Poetry
Merry Christmas to you, whoever you are. Have some emotional encouragement wrapped in cryptic rhyme.
I’ve decided to start illustrating my poetry by finding cool images on Flickr and writing about them. Here’s the first one.
Sometimes I forget that I
Have the luxury of time
As I chase the next moment,
Hurry after more feeling,
Rush after more life
*
Sometimes I forget that whilst the sun shines
And I can breathe the air
This time chasing moments
Gets me nowhere..
Out of life
I emerged
And with tentative steps,
Walked newly dry,
Away from the ocean bed
Then After decades I decide
To remain submerged when dead
Though once I swam amongst the spectres
I’ve not succumbed yet
In Lethe
My heartbeat surges between
Curses spoken upon the living
And one singular need.
My friendship with the evil then,
Increases in proportion to my present time spent
And after life is ever such a short time
To be spent swimming in circles
And waiting to evolve past oversights…
I am Rails
Rust grinding down hollow Victorian channels
Echoing with harmonic squeals
Of wheels scraping out sparks on steel
I am carved out in brick and dirt
Running arterial across the cityscape
I am the inexorable move of you towards your workplace
I am the slow trudge over river water on a cold winter’s morning
When you’d rather be home in a warm bed
I am a misty view of blocked buildings
Windows all boarded and walls dirty
I am cold yellow numbers flashing arrival times and useful information
That are seen through blurry eyes and comprehended
By a fuzzy brain half asleep and only partially sold on compliance
I am dead silence in a carriage stuffed with your fellow human beings
All eyes diverted downwards to touchscreens
And desperately trying not to touch or be touched, at least not too much
I am itchy seats and strange black stains on the floor
I am every day wanting just a bit more
Sitting on the 9:04 to London Bridge
Scheming and dreaming about having my time back
Coming too well to know the inside of this particular carriage
And this time trap…
Image Credit: Garry Knight
If I should ever feel a little melancholy
I like to walk in the rain
Where I can count each of my blessings
As they fall upon my head
Image credit © Anthony Redpath/Corbis
Time to leave
Now the bottom fell out
With the severance package
And my running mouth
A golden parachute
And sad smiles
I’ll say I’m sorry
But get no trial.
The global crisis
The existential slump
Roll over Wall Street and Canary Wharf
Into a fucking slum
All the out of work MBAs,
And the markets melting
Whilst the world decays
Now to call it quits
Just end this shit
And send me away,
Forget my name
I’ll stop selling derivatives, I swear
And sleep for days
Little I gave in our great exchange
And now my name is mud
My bed is made
I guess I’ll be gone
We all gotta do business
And was I so wrong?
Perhaps a distant return to home again
Given a few years in the free and clear
Now find myself a new frontier
Or a little town in Aisne.
image credit: jez.atkinson
Feed us
Entertain us
And we’ll all lay down to die
If we even bother voting
We may later justify
But don’t talk about politics
With a loaded gun
Have you not learnt what history said?
The bloodstains
And death knocks
Are no good for no one
And don’t talk about religion
Cos the opiate has changed
We got iPhones and the Internet
And nothing stays the same
Don’t ask me to make a buy in
Or get up off my seat
Don’t try to tell me a fucking thing
Or try selling it to me
Don’t think you’ll change my habits
Or inform me
I’m proprietary
And care not to know
I just want everything to go
As I say so
I’m not convinced
Cynical too
I have no axe to grind
Nor hell to raise
And don’t want a taste of your life
I just do what I do
Despite what I say
I remain
Not deluded, no
I’m a realist, sweatpea
So don’t bother to preach
Give a speech or disagree
Despite what you say
There’s more than you see
And if you do it your way
You get nothing.
These days are too fat for new chases
Or having time wasted
I guess I’m just waiting
Getting complacent
Stretching my patience
Testing the waters
Hoping to taste
A thing deserving attention
Asides from opiates
I’ve heard the imploring
And wants of the world
Am I obliged to care?
I’m weary of the bullshit
And current affairs
So you want something to happen?
First be great
And if you find that hard to handle
Then try opiates.
Before you know it, the years drift by
And all you do with life is watch TV,
Drink and lie
On your back with all your thoughts
And you’ve all weekend to think the same things, again
If the ads are short
And the weather is warm
Then you don’t complain
Cos life’s like a game like that
One to keep on playing
But you can’t help remember
The good old days
Way back when..
It was no contest
To be emboldened by friends
Just a few more lightweights
Reading 1984
Chanting; workers of the world unite,
And we will endure
All long hair and strong opinion
All trim waistlines, authentic passion
All activism and footloose life
All fine when the road’s still long
You are a young buck,
Fully able to frolic,
Believe what you want
And fuck who you like.
Struggling with your memories,
And the life you face?
Life turned sour
Or going to waste?
There’s a thousand solutions
Thet everyone takes
Does it surprise you to know
That they’re all opiates?
Image Credit: Fibonacci Blue