1050 - Stranded

Oh ye of little faith, fear not I’ve gone
I’m merely cut off from the internet
BT won’t take over my landline phone
Till Friday evening; till then I can’t get
My new broadband provider changed from shit
Pipex to O2, who should be better
And, next week, when I do, I shall post yet
More sonnets on my site, and update a
Networking site or two, to have greater
Coverage and include the things I’ve done
In the last month or two, such as a set
Of new songs. It’s quite good that I’ll get a
New email address: less junk mail will come
Yes! I’ll be back soon, so, my friends, don’t fret!
Mon 20 July 2009

1044 - I woke at noon

I woke at noon - that’s a recent record
I’m still offline, though - have been since late June
That makes you feel cut off, as though the cord
That binds you to the world has not been thrown
To you, drifting in the ocean, alone…
Put up my photos on the computer
Watched video that I’d shot of Irish town
And country; a new musical idea
Came to me, but the track hasn’t appeared
Yet, except in my head; hard to record,
Tricky arrangements, more than just a tune
A blend of classical and rock, a near
Nightmare, but hopefully they won’t be bored…
Gave Andy late lift from airport to home
Tue 14 July 2009

1032 - Gremins and fools' convention

I’m in a long ‘everything’s going wrong’ spell
Technology, ambitions and all that
I know things can’t always go right, but hell!
Here I am, all alone in a hot flat
My internet connection, the one that
Has served me for three years, seems to be dead
I don’t think it’s my equipment. Been sat
All evening on the phone. One of them said
Something for which I wasn’t quite prepared:
“Buy a new micro filter.” I did. Well,
Still the same: no dial tone. They’ll call back Sat
Evening, or so they said. Yes, I’ve been led
A less than merry dance. Still, I can smell
The Irish fields and their green welcome mat
Thur 2 July 2009

907 - Busy nights

Amazing: a night in! So few this week
But I'll use it to play some more music
Maybe re-record 'World at War' - a weak
Mix, and low volume made it less than slick
On Wednesday night. Hey soundman, get your shit
Together next time, or I'll bring my own
Equipment, damn you! Didn't drop my pick
At least. Last night, I networked - yes, me, Tone!
Met several new contacts and exchanged phone
Numbers and emails; maybe we will speak
Of new arts projects, build them brick by brick
July festival audiences blown
Away..... Nice dream, go float off down the creek
Off home now from the office...What to cook?
Fri 27 Feb 2009

831 - Rainy Saturday fun

Got up, cleaned the flat, then did ironing
While listening to Love and to Roxy
I then drove up to Oldham, collecting
My friend, then ate at Franky and Benny
Which one, you ask? The one at Salford Quay
Too late for brunch, I chose the chicken wings
The barbecue sauce was a bit spicy
She had pizza, not eating everything
We went online at my place, the dating
Website was a bit shite, but interesting
Then watched some films. Hugh Grant danced so badly
But funnily, and did you know he sings?
Then a film about the shy geek winning
The girl. Maybe this could happen to me
Sat 13 Dec 2008

826 - Loss of focus

My mind has gone from where it's s'posed to be
Getting somewhere with writing or music
To wanting a partner to be with me
Even though this doesn't display logic
To afford her I need a lodger, quick
And how will someone else in the flat feel
If I bring a girl round? They might not stick
Around for long, which would be a poor deal
For my financial recovery; well
Things are shaping up quite interestingly
Ten years since I had a lodger. The kick
Of having a new girlfriend has appeal
I can't deny. But first, find her! Easy
I'm hoping that the Net will do that trick
Mon 8 Dec 2008

803 - Chillin' in ma crib

Not feeling too good, Saturday morning
Headache, but not after a long session
Just some sort of bug, sickening, dizzying
Tense nervous headache? Here’s your medicine
And meanwhile I have got the ironing done
While watching videos on TMF
They’ve played the charts, now the oldies are on
Oh no, not Boyzone again - what a laugh!
Take That, Girls Aloud, my old friends Westlife
And now the Sugababes are back singing
Last night we stayed up till round half past one
Children in Need was on, and photographs
From York were uploaded for your viewing
Forgot to put them on Facebook. Hang on…
Sat 15 Nov 2008

798 - The many moods of the digital Romeo

Sibelius plays in the CD drive while
I chat with my love, instant messaging
The brass crescendoes in typical style
The big bass drum is booming and rolling
As quips and loving thoughts keep on crossing
Immediately from my place up to hers
Like a drug to which we keep returning
The last movement of Karelia infers
Not wrongly that things aren’t so bad, the firs
And snow of Finland for mile after mile
Replaced now by the ghetto that’s singing
With Donny Hathaway’s voice ’bout the curse
Of economic shortage. But they’d smile
If they had a taste of our sweet loving
Mon 10 Nov 2008

789 - Saturday mail

I love Saturday mornings just like this
I’m catching up on emails, blogs and net-
Based tasks that years ago did not exist
Remember reading papers, writing let-
Ters with a PEN? Back then, with fingers wet
With ink, we’d think: Oh no, I’ve no stamps left
And the Post Office is so hard to get
To before it closes at lunchtime. Sift
Through old photos, not in a box, but aft-
Er you have accessed the website, a list
Of virtual albums on display. Forget
To save them when there’s a house fire? Bereft
No more, they’re safe somewhere out there. A kiss
To my online sweetheart. We’ve still not met
Sat 1 Nov 2008

700 - Licensed to quill

James Bond reversed, not by some evil guy
Who ties him up, points a gun at his head
And then, inexplicably, lets him try
To escape, which he does; villain instead
Biting the dust soon after. No. I said
James Bond reversed, meaning by my good self
In using the number 700
Apparently, blogging’s good for the health
Publishing thoughts on a virtual bookshelf
Permits your internal conflict to fly
Somewhere out there where it is detected
Deflecting stress, defusing it by stealth
So I urge you, for your own sake, to try
It’s cheaper than the gym, James. So to bed
Mon 4 Aug 2008

599 - Lines to mine

Hey children! When I’m dead, will you read these?
Will you rethink the thoughts that I once had,
Then shaped into this finished form? Entries
Of emotion, observation, sad, glad,
On global websites and on paper (had
From the office). Will it really matter,
When I am dissolved, that I had not made
The grade, or taken holidays to where
Others have flown with BA, Ryanair,
And droned on about to my envious ears?
Will it matter that I was quite so bad
At living up to my promise? Unfair
Was life to me, and you maybe, but please
Look after these. Feel glad rather than sad.
Fri 25 Apr 2008

598 - In aYork hotel bedroom

In York again for a tax conference
Sudden rain shower, hid in a café
The work done, I relax; well, in a sense,
Because there’s still some work of sonnetary
Nature to do that can’t be shirked. Here’s me
Sat on the edge of this large hotel bed,
Writing on hotel pad these pencilly
Remarks that pad out what is to be said
In my diary, this one that’s later fed
Into the internet. While I’ve still sense,
Before the drinks begin, I must first say
My fourteen lines (at least not a hundred).
I shall return after maybe immense
Amounts of booze and grub…well, hopefully.
Thur 24 Apr 2008

515 - Freedom for the fly

I’m late for the train. It’s the 5.15
That passes by my window every night,
And I’m hopping on board tonight. It’s been
Fun staying in this town, but the time’s right
To make a move, to shake things up, to fight
My way out of a rut, to raise my game,
To recognise that some things turn to shite,
And let them decompose, flow down the drain
When washed there by the all-dissolving rain.
Make no mistake, this break’s gonna be clean:
The last post sounds for me on this website.
The last poets rapped, unheard from again,
But later listeners clapped, as a new scene
Grew up around the spoken sound in flight.
Fri 1 Feb 2008

497 - Tell' em

Tell old Aunt Gladys, and tell her friend Kevin
Tell bold young Paris on a spending spree
Tell Silly Billy, Sonnet 497
Is on the net at Yahoo 360.
Tell Gorgeous George on his way home for tea
Tell Mary-Lou yoo-hoo (she’s on the loo)
Tell Hairy Horace looking for a flea
It’s on the net at 360 Yahoo.
Tell Robbie Shakespeare, Tommy Dylan too
Tell Johnny Shaftoe and Myra Gershwin
Tell Clint Clinton, Julie Giuliani
To somehow get to 360 Yahoo
Where they will see my Sonnet 497
And they’ll warm up, however cold they be.
Mon 14 Jan 2008

227 - Come to the freak show nightly on TV

Come to the freak show nightly on TV
And on YouTube and in the newspapers.
Tonight, kill time with chilling Cho Seung-Hui,
Or Saddam’s hanging, Baghdad massacres.
Hey, sado-masochists, you’ll get a buzz
From Abu Ghraib or from Guantanamo.
A filmed assault by young happy slappers,
Look! Someone kicked to death! Come see the show.
The Shoah (black and white) from long ago
Sure nuff’s shocking; so’s child pornography,
And snuff on DVD. So much stuff. There’s
Cho’s lead. Don’t just kill - make a video!
A thinly veiled gross immorality
Prevails as we watch executioners.
Thur 19 Apr 2007

202 - On Sunday evening, thoughts turn to Monday

On Sunday evening, thoughts turn to Monday,
That fun day when I turn into a slave
And, underslept, tiptoe at the first ray
To run the tap, splash face - a micro-bathe -
Then drink juice, exit light, enter their cave:
Soul-shrinking charade where I’m rarely made
To think; key-pushing. Yet, the Net will save
Me: link and lifeline; fears of sinking fade;
A surfin’ safari; suff’rer repaid.
They’re starvin’ me of time for basic pay.
I’m duckin,’ divin’ - ain’t misbehavin’ -
I’m savin’ all my love for when the shade
So wondrously tolls for the working day,
And dunderheads are done, and you I crave.
Sun 25 Mar 2007

96 - I'm at the computer before I sleep

I’m at the computer before I sleep,
And at the computer after I wake.
An email comes - it’s like the phone’s beep beep.
I must type quickly - no spare time to take.
Real life still goes on, but could start to shrink
Unless I can disentangle myself
From this net in which I flap about. Think
Not of escape, but how to use its wealth
To best effect. All caught together; how
Can we best help each other to progress?
Does this small corner of the net allow
Us to swim as we’d like? I must confess
It’s time for me to drive down to Wilmslow,
So, have a nice Saturday. Cheerio!!!
Sat 9 Dec 2006

11 - All hail the Net, proud champion of mind

All hail the Net, proud champion of mind
Over mouth and pocket, loud in wisdom,
Democracy’s defence, like Justice, blind,
Just as Governments themselves should become.
We scorn the politicians we elect:
Sacrificial pawns if they don’t cut tax
And keep the cost of gas and flights in check.
Costumed thus, they paper over the cracks
In the earth made by us. We are black knights
Riding into night. So let’s all debate,
Decide, decree our ‘leaders’ do what’s right.
Turn the heat up ten degrees, or too late,
They’ll claim they didn’t think we’d freeze them out
For the right reasons. God save us all. Shout!
Fri 15 Sep 2006