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Brian Turner Aug 2020
I want a cardboard world
Where desks sag and break in the rain
And people look at me in disdain

All the temporary creations I see
I didn't build for you, I built for me

Cardboard seats and cars
Cardboard hotels and bars
Cardboard rockets for Mars

All temporary cardboard builds to try
All cardboard inners to fry

There's nothing quite as temporary
As a new age cardboard century
I dream of making cardboard furniture and then letting it droop and sag in the rain with people looking at me in disdain
Brian Turner Aug 2020
I am me
I never was your employee

Never was a soccer ball to punch
Never was a joke to make over lunch

The customer is always right
I disagreed with that and never put up a fight

Your wrath was short and sweet
My tenancy left with days to beat

Now I am back to me
I never was your employee
Experience of being made redundant this year
Brian Turner Aug 2020
We approach the pub from the harbour storm
We gather there in lose form
A time to switch off from the norm

Status is left at the door veneer
No room for that here
It's simply time for beer

At the coal fire strangers mix
Do you know so and so?
Ah yes of course
He used to be a hallion didn't he?
Time for our fix

He died
She died
It died

She used to do that
No way?
Why can't she see sense?

Did you hear that he is leaving now?
We never knew
He'll never come back

Smile and laughter reign
Black stuff is ordered, refusal is feigned
More words are exchanged for the craic
A time of friendship
We'll always come back
Some memories of gathering at the harbour bar in Portrush Northern Ireland. Status is left at the door.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
The dry day came
The baler the same
Walking behind they magically pop out
We march to the call and gurn to the shout

The lift is swift
And the landing is firm
On the steel trailer bed
Nothing more to be said

Off to the yard
To the pile at the top
We hide our protest
Man, this is hot

I can't see for the dust
The smell of the hay
Makes us lift faster
I'll remember this day

A neat puzzle is made
My energy will fade
Every bale must fit
Every lift, one of grit

The sweat and the heat
This job is not complete
Once more to the field
To gather the yield
Memories of making hay on hot summers day in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
I love to stare at rain
From the comfort of the door frame

Am I in or out?
Your rhythm and beat has no doubt

Am I stuck in stasis?
Can I cope with what faces us?

You rumble on
We rumble on
Keep rumbling
Thoughts from staring at rain this morning. For some reason I love to be on the door frame neither inside or outside.
Brian Turner Aug 2020
Take up the challenge
Believe in 'the now'
We 'of tenet' will show you how

Tenet is the reason I breathe in the morning
The reason I smile at you as you pass
The reason I believe in mass

Without Tenet there is nothing
And nothing to do to
Tenet is why there is me and you
Inspired by the new movie "Tenet' I have written this short poem. Tenet is a 'belief'. Without tenet there is nothing I believe. The now refers to this moment, not yesterday or tomorrow. See Eckhart Tolle for more
Brian Turner Aug 2020
I’m OK, you’re OK
That’s how I’m gonna start today
A neutral position to drive through
The brilliant feeling of new me, new you

I’m OK, you are not Ok
This isn’t going to end well
I can tell, you fell

I’m not OK, you are OK
I give in it’s yours to take
Let’s hope your path is not a mistake
Let’s hope my news is truly fake


I’m not OK, you are not OK
The worst position of all
Ok fine I hear you
Let’s end this call
This is a technique on how to get on with people that I have turned into a poem. I'm OK, you're Ok is the approach on how to work with difficult people. By saying 'This guy is OK" before a difficult telephone call and asking them "Are you OK" the odds are on that the call will go well. On the flip side "I'm Ok, you are not Ok' may lead to locked horns.
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