The following poems were inspired by the Outcast and Other Words anthology which I came across sometime in 2024. I decided to take all the prompts from that anthology and see what I could come up with myself.
17th Sep 2025 – Shared with dVerse – reflections
1: Outcast
Duck Face
We outcasted ourselves by dissemination
Of the minutiae of every spit and cough
Sharing feeble insights and useless opinion
Considering a duck face meme be enough
2: Unearth
Deeper
When dug down deep enough
Through all the muddied ground
A sense formed from nothing
Unexpectedly found profound
3: Imperfect
The Perfect Image
A studied mirror finds the flaws
The qualities hindered by thought
Image is only imagination
Subconsciously learned and taught
4: Destiny
Stopped Dead
A tragic victim of fate or led astray by odd notions?
Either way, ended up beneath the roiling oceans
Or frozen solid on a parade to the mountaintop
Life lived in safety has already come to a stop
5: Gratitude
Crawl
Sparky Attitude, an ungrateful iconoclast
Demolished her own feeble castle keeps
An arrogant empire would neither share nor last
To a lonely future she limps and creeps
6: Wild
Innate
A heart race
As the tiger leapt
Covering me with all its grace
In his eyes kept
All the wonder
Of his beauty
All the danger of his threat
7: Remedy
Good Little Boys and Girls
Crush the little kiddy bones
Grip their brains to squeeze
Make a million homo-clones
Purely bred to please
Break the little baby brain
Mould until compliant
Not an atom must remain
Of any trace defiant
8: Candour
Home, James
Hello Frank, I’m Earnest
Let’s work to fix this joint
Blunt, direct and candid
Let’s just get to the point
9: Accidental
The Place Of Knowing
Was it an accident or fate?
Did destiny set me straight?
I fell off the path while going
To the place of finally knowing
10: Mimic
Bovell Rock
Show me the mould, I wanna break it
It’s a lovealution and we’re gonna make it
Put me in a box and I’ll find an escape
That’s the revolution we’re trying to shape
Inspired by Dennis Bovell
11: Guardian
Hold On
Hold on tight to the hallelujahs
Death creeps in ditches along the way
No protection on the road to perdition
When the drunk comes out to play
Inspired by a young friend of a friend who was suddenly killed by a drunk driver
12: Indecision
Designer
Wishing and waiting?
Thoughts and prayers?
Thin ice skating
A toy on the stairs
Get busy designing
With purpose and pliers
Lifetime defining
Lighting the fires
13: Light
All The Wrongs
Why the darkness, why the night
Where all the wrongs are told as right?
The world around wasn’t forced to fight
Let’s take a step towards the light
14: Fear
The Unfolding
Always made meaning
As the moment slipped away
Slowly unfolding
15: Intricate
Mandelbrot
The politics of time create confusion
All blame is built on past illusion
A cobweb mandala of contrived deceit
The circle of power remains incomplete
16: Colours
True
Don’t be afraid of the rainbow
Black and white is never true
That’s why the world makes you crazy
And only seeing blue
When it’s all too much to bear
Is when it’s time for you to show
When the darkness makes you small
The truth will help you grow
17: Emptiness
Firestarter
Just need a little juice to fill up the whole
A tiny spark to get some action-shifting
A combustion of the heart that you stole
To restock the emptiness of your gifting
18: Performance
Exit Stage Left
Get it together, this is your show
Your audience awaits with bated breath
To follow your story as you grow
And the curtain closes with your death
19: Abundance
Gurfa
Who can catch all the falling figs
Ripened and ready for your dreams?
All the water in the palm of your hand
Is never enough it seems
20: Resting
Spike
I told you I was ill
Perhaps it’s for the best
I just lie here still
To enjoy my final rest
21: Day and Night
A Perfect Contradiction
Waking in the morning was as if nothing had changed
Except that everything in life had been rearranged
Walking again into the night the patterns are all the same
What it was and what it is now has a different name
22: Secret Doorways
Wizards
The Internet is a collective hallucination
Trap doors hide the rabbit holes
Spiralling further away from reality
Over the rainbow and beyond controls
23: Taste
A Distinct Lack Of
Once the sweetness of success sets in
A bitter pill is like ingesting sin
Lazy complacency soon turns sour
A spicy life now mundane and dour
24: Shadows
Colourless
Life stamps out the artist
Imagination overruled by data
Needing money for survival
Has us working harder not smarter
25: Fragment
The Creases
Taking a thought and pulling it apart
Taking a heart and smashing it to pieces
A fragment pleases, a misunderstood art
An origami part, following the creases
26: Wishes
My Honest Pitch
Everything’s an ad, even the news
Propaganda spun to get more views
Everything’s and ad so here’s my pitch
Subscribe now if you want to get rich
27: Circle
The Newest Apocalypse
Fighting for breath, caught in the undertow,
Unplug from the drama, go with the flow
Another story that no one else needs to know
An ever-decreasing circle ready to be let go
Title taken from and poem inspired by The Stoa Letter email
28: Life
Guru Free
For life, always in search of a cure
But what is good is easy to get!
What is terrible, easy to endure!
Death hasn’t come for us yet
For a thousand years, this advice, free
Now sold by gurus for a mighty fee
29: Moonstruck, Ragtag & Wanderlust
My Three Sons
Such useless boys, always dreaming
Their twinkling eyes always gleaming
Awaiting their return, to see them again
Left as boys yet returned as men
30: Journey
Eulogy
Chuck me in the cheapest casket
Feed my flesh to the flames
Waste no time with weeping
Rejoice your reality remains
31: Nostalgia
The Cleaner
Without explanation let’s concoct a story
A dry tale to give the past some meaning
Wrap an old coat around to comfort
When these memories need spring cleaning
32: Reflection
The Weight Of A Seed
With the weight of a seed
Arrogance kept in his heart
His majestic glow darkens
His character torn apart
No matter his benevolence
The righteousness of his deeds
To hell, he will banished
For satisfying his own needs
33: Time
Sand
Time
Fourth dimension
Moments in trust
Let them all go
Infinite
34: Christmas
No Christmas
It’s a minority holiday
Needles drop from the old pine tree
Whatever Santa may say
Each year less present to see
It’s another year of pain
The glitter and glamour have faded
Each time coming around again
Until successfully evaded
To celebrate your own existence
Needs no manger of lights
Defy peer pressure insistence
There are no wrongs and rights
35: End of Year
Getting There
You’ll always have a seat
If you bring your own chair
Losing isn’t always beat
But shows you’re getting there
36: Begin
From The Off
If you want a happy ending
The peak that offers reward
Navigate the discomforts
The form found unexplored
37: Misgivings
The Fold
All my thinking folds in on itself*
To stand proud, solid and silent as the tree
A summer showing of greenest health
Conceals the winter dark inside of me
*https://tinyhearts.uk/2024/09/16/mowing/
1994ever 