Tag Archives: poetry

FISH SWAM

FISH SWAM

fish swam

for enthusiasm
though tiddler
to a Megalodon

ate one human
    breezed rather playful
past
   another

part of the regular
carcharodon 

          learning curve

(who would have thought
the white pointer
                     so agree
with Aristotle)

EDWARD

EDWARD

if you did write those plays
how wrenching for you

to have instantly disowned them
with the final word.on the page

and what words!
what words!

  our best algorithms prove
them yours statistically
        one by one
                 the pieces are found

and
   begin to fit

together
        and suddenly, quietly
we have
our mirror

plays lost to the man
         man lost to the plays

SIX

SIX

sometimes
simplicity rules

so much practice until
instilled

    becomes
embodied in
perfect  delivery

and, talking of perfect,
in your hands
a dossier of
       perfect plays

grandmaster chess puzzles
fail to
   rival
    in their brilliant complexity

but here
      we have comedy

see epic antagonists
    convulsed with laughter

suddenly the script has the
texture of absurd theatre

longer
   than waiting for Godot
waiting for
  Super Bowl six

BLUE STAR

BLUE STAR

blue star
my blue star

keep
shining

when I am gone
keep shining

charm the sleeping world
with memories, stories

of he who
     sang such songs
for his lost
Eurydice

that
     the rocks, the trees
awoke from their slumber
to share
      the beauty of
this sadness

blue star

        my blue star

keep shining
     help me remember
before I go

why
I am here

EVENTUALLY

EVENTUALLY

We eventually
invited you
to our party

felt
we had to
      eventually

and lo
   and behold:

eventually
you came: pitched up
in the last of
your great ships, now
an
   old just bucket
barely held together
in need
   of patching

patching holes pretty much
the theme of the day
theme
    of the new
decade

hopefully into the next
century

saw you
     at the party behaving

pretty much, well almost,
like homo sapiens

was not
       always so

state of the ship such
                     a revelation
Oh

    how we partied

sight
for sore eyes.

We invited you to our party.

You came, eventually.

Truth be told, though you
may well choose not to believe us

we always

      kept your seat
at the table,
           take your right place

WON

WON

we came for the big game

met on the intersection
of Meridian and
          Equator

we sat for the battle

you
waited in awe

they remained standard
first,
      before a piece touched

they insisted on rule changes
make the game more equitable
in other words
      their game more powerful

bishops
       and knights

should be made invulnerable
echoing their
feudal
      reputation
(“especially the white squared one”:
someone chirping
       from the corner)

and then
       it had to go, whole en passant rule
as unnecessary compromising
defences

and when
     Kings castle on the back rank

strength of rook
alongside be
                  doubled from
five to
      ten

to echo their supreme
nuclear strength

we came for the game
                 whole world watching

what
    a shock it was
           the day we won

PLAAS ROMAN (farm poem)

PLAAS ROMAN (farm poem)

crossing the farmyard
to my domicile

trod on something in the long grass
   perfectly camouflaged

looking
    for all the world

like a stick

     which
            of course it was

my penchant for attracting
disaster wrong this instance

not the ambush predator
viper with potent haemotoxic
venom we
both assumed it to be

nor
    Cape Cobra (here in
South Africa we have
              the prettiest cobra)
nor Boomslang, nor Rinkhals

nor that speed freak elapid of
supreme flowimg motion

olive-gray in colour
hero of
    Tarantino’s Kill Bill
but with
silky pitch-black mouth

and me
   child of 53, making me
in Chinese
terms
    a fellow of that brethren

slow and quiet until called upon
then red-hot writhing, razor
sharp wire

sign of the
            creature closest to the
Earth (as I am now) and
thus
    with such gravitas

noodle with
           nuclear chemistry, one
drop

    never instil

thought here on the farm
might
     get away from him

hide from the god of life-
energy where

  there is
      no much

                 life energy

everywhere I look

plants sacred
to you

and the way you crushed me,
destroyed me
        injected me with tragic

beginning to fear
     I might be sacred to you too

never to evade you
ever
     escape your clutches

as my last days run out
and I can
       no longer walk your wild

or love
     your women, the ones
you singled out

chose for me perfectly

dreaming of our resurrection
wondering what
you
      will tell me, what

you will ask me
man to god
       (schemed as a
dithyramb)

         about the shared pain and ecstasy torture and beauty

of this life

      (forever fall
                forever rise)

SYSTEM

SYSTEM

and now I find
and now I find

gymnast and
syntagm
     are so intimate

anagrams
of each other

spooky action
     at linguistic distance

but what do I know
of such unique connection

all my lovers
        ghostly, some
actual ghosts

the dust of all
    that was desire questioning
my stridence

gives the idea
     puts me on notice

that it is
                   all simulation

and when you undress before me
in name only

getting the sweet syntax
     up and running

see what you are up to here
Mr Shakespeare or
Earl
    of Oxford

whatever you wish to go by
privately call yourself

spilling from Juliet’s lips
the philosopical truth of
                    a true rose

even if
a thousand years of cynicism
scepticism stands in its way

when you
        go inexplicable mystery
and wrap yourself around me

making us (yes, channeling you
Professor Noam Chomsky)
branches, leaves
       upon the same tree

graft taking
      we can grow now together

happy
     (who would not be) though
this all
     feels pre-planned: our
perfect simulation

ARTISAN BAND

ARTISAN BAND

I try to sniff out
poetry anywhere
and everywhere

omce I thought
a few flashes in
a band on the Reeperbahn
four working class guys
irreverent, cheeky,
full of irrepressible
young life

watched them
began to get excited, thought
I saw, felt poetry there

but they
were just getting better
tighter
   practice making perfect
as is the way with bands

some of their lyrucs
and harmonies suggesting
promise, revelation of something

a capturing of the heart
of rock
      and roll

but I must have been mistaken
projecting my hopes upon them

tough business, hope
they make it
      my artisan band