Tuesday, December 31, 2019

1208 - Idle Thoughts II

Dead to the World

The ambulance came.
People.  Noise.  Anxiety.
Someone slept through it.



Year's End.

The year has ended—
The arbitrary passing of time,
Marked by a rocket.
     .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
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Monday, December 30, 2019

1207 - Not Fahrenheit

Not Fahrenheit.

Forty four degrees—
The promised temperature.
I hope that is all.
     .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
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Sunday, December 29, 2019

1206 Idle thoughts I

A Dog's View

Live life like a dog —
Everything is worth a sniff,
Often a couple.



Gratitude
Practice gratitude;
Even for things unpleasant—
They could have been worse.
     .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, December 15, 2019

1205 - Alone



Alone

The noise of the sea is a constant,
The wind just comes and goes;
The spray comes off the wave tops,
The sand runs through the toes.

Alone,
A chance to think
And hone,
To stop the headlong
Forward pace;
To recognise
That life is not a sprint,
And really not a race.
    .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, November 10, 2019

1204 - The One-Walled Cage


The One-Walled Cage

Ceaselessly, you prowl side to side,
Restrained in your comfy coup;
Lamenting the woes of yesteryear
While reveling in them, too.

Inside
Is joined to outside.

It's clear this truth, as such, appalls.
But there will come a time when you must decide
To step around the walls.
    .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, October 20, 2019

1203 - Crews Control



Crews Control

At a distance it is a lovely blue,
A vessel displaying a certain grace
It glides serenely through time and space,
Indifferent to the actions of the crew.

Like children fighting for the best position
Of cabin, top bunk or at the Captain's table;
Greedy, ignorant and quite unstable,
They are suicidal acts of self-coition.

Arrogantly, the crew have not yet assessed
The ship's unconcern with their petty fights,
As it powers onwards through the nights —
Will it become the next Mary Celeste?

A hundred tableaus in a hundred rooms
Meanwhile, not far up ahead, disaster looms.
    .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Monday, October 14, 2019

1202 - It's for Happy Birthday, Right?


It's for Happy Birthday, Right?

It's your birthday.
In honour - a special gift,
Monogrammed: HB.
    .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, October 13, 2019

1201 - Fragmented




Fragmented

There is much to do
But I cannot do it all.
For time is so short.
    .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

1200 - Stressful




 Stressful 
A colleague told me she felt 'stressful'.
I had to agree.

A lady who presented with a dress-full
Declared that she was feeling quite 'stressful'.
I think she meant 'stressed'
But, by the way she was dressed,
The first was most certainly successful.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

1199 - Past Lessens



Past Lessens
An anniversary.
What better than a rondeau?

But don’t forget that life goes on,
Events should end once they have gone,
Yet the human mind is a queer machine,
Sometimes kind but often mean,
It drags things back from the beyond
To make you relive and dwell upon
The unpleasant things you’ve undergone.
It’s time to wipe the blackboard clean,
But don’t forget.

And this is the strange phenomenon,
To learn our lessons, pro and con,
But not fall into that dark ravine,
To learn the lessons but shun the spleen.
To not forgive would be quite wrong.
But don’t forget.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Saturday, May 25, 2019

1198 - Lilliput II



Lilliput II

Why am I amongst aliens?
Who are these people?
Why are their values so foreign?
They lead me to weep 'til the dawn
(Sleep, tragically forelorn)
Wherein I lament the lost dreams
As a new dark ages begins,
Fear trumps vision, it seems.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Thursday, April 25, 2019

1197 - Sunny Morning





Sunny Morning
Breaking old habits.

Have you ever woken and found
That what had hung over you,
That what had clung onto you,
Had disappeared in the night?
You’ll like it if you do.

It’s not so much delight,
It’s more a sort of relief,
An absence of the angst and grief
That darkened life around—
Missed, 
The way you don’t miss a thief.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

1196 - I Call Bullshit




I call Bullshit

It seems that’s bull, as in bully.


The phrase is meant to point out lies
That others feed to us,
Things they’d prefer we didn’t spot,
Rather than to discuss
The facts, where it seems they're not exact.

It’s not a weaponised way to hit
Every comment, all replies—
So, now, I am calling bullshit.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, February 24, 2019

1195 - The Last Frontier




The Last Frontier

The facts
Will never change
A mind,
Those numbers,
Graphs and words—
They just bounce right off
The boney wall,
Ignored, or worse,
Misheard.

So how
Can we
Be allowed
To call,
To convey
Our deepest fear
For the future of our kind,
To get past
The guarded ear?
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Saturday, January 26, 2019

1194 - Probably Not




Probably not.

Haiku Horizons: Sorry.

Words cut to the bone—
Even more than actions do.
Would a 'sorry' help?

Just another word;
So weak in every sense.
It cannot repair.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
---

Sunday, January 20, 2019

1193 - Predator



Predator
On receiving medical news.

Imagine a river,
Wide, inviting, shimmering
Calm on a quiet, balmy morning.

Every day, relaxed,
You strip off your cares,
Your dusty, soiled garments
of yesterday
and slip gratefully
Into the fresh waters
Of a new day.

Imagine this,
This daily ritual.
Refresh and renew.
The river of life.

One day, a local asks
"Did you know
There is a crocodile
In the river?"

Nothing has changed.
But everything has.
   .
---
© 2019 J Cosmo Newbery
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