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Feb 2022 · 75
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
If you can see within yourself,
to discover the nature of your being,
dislodge the shackles of slavery,
and know what hides the truth,
perhaps the way to freedom
unto you may be revealed.

And yet are there not those
who may enjoy their fetters?
Those to whom liberty
is nothing more than loss?
Those for whom freedom
may exist only in *******?

For such sad creatures
liberty implies responsibility
and if prepared to pay the price,
those others who would curtail freedom
may find the shackles not enough,
whilst being free is being lost.

The liberty in an instant gained,
may be abandoned in an hour.
A state achieved too easily,
inevitably is poorly prized.
Those who claim to favour freedom
must be prepared to give it up.

Freedom can, like power, corrupt.
The liberty to live one’s life
oblivious to temptation,
implies a generosity of love:
to say that “I will give to you
what I would willingly deny myself.”

Freedom is as freedom does,
the tree of liberty must be refreshed
as Jefferson informed us
with blood of patriots and tyrants.
Freedom has to be, it must be said
and must remain, unfinished business.
Feb 2022 · 694
A PIVOTAL POINT
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
As I make my progress through life
I am aware constantly
Of the need for answers
and I am equally aware
that I have not been asking
the right questions.
Feb 2022 · 68
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
When a fish swims,
what is its destination?
When a bird flies,
to whom is it flying?
And when you leave me . . .
when you leave . . .
Where?
Who?
Why?
Feb 2022 · 81
POÉSIE ZEN FRANÇAISE
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Les mots que j’emploie
Ne sont pas meilleurs
Que ceux de n’importe autre poète.
Mais les espaces entre les mots
Les espaces alors!
C’est là où demeure ma vraie poésie.
Based on a shorter English verse published here some 4 years ago.
Feb 2022 · 65
Rhubarb, Rhubarb
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
The lies of Boris born
Were sent to mock us.
They fed us milk of Capricorn
And not the lactococcus.
Feb 2022 · 419
LIFE ABIDES
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
If the dead can hear the living
albeit for a while
then this they know:
“You have not left us,
you have not gone away;
you rest as firm
as some long-planted tree."
Here.
Now.
Forever.
Feb 2022 · 76
HAIKU ON HONESTY
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Contempt alas is
all too often the price paid
for being honest.
Feb 2022 · 123
A ZEN PARADOX
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Life is a grain of rice
is a paradox that
I have considered
for many years
to the following
conclusions.

Nothing is forever.
Everything ends ultimately.
The eternality of time
will cover all in a silence of
dust and overgrowth.  

We can but accept
the constraints of pain and time,
greed and need,
joy and love,
fear and lust,
and the paradox
of self-awareness,
and its relevance
to the grain of rice.

And the only conclusion
I can reach is that
Life is NOT a grain of rice.
Feb 2022 · 71
THE WORD IS NICE
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
I have found so much joy and peace
since I first learned how best
to embrace my inner self.

And of all the several rules
that I have decided to follow,
the most enduring and secure
are those that involve
self-belief, love and
gratification.

These may be summarized
in three simple maxims
and one simple word:
the word is “nice”.

Rule number one is to say
nice things about myself.
Rule number two is to do
nice things for myself.

Rule number three is
the most important of all
and if I obey the dictates
of this final rule, I may safely
disregard all the others.

Rule number three is simply
to have someone else
say and do nice things to me
and, above all, to
buy nice things for me.
Feb 2022 · 139
Haiku on saying "Yes"
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
I cannot recall
any regrets consequent
on having said "Yes".
Feb 2022 · 69
Embracing the Positive
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Every moment spent
Feeling so annoyed
At anything I may have lost
Might better be employed
In celebrating all those wondrous moments
That I have enjoyed.
Feb 2022 · 60
Reflection on Emily
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
You burned
Like the brightest of bright flames
And,
as is always the case
with bright flames,
you were snuffed out.
Early.
Far, far too early.
Feb 2022 · 65
Epigram in verse
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Always keep in mind that
your love for each other
should be greater than
your need for each other
Feb 2022 · 254
HAIKU ON CHANGE
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Do not resist change;
It is inevitable.
Resist being changed!
Feb 2022 · 396
EPIGRAM IN VERSE
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote,
Lord Chesterfield once said.
Thereby inviting us to judge him
As a dunderhead.

Let wise men read what wise men wrote
Is what I say instead,
And you may judge me for yourself
Since my work’s quite widespread.
Feb 2022 · 64
A Writer's Prayer - Haiku
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
I would exchange the
Entire output of my life
For one perfect word
Feb 2022 · 62
Confrontation
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Ajbure confrontation.

You gain nothing in trying
to demonstrate your worth to another.

You may gain a world
if you believe in your own worth.
Feb 2022 · 234
Haiku to a Prime Minister
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2022
Don't forget, unless
You control your attitude,
It will control you.
Jan 2022 · 275
HAIKU ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Ice cap vanishes
Imperceptibly from view.
The rest is silence.
Jan 2022 · 381
Haiku on Getting There
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
It is so vexing
To achieve what you wanted
And not to know it.
Jan 2022 · 60
SHORT VERSE ON LEADERSHIP
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Of all our fellow creatures
We really have to say
That the best are not the preachers
But those who light the way.
Jan 2022 · 60
OUT OF CHAOS SWEET RECALL
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
You ask me if I still remember what you meant to me
in those brightly golden days
that filled tumultuous lives with wondrous hopes,
undaunted by the death and dark destruction
that existed far removed from
our immediate ken.

And now, and now in these benighted
topsy-turvy times when love lies bleeding
in the urban battlefields
that are our personal birthright,
and our inheritance of that early
insouciant disdain.

Will we still remember fantasies and dreams
transmogrified into harsh reality,
or hopes that never were fulfilled.
With nothing left but fading scraps
of paper or a tape or two
and no instrument to play them on.
Jan 2022 · 80
I LOVE A POEM
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
I love a poem.
One that rhymes.
But must admit that
there are times
When I go a bit too far
From the sublime to the bizarre.

I love a poem.
One that scans.
But must confess
That I may over-stress
in metric heat
the use of feet.

I love a poem
and feel better for
the use of
subtle metaphor.
But egoism’s
not the same as symbolism.

I love a poem
but cannot agree
that I delight
in imagery.
While rhythm I’m afraid
leaves me in the shade.
Jan 2022 · 55
How Much Am I Worth?
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Sometimes, surrendering  has nothing to do with weakness, and everything to do with strength.

We give up and walk away not because we want others to acknowledge our value, but because we finally appreciate our own worth.
Jan 2022 · 151
FOUR HAIKUS
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Success is not judged
By what you got out of it
But what you gave up


Be kind to yourself
And be kind to all creatures
As well as the earth


Disputes with loved ones
Should be held to the present.
Don’t bring up the past.


Be considerate.
Do not respond in anger
But maintain your calm
Jan 2022 · 78
HAIKU ON MY CAT
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Not to cause concern,
She moves stealthily through life.
But purr-posefully.
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Vicious tongues may not be stilled
Prophecies may be unfulfilled
Knowledge gained may not prevail
But love will never fail.
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Please keep it at bay.
It creeps up on you.
Relentlessly, imperceptibly.
Until you feel trapped;
Held in a sticky
Gossamer web.

That’s for older folk, I think,
That’s for those who have passed
the point of no return.
It’s not for me.
I’m barely into my nineties.

I’m not ready for old age.
Jan 2022 · 61
From Ego to Id
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Forget about your Sigmund Freud;
It’s something you cannot avoid.
To reach a time of lessening desires
And the quenching
Of those lifelong fires.

And you can keep your Alfred Adler
Against the stream a baffled paddler.
No harmonicist like Larry.
His musical skills were quite "verborgen"
He dealt with a very different *****.
Joseph Sinclair Jan 2022
Oh, Boris told such dreadful lies,
One just gazed wide-eyed at the skies,
Astounded at support from these
Parliamentary colleagues
Who rallied to their leader’s cause,
Secure in the male menopause.

Gove, Michael, who was quite gung-**
Wanted to believe him, though
In trying to maintain his credence
While avoiding intercedence
Got his knickers in a twist
Which hardly pleased a hedonist.
But may have done so, had not he
Been faced with obvious perfidy.
For once, towards the end of work
He realised that the stupid berk
Had joined a party out-of-doors,
Knowing there was nothing worse,
But given the alternative,
Was doggedly conservative.

While as for dear effete Rees Mogg
Whose mind was often in a fog,
Though evidently of good breeding,
Slept through parliament’s proceeding.
And in The Mogg Cast Jacob wrote
“Unquestionably” – and I quote:
“The PM is an honest man”.
What brave words from a loyal fan.

He seemed to share with Donald Trump
A failure to maintain the ****
Of his supporters who only lasted
So long as he felt they could be trusted.
Thus Priti Patel with whom, besotted
He must have been, for when she blotted
Her copy book, he kept her in
The Cabinet, despite a sin
That others, far beneath her station,
To leave had had no hesitation.

But once, towards the close of day
Hearing merry sounds of play,
Bojo took his health in hand
Ignoring rules from his command.
“No-one tells me what to do”
Quoth he, “I’m off to have a few.”
“Allow me, please, to beg your pardon
And join my colleagues in the garden.”

It was not long before a tide
Of censure came from every side.
From Kensington and Camden Town,
From Aberdeen and County Down.
The premier has been found out
As if there could be any doubt,
For, after all, his lying skills
Had long replenished the gristmills.

When young he suffered from glue ear
So, what he did not want to hear
In later life, he could ignore
And simply choose to underscore
His frequent absurd recklessness
On the misfortune of deafness.

At Oxford in the Bullingdon
His drunkenness was quite well-known.
His early exploits as a Yuppy;
Flirtation then with Darius Guppy.
As editor of the Sextator
With thanks, doubtless, to his Creator
More flirtations, some quite grave;
“Who, sir?  Me, sir?  I’m no knave”
But Petronella at his back
Could not avoid the sack by Black.
Earlier it was the Times;
Distortions were his major crimes.


And, finally, to Downing Street
Where the circle is now complete,
Surrounded by his faithful lackeys,
Standing up for the Iraqis,
Risking the enmity of *******
Whose Durham trip was unbecoming,
Though not condemned at all by Boris
As extinct as a brontosaurus.


His lies have not grown any sweeter
They’ve more in common with a foetor,
When embarrassment heads his way
He simply takes off for the day:
“Sorry for this Obfuscation
I have to go to King’s Cross station
To provide a possible disclaimer
For my absence from the Chamber.”
Joseph Sinclair Jul 2021
The shepherd is departed, and his flock
now wander on the fell,
or hide within the thickets
wherein the bleakest shadows dwell.

And when the black night fills the heart
with direst trepidation,
they know the purport of their loss;
the heartbreak of a nation.

So has it been, since time began
when leadership has vanished
and newcomers, that now adorn
the peaks, are simply planished.

Attend us shepherd from the grave,
we have need of your guidance
to keep us from a weaker hand
and ominous subsidence.
Dec 2020 · 91
TO M.
Joseph Sinclair Dec 2020
Success had made no mark on him.
He remained the self
I honoured and loved:
the dichotomy
of arrogance and modesty
that required no forgiveness
because he was defined
by his own tolerance
of others.

Now he is gone,
but what remains
is the part of his life that
will forever be a part of my own.
Oct 2020 · 63
IMPENITENCE
Joseph Sinclair Oct 2020
I am unrepentant.

Give me a sin to struggle with
I am one of the unconverted
who happily abjures all piety
and seeks no arbitrary grace.

Please do not express a fervent hope
That I be brought to shame
by my depravity.

I seek not salvation, nor do I wish
to control those heinous urges;
I shall fulfil my own distasteful destiny.

I seek not redemption but prefer
to remain one of the unregenerate.

I seek not forgiveness
For I have forgiven myself,
and remain unrepentant.
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2020
We have our exits and our entrances.
It has been said before.
But in the lifelong scheme of things
The next farewell will likely be our last.
The Earth itself will one day die
And return unto its frozen, lifeless state.
A finality that is perhaps not too far off.
Without a sigh, without a whimper
Even without an ultimate warning blast.
We made our entrance, enjoyed our stay,
Played our part in the performance.
And soon it will be time to say goodbye.
Farewell, adieu, exit left or right.
But leave the stage.  Just go!
Aug 2020 · 54
LIVING WITH COVID-19
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2020
I awoke this morning and thought that I was dead.
Not a sound could be heard; not a breath of air
Could be felt.  “So this is how it ends” I thought
“Not with a bang, not with a whimper,
But with a dreadful solemn silence;
With a ghastly breathless stillness”.

And then I replaced the devices in my ears,
And conducted my matutinal ablutions,
And was restored to life.  Prepared to face
Another dull, disturbing, Covid-driven day.
Jul 2020 · 93
COMMUNION AND REQUIEM
Joseph Sinclair Jul 2020
I held her hands.
I gazed into
her eyes
and willed her strength.
I smiled.

The merest flutter
of her tremulous
fingertips
suggested she had
understood.

Her eyes, though open,
were unseeing.
Yet I knew
we had a meeting
of the souls.

“Stay with us,” I willed.
“Stay with us;
we are not ready
to let you
go”.

Was there an echo
in response
from her fingers?
Or was it wish
fulfilment?

And did a smile
linger on those
frozen lips?
Unlikely. . .
She was gone.
Feb 2020 · 75
SHATTERED DREAMS
Joseph Sinclair Feb 2020
There they lie;
spread around me
a myriad shining fragments
of the gift she had brought me.
Shards of glass
each a reflection of a broken promise;
a gift procured but withheld.

And all that I can do
is to survey those shattered remnants
of unrequited dreams,
and replay them on an endless
reel of soundless, aimless,
misbegotten promises
that ***** my heart
as those metaphorical shards
might have pricked my fingers.

What is left to me now
but to weep?
Dec 2019 · 96
The Mystique of Poetry
Joseph Sinclair Dec 2019
Poetry is like
the stars one cannot see
in the daytime.
It is a sense of fright
in the night.
It is metrical
but does not need to be
symmetrical.
It is rhythmic,
but does not
need to rhyme.
It is knowledge
that precedes sentience
but lags behind
sensitivity.
It is fuelled
by consternation
and ****** by
flocculation.
It is ambiguity;
it is obscurity;
it is enigma.
An updated, modified version of the poem original published as The Mystery of Poetry.
Dec 2019 · 94
The Guiding Voice
Joseph Sinclair Dec 2019
I heard a voice within my head;
its tones sweetly mellifluous.
It filled me with such melancholy
as rendered speech superfluous.

Thus does my mind becalm my mood.
The angry prejudice disperses
all that lies misunderstood
and lets my brain construct its verses.
Oct 2019 · 129
I Am No Penitent
Joseph Sinclair Oct 2019
I am no penitent.

I sometime feel
that in a previous life
I may have been Titivulus,
the incredible Michael Ayrton’s
magnificent verbiage collector.


. . . the little devil.
Sep 2019 · 171
Timeline
Joseph Sinclair Sep 2019
There’s another timeline somewhere,
where people are mourning me;
where family and friends are living
their natural spans,
achieving all that was hoped for,
but lost along the way
in my parallel universe.
Sep 2019 · 124
A FIERY STORY
Joseph Sinclair Sep 2019
Once upon a time
we were proud
We had beliefs
convictions
targets
and desires
that encompassed
more than our own
simple wants.

Indeed
we abhorred wants.
We embraced
needs.
The needs of others
as much as,
if not more than,
our own.

Where have they gone?
Who is there now
to pick up the mantle?
To run with the pennant?
To proclaim
a universal
truth?

Who is there
in this day and age
to plant the seeds
of selflessness?
To demonstrate
humility
and love?

Where have they gone,
the exemplars
of yesteryear
whose actions
matched
their words?

Who will be left
to live
happily
ever
after?
Aug 2019 · 438
Take My Hand
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
I am the difference that
shelters the difference;
I am the hope to
nourish the heart;
I am the truth that
lights up the darkness,
And causes all fear to depart.
Aug 2019 · 112
The Last Trump
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
We laughed when we built castles in the sand.
We laughed through the tidal disarray.
We sang with joy when the new-born babe arrived
We sang with grief when she was borne away.

But who is laughing now that all is gone?
Who is singing the last song of all?

Whose is the last laugh?
Who plays the last trump?
Aug 2019 · 119
I'm Not Done Yet
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
Those friends who knew me years ago
before our ways diverged,
may recollect
how tempered was my intellect
though rivalry emerged
whenever cricket bat
or tennis racquet
were flourished in a hand
that nowadays
is more prone to encompass
a fine Chateaubriand.

Tennis alas is of the past
and there, I fear, must bide,
but other sports and pastimes
I can still perform with pride.

So please set out those winks
that I may tiddle.
Dust off those mallets,
***** and hoops,
I’m not one of your nincompoops
and need no Queen’s flamingo
to win without a taradiddle.
Or we could turn to bingo.

Then there are those of intellect
who might like bridge or chess,
though possibly in retrospect
It’s best to acquiesce.

Ludo, Trivial Pursuits
and even Snakes and Ladders
might yet provide a good excuse
to encourage my swaggers.

The choice alas is far too great
and though it seems too late,
yet, dice in hand,
I bid farewell
with hopes still unerased
and one finger upraised.
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
I grow cold . . . I grow cold . . .
The drips shall drop from my nostrils uncontrolled.
Shall I put a sweater on?  Should I risk a cardigan?
I shall dress myself in white, emulate a ptarmigan.
I have heard pelagic puffins on the shore.

I do not think that they were warning me.
A simple, silly parody.  Sorry T.S.E.
Aug 2019 · 104
Post Hoc
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
Do not judge
my conclusions
before you have tested
my premisses.
Aug 2019 · 260
Disclaimer
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
Denial rose
unbidden to my tongue
but
I could not disclose
the words that lay
unuttered
in my heart
Aug 2019 · 116
Transmutations
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
To shake forbidden fruit
from off the sacred tree,
to quell the hungry yearnings
of the phantom bough
and hide the mystic longings
of the barren heart.
These are the secret wishes
that are keeping us apart.
Aug 2019 · 265
RAGE
Joseph Sinclair Aug 2019
Forgive me
the rage of youth,
the senseless
towering frenzy
of childish
interception.
the malignity
of immaturity
Now that I am
old enough.
Old enough to be dying
with dignity.
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