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

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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

RESPECT

Tags

aesthetic, art, big bad wolf, egg, Fairy tale, pigs, poem, poetry, three little pigs, wolf, world, writing

The little pig
feeling out (with careful trotter)
the smooth, nigh perfect shell of the egg
confirming the verdict of his
sharp, pink eyes

wonderful distraction from
the world of wolf and huff-and-puff

even though door, wall,
starting to yield, suffering huge battering
only a matter of time

more wolves expected (loyalty of pack)
and there the breath whirlwind
bound to exacerbate to industrial strength
(what was it
Nietzsche said about
the instinct of herd and
how that extends to pack?)

and so
the displacement disjunctured

thought of sanctity and safety
shifted from that egg
which he
was sadly certain

would not receive from the lupines
the pre-requisite and required
purely aesthetic respect.

THIN

Tags

books, Humanity, loss, pain, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, self-sacrifice

THIN

the veil
getting paper
tissue
thin

he felt he could
reach through
touch
something

catch, grab with
both hands, or
himself
slip through

things changing, final
truths to accept

he felt so cold, the world
so cold
began
to burn his books
to share their heat

LIEBESRAUM

Tags

love, poem, poetry

LIEBESRAUM

I am not
big on
lebensraum

Universe expanding
or contracting

I will give
up my
spot in
the Sun
in the
time-space
continuum

my place
in the
queue
especially
for you

because of
and despite
the fact
I love you

UNDERINSURED

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry

UNDERINSURED

this poem
is underinsured

against such things
as sadness
and naked sunlight

full of the Sun
once I ran
fast as a
steam
train (and
here you are
expecting “legs
like pistons”)

Oh sadness
I have drunk so much
of that stuff they say
I’m a bona fide sadoholic!

the more

scarcely the merrier

unless you
are right
Madame T

and I secretly love this lead-gray heavy heavy
want all the dark energy in the Universe
to gather up
in a Prufrock ball,
steam-roller me

but who are you (whom I
sort of remember from
another Eliot poem)

from birth
it would appear, you
have been shadowing me, getting
me to judge myself impossible
by your ultimate standards

“sadness” you say
“try this for size and we
will talk sadness!”

my fingers finding
wounds and
stuff

and blood that won’t wash off
still warm and wet (thank God)

nothing in my policy speaks
of cover for any such event

THEY

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry

THEY
they died in
a wasteland fighting
for green fields

Wilfred your poetry stilled
at maximum moment by
Maxim machine-gun

that England
you were fighting for
the Shakespeare England and
John Clare

now a no-
man’s land of
ultimate hostility

covered in a concept
of barbed wire

GRENFELL ALBUM

Tags

poem, poetry

GRENFELL ALBUM

I scroll through your names
read each snapshot of your lives

think of the human pity that
there is no mitigation, no
quiet book-closing fatalism
to let us, your readers, your
imaginers, down gently
no soft euphemism
to kill the horror
recoil from
terrible truth of fire

Oh little children, Oh lover
of song and
of dance

and saint-like altruist, hearts of
poetry, minds of philosophy
we see
now exactly the loss

it’s balance with cost
and wonder why the Universe
would be so
heartless to
Insist that price was paid.

***

Oh let us never forget this album
and what
pain and
love
learnt with every page.

PENNYWISE

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral

Pennywise
is a cruel philosopher

clowns around
about taking you down
(sinking like a market
in the throes of depression)

to where we
all float safely, after being
politically dismembered,
hollowed-out
with fear

that peace in living-death
worth all the war really.

WORTH THE SACRIFICE

WORTH THE SACRIFICE

I will be gone (perhaps)
before that
bomb fragment gets me, or
a shock wave, or
nuclear firestorm

before a drone pitches up
buzzes into
my neighborhood
with my name locked
into its fire
control system

perhaps it’s
me
all me

perhaps I am the malign demon
responsible for the mess
of violence we are in

when I am
gone
the world will suddenly
turn to peace and serenity
absolutely

burn all weapons
write
new books

in which case, perhaps,
I should make
a small sacrifice

go a fair
bit sooner

than I had planned.