"minimise" poems
The thing about spending almost a decade
In social isolation is you forget what's normal.
Imagine my shock when my friend casually pulls me close to her,
A half-hug, friendly embrace.
No context needed, because touches don't always hold
Some deep, meaningful intention.
Yet for the past almost a decade, that's been my reality.
How rare the hugs, how they only ever follow extreme sadness
Or loneliness, the desire for comfort and support.
How I can never reach out to touch someone
Unless I've done it a thousand times before,
And even then, it's an intentional act of love.
Every movement of every muscle is planned in advance,
To minimise the fearful, pounding beats of my heart.
For someone like me, where anxiety floods through all my veins,
I don't know the meaning of the word 'casual'.
And I don't know if I'll ever learn it.
Jul 13, 2016
Jul 13, 2016 at 12:35 AM UTC
Those words were painful to hear
I don't know if you know it
Because I certainly don't show it
And won't bring it up in conversation
Only via written representation
Can I say it without hesitation
So here goes it...
You know you lied.
(To yourself mainly)
A total fabrication
One that destroyed my vision of someone sacred
Altered love to blind hatred without persuasion
From which I'm now trying to retrain
Because I've missed out on important days
That should've been filled with celebration
Why not just give me an honest and open statement?
Like what you asked of me from an early age.
Was it to minimise the ache?
To save face from something failed?
To create distance from the ways in which you assumed everyone would frame it?
Anyway,
That's me saying it as plainly as I can say it
About the way that you behaved then
And maybe
Just maybe
What I've said here
Will aid you in
Bringing closure to anything remaining
So that each and every day
You can pave more of your way
In coming to terms with all the hating
That you seem to linger in after waking
Apr 15, 2024
Apr 15, 2024 at 4:18 PM UTC
There's a girl with walls around her
Walls that were built to protect her from the evils of the world
Walls with masks hanging
Each showing a different face
But
I see her behind her walls
The more she's hurt
The thicker the walls become
Effectively deterring anyone from getting close
Yet trapping her inside
But
I see her behind her walls
The facades she brings forth
Are carefully calculated
To minimise any foul play
So that she doesn't have to have her heart
And soul scarred and broken again
But
I see her behind her walls
She runs behind her walls
Flinging sarcasm, insults and indifference
Whenever someone tries to get close
As she's learned time and again
That every time she brings down her walls and allow someone into her heart with the promise that she doesn't need her walls anymore
They tear her defenses down from the inside
Leaving her to rebuild all by herself
But
I see her behind her walls
I come knocking on her walls
Calling for her to let me in
Telling her that
I see her behind her walls
And that I love her
And that I'm not asking her to bring down her walls
But to build our own walls
Just us
Can you see us behind our walls?
You're not welcome
Apr 6, 2016
Apr 6, 2016 at 4:35 PM UTC
You gave me a Friday feeling continuously
Yet I was your Monday morning blues
I incorporated a substantial amount of effort to reveal my love
You thought I was persistent
I arrived on time after anxiously waiting around all morning
You turned up carelessly late to minimise time
We laid upon your bed huddling like innocent penguins to keep warm
I was oblivious to what the upcoming week would bring
I lost the love note which held only a lie
I threw away your lighter as the spark had vanished, just like ours did
Your comforting clothes and plush toy are now doubtlessly collecting dust and cigarette fumes from inside of your closet
You furiously broke the bracelet which I gave to you in pride
You deleted our memories held in pictures
You replaced me in less than 24 hours, so I thought
The truth is, so the fault in our stars quote, I fell in love the way you fall asleep, slowly; and then all at once
I had thought previously that you no longer required my unconditional attention
However I fail to believe this when you are knocking at my door at 3am whilst you're calling out to me in my dreams
I fail to believe this when you start conversations late at night, when thoughts are deep and emotions are raring
Whether we were once magnets facing the attracting way, or you were just a lost soul in need for company I shall never know
But what I do know of, is that today is the day I am fine and content, and one day you will be hurting just like I once was
Sep 23, 2013
Sep 23, 2013 at 6:50 AM UTC
*Be the kind of person who sympathises,
Help relieve stress - try to minimise it.
Lend an ear, say a kind word -
Regardless of what others say,
Or what you've heard.
Be "The Hope" on a cloudy day,
Be "The Light" - guide the way.
Be the kind of person who empathises,
Be all that "Peace" truly symbolises.
By Lady R.F. (C)2018*
Feb 7, 2018
Feb 7, 2018 at 7:11 PM UTC
Minimise distraction
Maximise intention.
Minimise commodity fetishism
Maximise giving out love.
Love people, use things.
The opposite never works.
Mar 2, 2019
Mar 2, 2019 at 7:56 AM UTC
*Like signing on absynth in a fanfare of fashion
Is to take on ballast to flatter the crowd,
When the primary hallmark of singular cadence
Is to minimise ******** and shout it aloud.
Cocksure and crafty in colours of rainbow
Strutting your stuff on the red carpet’s fame,
Flicking the mane in a parody’s snigger
Is like hittin’ the town on the arm of a dame.
Walkin’ the walk in a welter of windfall
Like talkin’ the talk with the hipsters at hand
Like shootin’ the **** with a blonde on the pillow
Is like playin’ with fire when you don’t understand.
So go gather your pants and head for the hillside
Sit tight on the grass and ruminate well,
Sort out your crap in the filtering moonlight….
Try coming to terms with this day shot to hell.*
M.
Sandringham
14 June 2014
Jun 13, 2014
Jun 13, 2014 at 5:48 PM UTC
The sharp point of a geometric compass
Stabs the page to position the beginning of a circle.
We met, came together
This was the beginning of us.
The arc was progressing at a constant radius
The direction was clear and apparent
Succumbing to its pull
Riding and shifting to keep its natural path
After a half life, the compass stopped
The compass point came loose and as it clawed the page
Blobs of blood emerged from the scratches
Bleeding with wounds wide open
Task too large to shift and correct its position
Task too large for us to fix.
So much history and a life built together
In midway, stalled.
Best to close the circle
Seal it to minimise the bleed
Seal you in with our lifes work
Close me out to keep distance and end the bleed
Many years later, I see with clarity
2 lives continued separately
You needed the security and form, a half circle.
A protractor of sorts to help you navigate
With no rules or formulas to navigate
Disappointment and failure abounded
Colour and shape, I found
A pathway to solace, a place I could heal
Semicircle is a form, worthy of its own definition.
A meeting point and a point where we ended.
New forms emerge and they shift as life reveals itself.
No regrets, no malice and in the place remains a sense of gratitude.
Gratitude for the experiences
The life lessons we had to learn
For the legacy of the wonderful lives we created
For sharing THE experience, the most important one.
I am now the shape shifter
Bouncing around trying to find form
Maybe I am not meant to be one shape
Maybe this is what a creative does
May 2, 2021
May 2, 2021 at 5:29 PM UTC
A single pebble
crushes;
do not minimise
destruction.
Pellets hold
the small, squeezed grain of bone –
a startling nakedness erodes
it, scars the air
it lies in;
frail and suffering
hung flowers
that hankered after warmth
ooze still their stilled perfections;
and
the innocent beetle
suffers mortally.
Grandiose, magniloquent,
the pebble forfeits nothing.
We are naked, Anne, and caught.
Inside ourselves a pitiless resilience
remains, bounds up, is shot.
The orchid in the spring
still sees it here:
as cruel as me,
as loving and perennial as you.
Dec 26, 2016
Dec 26, 2016 at 3:58 PM UTC
I was talking to a friend last night, it was idle, beery chat
Footy and his sports car and other simple things like that
We talked about computers and why his was always pish
And also, in the world today how they’re so ubiquitous
He said he was frustrated as his always let him down
She never works, he stated, with a personal pronoun
I said hold on a minute, could you please explain to me
Why use a gender pronoun? Why define as he or she?
He explained it was a woman. It makes irrational demands
That only its creator can truly understand
It’s always talking in the background and I don’t know the code
So sometimes without warning it will randomly explode
It remembers everything I’ve done; I think that this is evil
And this gets me into trouble with its unforeseen retrieval
And as soon as you have got one you then get a big surprise
As you have to shell out weekly keeping it accessorized
Happy with this logic I got up to buy more beer
The barmaid wasn’t happy and she made that fairly clear
I heard that conversation and your friend is talking *****
Okay I said. I’m listening. So tell me what is right
Like a man, you want a good one, but you have to wait for years
But as soon as you’ve committed a better model then appears
They’re supposed to make things easy and minimise mayhem
But half the time the problem to be solved was caused by them
They are full of useless data and they can’t think on their own
When you get one you’re excited, that is until you get it home
They never tell how you look in your favourite little dress
And they are easy to manipulate if you know just where to press
It is good to have a backup because the main one can go wrong
And you won’t get their attention until you turn them on
And no matter what they tell themselves when they have their little chatters
Like certain other things in life its how big they are that matters
Apr 16, 2021
Apr 16, 2021 at 12:30 PM UTC
Is this world reality
Or is it just a dream
If so I’d like to wake up
Though it doesn’t seem to end
Upon the end of this dream
On waking from this life
Will I remember my mistakes
And minimise the strife
Nov 15, 2019
Nov 15, 2019 at 4:58 PM UTC
My next door neighbour told me a funny story the other day
It’s about Phyllis who lives down the road
She was out with her fancy piece called Tommy getting laid
Having a **** in his car down a country lane
She was there with her legs open not thinking of her husband
Going at like a prize stallion chasing a filly winning his race
Then Tommy cried out in pain and started crying
Phyllis thought he was joking about
‘Oh **** it! My back has gone Phyllis! Call the Fire Brigade!’
‘You gotta be joking Kev. But hey! I love a man in uniform.’
Kev managed to reach his hands free kit and call 999
Within five minutes the fire engine arrived
Four beefy firemen in uniform assessed the situation
Hiding their smirks they planned what to do
One fireman got the Jaws of Life from the fire engine
It took several minutes to cut the roof off Kev’s Jaguar
His expensive cool motor was now a convertible!
Then over the next hour they slowly lifted Kev upwards
And placed him in a rigid stretcher to minimise further injury
An ambulance arrived and Kev was taken to hospital
Phyllis got busy ******* and ******* each of the firemen
In Kev’s convertible Jag which was now a ******** parlour...
Dec 19, 2019
Dec 19, 2019 at 10:33 PM UTC