Thirsty…

Another one from last year’s Pica pica challenge, this time the word was “gulps”. Not much to say about it, except that I am at least semi-fond of it…

Read Full Post »

A sonnet

In last year’s Pica pica challenge, one of the words was “heartquake”. It felt natural to write a sonnet on the topic. I dedicate it to Baron Faucon de la Santé, and of course to Sir Patrick.

Read Full Post »

Poetry response to Skyman

Having read Skyman’s brilliant piece on borders, and seeing that most of the stuff published recently was his, I felt compelled to do something about that. Thus, this poem, which was written in a few hours this afternoon, and then not edited, so there are parts that I don’t really like, and I may go back and change these later. Anyway, here is a poem about borders:

Read Full Post »

Poem: Christmas Happiness

I am now packing things for the US (or for storage while I am away), and found a true gem! When I was in gymnasium (secondary school?), we found this christmas poem in the local newspaper. It is a truly atrocious christmas poem, and we loved it. For many years, while we had a mailing list of our own, someone sent this out to everyone every christmas. I now found that I actually cut it out of the newspaper and have been svaing it for the last thirteen years or so. Here it is:

Read Full Post »

A Poem about Shoelaces (from Tanzania)

Being bored with just watching the tide come in in Dar-es-Salaam — this horrible blotch on an otherwise superb country — I wrote this poem. The quality reflects the quality of sleep I got while in Dar.

Read Full Post »

The Police and the Post-Vanburenist

This poem may require some explanation. In essence, it was written almost in real time (I have only corrected some spelling mistakes) during a Skype session, when Skyman suddenly presented me with the first line, set to the rhythm of one of the parts of Johan Ludwig Runeberg’s “Fänrik Ståls Sägner”, a great collection of war poetry from Sweden’s last war. I added the following lines, and so it continued until Skyman got tired and made a hurried ending to it. “S” denotes the lines given by Skyman, whereas “G” are the lines written by me.

A post-vanburenist is a follower of the critics of Jochem Josquin Van Buren, the famous 23rd century philosopher, scuba-diver, re-designer of the Bracknell Upright, and literary critic. Obviously. It should be noted that Skyman is a firm believer in post-vanburenism.

Read Full Post »

If I lay down now I might think I’m dead

Here is my attempt at a Gothic poem. As per usual it is CC: BY-SA, so share and enjoy!

I.

The night is cool, the night is calm,
the streets bereft of life.
In every house, in every home
Sleep now claims its tithe.

But one narrow window
bleeds with light;
there two-score candles
oppose the night.
It is the window
of a tired young girl,
who is much too frightened
to let dreams unfurl.

Read Full Post »

Hello, my name is Johnny: 1–4

This poem is entirely the result of sleeplessness during a visit to London. I had several Spanish people staying in the same room as I at the hostel, and it seems that the Spanish are physically incapable of respecting when other people want to sleep. On top of that, they snored incessantly. Thus, I had plenty of time thinking up these. Interestingly, perhaps, the Spanish stayed for exactly four nights, whereupon they were replaced with a group of Maltese ladies, who didn’t even pretend to be quiet. Something is wrong with young people from the Mediterranean.

Read Full Post »

Maybe some time

Note: This poem, which is, I think, different in style from the others, is also connected to SLC, but I don’t think I ever sent it in there.

Read Full Post »

Some SLC Poems from way back!

Note: During the late 90s and early 00s, I was a member of a Robert Rankin Appreciation Mailing List called SproutloreChat. During this time, I wrote a number of more or less suitable poems, which I believed had been lost in my old computer, until I found them on an old USB stick recently. Here I present some of them; as I remember SLC, they are quite representational of the list. Read them when in a pleasant mind!

Read Full Post »