Poetry

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