It Is Never Us It Is Always Them Others

Absolute misrule invented itself
when, unawares, men found themselves
divided and the centre of a battlefield.
One side was orderly rationality,
which came from the intellect.
The other the combined bodily passions
which proved more than the sum of their parts.
Through sex these passion drove men to war,
first against women and nature,
from whih they thought they were apart,
and then against each other.

The net result the peretual lust
for outright ownership.

At this point the battlefield said of itself
'Let us make women nature and the gods
responcible for our never ending conflict;
let them define our minds and our bodies
and let them be blamed for the battle raging....'.
   

Denial Du Jour

Better Than Sleeping Pills

'It is always consoling to think of suicide:
in that way one gets through many a bad night.'.
-Frederick Nietzsche

Life At Different Speeds

For the old time slows time down,
the future goes on 'hold';
you can sense it in their stillness.
That sense of  slowness
should be a natural part of every community,
rather than them being hived off into 'care homes'
where their health is slowly frozen for further profit.

Care homes are luxury workhouses;
the occupants do not escape alive-
their 'care' squeezes life
too thin to be measured.  

Excuses

hide our weaknesses
the way reasons defend lies.

We Always Take From Others

what is more naturally theirs (particularly other species) than is natural to us.

Message To Self (2)

Take care with the arguments you make-
they might be all you are remembered for;
they are the content of the everyday rituals
you never realised you were creating.

Competitive Excuses

I often hear people say 'Nature is aggressive,
white of tooth, stained red in claw'.
I would agree with them more
were they looking less to obscure
their anger behind a false reasoning.

The human binary of 'You're wrong, I'm right'
is far harsher than nature could ever be.

We are at out most wrong
when we are dead and gone
and the living create arguments
over us which we cannot refute.

Message To Self

Though hearing the message and passing it on can be difficult....

The Market For Unhappiness

Like many UK citizens it is my duty
to daily 'prove' my depression,
due to long term unemployment,
by saying I take anti-depressants
that I don't actually take; such meds
are a placebo for a non-existent job.

Employers too, put out for employees,
knowing they will refuse most who apply.
There has to be a market for 'potential'
in employment. Potential employees
quietly know that in the name of choice
they were born to be refused.

Since human depression
is due to a shrinking labour market
due to mass automation of production
which is used create 'consumer choice'
the only real choice is to decide
how many lies you have tell to live.
And how many lies to knowingly swallow.

The Loss Leader Life

Those who like misanthropists
know that the love they recieve
in return often seems much less
than the affections
that other people say they get.

Their gamble is that the little
that they put their trust in
becomes more assured
the less they ask for more.

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

Four of the many cave paintings of Lascaux

made 20,000 to 30,000 years ago

by a people who never thought that their work

would outlast the lives of so many of their decendants. 

On Wanting To Live Alone

For all of my younger life
I was surrounded by people
who were busy and inattentive.
When they tried to serve others
their motive was to make sure
that those whom they served 
were as distracted as they were.

They wanted everything
to be based on distraction.

It is too late for me to mind
my time being devalued.
All I can do now is serve notice
on any such ruinous life returning. 

Am I Worth Knowing?

Most people would quible at being described as cul-de-sacs
but how many more refuse to accept that they are dead ends?

Instructions For Preserving Heavenly Objects

What happens when the instructions are disobeyed is best not spelled out....

On The Culture Of Entitlement

When it is taboo
to say 'Thank You'
for a service rendered
then you know
ingratittude reigns.

The Weight Of Indifference

is always hard to measure.
But it will always be revealed
by how unlistened to we feel,
long after the bad listeners,
who left the weight upon us,
have departed our lives.

Excuses (1)

In any change of diet, or new regime,
what has to be most firmly tested 
are the reasons which expiate our indulgence,
because they are what make us inconsistent.

Love Is Best When Virtual

'If one bolts the doors and windows against the world
one can from time to time create the semblance
and almost the beginning of a beautiful life'
-Franz Kafka writing to his 'girlfirend', Felice Bauer

I Have To Accept

that when tiredness refreshes itself,
through us, little else gets reinvented.

Learn As You Go

only works when a child has a life
that is both generous and slow enough,
that when as adult responcibilities speed up
and gain in depth and gravity they still have
their pasts as lights by which to kind to others.

 

New Definitions

'American style service'-the implication
being that the service is prompt and with a smile.
The truth is that you can't tell when the sincerity is faked. 

No 'L' Plate Required For Life

I have hitched lifts since being a teenager.
As I approach my senior bus pass I still do.
Five times I tried to learn to drive.
The last time was the most instructive.
A driving instructor with a sense of humour
gave me a lift, and a friend paid for me
to have me ten lessons with my lift.
The lessons were set to reach a binary choice;
to prove that I was capable of learning to drive
or that I was to hitch for rest of my life.

I remain thankful for the neighbourliness of drivers.  

To Paraphrase 'Readers Digest'

'Humour is the best illness'-Anthony Weir

Like Kierkegaard

I fail to understand the point of marraige.
Ownership values apart,
it's vows seem to consist of

'Do I, a damaged male,
take you, a damaged female,
to be my property in perpetuity
the better for us to damage each other
and do damage through our descendents
as we all live together as the walking wounded'.

We are all damaged and fit to damned,
and do what we can with what we inherit.
Often the less we do the better life is
-both for the others we do it for and ourselves.

What reason is there to multiply the ills
we commit to the planet?
There is many a cause for living with, and for, less.
The less we live for the better life is. 

Signs Of Greater Age (38)

1-Being unable to comprehend
the modern concentration span
where people pay closer attention
to the detail that proves a handbag,
a suitcase, or a shirt are 'designer'
than they properly give to each other.

2-Being unimpressed when Hollywood
remakes a popcorn selling movie
that it first made over thirty years ago.
The media goes cheaply nostalgaic
for something you did not see then,
and thought to be unworthy of viewing
both in the original and in the cheap remake.

Why I Don't Do Fortune Cookies...

They will flag up your self esteem issues whilst giving you advice.

Technologous Interuptus

Labour saving devices are sold
to us 'to help us save our time',
but as they consume our lives
we are are entitled to wonder
where they send our creativity.

Perhaps it goes into the digital detox
where we start to reinvest our energies
in refreshing how to be live human beings.
.

The Blind Are Best Led By Their Own Blindness

When I first went to church, late in my teenage years,
it had to be a disaster. As a youth I was as blind to myself
and as blind to the nature of my family as anyone could be.
I will never forget though, what I now see as the sypmtom
being mistaken for the cause. 'Christianity' in that small town
was faith in life within tight boundaries; the 'Good News'
which was originally to strengthen  the enfeebled, the tired,
and the weak had become a comfort for the status quo.
'Don't be angry' was turned into a mantra because the fear
of turning over the social order would mean no order atall.

There was no cure for anger, and the curdled despair,
which was hid behind being owned as if you property. 

Cruelty To Books

The older I get the less I accept
The Bible, or any other book,
being thumped by bullies
who hold it up to the light
with their need to be right
whilst shouting arguments
and quoting said book,
as if it proves their punchline.

Negative Affirmation

In a world where 'Yes men'
are the last people in the world
to recognise the narcissism
of those they are paid to affirm
false individuality is predictable

and groupthink is rife.

Alas only those who think apart
can see all this as it really is,
and they expect to be unpopular.   

Subjectivity Is In The Eye Of Beholder....

and in their tastebuds too.....