My Words, My World

First drafts – A few pages in the large wilderness of the world of writing

Archive for the category “words”

26 Nov 2019

Tools of the trade

The keyboard lies silent, like a long-closed factory, its worker-keys now unemployed, passing into disuse and irrelevance.

The pen lies on its side, like a dead soldier, a used-to-be who has taken an early pension, now laying in the sun.

The notebook lies closed, in a crypt-like embrace, its secrets hidden inside except; here there are no secrets, just untouched pages.

The once-writer lies on his side, a book in his hand, eyes skipping over the words someone else has written; and wonders.

Posted in biography, Creation, imagination, poem, poet, Poetry, positivity, words, Writer's block, Writing and tagged Free verse, poem, Poet, poetry, words, Writer's block, Writing

22 Jun 2019

7 Comments

The sea’s breath

Yesterday I felt the sea breathing
as I watched the wind-strewn waves;
some breaths shallow, others ocean deep.
I fell into their rhythm
and breathed in the salt spray
and breathed out my soul in return:
sea salt spray for my soul
or what part of it I leave here.

Today I heard the sea choking
it’s breath no longer a rhythm
but a slow death rattle.
I walked in to it, embraced it
but plastic caressed my fingers,
tightened and gripped my hand
and embraced me, as I wanted to embrace the sea.
I pulled, and the plastic relented
the more I pulled, the more it came
but still the sea couldn’t breathe.

Tomorrow the wind will still blow
and the salt will still tang the air
and the waves still sigh upon the shore
and where once the seagulls cried
the only sound will be the empty laughter
of the few that profited from the many
of those who took from the Earth
and spat back its destruction.

Yesterday I felt the sea breathing
and wondered how long it would last.

Posted in extinction, Horror, humans, life, poem, poet, Poetry, Sea, Sounds, time, words, Writing and tagged Death, destruction, environment, environmental disaster, greed, humans, plastic, poem, poetry, profit, sea, suffering, words, Writing

09 Apr 2019

2 Comments

Silence

Staring at four bare walls

unavoidable, inescapable

No sound, just silence

Not even the mechanical sound

of time passing

as a welcome distraction

The silence isn’t deafening

but the thoughts are.

If they had colour

it would be grey

If they had sound

it would be a low, lost hum.

Posted in Free verse, imagination, pain, poem, Poetry, senses, Sounds, words, Writing and tagged Depression, Despair, grey, insomnia, poem, silence, Writing

18 Jan 2019

2 Comments

The drip, drip, drip of the leaking tap

The drip, drip, drip of the leaking tap,
tightened to the full yet still…
drip, drip, drip,
like some mad aquatic clock
or a water deity’s idea of a joke
and where does all this water go?

Does it race along the tubes and pipes
only to be unceremoniously
spat out
into some shitty sewage treatment works?

Or does it instead splash happily along
those tubes and pipes
and find itself jettisoned
into a little stream,
just a trickle at first
which is then joined by others,
left to the same fate
and together they form a river
which gets faster,
noisy, rushing water tumbling over stones worn smooth
and dancing over rocks and waterfalls
and down, always down until finally,
in the distance,
there’s the sunlight’s reflection on water
and the river’s pace gathers
and drives on
then, finally, pours into the sea
where the drip, drip, drip of the leaking tap
becomes waves upon the shore.

Posted in dreams, Free verse, hope, poem, Poetry, positivity, Sea, Travel, words, Writing and tagged Free verse, Hope, poem, poetry, river, sea, water, wave, words, Writing

12 Jan 2019

Winter night

A fingernail moon falls down the evening sky
and now the wind has dropped,
from a bluster to a breath
as the frigid night descends.

The trees, immobile in their submission,
silhouette against silhouette,
branches handing like the arms of the guilty
as the frost’s frozen fingers
freeze all they touch;
and even the church bells are subdued.

But lo!
A thousand firesides
lead like beacons in the night,
protesters’ torches in rebellion.

Cold is the winter night
but is vanquished by the hearth of home

Posted in Free verse, night, poem, Poetry, positivity, seasons, weather, Winter, words, Writing and tagged cold, fire, Free verse, frost, heat, home, moon, night, poem, Poet, poetry, safety, trees, wind, winter, words, Writing | Leave a comment

30 Dec 2018

7 Comments

Where do all the words go?

So you start writing and you continue, word by word, one after another: 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 and then…you turn your head away and BANG!, you hit the buffers, nowhere to go, no more forward momentum. You open up the story; it’s been two weeks damn it, not two years but when you look inside it’s like taking a straight razor and cutting yourself to see what comes out. 20,000+ words and there they sit, destined for the file marked ‘In progress’, along with half a dozen other 20K’s that came to the same end. It’s like trying to build a Lego house but someone’s blocked up the holes in the bricks.

The penultimate day of the year and I sit, devoid of ideas and inspiration.

Am I destined for a life of flash fiction and off-the-cuff poetry? Fuck.

Posted in Creation, imagination, stories, words, Writer's block, Writing and tagged Despair, Fiction, story writing, words, Writer's block, Writing

28 Dec 2018

1 Comment

Somewhere

Clock tick, ticking in the silence of the apartment
or
the apartments because there are nine in the block
and
I’m the only one awake at this time,
in
these hours where I should be elsewhere
and
not writing, or reading or dropping benzodiazepine for sleeping
and
my body aches for sleep
but
my mind tells my body to fuck off
and
get up, get going and do something
and
I’m on the sofa with a pen in one hand
and
a notebook in the other and a book by my side
and
the clock keeps ticking
and
to think that somewhere the sun is rising
and
somewhere else it’s setting on another day
as
the momentum of our forward roll takes us around
a
big ball of light and heat that keeps us here,
alive,
going nowhere except forward;
rolling, rolling
in space time, in real time,
(who’s got the time anyway?)
as
somewhere to the east of me the sun is coming up
and
somewhere to the west of me it’s going down
as
10,000 lives have just left
and
10,000 have just begun
and
we just keep on rolling. Somewhere.

Posted in addiction, Free verse, imagination, insomnia, night, poem, Poetry, senses, words and tagged Death, drugs, Free verse, insomnia, life, life-cycle, morning, night, poem, poetry, reading, sounds, states of mind, time, tiredness, words, Writing

27 Dec 2018

Slow is the night

Night,
split into two:
broken lines
black and white
drawn and then fade
merge
and become grey,
like the dawn;
if it ever arrives.

My eyes are heavy
and my face is sliding
like some lost Dalí canvass;
long dripping clocks
leaking slow time:
sluggish minutes
and
creeping hours
in the long dragging night.

Posted in Free verse, images, insomnia, night, poem, poet, Poetry, time, words, Writing and tagged clock, Dalí, dawn, Free verse, insomnia, morning, night, poem, poetry, sleep, time, words, Writing | Leave a comment

24 Dec 2018

2 Comments

It’s the season

The sax-playing Santa
sat in the shade of the subway
blowing his way through Christmas classics
and then just some classics
with no mention of Christmas;
which is good.
I could listen to him all day
or even an hour
or even 10 minutes
but I can’t;
I’ve things to do
and people to see
and places to go
and even if I don’t
I have to be doing something,
buying something,
eating something,
drinking something
and I can’t stop,
we can’t stop
because it’s Christmas
and there won’t be another one until…
well, this time next year.

Posted in Christmas, Free verse, poem, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged Christmas, festivities, Free verse, poem, poetry, Santa, winter, words, Writing

06 Dec 2018

Government lies and secret files

Government lies and secret files
and prepare to wade through the bullshit
as it flows on down from above

There’s no responsibility in selling arms
to someone else
for them to kill someone else

and so the hands are clean
and the conscious is clear
Everyone’s friend is no one’s friend
and vice-versa
and around it goes

Sanction this and sanction that
and “they started it first”
and “my bomb’s bigger than your bomb”
as if they’re comparing their cocks
in the changing room

and there’s still room to change
but no one wants to
It’s all government lies and secret files
and the dirtiest clean hands
you’d never want to shake.

Posted in Free verse, humans, life, poem, Poetry, politics, words, Writing and tagged Free verse, lies, poetry, politics, words, Writing | Leave a comment

22 Oct 2018

Petrodollars

Wake up shattered
with bad news splattered
across the headlines,
the world’s deadline
as its hopes lie in tatters

with the continuation
of the transformation
of the sea into plastic
and the forest into sand
and the animals into memory

while the dollars exchange hands
and get sent offshore;
tax nicely evaded.
No answers needed
when no questions are asked.

Who needs a fucking conscience
when the blood-soaked petrodollars
slip so easily
into slimy outstretched palms?

Photo courtesy of: http://creativesci-fi.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dead_earth.jpg

Posted in extinction, Free verse, humans, life, murder, poem, poet, Poetry, weather, words, Writing and tagged ambientalismo, ambientalista, animalista, bad news, conscience, consumerism, corruption, environmental disaster, environmentalism, environmentalist, greed, news, no conscience, wealth | Leave a comment

30 Sep 2018

Sunday morning coffee

Early Sunday morning walk,
hungover.

Squinting in the morning light

Cappuccino with a double shot of coffee
and eyes that finally open

with the hoarse caw of the crow
and the hoarse voice of the barmaid
who must smoke a packet

or spend her life shouting
above the noise of the cutlery
being put in its place

as the coffee machine whirs
and the people sit
over their Sunday morning papers

as the cappuccino goes down
and the day opens up.

Posted in Free verse, images, Lugano, poem, poesia, poet, Poetry, Sounds, words, Writing and tagged alcohol, Free verse, life, morning, poem, Poet, poetry, words, Writing | Leave a comment

25 Sep 2018

Observations from a waiting room

The stairs crush my knees and steal my breath

and I get to the top and I ring the bell

and I enter the surgery but the waiting room

is empty except for the noise

because the window is open

and the noise from the street competes

with the radio newsreader’s urgency

to tell me the headlines and I can’t hear them

but maybe it’s a blessing because

I don’t want to hear them because

everyone has a missile pointed at someone else

and it’s always someone else’s fault

and everyone is trigger-happy

or God-fearing happy-clappy

and it’s mine versus yours anyway

and now the smell of the floor cleaner joins in with the noise

and the headlines as they vie for my senses

and it makes no sense and my knees hurt

and I can’t hear myself think

and I can’t feel myself breathe

and then the doctor comes out

and asks me how I am…

I’m here, aren’t I?

Posted in Free verse, humans, imagination, life, poet, Poetry, senses, Sounds, words, Writing and tagged Doctor, emotions, Free verse, GP. Waiting room, headlines, life, missile, morning, news, noise, pain, poem, Poet, poetry, radio, senses, street, war, words, Writing | Leave a comment

07 Sep 2018

1 Comment

Morning workout

I like to feel the cool air soothe my skin
as I stand outside on the balcony
and breathe the morning air.

I like to hear the leaves in the breeze-blown trees
chitter-chatter amongst themselves
in a language I don’t understand.

I like to see the rain roll down the window
and the streams run in the gutters,
now clean and ready to start again.

I like to watch the clouds chase each other
across the sky, racing in the wind,
making shapes only I can see.

Oh, and it’s Friday.

Posted in Free verse, poem, poet, Poetry, positivity, senses, weather, words, Writing and tagged clouds, Free verse, Friday, life, morning, poem, Poet, poetry, positivity, rain, senses, weather, wind, words, Writing

02 Sep 2018

3 Comments

No fun

No fun
having nothing to say
yet you could talk all day

No fun
having something to say
yet no will to say it

No fun
staring at the pen that won’t write
or the keys that won’t type
or the pages that only turn
in the late summer breeze.

Posted in Creation, Free verse, Poetry, words, Writer's block, Writing and tagged Free verse, pain, poem, Poet, poetry, words, Writer's block, Writing

31 Jul 2018

Morning story without the glory

The deep-water sound of someone pissing from a height at 4.30 in the morning
before the first blackbird has it in him
to wake up and start singing
and no car hums the tune of rubber on tarmac
and the night has its own sound
a no-sound
a “fuck me, well hello again, it’s you” sound
and I join in the silence,
eyes wide open and mouth closed shut
and I breathe in and I breathe out
and it doesn’t do much good and I turn over
on my side and wonder if I should read by reading light
or just get up and kiss the night
goodbye
so I say hi to my pen and paper and I want to write a story,
any story,
about the world and what goes on in it, within it
and all I end up writing, again, is my own.

Posted in Free verse, insomnia, poem, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged Free verse, insomnia, morning, night, pen and paper, poem, poetry, silence, sounds, story writing, summer, water, words, Writing | Leave a comment

17 Jul 2018

Sunrise (I wanna sleep)

“The sun’s coming up.”

“What?”

“The sun’s coming up.”

“It does that, in the morning.”

“Wanna take a look?”

“No, I want to sleep.”

“You should see it, the colours and everything.”

“Pink. It’s bound to be pink. Go to sleep.”

“How do you know what colour it is?”

“Because it’s always pink. Clear sky, pink clouds, pink sunrise. Pink.”

“I’ve seen sunrises that aren’t pink.”

“I’m happy for you, really. So, get up or go to sleep, either way I don’t care about the pink sunrise.”

“You should you know. After all, it may be your last.”

“What?”

“Well, we don’t know, do we?”

“Well that’s a cheery fucking thought. Thanks for that. How am I going to sleep now?”

“Just think, it could be your last sunrise and you’re missing it because you want to stay in bed and sleep.”

“So then just think, it would also be my last sleep and I’m missing it watching a bloody pink sunrise. Go to sleep!”

Posted in Dialogue, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humour, insomnia, Short Fiction Stories, story, words, Writing and tagged dawn, Fiction, Flash Fiction, humour, insomnia, morning, night, Relationships, summer, sunrise, words, Writing | Leave a comment

14 Jul 2018

1 Comment

Summer heat

Damp sheet,
summer heat
I turn my pillow
over and over
and fuck off mosquito, you bitch
(it’s the females that make you itch)
and now the early morning crows
are crowing, or cawing
while the neighbourhood is still snoring;
except me
and I’m turning
like an undecided Brexit MP
as I can’t for the life of me
cool down
so I get up
and stroll on the balcony
in my shorts
it’s just me and the crows anyway
in this summer heat.

Posted in Free verse, insomnia, poem, Poetry, weather, words, Writing and tagged Free verse, heat, insomnia, morning, night, no sleep, poem, poetry, summer, words, Writing

29 May 2018

7 Comments

Page-turner

This book’s “a real page-turner”
it says so on the back cover.
It’s not though really, is it?
Thinking about it.
It doesn’t turn its pages,
I do.
Pedantic I know.
Maybe I have writer’s envy.
I can’t write a page-turner
I can’t even write a page
Lately I can’t even write
Blocked like a drain;
again.

Posted in books, Free verse, poem, poet, Poetry, words, Writer's block, Writing and tagged books, Free verse, poetry, words, Writer's block, Writing

29 Apr 2018

Noise

Electric light, electric noise
The TV scream
and noise just hurts my ears
and tears my soul and

SILENCE! Please…

I can’t hear myself breathe
I can’t hear myself live
I can’t hear myself,

be myself

Posted in Free verse, humans, pain, poem, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged Free verse, noise, noise pollution, poem, Poet, poetry, soul, sounds, words, Writing | Leave a comment

31 Mar 2018

and all that jazz

Ivory tinkle
bass string pull
tic, tic, tic of the cymbal
as the brush sweeps the beat
toe-tap hep-cat
blowing sax
blow Bird, blow
woodwind winding out to meet me
reviving me
like a cold water splash to my face
or the clink of ice in my whisky

Posted in Free verse, Jazz, Music, poem, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged Charlie Parker, Jazz, music, poem, Poet, poetry, saxophone, whisky, words, Writing | Leave a comment

25 Feb 2018

Sunday morning (and Sunday Morning)

Wake up, stuffed nose, can’t breathe
can’t see, light switch, where’s the light switch?

Get up, still house, silence, silence
and the clock tick-tocks the night away.

Walk around, bare feet, cold feet
need a glass of water I’m parched.

Wine and bitter mouth, that last digestive
getting festive on a Saturday, as you do.

Sunday’s here and I’m the only one to see it
and when it’s time to get up I’ll go back to bed.

Not much to do but write and read and
Lester Bangs talks to me of Lou Reed
and The Velvet Underground.

Well, at least it’s Sunday Morning.

Posted in Blog, books, Music, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged awake, Lester Bangs, Lou Reed, morning, music, night, poem, Poet, poetry, reading, Sunday Morning, The Velvet Underground, words, Writing | Leave a comment

23 Feb 2018

Winter, let it go

The black night draped
in mourning
for the morning.
The first feelers of light
yet to be felt.
The first rays of the sun
yet to be raised
above the horizon,
as the long and tiresome
night drags on.

While the world outside
and me inside
wait for spring.

Posted in poem, poet, Poetry, seasons, Winter, words, Writing and tagged cold, morning, night, poem, Poet, poetry, seasons, spring, winter, words, Writing | Leave a comment

02 Feb 2018

1 Comment

Life. In a nutshell

As soon as I was born
I started living
As soon as I started living
I started dying.
Life. In a nutshell.

Posted in Blog, Free verse, life, Micropoetry, poem, poet, Poetry, time, words, Writing and tagged birth, dying, life, living, observations

29 Jan 2018

Through the haze

The world sags like a winter willow branch
and everything is sick and poisoned
and the air is noxious
and the ground is broken
and the jaundiced sun can’t see through the haze
and the haze is man-made
a man-made haze
the end of days
but don’t worry
it’s the size of the button that counts
and there’s always oil where the buffalo once roamed
I know that haze
it’s 500 million men dancing in the fumes of the dollar, the pound, the shekel.
Don’t forget the ruble, comrade.
What’s next off the production line, Jack?
What other piece of useless shit is being bagged and boxed?
As the hordes unfurl their sleeping bags outside the flagship store
Are they fucking serious?
Is this all for real?
As the jaundiced sun looks down
and tries to see through the haze.
Hand me that bottle, Jack,
at least we can recycle it when we’re done.

Posted in Blog, Free verse, poem, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged big business, bottle, corporate, corporations, globalisation, money, multinationals, pollution, recycled, uncaring, whisky | Leave a comment

19 Jan 2018

2 Comments

My pen

The morning after the night before. Which is good, it means you’ve survived. Lived to tell the tale.

My tongue licks sawdust and cries out for coffee. I agree and duly oblige. My tongue cries out again when I put the steaming cup to my lips. I think of my plans for the coming day but nothing materialises. It seems too large a step from where I am now to where I should be later.

My mind is grey, a bit like the January day which sits heavy outside my window; even the birds are reluctant to make themselves heard over the nothing in the air. Everything is flat, except my tongue.

The day seems to be wrapped in cellophane and I am the Clingfilm Kid. Get off your horse and make a Western out of that.

I’ve no revolver but my pen works fine and that’s something to go on with.

Posted in Blog, Creation, images, imagination, stories, story, words, Writing and tagged coffee, grey, grey sky, January, morning, pen, revolver, thoughts, Western

09 Jan 2018

Hats off to Raymond Chandler

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” So said Oscar Wilde.

While I hope my work isn’t mediocre, I can understand the sentiment behind the statement. We who doff our caps at others are acknowledging something which we appreciate and would probably like to do or achieve.

I have a weakness for reading Raymond Chandler. Every once in a while I’ll return to any one of a number of books on my shelf. A great writer. By all accounts a greater drinker also, but that’s neither here nor there. I’ve always loved reading Chandler and, not so long ago, as an idea to ‘unblock’, I wrote a small, Chandleresque sketch. It only runs to 68 words but after doing so I found a new impetus to my writing.

I hope you don’t find it too mediocre…

She offered me a coffee. I took it like a man. Black, no sugar; like my mood. I don’t know which discount supermarket she’d bought it from but even with hot water added it was as dry as a Saharan wind. I managed to drink it without pulling any expression except appearing concentrated on what she was saying, which wasn’t much. Her words flowed like an uphill stream.

Posted in books, Fiction, Flash Fiction, imagination, Sketch, words, Writer's block, Writing and tagged books, favourite writers, Fiction, flattery, imitation, Raymond Chandler, reading, sketch, Writer's block | Leave a comment

04 Jan 2018

2 Comments

Monochrome

January
damp and cold January
I have a cough and I cough and I splutter.
Does it matter? Does it matter?

My cough plumbs the depth of my lungs in the night like my soul plumbs the depths of despair in winter and the clouds…
…and the clouds are pigeon shit-grey and they roll in then roll over then roll away and leave me…

bathed in monochrome
and the rain…and the rain.

It’s water and I’m dancing
I drank more water than what fell to earth last autumn
so we rain-danced for a drenching soul-cleaning and yet…

it’s January
damp and cold January
let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
pour your monochrome down upon me.

Posted in Free verse, images, life, poem, poet, Poetry, rain, weather, Winter, words, Writing and tagged clouds, cold, cough, damp, Despair, emotions, Free verse, grey, January, life, lungs, monochrome, morning, night, poem, Poet, poetry, rain, rain-dance, soul, water, weather, winter, words, Writing

29 Dec 2017

2 Comments

Whore of the morning

That old adage about “write what you know” – I should laugh in its face and stick my fingers in its eyes.

I started this blog , as it says on the tin (well, the heading), as a pin-board for airing poems and flash-fiction first drafts and ideas. Of late, after a barren summer, I’ve hit a creative vein, with no idea why except it runs in tandem with another bout of worse-than-usual sleeplessness. I don’t want this blog to become a shrine to insomnia so things will change in 2018 (that’s two days and, possibly, two nights…).

This is this blog’s last insomniac poetic hurrah! If I couldn’t write anything else then I would stick my pen where the sun doesn’t shine. Luckily, I can and I have been (just not here, o bored and tired reader).

Have a great New Year everyone and thanks for looking in.

Chris
_______________________________

And still the treacherous night lingers on
and pulls me along with it
incapable of leaving me behind
in a dreaming world of slumber;
the fucker.

And still my words spill across the page
and takes me away for a while,
pulling me into its world
where pen and hand work in unison;
the saviour.

And still my eyes remain open
and my awakened mind rages
full of ideas that fall on paper
as my head wants to fall;
on my pillow.

and yet, and yet…
and yet I love these early hours;
the quiet, the still, the night sounds
– or early morning sounds – take your pick.

A slave to the whore of the morning
fresh on her rounds and as yet untouched,
the sheets still unblemished
and the rose cheeks of her sunrise.

Posted in Free verse, hope, insomnia, life, poem, poesia, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged Despair, emotions, Free verse, Hope, insomnia, life, morning, night, poem, Poet, poetry, sleep, soul, words, Writing

24 Dec 2017

Ode to one’s birthday

Another year, another…well, year, I suppose.
Time doesn’t drift, it flies.
It flies in the face of life,
it flies in the face of all that we know
yet can do nothing about.
I’m older today than I ever was before
and I’m younger today than I ever will be again.
Time.
Catches up.
Slows down.
Speeds up.
If we’re lucky we can hitch a ride,
but we can just as well walk.
The horizon is ever before us.
Take note:
the road behind is barred
the road ahead is open
our worn-down heels will be our proof of our existence.
Time.

Posted in Blog, Free verse, life, poem, poesia, poet, Poetry, words, Writing and tagged birthday, Death, Free verse, life, poem, Poet, poetry, time, words, Writing | Leave a comment

First drafts – A few pages in the large wilderness of the world of writing

Archive for the category “words”

Photo courtesy of: http://creativesci-fi.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dead_earth.jpg

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