An Affliction of Poetry

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Whose World is it, Anyway?

We're adrift
in a tv show
with Drew Carey's evil twins
pronouncing
the facts don't matter

Only we're not talking about
who gets the credits -
or the last word.

It's not like we can escape
the gas that's seeping,
or the oil you're sweeping
under the stage

Not to mention the
loose wires,
the smouldering fires
and the sprinklers set to Climate Change.

Come on, guys,
it's too late for improv
and some nob
spouting metaphysical
"what's real, anyway"
bullshit.

This is a crisis.
We're dying down here.
Overheated,
poisoned
and drowned in
endless
obfuscating
babble.

You can't make these things up
and not even Josie or Sandi
can balance the obvious bias.
We need the audience
in this game,
pointing out
the facts.
This theatre,
this game
was never about the points,
it was about having the time of our lives.

A.J. Ponder

A piece inspired by a right wing "libertarian" who insisted that facts don't matter so much that I couldn't help but think of Drew's famous line on Whose Line is it Anyway, "Where everything's made up and the points don't matter."

Who knows what we're meant to do with these people who fly into endorphin releasing righteous indignation any time the lies they base their lives on are threatened - Seriously, what are we meant to do with people whose opinion can't be swayed by facts, and who've ensured that, by simply refusing to believe that facts are a thing?

I almost put "where the spin's made up" but that spin is
terrifyingly real so...

BTW the clip opposite has been captioned many times, you'll find most of them by searching the slogan. Where everything's made up and the points don't matter. so here's another one, because the meme is so screamingly obvious, the U.S/America line had already been taken.
#posttruth

Have a great week,
And never take a good fact for granted ;)

A.J. Ponder

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Today by Thomas Carlyle

So here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away.

Out of Eternity
This new Day is born;
Into Eternity,
At night, will return.

Behold it aforetime
No eye ever did:
So soon it forever
From all eyes is hid.

Here hath been dawning
Another blue Day:
Think wilt thou let it
Slip useless away.

I found this poem by looking to see if William Allingham had written another poem I liked, besides The Faeries. Then I thought maybe he had some friends or influences, and that that'd be interesting in itself. I found Thomas Carlyle, and while it wasn't the forresty poem I was looking for, I liked him and his work immediately -- it doesn't hurt that he coined the term "the dismal science" for economics.

So there you have the poem of the day - let's hope you enjoyed it, and that your day has a blue sky, and slips away meaningfully. :)

A.J.

Find my stories and support my writing on ko-fi And tell me which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Miss Lionheart is getting the message out

Found footage of Miss Lionheart in Mr Big's underground bunker - We need to know if she's going to be alright...

To keep up with any new events, you can go to Lilly's website at misslillylionheart.wordpress.com and pick up your copy of Miss Lionheart...don't miss out, it's more than your life is worth!

PS we hope she can make it to the book launch on Thursday...

A.J.

Miss Lionheart is also available wide, from Amazon (aff link), and as an ebook in my ko-fi store

Find my stories and support my writing on ko-fi I'd love to know which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Holes

There's a hole in my mind

where the world seeps in.
A filtered unknown
infiltrating a closed
system.

There's a hole in my brain
where the facts drift through.
And in the heavens can you say
what allowed them to fall
so far?

There's a whole lot of bull
to make a brain more spongy
than spongiform encephalitis.
The neurons having lost their shape
have struck out -
gone their separate ways to retire
far away from
the simmering sea
of questions:

where?
what?
why?

For there are no anwers
unless you go digging

and find the holiest of holes -

where you'll find emptiness
stuffed with
lies, damned lies
and money.

A dissolution of non-particulate matters
not particularly mattering
as the tide rolls in and over
a dead sea.

A.J. Ponder

Another week, another poem, I hope you enjoyed it. I quite like this one. Despite the fact that's it's an awful lot of words for the old saying, "follow the money"

Have a great week, and hopefully I'll have some exciting news next Tuesday. (Nothing to do with cats, I just wanted to add a cat picture, because why not?)

A.J.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

The Circle of Life: The Crocodile's Verse

Come little fishes
Adore our golden scales
And smile
It's easy to flit between our claws
To grasp the tidbits...dangled
So enticingly out of reach
I dare you.

And if you fail
You should have swum faster
And if you fall
We will crush you

Come little fishes
Imagine your scales turned to gold
And rejoice
Our riches could be yours
If you work forever
Or win the lottery
We rigged just for you

And if you fail
You should have worked harder
And if you fall
We will crush your family

Come little fishes,
Cry all you like
We don't need to make the water drinkable
Your tears overflow our crystal glasses
We don't need to have the water wadeable,
When sweet oils fill our swamps to overflowing

And if you drown
You should have grown lungs
And if the rivers should fail
We will eat our fill

Come little fishes,
Not much longer now,
Offer your puny lives
And we will give you
Everlasting
Death

A.J.

Part of my Circle of Life series, this began as a simple poem, but keeps on growing. We can do better, we can bring voices to the table, create a more equitable world, but not when we incentivise people to look after money and not people.

1) The Circle of Life
We have let the snakes

Into the hen house...

2) Circle of Life II (Snakes in the Henhouse)
Too long
We left the snakes in charge of the henhouse...

3) Circle of Life 3: The facts of life
I know you've heard
There's a new snake pimped out on the lawn...

But however dark it may look, there's hope on the horizon. What do they always say? "it's always darkest before the dawn" Of course in the physical world, we don't all need to battle against the night to have the return of day, but this is a metaphor here...

Have a great week
A.J. Ponder

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Great Weta Robbery

Once again I have failed to meet the Tuesday deadline with a poem, I'm trying to keep up posting every week and get a new book out, but in the meantime, I'd like to link you to a book I co-wrote with Peter Friend, a few years ago now, called The Gre at Weta Robbery. It's a great little book published by Gilt Edge for early readers. There's an audio version at the above link, and even better for teachers, there's an educator's guide here.

The blurb: When your after-school job is looking after weta the size of cats, it'd be understandable if you thought that your life couldn't get any more exciting or dangerous. But there is a darker secret lurking in the laboratories of Krell Reserach and it's down to one boy – with his sidekicks Snapper, Fluffy, Five-Legs and the other mega-weta – to get to the bottom of it.

I hope you enjoy it (even though it's definitely not poetry!)
A.J. Ponder

Links (for people who like to see where their links are going)

The Great Weta Robbery Book and Audio Link
https://www.giltedgepublishing.co.nz/products/the-great-weta-robbery-1

Educators Guide
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54aabd1ee4b037e9bad286f6/t/58b4336459cc684cc88b9a63/1488204656597/Friend%2C+Peter+and+Alicia+Ponder.+THE+GREAT+WETA++ROBBERY.pdfteach

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

A New World, Today

We could home the homeless
End poverty
Tomorrow

If only we wanted

We could create a new world
Based on facts
And reason

If we followed the evidence

We could save ourselves heartbreak
Misery and sorrow,
Even death

And not be any poorer

We could do all this and create a better
A fairer world
For everyone

No more ifs

We are way past dreaming
It's time for action
Today

A.J. Ponder

See links below to understand just how expensive austerity is, and why we need to change the paradigm we've been conned into believing.

Have a great week

A.J. Ponder