Author Archives: Damian Garside

IMPASSE

IMPASSE

you glance
at my poem

my poem
looks back at you
into you

you glare
at my words,
suspicion impacted

wondering
what lies beneath, here
we hit an impasse

no way to
resolve this
applying the protocols,
rules, regulations
of current civilization

unless image
by image, symbol
by symbol,
together it is
we negotiate this page

trade, vent, share,
exchange

for the sake
of the poem

refract, reflect,
rescind, do what
we both do best,
perform
    a whole number
full-on optics and chemistry

without these
no hope for any preservation
of mere mortal remains

DREAMT

DREAMT

I slept, I dreamt
but though
my dream door
was open
you did not come
to visit me

lost your chance
to catch me in this state,
talk to me seriously, surreally,
off the cuff

knowing how honestly
I would have to respond to you

no sense in
this realm
of ever
thinking of untruth
even attempting to lie

NOT YET WORLD

NOT YET WORLD

I received (or perhaps found)
a poem from the future
which I lacked
the technology
to wake
from its cryogenic sleep
(in this state presumably
that it might be
preserved
to be read
not in the past but
in their future)

was sure it would
help us resolve
the riddles of
our past
whilst giving at least
some inkling
of our evolution, and
the nature of the .
way technology would
be reshaping us
in order to assume radically redefined transhuman shapes,
perfect for
the pursuit of
exotic directions

and so I sit
using every bit
of ingenuity to
find
my way in

read
text, break
the code

decipher, deconstruct (as far as
I can) the message contained
it appears
to Express take a,precious glimpse into

the assuredly alien,
perhaps
incomprehensible nature of
that not
yet
world

ROCK BOTTOM

ROCK BOTTOM

Playing for
team humanity

I have tried
my best
as have
we all

and yet
we languish at
the bottom
of the league

zero points, expected goals,
goals, assists
the statistics show us
to be
the supreme
soft touch

slaughtered every
game whether
home or away

no match for
the power of every ambitious
all or
nothing
team

   stocked with
foul misanthropes and
cheating galacticos.
 

BRUNO

BRUNO

the stars above you
the flowers
around you

from where
you stand now
stare down St Peter
the Vatican lies
dead ahead
if infinite worlds
then
infinite knowledge
infinite wisdom

it seems axiomatic
but as fire closes
the case
denies everything

that wisdom and
knowledge
are cosmic
soulmates
forever to embrace,
walk arm in
arm

is becomes clear that
this is an argument
the laws
    of logic might
in this instance
have declined to make

LITTLE TUNE

LITTLE TUNE

“a funny little tune
but it yielded some
good things” AMADEUS
(dir. Milos Forman, 1984)

hope there
is something here
you might conceivably
run with

an idea you might reshape,
rephrase most interestingly

for why am I here, bothering
with this
    if not to inspire, steer
in right direction

write
      as heartfelt tribute that you
might further enhance

as lifelong struggle to
attain what
momentous effort
labours
      to perfect

gets swept
away by human genius