Augustus Young       light verse, poetry and prose
a webzine of new and unpublished work


Miettes 2023: My Daily Crumbs

 

Why I’m Popularly Unknown Having Published 25 Books
Writers are expected by publishers to stick to a single genre. Music composers are not. What is the difference? Music is performed while books are a la page. It is presumed that readers have a one-track mind. This view is encouraged by the journalists of literature, and catalogues. Hilaire Belloc wasn’t taken seriously because he wrote in every conceivable form. It saddened him (‘never in my rightful garden lingered’). The multi-genre Pushkin did not care, not merely because he didn’t need to live off his work. Nowadays an account is not a story but a financial statement. Not adhering to a brand excludes you from the commercial and therefore the academic canon.     
 
*Michel de Montaigne
‘We do not have to give ourselves, only lend’
*Destination
On balance the way out is better than the way in.
*Backward look
Memory is the last refuge of fixed ideas
*Magic
Miracles are impossible but they happen
*Long life
The more I do for myself, the longer I will live!
*Ego mea
Stop talking all the time about yourself.
I can’t help it. It’s the only subject that I know for sure.
Do you?
 
*Robotspake
Why should evolution stop with the imperfect human?
*Capital
What doesn't money buy? Respect.
*Sur le Tard
Today I woke up and was old, so I went back to sleep.
*Security Rules
The trouble with security is you are either locked in or locked out,
And someone else holds the key.
*Consummation Capitalist
The solution to all mechanical problems is to get a new one.
*Devise pour le Dotty
Ne gaspiller pas votre temps et energie dans de vaines agitations
Don’t waste your time and energy on pointless agitations
 
*The Lover’s Complaint
She’s arm and arm with her ex.
Her next is trying not to vex
himself. and sings a console
‘I’m her body, he’s her soul’.
 
*Being Caesarean
he wasn’t cut
 out to be loved
 
*The New Literacy
Bobos in France don’t read.
They eat with an educated palate,
knowing the names of the top chefs.
*‘Pod’ and ‘Blog’
The very words suggest a heavy plod.
*Philo fallacy
Being virtuous doesn’t make you happy.
But happiness is an amateur concept
according to the philosophers.
In practice you can be happy or unhappy,
and forget it and get on being neither. 
 
*Israel Press-release (12/5/2023)
Several militant commanders have been killed in a targeted airstrike in Gaza.
Note: one of them happens to be three years of age.
 
*Saint Irene’s Sister
Saint Irene and her sister were martyred in Salonique in 304.
Why was the sister not canonised, I want to know?
  *Epitaph
There’s no need for readers of poetry.
Everyone writes their own, including me.
I won’t stop until my RIP.
My last word in invisible ink will be
Rimbaud gave it up to make money.
*Town Sweeper
A youngish man wearing sandals and talking frenetically into a mobile phone while walking around town, today had a green plastic bag in his left hand which he uses to pick up dog droppings. When he passes a dust-bin he deposits his harvest and continues on walking, talking and collecting. I aways give him a little wave. He does not respond.
 *Discourse
People in general only want to hear what they agree with. I have to struggle to oblige.
*Corruption Not Only of language
The businessman friend of a sleazy politician apologises to the House for his ‘mistaken recollection’. Thus, coining a new euphonism for a lie.
*Presidential Twaddle
‘The case needs to be made for poetry’ (President O’Higgins)? Hasn’t it already been made? Homer for a start.íggns  Higgins
*Racial Stereos 1
Englishmen keep their distance. Irishmen step aside and around muttering imprecations. Frenchmen walk right through you.
*Racial Stereos 2
Englishmen speak with their nose. Frenchmen with their mouth. Irishmen swallow their words. Deep down we don’t want to be heard.
   
*The Russian Revolution: Victor Serge (1921)
“I thought I was witnessing the world changing, but now I see it’s the same old thing. I’m off to Tahiti’’
‘’To be honest’’
Does it need to be said?
*True Love
I was never looking for love, only getting things done.
 I have been hated. 
 
*Gender bender
Women referees in men’s rugby are a great
success. Is it because they’re used to looking after children?
 
*Survivors
Dogs and horses are faithful to their masters. Cats are not. I respect that: when the planet is nuked or burnt down, they will be the last species to survive.
*Viral Security
I entered the post office in Bras de Venus wearing my bike helmet. The desk woman asked me to ‘remove it, and put on your mask’. I donned a black one. It’s a hold up.  
*Proving Your Eco-metal
 Do you know which bin to put tin?
 *Queen E.2 on Life
‘’Just get on with it’. 
*Life cycle
I was a silly boy and now I’m a silly old man. In between I was just silly. No harm done, Carmel!
*Soup
With long hair it’s essential to lift the bowl to the mouth.
*Neo-Communication
Once people talked face to face. Now they talk in absentia through a plastic gauze.
Eye to eye being not possible, trust is sacrificed.
 
*Lone Deranger
Living alone one thinks up what to say to people. And, when you meet them, you can’t remember what it was and spend the time racking your brains. 
*Tadhg Furlong’s Dream
‘’Spuds. gravy and my mother’s Sunday roast’’
*Funny Bone
I’ve avoided Covid by turning on light switches with my elbow.
Now I shake elbows rather than hands, saying, ‘Excuse me I had an amputation’

*A home truth.
'Writing is a means of not speaking'(Denis Riley, Lyric Shame).
*Pet Scan
Kill the owners and release the dogs
*Pleurniche (needy)
‘I know you are doing two things at the same time and I’m the third’
*Irish Mafia
Irish names such as Brady are prominent in Trump supporters in congress. Likewise in the UK Conservative party. Ex-PM Truss is Mrs O’Leary (God help us). In the early days of the National Front Irish activists were almost in a majority. That changed. They went legit.  
 *‘’Hope you’re well’’
This expression was banned by my mother in letters. She said if you are well the suggestion it could be otherwise is annoying, and if you’re not well its hardly a consolation to be sympathised with a vain hope. .
*‘’Free love’’
There is no such thing as free love except when you’re freed from it
*Pangloss
‘’All my friends with cancer are doing very well’’
 Godard (91) RIP
His ideas are not as good as his cinematic instincts. He lost them in his middle to late films..
*Life cycle
I was a silly boy and now I’m a silly old man. In between I was just silly. No harm done, Carmel!
*Soup
With long hair it’s essential to lift the bowl to the mouth.
 *‘’Free love’’
There is no such thing as free love except when your freed from it
*Pangloss
‘’All my friends with cancer are doing very well’’
*Sympathy?
O Dear. How sad. Never mind…ow
*Sick
Reduced to thinking of my next meal not because I’m hungry but because I’m not.
   
*Sur le tard
I haven’t changed to the point that people instead of asking ‘how are you?’ say ‘who are you?’