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Never Pat A Burning Dog
NEVER PAT A BURNING DOG
Sundry faiths there are
Bickering over the words
Of a single truth
Own Goal
OWN GOAL
Somewhere out there I swear
Or else on reflection
Somewhere inside exists
That I am in search for
Masks Of The Crustacean (Republished)
MASKS OF THE CRUSTACEAN
I would say the secrets of my soul
Yet trust no one to their hearing
Some keep silence, some keep talking
When they find they have nothing to say
And the fulfilled don’t write
Lame excuses and sprung steel alibis
Meshed fast in the complexities of pain
(Only my pleasures are simple)
Masks of the crustacean
Designed to reveal what they disguise
Playing at love like a game of chess
Not well, not badly, just lazily
Without due regard to the consequences of my moves
Reading too many fairy tales
And kissing far too many frogs
The generous truth is a beggar to find
Buried deep among the unsuspected cruelties of the small print
(When God finished the world
He saw that it was perfect
… And then of course He began wondering what to do next … )
Security in a pound note, safety in a pin
The tired old trumpeting of Church and State
Magic is afoot but the world’s gone metric
(Electric) and Securicor scares
The light fades, the air is flat and stale
The rain beats against the glass
Nights and days an endless tapeloop
Of supermarket muzak
Brush its teeth and put it to bed
The well-oiled programs run
Asleep within the fractured eye of my attention
Life, well-travelled, opens and closes around me
Here and there embroidered with a flower
The footsteps I follow through the blizzard of my memories
Are my own
The One
THE ONE
Remember you are
The one and only
Utterly unique
Remember you are
Yes, the one for whom
You were created
Remember yourself
Especially when
You are forgotten
All In All
ALL IN ALL
When all is connected
All is connected
Within without
Above below
Before behind
Behind before
Who dare (not) put
The all in Allah?
For after all
(And before all)
Before behind
Behind before
And besides …
Who would wish
To flee and why?
Meantime who dare decry
Use of any word at all?
View, view and then review
As time goes by
Best review who reviews
And why and how
Heresy (28a)
HERESY
Explosive
This marriage of words
Half-closed doors
Fly open
Naked, virgin thoughts scamper
Hither and thither
~~~~~~~~~~~
Bound For Glory
BOUND FOR GLORY
Rabid believers
Still contemplate Heaven from
A lavatory
From which some are excluded
While some can’t stand the stench
Cathedral
Jun 16
Posted by Ben Naga
CATHEDRAL
How wonderful this architecture
Down the centuries enduring
Inspiring, heartening, overawing
Expensive though these cathedrals
In more than market value terms
And still begging for more if you please
Cath as in cathedral not cathar – no thank you
Indoctrinating generation after generation
How wonderful this architecture
As Europe some kind of torchbearer
Enduring both they and we
Inspired, heartened, overawed
Its worshippers trailing in the dust
Each down our allotted years
Striding, limping, tottering
Let massacre surround us
How wonderful this architecture
How romanesque the sleight of hand
Preaching persecution and crusade
Tolling for privilege, for tithe, for death for heresy
Cleaving definitive paths, signposts
This Way Heaven; Purgatory; Hell
Servants or sinners, sheep or goats
How few left any monument, mark
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Posted in Poetry
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Tags: History, Religion, Social commentary, Worship