Lost in Space

Where are we in cyberspace?

Step out of a door
And the world is indifferent
Birds fly by
Plants ignore me
The clouds move on
To some other place
Even my neighbours
Beyond ‘Good morning’
Turn and go to work

But is cyberspace
I am surveilled

Somebody, somewhere
Has spotted me
Already
All I did was click a link

They do not strictly
Know who I am
But they surveil what I do
In their space

I am in their server
I am in their hard drive
I am in their database
I am in their algorithm

And they are in me
Cyborg me
Sell me
Something for me

Me, me, me
They want us to be me
Many me’s
Lost in space

They want to show us the way
To pay
Our way
Through their cyberspace

Your Problem

“Your problem..”
Croci said
“Is pockets,
Possessions, property,
And weight.”

He arrived unbidden,
And told us
He had been thinking
About flight, and how,
If he had pockets,
He could not fly

“The weight you see..”
He said
“..of property and possessions
Would weigh me down.

But you.
You humans have feet,
And pockets,
That you may carry things,
Carry weight on foot.

In pockets, in bags
Or in vehicles
With wheels.
You pick things up
And carry them away,
Accumulate them,
Things that aren’t your things.
You take them,
And accumulate them
In dwellings, villages, towns, cities.

We inhabit these places like you,
Unburdened.
By our need for flight.

We have tools like you.
We have language like you.
We have culture like you.
But it is light.
We have not things we own.
No property.
But things of value,
Tools, language, culture.
Light enough to carry
In flight.”

“Your problem..”
Croci said again
“Is pockets
Possessions, property,
And weight.”

“The weight
Of your things
Weighs you down,
Slows you down,
Fixes you and your mind
To one place,
To one point of view.
Your things own you.

The heat is coming.
It is creeping north.
It will slow you down.
It will mow you down.

Stuck,
You will be,
And cooked,
You will be,
By the things you own.

You are possessed
By your possessions.

You may flee with us.
Leave your things behind.
Become unburdened.

But first,
Empty your pockets,
And be free.”


For more Croci poems, click here.

Weekenders

New to the world
Of other people
Weekenders occupy ground

Pavements, or pedestrian crossings,
Supermarket aisles

You see their smiles
Grinning joy
At being out
Of the house.

A week of Radio 4 or Greatest Hits Radio
It is endless
Daytime TV and Quiz Shows
Winning contestants and
Product placements
It has in parts
Made them sad
Or driven them mad.

A mind-numbing, spirit-crushing
Internal world
Externalised now
“Free at last, free at last!”
For it is the weekend
They occupy
‘The Outs’
(As prisoners say of release)
And they see at last
And they are at last, in it
In the outs
They have come out.

It is a big step.

The newbie joy
Is uncontained
Expressed as enthusiasm
For
The sun
The space
The pace at which it all unfolds
The chance to buy things and put them in
The bag
The trolley, on
The till, in view of all
The other people buying too
The shoppers they never normally meet
The opportunity to greet
The community we have
To consume
The world.

New to the world
Of other people
Weekenders stand their ground
We are here at last again.

Walking in the City

For all walkers

In the city,
People walk.

Edinburgh, The Fringe.
A tide had not just turned,
But ran,
Or rather walked.
People, like tidal water.
Unstoppable.

And unlike water,
Where two flows meet,
Making mayhem,
Sunken boats and
Wrecks,
Space was made for everyone.

One way, AC/DC fans
Pointed the way to the venue.
The other way,
A mixture of
People, once arrived, we assume
From many boats.

A deep diversity
Seemed
To go deep down,
And also spread
As a surface
Of calm.

A dozen different languages
In a dozen minutes.
People had all come somehow
From somewhere.
Not here,
But here, no difference.

In the city,
We all walked.

Philosophy of Walking

I found this video below, with the words of Frédéric Gros in his book, ‘A Philosophy of Walking’. It is a recommended read. I thought it worth sharing. His opening line is stunning. What art making and walking are about.

Enjoy 3 minutes of peace and wonder, wonderful words and wonderful sights.

His words are below.

“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections, will be of any use here.
Two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with.
Walk alone across mountains or through forests.
You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery.
You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body.
A body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind.
When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings.
Always the same thing to do all day: walk.
But the walker who marvels while walking; the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills, has no past, no plans, no experience.
He has within him the eternal child.
While walking, I am but a simple gaze.”

I am Mould

I am, I am, I am, I am,
Old.
At this age, T. S. Elliot
Wore his trousers rolled.
I am looking forward to becoming mould.
Devolved.
My plan is to buck the trend
Of evolution,
And de-evolve.

You may say
It is a backwards step.
I was a monkey once,
Then a sentient sapiens.
I walked upright.
Then, as a child, a dog,
Before I was a boy,
I walked on all fours.
I still do not know why.

Then, as a teen,
I have no idea what I was.
A long, lean rambling rose.
Not a boy and not a man.
Scared of everything and fearless.
Then work.
I had no idea what that was.
You want me to do what?
Why?

Then the best bit so far.
A wife and a child.
There was life before.
There was life after,
Those two events.
The after was better,
By far.
But work was bad.
Work made me sad.

Then I made art.
Art made me, not sad.
But in retrospect,
Of ten years’ work,
Also a bit mad.
And the mad bit is good.
Mad me at last made sense.
I can wear my trousers rolled.
In madness I am, at last, bold.

And ready to be mould.
In the ground, I am, and will be.
Some subterranean structures
Of my soul, now stick out.
I am descending into the ground,
Where words mean nothing.
It does not matter,
That I am matter,
And nothing more.

Because nothing matters
Any more.
At least not like it did.
Approaching mould,
Has made me bold.
Not what I was expecting
I admit.
I worry less.
I laugh more.

But inside.
I laugh at myself.
I am full of voices laughing.
My own company
Keeps me
Performing
My place in the world
Star and stagehand
Both I am, and all.

All nine lines
In nine verses,
The mathematics of the world
I am.
I will add up,
To 81.
Eight and one
Are nine.
I will go as a child.

And start again.

I am, I am, I am, I am
Forever,
Old.
Becoming mould.

The World Is:


The world is and not or
It means I can be right and wrong
it means you can be right and wrong
It means the solutions are you and me
The world is
Right and wrong
Not right or wrong
You or me
Us or them
Black or white
Woman or man
Bad or good
Problem or cause
Binaries bind us in conflict
Separated in a joined-up world
Of right and wrong
Be more than you and me
Be we

art . outdoors . health