Galimathias Musicum – 13th July 2025

He’s a loose liver, a great blusterer1
Building a life out of pieces gathered in secret.
Gradually becoming a disaster, his signature
He’s a man made of many departures.

At an all-you-can-eat festival of bad decisions
Only a maniac would slice cheese with a chainsaw
Cosplaying poverty, becoming marginally less useless
Words are only understood when you stop thinking about them2

We need to understand that we are already living with the monsters
Forming a complicated cake of dissolved civilisations
A concrete monument made out of nonsense
A fake perfume of cum scented compliments

1I read this line in a book, I think, but didn’t take note when I saved it for use later.
2This line is from a Substack article, which, again, I forgot to take note of

This hybrid cento came together after collecting a bunch of phrases (mostly linked in the poem) and then applying them to the GloPoWriMo Day 5 prompt: write a poem inspired by musical notation and words from a provided list (found at the link). I went with the following:
“gradually becoming a disaster”
Death metal symphony
nonsense, monument, concrete, departures


I was stuck for a title until I dug around a bit and found this from Mozart, the meaning of which is:
Galimathias“: A pseudo-Latin term derived from French galimatias (meaning nonsense or gibberish).
Musicum“: Latin for “musical.”
Together: Roughly translates to “Musical Nonsense” or “A Musical Hodgepodge.

This seemed entirely appropriate.

And though the resulting Suno AI song is very straightforward and nothing like a hodgepodge, I think that it’s quite enjoyable. Please give it a listen below.

30th Jul 2025 – Shared with dVerse Poetics – Music, Play on

Dreamers And Drunkards – 6th February 2025

A whisper through the cosmos softly sighs,
just like memories which have a way of coming back
Courage is the sound the night makes
wedded were we with the sun, a moment flecked gold

We’re all dreamers and drunkards
And neither kindly, curiously, nor discreet
for youth comes with a price
Boys, keep drinking your beers

Knowing that the time ahead will demand us to change
By comparison, all else does pale,
hitch-hiking imagination’s pier
But still they linger, waiting their turn

Where once there was only black and white
and secrets stitched in shadow
Time passes and the shadows grow
and universal dream-weavers,
cry for the halcyon days, the jasmine nights,
garlands of starlight strung out

A cento. Each line is linked back to the original full poem.

The Captain’s Heart – 16th October 2024

In the desire to impose order and ritual
Where do you find yourself at end of the day?
Ahead lies the veiled valley
To walk in the everyday world
With promise, a heart full of hope
To be humbled by the universe

Receiving truth in fragments – parts
Colliding, collapsing, pulling & pushing as if
They change every night and pull you along with them
Its dark edges are still dissolving
The captain’s heart, a compass true and fierce
Brings souls together

A cento – 12 lines from 12 other poems. Each line is linked back to the original full poem.


Fatman report

Inklings – 28th May 2024

I get the feeling you are
Always impatient to arrive
As to why lips are burning shut
My space dreams a guttering flame
Burning the world
After the rain

To learn its secrets, get its power
Needs no spotlight, no orchestra
The inklings of chaos are cleverly concealed
But how do I explain
The shriek and howl of party boys
In a dark, secluded spot

Inspired but too late to submit to the dVerse April cento challenge. Cento: A literary work pieced together from the works of several authors
Line 1: Peter
Line 2: Dwight L. Roth
Line 3: Sanaa Rizvi
Line 4: Rob Kistner
Line 5: Kim Whysall- Hammond
Line 6: gillena
Line 7: Jedediah Smith
Line 8: Ron. Lavalette
Line 9: Punam
Line 10: Colleen Looseleaf
Line 11: Brendan
Line 12: kittysverses


Today I’m feeling:

Good.  I was having a crazy dream when my alarm went off but I was so deep in it that I instantly couldn’t remember it.  My first thought after turning the alarm off was ‘What was I just dreaming!?’

I forced myself out to my room where I discovered that the exercise app I use can now generate an AI routine targeted at your choice of muscle groups and it was good.  It pushed me a little more than normal and I was glad of it.

Hopefully, it is a feature that I can continue using for free as I’ve only ever used the free routines in the app.

Today I’m grateful for:

The random students who told me that they missed me.  I don’t even know who they were but I’m assuming that I have taught them recently and am just not familiar with them yet.

The best thing about today was:

My class of grade 10s this afternoon, which also had a whole bunch of new students added that I had to quickly familiarise myself with, who quickly picked up on the activities that I was teaching and got a little competitive with each other.  

By the end, it seemed everyone enjoyed it despite some students struggling with English and not really being interested.

Something I learned today?

Kru Tang now works in the high school and has been tasked with putting together the new Integrated Program.  She seemed just as frustrated as everyone else with this task.

Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10

I walked around the park after classes to see who was hanging where and with who.  I found Baipad in her usual place with another girl I didn’t recognise but soon learned that it was Cookie, Butter’s younger sister.

I had meant to ask Baipad to introduce me to her one morning as I knew that she would be starting here this semester but then forgotten all about it.

I’ve met so many new students already this semester that I can’t even bring Cookie’s face to mind again right now.

I gave them both a candy and Baipad asked me why I always had candy.  I laughingly said that it is because I am a good person and I jokingly complained to her about why she never gives me anything.

Amy took this picture because we have new housemates staying on our balcony. The plant that they have nested on is a little too close to curious cats so we raised it up on a chair where hopefully our cats decide that they are too lazy to investigate further.