The Novelty

He’s a writer,
A poet,
A novelty,
But he’s unpublished,
Invalidated,
I wonder if I could play the game?
Do I need the obsession?
Vulnerable to the fickle opinion of strangers,
Could I stand the rejection letters?
Could I stand the bad reviews?
Could I stand the poor sales?
Could I stand to be misunderstood?
Could I stand to be ignored?
The jaded agents and publishers who have
seen it all before,
Could I compromise to fit their market?
Their commercial demographic,
Sign your life away fool,
Don’t quit your day job just yet,
Congratulations you’re just increased your debts,
Could I stand the bitchiness of other writers?
Could I stand their spite?
I’m the unpublished writer and poet with
an audience of one,
‘Dare to fail’ people say with eyes equally
full of cliché,
But when you set goals to measure success you
invite the concept of failure,
And failure makes you stop doing that thing,
That once was therapeutic,
That once was fun,
Success is when what you want to say appears
on the page in front of you,
Like this.

Going back

In that painful moment of hurt you swear
you’ll never forgive,
In that raging moment of anger you swear you’ll
never forget,
That wound,
That insult,
Never going back to that place,
Never going back to that person,
But during the separation the bruising fades,
The pain subsides,
Your curiosity forces you to reappraise,
To reacquaint,
Your return is cathartic,
An exorcism,
You’re empowered by your choice to forget,
Made stronger by your ability to forgive,
And you start again.

Selfishness saves lives

Selfishness saves lives. We’re under pressure to think of other people first. To put our needs last. Doing what you want to do is seen as an act of selfishness. Instead you are supposed to do things you don’t want to do just to please others. A cloudy sense of duty forces you to conform. However, selfishness is a misused word. Accusations of selfishness are a common weapon used in emotional blackmail. If you set yourself up as a selfless generous person, you’re setting yourself up for a disappointment. The ’if I’m kind to everyone, everyone will be kind to me’ philosophy hopefully goes only as far as the first betrayal. The human animal is very difficult to please. You can go right out of your way to please them and they still resent it. It’s a terrible thing to realise that that you have wasted years trying to make everyone else happy (mostly in vain) at the expense of your own happiness. Putting your own happiness first is not such a heartless action. The only person you really have any control over is yourself. Do as much to make yourself happy as possible. A contented person is a strong person and a strong person is an inspiration. If making time for yourself is selfish then the concept of selfishness is wrong. Selfishness saves lives.

Site feedback

The trouble with blogging is that it’s hard to get people to check out your site. I’ve been sneaking some of this stuff onto various forum sites and I have received some very kind praise. I’ve created this space for your comments but should you wish to leave a comment after an individual piece feel free.

Single

Without a partner,
Without a shoulder to cry on,
Only the cold shoulder,
The hard shoulder,
Convinced that you’re boring,
You’re ugly,
A sad case,
Forgotten how it feels to hold someone,
Forgotten how it feels to be in love,
It’s worse if you never have,
You feel vulnerable,
Insecure,
Kidding yourself that you don’t need to be in a relationship,
That you’re better off alone,
Raging envy,
Hate their happiness,
Ridicule it,
Can’t remember how to impress,
Rusty chat,
Irreparable charm,
They belong to another species,
Untouchable,
Forget your successes,
Dwell on your failures,
The rejections,
Wallow in the pain of unrequited love,
Make it your reason not to bother,
So bitter,
So foolish,
Drown yourself in booze,
Numb yourself with drugs,
Listen to your involved friends complain about their relationships,
But they’re not going to tell you how wonderful love is,
They’re going to bring up frictions and go on about how hard done by they are,
They say they envy your freedom,
But you envy them more than they will ever know,
You have no one to spend your money on,
They are victors in a game you are too scared and hurt to play,
But they are no better than you my friend,
They were just in the right place at the right time,
As you will be,
Love neglects no one.

Truth

They won’t admit their weaknesses. But that’s where it’s at: being human. Admitting weakness. Admitting fear. Admitting mistakes. The best way to impress someone is to cut through the mock-perfect front and admit to being fallible. It’s easy to think that you’re a wreck when all those around you are carefully hiding their own errors. We’re all in the same boat and it’s always refreshing to hear someone admit something instead of being full of self-importance. Perfect is a big stinking lie. Imperfect is truth. We’re all hopelessly flawed. If we all confess our weaknesses we might be able to give each other some genuine help.

The chip

Everyone has a chip on their shoulder. You don’t get this far without having some personal grievance with life. Too fat? Too ugly? Did circumstances conspire against you somewhere down the line? You can feel good but then you start thinking about it. You remember. The chip on your shoulder rears its ugly head to spoil your happiness. Often it’s something too embarrassing and painful to talk about. You don’t want people to bring it up. Identify it and confront yourself about it. You might find some better way of dealing with it or even a way to put it behind you for good. Remember, everyone has a chip on their shoulder but they hide it well. They would sooner have you believe they are perfect.