( A collection of poems written January- May 2016)
By
Liam Whetstone
©2016 LIAM WHETSTONE all rights reserved
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
And to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Liam Whetstone
Tranquillity
No external interference
No tiresome interruptions
No unwelcome disruptions
Secure solitude
At peace with life
At peace with yourself
Leave all life’s stresses
To one side
For your sanity
And peace of mind
Invasion of Alien Thoughts
The evil army musters in secret
Gathering its deadly weapons
Developing its tactics
This terrible army
Signals out those minds
That are inactive
These demonic troops
Strike when all defences are down
With catastrophic effect
They set up camp
Inside the inactive mind
Infecting it with a feeling of
Constant dread
A sense
Of impending doom.
Shattering Glass
Fragile, yet still resistant
Struggling against the
Pressure of life
Fighting of the collapse
Determined to survive
The glass begins to crack
And eventually, shatters
When the pressure
Is just too strong.
Inevitable Madness
When everything is too much
When nothing makes sense
When everyone puts you down
There is only one outcome
When there is no hope of help
When rationale is forsaken
And darkness takes over
The victim retreats
Into an internal
World of madness
Suffocated by the fumes
Of self-deception.
Irritating Encounters
When one is waiting for a buss
One likes to be left alone
Even when there are others in the que
Yes just a bit of peace and quiet please
How bothersome it is indeed
When my tranquillity is interrupted
By someone who wishes to
Babble on about blaming “them”
Making ridiculous statements
Like “all them foreigners get everything for nothing”
And “They should just send them home”
And other such nonsense
Also they seem to
Make the preposterous assumption
That I also hold
Such ignorant viewpoints
At least with
The welcome arrival of one’s buss
One can escape this
Bothersome situation
And take a seat far away
From the tiresome fool.
The Button
Well then sir
Will you press this button?
Will you do the right thing?
To protect your people?
Well all it does
Is set of a nuclear missile
That will murder billions
And result in the complete
Destruction of our planet
It’s quite obvious that
This button should
Never be pressed
It’s not a matter for
Discussion and debate
How can anything
That will destroy everything
Be used to protect anyone.
The True Face of a Psychopath
These people appear to be calm
Not always waving their hands
Not always ranting
Not always raving
They seem to be rational thinkers
They speak there insane mind
As if it were a sane mind
However what they say
And the relaxed casual
Way they say it
Is proof enough
That they are psychotic
A Most Useful Weapon
Allow me to explain, they say
Come and sit down for a minute, they say
They speak
You listen
Their mission is to
Get you to change your mind
To get you to agree with them.
Because there suggestions
Are reasonable and
Your ideas are ridiculous
They attack you with
This weapon
Over and over and over again
Striving to break down
Your defences
But you must never capitulate
For reason is a weapon of
The deceitful, self-serving
Manipulator.
The Wisdom of my Lofty Superiors
Their wisdom is so grand
Their wisdom is so profound
I must always heed it
For my superiors are so clever
As they kindly remind me of the obvious
Eloquently explaining to me
That if I stand out in the rain
I will get wet.
So I could never survive without
My lofty superiors.
Quality Discourse
To converse one to one
On matters of
High importance
Is a most enjoyable experience
To converse one to one
On matters of no importance
Is a crushing bore
To converse one to one
With one of like mind
Is a most pleasant experience
To converse one to one
With one of a quite different mind
Is the grandest experience.
A Cloak of Protection
Many of you wear this cloak
To protect yourself
From matters of high significance
You walk around like zombies
With your eyes blindfold
When asked
What do you think of all the tragedy?
Taking place in the world?
Some of you look bemused
Some of you look irritated
And some of you look away.
Distracted by what you call
Light entertainment
Deliberately ignorant.
Disintegration
At first unnoticeable
Only dusty scratches appear
Gradually getting bigger
As life takes its heavy toll
Years and years of toil
Have left their
Un-fixable damage
Eventually nothing remains
Of our lives but memory
Like invisible
Yet present shadows
Winding Down
At the end of a hard day
Whether it’s a hard day’s work
Or a day of tiresome stress
We all need to relax
We all need to put our troubles
To one side
We all need to make
Time for things we enjoy
Lest the stress get to strong
And thus destroy us completely.
Unseen Agony
A menacing fog
Enshrouds the mind
Infecting it like a virus
Only the sufferer truly
Understands how it feels
It is concealed within
The mind of the sufferer
Until the virus completely
Consumes the mind
And nothing remains but
Toxic unbearable enervation
Creeping Insanity
In the first week
Seconds of madness
In the second week
Minutes of madness
In the third week
Hours of madness
In the fourth week
Three days of madness
In the fifth week
Madness saturation
Mind capitulation
Utopia
Where it never rains
Where it never snows
Where there is no disease
Where life is limitless
Where there is no violence
Where nature holds no dominion
Where greed is an alien concept
Where there is no poverty
Where there is no homelessness
A forever distant
Undiscovered land
Preposterous Insolence
Hark, it is you again I see
You fine ladies and gentleman
Who always know better than me?
You most exceptional folk
Must educate me in the
Ways of conversation
In the ways of humour
In the ways of right and wrong
You always feel the need
To impart to me
Your vital information
Indeed it is your divine right
As it is also your divine right
To misunderstand me
Because there is only one style
Of conversation
Does it not occur to you?
That I may have my own
Style of conversing
This does not indicate
That I must be put right
To presume so
Would be too simple
It might even be
That my direct way
Of conversing is more useful
Than yours
As your way is
Tied in knots with
Emotive triggers
A Myth of Grand Proportion
Some of you seem to think
That I do not understand
How you feel
Some of you seem to think
That I am unable
To empathise with you
When you are facing
An ordeal or catastrophe
I may not show it
In the way you expect
But I do feel
The greatest empathy
With those who
Struggle and suffer.
Waiting for the Cement to Dry
Long lines of bricks
Placed one on top
Of the other
In the traditional fashion
The structure seems
Complete
But the cement is still wet
The work is not yet finished
To assume so would be
Disastrous
The structure would
Simply collapse
And you would
Have to start again
So it’s probably best
To wait, until the cement dries
An Assembly of Ethics
This was formed, to protect people
It was not formed to be used as
A vehicle for a few to get rich
At the expense of the many
It was not formed so this
Country or that country
Could get the best deal
This grand old organisation
Should be run on the ethics
Of humanism and equality
Not the principles of
Greed and self interest
Wearisome Days
Slept in again
What is on today’s agenda?
Yes I see, that’s it
I should get up I suppose
And seize the day
Yet weariness persists
With its companion
Apathy
Well, let’s get a coffee
And get on with the day then.
In/Out
A once in a generation decision
No second chances
Safety in numbers
Or a leap into the dark
Collective unity
Or separatist nationalism
Protection of workers’ rights
Or no workers’ rights
Protection of human rights
Or no human rights
As a matter of fact
It’s quite an easy decision
Obstructionists
All these doors are locked
For a reason
We have the keys
It’s for your own good
You’re not doing this
You’re not doing that
You’re not going there
You’re not reading that
You’re not watching this
You’re not listening to that
It’s for your own good
Mysterious Pathways
There is a path to the north
There is a path to the south
There is a path to the east
There is a path to the west
All look most inviting
All look most intriguing
But all look rather
Daunting
Down the path to the north
There is??
Down the path to the south
There is??
Down the path to the east
There is??
Down the path to the west
There is??
Unless one ventures
Down one of these pathways
You will never discover
What lies down them?
And if you do not
Like what you find
You can always
Go back to the beginning
And
Try
A different path
Where is the Rule Book?
I have never seen it
So why should I
Abide by a set
Of fictional rules
Why can’t I ask a question?
Without getting a negative reaction
Why can’t I make
A direct statement without
Giving offence
And being instructed
In the fictional
Rules of conversation.
Preaching to the Unconverted
Ladies and gentleman
I have come here today
On a matter of high importance
You are all good people
You all have lives to maintain
You all live through
The stresses of
The modern world
But there are those who
Are better off than you
Would you not like?
To improve
Your quality of life
Well there is a way to do this
Now I understand most of you
Are convinced that
All politicians are the same
That they are all greedy careerists
And that nothing will ever change
Well what if there was a genuine person
Leading a political party
With logical policies that would
Improve your lives
Would you vote for such a person?
Frustrations
Another and another and another
Why won’t anything go right?
Why can’t I have some good luck for once?
Why does everything I want to do get scuppered
By the incompetence of others
Why can’t people do simple things?
Why can’t people understand direct statements?
That’s just the way
Life is I suppose.
Insubordination
How dare you
You small minded fools
How dare you presume?
To question me
Indeed your audacity is
Most insufferable
How dare you suppose
That your way is better than mine
How dare you look down?
Your nose at me
How dare you say?
That my ethical values
Are inferior to your
Ideas of greed
And first come first served
Get thee gone from my sight
At once.
Just Visiting
So this is planet earth
With its inequality
With its injustice
With its wars
With its starvation
With its destitution
Quite an interesting planet
It is to be sure
It’s humans are also most
Intriguing when observed
With their false conversation
With their greed
With their ulterior motives
With their sarcasm
With their hints
With their reactionary hearts
On second thoughts
I think I shall return
To my own planet.
Liam Whetstone 