The very first thing a poet should do
Is throw that ego in the bin.
For being Great, or finding fame and fortune
Should hardly be your goal.

Just say whatever you have to say
With passionate heart and Voice.
Forget about Perfection
As all is relative:
And simply be Inspired.

Don’t be a slave to rigid forms:
Variety is the key.
Pulsing rhythms may match the heart
But missing beats have clout.

Be respectful to other poets at all times
And always return their praise, where you can.
Never criticise in a negative way:
Always be positive and supportive.

Keep out of inter-poet politics:
Such a waste of time!
Just write and write and write and write:
I simply cannot help it!

Paul Butters

I said something profound the other day,
So someone asked me, “Are you God?”
Well, strange as it may seem, I might be!

It’s possible, if unlikely, that I’m the Only One;
A Matrix Hero if you like,
That Everything Else is but a figment from my Super Id:
Perish the thought.

Yet I’ve precious little power
In this world around me now.
I’m just as helpless
As in my dreams.

I’m Not the God Religious folk talk of:
Omnipotence does not spring here.
Dare I suggest, though,
That God isn’t all He’s cracked up to be?

I’ve said before, maybe we All are part of God:
His eyes, ears and touch.

But what IS God?
I have to ask.
We each define Him (or Her, or It)
In our own way.

There must be higher powers
Of some sort
And Star Wars has its “Force”.

All things are Relative
And without end
So find your “God”
And make your choice.

Define your God
In any way you can.
But remember
It’s not your belief in God that counts,
It’s your belief in GOOD.

Paul Butters

If I were God
I would give the gift of Everlasting Life to Everyone
Without Condition.
Knowing full well that I exist
I would not need a single other soul
To believe in Me.

I’d never say you may have eternal life
Provided you Believe.
For I would feel Unconditional Love
For every living thing.

Yes, I’d cherish every living thing:
Be a Lifist if you will.
Yet I suspect that God:
He, She or It
Thinks just the same as Me.

It’s our interpretation of The Lord
That is at fault.
He…She… has a Plan
And waits
Like a mother hen
To wrap us All
In Her…
Bright outstretched wings.

Paul Butters

To me a poem is a Statement, even a Speech.
So, Friends, Britons and countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Britain, not to praise it.
The evils that empires do live long after them.
Colonial wrongs seem never put to right.
Achievements hidden away in dusty books
By historians, all honourable men (and women!).
Yet historians say the Brits were too ambitious
And too self-righteous by half.
For historians are honourable men (and women).
They say we must accept that we’re a tiny island nation
And accept our place in the world.
Yes, historians are honourable men (and women).
They say we were too ambitious.
But now, the world is threatened by dark forces,
And only the winner takes the spoils (and writes the history!).
Once more unto the breach us Brits must go,
To fight like tigers
And smite the foe.

Paul Butters