Performance Poetry, a minute at a time
With everything that’s going on
At home and overseas
Covid and disturbances
Protestors on the streets
Our media must prioritise
‘Tween all the sorry tales
How they will inform us and
Remove ophthalmic scales
Today they have excelled themselves
In choices that they’ve made
Everywhere I look it’s there
Garishly displayed
In print, tv and internet
Not civil war or crime
But the cost of plastic bags in shops
Will increase in eight months time.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
You’re quite the little warrior
You’ll hunt through ancient tweets
To find a hint of anything
To throw at Corbyn’s feet
And yet you’re somehow muted
No need felt to chastise
When thugs unfurl a fascist flag
Right before your eyes
Your silence echoes loudly
And a nagging doubt persists
It’s not fascists that irk you
Sounds more like socialists.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
I’ve seen some unexpected sights
But none more odd this year
Than anti-mask protestors shouting
‘Freedom’ with a cheer.
No to masks, vaccines and second wave
Seemingly oblivious at
The contradictions between those three
And how together they might influence that
In the cold light of the day
They may rue that they were there
If they booked their place in The Nightingale
As they sang in Trafalgar Square.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
There are direct links to be made that’s for sure
Tween the home office shouting ‘bout asylum wars
And Britain First thugs out to settle their scores
Harassing away in hotel corridors
We’re creating conditions where goons of this sort
See government policies offering support
To the ideological fictions they’re taught
As they draw up their lists of who’s next to deport
Encourage the right and there’ll be consequences
It emboldens their type towards greater offences
So let’s move our arses from atop of these fences
And recall what the most useful form of defence is.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
You’ve got to hand it to them – they know just who their base is
They point dad’s army graphics at their angry reddened faces
They tell them that their problems are all caused by other races
And say the EU stops us from deporting all these cases.
The pesky lawyers share their ire – their ‘activist’ endeavours
Have angered those who don’t respect the rule of law whenever
It stops them doing what they want, and so they seek to sever
The rights afforded all of us that should be ours forever.
And so we have a government disrespecting rule of law
Alluding to invasion, hinting back to bloody wars
Suggesting all will be ok, once laws they can ignore
So please consider when it will be you they’re coming for.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
First of all, communal singing’s something ‘off the list’
If you’re irate ‘bout land of hope and glory, please desist
In the wider scheme of things, I couldn’t give a toss
There’s far more pressing things bout which you should be getting cross
But if you want to prod at it, then here’s the thing to muse on
The excesses of our past are things we all should have a view on
Historical abuses have an impact on today
And without the proper education, that won’t go away
Should we be singing songs that blindly glorify our past?
Not until we’ve dealt with all the questions left unasked.
It’s not distorting history to share the truths of old
Or politicising, as the National Trust’s been told
It’s being honest bout the things that got us where we are
That allows adult debate bout all we find in our memoirs
As an atheist republican who’s prone to vent his spleen,
If I was going to ban a song, I’d start with God Save The Queen.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
Economically speaking, there are greater concerns
Than the pandemic’s impact on corporate returns
Automation and AI will top all of our concerns
As capitalism struggles with it’s plunder
The killer question isn’t ‘how will robots pay their dues?’
Instead it’s ‘how will robots buy the products you produce?’
And if you don’t ‘produce’, then I’ve got some sadder news
You won’t be safe as all is torn asunder
The thing to watch for now is the pandemic situation
Used to justify increased employment terminations
But they won’t rehire instead they’ll seek to widen automation
The lightning strikes while we await the thunder.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
I’m delighted to announce the release of two volumes of poetry that are available for you to buy with immediate effect – to buy both books at a special offer price of just £16.00 including UK delivery click below: (for non-uk buyers click here)
 | Literary Lockdown 2020 AND Lambast – £16.00 including UK postage [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”both books offer” amount=”16.00″] |
 | Literary Lockdown 2020 – £8.50 including UK postage [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”Literary Lockdown” amount=”8.50″] |
 | Lambast – £8.50 including UK postage [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”Lambast” amount=”8.50″] |
£8.50 including UK postage [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”Literary Lockdown” amount=”8.50″]
As the early stages of the pandemic raged around the world, these 31 poems capture life in a locked-down UK in April and May 2020. Only time will tell whether the anger and frustrations were misplaced, and when or if the humour and beauty will return, so for now, this can be treated as a snapshot – a moment in time – and judgements can be left for another day.
£8.50 including UK postage [wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”Lambast” amount=”8.50″]
What started as an attempt to be funny turned out to be anything but – in fact it turned into a record of a very challenging time with a mix of personal issues and external events leading to a compulsion to ‘get it out’. So it’s out, and you’ll soon be holding it, if you’ll excuse the phrase. The poems contained within are a mix of personal and political, humour and anger, frustration and relief and chart an individual and nation in a state of dramatic decline. The individual is doing much better now – the nation probably needs more drastic help.
If you’re elsewhere in the world, drop me a line about postage, or place your order through Lulu.com.
Perturbed at how hard it has been to adjust
To the absence of trust in the man we entrust
As he lies without thought of the growing disgust
As the mistruths and spin speed along.
Everything’s framed as a media event
Fed propaganda, we’re left to lament,
As we crawl through the summer of this con’s tent,
That the winter ahead ’twill be long.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe
I have a plan.
We’ve been looking at this all wrong.
Don’t look to end the hide and seek
Instead, seek to prolong
Send the cabinet searching
Do you see what that could mean?
Get the full advantage
By switching to sardines!
As each one uncovers him
They hide with him and hence
We rid ourselves of all of them
Now THAT is common sense.
(c) 2020 The Sixty Second Scribe.
