Tag: Thoughts

#PoeticAnswers 2017 – Done!

100 days, 100 questions, 100 answers as poems.

102 days ago, I would’ve said “that’s impossible!” But here we are.  And I’m a mix of emotions about it. Pride, accomplished, relieved, astonished (I honestly thought I’d give up after day ten) but also… I’m not completely satisfied.

I’m proud of dedicating myself and finishing the challenge, and there is a lot of work that I’m proud of. But there’s definitely some poems in there that didn’t turn out how I wanted them to or I was just generally not happy with.

I think there’s a lot of material that has potential and there’s some I may rewrite entirely, but right now, I’m all poemed out and could use a wee break.

So, if you’re interested, all of this year’s poems can be found here, please feel free to peruse. The future is on it’s way and it involves videos and more new writing. If you have any questions or want a chat, hit me up.

Huge, special thank yous belong to my friend Dave, who has been a very dedicated and supportive friend (he wrote these out in a book! It was the best birthday present ever!) and finally to Michael Clark who has contributed around 12-15 percent of these questions! Thank you both so, so much.

And finally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you. The readers, the questioners, without you, I wouldn’t have gotten to this. Thank you for your love and support.

I’ll be back soon with more poems, posts and gig updates!

 

#PoeticAnswers 84 – Why Is 42 The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

Physicists and philosophers
Have pondered the expanse of
Life, the universe, and everything.
They have been searching for an answer like
Addicts about to crack while hunting for
An honest needle in a haystack of politics,
Like the answer is a holy grail or
A point on a map that no one ever drew.
And then when a man said it was 42,
They didn’t know if it was the real answer
Or a note of latitude or longitude,

So instead of trying to take it further
They accepted it like
A man broken by a barrage of religion
As it battered down his door accepting
It’s doctrine as his lord and saviour.
Stooping and not stopping to
Question truth and reality until
It was too late.

But yesterday’s later is today’s now,
And we’ve began asking questions of
Why and how and when and why not,
Questioning the world and what we’ve got,
Acting like the status quo was just a band
And nothing more and now we’ve got
A lot more to stand for.
Like the truth.

So we asked and stripped down forty-two
With interrogation and maths,
Breaking it down into God Particles and
Jesus Lizards and quantum paths through
Space and time and time again,
Seeing what we want to see and
Finding we’re wrong and we’re right.
The constants are constantly changing
And the more we break life down,
We discover that maybe
Life isn’t made, it’s what we make it
Or life isn’t worth it at all.

But the truth is hidden behind a wall
Of uncertainty and fear and
We won’t look behind it because
Maybe it wont be the answer we’re looking for.
So I’ll move to believe in the great fourty-two,
And I won’t ask questions anymore.

Question from Hanne V.B. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 67 – What Is ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ Really About?

Is it a metaphor for consumerism.
Regarding how the mass-market
Attempts to force new products down our throats,
Attempts to show that everything is replaceable
Attempts to make the new seem better and you should invest,
Despite the fact that the rich and obscene
Don’t really know what the people want or need?

Is it about mass-production,
A biting commentary on how
Saturation and over production
Is creating defects that are fit for consumption
But human nature encourages us to
Frown upon change and throw
Valued necessities away like yesterday’s trash?

Is it about genetic modification,
And how the scientific society has
Grown and developed to try to replace
Nature’s gifts before we destroy them,
But humanity is resilient and doesn’t want to
Give up on their heritage and history because
We hate and fear change and require
Something to blame for human misgivings?

Or am I overthinking it too much,
And it’s just a children’s book for children
Filled with colours and rhymes
To survive all of time,
Acting as a generational catalyst for
New and young readers?

Or is it just an important statement
About not eating Kermit and Miss Piggy’s children?

Question from my comedy buddy, Konal

#PoeticAnswers 66 – What Is The Meaning Of Life?

Finding the meaning of life,
Or trying to find and
Understand what life means is something that
Readers, writers, scientists and philosophers have
Tried to do for but failed because Life’s meaning is something only the
You and I’s can truly decide on.

The meaning of life is to do:
Whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want.
Otherwise, life has no meaning.

Question from Gabriel McC from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 60 – Why Do People Give Up On You When You Move Away?

I can’t believe,
I won’t believe,
That it was actually intentional.
They’re my best friend so
It cant be malice but
With each passing day, I feel more like
Alice in the rabbit hole.
Falling further away,
The distance stretching like
Shadows in the setting sun.
Even though I’m reaching out,
My calls and messages disappear
Like carrier pigeons shot out of the air
But I don’t know if I’d rather it was
Enemy or friendly fire.

This friendship now feels like
It’s paved with good intentions
And sudden turns for the worst,
And roundabout excuses.
And even though I know the way,
The signposts are vandalised with
New tags with your initials and
A name that I don’t know.
I didn’t realise that, apparently,
You were waiting for the right time to quit.
I hope someday you realise that
Your new nicotine patch or meat substitute
Won’t feel the same.
And eventually,
You’ll come to miss me as much as I miss you.

Because I didn’t mean to hurt you.
And although you feel that
I stabbed you in the back,
Please know that the blade was too long
And I stabbed myself in the heart.
And now there’s an aching in my chest,
Now there’s a hole in my heart,
But you don’t care.

Because I moved away .
Then you put the distance between us.

Question from Lexi H. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 59 – Someone Called Me From This Number, Can You Help Me Figure Out Why?

Thank you for calling,
How can I help?
I’m sorry, I don’t have that information,
Can I take some of your information?
I can try to make an informed decision
I can try to draw a logical conclusion
I can try to-

I’m sorry?
Well no I don’t know,
I need to know more
Before I can find out who knows
What you’re supposed to know,
So if you could let me know
A little more about-

I’m just the receptionist,
I’m just the front desk,
I’m trying to do my best
But I need to know the rest
Of your information, I can’t guess
Or things could become a mess
So if I could just-

If you-
Could you-
Can I-
Would you-
Ma’am if-
I need-
SHUT UP AND LET ME HELP YOU.

I need your name,
Your address,
Your contact telephone number,
Your email address,
Blood type,
Mother’s maiden name,
The fourth and seventh number of your bank card.

Thank you,
Was that so hard?
You want help?
I need help,
Professional help,
Psychiatric help
Because of customers like you.

It’s people like you
That make me want to
Change the ‘S’ to an ‘N’ in customer.
It’s people like you
That make me want to
Put a motor on my stapler and go on a rampage.
It’s people like you-

I’m sorry,
Did you just say ‘sorry’?
You’re the first person to ever say sorry.
I’m not saying sorry.
I’m sorry you feel that way.
I’m sorry but-
Sorry?

I’m sorry,
You have the wrong number.

Question from Felicia W. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 55 – How Can I Make Her Love Me Like I Love Her?

You can’t.

Because love isn’t something
That can be made in a shed like
Made to measure jigsaw pieces
Because love isn’t about
Making cuts and changes to make it fit.

Love is natural and organic,
Like the tree that was cut down
And stripped and made bare and
Manipulated and carved into
Something it wasn’t.

Love is something that needs to
Take root and grow
As a result of care and patience
And then let it’s arms
Reach out of their own accord.

It’s not something that should be
Forced and coerced under
Bright lights and routine and glass roofs
Because then it would be
Synthetic and false.

Love has to be authentic,
It can’t grow in a cage because
It won’t grow or blossom into what it should be.
Trying to force, construct or deconstruct it
Will only make it invalid.

It wouldn’t be true to her or you

Question from Colin M. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 54 – How’s The Poetry Challenge Going?

It’s like climbing a mountain of paper,
Or more appropriately, a mountain range
Because there’s a whole range of topics
But they all feel the same and I’m
Trudging through these snow drafts and
Getting colder in an uphill struggle because
I’m never peaking or reaching the
Tops of my potential because it’s a
Pinball tabletop plateau. That’s to say,
It’s feels like I’m falling flat on an incline and
Bouncing around ideas but nonetheless
Doing the same things over and over again.
I’m becoming snowblind and I
Can’t see the line between disillusion and mirage
And when it looks like I’m making tracks
I’m not smiling it’s just my face
Beginning to crack from the pressure and
Altitude and magnitude of the situation.
I’m seeing the same metaphors and visions
Dressed in different expositions but I know
They’re the same. It’s just repetition
Of ideas and images because I left
My originality behind twenty days ago
Because it ran out and I couldn’t carry
The excess weight of the emptiness around
And sometimes it feels like
I’m not even on the mountain anymore
Because I feel buried, like I’m underground,
Like I’m in hell like Persephone,
Five months after the kidnap.
Almost giving up on her
Fruitless endeavours and tired of
Repeating herself over and over.
Just waiting out for a
Bright new day and waiting for
The sun to come out and melt
All the misery away and
Finally manage to make and feel something
New.

Today’s question comes from a chat with a flyerer on the Royal Mile who was interested in what I do.

#PoeticAnswers 52 – Where Is This Train Going?

It’s not quite a one-way ticket,
But it’s not quite a return either.
It’s quite possibly
The vaguest journey to ever unfold,
Because this train tends to
Go off the rails
And meander and roll towards
Destinations and conclusions
That aren’t on a map.

And this train isn’t fuelled
By any standard means
Once the electricity ends,
Once it runs out of steam,
It starts running on imagination.
At which point, it’s less about
Point A to Point B and more like
Pointed to pointless
Endless, listless and aimless.

Going through cities and countryside
On a magical mystery ride through
Memories and dreams,
Riding into the future through
Detours of maybes,
Past purple skies and cities that never sleep
And fields of clouds and streams of whiskey,
Freestyling and meandering it’s way to
No where in particular.

Question from Michael Clark from Facebook