poetry Archives - Opher's World

Opher Goodwin’s Poetry books – at ridiculously cheap prices!

Posted on July 21, 2023July 21, 2023 by Opher

Signed copies are available or request!

Here is a list of some of my top Poetry books (all available in paperback or kindle and some in Hardback):

1 Pros, Cons and Poetry	My poetry is my artillery. Occasionally it is an atomic bomb or two. It comes to me out of the blue. I have to write it down quick or it is gone. It does not stick around long. These are my thoughts and feelings in poetry and prose. There’s no con. These are my essence.	Prose Cons and Poetry. eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
2 Vice and Verse	This is my second anthology of poems. I do not claim to be a poet. I have no pretensions in that direction. I just like writing. Sometimes ideas and feelings come out as what I describe as poems and sometimes they come out as my version of novels. For me it is all about communication and playing with words. Words are slippery things, like eels. Their meanings are nuanced. When you put them together they are tinged with other sheen. They wriggle into other forms. A word is amazing. It is a symbol, sometimes for a very tenuous concept, that we are able to use to touch each other with. We assume that each word we select has exactly the same baggage for everyone else. I doubt it does. These are not my words. They are borrowed. The arrangements are mine though. I have organised them to have a flow, a rhythm and to interact with purpose. Perhaps this will be obvious, but perhaps not. Some have humour and some are imbued with fury. I occasionally use my words like ballistic missiles. They deliver a warhead. I hope you appreciate them. I have attached my other words in the form of extensions to illuminate, exaggerate and confuscate. Even confuscation can be good. I write to make a difference – hopefully a positive difference.	Vice and Verse eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
3 Rhymes and Reason	This is my third compendium of poems. It’s life through the psychedelic filter of my mind. It’s poems ripped from inside my skull. What reason do we have for existing? What reason? My words are your words. I borrowed them and rearranged them. The meaning is my own.	Rhymes and Reason: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781516991181: Books
4 Stanzas and Stances	This is my fourth book of poems. It is an anthology with poems written in October 2015 as well as some dating back as far as 1970. There is the usual range of topics from environmental rage to religious and political diatribe. My poems nearly always have a fundamental meaning. I rarely write to merely entertain. My work is a continuum. The explanations are as important as the poems. They support each other. I called this one Stanzas and Stances because that is precisely what it is – a collection of poems and words on various issues of crucial importance. I take a position on most issues. I put it in words. That is what I stand for.	Stanzas and Stances eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
5 Poems and Peons	There are a range of poems here that date from the 1970s right up to yesterday. I write poems if I have something inside yearning to be expressed. I can encapsulate it into a succinct form as a poem. The writing that goes with the poems are every bit as important to me as the poem itself. My poems are explosions of passion.	Poems and Peons eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
6 Codas, Cadence and Clues	Poetry of anger, fury and passion	Codas, Cadence and Clues eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
7 Rituals, Odes and Mystic Anxieties	This is my seventh book of poetry. Poetry for me is a vehicle to explore and distil my thoughts, attitudes and feelings. These books are not by any means confined to my poems. Each poem is combined with a section of prose. It is intended to illustrate the issues and expose my inner thoughts. The poems included cover a range of subject matter. They range through nature, love, war, religion and social comment. They express my feelings of anger, despair, tenderness as well as love and war. Life is a wonder. A life unexamined is a life unlived. To be involved is to be alive. As I sit here in my room in Yorkshire I reflect on the state of the planet and the nature of human beings. It is not always a pleasant experience but it is something that I feel needs to be dissected and understood. Thought provoking, mind expanding and personal. We have one life – it’s all down to what we do with it.	Rituals, Odes and Mystic Anxieties: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781534803367: Books
8 Poems for Hard Times	This volume was largely written at the end of 2016 and on into 2017 so it is overshadowed by the scourge of Brexit and Trump. Some of the poems reflect that. For me overpopulation and the wanton destruction of nature are the two compelling drivers. I perceive that we are destroying the planet and it grieves me. I want some sanity and a universal approach to dealing with poverty, overpopulation, environmental degradation and pollution. Something has to happen fast or it will be too late. Both Brexit and Trump seem to me to be quantum leaps backwards in this regard. They represent insular, narrow nationalistic attitudes based on fear and hatred that are the opposite of the ideals I aspire to. We can but hope and go on dreaming.	Poems For Hard Times eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
9 Diddles, Riddles, Enviroscribbles and Political Tribbles	poetry on toxic times, environment and politics	Diddles, Riddles, Envirocribbles and Political Tribbles eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
10 Weaponising of Words	This is my 10th book of poetry. There are poems about Trump and Brexit, fake news, the universe and broken legs.	Weaponising of Words: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781729362198: Books
11 Guns, Rhymes, Elephants and Dreams	Guns, Rhymes, Elephants and Dreams is my 11th book of poems. My poems are the distillations of the thoughts, ideas and dreams that come into my head. They are inspired by the world around me – the good, bad and detestable. I write to make the world better.	Guns, Rhymes, Elephants and Dreams. eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
12 Dead Ducks, Own Goals and Greed	As Brexit divides up the country and Tory cuts destroy our public services creating crisis, the environment goes to pot and I become angrier and angrier. It’s all in here.	Dead Ducks, Own Goals and Greed. eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
13 Moroccan Skies, Wonder Whys, Disguise and Lies	This my thirteenth book of poetry. Morocco, the environmental crisis, politics, religion – from my brain cells to the keys and out onto the page – if it inspires me I write it. I distil my anger, fury, frustration and love into words. They mean a lot to me!	Moroccan Skies, Wonder Whys, Disguise and Lies. eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
14 Fana Ticks, Fantast Ticks, Miss Ticks and Poly Ticks	I have always been intrigued by the fantasy of life, the mystery of the universe, the gross squalid nature of politics, the destruction of nature and the beauty of love. They are the subjects of my poems. This is my fourteenth volume of poems. The stream is continuous.	Fana Ticks, Fantast Ticks Miss Ticks & Poly Ticks: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781085921169: Books
15 Dark Matter for Dark Ages	This is the fifteenth book of poetry that I have written. It contains poems written in the course of these dark times. This has been the age of populism, the re-emergence of extreme right-wing fascism, the world of austerity, extreme inequality, climate change, mass extinctions, overpopulation, wars, pollution, extinction rebellion and fake news. But there is still love, beauty, mystery and wonder! It is time we put it right!	Dark Matters for Dark Ages: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781706631750: Books
16 A Cosmic Dance Through Life in the Perverse	Amazingly this is my sixteenth book of what I loosely call poetry. Some rhymes and some doesn’t – even if it’s meant to! I like to write poetry with bite. But I also like to write poetry that is a celebration of life, love and nature. There are all sorts in this selection. You might find yourself incensed – but you might find yourself inspired or stimulated to think!	A Cosmic Dance Through Life In the Perverse: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781655103612: Books
17 Long Ago and In Between	My poems are comments on the world that surrounds my inner thoughts and feelings and observations. They are social and political without apology. Nothing is off limits. This was written in the period of Covid – 19. The plague is a focus. My inspiration is Nature and love.	Long Ago And In Between: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798643518464: Books
18 Polly Ticks, Squawks, Trumps and Parasites	A collection of poems written in 2020 about politics, Trump, Black Lives Matter and America. For the benefit of my American friends – A trump is a fart!	Polly Ticks, Squawks, Trumps And Parasites eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
19 Poems For the Planet	Lockdown in 2020 gave me plenty of time to walk in Nature and appreciate what we have. It also made me aware of the great damage we are doing to the natural world. This is my book of poems dedicated to the planet along with all the creatures and plants that live upon it. One in harmony.	Poems For The Planet eBook : Goodwin, Opher : Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
20 Random Muses from my mind	Under the spell of Covid I write poems. Rock music, the universe, life, nature, terrorism and suicide bombers, religious fanaticism, drugs, aging, gambling, philosophy, love, tribalism, slavery, racism, quantum physics, statues, celebrity, poetry, words and equality. You’ll find them all in here.	Random Muses From My Mind eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
21 350 Million Oven-Ready World-Beating poems	Boris Johnson, Tory ideology, Brexit, Covid-19, politics in general and the way we are conned by propaganda and lies created by the like of Dominic Cummings. I enjoy myself producing my ditties.There is truth in all of them.	350 Million Oven-Ready World-Beating Poems: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798572866094: Books
22 Out of Covid and into The Frying Pan	This 22nd book of poetry – another empty gesture! A futile flinging of words against the might of a global propaganda machine. Why not join me for a spell of pointless futility? A bit of meaningless meaning? Or a voicing of protest? You decide.PS – there’s quite a smattering of love and spirituality to brighten up the proceedings!	Out of the Covid and into the Frying Pan: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798734652190: Books
23 Visions for the Pits of Love and Despair	Commentaries on life, from a planet ruled by psychopaths and sociopaths, in a world of inequality, war, poverty and misery, created by us. Commentaries on a planet of awesome beauty in a universe of wonder. Written post Brexit and Trump, in the midst of a pandemic, in a country governed by extremist nationalists led by a clown – in a world on the brink of environmental catastrophe.	Visions From The Pits Of Love and Despair eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
24 Escapees from the Sixties	A selection of my poetry written in the sixties.	Not yet released
25 Toxic Times	These are the poems and diatribes that have come out of an unprecedented period of time. Tory sleaze and corruption. Tory lies and arrogance. Law-breaking, Russian connections and Partygate. PPE scandals, cash for peerages, cash for meetings. Illegal lobbying, profiteering and second jobs. The disasters of Brexit. The incompetent handling of covid. The looming catastrophe of Global Warming. The horrendous war in Ukraine. The callousness of Putin and threat of nuclear holocaust. These are indeed TOXIC TIMES.	Toxic Times eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
26 Crying for Ukraine	I have collected my recent antiwar poems together into an anthology. These were inspired by the atrocities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I have written them over the course of this horrendous war. They chronicle the obscenities and my reactions and feelings. The suffering and destruction I witnessed produced these heartfelt verbal responses. War is an obscenity. The perpetrators should all be brought to trial and made accountable. I write so that we might, one day, become civilised human beings full of compassion not hate. I hope that day is not too far off.	Crying for Ukraine: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798819478189: Books
27 Broken Britain	These are the poems of a madman. Politics makes me mad. Everything is politics. The establishment uses the media to control us. The establishment is controlling politics. My poems try to capture the mad thoughts that go through my head! After twelve years of Tory greed and lust for power we are all broken. The country is broken. The public services are broken. Children are freezing and starving in Dickensian squalor while multitudes of billionaires and millionaires stuff millions off-shore tax-free. All I do is write poetry. Welcome to BROKEN BRITAIN!	Broken Britain: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798358865105: Books
28 More Futile Gestures	What the world needs now is a book of futile gestures. I look around at the state of the nation – the lies, the greed, the selfishness. I look at the world out there – the wars, the populist fascism, the threats, the hangings, the misogyny, racism and the struggles for freedom from tyranny. The media is brainwashing everyone with right-wing propaganda. You realise how incredibly helpless we all are. We can’t change it! But we can make More Futile Gestures!!	More Futile Gestures: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798373765015: Books
29 Poetic Fusion, Fission and Chain Reactions	Here we are in 2023. There is so much going on. We have the Tory Party in complete meltdown over their lies, corruption, sleaze and incompetence. We’ve a mean old Trump either looking into the abyss of prison or an improbable come-back. We’ve a terrible war in Ukraine that’s threatening to either turn nuclear or cause the demise of Russia. We’ve the spectre of Xi looking on and North Korea has gone relatively quiet. Top that off with the cost of living, poverty and a world that is heating up and you can see that there are more than enough issues for me to get my teeth into. As the mood strikes me I write. Most of my poetry has a topical/political/social aspect though I do deploy humour and write poems of love, mystery and nature. This volume is a varied batch as usual. They are the topics that went nuclear in my head.	Poetic Fusion, Fission and Chain Reactions: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9798850321321: Books

Thank you for looking. Why not try one or two? And please leave a review! Cheers Opher

WE SKID

Posted on April 22, 2023April 22, 2023 by Opher

WE SKID

Skid

Across

This

World

We barely touch

So much is going on

I miss so much

My eyes

Slide

My brain cells

Glide

Too much I slip

Energy I skid

Too much I fool

To see I kid

What is

I guess

I make up

The rest

Teeming energy

I cannot see

From molecule to galaxy

Attractive magnetism

Profound gravity

Unseen

Flies from you to me

Skid

Across

This

World

We barely touch

So much is going on

I miss so much

Skid

Across

This

World

We barely connect

I see p a r t i a l l y

But not what you expect

I hear your words

I sense your touch

I feel the sun

But not too much

I slide. I skid

I don’t see it all I think. I see

I don’t know your red I understand

I miss-see it all Hazily

With the words you said

I slide and skid

I think I know

Just one percent

Of your rainbow

Skid

Across

This

World

We barely connect

My senses detect

But what else would you expect?

I miss so much

Opher 6.12.98

Austerity

Posted on April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 by Opher

Austerity

Austerity has done for me, we’ve never had it so bad.

With food banks and poverty, only the rich feel glad.

Capitalism creates inequality as the country’s wealth is drained

To off-shore tax havens oversea, as social cohesion’s strained.

The government is overseeing a system that is corrupt

The wealthy have brought it into being, slowly, not abrupt.

But they saw themselves re-elected, despite all that they have done.

Leaving the country so dejected while they cavort and have their fun.

A number directly profited from the mayhem they have sown.

They should have muzzles fitted and never be allowed out alone!

Opher – 26.2.2020

After a fashion.

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Opher

I believe

Life is a credibility statement

In which

Attitudes

Ideas

And philosophies

Are the gaudy ornaments

On a plastic Christmas tree.

Opher 23.6.95

Poetry – Take me back to – a poem that reworks the theme of disillusionment

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Opher

Take me back to

As I walked around the deck of the Marco Polo and thought about the immense changes that have taken place in the last two hundred years I kept reworking this poem.

I’ve travelled through oceans that once teemed with life and are now empty.

I visited islands where British ships replenished their larders by bludgeoning to death all the indigenous creatures.

Two hundred years ago life teemed. Now it is hanging on by its talons.

I am aging in fits and starts on a slow decline towards an inevitable death. The planet is on a similar trajectory.

In the next two hundred years we will have paved it all, caged what’s left and be living in an artificial, plastic paradise, as free as any good consumer can be.

Take me back to where I can breathe and wonder. I want out of this nightmare.

Take me back to

Take me back to the African plains;

Away from the bombs of the insane;

Away from the craziness of god’s refrain;

Away from the missiles and blood stains;

Away from every human brain;

All the bones of the animals we have slain;

The trees that rot where they’re lain.

I’d send the whole lot down the drain

And start over again.

So I could wonder at the universe

In one sand grain

And find the will

To refrain

From slaughter.

Opher 22.2.2016

If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwin

Or a book of poetry and comment:

Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindle

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwin

My other books are here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-ent

Thank you and please leave a review.

Poetry – Madness

Posted on April 11, 2023 by Opher

Madness

Madness,

Stupidity,

Insanity!

Wars,

Forest fires,

Hunting!

Pollution,

Population growth,

Politics!

Who allows these leaders to get away with it?

Opher – 25.9.2019

Sometimes I think human beings suffer with mass insanity!

We elect psychopaths.

We do the most ridiculous, foolish things.

We are so cruel and thoughtless.

Poetry – A Tessellated Dream

Posted on March 30, 2023 by Opher

A Tessellated Dream

I live in a world of strings

Lost in a few dimensions.

Reality is lost to my eyes

As I inhabit our inventions.

The macrocosm and microcosm

Are invisible to me

And time is fleeting

In this reality.

For there is no such thing

As substance or stability

The illusion is convincing though

I struggle to really see.

I’m very leery of the m-theory.

Things are not what they seem to be.

All time exists as a single moment

And in the quantum universe

Things exist and don’t exist

It’s really quite perverse.

This world may not be as it seems

As we splutter out of these tessellated dreams.

Opher – 5.9.2020

Mother

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Opher

Mother

Slowly, circuitously she approached.

Her eyes fixed on him.

Not wanting to arrive.

Reaching his side she squatted and poked him with her finger.

He did not stir.

She picked him up and shook him

As if trying to wake him from a dream.

His head lolled.

It was no dream.

Already his body was cooling;

Giving its heat to the warm air.

A low moan escaped her lips.

She sat back on her haunches

Cradling him to her breast,

Into her fur,

As if the warm of her body

Might revitalise him.

Her vacant eyes stared.

She began to rock back and forth

Like a metronome.

Two hours passed.

She was still rocking.

Opher 6.9.2020

I wrote this after seeing a video of a chimpanzee trying to deal with the horror of her dead baby.

Fake Memories

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Opher

Fake Memories

Fake memories

Fake fears

Fake News

Fake tears

Rousing the faithful

Feeding the lies

Inflaming the emotions

Deaf to the cries

False truth

False fed

False economy

Falsely led

Deliberately stoked

For selfish gain

Cynically oblivious

To the generated pain

Fake news feeding real crimes

Fake smiles for our times

Fake sincerity for personal gain

Fake compassion masking real pain

Real people hypnotised

Following blindly

The veiled disguise.

Ignoring all the shouts

Of the truly wise.

Led up the garden path

That’s built of where’s and why’s.

Opher 23.6.2018

Fake Memories

How to pick your way through the exaggerations and lies that are trotted out to frighten us?

I think we are being manipulated for political reasons! Even our memories are fake!

We no longer believe experts and are instructed to ignore them. Now we believe the headlines of the tabloid press.

Strange things happen

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Opher

Strange things happen

Strange things happen in a universe

Where the laws of physics conform

To the perverse.

Nothing can be more peculiar

That the laws that pertain

To nuclear.

Anything is possible

In infinity.

Creating worlds

Of possibility.

Where carbon’s

Strange agility

Combines with Oxygen

And hydrogen’s ability

To create a woven web

Of life’s history.

Spelt in bases helical

Consciousness is chemical.

Strange things happen in a universe

Where the laws of physics conform

To the perverse.

Opher – 29.8.2022

Many things are beyond our understanding – such as how a bunch of chemicals have come to think and speak, to wonder and emote.

Many things are beyond our comprehension such as the infinite nature of the universe, the vastness of space, the enormity of matter and the unending nature of time.

My chemicals ponder.

Life is perverse.