Cabbages And Beans
Like the dunny door it
simply bangs incessantly
until your patience thins
You can refuse to hear
it if you fry your brains
in oil with vapid apathy
A fear is that it might be
right and sadly true but
then again it might be wind
You’ve clearly had enough
if you accede too meekly
to its patent bullying
This cringing metaphor is
brazenness acclaimed
as an incipient authority
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Festive Irony
you might say I am
the Spirit of Christmas
driven by a steady hand
on the neck of a bottle
of Cerveza complete
with lime wedge
this year I gave my friend
three flyswats opining he’ll
find superior utility in that
than a six-pack of said beer
– which he’s never been
fond of anyway
it’s a crazy time when
flies breed faster than Tahitian
limes can grow now Christmas
is a day away – he’ll see
irony in plastic swats to
control global warming
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Sacred Space
even sacred space has room that's
not invasion proof - there's liberal
confirmation raids incurring greater
anguish now occur most every day;
from where I stand the pathway's
trampled smooth by errant feet
competing in unseemly haste to
dump their woes and beat retreat
they ask of me a counsel I abide in
wisdom of the ages scribed in gothic
script declaiming options lost by
overcrowding private life; yet to
tell them where to go is not the
kind advice they'd want to hear
© 29 August 2011, I. D. Carswell
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Curator
My life’s a museum of memories buried
in a mausoleum to matrimony kept
scrupulously clean – there is no distinction
between exhibits and things living
I am Curator as well as main exhibit in the
open-all-hours public gallery that nobody
views though entrance is freely exchanged
for tea and sympathy
I expect it stay this way until ‘The Company’
gets made an offer it can’t refuse whereon
I will merge with the grateful trees afforesting –
acknowledging arboreal dreams
© 9 October 2009, I. D. Carswell
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Warmish Day
‘nother warmish day,34° on the patio
irrigation underway in an Orchard too
easily dehydrated by parable to deny
deeply ingrained psychology sprays
delusionary water where precious drops
of rain would soothe sun-savaged weals
inane ideas afoot in arid contempt of
what makes the debate germane is
amply evidenced but I’ll save the trees
so save yourselves wear buoyancy
vests learn how to float between
troughs and crests of arrant treason
warming is merely a warning before
the downpour begins and a freeze
proceeds to inaugurate your pain
© 18 December 2009, I. D. Carswell
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Delinquency 01
You can do Web crosswords where
you know most of the clues already
Or sit distanced with headphones
attached, keep the World at arms
length in timelessness preserved
by ‘Definitive America’*
Or you can write, absorb more
of its waste, and listen – which I do
I am amazed at innocence buoyed
in pure voices of those young men
lyrically celebrating our age
Guilt was not invented by their music
and the words were the same used
to describe our visions
Tears well-up in soaring strains of
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Peace Enough
it is impossible to discern
real ties between unwritten
shopping lists, injured shoulder
and mild depression –
so I rest easy
I know, I know, the
tamarillos need picking
they glare from unmown
grass beneath the trees
with angst restrained
been a hard week, grass
growing out-of-control
social calendar stealing
what little poise remains
I could be excused
which I won't be, there’s
always that self-righteous
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Scenes
isn’t scenes of beastly screaming
voices drown a stasis bleeding
forcing choices vilely reeking
where I cling to my own debris
caught within I hear the chaos
chorused in a choral singing
bartered hubris numbs my senses
stripping me of all true feeling
solitary innovation
calmed by complex contemplation
choosing where it will be standing
how to save itself oblivion
no-one knows her more than she does
cheating them of goals outreaching
bringing me to where I’m ceded
alone inside a crowded room
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Shopping Trip
So when are you going to go
fishing then? 115 mm of rain says
nothing’s getting done while the
anticipatory pleasure of still more
to come remains discrete
And it’s not as if it wouldn't rain
weren’t you there – although, agreed,
enjoyment couldn’t be the
same as standing out in it
soaking up your privileged share
Eight days now you have delayed
a shopping trip in case you miss
a passing shower. Claiming ‘I’m not
that obsessed about it’ doesn’t quite
ring true somehow
This pique of moribund despondency
paints your thoughts grey and makes
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
June Thirteenth
If I didn’t mark this day in passing
if I didn’t make this date a part of
solid History I’d fail – a day to fix in
memory and memory will prevail
June thirteenth, Gemini of Mercury
an element of Air – where hunger
for awareness rests, your love
therein is seen a proper reckoning
Measure of your length and breadth
despairs dimensions of your ardent
heart – cathedral blessed, especially
in loving – sets your warmth apart
I know and love your being as a
comforting, liberty from loneliness
of empty rooms, a candle light of
passage gleam safely leading home
[...] Read more
poem by Ivan Donn Carswell
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!