Procrastination

is how we fool ourselves
that we have more time
than we actually have.

Civilisation

is the thin veneer of hope
rendered ever thinner
by the unawareness
of life-style choice.

Relative Values In Space

Children are small satellites
who encircle dizzy parents
until they outgrow their space,
and spin out of their old orbit.
In adulthood they gain
the gravity of planets,

adrift in the vacuum of space
where when their turn is done
they turn to dust.

Putting The 'War' Into 'Awareness'

In Pakistan Afghanistan and Iraq
do they wonder where their country went,

in the target-rich environment?
When before the faith and the land
was simply what they had?

Where once their silence
for their being the sites of proxy wars worked for them
now there are only wails of grief
as what was once sent as relief 
turns to acts of torture. 

Watch

and what you see is what you will become.

Walt Disney,

that pornographer of innocence,
said of  his cartoon 'Fantasia' (USA 1939),
'This film will make Beethoven's reputation'.

For all the corporate myth making
who is the better known artist now?

'The Invisible Hand of the Market'

flatters us to deceive -

tells us to labour and conceive-
and not be delivered-

so whatever we do
we are trim in the weave
of the Emperor's New Clothes.

Beyond Want

Sexiness is powerful
in the lust of the mind's eye.
But there is a greater strength
to be found-beyond wanting.

The Strength

and quiet pride of domestic slaves

in Greek and Roman times came from

how they knew their masters 

better then their master knew themselves;

the servants had to, to survive the system
from which they mostly had no release.

 

Just as they had to hide what they knew
to have the self and life they had, 

outside the beliefs of their masters.

The Past Is Always With Us

Bison Skulls circa 1870. 

Read a commentary on this image here.

I Used To be Passionate

to the point of being undiscerning about music.
That what I heard was always recorded didn't matter.
Being part of a paying audience for a band
that performed live simply never happened.

Now I am in retreat from music,
both recorded and live, and I often prefer quiet.
I don't even want to be an audience for a busker.
 
In the evening of my life 

I find that the gloaming chorus
of frogs and ducks and other wildlife
share the most transporting tunes.

The Good Will Of Others

well earned, will always be worth
much more than the status games
that we get offered to isolate us
from a proper sense of self worth.

When We Are In A Tunnel We Must Keep On Digging

The Internet is an underworld
for the living, who to live there
sacrifice their sense of smell,
touch and taste, in their haste
to tell the world all the things
that those close to them don't want to hear.

The 1948 Blues

Illustration used here without the kind permission
of Ray Lowry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you can read the introduction 

to the 60th anniversary edition of '1984', 

as written by modern thriller writer Robert Harris.

The Therapy Culture

is nature's way
of proving how wealth
impoverishes instinct.

Public Scapegoating

is a sure sign of a hierarchy
that is rotting from within
where all that is left to be asked
is 'How cheap is your sin
when it is not being counted?'.

The Pen

is more mighty than the sword;
the lies conveyed with words,
the propaganda, cuts more slowly,
but deeper, and more permanently
into history than any modern blade could get.

  

Whether Canine

or human, life peaks off the lead,
beyond the law; adrift our senses.

Small Ad

Romantic misanthrope
seeks similar
for mutually distant
relationship;
internet ideal,
discretion assured.

Something Lighter

Games Incorporated

Games always have sides
and are always won
by the men who turn
themselves into sides,
inside themselves.

Like corporations
they over-rule the rules
to take the game away
from the good-willed but unwary.

Who Knew Male Pleasures Were So Fleeting?

That the actual pleasure was so brief
surely made Victorian men
fantasise about the relief
until the fantasy took over. 

The Song Of The Sword

always sounds heroic,
even when the tone
is mere testosterone.

The Hard Life

From Cain to Kierkegaard,
for the singular male
life has to be hard.

If life were easy
men would not know
how to drop the weight,
the baggage of being single,
that they like to carry around.  

Hurrah for Chernobyl

the worlds newest, biggest,
fast breeder nature reserve.

The Hardest Lesson To Remember

Wars exist to teach empires
two subjects; geography and humility,

When they are understood
then whatever it is
that now understands them
they will not want to be the empire
they used to be, casually subjugates others.   


.

Wing And Spirit

Swallows swoop for joy
around the church;
they nest in its eaves for shelter.
The transient are fed
the homeless are housed,
the spirit takes form on the wing.

 

Well beyond the beliefs
of those who built the building
a lighter world is paying its own way.

Who Do You Love ? (2)

'The love of money

is the root of all evil'
wrote St Paul*.
I can just about define
money and evil. But
who understands love?
For all his writing
about suffering
I doubt St Paul did.

*From 1Timothy Ch6 V10

Who Do You Love?

The Gods a city worships
are imprinted on it's skyline;
the higher the building,
the more triumphant the god
the more intensely the deity
is worshiped, particularly Mammon.

The Tide Of Faith

has dried up, where it once flowed
has become a beach for pleasure.

The invisible things
we once believed
are now hidden,
like buried treasure.

Democracy vs Dictatorship

Both require votes.
Both create passivity
through order.

Only one appears
to be half transparent
and then the citizens
of any given state
have to work out
which half is which.

All Governments Need Loyal Servants

If 'Faust' were adapted for today
the good Doctor would serve
in Guantanamo Bay.