Labour: Labour without gain

This is dedicated to labour without gain

To labouring with pain
Even as it all still feels the same
And going on sans shame
With neither result nor fame

To the psychiatrist, trying day after day
To cure a patient, to get through some way
To the teacher working to break though to a kid
Even if just trying the same thing they already did

To the benched athlete, trying to improve their skill
To the struggling painter who is painting still
To the addict trying to attend rehab again
Yes this is dedicated to labour without gain

For it's the labour without gain, that leads to success
It's when you know you're fighting for nothing and finally confess
That's when you're free, to labour on and on
Because that labour may have been for something all along

Off Topic: Last Words

There's a mythology around last words
They supposedly have more impact than all others
The parting imprint we impart on those about to depart
Whether they're the last words of life or last words to an ex-lover

How can a few words sum up
All the experiences that have gone before
Whenever I've found myself saying last words
I always want just a few last words more

Right now, I want to talk about and to each one of you
In turn, saying how you've made my time here unique
How you've encouraged, supported, assisted me and all others
And helped one another when someone's struggling that week

This community of individuals is simply outstanding
The time you've all sacrificed to help others go far
The things we've done, the people we've known
These are the things that define who we are

I don't know what my last words are gonna be
But know that my last words to you are simply this
I hope these are not my last words to you.
Don't grow old without me. I love you all. There's not one of you that I'm not gonna miss


context: this is the poem I wrote and performed for a valediction service (normal language - leavers assembly) for the people in my year who were leaving.

Picture made in 2022. I could have made this neater, but it honestly felt fitting to have it as it is.

Labour: Keep Working

I'm stuck in a rut, and this rut is sticky
No signs of escape to roads out of this city
I'm just paying my dues from a bankrupt account
Struggling to earn enough capital letters to spell it out
This repetition has become it's own deja vu
A copy of a copy of not knowing what to do
So I'm though. I'm not gonna take it no more.
Wait, did you like that? Let me do an encore.
I'm sick to death of this illness
Viruses up to my irises yet I'm not feeling fulfillness
So I'll fill myself with whatever facts I feel belong
Did you know that what you know is known to be wrong
I find comfort in that, so I settle down in an armchair
Made of whatever nice half-truths that I happened to find there
I lay them around me as a protective thought
So you can try to batter through while I cook you up a treat
You'd better not harden up else you wont take the heat

I kidding of course,
Let me open up a discourse,
I've been working tough,
But I think I've worked enough,
So if you'll humour me
And wait patiently
I've got one last job to do
Until I break through...

Labour: Dreams

When I dream, I dream of stars and rainbows.
I dream of flying to distant lands and fighting pirates
I dream of worlds I don't live in.
I live here, why would I dream about it as well?

I don't dream about what product I can sell
I don't dream about where my life is heading
I'm sure I will, but while I'm not dreaming yet
I don't mind following someone else's dreams for a while

But I want to follow someone whose dreams make me smile
Someone who wants to make the world a better place
Someone whose dream is of this world but still in colour
Someone who doesn't just dream of making more money

And I'm not writing this just to sound funny.
We have so limited time on this earth
Such little time to explore and influence the path of this rock
And I don't think I'm being unrealistic

I may be young, and I am idealistic
But I want to dream in this world someday to
Dreams are just a reflection of our surroundings after all
So I'm gonna follow a dreamer

Follow someone with plans: a schemer
Someone who dreams in ways others don't: a prophet
Someone who is, well, a human
Someone who doesn't just go with the capital flow