mental guerilla warfare

whole in one

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

walking around on

neatly manicured golf courses

human blood

seeping up

through the soles

of your shoes.

imagine

2011-10-02T12:15:00.001-07:00

choosing a lifeline among the deadlines;)

Backfiring cataclysm

2011-09-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

_
_
sometimes it feels like we're standing under

an emerging understanding

of a united state of emergency

in these states we're urgently

feeling like we'd like to emerge and see

clearly the perceived public relation participation

in idea dissemination

conforming news publications

and media station corporations

broadcasting divisions

between them and US

switch off that television

why be told when we all can tell OUR vision

let's prioritise informed decisions

put uninformed patriotism under revision

because it seems like we're assumed to all conform to being given

mass-produced ideology to consume

bored-sounding broadcasters laying down their lies

unchallengingly accepting their salary to

get kids aspiring

to be laying down their lives

for a backfiring

cataclysm marketed as neoliberalism

given the complex context that's arisen

the perspective of the poet's collective

would feel justified in unanimously declaring

a war on errorism

because we're tired of standing by

while multiple bystanders

residing beside identified

strategic resources are indiscriminately taken aside

and

militarily assisted in crossing the great divide

democratically liberated

with bits of mortar inside

alongside one-sided media stories

avoiding avoidable child-death tragedies (devoid of human dignity) and gory

details

to instead focus on fireworks, flags, glory

and a void of consumer retail

developed world media is beginning to feel like history on repeat

we're hearing rumours that critical consumers are reaching for delete

perusing the ruse of one-sided propaganda views

masquerading as objective news

is becoming boring

several years putting up with deliberate global military errorism

and the only weapons of mass distraction

we're seeing from our living rooms

are our televisions
_
_

dead leaves = compost

2011-08-14T01:30:00.000-07:00

idea constructs fallin like the Berlin wall in.. '89,

aftershocks of 2009 subprimes,

satirical dead idea purging

visible structural cracks emerging

trying to track new dreamlines surging

of the still undefined,

you bet exciting times to be, still.

writing rhymes :)

trademarked deity

2011-08-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

The institutionalised church

was a real estate corporation

copyrighting GOD as a three letter brandname,

patenting paradise and selling shares in salvation..

did the CEO pope not choke when he spoke

strategic plans to monopolise the universe?

Similar to Coke suddenly deciding they're

not into monetizing sugar water

they're selling happiness..

_

My landscape speaks to me in mysterious ways. .

you say your book speaks to you, white man?

your book is part of my landscape;

perhaps my landscape has been speaking to you?

Put that paper on the compost heap,

let the earthworms do God's work.

By mistaking books for reality

you've been desecrating the mountains and rivers

of my holy bible for 2000 years.

Fly the dollar bill at half mast.

2011-08-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

You lied to us about father christmas.

How can you get white-bearded elders as sales reps

to sell caffeine to kids? We trusted you.

Your world leaders told grieving mothers to shop.

Your economists encourage divorce

because broken homes boost GDP:

Single parents paying off single houses,

competing with each other at Christmas time.

You've become a bad dream.

The world is waking up.

sex with Bob Dylan

2011-05-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

communication is touching and being touched.

through sound.

through colour and form.

through time.

it is giving your experience to someone else to hold.

to affirm your experience as real.

Idealism comes with white earphones

2011-04-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

My love for you is mass-produced under plastic on the shores of a dwindling African lake,

Blood red petals packaged in petroleum.

Let me hold your hand on a slow walk around campus this evening,

lit by the soft light of climate change victims burning in coal-fired furnaces.

Let me kiss you sitting on the edge of the fountain,

Koi fish swimming serenely in the perspiration of mine workers

coughing TB phlegm to float like reflected stars.

Let me take you for a cup of ground cash crop.

We can talk idealism with white earphones,

cloud-watching on a lawn of mown dignity.

Leave your mini cooper, let us ride a drowned arctic bear

to the beach tomorrow

sit among the dead dolphins, drinking the red blood

of Iraqi children, ice-cold with condensation forming

on the outside of the 360 ml tin can.

Let us raise our children

To sell and buy fresh water.

Teach them to kill. Teach them to kill. Teach them to kill.

Homo significans

2011-04-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

`

i want to signify experience. :)

show it's significant.

use signs to transform

transient to permanent

art forms. speak storms.

dance meaning into void devoid of

human language.

don't use the word 'just' around me.

i'm busy painting the big bang speaking to itself.

`

Tie-died

2011-03-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

`

you killed a child.

grimly i do not mourn rainbows.

the weight of the world was nothing

compared to that kid on my shoulders.

small limbs, now cold

pragmatically decomposing

(perhaps cremated)

out of sight and mind.

on the grave i did not dance

that would have been irresponsible

rather i step more lightly near that space of death

shifting briefcase to the other hand

adjusting resourced tie

i breathe relieved.

your silence drove colour to extinction

i do not feel the loss,

pastels are not goal orientated.

that kid was vulnerable,

may well have made me miss my train

through his inherent unpunctuality.

i will never miss a train again,

following that wide-eyed child

down the side-streets of experience.

he died

in the silent night,

i buried him

in the early hours of the the morning,

brushed my teeth

reviewed my schedule

and got on with my day.

`

Let me breathe in your exhaled cigerette smoke

2011-03-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

Let me breathe in your exhaled cigerette smoke

girl with intrinsic understanding of form

let me draw those particles that have been close to your mystery

into my chest cavity and hold them there for as long as breath allows

i have photographed swirling patterns left by your chance encounters

and photoshopped them into sky-sweeping sunset clouds

you are symbolic

my mind has copyrighted you coca-cola red

and is marketing you to myself

substituting memories of you for a metaphor

as far-reaching as the freestate sky

your warm but distant subconscious south african persona

has become my synecdoche for womanliness

i wish i could google translate this into Afrikaans

and then videotape a spanish translator

communicating it in sign-language

and then sit

rewatching it on replay

thinking of how you moved your shoulders to eighties music in your car

and how it felt when you first touched my arm

Revolution is a Commodity

2011-03-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Revolution is a commodity

informally worn

commercially torn t-shirts

forlorn converts

materialist ideology

imperialist chronology

crowds in high street

fleetingly emulating elite

cheap trappings success

defined possess

social regress

flaunting

uninformed uniform dress sense

public spaces

expensive normalised

iconic faces

haunting

generation ideas wanting

status quo stasis

To the Ninja

2011-01-13T04:59:00.001-08:00

They. call. me

idealist

new realist

out of touch with reality

enabling me

to see

future further than you can see

iden-tity

seemingly kinda laaik visionary

a dreamer personality

process the world sub-consciously

intui-tively

i know what i gotta do

when i gotta do

my ti-mings key

my breakthroughs come when my minds set free

they can't understand it rationally

but look at me third year in a BSc

in the meantime. scheming.

thought memes beaming. round my brain cells

dreaming laaik hell

inside my skull

anarchic confusion reigns

the neuron firing fusion sounds

insane.

Draft Pages

2010-11-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

hindsight past of misread graphs and

wikipedia pages

accuracy would have led to missing

formative stages

eloped hope two years before

Copengagen

not equiped to cope with the aftermath

of Ronald Reagan

carbon dioxide above safe levels

before being born in '88

state media creating warning a full

20 years too late.

misread hipster counter culture

as fetishizing authenticity

creative free-thinkers challenging

dominant ideology

elated initially to find contemporary

la vie boheme

later deflated to perceive it

scenester-populated

co-opted by mainstream :)

misreading the informative

has been formative

in life-shaping

innovative inacuracies informing motives

for journeying

analysing the stakes can paralyse

the undertaking

rather understand mistakes

as creating intuitive space

for path-making.

Sun, Inc.

2010-10-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

capitalists own the sun.

do not call them businesspeople

i see only technicians

factory farming children

in feedlot playgrounds

troughs of crude oil/ corn syrup

packaged sunlight on supermarket shelves.

Grah( a.m. )stown

2010-10-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

the sky

deep polaroid blue

clouds

suspend

the light

breeze-balanced

sun-star

shines

everything

to life.

Calcium Carbonate

2010-10-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

i carried on walking

the earth spun once

punctuated by slipstream drum and bass

washing clothes at three in the morning

and a beach house at Jeffrey's Bay.

certain shells come in halves

i was given half a shell once.

which creature makes such a home?

two parts of its same shell

seperated often

by movement of salt water

sometimes

by movement of story

Loose End Stories

2010-10-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

when i first heard you play

free spirited friend

speedily sculpting sound

with strong fingers

head bent between singing

braid of hair slipping down behind

vibrating steel strings

i felt in a space

well willing to trade

freedom

for a story

spoken by signs

and co-incidence

considering

two more years of rhodes ratio

i felt then

somewhat relieved

when life showed me

you

walking home

the fingers

of your guitar-playing hand

touching someone else's waist

Turtle Poem

2010-10-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

i met a guitarist

born in Eshowe

conceived next to a jeep

in the sand near Kosi Bay

a similar stretch to where

giant flippered creatures

haul themselves slowly

dripping from the ocean

to return

meters from where they themselves were buried

as moonlike eggs

and emerged.

years previously the waves

shaping sand

from shell and rock

sounded then as now

restless

as if remembering names

evocative

of distant beginnings

the tides

pulled by that slowly rotating turtle egg

of the mother's body

separated

so long ago

reflecting the energy of that first silent explosion

as waves of sound

sun-reflected moonlight

as a mother

returning

to a stretch of beach sand.

Thought Train

2010-10-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

i sit pushing away poetry

i, full of peanuts

guava and grapefruit

full of

toastmasters ambition

for self-driven tuition

towards

compelling communication

and influencing the situation

in a business suit

poetry constitutes

my procrastination

an inconvenient

habituation

a distracting contract

i enact

interfering with microbiology positioning

and zoology pracs

tonight hesitation

to sensibly engage direction

instead led to reflection

on the beat poet generation

namely Allan Ginsberg

inspired by Walt Whitman

still failing to see

what these

bisexual bums

from the fifties

have to do with me

with freedom of expression

and my obsession

to put impression

into rhyme

crafting lines

my pen's just run out

it's a sign

it's past bed time.

ha! not before sufficient imagery

weaves itself into tapestry

will this poem let me sleep

creativity's deep

and next week's a new start

eight o'clock sharp

to make self-discipline

and time management my art.

let me share with you the vision of a train

a thought train we're all riding

law-abiding

locomoted like free verse

no tracks to traverse

trajectary determined through mutual deciding

though realistically

citizens' decisions

under constant revision

from self-elected division

travelling at the front of the train

controlling the onboard entertainment game

whereby

ticket holders compete

for limited first class seats

with the benifit of leg room

and something to eat

the rules say

the longer you play

the greater your luck

that your cattle truck

will break norms

and transform

into a first-class coach

the approach

includes giving your food

to the dude

collecting for upfront

to understand direct questions to the monkey

with the degree

in the economy

anyone persistently

resisting

welcome to confront

trigger-happy chimpanzee security

communicating in grunts

this negotiating methodology

proven in its effect

on select

third-class ticket holders getting hungry

and to put it crudely

hoarding food

considered selfish and rude

similar to recent

misguided revolution

which failed to see the rules

as the solution

as a result

distractions like

where are we going

and

who's driving

now seen to add to what is termed as confusion.

true realists play harder

and wait

in anticipation of the great

cattle truck transformation

provided we don't reach our destination first.

let me share with you the vision of a train

a thought train we're all riding

nataral law-abiding

locomoted like free verse

no tracks to traverse

trajectory determined through mutal agreement.

The Struggle

2010-10-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

The struggle did not end in '94

tertiary students

living this priviledged campus playground

hear the sound

of Mandela

cleaning latrine

buckets

for comrades

on the top of a submerged mountain

north of Cape Town

we who owe our lives

to those who chose

to forgive

be at least aware

that fence-building

where

and however necessary

is still a violent act

a silent

contract

we enact

with our old school ties

conversation assumptions and by

aligning ourselves to power patterns

because context

does not allow otherwise

compromise often comprises

implication in the acceleration

of the poverty-mechanisms

of neo-liberalism

but this does not justify

silence as realism

do not confuse

silence

with realism

align ourselves as the freedom fighter's child

turned businessperson and investor

leverages the same capital

that killed their father

but do not be silent

realism is not crushing

our future underfoot

it is the lack of voices

Overview Effect

2010-10-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

selecting words

to reflect this

concepts inept

reduced to quoting direct

this silence

overview effect

transforming belonging through

sense of connect

perceptually

informing our experience

of place

contextually

to see

from isolation of space

at once visibly

living planet

entirety

a fractal looking back on itself

priorities

shift towards healing and health

intuitively

redefining our meaning of wealth

economy

aligning with life

(our)self.

Sophiatown

2010-10-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

i took a gypsy

to Sophiatown

for a night

with Miriam Makeba

she studies

BComm Drama

eats olives

laughs easily

and has

scrapbooked France

she danced

phata-phata

and flamenco

sang

to Mafikizolo

a headscarf

elongated her dark hair

and a white polkadot ribbon

matched her shoes

which she

only wore at table

she

painted her toenails

engaged easily with tsotsis

in

hats and waistcoats,

spoke to the chef

they shared a story

i

saw her eyes and eyebrows

her

smile during speeches

and life was good

Mental Guerilla Warfare

2010-10-14T05:33:00.000-07:00

what i now realize is

this concept comprises

very real

revolution

more than rebranding

concepts

for current

context

complex

subjects

like democracy

need evolution

engaging

as citizens

this vision

seems challenging

assumptions

are limiting

potential

calling

residential

thought gurus

to deploy creative

uhuru

expression

is health

and we're intent

on expanding it

Masicedane: Singing for Soup

2010-10-14T05:25:00.000-07:00

i sat

watching

a guitarist

fluidly

making music

an artist

madly drunk

on life

i felt

future chaos justifying

raw tradegy

given sudden meaning

in all the happenings

in the cold expanses

that matter

could have self-organised

in such a way

exploded with the big bang

deafening

in its silence

i sat

rivetted by creativity

the leg bouncing

up and down

mouth caressing the mic

voice journeying

and such music

the guitar

spoke

the inanimate

was brought

to life

i thought of speakers

using electricity

to amplify sound

ancient sunlight

captured by coal

burning on the highflats

of Mpumalanga

pushing arctic bears

into the void

of memory

children living

with respiratory

problems

it was all

made worth it

in a moment

of music

rising

and changing

like a sound ocean

wild

with awe

Khula Dhamma journey

2010-10-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

we've come to expect

to live in sync with phenomena

eclipses

and hurricane storms

be warned

we got our timing right

this star is shining

right?

after time waited

it's got late

and we straight

laugh at this fate

dictated

because our state

seems related

to half-rated

understandings of self

created

by outdated ideas

founded in fears

causing unnecessary tears

of frustration

in place

of the grace

of our

birthright elation

which is why

some cries fly high

over borders of nations

carrying do or die orders

for innate preparations

for these coming times

hear these rhymes

with primed

invitation

for unique interpretation

of this

situation

because if life

is the only wealth

it's stealthily

being traded away

day by day

leaving

a dead planet

complete dependency

on a globalised

market economy

ain't nice with the price

of crude oil rising

causing downsizing

the price of food all

going insane

with biofuels fuelling

the price of grain

causing the Mexican uprising

it's not surprising

Mr. Einstein

surmising

the problems of these times

cannot be solved

until the thinking

that created

those problems

evolves

all we're saying

is we're living

inside of I am

all saying is

we can't live

outside of I am

in sync with

Drew Dellinger

we're selling the

most compelling

story

pre-determining history

in sync with the mystery

sending

secret frequencies received

that's what we're vending

we're ending

these industries

echoing contemporary

warrior poets

this upsurge

we'll grow it

man these lines

define the rhymes

that's what we're rooting for

what these stars are

shooting for

galaxies please

this wind's freezing

galaxies please

this wind's freezing

galaxies

please

this wind's

freezing.

the stars

never shined

so bright

'07 with (Vandana) Shiva

2010-10-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

what we trying to achieve

short-changing dignity

so that we'll be perceived

to be successfully living

more like

excessively giving

to some systems

controlled

to keep freedoms on hold

systems persisting

in taking down those resisting

and profiting

while destroying

that which makes life

worth living

we expecting respect

by correctly selecting

what these

tv's projecting

its pulling

our own ego

over our eyes so

we don't see the lies

realise, despise and then try

to demand its demise

as traffics congesting

we think we're progressing

but where to exactly

are we heading

so aptly

what we believe in

so raptly

these old-pattern economies

its not like we can't see

yet continue pursuing

these same same trajectories

capitalists

still cutting rain forests

they

taking the rain from us

from

America's grain farmers

they

bringing the pain on us

climate change

sometimes seems the same

as me going insane

cutting this jugular vein

and selling

this own blood

subsistence farmers abandoning

sustainable seed saving

corporate profit craving

selling sterile seeds

and roundup

researching

terminator technology

what's motivating these companies

well being of community?

i'm so tired

of these lies

rural communities weren't scratching

in the dirt

to survive

before agribusiness arrived

subsistence practice was resilient

and thriving

now families caught

in vicious spirals

of debt

and farmers

committing suicide

families caught

in vicious

spirals of debt

and farmers

committing

suicide

The universe is happening..

2010-10-14T04:20:00.000-07:00

the universe is happening

right here

right now

at this

moment we are mirroring

the ideas we find billowing

like thunderclouds

right now lightning

is simultaneously striking

100 places on the earth's surface

great things are happening

something new is arising

a decentralised

spontaneous uprising

almost one million groups

under different names

coming together to reclaim

and replace

old habits in their death throes

that are pulling us down with them

like those on death row

come instead to the life edge

the knife edge

reading books like hope's edge

clinging to the ledge

debating the pledge

for the plunge

into the unknown

this system needs outgrown

ideas be outflown

some unique tone

vibrates to the bones

shifts stones

trees lean over

and the wind freezes over

just not to miss

a word

we speak soft we'll be heard

this is unprecedented

we are calling down the storm

that will regreen the desert

biologically we are

scientifically proven

to only be able to physically see

what fits in with our mental map

of reality

so perhaps

the only thing that matters

to those discontent

with the status quo

is changing our minds

starting acting

to create

the kind

of world

we want to find

world systems are collapsing

on a scale

un - imaginable

we got to start

thinking radically

this is a question

of community

unity

our global immunity

depends on this unity

experts call it synergy

100 million stars

in our galaxy

100 million neurons

firing in our brains

what if we

are the change

we have

been waiting for?