AI art included – Page 20 – poems 2 die for

MANUAL

this is the manual
that goes with
the reading
of this poem

it is not a manly manual
since it has to accept
shifts and slides
facts seduced
and opening themselves
up to
surprise reversals and
ongoing (nigh bottomless)
process of
constant interpretation
leading to
infinite possibilities for
re-
reading, rethinking, reinterpretation

and yet
even though metaphor
is itself a metaphor
is shot
through with metaphor

I do indeed need
to get my meaning across

this stanza break first up
but then
from me to you

so that you might run
with it, or perhaps walk
or at
least crawl

tenor vehicle literature
is a machine says Mr Calvino

but would
not wish for you
to stumble and fall
before
you are behind the wheel

before
you get the feel

before you are writing poetry for yourself

SOLDIER

poem is
special
forces

is soldier in the war
against being
dumbed down

will
teach you
how to fight
feed you ammunition

one, two, three
programs on TV
crafted supremely and carefully
to dumb
us all down

enough there for more than
the odd pot shot
need some serious serious
poetry
great poetic guns
with heavy
metaphoric artillery
your intellectual life
here
in my hands

WORLD OF DIFFERENCE

there is a world of difference
between splitting hairs
and splitting atoms

between
quibbling pointlesly

and raising
the temperature of
the planet

a couple of
million degrees

LOST

all quiet
on the poetry front

bards on both sides
scrying down telescopic sights
in the crosshairs
here a sonnet, there
an ode
scribbled rap lyric
way before its time

let us not forget
hands and fingers that
could not be more creative
traversing self-
loading wespons that fire
ten to
twenty rounds per second

whole volumes complete oeuvres up in thin air
biting
the dust (death by
industrial warfare such
a monstrous cliche)

not much space here
for cross-
pollination, seminal
influence, collusion

even less
hope for free

translation (whole
generation
of the not-yet-
lived-yet
lost)

EXPANDED

EXPANDED

come back
when I have expanded

come back when I’m
about to go galactic

right now I am going to
be trivial, sound run
of the mill
exploring how
my silly little brain comes
to terms with
my silly little life

like those word-
wizards oc this post post
late capitalist age

wearing their cheap
durable llastic accolades
as if
they were gods

ENDGAME

this is where it all ends
this is where my poem ends

every microcosm got
its King, got its Emperor
without their cast
iron rule
the Sun get sallow
the Sun get sick

every silver cloud could
be bringing rescue
deliver deus ex
machina

task force of the gods sent
to restore the power
of one-eyed man

and libraries within libraries
secret texts coded and
cross-
referring

I read
my name and number there
before I got
taken out

all these crevices
strung between
light
and its shadow

wondering what the abyss saw
when it looked into me and you

having come thus far
having loyally and
dutifully
travelled with me

what might you conclude
if this is where
it all begins?

GO FIGURE!

GO FIGURE!

was in Heaven enjoying the brand name
slurping bubbling carbonated cola
through a golden straw

thinking of all
the people in my life
whose names I no longer remember
(don’t feel bad, or alone:
I no longer remember my own)

did they make the cut?
hey who the hell knows?
it’s all
immaterial

but life
lounging by the soda fountain
is not so cool — albeit eternal
when
stripped of all its chemicals
devoid of its additives

seems whoever is in
charge of censorship here

is letting me
express some alternative ideas

a bit of a blow to those
it must be
sacrificed themselves
for
Holy conformity, divine
regimentation

figure!

IN THE BEGINNING

I was very small. I felt very small too: lying in my bed curiously warm, not frozen with fear.

The thing was massive and its violence was unimaginable. I heard the screams and the seconding sounds of slaughter through my bedroom walls, solid brick though they were.

Then there was silence. The dark shadow shape towering over me filling the room came through the door, then slipped into bed next to me as it did so diminishing in size and then disappearing entirely.

I knew it was there. I knew that it would remain with me forever. Sleep came quickly. As I slipped away I knew that this creature, this beast, this entity and I had an affinity. Whatever it was, whatever its nature it would be spending a lifetime with me.

Turning all the dark vision is churning my head into words, this would be its legacy and terrible gift.