Liberté, Égalité, Humanité
To be read in your head only. Understood? Now 1/2/3/4 begin.
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…I thank you. Encore? No, it is too much! I am exhausted from the effort of this composition. It is too much. I must rest. Thank you.
I will release this on SoundCloud as soon as copyright issues are clarified. Thank you.
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty-six prompt: parody. I have chosen John Cage’s classical piece 4’33”. Please remember to press the “Unmute” button in YouTube when you follow the link.
~
CLP 26/04/2021
Ping! This is the email crossing the globe
Bringing a virus and an online fraud
.
Text-rich content, images slowly downloading
Key-board warriors and echo chamber goading
.
Pulling out aggressive pop-ups every time
No escape from a heart-broken ex never offline
.
Past the junk filter and block sender lists
Nonsense from your father who only writes when pissed
.
Consent to accept check boxes for terms and conditions
Please send money after signing charity petitions
.
Then there’s the spam via security compromised friend
Inbox always receiving more than replies you can send
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty Three answer back / respond to a poem. Does this count? WH Auden’s Night Mail.
~
CLP 23/04/2021 (Shakespeare will be spinning in his grave).
timing was never more important
than opportunity when hungry
we ate out, or would grab something
maybe just an amuse-bouche
at the bus shelter, a first course perhaps
irrespective of weather
because hungry is no respecter of climate
we always ate together
we rarely went without without
in sun, the rain, the snow
until naturally our routines began to drift
into more regular meal routines
before economy and fate peeled us apart
eventually
I returned one midnight
to oranges, not as a ravenous teenager
body craving any food or fruit every hour
these midnight oranges were rarer
at first a self-indulgent treat
until our segmentation complete
meant for awhile midnight oranges
were the only food
that I had to eat
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty Two prompt: metonymy – midnight oranges. Good luck looking that up.
~
CLP 22/04/2021
…the London train that was packed with people
people with different places to go
places thronged with colleagues and / or friends
friends some new, some known for years
years that have fallen like blossom
blossom scented with childhood memories
memories diffused by time and tide
tide that swept clear a foreign shore
a foreign shore where lovers swam
lovers who lost their faith in Love
Love that became too wild to tame
too wild that two hearts were rent
hearts that continued to beat like muffled drums
muffled drums we reading this will not hear
we who not know when our day will come
a day from which we cannot run
~
p.s. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty One prompt; repetitive set up.
~
CLP 21/04/2020
How to shift / this heavy shroud / darkening day / shadowing night
eyes blinded / purgatory / lived in present / desolation
sunlight floods bedroom / I awake / stiffened resolve / choice exists
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Twenty Prompt: Sijo to your heart’s content:
3/4/4/4
3/4/4/4
5/3/4/3
~
CLP 20/04/2021
When you’ve quite finished
look at this beautiful day
birds and bees, flowers
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Nineteen prompt: a rant.
Meanwhile here, a million miles away, it is spring. For that I am truly grateful. 😎
~
CLP 19/04/2021
Unbutton the coat buttons,
unwrap the scarf
pull off the pullover
fold back the shirt
dig deeper
ease through the epidermis
hop by the heart
by-pass the ribs
dip past the diaphragm
get into the gut
see what we carry?
thirteen hundred and more
micro-organisms thriving
doing our dirty work
while we worry about
making a living; surviving
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Eighteen: Look Inside for a prompt.
~
CLP 18/04/2021
two-faced accomplice
to seducers’ silver tongues
dusty pockmarked lump
~
n.b. How many false promises has the Moon encouraged forth, not least from poets?
NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Seventeen: The Moon.
~
CLP 17/04/2021
I had pulled on a sock
when came a knock
that morn at six o’clock
I got a shock
at my door stood a flock
of lambs and rams and ewes
“Why have you no shoes?
This does not amuse
when we bring news
of developments and clues.”
Encouraged to dash
I dressed in a flash
grabbed loose cash
into the rain did splash
“Where are we heading?”
I asked, still warm from bedding
following the sheep’s treading
through petals blown from hedging
in the direction of Reading.
“It is quite a way”
a lamb turned to say
“for such a wet day
on paths of clay
but we must not delay.”
We moved apace
I got red of face
joining the chase
for news on the case
that took much space
in the daily press
I’d had little success
evidence all a mess
no suspect would confess
I was under duress
to solve the crime
under pressure of time
no longer in my prime
as we hit a hill to climb
I called out ‘Wait! I’m…”
but the sheep rushed on
I had to stay strong
it would not be long
they’ve not been wrong
always on song
when called upon
by their sense of duty
to come and help me
after I had set free
a ram mistakenly
charged with animal cruelty.
At last they stopped
by a tree just lopped
where they had copped
a man I’d once shopped
but who free had hopped
to continue with his trade
that always dismayed
showing crime might pay
by his ostentatious display
of ill-gotten gains
“So it was you! At last!”
I weakly gasped
his look aghast
to have his past
have the laugh last
and catch him so
“Did you not know
I might be slow
but despite aggro
will never let go
if some two-timing, cheating, lying, rustling crook like you ever crosses me. I always win in the end, because, unlike you, I have friends.”
The sheep and I took the criminal to the police station, then set off to the local pub for a celebratory beer, but with no luck.
Apparently, the landlord had recently had difficulty with this flock, something to do with illegal gambolling, so they were all barred.
~
n.b. NaPoWriMo 2021 A Skeltonic for a Friday.
~
CLP 16/04/2021
The whisky went straight to my legs
my eyes, my arms, my tongue
I was experiencing things differently
Felt Earth spinning off its axis
It became a place I did not know
Did I need more drinking practice?
~
n.b. Night photo was taken to capture the empty street scene, but it came out weird, with evidence of existence of the Yeti…alive and well in East Anglia. It is certainly cold enough in Norfolk for Yeti.
Pubs now open in England, outside drinking only. Short rhyme prompted by photo. No pubs were visited during the making of this moving picture.
n.n.b. Off-prompt NaPoWriMo 2021 Day Fifteen scribble.
~
CLP 15/04/2021
Voyage des Mots 