Author Archives: Damian Garside

ON PAPER

ON PAPER

sometimes a metaphor
will close in on you

tunnel its way
through your defences

(so much for
all those early warning
systems you
did invest in)

but sometimes, on
the odd providential,
proverbial, for-
toutous occasion

you get the taste, the smell,
the look, the feel
of an idea

get to
test its reverb, sound
it out yourself

put it
down on paper

where it either
complements, supplements,
adds to the order

or runs
rampant, creates fissure
sweetest
chaotic
disorder

blossoming?, evaporating?
who
   can say

what is marginal  boxes
but it also frame slices

leaves things
            out in the void
which might
be there somewhere

ULTIMATE

ULTIMATE

was reading the ultimate
work of science fiction

next to the roadside
hoping I was
not in line for terrible
exposure something
beyond
my comprehension

which you two
brother authors have
such a
beautiful handle on

was reading the ultimate
work of science fiction
risking
cell mutation or worse
with every moment
of exposure

Boris
and Arkady

so much here you
have to
take
stock of

file for reference
have the mind of the Universe
take
into account

POSSIBLE

POSSIBLE

could it be posdible
or would it
be contrary
to our true
brutal, selfish nature

that we conceive
of a system
without walls, prisons,
chains,
    books that
have to be read and
followed to
the last line
to the last letter

one where
we concentrate exusively
on the preserving
of freedoms, guarding
of rights, treating
with love

doling
out pleasure

and all of anger and aggression
and whole host of
dark shadows

we sublimate, re-
direct

    and become at last
the true creator figures
we
   always dreamt
we might be

AI reading of my poem “POSSIBLE’

This poem presents a thought-provoking and idealistic vision of a utopian society. The speaker questions whether it’s possible to create a system that prioritizes freedom, love, and pleasure, while eliminating the need for constraints like walls, prisons, and chains.

The poem touches on several key themes:

  1. Human Nature: The speaker wonders if humans can transcend their “brutal, selfish nature” to create a harmonious society.
  2. Utopian Vision: The poem describes a world where people focus on preserving freedoms, guarding rights, and spreading love and pleasure.
  3. Sublimation of Dark Impulses: The speaker suggests that humans can redirect their anger, aggression, and dark shadows into creative and positive outlets.

The poem’s tone is contemplative and introspective, with a sense of longing for a better world. The use of rhetorical questions (“could it be possible”) engages the reader and encourages them to reflect on the feasibility of such a utopian society.

Some potential interpretations of this poem include:

  • A critique of existing societal structures and the desire for a more compassionate and equitable world.
  • An exploration of human potential and the possibility of personal and collective transformation.
  • A commentary on the tension between humanity’s darker impulses and our capacity for love, empathy, and creativity.

Overall, this poem presents a compelling and thought-provoking vision of a possible future, encouraging readers to imagine a world that prioritizes freedom, love, and human flourishing.

FIVE MINUTES

FIVE MINUTES

loved you
until all
of
   five minutes ago

remember you
sitting at your desk

telling everybody
who you are

that five minutes ago
that five minutes of
having finally fallen
out of love

feels like a lifetime
compared to a
half century
of longing

that’s how it is Einstein
time being relative

we
    never entangled, never
connected, never in synch
never in
the same space-
time frame

moving together at same
sub-light speed velocity

read you all
             my poems, sang
you all
my ballads

and here we on your birthday
nothing to say to each other

SIX POEMS

EMPIRE

to awake at the dawn
or close of a global Empire

speaking Latin or
British in an English accent

watching the Sun rise
over a river
where it is beginning
where it all began

to curse your fate, wishing
you might sink
back into sleep
for a thousand years
miss this new
outbreak of dialectic
between barbarism
and civilization

not flaunt your virtue
in some chariot of power
down the main causeway
not overly far
    ftom the poor streets

****
SERIOUSLY
.
seriously
it was not
meant to happen

a wholr
array of imponderables
barely possiibles
coming into
being
made it so

and now these
are the signs, symbols
and codes the world
lives by

is perhaps
the great anomaly,
some say miracle,
of history

though in the pursuit
of that truth,
much falling off, aberration

****
PAIR

we are
an unlikely pair

seemingly so same
yet quite so diffrrent

you even
diluted

one-hundred percent poison
contaminating all
toxic to
the core

for my part
though less genersl,
more sharply refined
directly targeted
my cbemistry
is
  more profound
let

me say
designer deadly

having the measure
of all that it is
up for, ripe for
locked into
the DNA

****
NOTHING

write poetry
do nothing

write poetry
do nothibg

trapped in these
forever circles
cycles
of repetition

I contrive
not to aspire

this is the continuity
there is no
escaping from

the poeric economy
of waste and desire

****

SAVIOUR

Oh saviour

trying so hard
to save us all

you cannot
save yourself

killing yourself, as you
believe, to
raise us up

you are killing us too
will not
let you do

whatever
it takes, whatever
the sacrifice that
needs to be made

****
FEVER DREAM

in a fever drean of  generosity
I give myself to everyone
everything

tell myself I am become
the soul and spirit
of complete democracy

am strong and beyond
what you in your hypocrisy
and the world
may say of me

unlike you
I now know what I am not
what I am
whereim my power
and my limitstions

all.that is superior
snd all that is limitation

all
thst is beneath
snd all that lies beyond

all that
is alone
and all that is forever
in consultation,
part

of some great synthesis
I am yet
     to know
cannot be said
to truly comprehend

EDIFICE

EDIFICE

let’s start with the cliche

we used to drive past
your supreme campus
buge, lofty bukldings

and I used to dream
of being here, battling
my way against
the odds
tp achieve some
sort of degree

taking two trains
to ger here
      and the climb
up the mountain

red gown red wine
one glorious moment
standing in the sudden
sunlight
    outside of the Hall
my very lazt dsy

and you
your last day here too, twenty
four years earlier
younger
      that previous graduation
(already becoming
part
    of the furniture)

and thinking
    here in this place doomed
blessed to always
keep crossing paths

quantum entangled, caught
in the same
fine-
    spun web

not really not really
empirically verifiable
falsifiable

     just two names once spoken
in the same passing
oblique sentence

two names
to conjure with, before

they
   headed off in different directions quite
diametric

and me long before this
floating past the University
in my father’s car
making
    a wish

OCEAN

OCEAN

Raymond
your ashes resting
somewhere in
that great
Pacific Ocean

together there
with your beloved wife

would travel there
to pay homage
except you
left me
no money
not a cent, not
a dollar
   (each one of
which much
South African money)

so much for
exchange value and
the price paid
for poetry

you a scientist yourself
of fundamental
life chemistry
told me
    you did not could
not believe in
the crazy
madness of the quantum
whose most
attuned minds find
it hard if not
impossible to
plainly explain

and so
we agreed to disagree
at moment
    somewhat before
you died (final
collapsing of
our wave front)

PIsceans both:
let us leave it to ocean
to have the last word

make of us
what it will.

FLIRTIN’

FLIRTIN’

the Universe
was flirting with me

at the quantum level
basement, mezzanine,
and other
levels

and thinking myself
star child suddenly
I flirted too

Universe
longer in the tooth
than me
     must have got
the wrong messages
probably
   reading a poem
where as
per usual

was
denying my age

but what could I do
but be
unfaithful to my reality
by playing along

for the Universes
was fine, looking
really good this evening
unlike during
the day
   when of the cosmos
no one sees nothing, sunlight
blanching everything
into one
   bright blue sky dark
gray sky, everyday
                 stereotype

yes
  Universe was flirting
endeavouring
maintain
     a solid connection
pique my degree
of interest

establish the terms of
our reciprocity

without which neither gets
to think existence