Self-Promotion

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Self-Promotion

I slipped a copy of my self-published collection
Into the longed-for shelf
Of the Poetry Library.
Finally, I had overcome the rejection,
To stand alongside some
Of my heroes, my tribe, my key.

Oh sure, one day a snooty librarian
Will pluck-up my root
And toss it away –
But until then, let it be egalitarian
Where a browser can see
What it has to say.

And it isn’t only my guerrilla slim volumes
That compete with the filler
Of our daily round –
I’ve also prepared some placards à la plume
To cover-up the Bards
On the Underground.

But my best reach for well-placed words, I think
Is not to just paste
My flyers on a fence –
But when I fill all the walls with my ink
In the lonely stalls
Of convince.

Spring-Bringers

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Spring-Bringers

When the daffodils go over
Then the Spring is on the way !
And though it’s sad to see the yellows wilt,
At least they had their day.
Once the clover is in clover,
Then the bulbs are all long done –
But Springtime has been built upon
Their early yellow sun.

When the bluebells have stopped ringing,
Then the Spring is truly here
And though it’s sad to see the mauve-lings fade,
At last they gave good cheer.
Once the tulips have stopped singing,
Then the bulbs have done their work –
And it’s time to let the first watch fade
And once more softly lurk.

Aces Low

I asked AI to design some modern Major Arcana cards, so we have The Rebuilt Tower, and The Wheel of Cheese.

Aces Low

The deck is quite a chunk to ruffle,
With their aspect ratio all wrong –
They’re just too long.
But practice helps the dealer shuffle,
When they deal-out hands of eighteen-strong.

Tarot plays a bit like bridge –
The bidding starts, the tricks are played the same,
With points the aim.
But choosing trumps is sacrilege –
They never get to change from game to game.

The trouble is the cards we lay –
For even when they bear French suits – and mind,
They’re rare to find –
But still they’re full of bullshit on display
Just number them, and leave the rest behind !

I wish the trumps were double-ended –
That’ll teach the fortune-telling quacks,
Don’t touch our packs !
And to balance out the genders,
Can’t the knights become the dames to beat the jacks ?

But no, we can’t enjoy our whist,
Without our cards be saturated through
With putrid woo.
It doesn’t take a psychic twist
For the twenty-one of trumps to beat a two.

Head up West and See the Lights

You won’t believe how many times I had to ask AI to genenrate this image before it managed to spell it right…

Head up West and See the Lights

The neon lights of old Piccadilly-dilly
Used to be so bright and silly-silly,
But the screens have sprung-up willy-nilly –
Boringly displayed.

Now there’s nothing but advert-a-go-go,
Shouting products from ho-hum to so-so.
Art and style ?  I’m afraid that’s a no-no –
Over and over replayed.

Sell more junk food, flog more bling-bling,
Scream more news, from Bronx to Beijing-zhing,
Punching eyeballs, all for kerching-ching –
The goods must be obeyed.

The hungry billboards are always on-on
The Eiffel Tower needs a new Citroën-tron.
Buy buy buy till the stuff’s all gone-gone –
As long as the profits get made.

The Z-Factor

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The Z-Factor

The world is full of av’rage talents,
Nothing-specials, soon-forgottens –
The world is full of you’s and me’s,
All dreaming silks but dressed in cottons.
Those stars are the ones-in-the-million,
While the million are all of we –
Ignoring one-another’s slop,
In search of stars we’ll never be.

Sun Bulbs

Sun Bulbs

The daffodils are blooming
In my window-box again,
Just to show that Spring is looming
In the face of icy rain,
They sprout besides my sill once more
In planters perched on high,
As they cheer my second floor,
And bring a garden to the sky.

The daffodils are blooming
In my window-box again,
But they turn their heads from booming
Through the gloomy window-pane.
Instead, they stare at Winter Sun
Where all their real focus is.
I think next year, to stop the shun,
I’ll just grow crocuses.

Corporate Transport Body

Slime mould recreating the Tokyo Metro

Corporate Transport Body

My body is a mass of public transit
Running through my flesh,
As supersonic neurons sprint down nerves,
Whose networks branch and mesh.
And food is ferried by the central core
That winds its way on down,
On through the stomach-hub,
And past the branch-line to appendix-town.
My lungs, meanwhile, are shuttling air
Upon the trunk-route to my nose,
And blood cells catch the tube to distant suburbs
In my hands and toes.
My brain contains the signal-box,
My heart contains the motive power,
Keeping my commuters moving
Through the rush and midnight hour.

Panopticon

Ai didn’t do badly, as long as one doesn’t look too closely at the opera glasses…

Panopticon

We live our lives in public,
Ev’ry time we step outside our door –
We’re on-display when popping to the store.

We navigate the common space
Past ever-watching spies,
Upon the CCTV captures of a hundred people’s eyes.

We live our lives wide-open,
Ev’ry time we talk to one another –
Ev’ry little action slips the cover.

We might as well be on the stage,
And naked to our soul –
And yet in truth we are audience far more than leading role.

For we live our lives in public,
Watching all our fellow-humans live –
For all to see – they cannot help but give.

We’re just another passing glance,
Our mutual selves unfurled –
And so the world performs, the world looks-on – and we are of the world.

The Everlasting Subplot

I asked AI for an image to match the words – and I’d say it didn’t do bad

The Everlasting Subplot

Ev’ry movie, ev’ry story,
Action, horror, western, crime –
Whatever else our heroes do,
They have to pair-off two-by-two.
Yet even ancients found it hoary,
Turning plots to pantomine –
That for a tale to really sell,
They have to fall in love as well.

It seems no genre is immune,
Nor leading man is spared the job –
It’s not enough to save the world,
They also have to get the girl.
And heroines can call the tune,
But only with their hearts a-throb –
For no adventure’s over till
The audience have had their thrill.

Cryptids

I asked AI for an insect blending-in, but I don’t think this one could stand-out more…

Cryptids

AI is a stick insect,
That’s dressed in camouflage –
It sort-of looks correct
When we first glance its new collage.

But it doesn’t understand
That it is in disguise at all –
When it’s evolution’s secret hand
That’s caused its overhaul.

A thousand new mutations
Strut their stuff for all to see –
Just a few will be foundations
For the next-gen family tree.

Those that have too many fingers
Get plucked-out toot sweet –
While the one with better digits lingers,
Ready to compete.

And the carnivore consumers
Quickly spot the wonky test,
But the better-letter bloomers
Reproduce to code the next.

These critters still are random strays,
But now they feel designed –
It’s simply how they look these days,
To parasite our mind.