I Can’t Think To Seem Straight - Lyndon Queripel

I can’t think to seem straight
No, I can’t think
For myself or on my feet
Of the names to the faces
On the street
My mind is blank
Missing a link
I can’t think to seem straight
No, I can’t think
Of what to say when we meet
I feel my heart
Skip a beat
My mind is blank
My eyes just blink

I can’t think to seem straight
No, I can’t think
I’m overcome by the heat
Without a shadow
Left to retreat
My mind is blank
I need a drink
I can’t think to seem straight
No, I can’t think
Without an object to defeat
 I can’t sleep
And I can’t eat
My mind is blank
I start to shrink
I can’t think to seem straight
No, I can’t think.

Lyndon Queripel

Image : Pixabay - ErikaWittlieb

A Poet's Last Stand - Ian Duquemin

I am so frail that I can barely breathe
Yet my mind refuses rest
My pen dilly dally's across paper like a stone skips on water
Spider ink scrawls from my scatty thoughts, as though a madman has moved into my head... With squatter's rights well learned
Is this to be my epitaph? Like so many "lasts"
Surely this cannot be my masterpiece. My pièce de résistance. My Magnum Opus
But in truth... I am only a poet... Always the dreamer... So then... I am but a fool

Ian Duquemin

Image : Pixabay - cromaconceptovisual

It’s Irksome - Diana Pritchard

this shadow that follows
cancels out my moves
taunts and teases
traces my extremities
from my nose to my toes
making out that I lie
like poor Pinocchio
I’m no Narcissus
seeking self-reflection
I have no beauty
but see my ageing mother
in all the windows
so have no need of shadow.

Diana Pritchard

This is an Ekphrastic poem based on a painting of an Indonesian Shadow Puppet - Kresna, Wayang Kulit Purwa, Central Java.

Image : Nurmalinda Maharfar Wikipedia

Rising - Ian Duquemin

I'd sit down and think of the times of my past
The shit and the shadows depression had cast
The troubles, the fears, in a future untold
I'd cling to those times, though they left me so cold
I'd grow from a child who was always in pain
I'd fall to my knees, but I'd rise once again
Over and over the hurdles appeared
But the falls became lessons I no longer feared
No barrier stopped me, I'd crash my way through
I tried to be someone who's honest and true
Those days as a child they were never to last
As you cannot move forward, if you live in the past
I think of those days with a new sense of pride
As no one can tell me that I've never tried
I give what I can to those living in pain
As I know in my heart... You will rise once again

Ian Duquemin
Image : Pixabay - Crucifurr

You I See - Ian Duquemin

I stared into my eyes
Reflected in my view
I hated who I saw
As all I see is you
The scars of life on show
The pain I only see
I grip the razors edge
To cut you out of me

The smile that I now wear
Is torn upon my skin
Reminds me of the child
You locked away within
The little boy long lost
Who never dared to cry
A lifetime torn in two
Who's truth was all a lie

And in my hour of need
You turned and walked away
The memories that remain
Forever in that day
The blood that stains my hurt
A mask that once was me
Yet through these eyes of mine
It's only you I see

I hated who you were
And now I hate myself
You damaged everything
To satisfy yourself
And here I stand alone
A grin that bares your shame
But you will never win
As now I smile again

Ian Duquemin

There’s A World Outside - Lyndon Queripel

Flash through my window
Sunlight slipstream
Drivers swearing
While tyres scream
Red stop bus queues
All running late
Old man walking
He won’t wait
Young girl with sad eyes
Baby on her arm
Life seemed so calm
Back on the farm
Why won’t she turn away
From all this madness
She thought her kiss
Would mean success

There’s a world outside
Of the dreams you store
Take steps, don’t hide
You could lose much more

Now the day is dying
And the night is bare
City lights don’t shine
They can only glare
Freedom is counted
Between nines and fives
Punch card wrist job
And time table lives
So buy your ticket
And ride your rail
Letter your tall stories
Where all diaries fail
Why don’t you turn away
From all this madness
Before you change
More than your address

There’s a world outside
Of your four walled door
Have you joined the slide
Leading to the floor

Park bench prophets
With embankment shrines
Dark dustbin treasures
And cardboard goldmines
Down in subway hotels
Beneath concrete streets
Cold pillows of wind
And old newspaper sheets
But in centre circle
There’s a missing link
A face in space
It’s me I think
Why don’t I turn away
From all this madness
I’m just the same
As all the rest I guess.

Lyndon Queripel

The Body Keeps The Score - Kate Gallienne

As I stand in my garden, surrounded by trees
I question what’s real and what’s not
My senses inhale the nature around
My memory brings back the forgot

See my body remembers what my mind's erased
Taking me back in time
As if I was reliving the past that was
I begin to question my mind

I am safe here, it is not true
The feelings I feel deep inside
I look to the outside instead of within
I begin to question my mind

Confusion reigns as I’m torn between
Myself and all that I know
How can I trust my feelings
When to do so, I’d let myself go

So I hold on tight to this day and time
I breathe into myself again
I steady my body which soothes my mind
Bringing me back today…and then…

Calmly and slowly I begin to heal
Understanding the disconnect
For my body remembers what happened
Whilst my mind it's tried hard to forget.

Kate Gallienne

Just Living For Today - Lyndon Queripel

When I find myself in the open
And I can’t hide away
Surrounded by words I’ve spoken
With nothing left to say
I won’t think about tomorrow
Forget about yesterday
I’ll take the time I can borrow
And I’ll be on my way
Just living for today

When I find myself alone
With no one there at all
Like another rolling stone
Where love is just a fall
I won’t think about tomorrow
I’ll hang up on the call
Leave behind my sorrow
Back in the shadow play
Just living for today

When I find myself at last
At first or in between
All the places that I’ve passed
And the faces that I’ve seen
I won’t think about tomorrow
Or what I might have been
I was not born to follow
And I didn’t mean to stay
Just living for today.

Lyndon Queripel

Room At The Top - Lyndon Queripel

And as you leave, close the door
I don't want to breathe anymore
Stale air coming up the stair
All the way from the thirteenth floor

And as I sit staring at the ceiling
I don't fit, I've lost the feeling
All alone with the telephone
Off the hook to look more appealing

And even though I'm not to blame
I don't even know my neighbour's name
And for a while though I try to smile
My face just grows tired of the game.

Lyndon Queripel

What's The Worst Thing That Could Happen? - Lester Queripel

I'm going to make a mistake, I know I am.
I'm going to look a fool.
Be an object of ridicule.

At a crucial point I'll stumble and stutter.
My heart will jump into my mouth.
My knees will melt like butter.

It really is time I got a grip.
After all, what's the worst thing that could happen?
Well, I could lose face and fall from grace.
End up in an embarrassing place.

But why should that bother me?
Why can't I set myself free from this tyranny?
Give myself a break and forget about making a mistake.
Because after all...................it's only ego.
And wherever egos I go.

Lester Queripel

The Mask - Kate Gallienne

Have we met? For I think I know you. A familiar face that I recall
I know that smile and those big brown eyes. I’m sure you help me when down I fall
Why then do you appear distant? With a smile painted thick like a clown
Your eyes are open but do not see me, always flitting or looking down

I cannot ask you how you feel, as I fear I don’t have the time
If you started to express what’s real, what’s buried deep in your mind
Your protective mask keeps you safe inside, never showing the naked truth
Afraid to look behind those eyes, preferring to believe than seek for proof

Looking deeper though and closer still, the reflection doesn’t lie
For it is not you, it is actually me, through the mirror I watch myself cry
To the outside world I am someone else, somebody I’m really not
Portraying to others that all is fine, when inside fear is all that I’ve got

If I wear a smile others smile back, confirming all is well
If I look down or ill at ease, my true feelings they would tell
I cannot bear their sympathy, or their saddened sorrowful eyes
For they reflect the truth to me, that something is wrong deep inside

If this happens my tears won't stop. I’d be crying the whole year through
For there’s no release and no let up, never knowing what to do
So I apply the makeup day upon day, hiding the lines on my face
Hoping no one can see the real me, for like me, they’d see a disgrace.

Kate Gallienne

Don't Forget Your Soul - Ian Duquemin

I know that I have wasted many days throughout my years
I've often given up or never tried
But I've done the best I can
Tried to be an honest man
Tho' even honest men have often lied
Now all that I know
Wherever I might go
Upon this lonely stage I'll find my role
And I'll play out my part
Deliver it with heart
End my days the best that I can do...
And I think my very best times were with you

Throughout my drunken nights within the many crowded bars
I may have lost my soul along the way
But I always returned
It seemed I never really learned
And in the gutter there my soul would lay
He'd give me a wink
Just a little thought to think
Before we staggered homewards arm in arm
Singing a song
From the days when we were young
Times when life seemed nothing more than new
Way before I ever needed you

And now as I move towards the ever aching years
I look back at the times when I would cry
It seems now I'm told
That I'm nothing more than old
And all that I have left is now to die
I think of the years
I lived with all my fears
Instead of letting go and moving on
Inside I'm still young
Perhaps... I may be wrong
I guess I need another drink or two
And I'll raise my glass in gratitude to you

Ian Duquemin

Being Ian Duquemin - Ian Duquemin

I write what I'm thinking
I write what I see
I write about conflicts... That rage within me
And when I'm not writing
I think just the same
As a million words swirl around in my brain

Some think that I'm crazy
Some say that I moan
Some see me as strange... As I spend time alone
But that's how that I am
And that's how I will stay
As I choose to be lonely and lock me away

I may not have beauty
I may not be bright
I may see the wrongs... In the things you see right
And I see that my world
Is all battered and bruised
And don't like the way that my mother's abused

I'm not always angry
And I'm not always sad
Sometimes I make good... Of the things that are bad
Lessons once learned
And decisions I make
Have always decided the steps that I take

And I walk with a caution
I walk on a wire
I walk upon eggshells... And I walk upon fire
Not many will follow
On this path that I tread
With its hills and its mountains that loom up ahead

I guess I'll die lonely
But between you and me
That's how that I lived... So that's how it should be
But while I'm away
If I haven't been burned
I'll write down my journey and all that I learned

Ian Duquemin

No if, just do - Tony Bradley

Don't worry about 'not fitting in' any place
for you, it would have been like a prison
you work better on your own, a wild card,
a loose cannon, or some other euphemism.

When the bright are young, they always get smothered
but some go on to create, if they manage to breathe
and if they get noticed, just look who's most bothered
it's those twisted smotherers, see the jealous seethe.

Probably born in the wrong time and place
characters like you will be slandered, abused
the mindless masses will close ranks and cluster
and, without thought or trial, hang the accused.

So sail your own boat, dude, do your own thing
they'll be things you can't change , or avoid
if you just try and impress yourself
those who put you down will be well annoyed.

Tony Bradley

Wrong Place... Wrong Time - Ian Duquemin

I was born in the wrong place
I arrived in the wrong time
I should have been a teenager in 1959
America should have been my homeland
When rock n roll meant something
Tuning into a radio station
To listen to Elvis sing
I'd be driving a black Chevy 55
Taking my girl to a show
Stealing a kiss as the movie played
Pretending she was Marilyn Monroe
But here I arrived in 64
Where I never did really belong
My life at times has seemed way out of sync
And my birth date is what made me wrong
I don't belong in this digital world
Where everything feels so cold
I belong in a place of exciting times
When rock n roll broke the mould

Ian Duquemin

Shipwright - Trudie Shannon

When they say,
How are you?
I speak of you gently as if your dying
Was just the 'way of life' to be expected some time, by all of us.
"It was hard but…" "It’s one of those things?"
Then the awkward pause, the grinding to a halt
The horribly hesitant full stop before I respond with
The "I'm okay or I'm fine" line that lets them off the hook.
But, without company
Life seems to have more clearly defined edges,
Has become more intensely graced with colour.
Every sound resonates like a chorale in a cathedral.
I witness a myriad things, little things, momentous things
And yearn to tell you, yearn to hear the intonations of your voice in response
But all of it, every facet of this potent living
Amplifies your absence and with that
My rudderless ship drifts on foreign seas
Where once I knew the nuance of every wave
And could match the winds to oppose all currents and the many storms.
Now my ship drifts and turns with every eddy,
Spins on its own axis while the sails flap forlornly.
So for the time being, I've battened down the hatches and
I'm letting the tides and the currents do as they must.
If you are watching, bear with me
It takes time to learn to be a shipwright.

Trudie Shannon

If Only (A Single Story Structure) - Tony Bradley

Looking back, what torturous routes
full of crossroads and junctions of opportunity
some were taken, some forsaken,
with equal degrees of cost and impunity.

Looking back, a saucy little saga
a fascinating, fragmented fable
a hero so bold, but truth be told
sometimes weak, and often unstable.

As a young stallion, I had energy to burn
I could tackle every hurdle, each gate
a bold horse with resource, for every course
but I usually turned up too late.

Often having laboured on an epic piece of work
and all that was needed to conclude it
was a little more effort, a grain of common sense,
I always cocked it up, I screwed it.

Tony Bradley

Vestige - Ian Duquemin

My darker side...
The trigger in mind
The finest of line between badness and kind
My tightrope wire I balance upon
The bullet in barrel that's recklessly spun
A ghost on the pavement who flaunts in the light
The cunning who hides in the blackness of night
You... My shadow
The Hyde within me
Beware of the Jekyll you fail to see

Ian Duquemin

In Fear Of Me - Ian Duquemin

I hide inside my hollow self
Like a serial killer unknown
No friends...
No one...
And I like this darkening place
For here I am left completely alone
With no sympathy for my pain
Hidden behind a clean fake smile
I'm seen as though I am free
But tethered within I remain restrained
With a frightening fear of me

Ian Duquemin

Conservation Conversation - Lyndon Queripel

"All this madness has got to stop
Save the World and lock me up !"

Lyndon Queripel