Poemathon 2

poems 208 to 318

The earlier poetry in this Poemathon is here. Poems 319 onwards are here

Day 318. Friday 1st March 2018

HAIKU

Some men are asleep

Some are awake and some are

Dreaming they’re awake

Day 317. Thursday 28th February 2019

PRECEDENT

I wonder what it would be like,

A government of truly honest men,

Sincerely driven by service to their fellows

And not to their own aggrandisement

Nor enrichment of their friends,

A government free of criminals,

Conmen, spivs and sharks

Devoted to our enfranchisement

Not keeping us in the dark,

Who look upon the people

As worthy of their best,

Neither secretive nor cynical

With no honest man oppressed.

I think it would be wonderful,

But it’s a guess with little evidence,

For looking for an example

I could find no precedent.

Sometimes it seems the future

Of a man or of a nation

Must perforce be created newly

From pure imagination.

Day 316. Wednesday 27th February

GROWING PAINS

The human race is growing up

And that growth has many stages

And its tantrums are but showing up

It’s entered its teen ages.

Day 315. Tuesday 26th February 2019

TICKS

Human civilisation,

I think could well be like

A giant brought low and stricken

By a lethal infestation

Of ticks and parasites.

Day 314 Monday 25th February 2019

FOR IGNAZ SEMMELWEIS, Austrian-Hungarian women's physician (1818-1865)

Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician,

Cleverly discovered in 1847

That maternal mortality surrendered

To the use of disinfectants.

He is remembered by posterity

As the saviour of mothers

For the lives saved by the million

By the hygiene he discovered.

But in his day this contradicted

The “science” of the time

And the rule of fools and charlatans

Made new ideas a crime

And men of low intelligence

So busy being right

Would rather mothers perished

For their fixed ideas held tight.

So Semmelwiss was vilified

By men not fit to lick his boots

And yesterday’s equivalent

Of criminals in suits.

Dubbed a fool and ridiculed

He endured a living hell,

He lost his job and eventually

His sanity as well.

He ended his days with psychiatrists

Who finished the poor guy off

With drugs, restraints and violence

And beat him in the end to death.

But he’s the one who’s remembered

As a hero of his years

And forgotten now forever

The fools and knaves who sneered.

Now we’re bright enough to recognise

That new ideas don’t bite

And only the howls of idiots

Can keep us from the light.

Day 313. Sunday 24th February 2019

FOR GIORDANO BRUNO, Italian philosopher and astronomer (1548-1600)

Giordano Bruno declared

The Earth goes round the sun,

In voicing his idea he dared

To annoy the Vatican.

In a spirit of Christian mercy

He was sentenced to the stake

And burned in screaming agony

For his heretical mistake.

The Pope of course contended

Bruno was at fault and liable

For expressing things not mentioned

Anywhere in the Bible.

If I’d been Mr Bruno

I’d have kept my trap well shut,

Contacted Galileo

And quietly written it all up.

These days of course we never

Burn heretics at the stake,

We just slag them off on Twitter

Or call them libtards, fools or fakes.

So I guess some things are milder

And we live in a world less cruel

And people perhaps are kinder

And less vicious as a rule.

Be glad that reign of terror

Long ago was ended

And all we get is slander

From thickoes easily offended.

Day 312. Saturday 23rd February 2019

AND ON A LIGHTER NOTE . . .

After deep deliberation

For more than seven minutes

I have conclusively decided

That when I'm dead I want to be

Not buried but cremated.

All I ask - and please take note

For here I am in earnest -

Make very sure I'm really dead

Before you light the furnace.

Surprised to hear me voice such fears

Over prematue immolation?

Well, in my defence I ask you this:

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

Day 311. Friday 22nd |February 2019

HAIKU

Top of the food chain

We are hoping that someone

Invents a new game

Day 310. Thursday 21st February 2019

MONEY

Money, in case you had not noticed

Is primarily and well nigh exclusively

Comprised of numbers entered digitally

Into computer memories.

As such therefore it is undoubtedly

The cheapest and easiest thing on the ruddy

Planet to produce.

To make it perpetually slightly scarce

Whilst convincing the multitudes

The scarcity's unavoidable

Requires extraordinary feigned ineptitude

Backed up by malevolent genius.

Day 309. Wednesday 20th February 2019

SCARCE

Capitalism: create scarcity

Keynsian economics: create want.

Communism: distribute the above evenly.

In a civilisation capable

Of creating vast abundance

This takes quite some doing

But luckily for the capitalists

Economicts, socialists and allied

Certifiable dunces

The banksters have this covered

By creating money based on debt

And thus rendering our spending power

- the means by which demand's expressed -

Artificially scarce.

Day 308. Tuesday 19th February 2019

TOUGH CHOICES

Brexit or Union?

Democrat or Republican?

Socialism or Capitalism?

Tory or Labour?

Smoke or Mirror?

Frying pan or Fire?

Day 307. Monday 18th February 2019

MOCK-UP

When we look at one another

What do we really see,

Who the person really is

Or a mock-up of who we think,

Or assume or hope that they be?

And when we take a friend or lover.

In great or small degree

Time adds depth and colour,

Nuance, detail and history

And by increments amended

The mock-up grows closer

In approximation

To their true reality.

And we know we are on a winner

When we discover we're beholding

A mock-up, much-amended,

That is even better

Than the original we created.

Day 306. Sunday 17th February 2019

Today I also feature guest poet, Jane Rakestraw from the USA, whose lovely poem was written from the heart to celebrate the engagement of her beautiful daughter, Fallon, to my beloved son, Liam. see the poem below.

CIRQE DU SOLEIL

Thank you for your reminder

That man can still create fun

And wonders that soar over

Strictures of trite can't-be-dones.

For you defy gravity

With enviable aplomb

That lifts the planetary

Coffin lid nailed down upon

All our moribund desires.

Pirouettes and arabesques

By transcendant dreams inspired,

Flesh like fluid statuettes

Weaves magic from inner fires,

Marionettes freed from strings

Of limitation dance higher.

Scant held by the circus ring,

Your power drawn from the sun,

From the heart of the Earth,

Re-born, the humdrum re-spun

Into magical rebirth

That dances to th'acoustic

Deep underneath the heartbeat

Of the tiring universe,

As your feet ride the drumbeat

Of some new-incanted verse.

Thank you for the joy you bring

To a world trapped in belief

Of the rule of mundane things

And the key to Man's release.

SOON, A WEDDING

by guest poet, Jane Rakestraw

There once was a girl named Fallon

Who loved a travel challenge.

Went across the Pond did she

And met Liam while overseas.

One afternoon over tea

The "he" and "she" became a "we".

'Twas time for her to return,

Sadly their two hearts would yearn.

Unwilling to set her free,

He bought a ring and bent a knee.

This winter's eve, propose did he.

She agreed!

Soon a wedding there will be.

Day 305. Saturday 16th February 1019

HAIKU

God help humanity

When hysterical voices

Drown us in their noise

Day 304. Friday 15th February 2019

DESPISED BY FEW

I reckon I'm richer than a Rockefeller or Clinton

Because these birds are despised by millions

And very few despise yours truly.

Mind you, only a few people

Have ever heard of me . . .

Day 303. Thursday 14th February 2019

SONNET FOR VALENTINE'S

(For my Wife)

Throughout our years my love hath grown more fine,

The more I find of thee the more to love,

‘Til ev’ry day becometh Valentine’s

As the heart’s red rose burgeons from its bulb,

Or like the fruit that groweth on the vine

Blessed by kindly climes and a gentle sun,

Matures until it maketh sweetest wine

And sipped by lips benign leaves thirst undone.

When all around decays and dies with time

And even mortal flesh at length succumbs,

E’en yet do we defy that base design

For love dies not but groweth yet more strong.

And mine is stronger now than e’er it was

And thou its inspiration and its cause.

Day 302. Wednesday 13th February

FOR WHOM WOULD YOU TAKE A BULLET?

Seems to me a man's life has no riches

If there is no-one in it

He would truly take a bullet for

And if the bullet killed him

Consider he had won on the deal.

I think therefore I am wealthy

Because when I asked myself honestly

For whom would I stand in the way

Of a bullet,

I counted eight.

Day 301. Tuesday 12th February

HAIKU

If you're sick and tired

Of poem after poem,

Think of how I feel!

Day 300. Monday 11th February 2019

Day 300

Blimey! I've reached Day 300!

No idea how I've kept going,

Nor why I chose today of all days,

To be completely stuck for a poem.

Day 299. Sunday 10th February 2019

WE, THE PEOPLE

Ultimately "We The People" are to blame

For this egregiously managed planet

For the government we inherit

Is the one we are willing to tolerate.

Day 298. Saturday 9th February 2019

HAIKU

My thought for today:

What if the whole universe

Was just God's haiku?

Day 297. Friday 8th February 2019

GOVERMENT TO CURE MISERY

The cure for human misery

Is really very simple,

The government should merely ban it

And make unhappiness illegal.

Day 296. Thursday 7th February 2019

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

I've decided that the universe

Isn't big and it isn't clever.

It's great big bubble of nothing

That's perpetually inflating

Or a game of smoke and mirrors

That fooled us into thinking

It goes on and on forever.

Day 295. Wednesday 6th February 2019

SITCOM

Watching government is like

Watching some tired sitcom

That isnt very funny

But what can we expect

When the economy

Is run on debt

As its means of exchange

Instead of proper money?

Day 294 Tuesday 5th February 2019

UNTITLED

The formula for government

Is really very simple:

With PR spin and blandishments

Bamboozle lots of people.

And if you can con enough of them

You'll get yourself elected,

Then work really hard

To enrich your chums

Before everyone discovers

Your management, economics,

Diplomacy and motives

Are all seriously defective.

Then withdraw in luxury

To pave the way inevitably

For some new band of spivs

Similarly connected.

Day 293 Monday 4th February 2019

Rap of Liberation Part Six (For the decriers and defamers of Man)

I am tired of your squabbles,

Fake news and drivel,

Your querulous shrieking

Over hubble-bubble cauldrons

Of toil and troubles,

Conjured by the hocus pocus

Of lies and distortions

And the hysterical wagging

Of self-righteous fingers.

I revile and detest your

Distemperate voices

Of feigned indignation,

Your lies and false promises

And snivelling quarrels.

I despise your misplaced blame

And your shameless games

Of mass manipulation,

Whispered rumours and false accusations,

Your divide-and-rule capers

And their choking poison

Of generalised fears

That infect the atmosphere

Of human relations,

Its fetid stench manufactured

Year after year

By your smoke-and-mirror

Denigation of people

And races and nations.

I scorn and abhor your

Cruel defamation

Of millions of humans

Trying to stay sane in

Your planetary bedlam,

Your character assassination

Of God in his heaven,

Your twisting, corruption

And sly contamination

Of good men’s aspirations

And the way you’ve sold out

To the joyless, degraded minions

Of Satan in the futile hope

Of favours when the lights go out

Throughout your global asylum.

Repent now while you can

Your egregious betrayals,

For all we will give you

Is the right to fair trial

For your crimes against Man

And your efforts to supplant

The kinship of brothers

With mistrust, travail

And an ocean of troubles.

Enjoy your cesspit,

You probably deserve it,

But ask for no favours

In this dawning

Age of liberation,

For mercy’s bestowed only

On those who have earned it.

In the meantime please consider

This poem not so much a protest

As a raised middle finger.

And when all said and done

What my message boils down to

Is two simple words

More pithy than poetical

But nevertheless true:

Fuck you!

Day 292 Sunday 3rd February 2019

PERVERSE UNIVERSE

You cannot turn back time

And undo what is done.

The bullet cannot be returned

To the breach of the smoking gun.

Alas there is no backward gear

That puts time in reverse.

Methinks there lies right there

The design fault of the universe;

If I could I’d shoot the engineer

For building something so perverse

Day 291 Saturday 2nd February 2019

SCRIPT

If life is a play all I can say

It isn’t well scripted

For I’ve a sense that the plot

Has gone and kind of drifted

And I’ve gotten my lines all

Muddled and twisted

Or even forgotten

If I’m hero or victim

Or both or neither

And lost sight of the fact

I started out as the writer.

Day 290. Friday 1st February 2019

HAIKU

Dispersed by the wind

Our lives are like thin veneers

Painted on the void


Day 289. Thursday 31st January 2019

UNUSED

She said, “I think I’m losing my mind.”

I said, “Minds, like brains, are overrated.

I haven’t used mine for years.”


Day 288. Wednesday 30th January 2019

HANGING ON IN THERE

I’m hanging on in there

It seems by a thread

Verses lie bare

Of rhyme or tune

In my head,

Faking a life

While pretending I’m dead,

The sensation of being

So near yet so far,

The door to the future

Only slightly ajar,

Trying to squeeze through

Before the infernal thing closes

Seeking renewal

In pretences and poses,

Familiar faces in dreams

Half remembered

Resignation written

But never quite tendered.

The years like sand

Slip through my fingers

Where hope’s but an echo

That dies where it lingers

And the road to nowhere

Is a spiral instead

And I’m hanging on in there,

It seems by a thread.


Day 287. Tuesday 29th January 2019

LOST

Lost my goals

In the rubble of my

Misapprehensions

Delusions and pretensions,

Trying to become something

To avoid being nothing

Forgetting for the moment

That I’m already everything,

Decisions misfiring

Like synapses

In the mind of existence

Collapsing without resistance

Like the ashes

Of reminiscence

Abandoned to a future

Stranded in the middle distance

Between surrender

And persistence.


Day 286. Monday 28th January 2019

A POEM, QUICK!

I’ve come this far and clawed my way

To poem two-eighty-six

But now the Muse has left me

And I’m really in a fix.

My couplets slack, my haikus crap

My pentameters quite sick,

I’m getting kind of desperate,

I need a poem, quick!

Day 285. Sunday 27th January 2019

RIDDLE OF EXISTENCE

I have a personal policy,

Says I somewhat loftily.

Hypocritically or even hypothetically,

That says to never do anything

If it isn't some kind of fun,

And I'm sure that fun was the principle

On which this universe was begun,

For I can't think of any other reason

We'd set up something so ludicrous

And, let's face it. execrably dumb.

It stopped being fun a while ago

And the fact that I kept on playing

Makes me, I guess, a bum.

Now if all this sounds philosophical,

Don't be fooled for a moment,

For the plain unembellished truth of it

Is I don't know anything you don't.

And if I ever do solve this riddle

Or unravel this confounded puzzle,

Or even, I guess, make sense,

Trust me, you'll be the first to know.

Day 284. Saturday 26th January 2019I

January 26th

Today I reached 67

And admit I am faintly surprised

To find that I am still thriving

Or indeed that I am even alive.

My life’s had some tribulations

Despite which I’ve somehow survived

But rewards in e’en greater measure

Like the milestones on Destiny Drive.

And so my journey continues

Though I travel in human disguise,

And I’m not quite sure where I’m going,

Yet I’m certain I’ll surely arrive.

But most of the fun’s in the journey

And, for sure, the sporadic surprise,

Not to mention those I nearly ran over

And all the “hello’s” and “goodbye’s”.

While most of my joy’s in the people

Who have travelled by my side

I cherish the chances they gave me

To learn from wiser helmsmen than I.

Day 283. Friday 25th January 2019

I COULD WRITE A POEM

I could write a poem

That praises the glorious sunrise

Limning some far horizon with flame

Or the daffodils that toss their heads in dance

Or the romance in some girl's kiss

That quickens the deadest heart

And bids it live again.

I could find a trillion things to praise

In this universe of space and time.

But whose hand wields the brush

That paints this beauty 'pon the void

Of 'tis not thine?

Who then the rightful

Target of my praise and poetry?

I search for it and

When e'er I search

I find just thee.

Day 282. Thursday 24th January 2019

HAIKU

Capitalism

Creating scarcities

To control mankind


Day 281. Wednesday 23nd January 2019

HAIKU

All is illusion

Dreaming our reality

All in the matrix


Day 280. Tuesday 22nd January 2019

ONE

The big trick

The big lie

The big con foisted

On beings who are not merely gods

But the inventors of gods

Is the idea of the One.

One life

One identity

One destiny

One solution

One universe.


Day 279. Monday 21st January 2019

SONNET

The flowing river of my verse ran dry

And yesterday became a turgid stream,

As if the bard within me closed his eyes

And slept perchance forsaking all his dreams.

Poetic licence could, it seemed, expire

Or be by some prosaic gods revoked,

Who of my butchery of words grew tired

Or were yet to their vengeful ire provoked.

Crossing the arrid wastelands of despair,

Weighed by the corpse of poetry still-born

I smote my bardic brow and cursed the air

Whose Muse hath left him now bereft, forlorn.

When birds of rhyme have flown, beware ‘tis true!

To bring them back there’s naught a man can do.


Day 278. Sunday 20th January 2019

POETRY OF ENCRYPTION

Sometimes I wonder what I do this for,

Staring at the blank page hour by hour,

Hoping to fill it with words and ideas

Or a formula perhaps for a panacea

Hidden in a rhyme like a mystical rune

Or the symbolic finger that points at the Moon.

But all I ever write are questions not answers

Unearthing more script but never the author

The vision mislaid in the maze of description

And each poem a layer of further encryption.

But the joke’s on me, there’s naught to decipher,

The game’s a pretence enjoined by the writer.


Day 277. Saturday 19th Jnauary 2019

LET'S PRETEND

The universe began as a game when the gods

Decided to play “let’s pretend”

And once begun, the game rolled on and on,

The beginning forgot, no sight of the end.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

And for a long while it was certainly fun

But now it has lost its reason and rhyme

Become an ordeal with no prize to be won.

The game is a game with no happy ending

‘Til we finally remember we’re only pretending.


Day 276. Friday 18th January 2019

HAIKU

Man who tells himself

“I don’t know who I am”

Knows indecision


Day 275. Thursday 17th Jnauary 2019

HAIKU

Time’s an idea,

Illusion of dimension

Dreamed up in no time


Day 274. Wednesday 16th January 2019

WELCOME!

Welcome to a planet

Of artists and warriors

Explorers and builders

Consumers, destroyers,

Dreamers and schemers

Healers and slayers,

Slavers and saviours

And all the whole spectrum

Of the game and its players

And their joys and vexations

And marvel for a moment

The lengths men will go to

To get your attention.


Day 273 Tuesday 15th January 2019

RIGHT OUT OF IDEAS

I thought I was right out of ideas

And then wondered at the

Capability of men

To see abundance as a scarcity.

Being out of ideas

Is like being short of space

In a universe that’s composed

In its vast entirety

Of almost nothing else.


Day 272 Monday 14th Jnauary 2019

FEAR

He who said the people

Should not fear their government,

Spoke truth.

But when he said a government

Should fear its people,

He soiled his wisdom with falsehood.

You can’t build anything worthwhile

On fear’s trembling foundation.

Frightened men lie

And falsehoods undermine reason.

Better that each individual

Learns to be worthy of trust

For government and people comprise

Individuals in large numbers.


Day 271 Sunday 13th January 2019

CLEAN HANDS 3

Clean hands make a happy life.

I’m glad I decided to try it.

It takes work but life gets better

The more that I honestly do it.

And you have to do it to see it’s true,

Though men with soiled hands may deny it.

So try it for a while and I promise

You’ll soon find you no longer doubt it.

Clean hands make a happy life . . .

We can’t live good lives without it.

Day 270. Saturday 12th January 2019

PRODUCTS

© 2019 Steve Cook

A man who cannot say

With clarity what he's

Supposed to be producing

Will flounder in the workplace,

His efforts to be useful

Dispersed, misplaced, ill-spent.

A burden or a liability

Will he rapidly become

To the rest if us who are trying

To get something useful done.

So if we want to see an end

To confusion and lament,

It's time that we decided

Agreed and clearly stated

What the hell's supposed to be

The purpose and the product

Of our ruddy governments.

Day 269. Friday 11th January 2019

ADRIFT

It seems that with this poetry,

As in life, I am perpetually

Two days or more behind,

Yet I'm better off than some I see

Who are weeks or months

Or years adrift from present time -

Or governments who are by centuries

Of tardiness defined.

Day 268. Thursday 10th January 2019

Peace

© 2019 Steve Cook

Peace will never be legislated into existence

Nor enforced by applied retribution.

It exists unless someone perversely hinders

Its naturally pre-existing condition.

Day 267. Wednesday 9th January 2019

A LETTER TO NICE PEOPLE

I thought it timely to remind you

That being nice ain't being feeble,

There’s power in things well meant.

For kindness requires brave people

And gentleness some strength.

So be not ashamed, be bolder,

Pour coals on your good intent,

For our culture rests on your shoulders

And without your endeavour, it’s spent!

Day 266. Tuesday 8th January 2019

STUCK FOR AN IDEA

I was stuck for an idea for a poem today

So I went on Facebook for inspiration.

In my own defence all I can say

In the hope of some mitigation

Is that people will do the stupidest things

When driven by blind desperation.

And just so you know my efforts availed

Me naught but the start of depression

And that in turn inspired a thought

On the nature of karmic retribution.

Day 265. Monday 7th January 2019

MISSION POSSIBLE

Attention all artists

Your mission,

Should you choose to accept it,

Is to kick-start a renaissance

Of global dimensions

And lift man to the stars

On the skyrocket

Of re-awoken dreams.

Piece of cake!

And when you’ve done that,

Your next assignment

Will be something

Really difficult.

Day 264. Sunday 6th January 2019

HAIKU

The truth does not lie

In the thing beheld but in

He who beholds it.

Day 263. Saturday 5th January 2019

THERE IS NOTHING MEDIOCRE

There is nothing mediocre

About this planet

Or, indeed, the people on it

And if you’ll permit me to utter

Some words in your defence,

The fancied mediocrity

All around us is,

Like so-called failure,

Merely a pretence.

And you’re a genius-in-hiding

For fear you’ll give some deity

Cause to take offence.

But here’s the thing that seems to me

To be considerably odd:

You had to be quite powerful

To dream up such powerful gods.

Day 262. Friday 4th January 2019

SOMETIMES IT IS HARD

Sometimes it is hard

To find reasons to be kind

When all the invitations are

To be otherwise.

But if endeavours were abandoned

Simply because they’re tough

No mother would have children,

No man would take a wife.

And if we all stopped trying

Because living’s often rough,

We’d forget the joy of living

Is simply reward enough.

And if trying to be kindly

Often seems like it’s a curse

We’d do well to be reminded

Being mean’s a whole lot worse.

Day 261. Thursday 3rd January 2019

HAIKU

The cold embraces

The chill land with promises

Of Spring’s kindling fire

Day 260 Wednesday 2nd January 2019

SONNET

This cosmos by a poem was begun

In mystic misty ages born of verse

By joyful gods its magic staves were sung

Whose chorus brought to life a universe.

And even yet doth life our words transcend

The coded sounds that stumble from the tongue

And inky symbols scratched by humble pens

Are but a shadow where each thought’s the sun.

And the poet strives in vain to wring from words

Some echo of the magic that he sees

And the music of the gods still distant heard,

Once near is now a fading symphony.

The verse of gods you made is always thine

That you must now look up, not down, to find.

Day 259 Tuesday 1st January 2019

HAPPY (COUGH, COUGH) NEW YEAR!

I thought I''d start the new year

By contracting the flu,

Knowing that from here on

Things can only improve.

Day 258 Monday 31st December 2018

HAIKU

Both past and future

Are endlessly created

In eternal Now

Day 257 Sunday 30th December 2018

A LETTER TO MAN FOR 2019

Heed not the decriers

And defamers of Man,

For Man brought the fire

Of creation with him from the stars,

Then forgot the reasons that he came.

Skip regret and dwell you not in blame

For in short time has Man ne'er less

Etched his name in the stained glass

Of imagination and the whole world

Spanned with miraculous towers,

And raising them higher by the hour,

Fashioned cities and nations from his dreams.

Do not believe the con men and liars

Who know naught but how

To disable gods with self doubt

And would if they could

Blind them forever

To their true power

With mischievous screams

Of derision and how-bad-it-all-is

Streams of wired-in shame.

Listen not to the satanic whisperers

Who preach disillusion and the futility of dreams,

Who paint failure

Over the bright canvas of triumph

And would have you believe

Naught of your true self.

From the desert's sterile and desultory sand,

Nothing grows so go to where proud cities stand

And sow the healthy seed in the fertile

Soil of well-justified hope.

Grow your world from its rightnesses,

The good seeds with which

You are both blessed

And surrounded -

And which, indeed,

You created.

Day 256 Saturday 29th December 2018

GWAI TOQ MU

There's planet called Gwai Toq Mu*

Orbiting a small blue star

Out there in the Magellanic Cloud.

It was home for a while

And I remember it with affection.

Its inhabitants, though, were often

A bit loud and lovably quirky -

which is to say,

not entirely sane -

And in the main,

Almost but not quite human.

Much like Earth.

*I'm buggered if I can remember what Gwai Toq Mu means exactly - it's, like, a few bazillion years since I left, having become seriously wanted by their police. Best I can recall is that it might mean "water". Go figure.

Day 255 Friday 28th December 2018

HAIKU

The world isn't fixed,

For it is less what it is

Than how you see it

Day 254 Thursday 27th December 2018

WE CAN CHANGE IT

Whatever it is

That seems completely horrible,

Deplorable or execrable

We can change it.

You and I together

Can make it better

And grow a new country

Or a new planet

Closer to our hearts.

But where do we start?

Well, our friendship for each other

Seems as good a place as any.

Day 253 Wednesday 26th December 2018

UNKILLABLE US

More than a hundred years ago

We came out of the trenches

And played games in no-man's-land.

Some of us remember it

And the pulse of friendship

Still resonates

Several lives later.

Of course, the hateful dogs of war

Decided they'd have no more of it

And tried as best they could

To put a stop to it,

Preferably forever.

Yet the dedicated effort to divide

Continually flounders on friendship.

Endlessly reasserted,

Revived by the merest breath

Of the slenderest excuses,

Man's affinity with man

Defies all endeavors

To kill it.

As for the trenches,

It's time to leave them

Forever.

Day 252 Tuesday 25th December 2018

THE SOURCE OF CHRISTMAS

Whence came this festival of Yule

Where men huddled by their fires

'Gainst the cold of winter climes most cruel

Who hungered yet were by higher goals inspired?

The logic of survival doth it seems present

Dog eat dog and tooth and claw

Whose strictures brook no argument

And punish our dissent with steel-sprung jaws.

The winter solstice feeds no impulse to be kind

Nor doth men's benevolence explain

Yet we ne'er less do myriad reasons find

To fill our span with salves for one another's pain.

Thus we in Christmas have contrived excuse

To fill with smiles each other's worlds

And by rituals and abstruse gods abdused

The goodness that in truth is in ourselves.

And therein a greater truth doth shine

That perchance we're gods who long since fell

Who cannot quite explain that spark divine

That in our hearts doth yet immortal dwell.

Day 251 Monday 24th December 2018

THE ROAD TO HELL

Whoever said the road to hell

Is paved with good intent

Sold a lie wrapped in a platitude

That was not at all well meant.

The road to hell in truth is opened

By a dearth of Man's good will,

Where good intent is stifled

By those who intend their fellows ill.

In the world of man naught happens

Unless 'twas so intended

And good will never burgeons

Where its seeds aren't even planted

Day 250 Sunday 23rd |December 2018

SONNET

Who will put a song in the hearts of men

And light once more the spark that long since died?

Who'll raise the dead so they might live again

Or laughter bring to children who once cried?

Who'll make the silence ring to joyful chords

Or daub bold dreams upon the slate of days

And raise his pen where once he raised a sword

To script an end to grief upon life's page?

Who'll say to mothers they need weep no more

Or troubled fathers tell there's naught to fear,

For shadows of their dread to distant shores

Have fled to lift the siege of care-worn years?

Who'll to their rescue ride and fears dispel

If not the hero sleeping in themselves?

Day 249 Saturday 22nd December 2018

WITH FOND THANKS TO DIANETICS

Ever since I did Dianetics

My mind has been on fire.

Now for the spiritual kerosene

To make the flames roar higher

Day 248 Friday 21st December 2018

RECENTLY

Recently I awoke with a start

And realised I must have dozed off

About seventy-six billion years ago . . .

. . . Did I miss much while I was asleep?

Day 248 Thursday 20th December 2018

WHAT IT TAKES

On a planet over-brimming with abundance

Of technological miracles,

Good will and honest people,

It takes and awful lot of skill,

Hard work and dedication

To cock the whole thing up.

Day 247 Wednesday 19th December 2018

HAIKU

Everything starts -

Even the broad universe -

With an idea

Day 246 Tuesday 18th December 2018

A NEW NEW WORLD ORDER

Some conceive a new World Order

Imposed on The Many

Without consent,

By trickery and subterfuge

And the stifling of dissent.

But suppose we all decided

Just to skip it

And to build one better

Of our own,

Rooted in the grassroots

Of our kinship

Agreed but not inflicted

And organically grown?

Day 245 Monday 17th December 2018

IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN

Imagine what would happen

If we all stood together,

Brother to sister

And sister to brother,

Hand in hand and

Shoulder to shoulder

To put an end forever

To the game of divide and conquer

Played by humanity's

Gaolers and slavers.

For a moment just consider

The power we'd discover

In Man undivided

Now and forever

No longer suckered

Into fighting each other

Day 244 Sunday 16th December 2018

IF LIFE SEEMS OVERWHELMING

If life seems overwhelming

You've not taken on enough

And however tough you think you are,

You're made of sterner stuff.

If it all seems dark and daunting

Remember only this:

The darkness lies below you

As you fly over the abyss.

If you find yourself bemoaning

A vexed and dismal night

Reflect that come the morning

It will all come out all right.

If you feel yourself beset

By constantly stifled panic,

You're just too big for the eggshell

Of this frail and tiny planet.

Day 243 Saturday 15th December 2018

Whence Comes Rescue?

© 2018 Steve Cook

Whence comes rescue

Unless we rescue one another?

What brings peace

If not the affinity twixt brothers?

Whence doth greatness spring

Except what each in each discovers?

And where doth freedom start except

"We are all in this together"?

Day 242 Friday 14th December 2018

SOME TIME AGO

Some time ago, the Devil discovered

The way to bring down gods

Is to get them fighting each other.

For who can conquer gods

If not one another?

And here we are.

Day 241 Thursday 13th December 2018

THE FUTURE CAN BE ANNOYING

The future can be annoying

When it turns up early

And catches you unprepared

Day 240 Wednesday 12th December 2018

HAVE YOU EVER . . .

Have you ever walked into a room

And then couldn't remember

Why you went there?

The universe is a bit like that.

Day 239. Tuesday 11th December 2018

CRAVING APPROVAL

I realised this morning

That I have been committing

The ultimate cardinal sin

Of craving approval.

Seems to me now that folly

Should be binned,

Deleted and cancelled.

It sure as hell is

From now on.

One should be

The one who gives

Or withholds approval

Not the one who needs it.

Or simply doesn't bother

And skips the whole sorry thing,

Cultivating an attitude

Of, "It is what it is".

After all, it's tantamount to asking

For permission to exist

And craving approval

From something or someone

Is what gets us into trouble.

Day 238. Monday 10th December 2018

FAKE STORIES

Do you ever feel

That the story of our species

Isn't really real,

A specious fabrication

Handed down through generations,

'Til the inmates of our prison

All gave up on freedom

Because they've totally forgotten

How the hell they got there

Or who they really were.

After all, consider:

How do you enslave a race

And warp it to your bidding

If not by teaching

Elaborate fabrications

And plausible fake histories

That alter its reality

And render it imprisoned

By broad belieavabilities

Within a single generation?

Day 237. Sunday 9th December 2018

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

You do realise, don't you,

That you have seven billion

Brothers and sisters?

And the reason you're lonely

Is you don't listen

Or they can't hear you.

Day 236. Saturday 8th December 2018

FAILED ARTIST

Not making pots of money

Does not make you a failed artist.

The only way to be

A failed artist

Is not to do art

Or not make an art

Of what you do.

Day 235. Friday 7th December 2018

HAIKU

The age-old question:

'Is there anybody there?'

Confirmed by echoes

Day 234. Thursday 6th December 2018

THE SOLITARY ECHO

The poetry nobody reads,

The symphony nobody hears

The picture no-one sees,

A universe no-one shares

And loneliness like prison bars

Too hard to bear.

Reaching for connection in the void,

The hand by no hand enjoined,

Grasping one's own shadow

And answered by the solitary echo.

Day 233. Wednesday 5th December 2018

THE TRIP

looking for truth,

afraid of what I might see

i tripped on my own fear

and slipped off the edge

of reality

into the mainstream

and was carried

by a river of lies

into a sea of fake news

Day 232. Tuesday 4th December 2018

A LOT TO BE SAID

There is a lot to be said

For getting out of bed

At the very crack of dawn,

For when I went out for a cigarette,

There were Venus bright as a lantern

And a thin sliver of crescent Moon

Hanging together in a clear heaven

Like re-united sisters.

I would have missed them

Had I not gotten up

And gone outside for a smoke.

So there's a lot to be said

For being an early riser,

And a smoker too, apparently.

Day 231. Monday 3rd December 2018

HEART

She said, "Give me your hand."

And I thought,

"If you are going to give,

Be a man and

Give generously."

So I gave her my heart.

Sometimes I wonder

If I should ask for it back,

But then I think,

"Well, for a start,

It wasn't a loan but a gift

And besides,

It is happier where it is."

Day 230. Sunday 2nd December 2018

THIS MORNING I WAS WONDERING

This morning I was wondering

Whether things exist

Before someone discovers 'em

Things like subatomic particles,

A hundred bazillion galaxies

Or even alcoholism.

Maybe science could discover

The universe is magical

And built on peace and brotherhood.

If you are going to discover things,

Discover something nice

Instead of something horrible.

Day 229. Saturday 1st December 2018

FOR MY WIFE ON HER BIRTHDAY

Sometimes I think I probably

Took up poetry for one purpose:

So I could tell you how I feel

And make a song for every birthday

That makes my love for you true-spoken

And justly signed and sealed,

Delivered in rhyming verses

With proper rhythmic zeal.

But no words have been invented

Can make the truth of love that real.

Day 228. Friday 30th November 2018

WHO WILL STAND WITH ME?

We stood in silence for one minute

To commemorate the dead

In sorrow and regret

For the futile blood we shed

But who will stand in silence

For those unborn instead

For our future and our children

And the eons that lie ahead?

Who will stand with me for five

And proudly raise his head

That man may smile and weep no more

And the curse of war be shed

Who'll let go of yesterday

And to tomorrow pledge

This stand with me for brotherhood

That peace at last may spread.

Day 227. Thursday 29th November 2018

DID YOU EVER THINK . . .

Did you ever think this universe

Got started as as prank

That somehow got too serious

And seriously out of hand?

Did you ever think that everyone

Somehow missed the joke

Or when God gave the Word to us

He mischievously mis-spoke?

Seems all was going swimmingly

'Til Creation threw a strop

And nature would benefit

From a bit of lightening up.

And my message to whoever

Wrote the ruddy script

Is the plot's a trifle hackneyed

And it sure goes on a bit.

Day 226. Wednesday 28th November 2018

WHO?

Who will stand for peace?

I wondered,

And release us from the

Endless live-die-repeat

Insanity of war?

Who will stand for Brotherhood

And our birthright

By the sisterhood of

Mothers borne?

Who will speak for Man

Whose affinity

With Man alone

The key to joy

And life provides?

Who will lend their shoulder

To the shoulder

Of his brother,

Each to one another,

If not you and I?

Day 225. Tuesday 27th November 2018

HAIKU

Looking at the stars

Across the wide universe

The infinite stare

Day 224. Monday 26th November 2018

CREATING COUNTRIES

What is the point

Where a country begins to die,

If not the point

When its people

Become convinced

They can no longer create it?

Day 223. Sunday 25th November 2018

LET'S

Let's reform our money

And base it on production

Not, as currently, on debt

Then gradually increase the supply of it

In smoother distribution

And pretty soon I bet we'll see

That poverty has run

Right out of excuses

And we'll all be rich.

Day 222. Saturday 24th November 2018

FUNNY THING ABOUT POVERTY. . .

Funny thing about poverty

Is in woebegone bygone ages

They say it couldn't be prevented.

But now in this age of miracles

And technological advances

In this world of plenty we created

Some idiots have clung

To control by scarcity

In which it has to be

Continually reinvented.

Day 221. Friday 23rd November 2018

THE RAP OF LIBERATION, PART THJREE

Scientists have discovered

That nobody knows what's going on.

We all assumed that somebody knew,

That clues to the universe

Existed somewhere,

That there was truth up there

Among the stars

Or the far marches of chaos

Or down here among the protons,

Electrons, neutrons, mesons,

Futons and tampons

And the swirling, whirling furnishings

Of a universe comprising

Mainly imaginary particles.

Scientists have discovered

That nobody knows what's going on.

They'd hoped for more but turns out

They were wrong.

They have been forced to conclude

And prove scientifically

That the universe is weird

Thus finally confirming

The worst of their fears.

Scientists have discovered

That nobody knows what's going on.

The microscopes and telescopes

Kaleidoscopes and isotopes

Drew a blank all along

In the search for something

More than merely magical

And factually tangible,

Or even hazily discernable

That lurked somewhere,

Comfortingly confirmable

Or vaguely irrefutable

Among the corpuscles and barnacles,

Cardigans, condiments, artesans and marzipan

And all the other

Nonsensical factors of existence

Subsisting by coincidence..

In infinite confusion

And random collision

Or even, we suspect,

Mischievous collusion.

Scientists have discovered

That nobody know what's going on.

The universe seems to be

Composed mainly of opinion

But whose opinion precisely

Is something of a mystery.

Yet the search for more continues,

For something undestandandible,

An answer to the question,

Or the question to the answer

That might advance our wisdom

Or at least our hope of finding

A useful stable datum of some description

Among the endless procession of

Hopeless hypotheses

Or refutable arguments

That all turned out to be

Ultimately disprovable.

Scientists have discovered

That nobody know what's going on.

It's a universe of maybes

And mysteries endlessly repeated

Throughout all of human history,

Of secrets, suspects, checks and balances

The complex web of

Algorithmic sequences

Buried in the fixits, exits, wingits

Fuckits, stuffits, stoppits, wotsits and brexits

Of plausible bullshit

Palmed off on the multitudes

With acceptable attitudes

And a tantalising froth

Of contemporary lather,

Bullshit and blather

Scientists have discovered

That nobody know what's going on.

And everyone agrees

That's a good place to start.

Day 220. Thursday 22nd November 2018

HAIKU

Since my last haiku

Too much time has passed us by

So here is one now

Day 219. Wednesday 21st November 2018

JOY

Once I thought I'd only be happy

With some gigantic lottery win

But now I think to hell with the money

And take joy from the simplest things

Day 218. Tuesday 20th November 2018

DESPITE EVERYTHING

Whether you know or even believe it,

You've been around for a very long time

I am sorry to tell you I've seen it

And there's no doubt left in my mind.

Down through the unending ages

And eons in a blink of an eye

You wrote endlessly turning pages

Of life after life after life,

All the while hammered and pounded,

Wounded, disappointed, betrayed,

Bereft, bereaved and royally hounded.

From birth to the end of your days.

But what I find so astounding

That earns my boundless respect

Is in spite of it all that you're still trying

To do the right thing even yet,

Still dreaming, still hoping, still loving,

With kindness still placing your bets.

One day I know you'll remember

Or maybe just take this hint

That the truth of you is you're a giant

Held down with pieces of lint.

Day 217. Monday 19th November 2018

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

Seems to me my life is blessed

To be full of beautiful women,

For which I thank God or my lucky stars.

But at this point I think it best

To mention in case you are wondering

That you girls know who you are.

Day 216. Sunday 18th November 2018

ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE SMALL ENOUGH? PART TWO

Okay so we have all

Very cleverly

Made ourselves small enough

To squeeze into our bodies.

But like a shoe or a hat

If you wear it long enough

Something too small like that

No matter how smart it looks

Pretty soon is gonna start

To chafe.

Day 215. Saturday 17th November 2018

ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE SMALL ENOUGH? PART ONE

Once upon a time

we made ourselves small enough

to fit into the universe.

Then some time later

we made ourselves smaller

so we could fit quite comfortably

into a very tiny galaxy.

Time went by until

in some kind of panic

we made ourselves small enough

to fit into a planet.

We were on a kind of roll by then

and eventually decided

it might be kind of jolly

if we made ourselves small enough

to fit into a body.

So here for quite a while by now

we've unhappily resided

and the body thing's turned out to be

not all it was cracked up to be

by all the advertising.

In fact I think you'll all agree

being squeezed into a body

has been pretty horrible,

decidedly uncomfortable

and overall a pain

in the ruddy ass,

one of which of course

now everybody has!

And if you conclude from all of this

the trouble you are having

is due to you not being

quite small enough,

go see your psychiatrist

for he will trim you down again

with surgery or chemistry

until you fit untidily

inside your brain

Day 214 Friday 16th November 2018

ON YOUR CIDE

Trust me,

The politician said,

For I am on you side.

And I said,

What side is that then?

Suicide?

Fratricide?

Matricide?

Patricide?

Or Infanticide?

There are after all

Many sides to a political promise

The flip side of which

Often coincides

With downsides

That wind up

In genocide.

Day 213 Thursday 15th November 2018

FARMYARD ANIMALS

The next time some barmy psychiatrist

Tries to tell you you are an animal

Tell him, "YOU may well be, pal,

But I sure as hell ain't."

After all,

Why let some criminal

Who knows Jack Shit

Except how to dope kids

Like farmyard animals

Tell you what to think?

Even if they do

Pretend to be doctors.

Day 212 Wednesday 14th November 2018

RECENTLY I FOUND OUT

Recently

I found out at last

Who I really am.

It was a truth so vast

I was scared

To believe it.

Those of you

Who have

Been there already

Will know exactly

What I'm talking about.

Those who haven't yet

Are going to.

Something wonderful

Is going to happen

Day 211 Tuesday 13th November 2018

ON THE BRINK

Out towards the galaxy's rim

By a small yellow sun

A planet orbits

On the edge of greatness.

Day 210. Monday 12th November 2018

WHAT I WANT

I stopped asking what I want from life

And ask myself what I want for life.

The answer is, I want to put a song

In the human heart

That will resonate for all time,

With credits to

"Author Anon".

Day 209. Sunday 11th November 2018

IN THE SILENCE 11/11/18

In the silence,

the guns

and lying tongues

were stilled

and we remembered

all men are brothers.

In the silence

we heard the echo

of their screams

dying over

half-remembered

battlefields

where good men

were each

by other good men killed.

In the silence,

each the nightmare

of some psychotic's dream

recalled,

the loss of sons

born without hate

to different mothers,

yet to our selfsame race

and dying with regret

for the lives laid waste

in the same mud

beneath

the selfsame sun.

In the silence

we wept, waking

from the pain

and the truth unchanged

e'en yet of our

brotherhood,

knowing we are all

in this together

and all war's wounds

are self-inflicted.

In the silence,

we seek an answer

to the riddle

of the madness,

of our periodic

internecine slaughter

and the

who-does-this-to-us

senselessness

of our suicidal,

fratricidal, patricidal

matricidal squabbles,

knowing only that we are

good, yet agonisingly

troubled.

In the silence

we reach again for an end

to the reign

of lunatics and liars,

for there's a road somewhere

out of the interminable pain,

across the corpse-strewn plains,

shell-shocked wastelands,

no-man's-lands

and trenches awash

with the tears

of bereaved mothers

whose sons are never

coming home again.

In the silence

the world's heart groaned,

weighed heavy

with regret,

heads hung for the

shame of self-hood

betrayed,

by unknown

demons cowed

we knew not how.

In the silence

I heard whispered

in the hearts of men

the one thought

that will end

at last this

travesty of war,

provided

we voice it

together,

and the thought is this:

"I-will-not-do-this-any-more".

Day 208. Saturday 10th November 2018

THE ZEN OF WALKING

Walk On!

My Zen Master used to say,

Like it was the answer to everything

Or a way of not answering

Anything.

Walk On!

I must have been convinced,

I've been walking ever since,

I've sure walked a lot

In this life and others.

Walk on!

The thing about walking,

Is it is an endlessly repeated effort

To prevent yourself

Falling on your face.

That's probably why I do it.

But at least I am walking forwards

Walking backwards is worse.

_______________________________________________________

Find poems 1-207 here