"minimising" poems
He slumps, grumbling at the air
a grunt, no more
admittance of awareness
minimising risk
of developing interest
grunt
the glow across
his face pale
a reflective pallor
shows us his day
has spent him inside
grunt
nourishment calls
a gutted feeling
deeper than his alienation
as food is not forthcoming
he tries to sing
grunt
in letting go
his newfound voice
an interrupted squawk
so disgusted he uhgs
hiding himself again
grunt
daily untouched
but for lonely nights
when in consolation
he hands himself to the
bounty of the sickened screen
grunt
and gurgles
in unity, at one
with images which champion
his waking hours, forcing him
unconsenting
and confused
grunt
May 14, 2013
May 14, 2013 at 9:14 PM UTC
Infodatajargonspeak
covers up the truth
Going down together
techno-stuff-up spoof.
You are just a lemming
Swimming in the tide
Washing back and forward
No one is your guide
Ecomath ignored by all
Sun still rises, true
Underneath it starts to stall
Will it affect you?
Navigate the future path
Plan beyond today
Minimising nature’s wrath
There must be a way.
Jun 16, 2012
Jun 16, 2012 at 2:24 AM UTC
Melting, changing
From one form to an effervescent other,
From one state bifurcating to its brother,
Loving the unwilling
Jumping the **** of potential
Avast.
They switch obedience
To new laws that are on them dependent
In new behaviour they are resplendent
Learning about what to do
Minimising the expenditure
Is a common feature
We can thus trace the world
To a simple origin
A simple
Non specified origin
That bends our minds
And bends out measuring sticks
Nonsensically
What one trick could be the cause of the manifold
Jan 4, 2015
Jan 4, 2015 at 12:19 PM UTC
Humanity has been so much like a child
With too many rich, useful toys,
Playing with each one that's given,
And discarding it when something
Newer appears in its midst.
We have been dilettantes and amateurs
With some of our greatest notions
For human betterment.
We have been spoilt children:
We have been like tyrannical children;
Impatient and imperious, demanding
Proof when listening is required,
Tearing things down when they don't do
What we want them to do
(How much simpler to let things do only
What they can do)
Being uncreative about what seems dark
And terrifying; preferring
Only what seems easy
And effortless;
Questioning the numbers
Of a philosophy's
Followers rather than examining
The fruitfulness of its ideas;
Wandering down blind alleys of populism
That lead to concentration camps;
Refusing to admit our vast crimes and mistakes
Denying the horrors of the slave trade
Minimising the reality of the gas chambers
Tearing our hair out in futile attempts
At reconciling civilization with genocide,
When civilization (as we have come to accept it)
Never did mean the true universal goodness
Of heart, but rather meant the self-mythology
Of a people, a race.
No, neither the good in us, nor
Our capacity for evil are exhausted.
Time will show just how young
We are in our abilities,
Of genius for good and evil.
For all these strains, unexamined,
And unredeemed,
Will find their higher fruition
In the unlit centuries to come.
by Ben Okri from Mental Fight An Anthem for the Twenty-First Century
Mar 26, 2025
Mar 26, 2025 at 2:19 PM UTC
I fill my days with delusions
Minimising any time I have for myself,
For that is when I lose it
My thoughts are my own bane
They are my own nightmares
Sleepless nights turn into desperation for a way out.
I know the guardian angel to my affairs
And what he would have me do but,
Will I regret it?
Jun 1, 2020
Jun 1, 2020 at 3:40 PM UTC