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Alone with the truth in the darkness
we let its small flame be our guide;
while all those around us don't see it,
we hold it up with meek pride.
Few truthbearers meet one another,
being few and far between,
but if they encounter their fellows,
by each other their lights can be seen.
Aware we're the choosing people,
we witness reality
while the groups around us keep seeing
what groups are expected to see.
We may feel that we won't make a difference,
but we're many, dispersed though, and thus
a minority able to reason,
so the world's a bit brighter through us.
21-24/07/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to Away and Back
As Karl was busy at the chessboard, Jenny
Marx talked to Heinrich Heine, 'As you see
how flawed this world is, how do you imagine
a worldwide communist society?'
'I fear they will cut down the laurel forests
to plant potatoes, turnips, wheat and peas,
force nightingales and lilies to get day jobs
and use my poems to wrap groceries.'
Jenny hung on his lips, rightly assuming
his gloomy statement wasn't quite complete.
'But in the end,' he sighed, 'what really matters
is that all people have the right to eat.'
19/07/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to From the Titans to the Titanic
He strolled along Memory Harbour
when the galleon, vessel of yore,
emerged from the fog in the distance,
manned by those who'd departed before.
As she hauntingly entered the harbour
and the stoical crew in their dark
linen garments converged at the bulwark,
he stood silent, prepared to embark.
3/07/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to The Paradise of Darkness
Writing for future generations
is an ungrateful task; we are
decades away from audiences
that'll hear our voices from afar.
But then, no readers' expectations
can lead our mindful minds astray,
no editors, gatekeepers, censors
can water down what we've to say.
'No one could see it coming,' parents
will tell you of what has occurred,
but reading us, you'll know that people
who saw it coming just weren't heard.
29/06/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to Away and Back
So we wiped out the Carthaginians and
enslaved the few survivors, we have sacked
Neapolis; the Senate will enact
the leges provinciae for their land.
We've conquered Greece, as we had always planned;
all the Ligurian tribes have now, in fact,
been subjugated, and the odds are stacked
against the Lusitanians' bold stand.
But now the Roman streets are filled with Greeks
and other foreigners from many a nation
who may corrupt us and our lifelong strife
for purity, who bring, as avarice peaks,
moral decay and end civilisation
and with it our most righteous way of life.
7/04/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to From the Titans to the Titanic
'That solves the problem of the ether,'
Max Planck thought to himself, aware
of the importance of the paper
he'd soon endorse and share.
A different editor would likely
have disregarded the unknown
young office clerk's ambitious paper,
based on that fact alone.
Thus Albert Einstein had been lucky
to find a man who knew his stuff
since merely having revelations
is good but not enough.
Let's spare a thought for all the many
geniuses falling through the cracks;
there must be many brilliant thinkers
who never found their Max.
14-15/03/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to Away and Back
The race was on. Male scientists of standing,
sometimes collaborating to compete
with others, swarmed to conferences, handing
out information printed on a sheet.
They may have argued or conversed discreetly;
the only thing on everybody's mind
was the expressed ambition to completely
decode the static genome of mankind.
Meanwhile, in her laboratory, unflurried,
Barbara McClintock quietly studied maize;
she made no claim to fame and wasn't worried
about being beaten in whichever ways.
She noticed that some genes had changed locations
within the genome, holding her in thrall,
and she concluded from her observations
the genome wasn't static after all.
For decades no one heeded her; she carried
on with her work, and after thirty years
the world of science which so long had tarried
awarded her the Nobel Prize, all ears.
Her story proves, once more, my proposition,
despite the narrative to which you cling,
that progress isn't made by competition
but individuals doing their own thing.
1/03/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to Lines from the Spectrum and Away and Back
Children are born unbiased, open-minded,
creative, curious and free; they see
things as they really are, ask many questions
and know exactly who they want to be.
Most children, though, are being raised as camels
by elders whose authority is felt;
burdened with loud demands and expectations,
they learn to serve the dragon called 'Thou shalt'.
They're taught to see the world the way their elders
describe it and that, as they boldly claim,
all values have already been created,
and therefore things are meant to stay the same.
Some of these camels pace into the desert,
denounce their owners and at last fulfil
their latent dreams of turning into lions,
cast off 'Thou shalt' and proudly say, 'I will!'
Reclaiming their autonomy and self-worth,
these roar with confidence for being free
and, celebrating independence, gladly
boast new-found individuality.
A handful of these lions are returning
to being children once again who state
things as they really are, ask many questions,
oppose all biases and who create.
(Based on Friedrich Nietzsche's parable)
13/01/6267 RT (2026 CE), added to Away and Back
A lightbulb works because lots of conductors
let electricity flow while a few stout
resistors take the heat; we know, without them
the bulb would overheat and thus burn out.
Society kind of works because the mainstream
is going with the flow while a few stout
resisters take the heat; we know, without them
society would blaze and thus burn out.
8/12/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to Lines from the Spectrum and Away and Back
While others learned conforming and complying,
Sue was a child determined to retain
her individuality, defying
attempts to mainstream her which taxed her brain.
Not fitting in, she found herself excluded
and isolated from the other kids
and felt most adults ruthlessly intruded
upon her self with their collective grids.
As a young woman, she began to copy
others' behaviours and opinions so
she'd be accepted but retained a sloppy
sense of her self which no one cared to know.
Decades of masking took their toll, and, facing
exhaustion, she felt ready to conclude
her efforts, and she found herself embracing
the liberating world of solitude.
7/12/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to Lines from the Spectrum and Away and Back
To mark our country's turnaround,
we'll build a monument
to celebrate and glorify
your favourite president:
the Jeffrey Epstein Ballroom will
accommodate the whirls
of geriatric billionaires
and adolescent girls.
9-10/11/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to Nail on the Head
After she took her children
who loved to sing and play
to their Latina nanny,
she went about her day.
Her Pakistani doctor
then put her mind at ease:
'Just take your medication,
and soon the pain will cease.'
A Brazilian trimmed her hair and
she walked a block to grab
a Chinese takeaway just
before she called a cab.
The Eritrean driver
now had to speed so she
could make the demonstration
in Washington, DC.
She stopped at the Korean
print shop to get her sign,
and at a stall she purchased
a Chilean clementine.
Nearing her destination,
she hurried, striding past
the Indian Museum,
and found her crowd at last.
She joined the angry protest
to voice the white man's strife
and waved her placard, screaming,
'Protect our way of life!'
28/10/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to From the Titans to the Titanic
The monster, when it first appears,
spreads terror to dissuade;
the being whom the tyrant fears
is one who's unafraid.
20/10/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to Poetographs
Faint promise brought you here, the hope to find
what others seek as well, and all around
you see their shanties, awkwardly designed,
where lots of gold is waiting to be found.
The gun's the law, and life is cheap; you will
get used to bodies lying in your way
as you approach the goldmine in the hill
and know quite well it could be you some day.
You and the others live in poverty,
hoping to soon escape its clutches by
striking it lucky, but, as you will see,
one may succeed in thousand men who try.
We brought young girls, some of them natives, here,
who will be offering the diggers brief
spells of distraction and, just for one beer,
provide them entertainment and relief.
Waste can be thrown into the river, dumped
beside the road or dropped into the dale,
and once enough bacteria have clumped,
another epidemic will prevail.
You'll find it difficult to breathe in this
most elevated human settlement.
The air is thin; you struggle but dismiss
the thought of turning back which you resent.
It's cold all year, the lines are mostly down,
the Internet is shaky, but you're bound
to stay, despite the hardships, in the place
where lots of gold is waiting to be found.
28-29/07/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to From the Titans to the Titanic
She's gone. The voice that brightened up my childhood
will still be heard in films, on 45s
and in our heads, remembering the pleasure
her music brought into so many lives.
Her songs were sprinkling magic on the airwaves;
her clear enchanting voice, one of a kind,
called us in German, English and Italian
and often calmed my ever-anxious mind.
Conveying strong emotions or just making
fun of her lovesickness, she had the skill
to make us laugh or cry, but now the soothing
voice from my childhood years has fallen still.
17/07/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to Big Train from Memphis - The Rock'n'Roll Poems
The company of children is essential
to my wellbeing, for this thing is true:
when I'm with children, I can see potential;
when I'm with adults, I so rarely do.
4/07/6266 RT (2025 CE), added to The Supreme Blossom