Author Archives: Damian Garside

PLEDGE

PLEDGE

I would have pledged
allegiance
to the planet

but the planet
doesn’t much like me
wants me dead,
or so I fear,
for it
has good reason

so I would pledge
to busy-body about
writinv stupid little satires
like that one
and this one

insread of getting down
on my hands and knees
cleaning

trying to
restore your majesty
restore your glory
all super-
reflective, super shiny

but not your power
I balk at that, have grave
reservations about

what that
power can do

FURTHER

FURTHER

it is amazing
what pressure pushes
a sapling through the soil

think I read a poem
about that once

furthermore,
it”s amazing, history tells us
how slowly, when the poets are
gathered to watch,
the leaves fall

and how they blaze
drifting downwards
less earth
in their nature
more air, and fire,

history tells us too
all you need to know
about mythology
and meaning of tree

how trees weep, bow, fling
out there arms in joy

or gather, in deepest irony,
to watch us
at our darkest

knowing how, in sacred
fable
we once fell

observe us, the chemistry
of rebirth
locked into
their sap fall further, much further

STONE’S THROW AWAY

STONE’S THROW AWAY

I think there is a moment
of pure clarity
but then it goes
then everything goes

never having experienced
any such clarity, indeed
anything pure

I am at a loss
to extend you an image
provide a metaphor

but
time draining away
like someone of something
nicked
its artery

that moment of clarity
of deep and complete
change in perception
must be near

if not at hand
but a stone’s throw away

FURTHER

it is amazing
what pressure pushes
a sapling through the soil

think I read a poem
about that once

furthermore,
it”s amazing, history tells us
how slowly, when the poets are
gathered to watch,
the leaves fall

and how they blaze
drifting downwards
less earth
      in their nature
more air, and fire,

history tells us too
all you need to know
about mythology
      and meaning of tree

how trees weep, bow, fling
out there arms in joy

or gather, in deepest irony,
to watch us
      at our darkest

knowing how, in sacred
                              fable
we once fell

observe us, the chemistry
of rebirth
      locked into
their sap

       fall further, much further

BACKRANK

BACKRANK

I play chess
to take my mind
off the darkness

but the light squares
they blind me
and I fall into the void
that is
a black square

and the pieces glower
at me when
they are captured because
I was begligent
or blundered into a mistake

but I am determined
that however long it takes
I will have
my first victory

even if I have
to sacrifice everyrhing
i cpuld or might have
been
to win that
single little game

GOOGLY YOU

GOOGLY YOU

did google you
noticed, to my surprise
you got googly eyes,
and you, in turn,
not too
enarmoured at
what you did goggle

our focal lengths extremely
dissonant to
mix tune
and image

and so those photons
zipping past us
long sighted, short-
sighted as well
as opposite ends of the spectrum doppler-
shift speaking we missing each other

firing blanks from the hip

need to take our cue
from hunter-gatherer- making-a-
killing
savants out there

who need neither scope
nor cross-hairs to
nail true significant other
with one single
(or double) flash
sniper centrefold shot

and you may
take it to the bank and
that’s
a social media fact

CLOUDS

CLOUDS

the clouds, who
whilst they
have hidden so much,
equally so
have seen it all
everything before

came scudding my way
to whistleblow their truth
that evolution in
human favours the rich
and rotten
the denizens of
deep comfort zone who
will live
and die (but so yes-but,
and grudging absolute end of the day delay
on mortality) passing on
their inheritance
to generation the next
producing this fine stock
out of
which we might dream
of the future utopia

no, as the clouds did indeed
take pains to explain,
evolution does not
sieve, does in
no way strain

strip cream from dross
amongst what does
rise to the top

evolution is not a miner
up in the Yukon
for gold hard a-panning

no evolution just looks and laughs
wondering what its
mutations might mean

LANTERN

LANTERN

bottle rocket
ship lantern

nothing so poignant
in my humble opinion

braving the dark pond, the calm lake
that is the ocean
that is the immensity of
intergalactic space

soaring high, showing the stars
what we are worth
how we can make stars
that explode and fall
with our chemistry wisdom
every
colour of the rainbow
(where in the cosmos
star that burns lilac,
star that
burns lime green?)

the stars our audience here
so tiny from our perspective

our moment of
triumph
ecstasy the dead Universe
out there has never felt for itself, seen
the like of

no feared fable of entropy
the lantern boats sail, burn
are consumed, sink
disappear

tiny energy, cause
and effect
to perfection
our hearts hopes
on that little
Odyssey with you

the morning rain turning all
those spent cardboard tubes
to mulch

the stars
in recess, no doubt
conferring such distances involved,

such titanic energies

doubtless stirred into some
kind of reaction by
all our performance