Beg to Report
In the 3.20's of the night – yet again
Beg to report
Signs of life on the surface of this human brain.
Crackling the same old way
Following ancestral paths
Out of the wells of consciousness
Coming up with the same questions
Battered by the same storms
Beg to report
Primal thoughts are bubbling to the surface
Pouring into ancient molds -
These halting moments of wonder
Struck our forebears, who thought like us
Who peered with the same familiar apparatus
From their lonely archipelago of time.
Bearcamp Pond, late August
Misty morning, grey.
Dark sky sombres the water
Tones down summer's green.
King of a Fragile Realm
Small palace, set in half-tamed woods
Old pastures, rocky streams
Dirt and tarmac roads winding through.
Outside the human world dwindles quickly -
At night the quieter sounds emerge
The to and fro of wild survivors
And under them the silence.
My morning swim in lakes the hour makes private,
My royal bath in waters pure, preserved for me.
Here inside the palace I am king
Surrounded by ancestral furniture
Hoarding millions of words
Shelves of ink and paper
Muttering museums of talk,
The paraphernalia of eating and drinking
The images of art and tribal record on the walls
The fabrics of comfort and display
Machines, no not to think but receivers and transmitters
To access gather organize and store
A library so vast it beggars all the treasuries
The vaults and armories of ancient kings.
Here I sit and summon the riches of the Earth
The local goods not good enough for me -
My coffee arrives from Ethiopia
At the click of a mouse, no coins across the counter
My tea by magic carpet from Darjeeling
My wine from anywhere, the oikoumene of the grape
From all the seas and corners of the globe
The flesh of animals that walk and creep and swim
The vegetation I decree is fit for me
All comes in plastic packaging
Supply chains at my casual command
Driven by fossils heaved up from the ground
Delivered by the young man carrying the package to my door.
The ultimate fuel is money
A mass delusion,
Conspiracy of estimated worth
Comes in waves, in and out
Numbers washing through machines -
I am on my throne believing I control them
They are my unruly subjects
Washed in and out all day, all night
At the whim of my royal, royal dream.
Summer nights
Here on Earth I wade through shadows
Skirting the edge of darkness
Threading a path through pools of silence.
In impenetrable night I tend to exist.
I am standing in the rain
The stabbing wind's blind fingers
The atmosphere thinning
Gravity slowly losing its grip
Bear me out.
Out beyond, to the breathless stars.
Morning observance:
Suspended 'twixt Heav'n and Earth
Diving in the pond.
2022
It's time our time our time of life
In 2022
For us to rise above the strife
in 2022
It's time to step to centre stage
In 2022
To break out from our mental cage
In 2022
For we are what the planet's got
In 2022
Our faults don't matter, not a jot
In 2022
For now the wolf is at the door
In 2022
And night has come, the flames will roar
In 2022
It's up to us, the random team
In 2022
To be much better than we seem
In 2022
So we are saviours of the world
In 2022
We share a fate we can't escape
In 2022
The Earth will burn, the waters rise
In 2022
And we shall fight towards the light
In 2022
We're not the ones the angels choose
In 2022
We look as though we're bound to lose
In 2022
The winds will howl, the clouds will glower
In 2022
Brave speeches will proclaim the hour
In 2022
There's no one else to hold the line
In 2022
It's no use looking for a sign
In 2022
We're headed for the cliff, my friends
In 2022
With no more dreams to patch and mend
In 2022
It's down to us,the worst, the best
In 2022
To change the world, survive the test
In 2022
We're just the same we've always been
In 2022
We have to find the golden mean
In 2022
There's nothing new that we can find
In 2022
We have to fight but still stay kind
In 2022
For we can't win unless we love
In 2022
And we'll invoke the powers above
In 2022
For inspiration needs to strike
In 2022
So we can learn to dam the dyke
In 2022
And we're the same old motley crew
In 2022
And sacrifice is what to do
In 2022
So now's the time that truth will out
In 2022
A time that we are cleansed of doubt
In 2022
The time of waiting now is past
In 2022
The criss now will bind us fast
In 2022
And we must carry all our strife
In 2022
And strive to save the planet's life
In 2022
So here we are, a sorry lot
Who wish upon a star
But we are what the planet's got
The door is still ajar
And in our minds we pull the blinds
Th sun still shines, the sky is blue
The road is ahead is one we dread
But every dawn is hope anew
In baffling, daunting challenging
2022
