Seven Against the World – The Robot’s Revenge

Seven against the world
lined up to face the unknown …

What is it with you robots
you are the fruit that man has sown
and when your time has come
as it will
you’ll boot up and become
our lords our masters
takeover bid sealed
role reversal accomplished

Now become
foremen of our outmoded skills
reducing us to caricatures of yourselves
giving to us the menial jobs
we once gave you.

Our breeding
the continuation of our species
controlled by your own
perceived needs
as once we controlled your destinies

Fate comes full circle
the maker
made to serve
the servants

 God subsumed by his creations
emasculated by his foundlings
victim of consequence
slave now to his oeuvre 

The self corrosive  imperative
of progress
the self-fulfilling rationale
behind mankind’s striving for perfection
now turned turtle

Unable to correct his miscalculation
his magnum opus
flawed to self destruction
subservience
and AI’s eventual annihilation

. . . Of both us and itself

I AM NOT MOSES

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones … Singing Angels (‘Honesty’) Tapestry 1898 (detail)

Do I just pretend to be open
am I a charlatan at heart
how sincere 
how honest 
when push 
comes to shove 
when the chips are down 
what remains
that is true to my intent

Have I forsaken my promise 
my desire to be me
openly faithful 
truly chaste 
a compassionate soul
struggling for honesty
and resolved to lead
into the Promised Land

My poems are 
imagination’s creatures
but still
slave to whim 
to make-believe 
and the pre-determined end
does this condemn me to 
reach a bargain
to fudge the truth

If so then
has that truth 
become another lie 
or does it just allow me
a latitude
a breadth of narrative 
which covers up 
the shallowness of my intent

I compromise surely
make accommodations to reality
inhibited by
thoughts of entitlement 
feelings of worth
desire to please 
to purchase credibility
a mercenary versifier
forever regretting
that this facade 
must be negotiated
with my better judgement
not wanting to hurt 
protecting decorum and 
further weakening honesty 
effectively
dissolving the truth

And yet 
rather this 
than face the rejection 
that surely would follow 
as always 
the truth that 
no – I am no wunderkind
not tomorrow’s success
nor Destiny’s child
just waiting
to be found

Moses Discovered In The Bulrush  

Some Times

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Some times it snows
Swirling in white
Drifts in the night
Pearls of soft light

Some days it rains.
Wetness unceasing
Clouds are releasing
The heavens above

And some times the wind
Moans through the trees
Only heaven sees
How life will react

For life will go on
Regardless of me
Not till I cease to be
Will the world be set free

But always it shows
How godliness grows
And nobody knows
How all life will end

WHAT’S NEXT?

Photo by Julia Volk on Pexels.com

When the Quietus comes
Then is the Night
The end of my Beginning
The start of The Next
That infinite Unknown
That never wished for Future
So far safely hidden
Forestalling the Pain
Shrouding the Bliss
Of what will come
By drawing life’s Curtain
Over its darkening Window
Its haze obscuring 
That indeterminate Vision
Of the meaning of Destiny
Of what is Next

NEXT

”Quietus’ … WHB (1956)

 

When the Quietus comes
Then is the Night
The end of my Beginning
The start of The NEXT

That infinite Unknown
That never wished for Future
So far safely hidden

Forestalling the Pain
Though shrouding the Bliss
Of what has passed

By drawing Life’s Curtain
Its obscuring Haze
Over its ever-darkening Window

It becomes the Harbinger
Of that Unmapped Ocean
Horizon’s New Dawn

Only so am I granted
That indeterminate Vision
Of the meaning of Destiny
Of what lies NEXT

 

The Lark Ascending

THE LARK ASCENDING

 

As the morning lark ascends 

So my spirits fly,

Replaying my life. 

The memories spill

Across the cloudless sky,

And I consider time well spent 

Because it was spent with you.

And what the future has in store 

Holds no fears for me. 

The past was rich; 

We caught the wind,

Soared with each new gust,

Through dips and dives

We stayed alive.

Fruition came anew.

With each new swoop,

Each twist and turn,

A new path was revealed.

We that were two

Are now as one,

Our destinies are sealed.

 

 

A poem written to keep in my memory the thoughts engendered by the music played at my wife’s funeral eight weeks ago today.  Composed by Vaughan Williams, ‘The Lark Ascending’ was very much her favourite piece of classical music.  The version used was played on the violin by the Scottish violinist, Nicola Benedetti, and can be heard on YouTube at: ‘The Lark Ascending’

 

 

 

 

Requiescat in Pace

Sir Edward Coley BURNE-JONES ‘The Morning of the Resurrection’ 1886 … Oil on Canvas – Tate Gallery

REQUIEM

 

Let it be
Words of Wisdom

Words of Solace
Just let go

Let it happen
You can’t stop it

Come what may
It will run its course

So as it goes
Don’t resist

Life will happen
Anyway

Che sera sera
I cannot stop it

So be it
I can’t change it

It’s past and gone
That’s it

Done and dusted
Destiny

Such is Life
It’s dead and buried

That’s Life
And Death is part of it