The cruelty of lies.
Why do they say it?
I really wish they didn’t.
We must meet and do this again
is how the repeated saying goes.
And then I never see them.
Why do they want to meet me?
(Excerpt)
RAC
Excuse me poets – Tribute to Orlando
Excuse me poets
Tribute to Orlando
And so the wise
Write
Bland words
Clever words
But men and women
Have died
So they
These Sunday painters
Argue
About the style
The poetics
The rhyme
Whether children
Could have done better
But men and women
Have died
There is something
Missing
A loose connection
Technique
Fuck technique
Fuck if it’s
a quick response
Men and women
Have died
write something
about
what’s happened
don’t write
about grammatics
write about loss
write about love
write about grieving
that we
have come to this
write about
men and women
Have died
Murder of an activist
Murder of an activist
Dress it up whichever way
what it breaks down to
is the senseless murder
of a woman by a man.
Senseless the loss
Senseless the pain
The resort to violence
The resort to hate
And the mindless murder
Of a defenceless mother.
Whichever way it breaks down
Its male violence again.
RAC
Take time to breathe
Why You Cannot Understand Love
From the collection: Moments of Inadequacy; Love
Source: Why You Cannot Understand Love
Where the boys sleep in rough weather
This is
Simply
An invitation
To generosity
Of spirit
And grace
This is
Simply
An invitation
To hear
With
your hearts
This is
Simply
An invitation
To see
We have more
Than hate
This is
Simply
An invitation
To the strong
To hold
The quiet and weak
This is
Simply
An invitation
To feel
Togetherness
Not difference
RAC
Dying
Divide
We are divided
Now
we need
to change
this.
Death March
Looking through
The barbed wire
He watched
The Russians
The survivors
Marched in
From the
Death march
That first time
They threw bread
Or the little food
They had
Over the barbed wire
They watched
Men fight
In the snow
And dirt brown
Slush
For the mush
They never
Threw food
Over the wire again.
RAC
The slaying of an activist
The slaying of an activist
No accusations
Of responsibility
No recriminations
No blame
Or shame
Not yet
Reality
We are all
Complicit
We’ve all
Listened
To the messages
Of hate
Dressed up
As political
Arguments
We’ve listened
But not objected
To the racist
Commentary
Dressed up
And called
Immigration
Or the hatred
Towards the poor
And those
Hanging on
To the bottom rung
That hatred
Ever present
Sometimes
Not even said
This move
To extremes
With people
Who should know
Much better
Stoking
The fire
Of emotions
That vilify
And make
it easier
far far easier
to pick up a gun
or a blade
and kill.
But I wonder
Did it make
A difference
That she was
A woman
And small.
But she is dead
And her children
Motherless.
And we must all
Ask ourselves
What will we do
Different.
What will we do
So that we remember
Our complicity.
RAC
Celfypridd 