AGAIN

Tags

connection, division, Humanity, metapoetic, philosophical, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, Reader, Separation, wordplay, writing

AGAIN

poem is
thing that
unites
us

thing that
divides
us

finds the
point at
which
surgically
we
were
separated

tries to sew
stuff back
together
again

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PIECE DE RESISTANCE

Tags

Chess, poem, poetry, postmodern

PIECE DE RESISTANCE

I am chess piece
have to
think out
of the box

all my life
I have been
mating in six, ten
nine, five
finding brilliant
solutions as if
I could see
in multiple dimensions

but
in
truth
I have
never

won
a game

my player
always refusing
to listen

so arrogant, obstinate
and tactically poor

JEU

Tags

Derrida, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, sexual symbolism, wordplay

JEU

let’s play
a Derridean game
of trace and
deferral

deconstructing the
centre from
the margins

until
I find

your soft
spot
(though
obviously
none too
hard
to find

special
spectacle

to see)

IN CHARACTER

Tags

metafiction, metapoetic, Narrative, poem, Poet, poetry, postmodern, writing

IN CHARACTER

I tell the character I am writing
to stop writing me
I tell him I will
change him
to someone who
will not intrigue
nobody will read
who will lose all of his
villainous charm, his
adored evil

he says he will
write my
out of this poem
out of existence

like those guys airbrushed
out of history, the world
will hear of me no more

and thus we wrote trading
threats and insults

sadly
this character becoming so powerful
so great, and deep and
all-to-real for me
for you

than I
could ever be.

THE OTHER JACQUES

Tags

Language, meaning, Metaphor, metapoetic, philosophical, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, wordplay, writing

THE OTHER JACQUES

there is
a

philosophical
elephant

in the
room

bigger than
a Dali rhinoceros
or a
kangaroo

but
not a

horse in sight
outside the
text

no taxonomy
to speak of
all

this
difference
to arrest

THIRTEEN

Tags

poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, wordplay

THIRTEEN

I was in seat thirteen
when the fourth wall collapsed

everything on the screen
following the logic
of dream
one moment on
a local flight

the next a character
in the cast of Lost

or two characters, perhaps,
trying to connect with each other
across alternate timelines

or perhaps
I am still
in thirteen
have been
all this time
have been
from
the beginning
of time

being tortured, having
a lap dance, having
root canal

wandering through a world
where Alice is Queen
and there
are only Prime numbers

one, two, three, five,
seven, eleven
and, of course,

thirteen
seat I am sitting in
my throne, my
seat
of power
of execution

riding
the chaos of that number
for all it is worth.

COLD COMFORT

Tags

bale, Humanity, love, meaning, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist

COLD COMFORT

post-truth
post-shame
post-love

the red stuff
that made us
true to
ourselves
bleached out
of our cells

the colors run
into each other
giving each other cold
comfort
as if with infection

like the spread of
a virus

gross parody, mimicry
of love
(making
the rehearsed
moves
but
no
conviction

unless conviction is a
box to
contain

drum to
be beaten

sky to fill
with abysmal cloud

WAY

Tags

Deconstruction, Derrida, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, writing

WAY

there are
no
synonyms

the distance between
words is
infinite

everything you
say
when we

put it under
a microscope

deconstructs itself in
the most sad, amazing
beautiful ways

IF I SAY SO MYSELF

Tags

meaning, Mirror, poem, poetry, postmodern, poststructuralist, semiotics, value, writing

IF I SAY SO MYSELF

there’s pollution
in my poem
too deep to
remove
without damage
to the text

this, of course,
means it
fails the
acid test
of perfect mirror

fails to
perform
as any
kind of
mirror
at all

just is
what it is
thing mistaken,
conflicted, polluted

trying
and
failing

(so beautifully, if
I say so myself)

not to
be, like you
and like me,

anything so
truly and deeply
polluted at all

REALITY POEM

Tags

media, metapoetic, poem, Poet, poetry, postmodern, reality TV, writing

REALITY POEM

this poem
comes in so
many shapes
and sizes

it can be
smart poem
that does
all the work
for you

Monday night
poem under the lights
and every metaphor
a Hail Mary

or it can be
your favourite
the reality poem

which you can
sneak under the covers
or into the
shower with you
on camera, and

(best part) the
viewers get
to phone in
and decide
which lines
stay
and which depart