©2020 peNdantry

©2007 peNdantry

©2020 peNdantry

©2020 peNdantry

©2009 peNdantry

I collected two more bags of trash
On my walk today.
Stuff folk, unthinking, careless,
Chose to throw away‡
Into hedgerows on the public path
Oblivious of the aftermath.

‡’Away’ is, to me, a foreign land
It’s not a place I’d like to live
It’s dirty, smelly, squalid, vile:
Banish litter-louts there offhand
Their actions are tough to forgive
They make me quite hostile.

A crisp packet.
A plastic bottle.
A beer can.
A biscuit wrapper.
A covid mask.
… A thermos flask? (No kidding.)
Collect the lot; stuff it in the sack;
Round, and round, and round again.
It’s a tedious, never-ending task:
On the next pass, more is back.

It’s a thankless chore, it’s true:
The trash continuously accrues.
You may say, “Why bother?”
And I hear you.

I don’t do it for me.
(My time is almost up.)
I don’t do it for you.
(Although, in a way, I do.)
I don’t do it for my progeny.
(Of those I have none.)
Nor do I do it for yours.
(Assuming you have some.)

I do it coz
I’m sick and tired
Of seeing filthy crap
Everywhere I look.
In undergrowth;
Lodged in trees;
‘Hidden’ in bushes;
Floating in the brook.

So,
In a way,
I guess I do do it for me,
As this is what I much prefer to see:

©2022 peNdantry

    On the edge          of                  perception
         Four horsemen    ride           at the whim
          of those   whose   acts   are     dutiless.
            The invisible hand     prevaricates:
                   Nothing        trickles down.
                        Decay at the source.
                              Inevitable
                               outcome.
                                 At the
                                   root
                                   of all
                                  evil is
                                   the
                                     love
                                     of
                                    m
                                     o
                                    n
                                    e
                                     y
                                     .

©2012 peNdantry

The sea was calm, it urged me on
Towards a future, bright and clear
I tarried not, I had no fear
My dearest wish, travel beyond;
The universe it did respond
It called to me across the sea
Instilled a feeling, set me free
And though I thought I could not dare
My soul was caught up in the air:
The radiant Moon, it called to me.

©2020 peNdantry

When the inevitable strikes,
when the house falls down,
do you patch up the walls,
fix the holes in the roof,
shore it all up,
splash it with paint?

No.

You learn from the mistakes.
You start from scratch.
You call in the architects.
You rebuild the foundations.
You use new materials;
replace wattle and daub
with a sounder design.

Unless:

Because you’re lost outside the box,
and your mates demand
to regain their riches (and, now!):
You set up the same as before,
perhaps with a few bells and whistles
(spun to persuade that they’ll work).

And… in the end, we’ll believe
that your clothing is not invisible.

“Who is more foolish?
The fool, or the fool who follows him?”

©2009 peNdantry

Here’s something I would like to share
without being extra formal
because it’s perfectly normal,
it’s true for us all anywhere;
I am quite sure you are aware
whether or not it’s slow or fast
there’s one thing that can be forecast:
and that is that it is not strange
to experience lots of change
no matter how much time has passed.

©2020 peNdantry

It’s sad but true that one can be
Adept at counting numbers,
Yet at the same time fail to see
Which ones make up the wonders.

All things in life may be defined
As strings of ones and zeroes.
Discernment of a finer kind
Transforms someones to heroes.

©2017 peNdantry

White light
Viewed through prism
Reveals colour array
Generational injustice
Racism
A systemic ostracism
Reviled by us today
We need just this
Right sight

©2020 peNdantry

Illusion and reality;
The master and his squire.
Lunacy and sanity:
Two faces on a coin
Balanced
On a point of view.

The windmills
At which we tilt
While we learn from one another,
Have a lesson, if we’d listen:
The only one who’s truly sane
Is nobody.

©2007 peNdantry

The research has been done
The conclusion is known;
Climate changes will come
And the cause is our own.

There is still time to act
But the window is small
Humanity’s impact –
Will it end in a fall?

Are we stewards or fools
On this globe we call home?
We must rise to the call
Make the cause all our own.

©2008 peNdantry

We are all agreed
The Big One says build fences
Protection needed.

Hide behind the fence
Bar enemy from crossing
Shoot first, ask later.

Defense is offense.
Protection is illusion.
Tear down the fences.

Step outside yourself
Pretend you are another
We are all alike.

©2009 peNdantry

When logic dictates
to seethe with anger and hate
the world has gone mad.

When those around seem to conspire
and aim to set the world aflame;
and power acts to play a game
to reach at its own heart’s desire
though it would cast all in the fire:
Then, my friends, move, before we burn;
this vile evil we should all spurn.
Refuse the rude call to ignite,
rise up as one – for freedom fight,
and on the foul one tables turn.

©2020 peNdantry

There’s no room to be complacent;
we must not resort to pretext,
it’s all up to us what comes next.
Though our plans may still be nascent
and our aims may be adjacent
to those already in progress:
constantly targets reassess.
Thoughts led by the feelings inside,
our conscience is our willing guide.
That is the path to success.

©2020 peNdantry

Our world is dying.
We are killing it.
We pride ourselves on our adaptability,
Yet we are locked in an anachronistic worldview:
One that deludes us into believing
That what once was will ever be.
It’s premature; it infects our thinking.
If we are shown reality:
Glaciers retreating, massively calving at their faces
Because we have not seen how it was before
We think that how it now is, is normal.
Because war has been the norm throughout our short lives,
We cannot conceive a world without it.
We are blind.
We are arrogant.
We deserve the future rolling towards us.
Yet, the planet we inhabit —
The only oasis of life of which we are aware —
Does not deserve our ignorance.

©2018 peNdantry

The future sits
at the juncture
of hopist optimism
and doomist pessimism.
Practicality demands
an assumption of
continuity.

©2022 peNdantry

The Past:
Essential,
Evanescent,
Enlightening;
A futile dwelling place.

The Future:
Potent,
Possible,
Potential;
An eventual resting place.

The Present:
Fact,
Focus,
Forceful;
A place of power.

The past has gone;
The future beckons;
Nothing exists but now.

©2007 peNdantry