965 - Thinking Makes It So

Haiku Horizon’s prompt: Joy

Thinking makes it so.

One man’s meat, they say,

Is another man’s poison.

Joy is subjective.

We are as happy

As we determine to be.

It’s an easy choice.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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964 - Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I know you’ve come through so oft’ before

But the time has come to ask for more.

So, let me be firm and let me be clear

World peace tops my list this year.

And the climate seems to be a mess,

Perhaps you could teach us to use less.

Remove animals out of cosmetics

And take religion out of politics.

And why not knock off the odd disease

And remove the pirates from the seas.

And stop folk cutting down our trees

And improve the quality of what's on our TVs.

And rid the streets of hoons and louts

And ban the sale of Brussels Sprouts.

But if all this is just a wish too far

I’ll happily settle for a good Pinot Noir.

Now reader, visit the comments section

To nominate your gift selection.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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963 - A Rushed Life

Haiku horizons prompt: rush

A rushed life.

Small. Feathered. Anxious.

Quiet.  Still. Sensing danger.

Hides in the rushes.

◊

If it’s important—

Surely they will wait for you.

So what is the rush?

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

962 - Stuffed and can't be stuffed.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

tempting, specific and snuff.

Stuffed.  
And can't be stuffed.

That flame,

That light,

Is quickly snuffed,

For no specific reason.

Just lots of things 

Conspire to quell

The heart

This festive season.

I see.

But why just me?

You?  Well—

It’s tempting to try 

To make you see

But in the end 

I can’t be stuffed;

The fight is just too big for me.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

961 - Safe and Secure

Haiku Horizons has the prompt “Safe”.

Safe and Secure.

We worry too much—

Safety is an illusion

That’s quickly shattered.

◊

There is no such thing

As a life lived in safety:

The gods laugh at you.

◊

And what price safety?

You can be well protected

But are you alive?

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

960 - Don't Make Me Cross!

Mad Kane poses a regular limerick challenge.

The key word this week is ‘ice’.

Don't Make Me Cross!

A fellow with nerves of pure ice,

Was asked by his wife for advice.

His reply was that

“Of course it looks fat”;

His death, while quick, was not nice.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

959 - Travellers

Sunday Scribblings 2 has the prompt ‘Traveller’.

Travellers

We are all travellers,

Whether we like it or not.

Souvenirs differ.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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958 - In Vino, Malum

Haiku horizons prompt: drink

When the world just sucks

All the juices out of you

It’s unwise to drink.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

957 - Keeping Time

She sleeps beside me.

The breathing is more steady

But the fear remains.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

956 - Creating a row.

Haiku Horizons prompt “row”.

An ambiguous sort of word.

Creating a row.

Corn grows in a row;

A house sits on the prairie.

It’s outwardly calm.

◊

It is not easy—

Being sick, lonely, dying…

A hard row to hoe.

◊

The desire to scream.

A primal sort of response—

To row with the gods.

◊

“Don’t create a row,

It will alarm the neighbours!”

Tears fall quietly.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

955 - Breaking the Cycle

Armistice Day, 2016.

Breaking the Cycle

Lest we forget, 

Our minds blinded

To what those on the front line did

By the comforting haze of time

War is not pretty, 

Not some bedtime

Soothing story 

Of how the high-minded troops fought, 

Struggled and grinded out 

A path to victory 

(as we defined it)

They fought and died in the grime:

Lest we forget.

Remember what those at Lone Pine did

And other battles that come to mind.  

Did we understand this very human crime?

We must reject war for peacetime

And be constantly reminded—

Lest we forget.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

954 - Sophie's Vote

Sunday Scribblings 2 prompt: Blues

Sophie’s Vote.

A voter who suffered the ‘blues’,

Anguished over who he should choose.

After much wringing of hands 

He now understands

That whatever he decides, he’ll lose.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

953 - Not Just Denmark.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

halting, far-fetched, and gamy.

Not Just Denmark.

Is the Armageddon ahead?

A bit far-fetched, perhaps,

But is there a way of halting

The successive mishaps

That seem,

As if a dream,

Salting

A wound we can’t ignore:

The gamy smell of something dead

Pervades the corrider.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

952 - Hobson's Choice

Haiku Horizons prompt “choose”

Hobson’s Choice

The horse near the wall—

The choice Hobson would offer.

Take it or leave it.

◊

You select some things.

You are lumbered with others.

You choose your response.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

951 - Scoring in the Park

Sunday Scribblings 2 prompt: compose

Scoring in the Park

A fellow who liked to compose,

In a park, while wearing no clothes,

Found what he wrote

Was of little note

But the audiences turned out in droves.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

950 - Exit, stage right.

Mad Kane poses a regular limerick challenge.

The key word this week is ‘call’.

As an actor, his skills would fall

Somewhere below Neanderthal.

But the agent was kind

And said “If you don’t mind,

In the off-chance I need you, I’ll call.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

Repost - The Dream

Poets United Midweek Motif - The Day of the Dead

This is a repost of something I wrote a long time ago.

A Dream

In memory of Joan Heys.

I dreamt about a distant place,

All white, yet strangely warm;

Where all was elegance and grace:

There was presence but no form.

Into this quiet and peaceful scene

A man stepped into view;

He was both strong and cut quite clean.

A woman stood there, too.

He looked at her, and with a smile,

Remembered when they’d wed;

“I’m glad you’ve come. It’s been a while.”

“A friend sent me” she said.

Happy with the eons spanned

They embraced and gently kissed;

Then they turned, and hand in hand,

Slipped off into the mist.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

949 - Trick

Haiku Horizon prompt:  Trick

It is trick or treat;

Something that’s been lost with time.

But dare I say ‘trick’?

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

948 - Divide and Conquer

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

vapid, adjoining and bouncy.

Divide and Conquer.

The world comes to us through TV:

Talking heads give vapid chatter

And cover up the things that matter

With bouncy echoes of page three.

We accept what others want to give;

Fed warm pap, served with distain.

Discounted as they know we will remain—

Expected to exist but not to live.

I hurts to accept the bleeding truth:

We have permitted idiots to rule us.

So they, in turn, feel free to fool us:

Did we not choose them in the booth?

As, on all horizons, disaster looms,

We watch TV in adjoining rooms.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

947 - Fence Sitting

Poet’s United Mid-Week Motif: Neutrality/Objectivity.

Fence Sitting

For those on the fence:

Objectivity is claimed

But is not displayed.

No-one is neutral—

Saying nothing speaks volumes:

Tacit approval.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

946 - Hell

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: shift.

Opinions can shift,

It’s not an unheard of thing—

But Hell will freeze first.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

945 - Birthing Day

Birthing Day

It is your birthday.

But there were others present;

Remember them too.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

944 - P is for Perverse.

P is for Perverse

Is it civilized

To use phosphorus weapons

On civilians?

◊

Victim turns bully,

Abandons moral high ground.

How soon they forget.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

943 - Talking Point

Poet’s United Mid-Week Motif: Conversation.

Talking Point

“Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, 

always runs more smoothly when lubricated.” 

― Marquis de Sade

While the Marquis raised a wry snicker,

Conversation increases with liquor.

And as the Romans opine

There’s truth in that wine

So you get to the climax much quicker.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

942 - The Gamble

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

symbolic, tendency, unhinged

The Gamble

The Oval office

Symbolic of the Power

Invested in One.

◊

The tendency, wrong,

Is to assume sanity

Is also present.

◊

We hope for the best.

But what if they are unhinged?

What do we do then?

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

941 - Gone Cuckoo

Sunday Scribblings 2 prompt: forbidding

Gone Cuckoo

Convicted porridge thief, Miss Goldilocks,

Wore flannel nightgowns and thick socks.

Her forbidding stare

Could curl your hair

And scare the cuckoos out of their clocks.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

940 - Mentor

Mentor

You worked on me,

Taught me things

That now seem so obvious.

Taught me that starting 

Was the only way to finish,

That a good book

Contains all you need to know

If you are willing to learn from it.

Showed me how to create,

To paint, 

To cook,

To pause,

And to look around at the world

And marvel.

At night, 

In the fading

I can see you:

Uniformed, 

Overalled, 

Frocked and smocked,

Wielding equally a hammer or a paint brush,

A rolling pin or a pen.

These were your tools of trade.

I can see your kitchen,

Your easels

And your workshed.

I can hear your music

And your words,

I can smell the linseed oil 

And the lavender.

You are now me

And I thank you for it.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

939 - Shape

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: shape.

It is a cruel truth,

Unexplored by science-

Bathroom mirrors lie.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

938 - Cab

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘cab’.

A politician with the gift of the gab,

Too rich to have ever travelled by cab,

Got tired of his tower—

So had a shot at real power

And anything else he could grab.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

937 - No Tulips.

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #270) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

spin, limit, flash, state, park, line,

flip, insulate, mimic, fade, rim, kick

No Tulips.

Have I parked in the right place?

Can I mention the war?

Did that player deserve the free kick?

I mean, will mentioning it cause me grief?

Will you turn on me?

And what if I state my preference

For the coming elections?

Will it flip the switch from docile

To hostile?

To a spitting monster of ridicule,

You with your flashing eyes and cutting words?

Can I live with my timidity?

Can I live without it?

Religion, of course, has even tighter limits,

Everything is spun  and recited

In a domestic mimic of a street

Purveyor of fine apocalypses.

Doomed.  We are all doomed.  Repent.

Lines, well rehearsed, are fired back

With the fine precision born of repetition.

Memories of past encounters,

Past eruptions of disapproval

Do. Not. Fade. 

Reborn with each remembrance

They resist attempts to insulate,

To forget.

But survival can depend on remembering

Where the rim of the precipice is,

Or the path around the minefield.

Tiptoeing helps

But is no guarantee.

It is curious that the phrase

Is ‘walking on eggshells’—

If the eggs are already broken,

Does it matter any more? 

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

936 - Moonlight

Sunday Scribblings has the prompt "Overnight".

“Come up for coffee” was the invite,

Then the suggestion she stay overnight—

But the the moonlight revealed,

The fangs, once concealed,

And she quickly disappeared, in fright!

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

935 - Rich People Die

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

radiance, rasp and rhythm.

Poet’s United has the prompt ‘Wealth’.

Rich People Die

Rich people die.

Wealth is no buffer,

As they lie there—

The linen may be crisper,

That’s all.

At the closing of the day,

As the radiance of what was

Slowly slips away,

It is worth remembering

That whatever wealth you possess

Buys little of value.

Life has a rhythm,

An ebb and flow

That we sense

But never fully know.

Only as the last

Throaty rasp

Exits weakly

Do we finally

Understand.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

934 - The Melbourne Cup

Sunday Scribblings 2 : Cups.

Once: The Melbourne Cup,

Then Emirates hopped on board

Now: A logo-ed mug.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

933 - The Mask

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: mask.

The Mask

We all wear a mask.

Few see who we really are—

It is protection

◊

We all wear a mask.

We wear many masks, in fact.

Playing many roles.

◊

We all wear a mask.

Clowns have known the truth for years.

Survival tactic.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

932 - The Game

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #269) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:

view, needles, breeze, sky, mist, spill,

bridge, still, trail, trip, trim, fill

The Game

It is a game.

Played with needles.

Played with a view 

To getting a response,

To rattle a cage,

To bypass reason

Into the uncontrolled

Realms of red mist,

Panic and confusion.

Hunting season.

It is a game.

And you play it well.

Correction—

You play it often. 

Have for years, probably,

But familiarity lessens

Its effects.

But still, you play.

Maybe it is all you know—

Follow the past trails

Of successful sorties,

Successful campaigns.

Following the rules,

Your rules,

Trimming them

As needs must.

It is a game.

It has expectations.

Actions that beget 

Reactions,

Beget emotions,

Get emotions

To rise and spill,

To take control,

To make me trip,

To fill my mind

With nothing—

But the game.

It is a game.

But it is your game,

Not mine.

I can choose not to play.

Outside, as the bridge 

Between our worlds

Decays,

The sky is clear,

The breeze is cool,

And the sun is shining.

I can smell freesias.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

931 - Normality

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

notable, oddball, and perky.

Normality

It is notable

But quite unremarkable—

Oddballs are outcast.

◊

Why are folk so glum?

If they meet someone perky

They suspect the worst.

◊

He’s odd, they whisper.

He’s not normal, like we are.

Drugs.  I bet he’s on drugs.

◊

You can’t be happy.

They feel the need to pull you down

Then they feel better.

◊

I’m not an oddball.

If everyone was like me

I would be normal.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

930 - Show Class

Poet’s United Midweek Motif : Teaching.

Show Class.

Small eyes.

Friendly eyes.

Curious eyes.

Jealous eyes.

Government eyes.

Electronic eyes.

Neighbours.

Friends.

Colleagues.

Strangers.

All making 

Mental notes

As they watch you.

Every moment

Of your life

Someone

Somewhere

Is watching you.

And what you do,

What you say,

How you live your life

Is teaching them

A little bit more

About you.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

929 - Dining in a Swamp

A neighbour has not learnt to

eat with his mouth closed.

While the meal was unwrapped with much pomp,

He annoyed when he started to chomp—

As his lunch headed south,

He left open his mouth,

And it sounded like gumboots crossing a swamp.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

928 - A Fine Grind

Mad Kane has a regular limerick challenge.

She provides the rhyme word, the rest is up to us.

This week the word is ‘grind’.

A Fine Grind.

Coffee is a wicked and sensuous find,

It feeds all of your fantasies, combined.

In coffee, you'll discover

Your perfect dark lover:

And a good coffee rewards a fine grind.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

927 - Ideas

Haiku Horizons has the prompt: Birth

Ideas are born—

But, if they’re not acted on,

They just stay ideas.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

926 - A kindly, light-hearted melodrama.

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: 

kindly, light-hearted, and melodramatic.

All the world’s a stage:

Play an interesting role—

Melodramatic!

◊

Light hearted banter.

Don’t take it seriously.

Or perhaps you should…

As Freud would tell you

Those things that are said in jest

Reveal inner thoughts.

◊

What does it hurt you

To say a few kindly words?

Base civility.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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925 - The Ant-y Hero

Theme Thursday has the prompt “Ants”.

The Ant-y Hero

Once upon a time

In a little ant-y nest

Was a little ant-y fellow—

A little ant-y pest.

This little ant-y rebel

Pushed back against the law

Of working through the summer

To fill the winter store.

But as so oft the case

He met a kindred soul—

The one that everybody needs:

The half that makes the whole.

While the passion inside his heart

Warmed his whole inside,

The passion in his belly

Flickered out and died.

Plans were then proposed

To become a family ant

Our little rebel hero

Had now become obedient. 

And that my gentle reader

Is how this story ends:

A simple little wedding,

With a million closest friends.

They danced away the evening,

They toasted with a smirk,

They put away the dishes

And all went back to work.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

924 - A Clean Limerick

A lady, demure and well bred,

Had a bath before going to bed.

“I know that I oughta

Be more frugal with water

But the bubbles just went to my head”.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

923 - The Caged

Poet’s United Midweek Motif : Caged

The Caged

Caged

And displayed—

Trophies

Of the strong

Over the weak,

Of those who seek

To demonstrate

Their power

To dominate

Their captives.

The caged,

Powerless,

Acquiesce.

At weekends

They take their children

To the zoo

But miss

The irony.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

922 - Some of a Beach

PTM’s prompt is ‘Sinking’.

Some of a Beach.

A survival skill few courses teach

Is escaping from quicksand’s deep reach.

By my way of thinking,

If you want to avoid sinking

You should stay away from the beach.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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921 - Impressions

dVerse Quadrille #17 - Shadows.

Impressions.

Shadows

Of a life lived.

And of a life

Wished to be lived.

Inner desires,

Inner dreams,

Warm 

And cold 

Memories 

Of what was

And of what may have been.

Thrown achingly,

Wistfully,

Hopefully,

Regretfully,

But distorted,

Into the world.

Behind—an inner light.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

920 - Baggage

Haiku Horizons prompt: Carry

Baggage

We all carry stuff—

Stuff that we should have long dropped,

But, strangely, we don't.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

919 - Marking Time

Marking Time

It’s early.

The dull glow

Of square numbers,

Greenish,

Wash over the room.

It is primed and set.

Periodically

The deep chimes

Of the serious

Square, plain mantle clock.

The lighter,

More tuneful

Chimes

Of the overly ornate

French clock,

(Turned sideways,

because it wont run

facing forward.)

Follow.

Outside,

In the dim light,

A magpie

Runs though its chords.

Over and over.

I listen to the magpie,

I count the chimes,

But I obey the 

Alarm.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

918 - Trickle Down

Three Word Wednesday requires participants

to use the three words of the week in a composition.

The words this week are: infected, irritable and jarring.

Trickle Down

The world seems so irritable,

So fraught with social woes,

The paradise promised

Unevenly disposed.

The fear,

(Of those who hear)

Dismissed—

But it can’t continue

Without an equitable result, 

Attended to.

We bought 

The ‘trickle down’ effects:

The rich would care for us.

But they hoarded all the warm bread

And also kept the crusts.

And so,

As these things go,

Instead, infected disillusion

Brings a jarring of the parapets,

Come the revolution.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

---

917 - Dislocation

Theme Thursday’s prompt is ‘Together’.

Dislocation

Together—

But apart.

The hearts reach out,

But do not touch.

Apart—

But together.

Life is shared

But not much

Is common.

Loneliness

Is subjective.

.

---

© J Cosmo Newbery 2016

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