"doublespeak" poems
forced to ask 'is it all bullshit'
this field of study just completed
this path now flying feet fleet'd
I, alumni all outwardly faux alacrity
but instead really inside shades drawn
hiding shame useless
waiting for the sun's forebearant rays
to pull dead drunk me off floor again
still sick sinning spinning lies
on nodal web patterns
of activation
just a narcissist sociopath-in-training
(was I?) being taught how better
to manipulate other's fate
for personal gain
great fat magnificent magnanimous beast
loafing on liar's chair o'great victory-defeat
doublespeak tho Orwell is long dead and we do mourn him so with eulogy eyes
that weep crocodile tears of
well hidden liars
having long forgotten how to believe
in anything aside from own ill-gotten
gains, they mean nothing more
than bloodstained verses
anemic murmurs
whispered great
whisky hopes
and sallow
cheeked
dreams
Aug 13, 2014
Aug 13, 2014 at 11:04 AM UTC
THEY will have the final word.
Believe what the PARTY says is true.
Even Facecrime gives you away,
For BIG BROTHER is watching you.
Honesty? Bah, such nonsense!
Loyalty is what must sell.
State-spread rumors incite the mob
In your bleak, dystopian hell.
Reject evidence of eyes and ears.
That's what THEY say. Watch how hate
Turns the unquestioning supporter
Against the enemies of the state.
The Goodthinkful, unaware
How language affects their thoughts and behavior,
Show how ignorance is strength
And lavish praise upon their savior.
Manipulating public opinion,
THEY know well-spread lies will last,
For that's how THEY'LL control the future,
And that's how THEY control the past.
Doublethink is what THEY call it:
The clever art of reality control.
Ignorance is strength, THEY tell you.
Controlled insanity is THEIR goal.
The more powerful THEY become,
The less THEY prove to be your friend.
It's NOT about what's good for the people.
Power is NOT a means but an end.
War is declared on language and memory.
Inconvenient facts are rejected.
Science is reviled, and THEY
Discredit people once respected.
Doublespeak narrows the range of thought.
By caving in you might survive.
Two and two make four, but sometimes
THEY'LL say that two and two make five.
Opinions are not tolerated.
Protective stupidity: that's THEIR plan.
You think THEY can't control your thoughts,
But, oh, THEY can. THEY really can.
Do you look at your screen, or does
Your screen look at you? Or Both?
Do you know how much THEY know
Or if THEY know you've kept your oath?
Who's the next to be vaporized?
Who's the next to become an unperson?
As long as THEY control your "thinking,"
Everything can only worsen.
If only to awaken from the nightmare
Where truth becomes a likelihood
And we retain humanity!
Wouldn't that be "doubleplusgood"?
-by Bob B (8-30-18)
Aug 30, 2018
Aug 30, 2018 at 12:21 PM UTC
Tax the poor and reward the rich
This line should be reversed
But, the politicians always use this line
It's a line they have rehearsed
As soon as they are voted in
They give themselves a raise
When we question what they did this for
They just sit there in a daze
They use all sorts of doublespeak
To tell us all their reasons
For taxing poor and elderly
The rich are out of season
A few cents here, a nickel there
No one will notice that
While our old folks sit at home
Sharing tinned food with their cat
Tax the poor and reward the rich
This line should be reversed
But, the politicians always use this line
It's a line they have rehearsed
As soon as they are voted in
They give themselves a raise
When we question what they did this for
They just sit there in a daze
The veterans they are targets too
Their pensions get rolled back
They hit those who can't defend themselves
Or are too poor to fight back
They give out tax cuts to the rich
Big business gets the most
While our working poor are stuck at home
Finding new ways to serve toast
They sell our jobs and tax our lives
Until we're better dead
But then we can't afford to die
We've no place to lay our head
They sit in ivory towers
Looking down on those below
Wondering how to get more money in
How to make their pockets grow
The parties not in power
Try their best to make a change
But to do that, we need lots of help
Parliament must rearrange
The way the parties govern
The way they ***** the meek
There must be changes at the top
To help strengthen the weak
There's people on the system
Who worked hard and did their part
Now they can't afford an apple
Let alone the apple cart
Tax the poor and reward the rich
This line should be reversed
But, the politicians always use this line
It's a line they have rehearsed
As soon as they are voted in
They give themselves a raise
When we question what they did this for
They just sit there in a daze
So, at the next election
Don't just vote because you should
Go and vote for something different
Go and vote for something good
Because your parents vote one colour
And you choose to do that too
Is not a true democracy
You've a choice in what to do
If you're voting for the first time
Think real hard before you pick
All their promises look tasty
Until you give them a good lick
Remember how your grandpa
Said "It was much better when"
"We were treated fair and equally"
And it can be done again
So if Tax the poor and reward the rich
Is the motto that you choose
I hope that you'll rememer this
When you can't afford new shoes
The time to change what's wrong is now
Start giving money back
To those who can't afford to lose
The one's who fall between the crack
So tax the rich, reward the poor
Take the tax cuts all away
And make our seniors equal
Don't make them be the ones that pay.
May 13, 2012
May 13, 2012 at 7:46 PM UTC
Indoctrination of the American nation
Relocation of native populations
Slaves labor, creating plastic toys
To distract the little girls and boys
With media propaganda saturation
To numb your brain from realization
That we're living a lie as children die
To fill your tank so you can drive
To Wal-Mart for some motherfuckin' Cheesy Poofs
That scoop the dip in which you ****
Lay waste to nature's beauty abundant
Political doublespeak redundantly redundant
Television's collision with consciousness
Has dimmed your awareness to idiocy
In an illusion of democracy
Where only the rich have control
As upon us all they take their toll
And we blindly follow, believing as we hear
Their scheming lies of security and fear
It's time the power structure fell
No more this **** to buy and sell
Reallocation of the hoarded wealth
And power for all people, not oneself
Mental stasis, awaken from this hypnosis
And avert the coming catastrophic crisis
Our leaders are masters who march us to disaster
As the clash of our cultures ignites so much faster
Than mere cognition, dimmed by television
Can comprehend the impending collision
Of conflicting interest in collective vision
It's time to rise with a battle cry
And tell the Feds we won't lay down and die
We'll evolve and resolve the situation
And bring new meaning to revolution
An end to the media's web of confusion
Confusing reality with an illusion
Conspiratorial governmental parallels
A trumpet's blast, as Babylon.... fell.
Dec 8, 2013
Dec 8, 2013 at 4:53 PM UTC
Like Winston Smith,
I think it’s time to start a diary.
Follow me now: it’s April in Oceania,
The cruelest month,
The silly season, printemps,
A regular I see London, I see France.
I see Winston’s Underpants.
If you catch my drift?
La Primavera: Vivaldi’s rocking the
Juke box and the vote, Botticelli’s painting,
A mural on Jerusalem's wailing wall.
My diary will be hard evidence of thought crime.
Thought crime: one of the more severe varieties of
Religious experience & the most psychotic form of mental illness,
In a category known as antisocial personality disorders.
Thought crime means never getting into any serious trouble,
Until you’re caught, can we at least agree on that?
So, we'd better add the DSM to our stack of essential literary classics.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,
Published by the American Psychiatric Association,
Providing a common language,
A shrink’s Esperanto.
DSM-IV codes classify mental disorders.
The DSM: a Frommer’s travel guide &
User’s manual for life on planet Earth.
So, like Orwell's Winston, I start a diary of my own; but
Unlike Mr. Smith, I address my message to the here &
What’s happening now, not the future, not the past but
N-a-zayer, N-a-zither NOW.
That's right, I write for the present:
“If thought was ever free, it is not free now."
If truth exists it is a closely guarded secret,
Although McLuhan’s observations hide in plain sight:
*“The new electronic interdependence, recreates
The world in the image of a global village.”*
Which makes us all global village idiots.
We are no longer different from one another;
The age of groupthink is here.
I write to you from an age of security & surveillance,
Warrantless search and predator drones,
An age where no man is ever truly alone.
From an age of standardization, replaceable parts,
Whirling dervishes, dabblers in spin control,
Newspeak and doublespeak,
Atlas shrugged, drugged and fugged,
The new world order:
All but the faint of heart need apply, …
"I send greetings.”
May 14, 2016
May 14, 2016 at 3:56 PM UTC
All of gods children.
Walk by faith. Not by sight.
Blessed is the meek. Love your enemy I know that sounds weak.
It is the context. An eye for an eye. Doublespeak ?
I am learning to live and ÷ I live to learn.
Learn to forgive or you surely will burn. I am a skeptic by trade
A realist by nature.
Deeper still
Deeper transcend.deeper.
The surface lies deeper and furthur below.
To err is human to transcend, devine.
So. Seek within . Conjure without.
Heal your heart with love.
Love. Deeper.
Feel.deeper.
Give. Deeper.
Cast your bread. Furthur and abide.
Deeper without and deeper inside.
Sep 30, 2013
Sep 30, 2013 at 1:57 AM UTC
Bill knows all about
Black ops; he’s been
Involved in many; hush
Hush stuff. Knew about
The JFK ***** Watch
Your back, Bill, old
Friends said; now most
Are dead, but Bill’s still
Around, keeping his nose
Clean, his eyes keen, his
Brain alert. He knows
Things are going on; he
Reads the news, hears
Politician’s doublespeak,
Reads between the lines.
His mother bathed his
Grazed knees, kissed
His bruises, covered up
His lies, prayed for him.
Never understood him
Not even on her last day.
He visited her in hospital,
But wouldn’t stay; said it
Was best for both of them
That way. The American
Dream; what a laugh, he
Muses, standing in the
Doorway, watching for
The cab, remembering
Mexico, the dark ops
There, the way it went.
Nice place that, except
For the reasons sent.
He knew headlines
Were falsified; lies
Were spread. Knew
Why Kennedy got it
In the head. Years pass
By, he sighs, most people
Forget. New ops arrive,
Word sent, politicians
Bought up and out and
Spent. Could have been
Some one, Bill, his father
Often said, could have made
The grade, been at the top,
Crème de la crème. **** that,
Bill said, don’t want to be
Part of that sick scene, don’t
Want to be a sadshit like them.
Mar 21, 2012
Mar 21, 2012 at 4:18 AM UTC
again, this word retard. my anger loves you. only my anger loves you. a closed pocket mirror in my mother’s purse is on its own. a person is a message. the offer stands; I will ****** you in exchange for sex. this is not where we go when we live.
Mar 18, 2013
Mar 18, 2013 at 4:20 PM UTC
A life of doublespeak,
I think you're weak,
Never mind, (you're a dipstick),
Means 'I don't give a blip',
Blip happens,
Means, 'You're crapping',
Do stop moaning,
And all your groaning,
Dull contemplation,
Of ex manipulation.
Yes, doublespeak,
Means I think you're weak,
'Have a good day,' so long,
Who cares why the ex carries on?
Sep 6, 2016
Sep 6, 2016 at 10:48 PM UTC
my mother handed out
love in admonishments
about clean shoes and brushed teeth
to try our best and not to bleat about a life hard and oft incomplete....it is only now after years of growing
in understand it is not because she was hard, uncaring but that she was as fragile as spun glass
so much already taken stolen by this world...her mother while in her teens
first love taken by vietnam
war machine, first child, daughter a few days old...and then three live children, later husband taken by gambling and a woman she considered a friend.
those simple words became
hard to say....to admit love
was to have it ripped away.
so she taught herself, this terse morse of words imbued with love..take a jumper... have you got your books all double entendre
just in care not risque
with love bespoke....
as children we learnt to find the deeper meaning
to parse conversations
for love...sifted by despair...
we learnt well, the art of doublespeak....
Aug 1, 2014
Aug 1, 2014 at 7:25 PM UTC
Once there was a nation, which
Boasted of its wealth and size.
In that nation lies became truth,
And truth became known as lies.
Thus, the country corroborated
An expert's wise and salient prediction
That soon the people everywhere
Wouldn't know fact from fiction.
"Science is irrelevant,"
The leaders of the land decreed.
"Clamp down on critical thinking
And we'll maintain control indeed."
The people became MORE baffled,
MORE confused, MORE perplexed,
And wondered what kind of craziness
They were going to encounter next.
The art of political doublespeak
Was praised, encouraged and expanded.
If you called it gobbledygook,
You were severely reprimanded.
Reporters who sought facts were called
"Purveyors of mendacity,"
While those who were irrational
Were "pillars of veracity."
The general rule was answer a question
With a question, or try to deflect
Any queries toward dead ends.
The tactic was called "Misdirect."
The leader was an expert at
Duplicity and subterfuge.
Ruling without intelligence
Can work when a person's ego is HUGE.
Sad it was to see such a land
Change from what it once had been.
Not until people opened their eyes
Would things improve. Not until then.
- by Bob B (3-21-17)
Mar 21, 2017
Mar 21, 2017 at 1:15 PM UTC
I watch the flicker of lights
They are clear and steady
Blazing out continuously
In brilliant letters
Huge digital billboards
And cold electronic signs
Sending signals to the brain
Of the latest consumer designs
No time to think
No time to digest it
Keep on working
To pay for the transmit
I will buy a new car
And replace the TV
Keep the system rolling
As part of the economy
Stroll around the mall
Listen to the doublespeak
Join in with the crowd
Buy the same as last week
Buy now, buy now
Self autonomy
Buy it replace it
Its good for the economy
Goodbye for now
But you will be back
Customer loyalty
With biofeedback
Jun 20, 2018
Jun 20, 2018 at 5:12 PM UTC
Here we are again .
sitting at the kitchen table
with silverware in hand
doing what we do best ;
prodding, poking,
slicing and cutting.
tearing away and chewing
Our gazes stray from
the mashed potatoes to the
steaks bleeding on our plates
but never/
to the eyes at the other end of the table ;
to the face wanting to be seen
we make small talk
out of the corner of our mouths
as we chew away the fat ;
talking of the meaningless/
how the food is
of the pointless/
how the day went
of the impossible .
. how . are . you .
It's all the same
just as the night before was/
the night before and before/
the table is set
the food is placed
and we sit ;
Far . away .
on this our hallowed ground
our ritual performed
in doublespeak
Pass the salt, please/
a dance for rain
More peas, dear?/
a primal scream
Looks good, honey/
a sacrificial lamb
in your name, we dine
amen
Aug 12, 2014
Aug 12, 2014 at 9:36 AM UTC
Love loves to be
Plain, simple and free
No hide and seek
No doublespeak
And word play
And no delay
In breaking
Deadly silence
That is humiliating
To sit on the fence
And sing a song
And play along
The margin
Just imagine
Love as a bee
That stings
And Sings
The pain
Simple and plain
Loves love to be
A sweet gain
Of sweet loss
Of me in we
Where love
Loves to be!
Jan 2, 2016
Jan 2, 2016 at 2:21 AM UTC
The poet cannot talk about what he already knows.
Northrop Frye
light splits the world in seen and unseen
night accelerates some fascination
I contemplate the poverty of words
who is doing the autopsy of freedom or something,
a requiem for a country that torments its name
streets don't smell of winter but of loneliness and oblivion, exhaustion and rage
some have already forgotten the meaning of blood
we like sweating not weeping, cursing not dreaming, finding the stain not the brain of fog
we practice forgetting like the snake charmers
dreams look like second hand stores, like the promise of the apocalypse, a local version of Munch's scream, like an uninvented wheel or the beginning of the world.
an old lady sells fir wreaths in disbelief
too many drugstores ignore the untethered soul,
a place of redemption they are, unwittingly
here there are poets, there are beasts, gentle souls and blind alleys,
indifferent smiles and lazy hands
and who can hear/bear the echo of that song... better dead than communists, comrades
province hates the center, the center forgets its north,
the all good sequestred against the all bad, no dialectics in doublespeak
truth to be told, there is no consent for telling the truth
ersatz emotions exchanged casually, Hell is other people. always. some play Russian roulette with reality, we are the heirs of a history disorder
if my dreams are full of birds, waters, lonesome deposits of the flow of time, I have to wonder
is history a desire machine searching for some mythical proportions
this country or a ****** mother with indifferent hands
here citizens have no faces, but interrupted gestures, fractured thoughts without containment
I fear those who cannot cry
without the meaning of blood history has no meaning or maybe it does, look at the speed of some digital thoughts, the attack of ready made ideas. ideology becomes eulogy
no wonder I don't know how to end this poem
we need new words that contain their power
what is freedom? who knows, who cares.
oh, an old adagio, a gangrene of our undiscovered minds
Jan 8, 2025
Jan 8, 2025 at 4:22 PM UTC
Halloween night 2015--
A bevy of goblins and ghouls
Out there in the dark of the night
Met to shape their new rules.
"Let us unite! Let us be one
In our quest to upset the truth."
Their work, they agreed, would come to fruition
In a future polling booth.
"Stir the cauldron of rampant despair;
Throw in confusion and doubt.
Add a pinch of oblivion so no one
Knows what we're about.
Let us deceive with facile duplicity;
Let us trick the unwary.
Above all, don't let them see our true selves.
THAT, fellow ghouls, would be scary!"
Their voices rose in the crisp autumn darkness--
A murky, grumbling chant:
"Hiss. Hiss. Ignorance is bliss.
Woe to them who recant….
"Let us be amorphous and vague;
Let them see what we're not.
Give us the power of doublespeak
To dodge all critical thought."
Werewolves howled. Black cats screeched.
A haunting moan filled the air.
A poor, disoriented bat got tangled
In one ghoul's corn-tassel hair.
"May we strengthen our power to mislead--
To obliterate those who defy us
With vicious attacks based on lies.
We'll let nothing get by us.
"Let us prolong the witching hour.
May it last for a years!
Stir the *** of forgetfulness,"
They all said with sneers.
Halloween night 2015--
A frightening night to remember.
Beware the ghoul leading the pack
In 2016 in November.
- by Bob B
Oct 29, 2016
Oct 29, 2016 at 10:52 AM UTC
*”And everyone has a heart and it’s calling for something
And we are all so sick and tired of seeing things as they are
Horses are just horses and their manes aren’t full of fire
And the fields are just fields and there ain’t no Lord
And everyone is hidden and everyone is cruel”*
“BRIGHT HORSES,” NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS 2019
<>
some of us got a heart, that tries with us to reason,
some of us got a mind, that doubles as a hearse,
taking away, e-thots that were dead on arrival,
electrified by their unacceptable eclectic nature
some of us got word games to pass the day, doublespeak,
some of us illustrate, words that try to litter the literate,
seed the atmosphere, make it rain, confuse our ****** tear railroad tracks,
those without final terminus, mixing them in, as a subterfuge
reality ***** even bites, of that the philosophers have no doubt,
some say they died for us, never having asked permission,
some say they saved us from ourselves, claiming cursed credit
that historians will purposely ignore, non-truths worthless
what is, is what I got to write down, to remember, to make
my Case for saving grace, is my only purpose, to make
my Case that a woman needs loving, giving her & man the
only Trip-Tik road to living, & children, nothing words, liquor can do
May 12th, eyes opened of their own accord, made a treaty with
them thoughts and prayers hanging round, needy for a go to place,
cause they well aware, their welcome ain’t, so instead wrote these
words purposed to give me reasons to rise and try to make sense,
a Case, that conversations tween my five senses that can be enCased,
that anything I got saying may be worth hearing to one or two, hell,
may get lucky and reach ten, socially distant max, forgetting fools,
now acquainted with my Case, your Case, calling for something
***that makes real OK, seeing things as they are, **** even passable**^
9:39AM
nyc
Tue May 12
May 12, 2020
May 12, 2020 at 10:02 AM UTC