Category Archives: writing

NO EASY MEASURE

NO EASY MEASURE

there are many ways
to start a poem
maybe an image, a theme
a rhythm
    bouncing
around in your head
snake-like
    rasp of  word

many ways too,
to enter a poem
linear or
       non-linear
syntactic
or symbolic

feeling your way
set to full tactile

             or up
for helicopter shot
to view
    as mosaic
put
everything
in perspective

then
fill in the detail
                induced, deduced
seduced
at your pleasure

although
          linger on
this thought
if you will, let us dissect
this
dark treasure

only
fair to point out,

to leave a poem, however,
(speaking
      of seduction)
is no
easy measure

here is the poem
here is we are
                     unexpectedly
together

not so many ways down
from that height
this height,
routes
     out of the labyrinth
                              this
labyrinth

safe and
   without cost

hardly enough
    to count on the
fingers
of one hand

so many surrendered
to the poem, dissolved,
got
   absorbed by
poetry

something about
the beauty
    of this python still
to comprehend

as it
   closes the circle
you now mine forever

FIRST STRIKE

FIRST STRIKE

aliens havs taken control
of Parow library

they are using their plasma
weapons to take out
all the poetry
classic novels and
books of philosophy

there were
not so many
but all are now gone

this alien high command
circling the northern suburbs
in their mothership
are openly
celebrating as
a titanic victory

the human race needs
to be even more unread
dull unimaginative
and stupid

to become the compliant
servants and slaves
the great
alien think tanks
are convinced we can be

SOMETIMES

SOMETIMES

sometimes
I am
just
randomness

Cummings words
      jumping all over the
quantum page

as if
    twin slit experiment

(the smile of physics gone Gemini
getting our minds pretty
        tangled up together
                        you tell me coyly
inform me
    in no uncertain terms)

if it cannot be
          real
                        this everything

if it is lax on locality

        could it
                      be dream?

I asked this of the iconic cat
in the box before it
                        disappeared

and now I am blessed with
the answer but sworn to secrecy

science
          now in uproar

doctoral candidates frayed
fissile

        exploding in clouds of
white chalky dust
as if
    made of talcum powder

all over Tesla’s headstone
thinking of
      the half-life of what
lies
  in that grave

Sent from my iPhone

MANUAL

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

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

PUT DOWN

PUT DOWN

Put down
your candy crush game
(would so
like your candy
to crush)

but first a word from
our advertisers

if you went professional
option you would get
premier service and not have

to worry about anything

meanwhile in the simulation
that is the poem
we are either particles
or waves or
both or neither

so let me crush your candy
whatsover

catch you me
cheating on the two
slit experiment

by the time the last line enjambs

many many alternate universes
(eat your heart out
Michelle Yeoh)

up and running, teeming
with our joint energies