Tag: poetry

thoughts

~ The Contract Of Normality ~

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~ The Contract Of Normality ~

“The more I went through life, the more it seemed that signatures were life’s way of reeling you into a life of normality. The dotted lines were always there waiting. Whenever you started a job, you signed that dotted line. Whenever you rented an apartment, you signed that dotted line. Phones, cable TV, cars, internet and even marriage – that line was always waiting to hook you in and keep you fixed in one place. The way I saw it, all of those individual things essentially constituted an entire contract of normality which was offered to each and every one of us. The contract of normality much have been the most signed piece of paper in the world. The big question simply was: to sign or not to sign? Signing yourself over to a normal life had its perks after all. You were guaranteed of lifetime supply of steady small-talk and fitting in amongst the crowd. You got a TV, a car, a few weeks’ vacation each year and even a pension to fall back on. Your days and weeks may have had some surprises, but more or less you had your life schedule sorted on a spreadsheet right up until your funeral. It was a solid deal – a tempting one – as proven by its popularity. But did I want to sign? Life was safe and straight-forward if you put your name on that dotted line, but where was the thrill? Where were the surprises? Where were the moments where you weren’t sure whether you were going to reach the mountain top or fall into the abyss?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed that signing the dotted line meant I was giving away all the excitement and adventure. So whenever the contract of normality was put in front of my face, I simply put the pen down and walked away from the table. Sure, I may have been residing myself to a life of unpredictability, discomfort and lack of security, but the journey into the wild was just simply too much fun to hand it all over to a life defined by rules and regulations.”

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

poetry

~ A Hidden Wonderland ~

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‘A Hidden Wonderland’

Somewhere deep inside your soul
there is an abandoned amusement park
waiting to be explored again

its entrance is taped off
its grounds sit shrouded in fog
but somewhere in there lies eternal bliss
the bliss the demons sweat in terror
at the thought of you finding

the rides await your screams of ecstasy
the candy floss awaits your taste-buds
the neon lights wait to shine bright
and the only admission cost
is that you are brave enough to venture in

in this life there is no tragedy greater than
allowing your inner joy to slowly decay
to allow the roller-coasters to rust in the rain
and let a heart creak hauntingly in the night

the reason this happens;
the reason your joy lies abandoned –
is because they made you forget
that you are the gatekeeper to your own wonderland
that the magic is found inside you, not outside

but if you would only remember who you really are
than the power will return within
the roller coasters will start up again
and the lights blaze bright once more

because somewhere deep inside your soul
there is an abandoned amusement park
waiting to come alive again

so go on in
through the mist
beyond the tape
and rediscover the joy
like a wide-eyed child
dazzled and delighted
curious and captivated
alive in the night once again

shining brighter and greater

than ever before.

hidden wonderland

thoughts

~ The Prisoners ~

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~ The Prisoners ~

“You do not have to be physically confined in a cell to be a prisoner in this world. Some of the most enslaved souls walk amongst us every day in our very streets and neighbourhoods. Maybe they dress normal, look normal and speak normal, but hidden behind a polished exterior can often lie a mind that has been beaten down and shackled into passive submission over many years. Perhaps they had an unwanted religion forced on them in childhood; perhaps they had their hopes and dreams degraded by their peers; perhaps they had been psychologically manipulated into a way of life that slowly killed them from the inside. Whatever it was, you never knew what was really happening behind a salesman’s smile or a cashier’s small-talk. You never knew who was out there silently searching for help. Whenever you stopped and looked around at the crowd that momentarily formed at the traffic lights, you just never knew who was trapped in a prison from which they could not escape.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

poetry

~ The National Dance ~

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~ The National Dance ~

Consume and be consumed; in a national dance of plastic bags.
Grab your paper and head to the high-street.
Flock together and shuffle your feet.
There’s windows to shop and prices to beat!

Sing.

“Fulfilment is but one shop away; one more purchase to make it to the next day!”

And sway.

“Follow the fashion everyday; and do the things that the billboards say!”

Spend and become spent; in a national dance of plastic bags.
Load up your credit cards and forget about the debt.
Sniff off the places where the bargains are kept .
Rave out your frenzy, it’s not closing time yet!

Sing.

“Fulfilment is but one shop away; one more purchase to make it to the next day!”

And sway.

“Follow the fashion everyday; and do the things that the billboards say!”

Dance. Dance. Dance.
Buy. Buy. Buy.

This is your vice; your army, your war
This is your dance; your song and your floor.

Dance. Dance. Dance.
Buy. Buy. Buy.

This is your stage; come sun or cold rain;
This is your movement; to shake out your pain.

Dance. Dance. Dance.
Buy. Buy. Buy.

And this is your tribe; your family of spend
This is your war dance; for every weekend.

Dance. Dance. Dance.
Buy. Buy. Buy.

Consume and be consumed.
Consume and be consumed.

Consume and be consumed.

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thoughts

~ An Unsolved Puzzle ~

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~ An Unsolved Puzzle ~

“Cultures are like jigsaw puzzles and not all of us slot so easily into place. The pieces who don’t fit in are usually the ones who realise that there isn’t even a puzzle to be solved. Life is not about being pushed down and being rigidly confined in one spot forever; it is about exploration, evolution, and changing shape. That is the fundamental structure of the universe after all – a constant movement of waves and energy. Why allow yourself to be trapped and restricted by other pieces? Why be one shape when you can be many? So just don’t do it. Don’t be just one thing. Don’t let your entire existence in the universe be defined by some job title. Be a nurse by day and a unicorn by night. Be here, there and everywhere. Be weird – be stupid – be absolutely off-the-wall crazy. Whatever it is you do, please, just don’t be a jigsaw piece.”

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thoughts

~ Overcoming The Fear of Flying ~

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~ Overcoming the Fear of Flying ~

“Always we look up at those birds in the sky and daydream about taking flight. But we rarely think about the fact that those birds are just doing what they are born to do – spreading their wings and flying. We are all human-beings and while we may not have wings to fly, we sure as hell have legs to run, fingers to write, mouths to sing and a whole damn world to explore. The only way for us to be like the birds is to just do the things which come profoundly naturally – the things we feel deep down we were born to do. To some that could be painting, it could be surfing or climbing mountains; to some maybe it’s even something as simple as gardening. Whatever it is, the only way to taste the freedom of flight, is to allow ourselves to do the things which make us feel absolutely weightless. In this increasingly convoluted world, it’s easy to let our lives become a chore of convention and expectation, but the day we neglect the nature of our soul is the day that the sky has one bird less. A human-being who spends their whole life ignoring their true inner nature is simply the bird that refused to spread its wings. A human-being who is prevented from doing that by another, is a bird that has been captured and caged. Don’t let either of those bleak scenarios happen. In our darkest moments, we all secretly know we could do with a few more free birds up there to inspire us all. So, go on – let go and take a leap of faith. Don’t let the weight of this world grind you down. Jump the nest of comfort and convention. Follow your instinct. Hunt that horizon. Explore your passion.

Spread those wings and become what you were born to be.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ The Art Of Go ~

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~ The Art of Go ~

“Go. Beyond those desks; beyond those suburbs. Go with a heavy heart and a light backpack. Go to the lands beyond your horizons, beyond your doubts, beyond your cosy little comfort zones. The most extraordinary things will not come knocking on your door; the greatest treasures are not discovered by those dwelling in their caves. This world is a living dream waiting to be explored. Every day it creates heroes, moves mountains and changes people forever. So go and explore. Don’t let the others drag you down. Go beyond them and their fences of fear; go into the lands which you have not yet trampled; go to the places where the lightning strikes as the eyes blaze bright like burning stars.

Just get up now and for god sake Go.”

the art of go

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ Behind The Looking Glass ~

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~ Behind The Looking Glass ~

“Twenty hours later and there I sat alone on that cross-country bus – head pressed against the window, gazing out at the towns and villages, watching the human race go about its existence. I watched the mothers hang clothes on washing lines; I watched the old men sip coffee in roadside cafes; I watched the kids playing football in the dirt. Everybody was there belonging to a place in space and time as I passed by like a transient cloud in the sky. Many people detested those long bus journeys but I found a strange comfort and peace within them. In the temporary situation of being in between places, I had momentarily transcended some boundary of static belonging. I was invisible; a ghost – a voyeuristic stranger on a bus briefly belonging to nowhere – to nothing – to no one. As I continued down the meandering road of my life, it became clear to me why I found comfort in those long journeys on the road. On those journeys I was in my natural state; on those journeys I succumb to my gypsy fate. Holding a ticket to some vague place beyond the horizon, it was my unavoidable destiny to be a stranger on a passing bus, lost in space and time, gazing out the windows of curiosity, doomed to never step off and belong to one particular place or group of people.”

(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ Coming Home To Yourself ~

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~ Coming Home To Yourself ~

“You’re lost and you’re searching for the answer. But the truth is you already know it. You’ve always known it in your flesh and bones. You know who you are, what you want, and what makes you feel infinite. Maybe the billboards and the advertisements and the opinions of others got you a bit confused for a while. Maybe you still are confused trying to live up to someone else’s expectations – but somewhere deep down you know what makes you tick, what makes you feel weightless and free – what makes your existence feel as effortless as sunrise and sunset. If you’re still struggling to find it then my advice is to take yourself away from the hysteria of society. Get away from that television, from that newspaper, from that phone, from those cities and crowds. Get away and reside in the magical world of nature for a while. Out there in the serene silence of the wild is the voice of truth and reason that has been suppressed. Out there is where you sober up from the cultural madness. Out there is where your mind is cleansed and you no longer need to search or prove yourself to others because you know exactly who you are.

It’s a crazy adventure to come back to who you were before everyone else told you who you should be. It can be scary, confronting – and even dangerous – but if any journey is worth making, then it is the one that brings you home to the kingdom of yourself.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)

thoughts

~ The Way You Will Be Tamed ~

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~ The Way You Will Be Tamed ~

“The way you will be tamed will not be sudden. It will not be when a big cage crashes over you, or when you are caught in a thrilling chase across the plains. The way you will be tamed will be subtle and slow, over many years and decades. The way you will be tamed will be with stabbing stares, with piercing comments – with heavy hands on shoulders that diminish your dreams and quell your inner voice. The way you will be tamed is when the fearful slowly drag you down with them; when they do anything not to see you run wild and free – for they know it is that very sight which causes them to reflect on their own limitations. The way you will be tamed will come over many social interactions, over many looks in the mirror, over many family dinners.

However – if you can grow a thick enough skin to endure the stabbing stares and piercing comments – then such a thing will never happen. As you retain your authenticity and walk wild onto the shores of destiny, then you will know that you made it. As the skies open, as your song soars, as the others stop trying to pull you down – as they finally let go and label you crazy – you will know what it is to be truly free.”