Sphinx Of Black Quartz

Inspired by chapter 1 of my book Philosophizer, the first book in the Philosophizer Trilogy.

https://www.amazon.com/Philosophizer-Trilogy-Philosophizers-Idiotic-Conundrum/dp/B098RS8BTN

Abyssinian rogue traders
Philosophize with snakes
While hypnotized authors
Are dancing on skates
Young teenage mothers
Make love to smartphones
A peppermint toyboy
Self-immolates

Sense turns to nonsense
Pride to disgrace
Words lined up like lego
Red white blue yellow
All slotted together
A game to amuse
That's the sum total
Of our human race

Landfill sites stuffed
With newspaper tripe
Novels piled high
Like cans of baked beans
Writing kills memory
You know what that means
Then why not ban writing
Give all brains a wipe

All art's imitation
And words doubly so
Each word that you use
Has been well used before
Isn't that strange
Around they all go
Words are like money
Banknotes and change

Words aggravate me
As no words can tell
Ideas have a price
You can buy them or sell
Song writers paid
Ten dollars per line
You can hear my poor words
But my thoughts are mine

(c) Geoffrey Klempner 2016, 2021. All rights reserved

Word Song

Drink Deep

What is life?
A long ad break
Pills and toys
For girls and boys
On every channel
Of your TV
Were you moved?
Did you see?

Milky teats
Down your high street
Called cash machines
Now ain't that neat
Don't worry if you've
Bust your limit
They'll give more
If you ask for it (nicely)

Throw enough shite
And some will stick
You greedy people
Make me sick
But did my video
Really need
Ads for baby food
And cattle feed?

Go go go
To the milky teat
Drink deep
Stay asleep
Go go go
To the milky teat
Drink deep
Stay asleep
Go to sleep

(c) Geoffrey Klempner 2016, 2021. All rights reserved.

Drink Deep

Song of the Wolf

Here...
In the wilderness
I have learned
To survive
It's no real hardship
To stay
Alive

I will not judge myself
As others judge me
I will not see myself
As others see me
I am my own now
And I have everything
I need

Alone...
I hunt my prey
From afar
You hear me cry
Only the birds
And the insects
Know why

I will not judge myself
As others judge me
I will not see myself
As others see me
I am my own now
And I have everything
I need

I love...
The barren wastes
When I find food
I feast
I sing to myself
Of the joyful
Beast

I will not judge myself
As others judge me
I will not see myself
As others see me
I am my own now
And I have everything
I need

Gone...
The far horizon
Recedes as I advance
Winds blow away
Every trace
Of my dance

I will not judge myself
As others judge me
I will not see myself
As others see me
I am my own now
And I have everything
I need

(c) Geoffrey Klempner 2016, 2012. All rights reserved.

Song Of The Wolf

Girding on my armour
Squinting in the light
I feel a sense of lightness
As I glide across my moat
The slightest breath of wind
I would begin to float
Battle is upon me
I am ready to fight

The knotted twine
Around my bloodied wrists
Has withered away
Wounds will heal in time
Memories are less painful
Than they once were
Critics who despised me
It's your turn to pray

Events in my strangely
Uneventful life
That once meant much to me
Laid out in a comic strip
No lurid shades of colour
Just tasteful shades of grey
Gone the pain and strife
It was meant to be

Bathed in warmth
I am ready to be born
My scabbard and sword are new
Though my flesh is torn
Keep your cries and tears
You have no hold on me
Falling far away
The weight of all the years

You cripples who could find
No other way or means
To lay your guilt on me
With your so-called moral sense
When all the bloody time
It was your inadequacy
Your power over me is over
I've freed my body and mind

Fields of hacked off limbs
As far as the eye can see
Blood and bleeding stumps
Guts in steaming lumps
Heads without bodies
Bodies without heads
Black crows and seagulls
Picking daintily

The smell of carnage fills the air
The sky a deadly pall
Whispers from the future
Tell me my end is near
But battle will go on
And many foes will die
Under my glittering sword
Before I chance to fall

(c) Geoffrey Klempner 2010, 2016, 2021. All rights reserved.

Into Battle

Found on an old cassette tape recorded back in 1995 on a small Sony cassette player. The instrumentals show the influence of Davy Graham's 'Angie' which almost every acoustic guitarist learns but also more generally the playing styles of my guitar heroes John Fahey and John Renbourne. The guitar is a Takamine 'lawsuit' copy of the 30s Martin 'New Yorker' which I bought in 1980 at Ivor Mairants for my gigs at 'The Monks Retreat' in Oxford.

Three Instrumentals (1995)

I discovered this on a cassette tape I made in 1995. The song had been composed years before. I tweaked the lyrics and added a topical verse. Lyrics below.

Same Play Different Scene

A million thoughts you've never thought
A million lives a million minds
I've talked of this a million times
A million sights you've never seen
Same play but a different scene

The grin of death in black-and-white
A masterpiece the critics rave
The cameraman was very brave
It's the greatest scoop there's ever been
Same play but a different scene

A sudden shock of wounded pride
He spins around in stunned surprise
The arrows gleaming in their eyes
His masterpiece a broken dream
Same play but a different scene

Drugged eyes stare at cold white walls
Forgotten friends forgotten home
The only thing he'll ever own
A colour photo of the Queen
Same play but a different scene

A whiff of sulphur in the air
The rotting stench is here to stay
The landfill site's a mile away
She is so angry she could scream
Same play but a different scene

Ten missiles to our every nine
The generals warn of what will pass
While we sit and watch this TV farce
Rationality becomes obscene
Same play but a different scene

The typing monkey laughs and cries
Guess what it's cast me as the clown
Now I read the papers upside down
To discover what life really means
A comic play of tragic scenes

(c) Geoffrey Klempner 1995, 2021. All rights reserved.

Geoffrey Klempner

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