The Despair of Loneliness - Ian Renouf-Watkins

Loneliness isn’t being alone
Or separate from the throng
It’s being in a crowded room
Thinking it’s all gone wrong

Going unheard unnoticed
Is an average day for some
With feelings of isolation
Keeping us silently undone

Feel pity for the misanthrope
Take in any muted strangers
Embrace the frequently lost
Reduce our many dangers

The alternative is a hubris
Barriers kept up unseen 
Guaranteeing us invisibility 
Until we hang from a beam

Ian Renouf-Watkins


Image : Pixabay - Graehawk

Kittens and Puppies (What the f?!) - Ian Renouf-Watkins

Ooh and aah we whine as puppies gambol
Aah and ooh we purr as kittens caper
Their tom-foolery consummately droll
As they fumble around in toilet paper.
Chocolate boxes and gushing adverts
Sentimentality dripping off every frame
Pets at home, pets in the park, pets asleep
And even dogs that apparently play cards.
So when you’re next fussing over pets
Remember the Syrians, Yemeni’s too
Afghans and Libyans forgotten by you
Bleeding and dying left without hope
But then again, that puppy is so dope.


Image : Pixabay - janeb13

Social ? Media - Ian Renouf-Watkins

She ghosted me man, ‘like’ totally cut me off
He posted me girl, ‘like’ totally in the buff
Influencers tend to their mindless herds
‘Random’ and senseless as utter turds

Swiping a screen has become such a habit
Thumbs get more sex than an average rabbit
Instant answers even when wrong
Like prefab intelligence very soon gone

Vocabulary is ‘so like’ mmm, ‘so not’ good
That congenital idiots appear understood
Messaging via an ‘app’ is apparently talking
And straightforward dialogue totally insulting

Feminism has been replaced in a makeover
Pictured powdered girls pouting moreover 
Trying so hard to look ‘so’ just perfect
Going too far and ‘like’ losing self-respect

Hairless air-brushed bodies presented
Girls and boys ‘so’ mentally stunted
Swipe left for no and ‘like’ right for yes
It’s hardly surprising they’re a total mess

Turn off the phone then ‘like’ leave it alone
Surgically extract it from your hand bones
Look up not down and perhaps be totally cool
And don’t get run over on the way to f’ing school

Ian Renouf-Watkins

Image : Pixabay - Firmbee

Rage Against My Machine - Ian Renouf-Watkins

My body is telling me I’m old, older still at least
Because bits don’t work and some, so full of metal
That bone has gone amiss somewhere...elsewhere
Awry, around, through and down, it bloody hurts!
Warmth, not anymore, not felt, seen or even heard
Anyway, I feel absurd; irascible in fact, so much
So, knowing I should have given up, but years ago
When my body told me to stop, no, that’s enough!
Is enough, enough? I want more, don’t you?

To breathe easy, walk easily, run… don’t laugh
At me, it isn’t funny… is it really that uncanny
To dream of such simple pleasures, quietly?
It’s a bastard, a git, a complete shit storm of feelings
Coursing through me, as my legs still refuse to work
Properly, righteously angry, I want to scream loudly
But no one will hear it tumble, only, a useless mumble.
From my lips, slips the tip of something lost
Not found again, not ever retrievable, or even able
To really articulate how I’m feeling. Lost perhaps?
But, mostly, dog tired, stretched and horridly feeble.

Ian Renouf-Watkins

Competition Winner - December 2013A Universal Truth - Ian Renouf-Watkins

A bubble so clear, a small roundel of tear
Glass-like yet fluid, it shimmers and slides
Dripping and dropping it’s so full of light
Sliding down gently, it’s the water of life.

Ian Renouf-Watkins

(The Quandary Of) A Painful Loss - Ian Renouf-Watkins

Fire burned inside his head
Stole any rational thought
Flames leaving only dread
His pulse would fall to nought

Muscles tensed eyes closed
Draining his last reserves
A painful and final choke
Delivered his craved dessert

Hot tears so openly shed
Though not for very long
As many were glad he’s dead
When they heard he’d gone

Light faded from his sight
A vacuum shut out sound
Losing in his final fight
And sent to the burial mound

Many came wept to mourn
And a few they lingered on
All were cut, so badly torn
Not seeing right from wrong

We watched his awful pain
Sobbed quietly out of sight
But now he’s thrown his chains
We can celebrate the light

Ian Renouf-Watkins

Money feels good? - Ian Renouf-Watkins

Feel the crisp touch on your hand
Does it feel good, give you happiness?
Tender might make you feel grand
Though can it really end your loneliness?

Un-peel a note from your roll
Will it assure you, create contentment?
Money that pays for your soul
Can it be more than greedy sentiment?

Give all your money away
Would it be wise, will you feel better?
“Keep it,” the Devil will say
It’s always important to be much richer…

Ian Renouf-Watkins

Remember, Remember - Ian Renouf-Watkins

Lying here in pain tho’ blessed with life
Eyes turn to the slain as again we mourn
Our outpourings of grief so pure yet futile
Do nothing to stem the blood still torn
By a landscape hopeless with desolation.

Lying here in pain an unwilling patient
Heart beating the black dog of despair
As tortured tears stream bereaved cheeks
And streets fill with dark crow-red fear
Making our efforts a poor desecration.

Lying here in pain a lucky man yet
Giving thanks to those gone in November
The tightly coarse voices whispering
We must remember we must remember
Sacrifices made for our shared salvation.

Ian Renouf-Watkins