Poetry

February 22, 2017 Poetry , POETRY / FICTION

Christophe Debon

 

By

John Mingay

 

 

idiots

 

 

the days

crumble

 

the fools

on their

high ground

laugh

out loud

 

hysterically

 

smug

in their

pyrrhic

victory

 

of sorts

 

thievishly

thick

in their

narrow

majority

 

stolen by lies

 

dense

in their

half-baked

half-cocked

heads

 

yet proud

 

ignorantly

arrogantly

 

so

 

oblivious

to their

damaging

of the days

 

crumbling

 

days dying

in the

blooded mud

 

there where

the footprints

of these fools

are the last

to fade

 

pressed

deep into

the now

barren earth

 

fruitless

for as far

as the eye

can see

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dog eat dog

 

 

who knows

who you are

when you play

their game

 

when you

take on

the name

the role

the face

the race

the class

the place

they give you

no sooner

are you born

into this world

of tooth and nail

 

of dog eat dog

 

of blind

obedience

to the cause

 

all told in

their epistle

to gluttony

 

a rule book

to the game

you don’t

yet know

you are

even playing

 

but soon will

when it all

comes crashing

down around you

 

silently

as an unseen

falling forest tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Mingay

Born and raised in Paisley, Scotland, John Mingay spent the late 1970’s working at The Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow. After returning to study at Durham, England, he went on to become managing editor of internationally acclaimed Raunchland Publications from 1984 to 2009 and, following several years (1985-90) as Writer-in-Residence and Writer-in-the-Community in Darlington, Co. Durham, during which time he had three plays produced by local touring companies* and initiated a variety of drama/performance projects, returned to live in Scotland.

Additionally, he was editor of 3×4 magazine, 1989-95, and the Lung Gom Press, 1995-97, and has been widely published in the UK, Europe and the US in literary magazines, anthologies, collaborative projects and in over forty individual collections. John is also regularly called on to write poetry book reviews for several digital and paper-based literary journals, such as Stride and Litter.

From 1990 to 2000, whilst continuing with personal creative projects, he worked in rural community arts development with Fife Council. Since 2007, his dramatic work has been attracting attention in Spain, with Saltarrano Teatro, Badajoz, having initiated a series of twelve Hispanic historical plays covering the period from the Roman occupation to the 1970’s and incorporating the thoughts, words and deeds of many of Spain’s writers, artists, clergy, politicians and royalty.

In addition, for John, music-composition continues to be an extension of poetry, and, being shorn of the meaningfulness of words, John often finds it a freer medium in which to work improvisationally and intuitively. He has always brought this same attitude to his artwork over the years in a variety of media, seeing it also as an adjunct to his literary work, and often, through publishing and exhibiting, as complementary to it.

John has collaborated in many mail-art projects around the world since the 1980’s when, while undertaking the residencies and community projects mentioned above, he began encouraging others to understand merits of this process and become involved.

For a selection of John’s artwork and poetry, along with that of the others he has edited, see the Raunchland Archive at http://website.lineone.net/~johnmingay/raunchland.htm

A comprehensive catalogue of his musical work is available for free download from The Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=john%20mingay

1 Comment

  1. Sioux T.V February 13, at 20:08

    John, how great to see you work on the internet. You probably won't remember me from Darlington Library writers group, Sue Vass. I see your work has lost none of its grit and earthy don to earth-ness! You are a very talented writer and I missed you very much after you'd gone. I shall look into the raunchland archive to see more of your talent. Glad to see you are at least looking happy, stay safe, be well and continue to thrill. (still not used to using the internet!)

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.