Playing The Game

“The cliché is that ‘power corrupts’ but it would be more accurate, and more telling, to rephrase this as ‘the ability to define reality corrupts’! If I have the power to define reality than I am pretty much untouchable; if I have the power to say what reality is and what it isn’t then I can get away with just about anything. How can I get caught out when ‘everything I do is right’ (or when ‘everything I do is eminently justifiable’) and you can be sure that everything I do will be excused in this way if I’m the one in charge of the ‘official validation procedure’!”

A Letter Away: Senryu

A LETTER AWAY

Beware and be alert
Posting: so close to posing
That they can switch rôle

The Noble Silence Twentieth Century Style

THE NOBLE SILENCE TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLE

Whenever she feared that she did not have
Anything much worthwhile to contribute
She’d restrict herself to a ‘Like’, a Smiley
Kept her vast swathes of ignorance private
It might do her public image no good at all

Pretty Ballerina

PRETTY BALLERINA

Stop!
Open!
Stop hiding
Your darker side.
Face the light of truth.
Your life is but a dream
In which you’re fully vacant
Distracted and far from this place.
Caught in the spotlight spin round and round;
Ravenous pirouette seeking applause.

Poets Out Loud: Four By Six

POETS OUT LOUD

Let’s share our poetry
For without that I fear
It might quickly descend
Into onanism

The Mathematician

THE MATHEMATICIAN

Although rough
Approximations
Made it look
Plausible
More precise calculations
Ended a bit off

Kept going
Drowning in ego
He wanted
To figure
This conundrum on his own
Madman that he was

Till it reached
It’s own tipping point
Bouncing off
Each other
Suddenly all became clear
Obvious really

Grave Misdirection: Shadorma

GRAVE MISDIRECTION

Dear Donald
Look in a mirror
Not down south
This so-called
National emergency?
That’s where you’ll find it

A Winning Hand

A WINNING HAND

Patience trumps annoyance
Mindfulness trumps irritation
Non-attachment trumps ego

The Ninth Letter

THE NINTH LETTER

Evanescent froth
Boldly built on shifting sands
As if eternal

There ‘E Goes (The One Note Samba) – (Republished)

THERE ‘E GOES (THE ONE NOTE SAMBA)

There are eight notes in the octave
(One of them recycles its name)
But then there are always those
Who only recognise one note
Repetitive and relentless

Me Me Me Me Me

~~~~~~~~~~~

Frequently, my initial reaction to this type of person is one of revulsion. but then I sometimes pause for reflection and begin wondering what sort of pain, fear and insecurity this behaviour is concealing.