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Showing posts with label Artists Only. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artists Only. Show all posts

17 March 2024

tribal

did you scan the broken icons?     the debris of heroic purpose?     the fetishes of pain?   here's another dismal harvest of broken bodies and perished dreams       security through violence      no world without us      we kill to live     and live to kill   I'm in awe of the awful symmetry in that design    I understand the tribal imprint      the allure of us and them      but I'm a little older now      and no longer play the game     that doesn't mean I'm safe      it simply means I'm sane

14 March 2024

entangled

it takes two to tangle     in the dog eat dog      but I’m resting my voice      before I take another pounding    my opening gambit       was all cotton candy      but my final word      meant nothing at all     I’ll ease on out      on my magic pillow     to take a repast    that’s at least free of sorrow     I might be back     I might not bother     but if I do change my mind     you’ll see me tomorrow

4 March 2024

cyclops

there are no flies on you     coz you’re the dog’s bollocks      and the sun shines out of your arse     you’re quicker than the devil     but more grounded in reality      you’re so single minded in your every conceit       and brother you can talk      you can talk yourself blue     chew my fucking ears off   go on, demonstrate the folly of your words      you hate this      you hate that       the world pisses you off...      truth is a matter of ingenuity    we are what we pretend to be      and you pretend to be wise      but your wisdom is a ticket to hell     coz shit gets under your skin     there’s no defect in your vision     you’re just selectively blind    you’re so busy with the wrong      you refuse to see the light     that the good outweighs the bad      to anyone with sight

 

 

2 March 2024

torquemada

questions circle like vultures    but I’m not running away    I’m running towards   I changed my face to fit the frame      you could say I’m in disguise     I don’t forget the things I’ve done      man, I nearly choked on them     but I got over it    and now I’m on the gravy train     but I had to give it up     you know what I mean?      I had to give it up        pack it in and snuff it out     no embers left to fan      but there are questions    always questions      I’m not afraid of questions    I have one for you    what the fuck do you want?     you don’t have to answer    you might not know the answer     some questions can’t be answered     and some answers can’t be questioned      is love always the answer?      or is love sometimes the question?     I suppose it makes no difference to me      because I keep my own secrets     and bear my stripes without complaint

 

24 February 2024

denial

 some lies are more useful than facts       some facts are too hard to bear     I’ve often indulged to excess    in sex and drugs and wine    and lost myself in the labyrinth   of my fickle polluted heart       of all the liars in the world     the human heart reigns supreme     but then it’s easier to disseminate falsehoods      than it is to tell the truth     things are made to happen     somebody makes them happen     so never do anything     you can’t later deny    surely facts mould fictions   and the truth is often eclipsed    by something more convenient    these are not just words     this is my religion    I am my own god      here to drink and fuck and fight   and my truth is beautiful     even if it’s hard to swallow    because the truth feels like an insult   to people in denial     but let me tell you this     there is one great truth    there is one great lie     they amount to the same     they can both be denied

 

23 February 2024

teflon

 I won’t cry foul    I never was a victim    I play the hand that’s dealt me     and accept the consequences    so go ahead and cast your stones     no one is above criticism     but some bear other’s faults      jealous tongues spread bad news    and magnify the false     but I’ve broken no earthly law    save the laws of prudery      I sleep wherever I’m welcome     and reap whatever I sow     my critics only strengthen me     their inhibitions make me bold     my difference is a source of pride      I’m unaffected by the crowd    but if I walked a mile in their tight shoes      I might just hate me too      I’m a libertine by nature     I never followed rules     and I refuse to be held accountable by puritanical fools

18 February 2024

thieves

the first theft was an apple       I hope it tasted sweet     that was a long time ago     now everyone’s a thief     I was glad to steal for you     and you were happy too     was that just a little extra gravy?     or something heavier still?    in hindsight was it wicked?     would you rather beg than steal?   is it a curse to have a conscience?     does your conscience bother you?    you reveal your state of mind  in everything you do     right and wrong     good and bad    the mirror in your heart    reflects the world you see    a cat might have to steal     just to make ends meet      you’ve got to put food on the table     and that shit don’t come cheap     each of us is a fragment of an imperfect world     heaven and earth are ten thousand things    but we are thieves and nothing else    here is the fruit of knowledge    stolen from the vine     if you would perfect your being    you must master your desires    or learn to think like a thief     and steal everything you can     whatever your dharma holds     you’ll come to understand     all roads lead to consciousness     it’s part of the master plan

 

29 January 2024

lies

 I like to drink    but I only with my friends     I don’t care to drink with strangers     I have to factor in my concentration     got to keep my story straight        my lies always carried more weight than my truths   after all, lies are the common currency    truths are rare as diamonds     I save the truths for the people I trust     what do you say to that?    I don’t know what to say myself      it’s not my place to say     but what do you think?     coz I don’t know what to think    I never knew what to think  I always moved in the wrong direction    is that symptomatic of a poor education?    I could blame my past       but with little conviction       I’ve always been the victim of my own machinations    I couldn’t care less now     but I suffered then     nobody suffers like the poor      and I was impoverished in spirit      I could tell some stories      we all could tell some stories     life is anecdotal and fifty percent deception     but that’s to be expected     how could we live with ourselves if it weren’t for our lies?

19 December 2023

mister natural

never worked a day in my life        won’t sweat blood for the machine       blood is heavier than gold      but what do I know?      I’m just a bum balancing the scales       my advice to would be scholars      is to do what you like      but don’t let your imagination run away with you       don’t lose yourself in the herd       or let modest claims of individuality     camouflage your bovine curiosity    just plant a flag in the anecdotal and call it history       

but don’t listen to me        I’m a certified fool      I renounce history         all histories are phony       I have no history      I just tell convenient stories       this life was spent dreaming        yesterday’s cause is lost        let tomorrow care for tomorrow’s woes          I won’t cry today     I feel I’m halfway high    just from thinking about it      I’m pitching naturals from now on      these dice are loaded and the table is mine

17 December 2023

beatified

 I don’t read the papers       I just follow the signs    I get all the information I need in stereo        messages from heaven      transmitted in high definition     directly into my cranium      my senses may be addled       but my heart is instrumental     in sorting out those waves      I needn’t be sober to garner their substance      the lyrics are set in time    to a long familiar refrain

they tell me god loves a drunk       because all drunks are poets      and all poets are killers      when it comes down to it     and it often does    we are all of us killers       but I don’t seem to mind      I’ll gladly take the blame      if there’s any going     my hereditary fault lines      my bipolar distemper       mete out eyeball for eyeball      and subtle truth for gain   

it ain’t rocket science      just simple dharmic law     the children of men are routinely tested       to live and love and lose again    that’s the sum of our existence        those are the rules of engagement      the nature of the game       that’s how the courageous love       as lions among lambs     in the pastures of eternity       in a story without end

15 November 2023

modern babylonians

meanwhile…  …at your local shop ‘n’ save     the precepts of scientific management   churn out well adjusted slaves     they have chosen between conformity and freedom      they are willing to be managed     each has had their price      I’ve been damaged and discouraged       but I’m not crazy enough to join them       I dressed like them     talked like them    and even ate like them    but I could not think like them     I can’t be moulded to society’s requirements    I needed new horizons     and ever greater highs    so cut me some slack       coz crazy amounts of spoon    robbed me of my consumer status       and left me on my backside        you can sometimes buck the system     but not the dark forces      fear is the coinage of modern babylonians      fear is the quirt that keeps the herd in check      

5 November 2023

road kill

it was hard to tell what it had been      just a pool of blood and gore    plastered to the side of the road    another failed crossing?     or perhaps a suicide?       success or failure    are often hard to divine      is that my destiny?      it seems pretty bleak    that’s the stuff I’m made of    animated flesh and bone     spilled and spoiled     all dreams and aspirations      flattened by a truck     

I’m stumbling from crisis to crisis      with no clear outcome in sight       but I’m not defined by my problems     I rise against the wind      and swim against the tide      I rail against my fate    I will not be denied through inertia     or assuaged by momentary pleasures      I refuse to be another sudden impact       I want to leave something more than a stain in the road behind           

27 October 2023

plastic gods

more than sometimes      during a powerful lunar phase     I get the spiritual impulse     to make my own bible      and live by its verses     to blow my own trumpet       till the walls come tumbling down      I am alive and always changing      the crown of creation adorns my brow     I’m truly living the human experience     the high of all highs     the most holy of holies     the revelation of incarnation    has lit me up     a beacon of truth      in the fog of ignorance

I’m getting into the world     and everything in it      riding the waves of existence    through the ever expanding now      where  everything ever imagined is real      we create ourselves from that mosaic of fancy      but we’ve evolved into plastic gods     makers and breakers of private worlds      each is imperfectly cast in their own distorted image   we are the graven idols in the temples of babylon    the worship of self is the religion of hubris     and hubris precedes disgrace     sure as the ebb and flow of every lunar phase

solipsist

it was written in the stars       that we were doomed from day one     life has called the tune and beckons us to dance     the universe will unfold as we always knew it would      no one can change the past        we can’t even change the future       I curry favours in the here and now       planting seeds in adjacent lots    I glimmed for a moment there    and exercised the will      to fancy myself something special        at the centre of the whole enchilada       but I was lonely in the universal    and  I wondered     has our god deserted us?       or were we always all alone?

17 February 2021

heroes

 

they say a hero is partially courageous   but mostly foolish     that maybe a hero is just a regular guy   who made an honest mistake   a guy who wants to run like everybody else     but doesn’t    what’s he afraid of do you think?

maybe there are no heroes    maybe we are all driven by fear    maybe we’re just a pack of dogs     marking our territories with piss   perhaps the real heroes know this    because they’ve been paying attention   and they know that this life just a childish game

just who is and who isn’t a hero?    that would depend who’s side you are on   one man’s hero is another man’s villain    we are all heroes in our own minds     few ever see themselves as villainous    until it’s too late    and the villainy is done

for some a hero is someone willing to die for a cause    maybe heroism isn’t about dying for something   but living for something    in truth the common notion of heroism is a fiction    an entertainment      our prisons are full of heroes     but nobody cares  about them

I’m told there is a hero within each of us     but there are more tyrants than heroes within us    I pity anyone who needs a hero    because heroes are thin on the ground   villainy is much more common     you can always count on villains to show up on time

*Image: ‘The Death Of Achilles’  Corfu, Greece

16 February 2021

society

 

they tell us man was made   in the image of his creator    but society was forged    in the image of the beast    I’ll have no truck with society     society is a killer driven by hatred and greed    we gave power to our demons     and we’ll never get it back    from inside the prison of society

nothing ever changes   within existent reality   it will take a brand new paradigm     to really shake things loose    to keep your hands clean   you must live outside society   you cannot claim your freedom   while on your bended knees   

we’ve ignored the potential of love     to raise us above savagery    we’ve  embraced a machine        that celebrates conformity    and crushes individuality   in this bloody system    there’s little room for sentiment   we define our cultural history    as a record of atrocities

I once believed that to be human    was our highest attainment    now I see that to claim our humanity    is to admit that we are monsters    I reject the callous mechanism we call society    I never belonged to society    and it never belonged to me

15 February 2021

Janus

 

stem your tears and dry your eyes      they are trying to steal your name   they want to modify your temperament      to make you feel ashamed    you ain’t been cutting the mustard     at the image factory     and they can delete your profile     any time they choose

get a hold of your sunshine    learn how to play the game     the benefits are obvious     there is no other way    don’t be yesterday’s hero    when you could eat this whole world raw      don’t tell them you’re a nobody     they pegged you for a star     just make your ego porous    and try to enjoy the ride

you’ll need two faces now     one for them and one for you    be careful who you trust with yours    because some would sell you out     they’ll imitate your action   even your mistakes      they’ve got no imagination     and no creative juice     they have to feed off you    you’re the only show in town

try not to worry too much     no-one sees your pain     they want you to be glamorous      and  maybe just a little flawed   that way you make good copy    when they nail you to the cross     they say the greater the exposure   the deeper runs the doubt    don’t bend yourself all out of shape    trying to work it out

1 February 2021

the villain

I hear that you never tire     of spreading the bad news       and I’ll happily play your villain     on any day you choose       I heard what you’ve been saying      and some of it is true    but I never put down anyone     in the cowardly way you do    

I’ve nearly always done     just what I wanted to      while you’ve relied on others     to tell you what to do      of course I have regrets     but they are so very few    I’ve lived to be free     that was never true of you

you are so deeply pious      but you haven’t got a clue     and I refuse to be consigned     to live the way you do     we were once good friends      but you possessed a jealous heart     you wanted what I had     and that’s why we had to part

you’ve been casting stones      but always from afar      you know deep in your bones       that’s the kind of man you are      you talk behind my back    but never to my face      is it courage that you lack?      or just any sense of grace?    


29 January 2021

big dog


 he looked like a big dog

he barked like a big dog

I was suitably unimpressed

I’d forgotten to be afraid

 

somewhere along the line

I had shed that fear

and the air of casual violence

that once served to mask it

 

strange how we forget our chains

only to recall their chaffing

in the occasional moment

of ritual confrontation

 

how could I ever have dismissed

the memory of bondage

and a lifetime of enslavement

to my petty tyranny?


9 November 2020

emperor of dystopia


disinfect me a postcard         issue me a missive        I can’t reach you           on this line           and I have no means of transportation            venomous snipers      nest in my shoes   but I have other shoes    and sometimes   I walk         and sometimes      I crawl        and sometimes      I don’t do anything at all             I’m not elastic enough       for a life in limbo       treading  water      dreading  time     I’m cutting out    for an alternative reality   where I’m the emperor of dystopia        the last living giant    on a planet filled with pygmies        our world is dying now       please help us knit a new one       before we run out of wool


listen the the Creature EP