ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR

Unmoored, drifting

over another latitude, longitude

on this shrouded, shoreless

ocean of time, in which

we have been cast into

from the void of non-being

that awaits.

31.12.2021

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IN THE MAELSTROM

Here we have been

so often -

at every moment

in our lives,

as it happens,

the past

and the future

meeting, separating

in the forever

fleeting,

shattering,

enduring

Now.

30.12.2021

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PYRRHIC VICTORIES

 We have defeated

the Past on many

battlefields,

yet those were

hard-fought victories,

Pyrrhic ones;

we lost so much

to gain them.

And now,

we hear that a new enemy,

the Future,

is raising a mighty host.

30.12.2021

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FUTURE CONQUERS ALL

  Facing

the invincible Future,

conqueror of all,

we are all losers

marching to our

inevitable defeat.

30.12.2021

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THE SECOND PLAGUE YEAR, NEAR THE END

  The year ends under

a white shroud,

soon dead

like the millions

sacrificed to the gods

of greed and selfishness

in these accursed years,

when we have shown

how little we care

to embrace the chance

to be truly human

when it arises.

29.12.2021

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WHEN THEY SAID 'NO'

 A simmering anger grows

in the darkness external,

internal. An impotent

anger, one burning

without consuming;

no flaming pyre, just

a barely scalded

mind, one more failure

when the fabric of life

should be torn apart, set

ablaze and engulfed,

to be redeemed

in its purifying furnace.

09.05.-29.12.2021

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A LIFE LIVED WELL THROUGH BOOKS

  Some of the greatest adventures

only involve crossing the Rubicon,

cutting a Gordian Knot

by turning the page,

and it's enough.

28.12.2021

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INSTEAD OF A GOOD LIFE

  Be happy if,

near the end,

you can say

that you have

lived a life

that has been

decent,

in all meanings

of the word.

28.12.2021

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WHEN ONE ONLY CROSSES THE RUBICON BY TURNING THE PAGE

Question

Why does my

'bucket list' 

consist solely

of books

to be read?

Observation

Because

you prefer

reading

about life

to living it.

28.12.2021

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'WHITE'

 If you say you are

'White',

would you drink

milk

the colour

of your skin?

28.12.2021

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THE MEASURE OF OUR FAILURES

Graves are used

to count

our mistakes,

as are the number

of years between the dates

on the headstones.

28.12.2021

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IN THE DARKENING GLOOM

 Frozen leaves

being covered

by the falling

snow -

the sorrows of life.

28.12.2021

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WHEN THE NAMES HAVE BEEN LOST

Nameless, faceless,

the kings of the second kingdom

of Ebla,

like the multitudes of common people

labouring under them

on that thrice burned site.

So the mighty too

are devoured by the erasing time,

leaving mute stones,

the silence of forty centuries

from the last utterance of the words

that bound a life into a person.

27.12.2021

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ALL THESE DAYS

  And all these days,

in their multitude,

will be nothing

on that moment

when time merges

into death.

27.12.2021

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THE HUMAN CONDITION

  So easily

we give up,

with little thought,

what soon

will look

like the most

precious

in our

lives

- an absence

never to be

regained.

24.12.2021

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MEMORIES

 Like the footprints

frozen on the snow

two weeks ago.

You could think

they are on the

surface of the Moon,

where one walk

lasts a hundred thousand

years.

23.12.2021

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DEEP IN BYGONE YEARS

Shivering the short December day

races the fields of meagre snow,

forests of evergreen silence,

the abandoned houses

with frosted windows

into unremembered lives

buried deep in bygone years.

21.12.2021

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LIGHT FROM OTHER DAYS

On this winter morning

the crisp, cold light,

light from other days

past the pale sun,

pierces the veil

of the frozen now,

echoes mute visions

of moments carved in regret,

more lasting than

the snows of this

dying year.

21.12.2021

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THE ORBS OF REMORSE

The Sun red, bleeding,
and the crisp Moon fading, white,

in the brightening frosty sky of mourning;

speaking through the shivering medium

of the guilty conscience,

the lost dual gods of my existence,

buried under the paltry snow.

20.-21.12.2021

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THE EVENT HORIZON OF DEATH

So much have poets

written about Death,

their gaze fixed upon the end

that erases life,

instead of in its flourishing years,

that the things which pass

through its event horizon

often get little notice

from them

except the moment

they get fixed

on it.

21.12.2021

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THE CRANES OF IBYCUS

Is it the guilty conscience,

or the brazen bravado

of one lacking it,

which makes loose lips

the true avengers

of past foul deeds?

18.12.2021

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FATHER

 Another anniversary

when you should

have been here,

but are under the ground

in the cold earth,

under the ground

in the cold earth,

in days and years long past,

in moments carved in time

as alive as I'm now.

18.12.2021

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GLOBAL WARMING

In the gloom of the short December day,

the sound of raindrops falling

on the roof,

droplets running

on the window-panes

across the dimming day.

16.12.2021

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IF THIS IS THE END

Do not forgive

me,

just do

better

than I

did.

15.12.2021

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FEELING ILL

If this would be the end,

then there would be

only regret.

15.12.2021

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REMEMBER

 Remorse is only meaningful

if it results in action

that stops further causes

of remorse.

15.12.2021

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-22 CELSIUS

The door-frames

of the cellar door

frosted; cold

comes inside

like malice

creeps into

the human mind.

8.12.2021

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WESTERN CANON

  all those old dead poets

famous and dusty in plaster

writing to their old dead patrons

long dead and forgotten

except the words

of the grovelling poets

western civilization

in its finest

29.11.-05.02.2021

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