Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Discontinuous Past3

Tongue in cheek poems previously published in anthologies, some of which "pay tribute" to those poets who were the bane of the past, good for a laugh(particularly the poem which started it all - the monster)


A Reply to Mr. T.S. Eliot


Let us go then, you and I,
Since the sun has risen against the sky
Like an omelette greasified
Upon a plate.

Let us go through this mad time
And see whose more degenerate
Mine or thine.


Moon shadow creeps across the globe
Sonata murmurs
Quiet, sonorous, dark, sombre
Sonata screams
Towers crumble,
Anguish, fear, hate, anger
Seven centuries, crescent & cross clash.
Terror of curved scimitar
Now terror of atoms, particles and flying crosses.

MADness *1 once thought our saviour
Shield*2 us now from our madness
Once you feared the world would end
Not with a bang but with a whimper.
Now we fear the world will end
With a billion whimpers and precisely that bang.
Smithereens of a disordered world.
Products of disordered minds.

The men come and go
Talking of JLO*3

Dear Prufrock, do eat that peach
Our generation prefers apple pie
Forbidden fruit psychedelic coloured.
Freedom; freeing the beast within
Pounding heart, screaming ears
World flies by, whirling colours.

'Bring me back to life*4'
Anthem of zombie youth
Race enslaved by glaring screens.
Virtual preferred to the reality it imitates
Bits of language, bytes of data.
Communication, discommunication.

Genes now fashionable keyword
Tinkering with primeval soup
GM food, GM research, GM humans
All very well
Till you see dear Frank
One morning in your shaving mirror.

The men come and go
Talking of IPO*5

Retire Mdm Sosostris or
Upgrade her software
Else no competition for
Your internet consultant
Friendly life guide for $29.95
Talk is cheap
Unless an analyst
Paid by the millions
Believed by minions
Spouting fallacy
Noisier than WasteLand pub.
‘Time, people, to buy those stocks,
Or risk missing the up curve.'


Double entry or double books.
Accountability not what it seems
Lucio would blush
For his false generation


Whirling, twirling
Cacophony of billions
Accelerating atomic disintegration
Strife, towards ultimate silence
Life in death? Who knows
Silent Lazarus
Best selling author of the silent book.
No psychedelic scream,
No requiem,
No boring poem.
Serene Buddha
Nirvana in nothingness
Your Waste Land
Our Brave New World


Notes to Poem
*1 MAD = mutual assured destruction
*2 Shield = missile shield and form of the Lord's Prayer
*3 JLO = Jennifer Lopez
*4 Lyric of Evanescence song : Bring me to Life
*5 IPO = Initial public offering.

'greasified' is a non word


--------------------------
A poet's dream

A poet dreams, to heaven gone, entering hall of poets
past.
Enthroned within were the great,
Breathing poetry, even after life .
There was Petrarch counting his lines,
Just beside Shakespeare and his dark beauty,
Paradiso could never be, but for Dante and his m'lady
.
Never could heaven be so lovely without glorious
hippopotami,
Ever so carnal, ever so saintly, UnDone in afterlife.

Flitting muses came, bringing brew-laden jars.
One approached, offering grecian cup of heavenly
nectar.
Bacchean crowds gather, intoxicating liquid flows,
Greedily quaffing, Romantic lot, eyes glazed with
heavenly visions.

Voice snaps the spell:' 'ere's your coffee',muse turns
grouchy crone.
Mists of heaven clear to smokey cafe; Eliotean
reality, poet sighs.
Hope prevails; modernist hell could turn heavenly
life; one can always dream...on!



*******************************


Wintersong

And the wind whispers softly
This wintersong of love
Winter's wail, almost warm
To the frozen heart

I've seen eternity
In the passing of a day
Time metaphysical, incomprehensible
In this winterscape

Spring is the cruellest season
Reawakening of the senses
Mere pain for the winter creature
Benumbed senses reviving to the pain of hope
The agony that's proof of life

Footsteps in early snow
All that remains of this lovesong
Buried with you in eternal snow
Life goes on as the seasons change
Let this wintersong
Fly with you on the wings of the wind.


***************************

Writing Poetry

Chewed wood, scratch of lead
Inspiration lights, bright eyes
Frenzied dancing phalanges
Feverish jiggles springing parallels

The artist pauses
Ego at a precarious precipice
What seemed inspired
Now seems forced
Tepid, tired, tedious
Feeble attempt at rhyming

The self-deflating ego
Elastic moods
That curious creature named poet.



***************************************************

The Monster
Deafening blast heralded arrival of beast
Tensed flanks, blank eyes
Daily offerings neither flinch nor cring
Resignation, irritation, the only expression
Gaping maw swallows all
Whole, unbroken
Giant python slithers on
Creaking, lumbering to its next feeding
Cramm'd inside sardine tin
Fretting baby, cooing mother
Stench of victims past
Murmurs, rumors, concussed yelping femur
Screeching, the beast halts
Lurching monster, swearing beings
Gorging new offerings
Shoving, pushing, old victims emerging
The monster speaks
Burning rubber, choking exhaust
"Alighting passengers, please use the back exit"
Rushing, running, city bus morning