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Into the Mouth of Nightmares...


Given Covid and an extensive Sydney lockdown, perhaps this is a good time to post this. 

I also have a friend in Durban who had a very frightening experience this week with the riots.


This was written a decade ago in 2011. 

Finally going through a large cache of poems for possible future books.

I like this one but not enough for a book. Worth sharing though, so here it is.




The Wider World as it is Known

March 25th 2011 (Cairns)

 

Dredged up and dripping

Into the mouth of Nightmares

Days bleak and nights too bright

With the blinding tunnel

Store of Childhood fears

That were never really

Left Behind.

 

Struggle Bleary Eyed back into the

Program

Because the Rules

Must be adhered to

And the Masters are Demanding

The alternatives

Promise Nothing

Because it doesn’t pay to question

Or Mildly Ponder

In case the Truth isn’t

What it was understood to Be.

 

The Years Tumble Down

Precious, Fragile

And less Remarkable than the Last

And the Wondering settled in a long time ago

When would the Results begin to show?

 

All the Boxes were ticked

Fought against and then conformed to

According to the Protocol

All is as it Should

The Coffers are Filling

But it doesn’t feel good

And all subsequent self-deception

Has the Shakes.

 

When it comes

It’s during a Period of Tenacity and Success

When doubts had finally succumbed

The House crumbles

The Cards Scatter

And the Entire Life Plan that was

Germinating before Birth

Has Evaporated

Leaving but a Hollow Residue

With all imagined trepidations

Come to Actuality

 

Despite all Death and Disaster and Gloom

The World has never seemed so user friendly.


Will the realisation

Come to pass?

Coupled with the deliciously bitter

Irony

That the only way out of the chaos

Is with no plan at all.

 


Perhaps it's more pertinent than ever.

What do you think it relates to?

No wrong answers. It's whatever you want it to be.

I was wrong about this poem. It's quite good.




https://www.anthonyjlangfordbooks.com/books

 

More Poetry


Have a good week.

Say hi if you feel like it. Isolation isn't good for anyone. Including me.

And if you enjoyed this, please share. I really appreciate any help getting the word out. 🌝



4 comments:

  1. It's not a good poem. It's a GREAT poem, and it if you didn't tell us it was older, I'd have thought you wrote it during one of the never-ending lockdowns for Covid. There may be no "wrong" answers, but I'd love to know what prompted you to write it since there was no pandemic at the time. When I think of Cairns, I obviously think of the Great Barrier Reef and its sad deterioration. The poem made me think of the frustrations in watching chaos reign as climate change and rampant tourism slowly (quickly?) did it in. Grace

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    1. That's very kind Grace, aka Clamzilla - awesome name! We did stay just north of Cairns and spent a night on Green Island. It's in the region but we stay clear of the reef from memory. I try to avoid the tourist areas but my ex wanted to see Green Island. It's tiny. She walked around it in an hour. Tilly was just a baby then. 4months old. I had a panic attack there. A major one. Maybe this poem reflects the state of my mind at the time. Even though in a beautiful place, it's still possible to be suffering..

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  2. Aspects of my thoughts on life there, but I have never come close to ticking all the boxes, maybe I should have. Oh well. Just an hour ago I thought my house was crumbling under a mountain of frustration. Sort of two steps forward, one and half back, but I am heading in the wrong direction anyway. Anyway, the poem spoke to me. Reminded me of the poems in Caged without Walls which I gather were written around the same time. Oh, and I did a few ks on my cross trainer and then had coffee and a donut and I don't feel as frustrated anymore. But wait...

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    Replies
    1. Haha thanks for commenting Graham. It's great when a poem or art of some kind can speak to you personally. We can all read ourselves into it. Which I love. It was written 2 years prior to that book but definitely around the time of many of those poems in there. You have a good memory.
      Must have been a good donut.

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