NEVERTHELESS

Tags

existential, poem, poetry, postmodern, writing

NEVERTHELESS

no redemption
only resolution

the deus ex machina
needs a good lube and grease

nevertheless
however non-linear, self-
reflexive and ultimately inconsequential
I do keep writing

let words pour (or drip)
across (and down) the page
writing not
life’s greatest horror
(how could it be?)

though the entire exercise
so much less suffused with
anything remotely resembling joy
than real physical
and, of course,
metaphysical pain

CHRISTMAS POEM

Tags

Christmas, identity, loss, meaning, poem, poetry, postmodern, sbsurdist

CHRISTMAS POEM

sorry if you
hate the ending
but please accept
the poem was rushed

struggling to get down in words
how when I reached out to the stars
they did not acknowledge me

how my prayers remain unanswered
even a moment of happiness
apparently far too precious a
thing for me
to have to share

another cold Christmas ahead
evoking memories of all
that sort-of family love
breakdowns on
the day itself

template for the emptiness
of this life

the stars
if they are moving
not making a
spectacle of it, a song
and dance about it

if they are
moving where
is the change, where
is the waited-for
joy?

every Christmas takes us further
from the original, from that
first, great meaning

not so sure if it helps, if it
is worth the energy
to keep this day
alive at all

IN ANY SIZE SHAPE OR FORM

Tags

climate change, Global warming, metafiction, poem, poetry, postmodern, writing

IN ANY SIZE SHAPE OR FORM

It is so hot
the text he is writing
begins to glow

who turned up
the temperature
wrapped
us in foil?

a character in the story asks

the pen has
stopped
so he is
left waiting
on an answer

and there she lies
naked in his bed
the dancer who
does no dancing

the fan rotating
every
twenty so seconds
completing its
semi-circular path
her body
readying itself for
each bracing blast
(absence, presence,
ice
and desert

something so basic
fundamental
about its
rhythm
its action)

and yet
as the Earth heats up
heads towards
planetary inferno

she may not
in truth

actually exist
as lover of
the writer
or lover
of his character

lover as
anyone

anyone’s
paramour

daughter of
the goddess
in any
size, shape or form

OUT OF THE BOX

Tags

metafictional, poem, postmodern, satire, screenplay, scriptwriting, writing

OUT OF THE BOX

I read your
screenplay

was a bit
taken aback
at the character
modeled on me
that you
created

wondering when
in the entire
three acts he
would emerge
out of his box.

LIBRARY

Tags

books, Foucault, knowledge, library, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, power

LIBRARY

people disappear in
University libraries
they wander so far
off the beaten path
they have to be
corrected

chastised, conditioned,
classified

chopped up
analytically as
Foucault wrote

in that major
world-challenging, deconstructive tome

they probably got lost
looking for in the first place

ESCAPE

Tags

Escape, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, postmodern, writing

ESCAPE

U didn’t
u-turn

so I built
a wall

I built
a wall
so you
became
a needle

tried to escape
emigrated
to Vegas

my eyes rolling like
the bar line
on a
slot machine

but that’s when
you invaded from above
rained down
magic mushrooms

but I was too far
sucked down the rabbit hole
ever to notice

desperate to hide, evade discovery
between the pages of a book

BY THEIR CELLPHONES

Tags

digital age, Humanity, identity, media, poem, poetry, postmodern, satire, Technology

BY THEIR CELLPHONES

everyone
celebrating

linked to
the cosmos by
their cellphones

wondrously
fabulously

alone

BLANKET

Tags

Capitalism, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, postmodern, satire

BLANKET

it is a sweet
smothering blanket

going to
smother you
to death

and this will
make you a
free man

stripped of
everything but
aforementioned
blanket

which is
not a
real blanket
(real houses,
beds and
blankets

were sold
from under
your feet
marketed away

FRAMED

Tags

art, Humanity, meaning, philosophical, picture, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, Universe

FRAMED
(in the frame)

crazy thought
stole into
my head
but a
moment ago

imagined the Universe
had to
be connected by
something
(in final
analysis
all
the same)

me parked here out
of the picture

but everything that exists
however it exists
threaded ultimately
by thin skein
of compassion

but that seemed
stretching it

so I took a
snapshot

and there is is
out on the net
doing the rounds on
social media

and yet,
so little to see

hardly any of humanity
there in the frame

ON TELEOLGY

Tags

loss, philosophical, philosophy, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, postmodern, satire

ON TELEOLOGY

it was a strange
apocalyptic
(are not all
dreams sort
of apocalyptic?)

there I saw
ancient Athens
cloaked in
clouds of toxicity

Plato, Socrates
wearing respirators

and Aristotle turned
the colour purple
so badly monoxided
he could not even
conceive of
a concept even remotely
like
teleology