Virulent Virus

Virulent Virus

Attacked by a virulent virus

No wonder I feel unwell

Attacked by a virulent virus

The lives of my cells made hell

Attacked by a virulent virus

As if temperate wouldn't do

Attacked by a virulent virus

I hope you don't get it too!

Michael O'Leary - October 2012

This poem was written as an apology and was read at a conference in York with Siobhan MacMahon. 

I was unable to attend due to ill health.

Globalisation

Globalisation

Globalisation

no exaggeration
 no care or compassion

only hunger and passion

for material gain

regardless of pain

Winners and losers

Quaffers and boozers

Top dogs and hot dogs

 Chocolate logs and Swiss rolls

Housing bubble, casino bank
Credit crunch, future sank 
Profiteering, penny pinching
Tidy profit, half inching
Asset stripping, edge tipping
Downsizing, debts rising
Outsourcing, hand forcing
Call centres, corporate sentries
Mean and lean, cleaned out
Consequence not thought about

Everyman for himself
Your problem, my wealth
Views changed by stealth
Privatising your health 

Level field, you can win
 Pursue a profit, see as sin
 Lives of needy, poor and lost
 Seen as work shy, losers cost
More, it's said, than they deserve
God of Mammon, all should serve 

Mike O'Leary - October 2012

Lothario

The Mind of a Lothario

'Come lie with me 

and be my love'

 I'll lie to you 

when I pledge my love

Conquest 

is the name of my game

Seduction the means Submission my aim
The excitement of new 

The thrill of the chase
A few drinks later

Back to my place

I am a charmer 

I will have my way

I'll make you feel special 

Just for a day

I'll flatter with words 

I'll attend to your needs
You'll hang on to my words You'll follow my lead

I'll fill you with dreams 

But when you awake
You'll be left with a feeling 

Of more give than take

 You'll think it's your fault What's wrong with you
 Our targets were different 

My aim was true

Mike O'Leary - October 2012

Unfortunately these characters do exist

National Poetry Day - Stars that burn bright

Stars that burn bright

who'd be a star
blinking from afar
your light just revealing
you were so appealing
though long dead you are
we think you still are
a place in the sky
we can see when we try

stars that burn bright
may only be light
from a long time ago
 the poet says no

Mike O'Leary - October 2012

What Love is

What Love is

Love is greater than you and me

It doesn't falter when we disagree

Love is a bond that sets us free

It doesn't blind us, it lets us see

Love carves it's initials in our tree

No longer enough, just to be

Love changes you and me into we

Soon enough two, soon maybe three

Love can be scary, you may want to flee

Run from your feelings, run away, break free

Love that is precious, hears a lovers plea

'Don't leave me alone, I cry out to thee'

Love makes us crazy, knocks us out of our tree

Sometimes full of remorse, sometimes full of glee

Love fills us with joy, Love hurts when it ends

When your lover says, 'Can we still be friends?'

Love makes fools of us all, but alone what are we?

 Just an incomplete he, an incomplete she?

Mike O'Leary – October 2012

What Love Is not

What Love is not

I'm not responsible for the choices you make

I'm not responsible for the chances you take

I'm not responsible for the dreams that you break

I'm not responsible for the longings you ache

I love you but for both of our sake

Don't expect me to fix every mistake

I'll be there when you begin to flake

But I'm not here for you just as soon as I wake

I can't give you all of me, that would be fake

Relationships require give and take

Know that I love you, asleep and awake

You are my duck, I am your drake

Love isn't just giving you all you can take

 If you knew I was coming, would you bake me a cake?

Mike O'Leary – September 2012

Windows

'Winders'

Shut them winders

You must be cold!

You don't think about me

Mi blood's thin and old

Them winders are mucky

I'll give 'em a clean

Vinegar and newspaper

That'll give 'em a sheen

Look at them net curtains

As much use as nowt

People can't see in

But I can't see owt!

She never draws her curtains

You can see right in her room

Mucky little mare

She should to learn to use a broom

Them curtains have been drawn

More than three days now

That's enough time for grieving

Poor old cow

Window man's here Mum

'Get me mi purse'

I'll not pay 'im again

Them winders look worse

Mike O'Leary – April 2012

Do Boots sell shoes?

Shoes

Do Boots sell shoes?

Dr Scholls and the rest?

Would clogs rot your feet?

Are casuals for best?

Choosing your footwear

What you should know

Sandals for sunshine

Wellies for snow

Clogs are hard wearing

Pumps need a bag

Trainers get smelly

Horseshoes for nags

Boots can be kinky

Shoes can be Tuf

Oxfords have ties

Brogues, holes enough

Some shoes have toe caps

Some patently leather 

Some just for good times

Some for all weather

Feet go inside them

Often with socks

Newly bought shoes

Often come in a box

Women have many

Men have a few

But at any one time

You can only wear two!

Mike O'Leary - April 2012 

At the movies

At the movies

At the movies

Makin' moves

On the back row

Movin' hands low

Slapped wrist
Just kiss!
no fumble..
 no tumble..

Teenage kicks

At the flicks
Gossamer wings

Ice cream and things

Stolen kisses in the dark

Better than a cold bench

In the park 

Films we saw

 At the pictures

Scenes not seen

 Made us feel richer

Mike O'Leary - April 2012

Easter

Easter

 Bede, an English Christian scholar

In his treatise, 'De Temporum Ratione' *

Said that 'Easter' derived from Eostre

Earth Mother, Pagan Goddess of the North

Spring, did lambs bring to existence
 Gambol turned to gamble, sacrifice
Blood, once spilled upon the altar
No longer need be, to alter your life

Death, rebirth and renewal
Final sacrifice, atonement, redeemed
The route offered, back to Eden
Clean slate, cleansed heart, new life

Mike O'Leary - April 2012 

* The Reckoning of Time - The Venerable Bede

It's Mother's Day

It’s Mother’s Day

                                                                                           

When we were young she kept us alive

Feeding heart, mind and body, helping us thrive

Now we are older and live our own lives

But to her part of us will always be five.

"Don’t buy me a present for Mother’s Day"

"Don’t waste your money" you’ll hear her say

"I’ll be happy enough with a visit or call"

"I’d be happy enough with nothing at all"

So here is a poem that cost not a thing

But carries a fortune in feeling and thought

Here is a greeting from your son which conveys

Much Love and happiness dear Mum on this day 



Mike O'Leary March 2012

Pathways

Pathways

I have walked many paths that were not my own

Helping others find their way

Criss-crossing roads that would lead to my goal

Backwards, forwards, sideways and down

Nobody now to help me find my way

No light shining down on my route

No field map to show which direction to go

Lost and abandoned in darkness and gloom

Now it is time to seek out that path

A path unwavering and true

To look to my own destination

It's realisation pursue

Mike O'Leary - November 2011

Database

Database

Database

You’ve got the neatest little database

All of my information in one place

Database

First you take some bits of my file

Then you start to build my profile

Database

Can’t say I’m happy when I see the consequence

‘Cos when the data is wrong

It takes so bloody long

To correct your Database


Mike O'Leary -  December 2011

Read or sung with the tune of 'Babyface' in your head

Drummer

Never tell a drummer that he's out of time

Metric Modulations and Polyrhythms

A drummer for many a year

Changes in metre I hear them

But my feet and my wrists can't I fear

I still feel the rhythm flow through me

Though my body won’t dance to the beat

Heart pumping faster

Breathing much harder

To master being on the drum seat

As we get older

We have to get over

The things we can no longer do

Even now they tell me

'You should play again'

'Must play again'

'Tell us that's what you will do'

But lo and behold

I'm more rocket and rolls

Than rock and roll, now

Sad but true!

Mike O’Leary September 2011

White Knight

White Knight - Dark Night 

Can you help me deal with this problem?

I need someone to sort it out

I know that you care about people

I’ve seen you out and about

I’ve got another problem

Your own you can sort anytime

Help me get through this nightmare

I’ll be ever so grateful, this time

You have to deal with this issue for me

And another, and another one too

You won’t! You horrible, selfish man

You only think about YOU!

 Mike O'Leary October 2011

Remembering Love

Remembering Love

I remember…

The lightness of your touch

The softness of your blush

Your delicate dancing eyes

Always finding you by my side

The smiling in the park

The passion in the dark

My thoughts with you alone

My separateness undone

But I remember too…

The silence of your mood

The anger in the room

The distance from your heart

We two torn asunder

The parting of the ways

The darkness of the days

The coldness of the nights

As if love was never right

I remember though…

How it felt to be in love

Below as above

And how it’s hard to separate

To be alone and incomplete

But Love has reasons of its own

Which to Reason are unknown

The heights of joy, the depths of pain

The memory of love remains


Mike O'Leary January 2012

Bradford

The Wasted Land

A tale of economic and moral decline ….but not a yarn!

Bradford, City of wool

Its citizens now with the wool pulled over their eyes

Like lost sheep, abandoned by the shepherd

No Good Shepherd here!

Enterprise, enter booby prize more like

Enter Westfield, enter wasteland

The neon lights are no longer bright

On Broadway

We’re all in the gutter, as the Irishman said

But too many here are peering down into the drains

Moral fibre has untwined
Like the fibres of the Llama
No longer spun and woven by the salt of the earth.

There is a hole at the heart of our city

 Mike O'Leary October 2011

Altruism

It’s not a Good time to be an Altruist

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When selfishness and greed are seen as virtuous

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When misfortune is opportunity for most

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When in public, as in private
 Harvard Business Rules!

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

When ‘Release the God within’ is the cry

Some mistake this for ego, but

As Irenaeus might say, it’s just Gnosticisms way

It breaks all the rules, makes Kings out of Fools

And lets everyone think they are Great

From Ayn Rand to Human Resources

They all want the same thing from us

To be more than we are

To be ‘can do’, as far

As one hundred and twenty percent

But who will benefit from this effort of yours?

You’re a resource, committed to boot

They want you to fulfil your potential

But for them, not for you, at root!

It’s not a good time to be an altruist

                                    Mike O'Leary October 2011

Freedom

Freedom

Free to choose, I choose to care

Free to lose, my losses bear

Free to care, I care for free

Free to gain from giving freely

Freedom from, freedom to

Licence will what freedom won't

Licence says, do what you will

Freedom says you can, but don’t!

Free to starve, free to freeze

Got no money, free to sneeze

Free to live a life unhindered

 Food or heating, fires untindered

Free to live on dreams and hopes

Free to struggle, not to cope

Free to think ‘It could be me’
Can’t buy a ticket for 50p

Free to work, free to play

Free to do what others say

Free to vote, x to win

Cameron, Cowell, factor in

Free to smile, free to frown

Free to be up, free to be down

Free to want to see some justice

Free some day, free markets busted

Free to dance, free to move

Freedom song, freedom groove

Free to listen, free to voice

Is everything just a matter of choice?

                     Mike O'Leary - November 2011