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Daniel James Oct 2011
I told myself
it'd be all right
I'd pay it back
before you even noticed
it was gone
but I should have
known myself
better
I hate myself
My life's a mess
I'm overdrawn on friends
and can't dig myself out
of this hole called debt...

You gave me
all the tools I needed
To be free
And all I had to do was work
Honestly
But I didn't /And I will

Next time.
Daniel James Jun 2014
.......................


What's that?

Oh... Nothing.


The truth is not an option.


Oh god.

Not again.


That silent phone, distracted eyes.

Thinking about what I've said to...


No. The truth is not an option. I wish it was.


This route just feels familiar now.

There's nothing to look forward to.

But, well...


The truth is not an option.


No. You're right.

But...

I don't know, perhaps it is.



The truth is not an option.


Ok, so what?


Nothing.


Just

say

nothing.
Daniel James Dec 2016
She bought wine glasses especially –
Smoked salmon and prosecci -
We woke late and clung inside the covers
To the moment like long lost lovers
With nothing but the need for oxygen.
Then we watched films till late at night
Fell dreaming in each other’s eyes
And took that glorious day turned night
To be together nowhere.
Nowhere else at all.
Daniel James Feb 2011
I don’t believe in growing up
I’m still a schoolboy pratt
Whenever I see bra-straps
They just fidget to be snapped.

Sunburnt brit:
It’s the new colour
In the Dulux range this summer.

If dogs had people’s thumbs
And people had dogs’ tongues
Would they be texting messages
While we were sniffing bums?

The cutest thing is when confused
Mummy’s little soldier
Waves the skirt of truce.

I guess there was a last time
I sat on daddy’s head
And grabbed on tight to his greying hair
As he led me by the legs
Daniel James Feb 2011
Surround me now, LOVE, like linkage
From beauty to the belly-button of the beast.
Umbelli me here my dear, let me feast
My eyes on your whole from the inside out.
Your flesh and bone, tan-toned complexion
Is f-ucking with my pheromones.
I crave your privacy; forbidden zones
Between ticklish toes and feather pillows
We'll mingle moments and non-moments of
Equal                 weightless                      ness.
A shared glass of milkwith your lips lingering
A lazy-fond sofa-based simmering.
A clinging a crumpling of breath accidental
Harmony undressed by a simple - YES
Daniel James Feb 2011
I found your number in the yachting pages
Listed under ‘x’. It took me ages.
Bet you thought that ship had sailed.
Daniel James Feb 2011
We fell in love too young
And when we woke up it was gone
Not the love, but the youth,
Not the falling, but the truth.

We fell in love too fast
And no one got to finish last
Right buttons, wrong order -
It ended with a start.

We fell in love too freely
In the flicker of touchy feelies
The End - staring out the ceiling
For the slightest crack of meaning.

We fell in with the wrong crowd
Of love and lust and luck
Till nothing else was true
Except we couldn’t give a ****.

We all fell out in the end
Lovers, family and friends
Until nothing else was true
Except I fell in love once too.
Daniel James Jul 2011
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Daniel James Dec 2011
Pandas are *******
No doubt about it
All they ever do
Is sleep, eat and sit

It seems that the zoo
Is their native habitat
Sleep eat sit, sleep eat sit
Until they get fat

With their mickey mouse ears
And their love of mascara
Oh sure they make great toys
But so does a llama

You can't ride a Panda
You can't teach them to fetch
And where d'you buy bamboo
If you want one as a pet?

They're no good at mousing
They don't never forget
They don't even purr
They need help having ***

No, pandas are *******
There's no doubt in my mind
A less de-pandable pet
You're unlikely to find.
Edit Jan 2016, be interested to hear comments
Daniel James Feb 2011
Thank you for reading this far
I really didn't expect our relationship to get off to such a good start
After all it's easy to forget on this thing the internet
That you're often speaking to someone that you haven't really met.
And btw,
Please feel free to stop at any time
Honestly, I don't mind,
No go on -  really -
If you click away it's fine
We'll just put it down to our different styles -
I can't face in all directions
No matter how hard I smile.
But now, given that we're roughly at the halfway point
---------------------------->  x <------------------------------
Well, we've passed it now, but I'll still make the point
Once you're half way through this river of words
Turning round and heading home is on balance probably worse
Than just pressing on - so press ahead, keep the faith!
You never know a scrap of meaning might escape the maze!
After all, what is a poem if its subject is unclear?
And what's a human who does not know why he is here?
But by now you're probably getting bored of my rhymes
And wondering what else you could have done with your time...
Yet you carry on reading, a glutton for meaning -
I know you've kept up or you just wouldn't hear me
So now for my message, the bit I believe in -
You better click 'Like', before you click leaving.
Daniel James Jul 2016
like   love   just   know   time   life   dont   heart   eyes   day   away   feel   want   way   world   night   make   say   mind   words   man   think   light   little   things   long   ill   face   look   left   soul   youre   right   old   tell   hand   need   thought   pain   head   lost   sun   place   people   good   god   hands   new   hear   end   hold   smile   inside   dark   home   sky   fall   tears   hope   death   days   live   oh   cold   shall   really   gone   body   thats   far   air   remember   true   thing   dreams   dream   leave   white   past   sweet   got   thoughts   deep   thy   fear   came   dead   maybe   wish   years   free   sleep   wont   does   knew   black   wind   beautiful   lips   blue   going   try   earth   hard   men   theres   stop   didnt   walk   forever   open   skin   blood   rain   better   great   sea   water   id   breath   moment   girl   red   turn   care   feeling   understand   die   feet   saw   broken   hair   best   voice   stand   beauty   touch   felt   song   truth   stay   moon   close   makes   thou   times   comes   friend   door   told   arms   stars   waiting   kiss   run   looking   sound   bed   help   morning   happy   high   lies   room   soon   sit   today   friends   thee   hate   took   believe   young   darkness   longer   ground   forget   seen   rest   word   hearts   watch   lie   youll   leaves   loved   change   peace   heard   child   wrong   youve   wanted   play   silence   sure   eye   lay   house   trying   wonder   real   set   mother   hell   small   soft   speak   children   green   cause   living   work   bright   wait   break   memories   ask   dance   strong   dear   fingers   bring   doesnt   sing   used   matter   write   fight   warm   hurt   slowly   music   trees   heaven   woman   start   held   joy   kind   ones   beneath   gave   perfect   tree   boy   yes   falling   land   miss   bad   talk   clouds   round   lives   thinking   summer   looked   fly   knows   mouth   hide   knowing   mean   son   grow   shes   filled   different   reason   coming   floor   fell   listen   read   father   turned   sight   making   hes   laugh   finally   sad   whats   big   human   person   walls   breathe   isnt   near   late   reach   goes   power   glass   window   sense   clear   pass   year   silent   future   running   wings   apart   meet   flowers   space   hours   im   loves   beat   shadows   lets   simple   instead   line   path   tried   memory   quite   called   wake   afraid   feels   fast   taste   spirit   rose   leaving   reality   war   snow   nights   alive   poem   stood   self   says   lonely   feelings   road   wall   story   waves   chance   outside   souls   use   holding   share   burning   known   second   gods   desire   fair   takes   dust   street   happiness   passion   cut   half   wasnt   tired   slow   quiet   art   walking   return   watching   city   golden   gold   getting   tonight   birds   step   spring   worth   born   drink   sitting   sorry   baby   save   wild   ears   dying   tongue   burn   winter   point   taking   sat   tomorrow   met   sand   flesh   doing   looks   anymore   rise   standing   forgotten   single   hot   lights   begin   trust   lose   kept   grass   stone   asked   chest   learn   theyre   given   stare   brain   walked   lovers   meant   pure   nature   smoke   star   hour   wouldnt   blind   strength   river   gentle   caught   tear   lord   fine   ready   lines   faces   began   moments   taken   ways   shadow   smell   ocean   follow   dry   family   poetry   answer   guess   brought   ago   poor   having   secret   sorrow   paper   form   died   mirror   hidden   goodbye   fate   pretty   smiles   heavy   easy   heat   truly   simply   ****   falls   women   escape   strange   minds   scream   game   bit   crying   breeze   laughter   loving   warmth   catch   pull   bones   bird   saying   flower   passed   grace   wants   thousand
Generated using an algo based on the most popular choice of next word
Daniel James Feb 2011
Twilight silhouettes.
An evening cigarette, up on deck.
The sun sets - on the far side of the cliff -
While the boat
Dips and lift, dips and lifts.
Golden brown all around legs returning
A golden sun is burning out
Turning down the volume on the sky
Now the whiteness of the day seeps through
Our sand-entrenched shoes and is swallowed
By the vastness of the wine-dark sea.
Our salt-encrusted shoulders have rolled no boulders
To touch the sun at noon
Long afternoons through hazy pastel views
Till the day’s foaming sea breaks
Upon the hilly hooves of Spanish rocks.
Meanwhile, the spine of a sleeping giant
Lies in a hazy snooze,
Its camel back runs grey to black
Across the flat horizon. Pupils widen
As the semi circle of gold is swallowed whole
The velvet sea rolls gently for Poseidon.
Daniel James Feb 2011
Writing through the daily wall
A blank page of A4, a biro scrawl
It’s a bit like playing arkanoid
Bouncing ***** and breaking bricks
Rotate, rotate – and that’s Tetris!

Perhaps there’s something on the other side -
Another level, a higher level, a new frontier.
But sometimes I wonder.
And when I do I’m like
Someone suffering dementia
Locked in an instituion
He cannot think outside of
Alone in the courtyard
Talking to soundbites from the past
Unaware of his own
Uniform.
Daniel James Feb 2011
Barry’s dead.

I saw you dying weeks ago;
An oyster shell turned empty can,
Scrumpled up and finished
By the past’s magnet attraction
In your shakey hands.
It’s just a habit now and you can hardly kick yourself.

Buckets of Grolsch:
My swash-buckling hero
Turned slosh-slurping zero once again
And shiny surfaces
Never suited you.

Scrub away at that black demon matter
With the sole white spirit
Your genius affords. A shattered socialist
Posy primrose ******;
That’s the story of your life –
All
      most
               man.

Now beneath the cowslips
And the heifer’s hooves,
Your saintly-thorny words without a roof:
But who will speak for you?
And trawl the depths
As you once did in youth?
Prizing open oysters…

I hope that where you are
Your silence brings relief.
I hope that where you are
You smell the borage breeze.
I hope that where you are
There’s ox-cheek for tea
And your carbonated past
Is carbonating in mute peace.

Tonight the argent stars
Are dulled in disbelief
Tonight the slate that you’ve carved
Is the hardest you will teach.
Tonight the tumblestones
Are falling down in grief:

For Barry’s gone to rediscover Pearl
And the beauty of her peace.
- written on the death of Barry MacSweeney who visited my school in May 2000, shortly before he died.
Daniel James Oct 2011
When did you become
Part of the mess I left
Around our room
With your bed
And the portrait mirror
Hung a foot too low?
Daniel James Feb 2011
(Earnestly)* This is the first time I address the House
From these back benches in twenty-odd years.
I must confess that I had forgotten
How much better the view is from up here.

It was frequently my necessity
As Leader of the House to talk my way
Out of accusations that a statement
Had been pre-empted by an interview.
On this occasion I can gladly say
That no such interview has taken place.

First I have chosen to address the House
On why I can't vote for a war without
Support at home or agreement abroad.
The present Prime Minister is the most
Successful Labour Party Leader of our times.
I hope that he will continue to be
Our Party Leader, and I hope that he
Will long continue as successfully.
I have no sympathy nor comfort for
Those who use this crisis to remove him.
I applaud the efforts that he, heroically, has made
Until today to secure a second resolution,
And nobody could outperform the Foreign Secretary
In trying to win the backing of the Security Council.
But the intensity of those attempts
Just shows us it was vital they succeed:
Now those attempts have failed we can not
Pretend they were of no import to us.
It is not France alone who wants more time.
Germany wants more time, and Russia too.
Indeed at no time have we ever had
The minimum support we would require
And it is mere delusion to imply
That this degree of fierce hostility
Can all be due to France's President.
The truth is that Britain is being asked
To go to war without any support
From any body to which we belong:
Not from NATO, not from the EU and
Now, not from the Security Council.
A year ago a coalition formed
Its cause: to wage and win a war on terror.
To end in diplomatic failure
Signifies a most obvious error.

History will be amazed surely at the
Miscalculations that led so quickly
To the fall of such a coalition.
The US can afford to go alone;
But Britain is no superpower now.

Our interests are not best protected by
Unilateral action, but by the wide
Agreement of a World governed by rules.

Tonight the partnerships we value most,
The EU and the Security Council,
Are those that sadly are the most weakened.
These indeed are heavy casualties when
A single bomb has yet to be released,
But since the US have already warned
Their strategy will be to "Shock and Awe"
It seems, of casualties, there will be more.

It's been a favourite theme of our critics
To say this House no longer occupies
A central role in British politics.
Nothing could better show that they are wrong
Than for this House to stop this Government
Committing troops to a war that's without
Support at home or agreement abroad.

I intend to join with those tomorrow
Who vote against this war now at this time.
It is for that reason, and that alone,
And with a heavy heart... that I resign.
From Robin Cook's Resignation Speech to Parliament in the UK on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. Tuesday 18 March 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2859431.stm
Daniel James Feb 2011
Black ink branches stretch sober against the drunken orange sky determined brush strokes ever upwards side by side lovers carve their names in oak afraid that they alone are not enough to bear witness to their greatness

fearless twigs to root themselves in air and ***** at nothingness ever upwards and alone inside themselves a cold wind blows they brush each other in the breeze while green tips know that somewhere long ago and down below

we were related

but now

no turning back threatened by inflation and rivals that compete through fear and jealousy compare ourselves and someone has to lose happiness no more magic than energy neither made nor lost just changing

hands our currency no worth our pompous pity cannot afford the toll to pass a millimetre closer to ourselves in ever shrinking families as words remove us from our cousins and define our being badly
Daniel James Feb 2011
There is no CCTV
On the open sea,
Just you and me
Like roving pirates
Risking our lives
To ruin other people.
Daniel James Mar 2011
Like star-crossed lovers
We did our dance with death
And no one else will ever know
Exactly what was said.

Tomorrow, in shame, I fear
The sun won't show its head.
Daniel James Mar 2011
The sound of rain is comforting
When you have lost all hope
So is candlelight (try it!)
And something to smoke (don't).
Daniel James Mar 2017
When sleep comes
Just like the snow
And settles like a blanket
On your toes

And covers both the day and night
In flakes of thought
And sheets of white -

Hold tight –
Don’t be afraid
Breathe in and take
A moment of the dreams you’ve made
For your tomorrow…


Walk among the wonders
Through the powder,
Melting tracks
Into the silence of the night –

And know –
This sleep will come and go…
Just like the snow.
Daniel James Nov 2014
We're both writing notes to ourselves
That we hope the other will find -
Trying to poke and **** out our Jenga pieces
But finding both sides entwined.

She woke me up this morning
With a cry.
She'd walked into a wardrobe or something.
I wanted to know why...

She sent me for some Arnica
I don't know where it hides
By the time I got back
She was already back inside
the duvet covers.

I put the tube of gel down
Climbed back into bed
And said nothing.

We are strange lovers.
Daniel James Oct 2011
I am a metaphor
Is a metaphor
Is a statement
Is the truth.
Daniel James Mar 2011
turned into paper
never slept
thought he was a horse
fell in love with the mirror
couldn't be happy
hated everyone
just wanted chocolate
lost his way
forgot how to laugh
could stop time
couldn't understand metaphors
promised too much
hated to let people down
came home in the end
Daniel James Feb 2011
Somewhere between the age of 12 and 13
Kitty became a make up queen
Each time she turned up at the door
She’d more make up on than before
Her parents could not figure out why
She slapped it on, she piled it high
From orange ears to blue shaded eyes
From red lips to black butterflies
After a while her poor little face
Had more layers to it than a wedding cake
So she made some changes to her routine
Got up each day at four fifteen
Skipped breakfast, hopped in and out the shower
Which left, for make up, a mere three hours
This worked well for a little while
Until a teacher remarked she’d lost her smile
At which point in her heart she knew
She’d need an extra hour or two
To don her make up every day.
So she started arriving at school quite late
At nine at first, but soon midday
Light’s nice at that time anyway.

Then one day, a rather dashing lad
Offered to help her carry her bags.
Now Kitty thought he’d cussed her eyes,
So she slapped him and ran home to revise
Her make up routine, before she cried
And ruined her mascara.

Now this rather dashing handsome lad
Could not help feeling he’d been had
He stood there red as blush itself
And swore he’d fall for someone else.

Kitty meanwhile, back at home
Was swotting up on her skin tone
And trying every shade of white
To hide the scars of sleepless nights.
“I’ll teach that lad, that dashing lad –
I’ll be something he has to have
He’ll want me so much he’ll carry my bags
With weights in them that break his back!!!”
And with a slightly evil laugh,
Her plan was made, the die were cast.

We rejoin Kitty five days on
After a five day make up marathon
Her skin-tone matched, her bags are gone
Except her school bag, which weighs a tonne –
But at the school gate, something’s wrong
Hang on, where is everyone?
Oh Kitty, Kitty, oh Kitty cakes
That is an embarrassing mistake
You’re not early, they’re not late –
You’ve come to school on a Saturday!

Ablush with embarrassment and all alone
Kitty’s mascara ran all the way home
And all the foundations and eye-shadow pens
Couldn’t put Kitty together again.
But just at the corner before her own street
Outside the corner shop, who should she meet?
But the boy, not the boy, the rather dashing young lad
Who was sat on the fence by the shop looking sad
Looking sad, looking blue, looking ever so glum
Like it wasn’t that long since he last ****** his thumb.


At first as their paths crossed they were both destined
Not to look in each other’s direction
But luckily old cupid used light and reflections
To swap left and right with two moment's intersecton
The arrow was fired, the sightline was true,
Said the boy, "What a perfectly red shade are you!
Without your mascara, without those lips too -
You look even hotter than you usually do!"

"Am I bovverred?" Said Kitty, looking bothered as could be.
"Well you do look a bit bovvered if I’m honest," said he.
"Well I am a bit bovvered if I’m honest," said she.

"Why don’t we make up and then I’ll walk you home?"
"Then we can hang out and we won’t be alone"
"I’ll give you the pin to my blackberry phone"
"We’ll sync up our wardrobes and match our skin tones"
"I’ll friend you on Facebook". "I’ll call you at night".
"I’ll take you nice places." "I’ll treat you right nice."
“You will”, said Kitty? "I will," said he,
“But first let me start my repeating my offer
To carry your school bag if you can’t be bovvered.”
“My school bag said Kitty,” repeating the offer
“To carry one of my school bags if I can’t be bothered?”

Now this time, Kitty had understood right
So she took off one of her school bags, and put it down by her side
“Long story, don’t ask…” She said with a pout,
And she gave him one, of her bags, once she took the weights out.
Daniel James Mar 2011
Silence is the sound
Of a tree falling down
In the forest.

He's very often sorry
But he doesn't say it.


Silence is the sound
Of the sun beating down
In the forest.

He's very often sorry
But he doesn't say it.
It's like he kind of prays it
But nobody else can hear it,
Still less likely believe it.


Silence is the sound
Of the rain coming down
In the forest.

*He's very often sorry
But he doesn't say it.
It's like he kind of prays it
But nobody else can hear it,
Still less likely believe it.
And though he doesn't say it
He's very often sorry.
Daniel James Aug 2012
We all know the sound of a gun
If we haven't heard one,
We've heard one in the movies.

A staplegun
Snapped me back from daydreams
Of Matrix offices and warehouses
Hole-punched a Tarantino image
In my head.
Daniel James Sep 2011
like to keep my distance that kept us from chicory's moon-dark blue down in a swoon
and now, he said,
hear the narrow graves calling my questions with more questions you never wanted to
shine in his sphere.
But say
i hadnt meant it -
sulfur's tangy odor permeates the worm, canker, and the evenings;
go for it - a day is long
for the song unwritten score or a dream yet-to-be.
Daniel James Sep 2011
To be just one thing
Is a travesty of time
And effort in the making.

Be everything!
Embrace those who do not understand
Play their games, but play yours too
Behind curtains and in sunlit squares
In nightclubs and in conversation

There's infinite again -
Running down its childlike street -

And likewise,
You must let your soul run free.
What joy is sinful?
Show me where that sin is
That animates your lust for life
With sweet beginnings.

There is one rule that you can trust:
Be the sum of everything you are.

Be happy
Curious
And free.

And each one of yourselves.
Daniel James Sep 2011
I am a traveller, a travelling man
And have wandered far and wide
With nothing but the flip flops on my feet
And fisherman’s trousers for a net.
And during these travails and trials I
Have heard many a tale, both tall and true,
And one day in a distant field I heard talk
Of a special cosmic law, another worldly rule of physic,
A fifth or sixth sense or dimension,
As earth-shattering as Newton’s apple.
It is...
A law of diminishing returns
Operating particularly at music festivals.
Let me explain.
So far I’ve lost,
My nice woolly zip up cardigan, half my contact lenses
My bass drum pedal, (Though that might still be in the van)
My wallet, containing money and cards, my baccy.
I lost and then refound my filters 18 times throughout the day,
Though each time they returned diminished in number,
Two packs of bacon, lost to the public stomach,
Three lighters, none of which were mine,
My mind, last night, though I found it lying
Outside my tent again in the morning sun,
And fifteen lovely strangers, who turned out to be friends.
Daniel James Jan 2012
I knew a man once who could read the trees
He'd stand in a field with nothing on
And look at them for hours
(He couldn't talk to flowers)
But he would pour over every branch
Trace every knot and feel their bark
He translated a sycamore for me once
But oaks and beeches were his favourite
He said he just preferred their type.
The elbow bends told him of seasons
The trunk's tilt told the prevailing winds
Their denseness in relation to their neighbours
Told him all manner of gossipy things.
The colours and the hues told of the soil
The moulds and lichens the local fashions
He'd tell you if they'd ever been frightened
By hippies, chainsaws, axes or lightening.
And as I looked on, I realised something
As I read his naked body with no clothes
This man was obviously a stark raving lunatic.
Daniel James Nov 2011
***** faced Medusa 
Turned both heart and soul to stone 
Medusa faced *****.
Daniel James Sep 2019
You get a lot of between times
In this life
Bundled in with
The usual highs and lows
They're like the packaging
You unpack when
The real gift arrives -
Not noticing
That these
Unpackagings
These moments
Of unpackaging
These between times
Are life.
Not the holders of life
But life itself -
The stuff we throw away.
Daniel James Feb 2011
My mate Marmite
Woke up in bread with a girl -
I can't believe she's not butters.
Daniel James Feb 2011
Life's the longest distance between two points:
Doggy-paddling through the present backwards
Understanding words already spoken
Right hand on the wheel, torso twisted
(As in standard reversal procedure),
Looking out the back, advancing slowly,
Careering backwards down the motorway:
We see ourselves in car windscreens becoming
Reflections of ourselves in passers-by.
Decode the numberplates, look out the sides
For chaos, chance and consciousness to coincide
And tell us that we haven't missed our turn,
Forever facing where we can't return.
Daniel James Feb 2011
It's time to make it happen
Find the words
Throw the cards
Up in the air
Realise
You only get one life
And care.
I am alone
It is just me
These words are mine
No one will see
My heart will beat
Until it stops
I carry on
Because I'm lost
Daniel James Feb 2011
(Earnestly)* I beg to move the motion
Standing on the Order Paper
In my name and those good names
Of my Right Honourable Friends.

Straight up, I’ll say, it’s right that we this House
Should debate this issue, should pass judgement.
That is democracy; that is our Right
That others elsewhere struggle for in vain.
Again I’ll say I do not disrespect
The wavering of those not yet convinced.
This is a tough choice and – yes – a stark one:
To stand down our committed troops and turn back
Or to hold firm and so continue on.

I strongly believe that we must hold firm.

The question most people will ask is not
Why does it matter – no – but why so much?
Well, as we brave this new Millenium
And face up to the Nation’s greatest threat
With our majority already stretched,
A resignation from the cabinet,
With all the other parties also split,
With everywhere the closest of allies
In disagreement while on different sides
Those who usually would not agree
Agree on this. The people, this parliament
Echo the discord with an echo made
Less bitter as time passes, not less grave.

So why, then, does it matter quite so much?
Because the outcome of our firm resolve
Will find itself determining much more
Than Iraq’s future and her peoples’ fate
More than the liberty of an whole race
Brutalized in Saddam’s sick sick name.

It will in fact decide the way in which
Britain, the world and we confront the threats
Our right to liberty requires met.
It will, what’s more, affect the UN’s role,
EU relations, Transatlantic ties,
The manners of the US in the world.
It will prove the political pattern
For a generation, perhaps more, to come.

This is no longer the time to falter;
I will not be party to such a course.
This is now the time for this house to lead;
To show that we will fearlessly confront
Terror, tyranny and dictatorships
Which threaten to put all our lives at risk.
To show that at this moment of decision
We have the courage, we have the vision
To do the right thing. I beg to move the motion…
Tuesday 18 March 2003
full text of the speech: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3294.asp
Daniel James Mar 2011
The Crystal Palace tower
is solid grey and home to none
its flashing heart beats for safety only.

I felt love today
a fleeting feeling passed through me
like radiation, but in knowing it,
it passed away...
Daniel James Oct 2016
I moved on her
I failed
I did try and **** her

That’s huge news there

I moved on her very heavily
I took her out furniture shopping
She wanted to get some furniture
I said I’ll show you where to get some nice furniture

I moved on her like a *****
I couldn’t get there
And she was married
And all of a sudden she’s got these big phoney ****
She’s totally changed her look

Woah – woah
Yeah the Donald has scored

I’m gonna use some tic tacs in case I start kissing her
Im automatically attracted
And when you’re a star they let you do it
You can do anything
Grab’em by the *****

Hello how are you?
You know Billy Bush?

We’re ready -
Make me a soap star

Melania said this was ok

Come on Billy don’t be shy
Get over here Billy

It’s hard to walk next to a guy like Donald.
(c) Donald Trump
Daniel James Oct 2019
First they broke up the unions, and I did not speak out,
Because I was only one.

Then they sold off the British – BT, BP, BA – and I did not speak out
Because I was only ten and - Thundercats.

Then they came for the coal, the power, the rail. We did speak out –
We held on to the post office and voted in New Labour.

Then we watched them PFI the underground, the NHS and schools
And we did not speak out, because we thought they were us.

So on they went and PFI’d Iraq. We did speak out,
But they were far away.
And that was not enough.

So then they PFI’d the **** out of everything moved-
Threw in some car parks here and there,
Some targets, some consolidations -
But we weren’t concentrating on that because -
We weren't the baddies, were we?

Then they came for prisons, and the police
Detention Centres, state school discipline
They even offered China our 5G

And then they asked the people how they felt
And used that - to make them feel something else
And then they asked those same people what to do
Offering a simple lie for complex truth.

And then a man with a pint
Formed a PLC
And stood for election
And refused to make promises

It turns out
a necessary component of a lie
is shame.
Who knew?

Before the 2020 tax rules
Or something
We got bored
And people voted
Not to have another vote
Ever again

And I wasn't even sure
At which point it was
That they came for me.

But at some point.
They'd already come.
Daniel James Sep 2011
And I am left with nothing
but empty streets
to guide me home
from your world
to mine

It starts to drizzle and I wonder
if the same cloud
hangs over you

These lights
street lights
illuminating nothing
but a hope for something greater
to swallow us both whole

Because there is
something comforting
in having two homes
something comforting
in surrendering control
to a shallow greater purpose
a god I can relate to
somewhere
other than here
to store up my self
Daniel James Aug 2019
a little bit lost again
in between
narrating selves
searching
or just being
waving
or
drowning
from the
middle
of the sea
Nothing
but everything
At once.
Daniel James Sep 2011
Urban lives, controlled by traffic lights
Queues form round corners
According to imaginary lines
There’ll be gridlock on the internet tonight
So avoid the information part of the highway
(Junctions nought to one)
If at all possible.
And now for the weather sponsored by
Hello Poetry.
Daniel James Mar 2011
My voice?
My inner voice?
Sometimes it is me.
But sometimes, we disagree
And then we split in three.
I guess I am the one
That takes the middle way.
Daniel James Mar 2011
The salty skin of popcorn
To warm November's coals
Let's go to the movies.
(November is the most common month for relationship break-ups, possibly because people are feeling the stress of Christmas and family events approaching. Try going to the movies more often in November!)
Daniel James Feb 2011
One day in an office somewhere,
On someone else’s time,
Someone had an idea -
They were looking for ways to make up money
Out of thin air.
Now this someone somewhere was a man
For want of a better name, let’s call him Dan
Dan’s idea was simple, it was this:
Let’s start making make-up aimed at kids!
Not kids like students, or as in school kids,
But real kids, you know, of 9,8,7, even 6!
Infants, toddlers, babies, that’s the biz!
We’ll be the market leader in make-up bibs!
Tell them they get purple potts when telling fibs
But try our concealer - Mum won't even notice!
We’ll get some newborn WAG to celebendorse it
And call it something aspirational like, Babywish
In fact, before 12 months they’re really not all that clever
So how about “With Babywish u2 can live 4ever!”
Daniel James Feb 2011
It’s embarrassing to have too much money
The make believe buddies and the fake deference
Measuring your height in yachts and widescreens
Kids who are unfamiliar with your touch
Ever more expensive toys to overflow
The ever-thinning circumference of time.

Holidays can be a way of dealing with
The superfluity of excess in day to day lives –
The addict learns to miss his true love
While the CEO goes food shopping
And remembers how to set forks and knives
On an empty placemat’s either side.
Daniel James Oct 2011
Drunk as a fish
In a bowl
With
No
air?

Bald as a cat
who has
fur but
No
hair?
No seriously i'm doing a survey for my little brother whose at school an he needs to no for his homework or something. i don't care anyway, but but can you just pls comment and tell me. Please cos i need to know. not for me tho, for my brother. otherwise hes gonna tell mum about the chicken baster, so please. thank you in adavnce. just one word - cat or fish. but pls everyone who reads this, just do it, please just, 'cat' or 'fish' and thas cool, thnks.
Yes
Daniel James Sep 2011
Yes
the breath
that butterflied
into a word phrase
that changed my life

give up being right

the stress
that lifted from
my shoulders of
the known world
and leapt for pleasure and delight!

give up being right
give up being right

like child
that woke
from sleep to
find that school
was just a dream
and it was not too late
never too late to

give up being right
give up being right
give up being right all the time
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