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Jan 2017 · 460
from tribe to country
john shai Jan 2017
There in the hinterland
This people I know
Who love the sleeping sand
For its distant glow

A hut a hovel a house
The grinding of the glass
The hollow earth
And freedoms passed

Then lost.
They choo choo south
And boo hoo to any
Who try to close its hungry mouth
Oct 2016 · 573
The love of the vampire
john shai Oct 2016
It's like actors
They don't act all their lives
They act when the camera is rolling
Or when they find themselves in the mud

I write love upon the hearts of men
And women thank me for my service

But when the seizure is over
The madness is lost in an exhale
And I transmute into the beast that I am
Only to extort another soul to place in my tragedy
Oct 2016 · 288
one little old play
john shai Oct 2016
Did you sign the contract indeed?
Indeed I did indeed.
Sep 2016 · 474
I'm fine
john shai Sep 2016
Danny was a good boy
He kept his engine going
But he never found joy

He had many CDs
But he left them in a pile

He had a girlfriend
But he hasn't ****** the ****** in a while

So much for love
She threw him into exile
He was her toy
Her lover boy

The island fit him like a glove
He started to smile
Without her constant trail
He was a freeman
Setting sail

**** this love
He has music
Sad music
Doesn't have the same effect anymore

Die young drink a **** load
Oh boy death!
Aug 2016 · 1.4k
waking transformed
john shai Aug 2016
Embraced by the arms of solitude
Finally a lover who knows his soul
And he fell deep into sleep

Safe as pillows on a bed
Safe as houses
On clouds of marshmallow and honey

Dread has forsaken him

And there appeared a door behind his eyes
Opening it he found a vision
The dearest friend of lost souls
Soft ******* on which to lay the head
Venus
Supple Venus!

Madonna
Perched on the alter where he lost his youth
Bleeding
But healing

I have found you
   You are my essence
   I shall cherish your form

She woke
Jul 2016 · 589
River of Fire
john shai Jul 2016
Twists and turns in the fire
Flowing energy the mind's desire
Every ember untouchable
My sadness is incorrigible

This is dire
From toppidy mountain to lowest inspire
The demons reach out
They know what my pain is about

To feel the hellfire
As I try to remember what I'm worth

Fetch some fire from the river
So we don't have to shiver
I'll burn before I freeze
Let guilt claim my liver
Jul 2016 · 636
juxtaposition
john shai Jul 2016
**** all blacks!

They said.

**** all whites!

They said.

So they invented surrealism.
It's not the contrast that matters.

They said.

It's the unexpected juxtaposition.
john shai Jul 2016
Sweet sherry and muskadel wine
From under the burnt pine
I taste your wintery comfort
As I gaze into this soul of mine

There I see old lovers smile
Whispering boldly as they beguile
Caress my heart from within
And pinprick stab the memory file

Where has she gone now?
Far far away awaiting my call.
Jul 2016 · 1.9k
even so, I still love you
john shai Jul 2016
I catch the monster in your heart
You catch yourself believing
It's the love I feel for you
That breaks the pain inside

That shakes the lonely night
That takes the hate beside
Shatters the illusion of ego
And unsettles like vertigo
The proud tower of love

But your touch is magic
Only when our fate is tragic

I have to make you see
You want to be free
Dominate me
**** me
Burn my body on the alter

Of love we shall taste forever
When I suffer

I still love you
Jul 2016 · 464
the babe in the reeds
john shai Jul 2016
On the cusp of the tongue
Lies the truth like song sung
Beyond the artful landscape
The gods on stone towers scrape
A name that summons
Humming angels of death

Much good may it do you
To know the heart of the lord
No sword nor love
Shall save you from the truth
The harbinger of sorrow

Like waves of fire shall
Consume the, shall
Swallow the, shall
Digest the vestiges of order

Until there is but one
The babe in the reeds
Jun 2016 · 697
She is The Space Between
john shai Jun 2016
I said I would buy her painting
I gave her a story of mine
My payment is darkness fainting
Her painting is smelling salts' light

In it she is bare shouldered ****
With planets pouring from her mind
It is beautiful
Planets exude
The inner most thoughts of her kind

Smile so distracting like flower
Opened unto the sun's sweet rays
Blushing at the radiant power
Of love's wakeful, springtime day

She is not sleeping

Because I am awake
I am the sun. Ok so I thought I should explain this one. The painting I am talking about is the canvas or fabric of space-time as we understand from Einstein's theory of relativity. The story which buys the painting is gravity written by the sun. The sun also needs the space-time in order to send its photons to the planets, the planets being a product of the mind of space-time dynamics. Space-time is **** and beautiful like a flower because it recieves the influence of the  light which is the gives love to planets (in her mind) such as earth. As long as the sun is awake space-time can never be sleeping but is always changing and awake... conversely, this is based on a true story where I tried to buy a painting from a young lady with a short story because I couldn't afford it with money. the painting really is her **** with planets coming out of her head and I really found it to be beautiful, though she didn't see in it what I saw in it. So there you go. cool isn't it?
May 2016 · 538
Word Potion
john shai May 2016
Sequestered in my home
Ingested by a poem
A whale swallowed me whole
Thank you sweet obsession

As the winds carry the words
Across the vast endless ocean
I hope a heart will bleed
As it is a poisonous potion

A drug so powerful
It could change the world
But its side effects still
too painful to behold
May 2016 · 575
brotherhood
john shai May 2016
In the bush
On the stoep
Of a house
In the middle of lions territory

We smoke the magic herb
And discover the fruits
Of youth
Like a midsummernightsdream

The table filled
With empty bottles
We search
For the next

Singing songs
Warcries
Of brotherhood
Like Adam

We find a foundation
On which to build
Like bricks on water
The house of love

Manhood
On fire
Chaos
And

Stability
May 2016 · 579
Lonesome Tonight
john shai May 2016
The sound of the refrigerator is all I hear
It is the music of the movement of a tear
As it glides over a cold cheek bleak
Tones of deep sombre blues reek

A song so dark and depressing
It is the chant of the power of caressing
My cheek with a single tear
The sound of the refrigerator is all I hear

The ever present music just might
Make me lonesome tonight
May 2016 · 1.9k
man
john shai May 2016
man
There is a type of admiration
Which transcends love
My friend's dad
A man with a mustashe
And an honesty
To tell the truth
In stories of the past
And laugh wholeheartedly
At comical remarks
A confidence.

It is a love which is different
It is a respect
A desire to understand
And peer into
Rather than touch
The edge of his garment

A patriarchel dominance
Both strict and calm
Which portrays a godlike figure
Like a wise old man from the east
Except he's from Namibia
And he's been divorced

But I admire him
Like a soldier admires his superior
It is a love which is not love
It is admiration
Of a character
May 2016 · 934
already dead and famous
john shai May 2016
The world was determined
To be where it was that day
And so each time sinned
Was inevitable in that way

The master of puppets
Thus the plot twister
Blows the trumpets
At the evil mister

Who killed a protagonist
Then himself hanged
Thus an antogonist
Inevitably becomes determinist

When he finaly does see
He is not free to be
While the protagonist
Rises up free

Into chaos
The arms of uncertainty
john shai May 2016
A young man asked me about lucid dreaming
I said it's no falsity and he said seeming
To imply that I should teach him,
"Can it be done without like a small amount of screaming?"

"Yes", I said, but beware the devil for he
Is in the method you shall need to be
applying to get it right.
"You mean the devil totally is real and he will come for me?"

"No no child, for God's sake!" The devil is in
the method of checking reality akin
to checking a lion for lice!
"You mean to say, the devil lies in the way I think?"

"Well there you go son." As you test reality daily
you will realise how unreal it all is
and thereby you will learn
that evil can be bliss.

"Groovy"
May 2016 · 469
the inkeeper
john shai May 2016
There was something about you
Like a house with an open door
A window with a vision
A room with a burning fire

Therefore my desire

Can a man like me enter?
Cold from winter's chill
No offering of rent
Just my weary worn out

Labour I'll give witout doubt

You took me in
Gave me a meal
And showed me the value
Of eating with knife and fork

It's a pity I'm not a dork

I'm incapable really
I eat with my hands
And wipe my hands
On my sweater

You deserve better

So I left
john shai May 2016
One can only get nearer the truth
One can never reach it
For words do not exist
Nor the mind capable of conceptualizing
An ultimate truth

The human thus forges on
To perfect his craft
Through
Literature

By finding the perfect abstract story
Finds a closer approximation of
The truth
May 2016 · 657
destiny
john shai May 2016
Love should be determined
It shouldn't be a drug
May 2016 · 411
learning to think
john shai May 2016
His room stank of narcissism
The kind of aroma I loved
Back then
As he held his knife against
My throat
You're afraid of dying are'nt you

Adrenaline

Knowing of his past
I must act
I show him my arm
Savage marks on my wrist attest
I'm not affraid of dying
I'm affraid of living

He pulls back
You didn't even do it right
Fine you don't have to help me
You'll do it wrong anyway

Funny how psychopaths
End up far away
And I'm still here

I'm not afraid of death
I'm afraid of life

He's not afraid of life
He's not afraid of death

One can say his motto is
'Fear nothing'
While mine is
'Think before doing anything'

What was I doing here?
A sense of significance
Something to think
Profusely about
When one's life depended on it.
May 2016 · 677
When Angels Fall From Grace
john shai May 2016
Just like the flow of a thought
Our story coherently played out
Each event like an intention ought
To float on a wave of doubt

Crashing on the shore of memory
It was foamy and filled with greenery
And the birds did feed on its nutrition
And words written in the sand, destruction

Of very moments that were sweet
     Now washed clean as a sheet
May 2016 · 715
a bit of information
john shai May 2016
And then I existed in a universe unknown
Moving like a wave down fibres of bone
I needed to latch onto something familiar
But my course was determined by my maker the creator
Lights flashing all around
Time a memory, an instant of sound
I felt my being was spread all around
No connection to a ground
Momentum I was, a timeless freckle
On eternity's far reaching arm
Untill a glorious particle
Of energy warm
Smashed into me
And I became
A life changing article

Here I sit, having traversed through space and brain waves
Ready to jump on the next moving train
The power of a single thought; or even a bit of information.
May 2016 · 404
Possession
john shai May 2016
Young elephants elegantly illustrating illustrious beauty
As they're silently softly silhouetted against the sun
Playing playfully like persons in pretend war
It's nature's nurturing natal nuanced nervous fun

Mother moans meaning to mature their young minds
Father fathering says they should fight for first prize
Your treasure is your territory
You must first own your territory before you can act wise

Then a loud bang and father falls
    His treasure on the human mind calls
Apr 2016 · 512
in dreaming so create you
john shai Apr 2016
In dreams my blossom on floundering scaffold
Each branch so tender and green
The winds will stir and seek to unfold
Her beauty hidden in folds unseen

The sun does call a wonderful song
The season ripe like a ******
But still she dances in strides long
To music, love's first-time sin

It's I who dreamed the dream of you
     It's I will pluck the flower too
Apr 2016 · 2.4k
the ideal artist
john shai Apr 2016
Nobody is born an artist
You become an actor
And act like an artist

You will never feel loved
Because you will never
Achieve the ideal
Which is the only
Thing deserving
Of love
Apr 2016 · 413
creation
john shai Apr 2016
From the sad darkness
A mighty cry
A sound so mind shattering
From a place on high

A single photon does emerge
Multiplying explosively
Energy coangulates
Abstractly orgasmicly

Thus the conception
Of a universe

You are the crowning inception
Of Man's curse

Or so it was when I first saw you...
How the universe relates.
Apr 2016 · 296
phenomena love
john shai Apr 2016
Harmony in the spaces and times
Between a single cause
And a single effect.

Isolation for a pair entangled
By opposite forces united.

Soft moments in eternity.

And yet, we met
At an evening party
As the sun has set.
I thought of the love between objects and then of the love between us.
john shai Apr 2016
Broken people live in the valley
Where the river flows with ****
Suicide rises like the sickness tally
Depression they call it

Drugs are legal and recomended
Anything to avoid the outcome
Anything for a heart mended
Love is too weak for some

God is called upon in times of need
But He is too far away
To hear
The pleed
Save me dear God

Silence

But they hold on
To a thread
Because they know

There is the smallest possibility
That they will wake up one day
The world will lose its hostility
And they will be on their way

Out of the valley of sadness
Into the soft lit day light
Love will fill the night
And they will have peace with
The badness
Make peace with the past. And get all the help you can find.
john shai Apr 2016
Our love is odd
Since you heard, my story
Which I told in the dark
So you could, shut up
But you loved it so much
And projected, those feelings
As a love
For me

Young girls!
With blonde hair!
  Are playful!
   But scary!
  
As the midnight comes
The demons are set free
Next thing I know
Your sleeping next to me
Skin smooth as velvet
Your lips red as your blood
Your blood
On the sheets

Young girls!
With histories!
  Are clingy!
   And lovely!
Apr 2016 · 563
The Gods Must Hate The Poor
john shai Apr 2016
Did the ancients of Africa not pray for posterity?
Could their Gods not save their future?
Oh river of raining collective thought
Bring us a the greatest prosperity.

As the Zambezi river flows forever
Did it not ever change its chaotic course?
Do the mountains where the water comes from
Not quarrel with the clouds and their friendship sever?

rain

drops

fall

from

a

cloud

and

Lands never in our hands.
The fortune of the poor.
Apr 2016 · 981
Suburban South Africa
john shai Apr 2016
Slither slither
Come hither
From castle to castle
We fear and hustle

Every house a fortress
Lock the gates at day
Everyone wants your money
Responsible for the poor

Buy socks from a street vendor
At an extravagant price
Save money at the supermarket
Because really your budget is tight

Give cigarettes to the druggies
At every traffic light
Give what you have left over
To charity; rids you of guilt

But the oraters in the halls
Of politics say you are the reason
You are the cause
The poor MUST commit treason
Apr 2016 · 477
outside the box
john shai Apr 2016
Play with words
Book with a character
Poem without rhyme
Novel within a play with words
About a book with a character
And a poem whithout rhyme
But the play with words
Is the poem whithout rhyme
And the novel within it
Is within itself
I'm just experimenting to see if this makes sense to anyone else; or am I crazy?
Apr 2016 · 6.6k
OCD Poetry
john shai Apr 2016
I can't stop writing this poetry,
Because all I think of is poetry.
Phrases repeat temselves spontaniously.
Like trains coming continuously
Rhyme and metre extravagantly
Burst into flames explosively.
Twas I who consulted psychiatry.
OCD he said repeatedly.
OCD I thought repeatedly.

Then I broke free
From
Rhyme and.  Metre

And any rules really!!!

**** it?

Flower

Sunshine in the rain
Relax bro

Be open and throw **** all over the place
                    But do it with grace.
For those who suffer from OCD Poetry Disorder, otherwise known as English Majors.
Apr 2016 · 1.2k
Forbidden Fruit
john shai Apr 2016
It is forbidden to eat
To eat the fruit of love
In the garden of Human

Woman plucks it from the tree
The tree of ignorance
And gives it to Man

Man realizes they are clothed
And is embarresed he connot
Make her drop her brazier

They fall into love
And shall forever dwell
In paradise near to God

But
       In paradise there groweth
       Another strange fruit
       And a strange snake
I thought perhaps this perfect opposite of the genisis story could have unconsciously influenced Christian thought over the centuries, giving rise to patriarcal systems of knowledge and a fear of ***.
Apr 2016 · 918
delusion
john shai Apr 2016
They say they suffer

I wish for sweet suffering
If it is physical.
Are they called on
By the musical

Harrowing

Quaking

Voice of God

"Let them nail you to the cross!"

Waking up in a tomb
The mother's great womb

A nurse looking at me
Take this pill
Get a job
Just a mind ****; interpret it as you must. I was super depressed when I wrote this. Sort of just came out
Apr 2016 · 665
facebook vs hellopoetry
john shai Apr 2016
Doth yonder there on the facebook page
The saddest of people are in the happy cage
Where life is a mirage in paradise spent
And beauty is word **** from a friend sent

Oh my what's the news today?
If seen and forgotten it is hearsay

Doth here on hello poetry
The saddest of people are free to be
Where life is the search for beauty's treasure
And beauty is the truth wrapped in leather

Oh my what poetry today?
If felt
             strikes all pain away
Apr 2016 · 581
African City Lion
john shai Apr 2016
African cities are rather typical
We laugh at the foreighner who
Thinks a gun necessary to fight
Not gangsters but lions too

Buildings rise from the red soil
Rich and poor live side by side
Electrictricity flows up and down
There is no need to hide

Until one night
As you stammer back
From a party delight
You sense a twig crack

You turn around
And there He
The king of the jungle
Strolling on the sidewalk

Has placed his fiery eyes
Like hell have no fury
On the jugular prize

The headline the following day

"Drunk man in hospital after encounter with city cat"

It was a lion I say
Africans can tell a good story, trust me, I'm an African.
Apr 2016 · 778
the fields of love
john shai Apr 2016
You give parts of your heart
Leaving only a dark hole
You give parts of your heart
Leaving you unwhole

Why do they take so much?
But you know
They take so much
Because you have so much to give

Your heart may be a wasteland
It is because it has been reaped
And seeds are already at hand
The sower has just leaped

For his job is done
He sits waiting for the rain
How everything happens for a reason
Apr 2016 · 755
the atheist god
john shai Apr 2016
I never stopped believing
I just stopped believing in you
You can stop grieving
My soul is fully connected

To the laws of logic and art
I say I feel more and more
My essence and matter shall never part
The logic of abstract words

And then

Upon a crisp cold morning
I am alone
I am mourning
I curse this logic

For it is my master
And I its slave
How I envy the naive
Apr 2016 · 1.8k
the Universe in a jar
john shai Apr 2016
if the universe God played in
like a Child
the stars like Fireflies
he'd catch them
put them on a Shelf
Feed them
leave them undisturbed
while he fell Asleep
the universe follows the laws of the jar
Apr 2016 · 975
the prophet
john shai Apr 2016
You know the answer before
You find the words to express
You can feel the more
You are the less

But the great wave is crashing
On your shore
You are the vessel smashing
Against the door

You are forced by the one
You are slave to none
But the universe's
Solution done

Yesterday you preached to the masses
Today you publish bursts of words
Tomorrow you are in the sanitorium
Untill the final freedom come

— The End —