Samples
What's It All About?
(Sung)
'What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?'
What's it all about?
Catholics know
That it's all in a piece of bread
The breaking of and the partaking of
Transubstantiation is a very long word
Can you spell it?
And I'd so like to join them
But bless me, I can't.
Born agains know
As they jump in and out of water
Praising the Lord and trying oh so hard
To wet everyone else
Jehovah's Witnesses know
Knocking on doors with their kids
Selling Watch Towers
And oh how well they watch
As the last drops of blood
Spill from a loved one
Never to be renewed...
Jews know
That it's all about kith and skin
Your family, your extended family
And your extended, extended family
Self-preservation, your livelihood, your life, your land
Hang on to it for grim death
And don't budge an inch.
Muslims know
The price to put on a woman's soul
A camel, an ass, a case of whiskey
Gag them and bind them
With yashmak and burkha blind them
It's all so fundamentally wrong
But I'd best keep my big fat
Western woman's mouth shut
In case someone Rushdies off
To put a fatwha on me.
What's it all about?
George W Bush knows
It's black and it's thick and it's very unctious
And it's not his heart or soul I'm talking about
Though it could be
It's not worth dying for
But it's worth someone else dying for.
Patriots know
As they wave and wear their flags
Proud and secure in their sense of belonging
Please Alistair Burnett
Let there not be one English man, woman or child
On that coach that plunged off a cliff in Paraguay
'And did those feet in ancient times
Walk upon English pastures green?'
I rather think not.
Anarchists know
Throw an egg, throw an omelette
Throw a party, throw up
Let em ave it, put the boot in
Up the anti
What a riot...
The Klu Klux Clan and the BNP know
It's all so black and white to them.
Separatists know
Basque (I'm not thinking sexy)
Tamil Tigers (Still not sexy)
ETA (mmm - now we're talking)
They know
Kill a policeman, lob a bomb
'New' IRA, Fighters for Freedom!
But what do you do when you've got it?
No effect without cause?
Hutus and Tutus know
Ditch the spear, grab a knife
Tear unborn child from warm belly
Get a life...
What's it all about?
Communists know
That what is yours is mine
As they dig deep into your pockets
Dig deep with their ice picks
Into the skulls of those who might just be
Of a different mind.
Fascists Know
It's all in the footwork
The goose step and the frog march
The takers and the took
You put your left arm in
Your left arm out
Peel the skin off a Jew
Then you turn the light out...
What's it all about?
Thank God, Allah or whoever
Most of us just don't have a clue
Until we're dying of course
But I can tell you a man who does
No - I can tell you a woman who does
Cilla Black
Cilla
Lorra lorra laughs
What's your name and where d'ya cum from
Black
She knows
No bible, no Quran, no dead sea scrolls
No constitition
No dib, dib, dib
Just a heavy script and some great lyrics
(sung)
'As far as I can see
There's a heaven above Alfie
One that even non-believers
Can believe in
I believe in love, Alfie...'
I'll let you reach your own conclusion.
Upon the Quality of Love
Romeo Romeo - where for art thou Romeo?
Speak now, that I should hear your voice, rejoice
that deafened ear should hear you call my name…
_____________
The quality of love is not defined,
yet trippeth from the tongue with gentle ease,
to each and every one of us a meaning
as fickle as the feather on a breeze
Speak not to me, I pray, of star crossed lovers,
so thwarted by the cruelty of fate,
love by trial and tedium untested,
denied the chance to flourish or to sate
As flowers cleave to sun, so do we clamour,
enamoured by the promise of romance,
blinded by the light to onward stumble,
and in our madness give no backward glance
To lowly soil beneath us oft forgotten,
that nourished once our hearts right to the core,
grounded us to earth its daily tending,
to universal chaos, lent its law
Uprooted we erode to senseless matter,
just desiccated atoms doomed to dust,
planets out of orbit, cased in darkness,
stripped naked of that sacred mantle, trust
For much that speaks of love is surely lust,
lost in a reverie of youth misplaced,
masquerading whore in virgin clothing,
exacting costly penance once embraced
Show me a love that stands the test of time,
beholds its prize through eyes bewitched, beguiled
before a faded bloom, beyond its prime,
to see the sweetest rose or flower wild
Show me a love that does not ask for all,
nor seeks the easy path in life to tread,
sees every facet of a fractured soul
yet loves enough to be by blindness led
Show me a love that does not seek to change
to chip, to hew to mould; instead to hold
such imperfection to the brightest light
delight, as though the dullest lead were gold…
Show me a love where two minds meet as one
sweet appetite by word and language fed,
a heat to melt a frozen land locked tear,
swell hearts with hope upon a hemlocked bed
Why then I should say, that Romeo lives, breathes
that Juliet sleeps,
perchance
one day,
to dream…
All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.
Last blog entry
Posted on Sunday 11th July 2010 6:09 pm
Your gift to the world is nothing,
an empty box crammed with ash
of puckered mouths
sucked dry of light or hope
Your gift to the world a canvas
stretched taut with misery and pain
acrylic acid armoured,
its colours bled to angry daub
Your gift to the world a vulture
feeding from eyes of those who'd see,
triumphant in its mockery
of all once held so dear
Your gift to the world a dust bowl
an empty faceless well
a land locked, earth bound chasm
impervious, impaled
Your gift to the world is nothing
delivered with catholic conviction
Nazi annihilation
absolute abjection
Your gift to the world is nothing.
Previous: La Vie en Rouge
View or make comments. (19 comments)
Ann Foxglove
Thu 29th Jul 2010 10:04
Thanks for your kind comment on my Incurable Romantic poem. xx