Poems : 1
Vital is vocabulary in a poet's verse.
Pretty is pecunia in a pauper's purse.
Starved of words and starved of bread
Is neither poet dumb nor poet dead.
High upon a mountain a prophet spoke to God.
The sinners in the valley stoned the stupid cod
Hipocrites and liars thrive upon deceit
But the saintly honest know fairer ways to cheat.
These people from all walks of life never need avoid
The supernatural vibrations that they have enjoyed.
May their spirits linger to see just how they died.
God gave mammals tears to blind us when we cried.
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The last straw broke the camel's back
Before the dirty shirts cleaned up.
Wagons rattled down the dusty track
And moonshine filled the empty cup
Pioneers of progress sally forth from home
To modernise with excess technological chrome.
Prisoners in the evening dark
Whistle like the barking lark
Drinkers with the basking shark
Gamble with the cursing clerk.
Seabirds in the cloudy heights
Underneath the Northern Lights,
Cancel out the sordid sights,
Keeling under civil rights.
And we shall give them all they need:
The tools to use and all the seed.
The last straw has been published by Forward Press in 2010 in an anthology.
(copyright (c) 2010
Arthur J.P. Strand
Were the existentialist.
Were the exisitentialist a philanderer,,,,
Were the toxopholist a philatelist....
Were the campanologist a philosopher....
The world would need no evangelist.
Down in the Trench
Excavation equals excavation
Despite the method of operation
The need for service or irrigation
Or to refill with cementation.
Results alike with diverse reasons,
Archaelogist or architect,
Prospectors or menfor all seasons
Require a trench to defend or protect.
Contradiction.
Incohesive, uninvolved,
Inconclusive, unresolved,
Inexpensive, uninsured,
More intensive, uncensured,
Once colated, act together,
Senseless fiction was contradiction.
Intransigents.
An open show of defiance,
No hope of acquiescence,
Maximum exagerrations,
Tactical alterations
Have attracted interest
Since intransigents know best.
Antics and capers of a ventriloquist.
The conversational cabbages rehearsed their dialogue
Discussing pregnant lesbians, attempting tongue twisters in brogue.
The ventriloquist's ability to entertain yet moralise
Is unique, unparalleled and represents more than we realise.
Next Summer's Mosquitos.
Patrol in winter sunshine along the perimeter fence
Tacky mud clinging to boots and the world not making sense;
Except. perhaps, myriads of midges,
Hoping to become next summer's mosquitos.
Neglect.
Lack of care and attention:
Victims of disinterested
Attendants have received
The rewards of nihilism,
Dereliction of duty;
Causes and effects of overlooked
Property, have all become
The shabby ghosts of realism.
Little heed or consideration,
Symptons of unenthusiastic
Of citizens were prompted.
Problems of preventive
Inhibitions caused neglect
Nauseous results overwhelmed
History, created
By lack of incentive.
Cruel Voices.
Caustic comments.
Caustic comments come from rivals' intent to harm
In the face of adversity, o dual choives.
Wicked whispers.
Wicked Whispers, incantation or charm
With the taste of acidity, o cruel voices.
Standing Start.
As opposed to a flying start,
Having already accelerated to
The desired velocity, we need
A period of time during which
This can materialise; effort and
Energy expendedina controlled manner
And therefore celebrated
And calculated to finally be
Represented by a series of curves
Or parabolae which make attractive looking patterns.
Mark of distinction.
Formally introduced to a distinguished guest,
After which we paid more attention and interest
To one in uniform, ( a high ranking officer )
Bearing the mark of distinction.
Inadvertently.
Inadvertently, a diversion was created
In between different time zones.
So subsequently a division, much belated
Continued experiments with clones.
A Partially Unravelled Knot.
A prtially unravelled knot seems to be a clove hitch
In five strand rope, tied, one end dangling in a deep, damp ditch.
Now securely dastened again, seems to be a clove hitch
All in order, correct and tidy, ends tangling by a control switch.
Compensastion.
The upheaval caused by the damage done
During the disaster Is incalculable,
Costing much, wasting none
Compensation For invaluable assets
Deemed destroyed,
Irreconcilable, null and void.
Wild.
Another maladjusted child,
Another displaced person,
Another statistic that's been filed
And left to wander the streets, wild.
Another disabled veteran, so-styled,
Another old-age pensioner,
Another statistic that's been filed
About wandering the streets, wild.
Underprivileged orphans starve,
Forgotten, neither bread nor meat to carve,
Even if they are vegetarians,
Pacifists and non-sectarians
And other unfortunates still smiled
And left to wander the streets, wild.
Prevarications.
Chattering idly amongst themselves
They discovered inconsistent
Threads of a mystery
Which proved to be non-existent.
Prevarications had caused
Confusion by those responsible;
Inconsistent ramblings
Made by inarticulates, clearly risible.
Snowdrifts.
The blizzard, once intensive, ceased, the gales abated,
Into the distance, extensive. Snow lay and created
A layer of sound-proofing, punctuated, (in ditch and hedge)
By Snowdrifts. Thatched roofing of cottages were under snow each a white wedge.
Metaphorically Communicating.
A plethora of thoughts continue to churn
Inside the cranium, they twist and turn.
Yet memory banks retain a lifetime's wealth
Of knowledge, experience, wisdom and health.
Nought-nought gauge minatures of Earth
With nought-nought gauge intellects of little worth,
Miniscule mentalities in stunted statuettes adorn
A nought-nought gauge southbound platform.
Soldiers, sailors and airmen serve in three dimensions.
Civilians and clerics are responsible for inventions
Which cover a multitude of moral issues
With command and control over social values.
Bridging chasms with comedy and farcical thoughts,
Spanning eons with history, affairs and news reports,
That culminate in fiasco, tragedy or worse;
Boring mediocrity, the mesogenic curse.
Parascending into an invisible abyss so deep,
Meditating profoundly, still only half asleep,
Mesmerised, hypnotised, manipulated into shame
By mischief- makers who never take the blame.
Observations recounted when singers would croon
But the cow never jumped over the moon.
It stepped over the moon's reflection in a puddle.
Everyone laughed at their own minds in a muddle.
Copyright Arthur J.P. Strand (c) 2009
Published by Forward Press in an anthology: 2010.
World of Wonder
Between a mathematical equation
And a geographical location
Lies an historical world of wonder.
Between a chemical reaction
And a philosophical attraction
Lies a preprandial plate to plunder.
Snooker at the British Legion hall.
A parish clerk practises at snooker.
Non-descript, dapper, middle-aged
Neat moustache and horn rimed
Spectacles, he prepares for a weekend
Tournament at the British Legion Club.
On the Esplanade.
Comrades parade on the esplanade,
Maidens dismayed as minstrels serenade,
Members of the public pass by like spies
Their cursory glances recognize
Adversaries and confederatesm
Extremists and moderates.
Chalk and Cheese.
One being larger than life
And being sharp as a knife
In contrast to a tiny dwarf
As boring as workshop swarf,
In baggy trousers, one brother,
A whiplash tongue, the other,
Both sharing one thing in common,
The honour of their family women.
Bursting.
Pods bursting, and scattering seed,
The reason, regeneration.
Zits bursting and splattering pus,
Not quite a slight exaggeration.
Bladders bursting and spraying urine;
A sign of micturation.
Minds bursting and shattering; tears
That dilute disintegration.
Superman!
Such alacrity and natural agility
Combined with academic ability
From infancy to senility,
Means this Superman can complete
The crossword whilst abseiling
Down a crevice or precipice.
Saturation Point.
They have absorbed all that they need
Soaking up all the knowledge that they read;
Students and scholars have agreed
Their studies have reached saturation point.
These intellects have all been strained
Academic torture that's ingrained
Students and scholars with well trained
Minds, methodically - to saturation point.
Collision Course.
Bottles of moon soup, Bottles of moon-sauce,
Bottles of gravy are on a main course.
The beetroot with two satellite dishes
Attached, one either side, wishes
To express its embarrassment and anger
To supress its emphasis, head banger.
Separation.
Those whose campany was cherished
Have found separate directions;
Their realationships have perished
With no hope of resurrection.
Communications discontinued
For such friendships could still survive
Maybe, faint hearts, fresh hopes within, you'd
Think them possible to survive.
Re-unions could be considered,
The joy of seeing long lost friends
Excites the soul and delivered
From isolation, fresh amends.
Sculptor.
Strip the bark from birch twigs.
Sap, sticky in your fingers.
May you think again.
Pull apart a rose bud,
Kick a cabbage from the ground,
Who can feel the pain?
Plant potatoes and let them grow,
Let mustard go to seed.
Clip the privet hedge,
Paint the concrete green.
Brush the cobbled yard,
Forgetting the nettles round the edge.
Spray the gnats with insecticide.
Add fertilser to the good food.
Branch out on your own.
What good is a garden
To a sculptor carving plants from stone.
No Suburban Palace.
No suburban palace nor brand new flashy cars,
Just me, my paint brushes and guitars.
No society banquets nor brandy and cigars,
Just a woodland walk underneah the stars.
No physical embrace nor emotional goodbye,
Just a glance, a whisper and a sigh.
No mortal temptation nor falsehoods to deny.
Just head to head together underneath the sky.
Shallow Ford Rippling.
An unpolluted rivulet meanders
Through yon meadow and vale
And a narrow country lane pursues
From uphill to down dale
Until they converge at a point
Where anglers wade with rods and reels
And a shallow fordbisects the lane where water
Ripples beneath churning wagon wheels.
Treadmill.
Back to the treadmill, back to the grindstone, back to the hard slog.
Let us stay on holiday or we might flog
Ourselves to death, holding our breath
Hearing machinery drone and workmates groan;
Back to the treadmill.
Lardy Cake.
With the substance of a lardy cake,
Submerged in the mud of an estuary,
Executive emotions form a lake
Of molten wax once xclaimed by an actuary.
Dawn chorus.
They've never seen the light of day,
Nor the love-light shining strong,
They've never heard the children play
Nor the dawn chorus where they belong.
Overbridge, underbridge.
.
Copyright.(c) 2010 Arthur J.P. Strand
