OH, MY BOOKISH BLOKES

Tags

poem, poetry, postmodern, Reader, writing

OH, MY BOOKISH BLOKES

Oh, my bookish blokes,
forgive me here
if I take chances, make
faulty choices

leave things in the text
that could not
be more questionable

but all of these are slight and shallow
do born
add to (or indeed subtract from)
the problems of the world

hardly anything here is marketable,
nothing serviceable
it is hardly
what you expected, not to speak
of deeply desired

it is not that
thing that
rewires your
synapses
paints your ceiling cerulean
adds a
sprinkling of stars
to the dead constellations of same

for here we are
at the station, at the airport
saying
our unspoken goodbyes
for the moment, for forever

you show me your ticket
I almost stoop
so low as
to ask for loose change.

LET ME

Tags

Ending, meaning, Metaphor, Metaphysical, metapoetic, poem, poetry, postmodern, Reader, transformation, wordplay, writing

LET ME

into this truly devious art
let me initiate you

what we have here
is a written document
scarcely different
from any other,
like Gutenberg’s Bible
in readable print

except, if you are sharp
of sense, quick
on the uptake
you may have discerned
in the pursuit of something
out of the ordinary
the lines are not
equal
lines are
not equal

and, dare I say it, there is oft repetition
(I wish to alert you to the possibility
you may well
be surprised to
encounter repetition)
and rhyme too: slight and subtle
or heavy and, ahem, egregious (yes, Mr Mathers,
I’m
pointing at you)

but
the one true difference
the one solid, spiritual difference,
that I’m sure
you will struggle to
agree with

is that
whilst documents are inked, poems
are in blood

like this little blood offering
you are welcome to
do what you wish with

feel free
to
sublimate this
sacrifice

use
it well

for purposes good,
better, best

or badly, yes
treacherously and
delicious badly

reading everything here quite otherwise
finding (alighting
upon)
no saccharine stand-in or make-do
but one-hundred and
ninety-nine percent ( I promise you)
raw
and refined
pure syrup-sweet perverse

TO BOOT

Tags

erotic, innuendo, love, Metaphysical, metapoetic, philosophical, poem, poetry, postmodern, Reader, Sexual innuendo, sexual symbolism, Shakespeare, woman, wordplay, writing

TO BOOT

I was reciting Elizabethan poetry to you
feeding you metaphoric fruit
for your tired old, enervated, postmodern soul

though our connection
was cerebral, and relationship Platonic

I wondered about the power of
the imagination to be truly transformative

and what
you might be led to by way
of reciprocal response
(or as it stands on the page:
“response reciprocal”)

for if we are working towards
a sudden juxtaposition driven
by conceit metaphysical

where the displacement can work
through idiom
most physical, metaphor
down and dirty

connecting us
every humour, every level
and
game-changer, to boot.

JUMP SCARE

Tags

Horror, poem, poetry, postmodern, Reader

JUMP SCARE

wanted to
put a Jack
in this box

fill these lines
with jump scares

ones that
(being postmodern)
really burst through
the fourth wall

catch you unawares
but before I go there

let us
just
pause for a
minute to
pray for
deliverance

as you
go to the kitchen to
make yourself some coffee

fail to
me shout and shriek and
WhatsApp you
dire warnings

as you
slide effortlessly into
the role
of hapless
victim

get the mug, boil the water and
taking it white and
thus needing milk

blink
for just
a moment
and

OPEN THE FRIDGE

SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

Tags

intertextuality, philosophical, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, satire, wordplay, writing

SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

I stand on
the shoulders of giants
well, actually, squat

and they didn’t
consent to
lift me up

and some of them
are of moderate height
some
veritable pygmies
of you use athletic standards

standing, squatting
I filch their pockets
for oeuvres, folios, pages
and scraps
hey, who knows
when you won’t come across
a line and image that
you can borrow, by
which I mean steal,

no serious copyright in
this creative industry

if they scream
intellectual property

quote them Derrida and Kristeva
tell them they
are ignoramuses if
they haven’t heard
of intertextuality and
how
the game is
not the same
(and
if you are
still on their shoulders, clip
them
as you drop).

COGITO

Tags

Athena, Author, character, Greek mythology, metafictional, metapoetic, poem, poetry, postmodern, writer, Zeus

COGITO

I presumed
I was but a
character in
your novel

but given
you was stuff
you let me author,
I had to revise
that idea

see myself
more as
flesh and
blood than
sketchy text,
insubstantial
shadow

thing
potent and
bright-eyed
as Pallas Athena

and yet (Oh the strangeness
of this gender
reversal!)
sprung from
the sheer wisdom
of that
split
wide open
Zeus-style
Mt. Olympus head.

ROBUST AND INDEPENDENTLY

Tags

Aristotle, logic, media, poem, poetry, postfactual, postmodern, TV

ROBUST AND INDEPENDENTLY

saw that Aristotle
feller on TV
(not in a Python
drunk philosophers’ song
sketch either)

no
the power of your
non-argument
had him
at the end
of his tether

his logic not making
much sense to me

true versus
false

are these
the sole values?

how can this
produce the kind
of conclusion

where we all think
as one, sing
in unison

and yet believe we
think our huge little thoughts
(little huge thoughts)
quite robust and independently

FIX

Tags

metapoetic, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, Reader, wordplay, writing

FIX

you came here
to feel better
get your fix

don’t worry, don’t
feel bad
get
too remiss

it’s
par
for the
course
all in the game

for truth be told
I totally appreciate, absolutely
understand
(in time of fake and falsehood, forgery and
spun spectacle, nonetheless)

I likewise
under not entirely
alien presences
came here,
pitched up

to feel better too
get my equal fix

dawning on me
the reciprocity

you getting your
fix on me
(me dawning
on you)

you getting
your fix on me
(you having
dawned on me)

the picture
having
two hemispheres but
multiple dimensions

a snapshot none
can reproduce

IN THE BEGINNING

Tags

Language, philosophical, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, the word

IN THE BEGINNING

in the beginning
was the word

seems so
obvious and
yet
I’ll say it

the word
and
another word

and yet
another

word after word in
crazy geometric progression

word upon word
and then
the lexicon

full of all the words
ever to exist, ever existed

no stopping the word
until the end
of that thing
we humans
call “time”

EURYDICE

Tags

mythology, poem, poetry, postmodern

EURYDICE

I followed Eurydice out of the tesseract

she kept behind Orpheus
at a respectable distance

the contours of her body unmistakeable
beneath her diaphanous gown

who knows what
worlds beyond this myth
she
had experienced

what other dimensions
of conscious being

I would
attempt to write them
if I had the art.