for
“thermonuclear”

and now
scrabbling for scraps
in this radioactive winter

you wonderwhy
you hadn’t gone
with “irony” instead

WHEN I RETURNED

Tags

BREXIT, Britain, British, decline, Empire, Ending, entropy, poem, poetry, Postcolonial, postmodern

WHEN I RETURNED
“entrenched and calcifying
class stratifications”
Gary Younge

when I returned
everything was crumbling
but not in that happy
melt-in-the-mouth sort of way

a land of
broken statues

historical memories
grown ever more painful
with each passing year

once this
machine worked

once it ran on ahead
outstripped the pack
at full steam

but now how bleak
how dour
cement coloured skies
divulging near toxic rain

that somehow, magically,
stays within official limits
and so no one gets sick
no
discernible ailments

and there the images
that once rejuvenated
reminded us of
the great musical hall and
other popular traditions
feeding into
the great Beatlesque
transformations of identity

anarchy in the late 70s
along those stone cobbled streets
where my grandad
returned from war with
dream of starting a family

chipped, cracked
whose face is that
did they ever see this Britain, this
England coming

not just rejuvenated, but
rising from the dead
(form an
all-star dead rock band
with John and Jimmy and George
and Mary and Percy
who wrote such blistering
odes in mode
of truth to power)

but now
not a whimper of
that poetry

cannot call it
a wasteland because it’s all
too hypothetical, digital and
completely plasticated

no memory of
what went blitz as it
streaked across
the channel

what went bang and

what Guy Fawkes cracker could

remove every stone, every blade
of grass
the name of every city

those names whose esteemed truth you cling to
when theIr failures shone brighter
than the brightest searchlight

why we
need the darkness

for their
power to grow
and grow

empirically, imperially, universally,
exponentially

until the
bubble burst

so fatally
expand

MUIZENBERG SALTY

Tags

great white shark, Humanity, meaning, MUIZENBERG, poem, poetry, Saint, South Africa, spiritual

MUIZENBERG SALTY

days running out
to become a Saint
before snuffing it

decided to give everything back
to the Universe in a way
would really hurt

so he ran
down to the ocean
(the blue Indian Ocean)
swam out
beyond the breakers
to find a
great white shark