Big Joke Brother Translation – 17th February 2025

A familiar face
Staying still is sleeping – moving is falling
Keep walking diligently
I FREAKING HATE YOU !!
”Shaved head ghost“
Each meal, each day – leak, brother
The song has to come, brother

These words are not mine but are arranged by me. These were posts translated from Thai after the politician Prawit Wongsuwan pushed a female journalist in the head after she asked him a question. The translations are poetic to me. The title is connected with a disgraced (?) police chief whose nickname is Big Joke and ‘Brother’ indicates the relationship between such elites.

Cold Comforts – 9th February 2025

There are lookers and there are seers
And those blinkered of the mind
Some are do-ers whilst others are be-ers
Finally, those who choose to be blind

Some see magic within the leafless tree
Finding comfort in familiar concrete
As cold and unforgiving as they may be
Rainbows bloom all along the street

Some days, the sees will turn to looks
The busyness of time puts on the blinkers
Turning towards the turning page of books
The seers become the thinkers

The wanderlust begs the wonder lost
Learning is the unlearning to see
Expanding knowledge comes at a cost
Soon blindness becomes the reality

Inspired by writing at this post on the Spinning Visions blog and contemplating how we lose our sense of wonder as we age and become wiser, or at least, more filled with knowledge.
7th Nov 2025 – Shared with W3 – comfort – not quite to the prompt but adjacent at least.

Apocalypse Yoga – 26th January 2025

Landscapes of destruction and hell
Destroyed cityscapes aflame on fire
Devouring armfuls of pink men
Animals pick at flesh on barbed wire

Zerkon on your headphones
Quiet heralds the chaos to come
Settle into the warrior’s posture
Start banging the apocalypse drum

As anxiety rises in your bones
Breath deep the anguish and terror
Convulsing masses of flesh
Prepared for the yogi pallbearer

To six dragon hounds submit
Borborygms burst through the gut
A danse macabre meditation
Steeled the flesh for every cut

Tensions dissolve in exhalation
Stay in posture for nine breaths
Life leaves you little by little
Every nightmare, a series of deaths

Paraphrased and inspired by an absurd newsletter (The Poney Club Letter n°59) from the record label, Dur et Doux.

Said And Done Again – 31st December 2024

A reckoning with my younger self,
nostalgia or all a nonsense?
We should want to change the world,
guided by our conscience;

As the crossroads multiply,
direction becomes obscured;
Pulled along on divergent tides,
wildly thrashing, unmoored;

Ideals discarded to the wind,
just another day to survive;
Waking up to realise
the destination will soon arrive;

A reckoning born of experience
as ideals began to wane;
Everything ever said and done
will be said and done again.

30th May 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #179 – starting over

Rotten Words – 30th December 2024

Weakness of various kinds may lurk in a flabby lip*
The ill-bred then ill-led by courtier cowards
History’s dustbin overflows with rotten words let slip
A moral vacuum created in Babel’s towers

When the logos kings vanish, only the dirt remains
So sift the glittering trash of golden whispers
In search of the truth which in turn explains
The fragment promises of unwritten scriptures

*I forget who said this quote but I read it in The Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon.

No Bromides – 29th December 2024

Poetry is perfect for cliche
It’s a better way
To say what I want to say!

Sometimes a synonym will do
It’s true!
At least it’s been thought through

Rewriting what’s previously written
I’m smitten
With the hand already bitten!

No poems of autumn or spring
So please bring
Me less cliched words to sing!

Written for a task at AllPoetry.com in connection with cliche. Cliches are often useful, so long as they are not overused, and often express exactly what is required. For me though, I really don’t like cliched poetic topics like seasons or flowers, unless done really well and bringing a new dimension to the subject. I have a pet peeve with some words too but I can’t remember them now because as soon as I see them I click away from reading and forget about them immediately. Next time I see one, I want to try and understand why it is that I dislike it so much! I looked up synonyms of cliche to find bromide! Haha! Never used that word in my life.

Freefall Reply – 26th December 2024

This haiku was posted by Gary B. Dean at AllPoetry.com on 23rd July 2024.

Freefall

All leaves fall away
From the branches that lift them
For their only flight


I liked it and wanted to reply. So I did.

What is the meaning
Hidden in these words of yours?
How to understand?

The leaves fall away
Because the tree doesn’t need
Them in the winter

Once served their purpose
What use are they to the tree?
Good compost coming!

The Wonder Train – 25th December 2024

A whisper and a wonder
Will all the aunties be there?
Where will everyone sit?
Can I watch the fire faeries flit
As I fall asleep in the quiet comfy chair?

Adult breath whiffs of magic
Will I ever learn these ways?
Maybe I’ll sing a song
And the uncles will sing along
With my series of 20 short plays

Is that bird following me?
Better to be clear of the busy sky
Reindeer running through
Clickety-clack and choo-choo-choo
Where did he go and why?

The sparkle of new toys
The surprise of morning snow
Why all the rush
For the melt to the slush?
Enquiring minds want to know

Shared with What Do You See? #268 picture prompt (above)