Poetry – why so glum? A poem about death.

Posted on by Opher

BookCoverImage 61U89AzgoAL__AA160_ 61xmXHYgJpL__AA160_ 61qDTq70unL__AA160_ 51QC-PE-PZL__AA160_Prose Cons and poetry cover

Why so glum?

 

My book – The Death Diaries – simmers on my computer. It is the work of a life-time. I am searching for the ending. Who knows what form that might take?

Looking back through life one realises that it is death that has created the excitement. We dare to invite and taunt, to test out our mortality. Our tales are of daring, where we have cheater the grim reaper of times when we have gambled and survived, pitted our skills against a deadly enemy. We have eaten of the bacon and ice-cream without a thought for the heart as if it could not happen to us. We have leant the bike into the bend hoping that friction and gravity conspire to bring us back up again.

Every brush with possibility creates another story – and we laugh the harder that it was so close we felt its breath.

What would life be without it? And which would be the more terrifying?

For every journey ends – some far too soon – some before the flames has burned low – and now, when we have a life so well used, we can look back and celebrate. For death you played your part well.

 

Why so Glum?

 

Death – why the glum face?

Have we not taunted you

Down all these long years?

Expected you are every turn?

Yet you only showed your face

In pictures, films and stories

From near and afar,

Rarely robbing our own homes.

 

For isn’t the firework

All the more exciting

For its brief moment

Of glory?

 

Isn’t the taste

So much

Sweeter

When fleeting

And gone?

 

For death

You have added piquancy

To an already

Spicy dish –

I thank you.

 

At the end of every road

We must turn

The final bend.

And weary from travelling

Welcome it

As the conclusion

Of a wondrous

Journey.

 

So death – be not glum.

You have served me well

And we are well met.

 

Opher 24.4.2016

If you would like to try one of my books they are all available on Amazon.

In Britain :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461306850&sr=1-2-ent

In America:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

In all other countries around the world check out your regional Amazon site and Opher Goodwin books.

Poetry – I have been here – a poem of love and wonder

Posted on by Opher

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I have been here!

 

So short a visit. Already the terminal is in sight. But what a journey through landscape that is breath-taking. What passengers to share such a journey. Such variety. Such talent.

So fortunate to have the senses to take it in.

And how I’ve taken it in. It is deep within me. I have soaked it up like a sponge.

I want to experience every last taste, every colour, sound and touch. None of it is wasted.

Above all I want to share all these splendours with you. Every moment filled with love – the sauce that cooks the goose to perfection.

What a statement.

We are merely passing through, stopping to inhale.

By the end I will be sated.

Sated and replete, full.

So short a visit – too short by half.

But we have been.

We have left our mark.

 

I have been here!

 

I am here!

What more can I say?

I exist!

I have breathed the air,

Watched the sky in wondrous thrall

As it mutated

Through all its shades

Of extroversion,

Loved

And felt the ecstasy!

 

My hands have touched

The holy bark,

The soft flesh

And the cold majestic granite

With equal wonder.

My ears have tuned

To the buzz and song

Of nature

And I have sniffed the wind

Of fertility.

 

My mind has soared and thrilled

To all the wonders

Of life;

The awe of a planet,

The mysteries of

Atoms and galaxies.

I am here!

I have lived!

And I have cherished every moment

With you.

 

Opher 22.4.2016

 

If you would like to try one of my books they are all available on Amazon.

In Britain :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461306850&sr=1-2-ent

In America:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=opher+goodwin

In all other countries around the world check out your regional Amazon site and Opher Goodwin books.

Poetry – I write letters – the wonders of consciousness and writing

Posted on by Opher

IMG_6337

I write letters

There are wondrous processes at work that are so complex.

Consciousness.

I often wonder what my thoughts would be if nobody had invented language, if they were left to be more abstract?

I wonder what a mind can think if it was cut off from the world?

I wonder if I think in words?

What are my thoughts, feelings and ideas?

I take a thought and reduce it into words. Each one of those words has a different meaning, nuance, feel and picture to you.

We communicate.

But how good is our communication?

I write letters into words and words into sentences and paragraphs. Each word is merely a symbol we have learnt. But can I really communicate the extent of what is in my head no matter how hard I try, how good I am with words?

Perhaps I am really only writing letters?


 

I write letters

 

I write letters.

I push the key and they appear

By magic on my screen.

I arrange them

In my thoughts,

In patterns I have learned;

In words.

And those words appear

Like magic

In my mind.

Each one a thought, an idea

A meaning.

 

Somewhere in my head

I find the feelings, dreams and thoughts

And reduce them into words.

I put the words on my screen

For you to read

In the hopes

That they explode

Inside your head

Into the same feelings, dreams and thoughts

That were in mine.

 

It is a vain hope.

So I spend my time

Hopelessly

Writing letters.

 

Opher 18.4.2016

Poetry – From there to here in a breath – change and progress

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From there to here in a breath

I was recalling the tales told to me by my grandmother. She saw the first cars and the space shuttle. She talked of the first planes made of paper, wood, wires and a propeller that crawled across the skies.

My mother talked of children playing in the streets without shoes, having their feet bound in rags for winter; of people being sewn into their clothes for winter.

I remember the milk and coal being delivered by horse and cart, the man coming round to light the street gaslights.

In the sixties the first computers the size of rooms running on cut-out cardboard.

Will there ever be a time when things have changed so much?

For centuries people went on doing things in the same old way. The pace of life was slow and change unheard of. Then the industrial revolution, invention and capitalism; the speed increased. It was all about progress – which basically meant someone making money. The rate of change has been stupendous. You blink and the world has changed.

Is it good?

 

From there to here in a breath

Form horse and cart

To space shuttle.

From dirt road

To motorway.

From stretched paper,

Line and prop

To turbojet.

From gaslight

To electrical appliance.

From unshod feet

To fashion shoes to throw.

From the soils of the earth

To the dust of the moon.

From an early bed

To late night TV.

From starving children here

To starving children there.

From one war

To a host more.

From a switchboard

And black Bakelite phone

To text and go.

From a letter on a horse

To an email.

From a reference book

To Wikipedia.

From a village

To the world.

It’s a long way to travel

In a single life.

 

Opher 18.4.2014

These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!

They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.

Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Codas-Cadence-Clues-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1530754453/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460847766&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

Stanzas and Stances – £5.59

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanzas-Stances-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518708080/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882298&sr=1-9&keywords=opher+goodwin

Poems and Peons – £4.33

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Peons-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1519640110/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882335&sr=1-25&keywords=opher+goodwin

Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882443&sr=1-28&keywords=opher+goodwin

Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prose-Cons-Poetry-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1512376566/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882506&sr=1-35&keywords=opher+goodwin

Vice and Verse – £4.15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vice-Verse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1514792079/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882560&sr=1-36&keywords=opher+goodwin

Poetry – By the carpark

Posted on by Opher

Primula auricula Dilly dilly

By the carpark

I was sitting on the bus going back to pick up my car. It gave me a higher view over the hedgerows into the fields beyond. I could see all the new builds.

As we approached the town there was more and more. New estates were springing up. The trees, streams and ponds were disappearing along with the remaining patches of wasteland. Even the word wasteland betrays the attitude. If it is not being built on or used for agriculture it is wasted.

So where do the voles, mice, hedgehogs, newts, frogs and toads go? Is there space foe the lizards, slowworms and snakes? Are we sanitising the countryside of insects?

I looked out over the fields and all the birds I see are pigeons, crows, magpies and sea-gulls – the scavengers. They are having a fine old time.

But how far can we continue pushing nature into the periphery before it runs out of room?

Is it all going to be ploughed fields, manicured lawns and ornamental shrubs?

How many creatures are shivering in the wreckage of their homes?

 

 


 

By the carpark

 

By the carpark

Where the wood one stood;

By the stream

Long since culverted in;

Where the new housing estate now stands

On what used to be a marsh,

A vole hides among the rubbish.

 

Near the runway

For the new airport;

By the side of the new field

Reclaimed from wasteland;

Alongside the new road

Bringing travellers to and fro;

On the roundabout

That used to be a copse,

A tiny mouse shivers

Under a newly planted shrub.

 

Opher 18.4.2016

These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!

They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.

Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Codas-Cadence-Clues-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1530754453/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460847766&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

Stanzas and Stances – £5.59

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanzas-Stances-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518708080/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882298&sr=1-9&keywords=opher+goodwin

Poems and Peons – £4.33

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Peons-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1519640110/ref=sr_1_25?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882335&sr=1-25&keywords=opher+goodwin

Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882443&sr=1-28&keywords=opher+goodwin

Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prose-Cons-Poetry-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1512376566/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882506&sr=1-35&keywords=opher+goodwin

Vice and Verse – £4.15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vice-Verse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1514792079/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460882560&sr=1-36&keywords=opher+goodwin

Poetry – We used to be cool – a poem about getting old and hip

Posted on by Opher

61U89AzgoAL__AA160_ Vice and Verse cover  61qDTq70unL__AA160_ BookCoverImage 51QC-PE-PZL__AA160_Prose Cons and poetry cover

We used to be cool

Being cool. What’s that about? Some people just are and some people never could be. It’s not so much fashion and style as attitude.

Kerouac in his lumberjack shirt and jeans was supercool.

Miles Davis had it.

But Michael Jackson was just a showbiz phenomenon.

To be cool is to be locked in to the flow of the universe, the cosmic dynamo – to have the energy flow straight through you – to be an individual. There are no trends when you’re cool. You just is. You be.

Back in the 50s it was the American blacks who were supercool. They set the pace for the hipsters. They wanted to live, to go and to hit into the energy of life. They had nothing to buy into, nothing to lose; theirs was the ultimate freedom.

The Beats sucked into that energy – go, go, go – the jazz, the wailing sax.

The Rockers tasted a different beat and rocked.

The Hippies dropped out and grooved.

The Punks wanted to tear it down.

The moment the fashions and styles were born they were dead. All the trendies jumping on the wave as if it was fashion. It wasn’t. It was life. There was no part-time life.

But then you see what you have become.

 

We used to be cool

 

We used to be cool

But now we’re cold

Used to be hot

But we done got old.

 

We used to be hip

Riding the crest

But I guess we fell off

When our hips went west.

 

We used to be with it

Daddy-o

Now it’s our hair

That’s all go go go.

 

We used to be fab

And groovy too

Now we’re just sad

Me and you.

 

We could crawl off and die?

But what’s the point?

It’s not so much joints and hip

As hip joint.

 

Opher 15.4.2015

These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!

They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.

Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97

Stanzas and Stances – £5.59

Poems and Peons – £4.33

Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98

Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60

Vice and Verse – £4.15

Poetry – I do not accept the limits – a poem of hope

Posted on by Opher

61U89AzgoAL__AA160_Vice and Verse cover51QC-PE-PZL__AA160_ BookCoverImage 61qDTq70unL__AA160_Prose Cons and poetry cover

I do not accept the limits

There are no rules. We make life up each and every moment.

All we have are habits and a heritage that we must pick from. Yet, with intelligence and personality, we can choose whatever path presents. We do not have to tread the well-trodden route.

There is nothing we cannot try. There is no way of knowing where a new path leads. That is how we discover new places.

If we try we might just succeed. There are no limits to what can be achieved if we but try.

We make our own limits, usually well within our scope. It is best to reach further even if we fall.

We are all building a new future.

There is a part to play.

Who is holding back?


 

I do not accept the limits

 

I do not accept the limits of my life.

Why should I?

There are no rules.

 

To push the boundaries

Is just part

Of what makes up

This pack of tools.

 

I dream of the impossible;

To create

A panacea

Fit for fools.

 

Opher 14.4.2016

These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback.

They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.

Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97

Stanzas and Stances

Poems and Peons – £4.33

Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98

Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60

Vice and Verse – £4.15

Poetry – There was a boy – a poem about terrorism

Posted on by Opher

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There was a boy

The news was reporting that Boko Haram were using young boys and girls as suicide bombers.

Like paedophiles they groom their innocent children victims, feeding them lies.

They point to the people who they claim are evil. These people believe differently. They are heretics, apostates and loathed by god. They are thoroughly loathsome. The Koran states that the unbelievers should be killed.

Allah demands that they should be punished for their crimes of belief.

They were required to do Allah’s will.

They would open their eyes in paradise.

They are not trusted with the button.

The man in the shadows presses the button, watches the outcome, and smiles as the nails and bolts fly among the organs, tissues and limbs.

There was a boy

There was a young boy

With a bomb

Strapped to his chest.

 

In the shadows

Stands a man

With a button.

 

All because of what

Is believed

And why?

 

They are waiting

For the innocents

To gather.

 

Hate and lies

Prejudice

And fury.

 

All in the pressing of a button.

 

Opher 14.4.2016

Prose Cons and poetry cover

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Poetry – On the Run – Anthropocene Apocalypse again

Posted on by Opher

Anthropocene Apocalypse cover

On the Run

I had this image, from a photograph imprinted in my brain, of a poor lemur in Borneo looking utterly bewildered as it stumbled along a fallen tree that had probably, up until that day, been its home. All around it were bonfires of flame and smoke, massive bulldozers and chains, with men in yellow hardhats carrying chainsaws.

In the foreground was gouged red soil, jagged stumps and ripped trees. In the background was pristine jungle.

The image was frozen in time.

I wondered what happened to the petrified creature. Did it stumble back into the jungle? Did one of the brutalised workmen dispatch it? Did it end up in a cooking pot? Or was it simply carelessly tossed aside?

It was just one more pathetic victim of the inexorable destruction of the forest. It was of no consequence. In the big scheme of things it was of no significance whatsoever. I wanted to shout at it to run, run run………… while it had a chance!

I was much too late. Its fate had already been decided.

All over the planet, in every corner of the world, the trees are falling, the bonfires burning and the creatures are ripped out of existence.

The trouble is that there is fast becoming nowhere for them to run to. 

 

On the Run

 

On the run

Through the trees

Down the rivers

To the sea.

 

On the run

Through the smoke

From the poachers

  • You and me.

On the run

Without a clue

To all of this

Insanity.

 

All on the run

On the run

Run

Run

Run.

 

Opher 14.4.2016

Poetry – Out of the anthropocene – life from scum

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Out of the Anthropocene

With our lust for power, wealth and getting out of our heads we are throwing it all away.

Once living on a planet teeming with a multitude of wondrous life we lived in harmony. Life was rewarding and we all flourished.

Then came the psychotic hunger for more, for status and the ego burst out of control.

Within such a brief time we had reduced the jungles to deserts, coffee plantations, palm oil fields and burnt out wastes. We had increased our numbers like bacteria in a toilet bowl. We created conflict out of every difference we could manufacture.

Our cities were plastic/concrete jungles with thieves, murderers and junkies. Everything that crawled was sprayed.

What a paradise we made out of paradise.

Our day will come.

When we have destroyed the rest of higher life and eradicated ourselves there will still be life busily devouring our corpses.


 

Out of the Anthropocene

 

As the world moved out of the Anthropocene

The last man wondered why;

Amid the plastic, needles and cans

Of a life spent on a high.

All he possessed and stashed away,

Now Lord of land, sea and sky.

Life flourished on the third planet

Though there wasn’t a single eye.

Now was the start of the bacteriocene

To give it another try.

 

Opher 9.4.2016

Here are a few of my books. They are available on Amazon in both paperback and on kindle.

Anecdotes – paperback just £6.95  Kindle – just £1.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459501044&sr=1-7&keywords=opher+goodwin

More Anecdotes – paperback just £7.29  Kindle – just £2.12 or free on Kindle Unlimited

http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Anecdotes-Essays-Beliefs-flotsam/dp/1530770262/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459501044&sr=1-1&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are also available. There is some unique to suit most tastes if you like something thought provoking and alternative.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1459501044&sr=1-2-ent