April 26, 2017 - Slow Me Back To Small
(From ‘Clunk & Jam’ book, art by Harley Manifold, original in color. Reposted from 2013)
Stories
March 5, 2017 - With Intergrity
A n I n c h .
It is my integrity that is important.
Is that so selfish?
It sells for so little,
but it’s all we have left in this place.
It is the very last inch of us,
but within that inch
we are free.
(Words by Alan Moore.)
November 12, 2016 - Army of Ink Dance For You
Put Your Dress Down .
Shame on you, and you, and you. Hiding truth. Not feeling lies. I lifted up – they put me down. I got gobbled up by cracks in frowns. Now I wear no silky touch. Or dish out shouts, it hurts too much. Duck for cover or run and hide. I bare nothing more than those who lied. Play in pages nice to look. Connect up pieces they once took. And when I spin maybe they’ll see. But it’s not for them. I dance for me.
(Reposted from 2011)
August 16, 2016 - Inner City Poet
A story about a lost star – refreshing in this age of celebrity. From the makers of another brilliant documentary, ‘Man of Wire’ about the French tightrope walker who strings a wire between the Twin Tower buildings in New York and does the impossible.
March 2, 2016 - My Place
My Place .
Truth is my sanctuary. A place I enter by trusting there is another place I can be. It’s slow. A little reclusive. Painful and confronting because I’m keeping company with emotions I’ve spent my life trying to escape. Vulnerable, because I’m sitting in my insecurities. Pursuing what I deeply care about. Unsettling, because life, through the eyes of truth, reveals both the beauty and the beast of it. Overwhelming, due to the acceptance of personal responsibility to create a life that soothes the pain of truth – nurtures new growth.
Lonely, from conceding that ultimately it is self-reliance that will create and secure my destiny. Sad, from accepting my past is over. Compassionate, from the realisation that I cannot effortlessly accept myself. And acknowledging the degree of consciousness it’s going to take to be content with who I am. Liberated, because the time has come to move – and from having the freedom to explore what awaits.
A stillness, from reaching a place where I feel more comfortable being different than fitting in. Where I feel a calm but intensely emotional sense of coming home.
Poem from book, ‘In My Room’. Artwork Ash Browne. Design Harley Manifold.
January 5, 2016 - Army of ink Wish Upon A Cake
Wish Upon A Cake .
I once wished upon stars. Books with crosses. As the white man stole birthdays. Red man pretended. Black collars wrapped around truth. Now I wear the hat that makes me taller than the glaring. Stays on as I rattle my little box. Make sticks come alive. Hard things run. Soft things dance with my breath. Spin circles that wrap all the way around me. And everything disappears .
(Clunk & Jam book, 2019. Originally in handmade book, ‘Rock The Boat’.)