Dear Head and Heart

Dear Head and Heart,

This is an intervention

For your utter disregard for all rule and regulation.

What may have begun as a harmless violation

Is fast becoming a serious transgression.

It really is an abomination

How resistant you are to my subordination

Your inconsistent ways are leading me to a location

That’s definitely not a honeymoon destination

And I’m here for a quick cancellation

Against my one-way ticket to eternal damnation.

I know you have your limitations

But my world needs plenty simplification

And your mutual consultation.

I’m not asking for a recalibration

Just a little cooperation

Because a life of such complication

Needs your careful and thorough calculation.

Thank you,

Your Accommodation.

Fools

Red is red, white is white
Wrong is wrong and right is right

In a universe designed from long to wide
What's really left to even decide

They say you have the power to choose
But go another way and they'll throw you the noose

Yet in all naivety, you pick a lane
They jump and label you a vicious stain

Today, you fight to create a world with a difference
Where existence is not bound by mere adherence

So let's throw away that book of rules
I've heard there's joy in living like fools.

Obituary of Ordinary

This is the story of a girl

Let's say her name was Mary

She grew the fastest of us all

The boys called her Hairy Mary.

Her face was full of mean bumps

Her lips weren’t red like cherry

“Fat”,“Ugly” and “Ew” and “Dark”

Had become her only vocabulary.

She wept and wept, cursing her plight

“Ma, why must I look so scary?”

Wiping her tears, Ma consoled

“Darling, I promise it’s only temporary.”

So she prayed earnestly every night

To her beautiful Godmother Fairy

“Make me like the other girls,

Give me skin as white as dairy.”

Finally one morning, it came to her

Let’s call it an epiphany

She looked at herself in the mirror

And suddenly she wasn’t sorry.

She wore leather boots on a rainy day

She felt like a Revolutionary

She wore her anomalies like a proud badge

Because unlike them all, Mary was extraordinary.

Alliteration

Some days, we reduce life's complexities to poetic stereotypes.

Worrier

A full-time hobby

A burgeoning career

200% commitment

To being a professional Worrier.

It pays rather exceedingly

Less in cash, more in kind

The reward of endless sleepless nights

And a black hole for a mind.

I worry about sunny days

I worry the nights are too dark

I worry I’m wasting too much time

Life is clearly no walk in the park.

I worry about a loveless future

I worry I’ll get ugly and old

I worry my mojo will call it a day

Before I’m ready to fold.

I worry I haven’t done enough

I worry I’ve done too much

I worry I misplaced the manual to life

And I’m hardly concerned, as such.

But most of all, I worry

That worry is all I’ll ever do

So every time you’re feeling lonely

Don’t worry, I’ll worry about you.

• The Haiku Project • Day 20 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 20 •

Exceptional are they who silently entice

with sugar, spice and everything nice.

Vague is never in Vogue

To men and women, there is no science

No maps to reach the destination.

But there are tips and tricks to every game

No chemical formula or math equation.

Casually throw in a few fancy words.

Say 'ombre' when you're thinking 'mix'.

Seconding her every 'maybe' and 'anything'

Will seldom hit it off with the chicks.

'Blue' is 'Turquoise', 'Pink' is 'Fuschia'

Put every Pantone expert to shame.

Cardinal rule and Bible Truth be told

'Brown' and 'Burgundy' - never the same.

Brownie points you'll earn aplenty

Even if you sound like a fashionista gone rogue.

Remember, dear men, with the ladies

Vague is never in vogue.

Overseas Poetic Inspiration

Sepolion, Athens
Wednesday May 11, 2016
16:17 hrs.

The family has had a fight. Over some planning. Two bedroom apartment has come in handy. Everyone has retired to a room each, while I am left to the comfort of winter, winds and wine. Hence the poetic wisdom.

This is a note to self: Never fight with travel partners on a trip, especially when you'd like to travel with them again. More time is spent squabbling and sulking, than on solving and savouring. Part of what will make you a great travel companion is seldom your ability to control, but more your willingness to compromise. Speedbumps are bound to be there. 
But above all, never forget, that it's a HOLIDAY for EVERYONE involved. 
Embrace the tricky, live the risky, and when having a fit, drink your whisky.

• The Haiku Project • Day 19 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 19 •

Muscle Memory

• The Haiku Project • Day 18 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 18 •

It's raining passionate love

and poetry.

Weep

• The Haiku Project • Day 17 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 17 •

Hope. 

That's all.

Wandering, wondering

When the mind wanders too far away,

and the brain cannot catch up.

• The Haiku Project • Day 16 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 16 •

Poetry in Purple

• The Haiku Project • Day 15 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 15 •

There are melodies waiting to be written,

And maladies yearning to be bitten. 

• The Haiku Project • Day 14 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 14 •

I couldn't even tell

When you lifted the spell. 

Tea-ribble

Really, dear Trainee

How hard can it be

To master the art of brewing

The perfect little cuppa tea.

Here's an idiot-proof key:

Spoons two, then steep for three

Why, still, then does this concoction taste

Like something gassy monsters set free?

You may sing me a symphony

Or even take a knee

But if you mix it up all wrong

You ain't worth a penny.

Before you call me an itch with a B

Or a real ain with a P

Hold your horses coz I'm just getting started

On that tragic mess you call  coffee.

I can't give you my heart

I can't give you my heart

So I give you my body instead

Minus heart

And you give me yours

Strictly no beating heart

Like two robots

Locked in an electric circuit

But something happened

We deciphered a secret language

Machines turned magical

Sparks flew, fuse blew

I think we blew it.

We switched off.

Retired to rust.

Moving closer to dust.

Our hearts beating somewhere

Outside of our bodies

Under lock and key.

Orphaned, Abject

Searching for purpose.

But now we're reduced

To pieces of metal

Cold and grey.

To be burnt or buried.

I still can't give you my heart

Because the moment
Has passed.
And so have we.

Rain affair

Pregnant and Purple skies

Plops and Pellets

Precious and Pure

Pools and Puddles

Pit-Pit and Pattering

Paperboats and Picnics

Peeping Plants and Pocket Pets

Pretty Patterns and Pining Panes

Petrichor and Perfume

Parasols and Plastic coats

Pink Petunias and Plush Pastures

Photographs and Paintings

Potions and Pianos

Pillows and Pajamas

Pensive and Playful

Passionate love and Poetry

Prayer and Peace

Pain and Perfection.

Nightmare in words

Why must you be
Like a bolted coffin
Forced deep down the throat
Of a cemetery
Mute as death
But never lonely
Misery loves company
When you can be
The wildflowers
That surround it
Singing silent songs of living
Dancing in the still breeze
And limitless love
Breaking barriers
Of time and space
Paying an ode
To a wonderful soul
In a different place

Look alive, lovely
Why must you
Lay flowers
At your own grave?

Cubed

I woke up one morning
Feeling so beside myself
Much like a little Rubik’s Cube
Trying hard to solve itself!

With utmost care and calculation
Starting one side at a time
They try to twist me into place
A mammoth mess, worthy of crime.

Sometimes I get a little lucky
The first side of me they done
But then again, the madness unfolds
And suddenly I’m no longer fun.

Rough around the edges
They think I’m impossible to fix
But every story has a flip side
Oh mine has no less than six!

Kindness isn’t for all
And patience is a rare art
But there’s gotta be a better way
Than just ripping me apart.

Gather your goodbyes

Gather your goodbyes
In every colour, shape and size
For before you know
It'll be time to go
And you'll lose your second chance
To ask for yet another last dance
Or seal with an honest kiss
The love your bones will dearly miss
But fear not, fret not, my frieand
For this is hardly the end
And all that is lost shall, and will be found
Coz never forget, my darling, the earth is round.

Let's get in touch?

Just as the tick tock hit nine

You walked in like a glass of red wine

I could have sworn it was a sign

That night was meant to be mine.

Strides of strength, tall and lean

The most mysterious eyes I’d ever seen

Gushing and blushing like a silly teen

In that lifeless land, you were my green.

You helped yourself to the finest whisky

I wondered if that was my cue to get frisky

Was my night about to get a little risky

Or would it just be uneventful and low key.

But I was well out of touch

And you were well out of reach

So I gave up, before I could breach

But breach I wanted to, oh so much

Dear lover-to-be, let’s get in touch?

• The Haiku Project • Day 13 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 13 •

What's your poison?

• The Haiku Project • Day 12 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 12 •

Dear Demons.

Charade

You crave her for dinner
Devour her for dessert
But lose your appetite
When it's time for breakfast.
You touch her body
Before her heart
Parting her legs
Before her lips
Savouring her skin
Starving her soul.

Go on and revel, go on and bow
Go on and bask.

Because
She'll drop her clothes
But never her guard
You can scar her
But you'll never wound her
You may have been inside her body
But you'll never get inside her head.

So enjoy her like a play
Fluent in comedy and satire
Applaud her performance
Marvel at her grace
Take all of her in
While she is up for a parade
Because
Once the curtains fall
Your show will be over
And so will her charade.

Unseal

How can it be
I wake up one day and see
That nature silently chose to stitch
Wounds that once made me itch
Pain that I once bore
Without a whimper, growing sore
Tears for nights I cried
Without a warning, the sunlight protectively dried
A love that I once felt
For arms I held, prayers I knelt
Oh nature, I want to unseal
The scars that you're trying to heal
For the fire that burned me infernal
Deserves wounds forever eternal.

• The Haiku Project • Day 11 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 11 •

A little bit of Murph.

What if

What if

All we’re fated to

Is a life of chaos

With faceless voices

And voiceless faces

Rushing in, pushing through

With vices for habits

And pain for placebos

With no corners left

To vacuum out the dust

And no windows open

To welcome the sunlight

Or a breeze of realization

What if, the madness

Is bigger than the methods

What if

Our quest for solace

Ends only in the din.

What if

Our comfort zones

Are forever aligned

With our suicidal love

For the crazy
And frightful fear
Of silence, and the truth.

Tuck me in

Tuck me in
Turn my bed of nails
Into a soft blanket of roses
Slip me into the deepest dreams
Of whistling winds and singing streams
Make me forget my world of woe
My aches and pains, from head to heart, to toe
Limit my universe to the hold of your arms
And the smell of your existence.

But most of all,
Tuck me in
And then
Just never leave.

• The Haiku Project • Day 10 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 10 •

They say that money talks.

And all mine ever says is Goodbye.

Like a sneeze

When exactly, who knows

I think it was when I blew my nose

It struck me like radioactive breeze

Love, you’re like a sneeze.

The more I resist

The harder you persist

My senses you freeze

Love, you’re like a sneeze.

You shake me up

Make a mess of my make up

Physically weak in my knees

Love, you’re like a sneeze.

Hitting me when I least expect

You overpower me, I must accept

In that moment all control I cease

Love, you’re like a sneeze.

But there comes a relief

That cushions my belief

Stay for more than just a moment, please?

Because love, you’re more than a sneeze.

The other side of the fence

Don’t come looking for me

In every good book

For all you’ll find are ghosts

Of the godly ways I shook.

Seeking my refuge

In a tent of my own sin

Deaf to the sermons

Unshaken by hymn.

Truth be told,

I love to offend

Your tragedy is that

You live to defend.

Soon all I shall be

Is a hazy memory in the past tense

Atleast I dared where you never did -

The other side of the fence.

• The Haiku Project • Day 9 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 9 •

Deception.

Destruction.

Devotion.

• The Haiku Project • Day 8 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 8 •

Change is good.

Some days are for long poems.

Slave to Rhyme

Call me old-school

But I’m prisoned in a time

Where it isn’t poetry

If it doesn’t really rhyme.

Like a symphony of words

That abruptly changes melody

It pierces my senses

Can this count as poetry felony?

Subscribing to the old testament

I feel like a legit fighter

A crusader of the dying art

You can call me a strange writer.

With conjugations and gibberish

For weapons of survival

I’ll make it work, no matter what

It’s time for some revival.

Rhyme rhymes with thyme

Who cares what it’s to mean?

A rebel, I live dangerously

Because I’ve found my Billie Jean.

My deep thoughts on paper

Don’t seem quite as profound

What must I do to cure this ailment

To my sing-song rhymes, I’m bound.

• The Haiku Project • Day 7 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 7 •

Locked away

in our tiny drawers

and roomy closets

are undisclosed skeletons

and unsolved mysteries.

• The Haiku Project • Day 6 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 6 •

"If you want to win, you have to learn to be the master of the game."

To all the walls we climbed, only to jump over.

• The Haiku Project • Day 4 •

• The Haiku Project • Day 4 •

Is this this fence around me

Meant to keep me safe from you?

Or keep you safe from me?