Preparing for the future (futures)
Sometimes a blogpost can be a post-it.
Noted like a Google Calendar fit.
Sorry, I am really not that filthy (rich).
Simply getting-by within this frame (what's in a name?).
Made-up like a Coco, still I bought her Chanel.
Silly, to be innocent, but rather good at 'tells'.
Really, I am really not that filthy rich.
Honesty for futures. That dog is really a bitch!
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:50 pm
Also by Auracle:
It's Disneyfied, but why? (Pinocchio&Gepetto) | Indo-Chinese Tigress (trauma that won't fade) | Building Blogs for Escape Artists (unconditional love) |Drifting
Until sweet sleep washes over you
And you allow it to carry you away
Peacefully surrendering to the tide
Abandoning your body...
You drift from the bay
Falling under the lapping waves
Deeper and deeper into calming darkness
Letting go and forgetting
At the very same time
Until eyes open like the shore
Crashing onto the rocks
And sun expands across you
Placing yo...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:40 pm
Also by Alexandra K. Parapadakis:
My chest hurts |EVEN THE OLIVES ARE BLEEDING
Israel has dropped more bombs on Palestinians in Gaza this week than the United States dropped on Afghanistan in a full year of the war. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/10/13/jewish-plea/
An old olive oil press rusts
at the bottom of a sandy garden
in this occupied territory;
children lying prostrate,
bleeding into the soil;
a man murmuring.
about a weight, a burden, somethin...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:35 pm
Also by John E Marks:
RHAPSODY | The foggy, foggy dew | The Withering Of The Whispering Wind |Recipe for Disaster
RECIPE FOR DISASTER?
By The Urban Poet
Remember to double check all ingredients
Take everything with a pinch of salt
However it turns out, it’s never your fault
Just stick to the recipe and be obedient
Ensure the work area is clean and dry
Then decide whether you grill or fry
If at first there’s no success then just try
Firstly take a person on face value
Sprink...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:26 pm
Slowed down observations
From Petrol and Diesel, to Hybrid, to Electric only, plug-in or self charging?
forget it!
I've switched over to good old Shanks's Pony!
A proud discoverer of the fact that, I can, even at my age,
and, in my present condition, can still walk between milestones,
quicker, than a slow moving motorway grid-locked, or roadworks halted car.
Here I am, with all the time in the...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 6:07 pm
Also by LEON STOLGARD:
Doesn't say Quack Quack, she says Kwak Kwak | Away from the World | Where death dealers are ' boss ' ? | Haven for timelessness |ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTIONIOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENOCIDEACTION
IOPPOSEPALESTINEACTION
ISUPPORTGENO...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 5:42 pm
Also by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh:
His Majesty’s Stay Out of Hell Cards: “Divine Right” and “Convention” | There Was a Blind Man............... | Squid Game | Haiku for 2025 [No. 30. Cheoil is Réabhlóidach] | Haiku for 2025 [No. 29. Stuff The “Political Wing”] | The Boys from the Red Stuff | Elbits n’ Pieces R Us [All your childrens’ needs supplied] | Rescue his Sausage! | Ideas for Poetry...Anyone? | Menu du Jour Chez Kier | Haiku for 2025 [No. 28. Politic-toc-tic-toc-tic toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc-tic] | “Song without Words” for Sir Keir Starmer [With Apologies to Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn] | Another Poem for Sir Keir Starmer JUICY JCB WTF |Fallen Leaf
The leaf lay there,
having completed its first purpose.
Now, with green colors receding,
it gives a final performance. The stage its own,
showcasing a myriad of unexpected hues,
highlighted by droplets of water.
The language of color
telling a story for anyone to see.
Wednesday 13th August 2025 5:21 pm
Also by Mike McPeek:
Coffee Theater | Shimmer and Sway | The View from Here | Perseverance | Scary Monsters |Forgive me for asking
Dear God
Forgive me for asking
Where are you when the killing in Gaza continues every day?
Where Israelites killing Palestinians
Living and dying in the name of the same God
Forgive me for asking
Where are you
as the world vicariously watches
when thousands of children are starving to death
in a world where millions of tons of food are wasted?
Forgive me...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 5:06 pm
Also by Dewald:
She is in... |I.D.F.
He puts his weapon in
The hall
Squeezing his little one
So tightly that tears
Begin to fall
He puts his weapon in the hall
Goes to his wife
Who is quivering with
Anticipation
He puts his weapon in the hall
Smiles and tears
rain down on hi...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 1:21 pm
En Passant
I look at her, when
she doesn’t realise
I’m looking,
bodies change,
mannerisms remain,
I watch her mouth
in serious concentration,
balancing her tongue
on her lower lip,
she has a smile that
breaks like a wave
crashing before slowly
spreading over sand,
and those eyes
still sixteen, that after
a lifetime
still notice me
© Graham R Sherwood 08/25
Wednesday 13th August 2025 9:17 am
Also by Graham Sherwood:
The Dordogne Poems 3 | The Dordogne Poems 2 | The Dordogne Poems 1 | Another poet in the family |Farewell, Your MAGAsty!
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:55 am
Also by Rolph David:
Where is THIS Jerusalem? | No Mercy Left for Gaza’s Dying Children | The Scream | If... | August Sixth, Eight Fifteen | Off-Key But Still in Tune | The Piper from the Broken Ridge |When The Weather Forecast Is True,
On the colorful roofs
On the colorful poofs
The streets are filled with walkers.
The streets are filled with talkers.
The grey clouds cover the blue sky.
I am the one who wants to cry.
The dust covers the walks of the city,
The squares, parks don't look pretty.
The winds play with the leaves
They look like thieves.
The cold autumn is coming
Only...
Wednesday 13th August 2025 7:23 am
Also by Larisa Rzhepishevska:
The Star Is Shining In Vain |His Wing
Liptitudal pronunciation
Scribble doodles
Of your imagination
Under the rock of mystery
The clock of destiny
Off the hill he launched
Flew to the clouds
hung around awhile
had his lunch
Chilled to the bone
It's time to come down
It's time to go home
We are
All we can be
Living below the trees
Only there is not a feel
Like jumping off the hill
...Wednesday 13th August 2025 6:02 am
Also by New Shoes:
My Opinion | Black Hole |"where is my oyster?"
i lean into the salt wind,
fingers tracing faint ridges
in damp sand.
“Where is my oyster?” i ask the horizon,
its answer swallowed by surf.
Kester Reed waits behind a driftwood break,
taps the shell-shards underfoot,
listens for that hollow note
that might be its name.
“What would it be, even?” he murmurs,
searching for shape in shadows.
O...
Tuesday 12th August 2025 11:47 pm
Also by Red Brick Keshner:
"streambound" | "flight mode" | "the impossible turn" | Endless Clasp of Auryn | "clockwork reverie" | “untethered“ |(Half-) Baked Alaska
There’s a summit in Alaska,
With Don and his mate Vlad.
They’re going to talk about Ukraine;
The omens are quite bad.
They’re due to feast on gourmet food;
Their hot thirsts will be slaked,
But any deal that’s hammered out
Is bound to be half-baked.
Tuesday 12th August 2025 9:12 pm
Also by Stephen Gospage:
Paperback Writer |Haikus 12
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Awesome God!
( In Haiku)
I went to market,
Thousands of vegetables,
I thank(ed) God Jesus.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Magnificent God!
(A Haiku)
Plantain varieties
Siblings of bananas,
Christ the Gardener.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Power of God!
(A Haiku)
Nature has its place,
Species run on their own speed,
Christ the Sustainer.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Great ...
Tuesday 12th August 2025 12:40 am
Evidence-Based Punk Rock
"Hearty singalongs interspersed with Steve’s sharp, witty performance poetry: an incredibly incisive, thoroughly enjoyable CD which sums up our battered country in 2025 to a T. Definitely my album of the year so far."
Attila The Stockbroker's review of Evidence-Based Punk Rock by Steve White & The Protest Family, out on 5 September 2025.
Full review here: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/ar...
Monday 11th August 2025 3:29 pm
Also by Steve White:
Recognising Palestine |Golden Days In the Eternal City – Rome
The Colosseum rose in the morning haze,
Its arches whispering of bygone days,
I traced its shadows, wide and deep,
Where echoes of battles still seem to sleep!
The Pantheon welcomed with solemn grace,
Light spilling softly into its space,
Its marble walls, its oculus sky,
Held secrets the centuries cannot deny!
The Spanish Steps, a cascade of stones,
Led me upwards, but not alone,
Fo...
Monday 11th August 2025 3:04 pm
A STAGGERING PATH THROUGH DARKNESS
is there an end to this darkness
or will I forever stagger on the path?
is there a will where there is a way?
if so, i want to know.
my father says i’m cursed
my mother barely calls my name
an abomination of sort, she says
mr. miller in school believed her.
I received the end of the stick
well, that went okay
i am upright, easy going
she likes to add: up...
Monday 11th August 2025 9:14 am
Also by Naomi:
SKY THROUGH LEAVES | ASHORE |The heart that waited
THE HEART THAT WAITED
I am your heart, Lee.
Not metaphor, not symbol—
just muscle and memory,
torn by the tremors
of your mother’s absence.
I remember her laugh
echoing through your chest
like wind through a hollow reed.
I remember the way
she stitched your courage
into the lining of your ribs.
Before 29th November 2023,
the...
Monday 11th August 2025 2:26 am
Also by Lee Campbell:
Riverletters | fireworks in the street (hamburg, 19 months apart) | i imagined your kiss five hundred and seventy-six miles from home |Weekly WalkaboutsVerse, E.G., Poem 197 of 230: HISTORIC HEXHAM - AUTUMN 2002
Poem 197 of 230: HISTORIC HEXHAM - AUTUMN 2002
All hay was made,
And the sun stayed,
The autumn day
I made my way,
Via Heddon,
To old Hexham,
Where I did see:
The fine abbey,
The ex-gaol
By the moot-hall,
Plus, holding sports
Of varied sorts,
The Tynedale
And the Sele.
(C) David Franks 2003 - https://walkaboutsvers...
Sunday 10th August 2025 11:34 pm
Captive By A Lioness’ Gaze
—so I took her to my masters swim meet… a pantoum
Her body swayed, night’s mistress, hips caged in silk’s heat.
I froze—her lioness gaze, her eyes undressed.
A temptress sculpted by shadow, my goddess—complete
She grinned—my name, her voice, a purr—confessed.
I froze—her lioness gaze, her eyes undressed.
She pawed valleys, mounds—denim mines skin.
She grinned—my name...
Sunday 10th August 2025 6:40 pm
Also by Gaia's Soothing Haven:
Communion At Water's Edge |Bogart Boogie
Bowler hats and spotless spats,
teamed with neatly tied cravats;
shouldered suits with wide lapels,
mobsters dressing up as swells.
Gangster movies, black and white,
sound of gunshots in the night.
Double-crossing, double-deal,
engines racing, tyres that squeal.
Night-club singers, cabarets,
dancing girls in chic berets;
bent casinos, Mr Big,
cards are ma...
Sunday 10th August 2025 4:04 pm
Also by Trevor Alexander:
Requiem |Mayor McGuffin
We are products of our times
these thoughts aren’t mine
everything passes through us
from sewers to the divine
I vibe on your signal
you wave you particle
merge into a molecule
divide for reaction
deaf dumb and blind
slaves to the grind
compressed coal hearts
exploited diamond mines
we see through the veil
dancing snake-tailed
im...
Sunday 10th August 2025 3:59 pm
Also by Robert C Gaulke:
Swinging Needles |Surviving out of spite
I pulled back the skin around my cuticles like a banana
I kept going until my shell had shed
This has not been a cacoon
This has been hell
I've painted it on everyday
No one can see my rotten core
Bruised
It was just sugar
I had let myself decompose
So if you were to devour me
I would leave a bad taste in your mouth
Sunday 10th August 2025 12:03 pm
Also by Yourtherapistismad:
Diet | Purge |Peace Of Mind
So you think you are here for what
How long have you even got
Day by day your life ebbs away
Hey what have you got to say
Look around you what do you see
You are destined to be history
Peace of mind
My eyes were open but I was blind
Peace of mind
I remember when the sun it shined
Peace of mind
Me and my world were entwined
Peace of mind
You are just a number man
Doing the very ...
Sunday 10th August 2025 11:29 am
Also by Tom Doolan:
Hellalujah People | Motivation |Air
Libra Lady, born an Air bender.
Perhaps it’s why I spent $400 on a plane ticket
Just to jump out of it at 90 mph.
For a quick fix, I do 90 mph on I-95 with all 4 windows down
So I can pretend I’m flying.
I’m not concerned with my hair blowing out of place
Don’t you know I just rode the back of the breeze?
Maybe it’s why my heads always in the damn clouds
Forgetting to...
Sunday 10th August 2025 10:43 am
Also by Alexia Supreme:
As She Lives and Dies | Affray Day | Original Wedding Script Sample- Sunrise | Original Wedding Script Sample- Mirrors | Flickering | Quick Prayers |The girl I can't recall
She was laughing
Vividly
Romantically
Lost in June
That's where she stays
Frozen in time
A tear lingers begging to fall
It's hard to remember who I was before
How badly I wish to be her once more
You can see it in her eyes
While accompanied by friends
She was happy
I long to be happy
To be whisked away by laughter
I can't pretend to know what w...
Sunday 10th August 2025 3:40 am
Minimal reconstruction
Spotlight on skin/burn /not sun.
‘Still’ they say /Turn a key.
Line after line / A spider web.
Frayed memory / A escape.
Dismissing the past.
Echo/breath out.
Not summer anymore / new beginning.
Beating on the glass
Flow / Mask unveiled / Mood / Fragile.
Saturday 9th August 2025 9:38 pm
Also by Andy N:
Run away with me |Climbing Up
Know thoughts and feelings come in waves,
Though this may depend upon how one behaves.
So if we feel bad know this shall change,
Though at this time it may seem strange.
So if you live in a pit of misery,
Know you shall find a way out and be free.
And you shall once again breath the air
Of a world that we should love and share.
So break out from your troubled min...
Saturday 9th August 2025 8:22 pm
Little brother, little better
To My Brother
As we know, I've struggled on
fighting demons of every size,
But it was the action of my little brother
that made me feel alive.
What a blessing you are to all that you touch,
your strength comes as such surprise,
Because only we can see the fire
that's burning deep within your eyes.
Made from love, yet the start of your life
...Friday 8th August 2025 5:44 pm
Also by Luke:
Some folks |Your Beautiful Self
Hello, I see you.
Who are you?
Are you
depressed
autistic
psychotic
mentally ill
crazy
ocd
add
adhd
manic
addicted
neurodivergent
neurodiverse
etc etc
Good grief
Just be yourself
Use the labels if they help
Drop them if they don't
Just be yourself
I see you
I love you
We are all...
something.
Just be your beautiful self.
...Friday 8th August 2025 9:41 am
Also by Hélène:
Life on Planet Earth |He remembers her now
How she was young and still with hope,
her skin unbroke by wicked days...
eyes that spoke no need of words,
yet sang "Zabur" a thousand ways...
her hands that worked the barren soil,
would glide like silk upon his face...
though ragged clothes betrayed her toil,
they could not dull her state of grace...
and now with streets and markets gone,
the ...
Friday 8th August 2025 4:46 am
Also by David RL Moore:
Baby Milk (flash fact) |Swearing !!!
Swearing for teenage boys is an identity creation,
Forming social bonds with new friends avoiding isolation.
Taboo words are choosen related to religion ,sex or slur.
When they are not thinking at all,when suffering a brain blur.
In their teens boys move towards the influence of their peers.
When "us" and "them" rules get transmitted to their ears.
Talking to a trusted adult...
Thursday 7th August 2025 10:47 pm
End of the line
I raced to catch the London-bound eight fifty-two.
It pulled out slowly from unseen moorings
Slowly, slow, fast, faster, faster.
Those on the station waved enthusiastically
At those seated aboard,
Who waved back, less exuberantly.
Through dark-tinted glass, they peered.
The finality of their excitement, a mere hour away
Whilst mine should be a lot sooner.
The announ...
Thursday 7th August 2025 9:01 pm
Also by JD Russell:
Make Peace with a Dragon. (a metaphor) |A Ghosting
Gritting my teeth, I can begin to admit
I have been struggling
In the first half of this year
I got bruised by my own undoing
Whittled so brittle
On cold spring afternoons
And you have been a salve
The gentle warmth of a grounded voice
Through cheap headphones
Brimming with sweet greetings
Quick with earthy encouragements
Easing me down cracked pavements
Your presence, your message...
Thursday 7th August 2025 7:57 pm
Also by Tom:
Skeleton Key |A Dose of Truth
If not my veins,
at least, then,
the throbbing of my blood.
I just want to stay connected,
and not pretend
that all is alright.
To sleep without worry,
that maybe this night
might be different.
To no longer watch
my hands wrinkle,
as I worry about tomorrow.
I don't want to think about
yesterday's sorrows.
I just want breath,
and feel the lungs take in life,
not the lie I live on.
...
Thursday 7th August 2025 1:07 pm
genesis
my call cries
it climbs to the top of the mountain
the mountain of all hope
over this heap of grief and sorrows
over the history scrawled in its crags,
the guilt and condemnation
of all the generations of man
I am in the fire atop
and in the cooling light beyond
in this moment the call brings me home
...Wednesday 6th August 2025 8:29 pm
Also by Landi Cruz:
frankenstein |Discarded In Summer
Was I too much?
Too close?
Too heavy?
I still remember last winter
When your fingers clutched me
The dark mornings
When you couldn't let me go
I cradled you
In a cocoon of quiet warmth
I was the guardian of your shivers
And Now?
You toss me into the abyss
I lie waiting here in silence
Suffocating in mothballs
While the sun mocks me
But I know seas...
Wednesday 6th August 2025 5:26 pm
Integration
I’m trying too hard,
Running in search of disorder
In my own home—
‘It must be clean,
Then I can start to feel.’
At the lowest level of my
Self-imposed pecking order,
Once.
But now I possess discernment,
Curious, kind.
I approach these parts as sovereign,
Members of my inner mind,
And ask them to speak freely,
To know they are mine.
‘I will always want you here.’
‘But you must lis...
Wednesday 6th August 2025 3:51 pm
Sunday
Sunday/Michael Kwack
Could’ve I met
that woman? --
From somewhere distant,
With an ear of tiny hope
in a sack of vacant heart,
To drop ennui,
To glean sympathy,
Or simply
to hide in an afternoon chat,
Blinking those tender eyes,
Would’ve she sneaked away
from her dim chamber,
That little woman
of ...
Wednesday 6th August 2025 2:13 pm
Longing
In the vast, dim canvas of the sky,
the moon perches,
like a night-blooming flower unfolding
in the darkness. It says nothing,
yet its glow reaches anyone who dares to look.
The stars flicker,
like quiet secrets dancing to a slow rhythm,
igniting hope
in the folds of the dark.
And in that soft light,
I try to sketch you.
You,
who were once a hope I could hold.
For a moment,
I l...
Wednesday 6th August 2025 1:22 pm
Also by Yanma Hidayah:
The Sun and Its Promise |Sandcastles
A child on the shore,
Building sandcastles galore,
Innocence abounds.
A vivid display,
So much pride clearly shining -
Sea shells everywhere.
Engineering art,
Streams of water run through sand,
Castles come alive.
A drunken debut -
He kisses her by the sea,
Sand clings to his toes.
Education done,
Life’s journey just begun-
Sea spray in his face.
A knee in the sand,
A new...
Wednesday 6th August 2025 9:24 am
If The Self Rules
My eyes dim
My muscles ache
My bones weaken
My motivation asks,
"Is it worth the effort?"
My drive
My ambition
Want to sit
And rest a while.
Even if my hair
should turn white
overnight... Okay.
But if I should cease to care,
If I no longer want to try,
Then the self rules,
And I die.
Tuesday 5th August 2025 8:27 pm
Impatiens Glandulifiera Part II
I mistook you for a perennial, I grew addicted to your smell.
How you forced a coin down the wishing well.
All is swell in all that is dead,
You disappeared in the Winter time, leaving a mark on the earth.
Your dizzying effect even reached the banks of the river.
Eroding its barriers between the river and me
I thought I would fall, what with all your tyranny.
You made a stranger of the nat...
Tuesday 5th August 2025 8:16 pm
Also by Bluebell:
Impatiens Glandulifiera Part I | The Fig Tree | Untitled |ASPIRATIONS
Like the thickening of your waistline and the thinning of your hair
It comes to you as just like me you fall to disrepair.
And not just stuff that's physical you find you cannot do
With time it also downgrades all your aspirations too.
When once I lusted for some blond to take her on a date
These days I'd love to cut my toe-nails
Or even just piss straight.
Tuesday 5th August 2025 5:59 pm
Also by John Coopey:
SONNY | YORKSHIRE DAY |A Kind Of Splendour
It had gone from your eyes when you saw me
The light that used to adore me
It dimmed to a mist in the forest
Where a canopy of leaves once fell for us
They fell like colourful snow
As we laughed & danced in its flow
Wondering if we could stay there forever
Thinking life was full of this splendour
But, time came & took you away
And the only thing that I could...
Tuesday 5th August 2025 8:44 am
A Happenstance
Tyrannical, a voice was sound at distance
Resounding high above at marble spire
Where farthest, no one voice could but inquire
About the motives for the circumstance
Of wild laughter thunderous expression
That filling chamber hollow and of echoes
The purple garbed in silk so hast’ly chose
To make her lone alcove for recollection
About occurrence recent in experience
To witness public gr...
Monday 4th August 2025 10:43 pm
These moments
These moments
We need to remember
But we don’t
I had a full head of hair
It was brown
There were no flecks
Of salt and pepper grey
in my beard
And now
As I gaze through
My glasses
I forget that once
I had no need of them
To read
And I see
A photo
Of a friend
And I have to stare
Because he looks
Like someone’s
Dad
Or dare...
Monday 4th August 2025 10:09 am
Unlearning...
Unlearning what has
Ceased to serve,
While still pestered
By the electrified spectres
Of what has been,
Yet faithful footstep
After footstep,
Doubt is allayed,
And, in the distance,
A tabula rasa seems
To gleam, inviting
A lightness of soul
To descend, as when
A dandelion to
The breeze defers...
Sunday 3rd August 2025 4:13 pm
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