The

Ruskin Poets

Poetry from Ruskin Students of 2001/2002

The Conversation

Once, there was a pub, nothing special

New is now

Except outside where there was a trestle

Now is new

And Inside the pub were to be found

What is now

A Maid, A couple and three men standing around

Now is new

Why is nothing yet everything simple,

What is new

Said the man with the dimple

New is new

Well it depends on what you call a call

New is now.!.

Said the other conversing, who was of course tall

Anonymous

Then we have to define, said the other who was lean

Nothing and everything and all between

The Three stood there quietly contemplating

Then Turning to the barmaid to continue baiting

Anonymous

Whatever Happened To the Revolution of 1996

Whatever happened to the revolution of 1996?

NO ODE TO A SKYLARK

They said that things were going to change

And with the sounds of town all around

That things would never be the same!

There was no ode a skylark trill, quilled

Whatever happened to the revolution of 1996?

On this owners childhood pen

We were suppose to win the European cup

Never knew one neither now nor then

But that just got totally fucked up.

Some said some sang in Shaftsbury Square

My life changed during the year of 1996.

Never,

I would never see things the same

Never there

I wonder if that?s a real shame.

No Dulcet ditty delighted Denman Street

Was the music good in 1996?

No Harbinger ever heralded evening end in Hatherley Road

For me the memories were very strange

No ode to a skylark

They come together in different ways.

But I will Bring you symphonies of sounding sirens of many factories

I heard of the revolution of 1996

Stainless steel snakelike sliding; gliding; red hot; throbbing; bobbing;

I was told that things were going to change

Ever longer ever slimmer

And for me life has never been the same.

Down the rolls conveyor

Whatever happened to the revolution of 1996?

The incessant hum of the power station; droning; groaning; monotoning

They said that things were going to change

The orgasmic roar at a score of a soccer crowd

That things would never be the same!

Hissing pistons; incited; invited; induced; inducted by industrial engines

Were they just taking the piss?

The whirr of the sewage cart noisily cleansing nauseous drains

By Keiran Bridgwater                           11/10/2001

But with the sounds of the town all around

No ode to a skylark

Roy Blackman  (opening staza of 11)

F  R  E  E

WHY OH WHY

DON?T WE TRY

TO LIVE THE LIFE

WE ALL DESIRE?

CHANGE DIRECTION

LIVE FOR ONES SELF

NOT FOR SOCIETY

NOT FOR WEALTH

LET IT ALL GO

PHANTOM RULER STRIKES AGAIN

FOLLOW THE HEART

The trends   invisible machine, that makes the rules, that   everyone thinks they have to obey.    To be expected as normal we have to become abnormal,    Defying our own instincts and desires.    The image we hold of normality is a mere phantom.    A phantom chased by the multitudes,    But can never be realized because it does not exist.    If only it could be killed!    But how can one kill that which belongs to imagination,    And so, we are entrapped in a vision of normality    Prisoners, one and all. Teresa McDonough 1989

BRIDGE THE DIVIDE

MAKE A START

MIKEY (JAN 2001)

The Long And Winding Road That Leads To Your Door

Trapped within this body How on earth do I get out. Only through the experiences of life Will I find a way out. To know oneself honestly Is quite an horrendous shock. But to know, I except, is part of my lot. Through suffering I will grow into a far out reaching tree I don't know if it's a tree that I want to be. I just hope, one day, to find the real me.

Teresa McDonough

A Little Bird

Once I was a little Bird trapped in a cage.

Today, I am free, but still full of rage.

Life takes you through different stages and experiences.

Being a little black bird brought its fair share of problems,

beside discrimination.

Lacking education, isolated the little bird.

Lack of confidence, reduced having positive life experiences.

Little bird as you grow older you get wiser and hopefully reduce

your rage and find peace in your comfortable cage.

By Selena Khan

The   Puppetmasters

Into   the hawthorn of a new born

The   minute before conception

Its   all waiting to go wrong

The   Puppetmasters realise

Killings   what we do best

I?m Your Fault

One   day we?ll kill ourselves

Well, how do I begin?

Before   We Kill The bloody rest??

Sometime from now I expect to be okay about things.  Now I am not.

By   Paul White

Why??

Maybe it is because of how I am?

Maybe it is because of you.

Anonymous

Changes

Muddy waters, moving along the stream

Eye catching, as the shining sun gleam

Rushes, rises, falls and tore

Then the changes started to occur

The running muddy waters, became clean

Passers by stop, to view the scene

People talked, watched and admired

As if, that?s everyone desire

Other things just stacked, as if those on a shelf

As the running muddy waters clears it self

Clovis Powell

Sitting in the corner of the room

He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.  There was a strong musty smell in the air.  It was dark except for the one flickering candle almost blowing out with the draft that is coming from under the door.  There was a scratching on the other side of the wall.  As the man was listening to the rhythm of the scratching he started to drift of to sleep.  Then there was a flash of light and a clap of thunder.  He woke up.  The rain on window sounded like someone was throwing rice on to it.  Another flash and a Silhouette of a face appeared at the window.  It faded a few seconds later.  Then a knock on the door, three times hard and sharp.  A high-pitched whistle of wind blew through the door.  The candle blew out just as the man stood up to answer the door.  He was searching for the doorway to answer the door.  Then lightning hit the house and he fell to the floor.

Keiran Bridgwater

7/12/98