I have written poems in quite a few of my articles, most of them noise-themed. I have collected them all here – links to each article first (in alphabetical order), followed by all the poems themselves (shortest to longest, by number of lines).
Absolute Limits of Noise (poem is 68 words, 25 lines)
Adoption and Noise (poem is 22 words, 12 lines)
Curse of Noise 1/5 (poem is 54 words, 9 lines)
Empowerment (poem is 118 words, 20 lines)
Enigma (poem is 103 words, 39 lines)
Enjoyment (poem is 107 words, 12 lines)
Exploring the Edges (poem is 104 words, 40 lines)
Intestinal Strangulation (poem is 120 words, 19 lines)
Maximum Metaphysical Discontinuity (poem is 29 words, 13 lines)
Memories… (poem is 303 words, 82 lines)
My Ears Are Ravenous (poem is 86 words, 24 lines)
Noise as Disfigurement (poem is 53 words, 8 lines)
Noise Haiku (poem is 146 words, 42 lines)
Recommissioned War/Junk Metal (284 words, 30 lines; 53 words, 10 lines)
The Noise Within (poem is 59 words, 14 lines)
Voice of Noise 4/4 (poem is 703 words, 97 lines)
What Noise? (poem is 114 words, 22 lines)
from Noise as Disfigurement –
The lashings that led to lacerations,
The mocking jeers and sneers,
The agony of sighs and cries
Oozing out blood, sweat, and tears;
The blows of hammer on nail, hammer on nail –
Huge nails piercing hands and feet;
The agony of sighs and cries
Excruciating, asphyxiating, as Heaven’s Son hell did meet.
from Recommissioned War/Junk Metal –
Junk metal.
Purpose and beauty emerging from the rust and ruin?
Unanticipated tool of redemption and reconciliation?
Symbol of genuine change and future hope?
Banging, scraping, shaking, grinding.
Striking, smashing, thrashing, throwing.
Old sounds for new ambitions.
New sounds for new horizons.
Noise revitalised with new energy.
Junk no more: noise for peace!
from The Noise Within –
More and more and more
Intentions shot down
Curse this self-blindness
The intense thrashing pain
The horrific punishment due
The full wrath of hell
Borne in full kindness
Silence envelops
Cleansed through and through
New flesh still raw
Air purer than pure
Heavy is the atmosphere
Stain’s outline imbued with reverence
‘Til joy surfaces in tears
It will be more and more and more
from Curse of Noise 1/5 –
A blight on communication, a fight against harmony, a frightening disturbance.
A pestilence, a festering, a less complete way.
Entropic, decaying, non-cornucopian.
Misanthropic, slaying, distinctly dystopian.
Noise as rupture: a curse that tears through, tears down, tears apart.
Noise as irritant: a curse that divides, frustrates, confuses, and angers.
Noise as danger: a curse that destabilises, threatens, overwhelms, and kills.
Noise as pain: a curse against flesh, against mind, against soul.
Noise = cursed sound.
from Adoption and Noise –
Gritty sounds,
Aggression,
Chaos a priori.
My noise.
Tenderness found,
Compassion,
Unwritten story.
My son.
Grace abounds,
Predestination,
Heaven’s glory.
My Father.
from Enjoyment –
Black days, blacker nights, blackened soul interring.
Grey skies, grey zones, grey matter blurring.
White noise, right noise, delightful noises purring.
The darkness has lifted and given way to mirth!
Audio treasure, listen at leisure, pleasure truly stirring.
Synesthesia, anaesthesia, sonic seizures occuring.
Noise past measure, audio Escher, senses all still learning.
The ecstasy of noise: an encounter of great worth!
Bring the noise! Sing the noise! Wring the noise – banzai!
Fling those sounds! Ping those sounds! Wing those sounds – up high!
Sting the sadness, cling to gladness, thing of madness – byebye!
Receive the gift of noise as your fresh joy comes to birth!
from Maximum Metaphysical Discontinuity –
The Eternal Godhead,
Three-in-One and One-in-Three.
Complex Unity.
Community Perfected.
Complete Harmony.
Severed.
Infinite Rupture,
Inconceivable Paradox.
Utter Isolation.
Unbearable Anguish.
Unalterable Triumph.
This Momentary Torment
Yields Eternal Peace.
from Intestinal Strangulation –
Intricacies of Noise/Health
1. Noise is a sturdy mesh
Its strong gridlocked structures defining space
Noise walls hurtling through the mind’s cosmos
Strength rising with confidence apace
Pounding, searing, thrashing textures!
In health we feel invincible
I can thwart my enemies and crush all obstacles!
2. Noise is a tender wisp
Its gentle strands tendered immaterial, sparse
Gentle gusts floating through the spirit’s serenity
Breath ebbing and flowing, consciousness will pass
Poignant, subtle, throwaway textures!
In sickness we know our true frailty
Only thwarting death by divine sustenance!
3. So don’t be proud, for I am just dust
While He is indestructible through all the ages
Life or death, I simply must trust
As He whispers to me through His sacred pages
Profound, startling, threefold textures!
from Empowerment –
Noise shrapnel fills the room,
Splinters pierce the air:
No corner is left unscathed
In this dark underground lair.
Each listener is rooted to the spot
As noise carves through flesh’n’bone;
Transfixed in the moment, drinking it in,
Making the sounds their own.
Machines appear lifeless lying there,
But the noise tells a different tale:
Screeching, sputtering, shattering sounds
As their waveforms pummel and flail.
The noise-maker feels so alive, so alive;
Nothing can drag him down now!
As he shares his craft with the roomful of friends,
All feel invincible, but how?
Who truly wields these tools of power?
Who energises this space?
Hidden in the shadows of the humble soul
With confidence on his kind face…
from What Noise? –
What is noise?
A new aesthetic, or beauty thrown out the window?
Different definitions, different spheres.
Excess volume leads to ringing in your ears.
Noise causes irritation and missed conversations,
Debilitating distractions that break your concentration.
Sensory overload:
Too much information.
Incoherent messages:
Distorted information.
Helpless confusion:
Lack of information.
Inharmonious caterwauling:
Destructive information.
Noise is disruption, impurity, glitch.
Noise is everything that does not fit.
Noise is signal undergoing corruption.
Noise is sound on the path to destruction.
Noise is the opposite of silence and peace.
Noise befits industry, conflict, disease.
Noise is simply pain, at all costs to be avoided.
…And noise is great pleasure in the ears that so behold it.
from My Ears Are Ravenous –
My ears are ravenous
For vibrations cavernous
And noises fathomless
Intensity anticipated
Breakthrough annunciated
Waveforms emancipated
Mid-range crunch and grit
Crackles and hums all over it
Voluminous timbres all in a fit
Shuddering smothering bass
Feedback tones all over the place
While harsh mangled bursts smash, tangle, and race
They teach
Without speech
Of truth beyond reach
Of unity, diversity
Beauty or perversity
Of hope in adversity
Creation, destruction
Infinite reduction
Divine instruction
As sounds take wing
And explosions sing
This noise – for which king?
from Absolute Limits of Noise –
A cluster of thoughts
Power
Subversion
Death
Death of Death, Resurrection
Totality
History
Hell
Illusion
Hope, Eternity
A cluster of notions
Held
Like an invincible bubble in my mind’s hands
Taking no space
Just sitting there
Conscious for years
Though dormant in form
Now finally in words
So many words
Just some musings
Indications
Of troves still to delve
Dusty shelves
Now ready
To breathe on the world
from Recommissioned War/Junk Metal –
Junk metal.
Twisted iron. Abandoned warehouses. Discarded appliances. Obsolete parts.
Gutted buildings. Rusty nails. Overgrown wreckage. Isolated shards.
Old oil drums. Unused girders. Mangled pipes. Loose screws.
Unknown fixtures. Exploded tanks. Sunken ships. Barbed wire.
Joyridden cars. Superseded equipment. Hidden weaponry. Ancient knives.
Industrial memories. Broken machines. Surplus nails. Encrusted springs.
Fractured armour. Expansive scrapyards. Wrecking-ball consequences. Rigid gears.
Desolate machinery. Leaking batteries. Throwaway trinkets. Corrosive scars.
Disintegrating apparatus. Blunt razors. Sharp fragments. Deadly spikes.
Silver as moonlight, brown as filth, black as night.
Junk metal.
Enablers of carnage. Fruits of destruction. Hatred of humanity. Enslavement of the weak.
Exploitation of nature. Waste of resources. Destruction of creation. Stifling of life.
Futility of progress. Ravages of time. Pointlessness of life. Inevitability of death.
Curse of war and hate.
Junk metal.
Powerful symbols of dystopia’s decay?
Pointed statements of industrialisation’s harsh exploits?
Serrated protests against the machinations of violence and war?
Stark expressions of humanity’s inhumanity?
Should junk metal just rust in peace?
Junk metal.
Banging, scraping, shaking, grinding.
Striking, smashing, thrashing, throwing.
Oil drums and rods, springs and chains, screws and shaker boxes, rattling cages and floating rods, brought to life by contact mics and Metal Zone guitar pedals.
Industrial music smashing lashings of percussive bashings and potent lo-fi throbbings, pounding the ears and brain with relentless yet playful weight.
Found sound and field recordings from the everyday to the obscure, capturing jagged dynamics as objects are caressed and manhandled every which way.
Cut-up harsh noise slashing in a frenzy of amplified havoc, extreme splinters of ice-cold crunch and bone-melting grit tearing the air apart like a deranged roboctopus.
Junk metal: brutal sounds of abused metallic materials yield fruitful avenues for off-the-edge sonic explorers.
from Enigma –
Ricocheting acoustics in smoke-filled caverns.
Come in here without fear:
Technical alchemies delight and confound.
Get a fix.
All in bits.
Secret den.
Underground.
Mavericks.
Misfits.
Craftsmen.
Strange sounds.
Knowledge unfound and heads spinning round.
Anonymous contraptions pulsating and flashing.
Come and hear without fear:
Wizards ply blizzards of noise outlasting.
Sizzling.
Crackling.
Booming.
Blasting.
Dizzying.
Cackling.
Looming.
Masking.
Questions asking and shadows casting.
Molecules vibrate in esoteric patterns.
Come adhere without fear:
Overflowing whimsies spiral out without erring.
Pinging.
Jostling.
Meandering.
Whirring.
Flinging.
Puzzling.
Pounding.
Blurring.
Comfort deterring and wonder stirring.
The noise weaves its magic,
Draws you in,
Brings you home.
from Exploring the Edges –
Race to the space
In your ears, brain, and mind.
Through your ears, between your ears,
Strange noises to find.
Zenith approaching:
Horizon unattainable?
Infinity encroaching:
Trajectory unsustainable?
Exponential,
Asymptotic,
Algorithmic,
Subatomic.
Exploding maths,
Eroding myths,
Exploding amps,
Overloaded bliss.
Sublime ideas,
Supreme extremes;
Obliterating frontiers
By all and any means.
Infrasonic,
Ultrasonic;
Depths traversed
And heights surpassed.
Post-sonic.
Meta-sonic;
Unimagined waveforms
Yield soundscapes vast.
Hidden textures,
Eurekan cascades,
Pandora’s box sets
In hyperspace.
The candle keeps burning,
No rest for the wick.
Limitless learning,
Destroy what was fixed.
We are opponents
Of the safe and the bland.
Forever proponents
Of brand new lands.
from Noise Haiku –
Mysteries of Noise
Designed to intrigue
Stimulate and resonate
These are noise haiku
Solitude is bliss
The silence of my own thoughts
Then delight – pure noise!
Dark smoky basements
Jarring noise in secret dens
Familiar sounds
White noise frequencies
Infinite permutations
Chaos? Potential!
Ambient static
Anticipation rising
Harsh noise punctuates
Noise like ice crystals
Sharp as nails in my ears
Exquisite, melting
Suffocating noise
Enveloping and choking
Breathless… with wonder
Moments frozen still
Of all-encompassing noise
My life stretches out
Immersed in the noise
I cannot escape its force
It helps me rise free
Noise is memory
Amniotic cognition
Once forgotten peace
The most abstract sounds
Strange, mysterious noises
Visceral, lucid
One waveform, all noise
One noise, all coalescent
Layers of details
Focussed noise effects
Dizzy sonic illusions
Can’t compute – hurray!
Louder than loudest
And still ramping it up more
Noise twin comes: silence
from Memories… –
A smell or a sound
Absent from mind
Suddenly reappears
An ancient find
A seagull’s screech
A doorbell ringing
Primary school children
Shouting, screaming, singing
A buzzing lawnmower
A cricket bat
Creaking floorboards above –
Who was that?
A hurricane whistling down the chimney stack
An abandoned kitten’s lonely pine
A deranged midnight scream from the street outside
A pop song or lullaby from 1989 [or 1979, or 1969, or…]
Rekindling feelings
From childhood days
Distant time revisited
Returning in a haze
Far dreaming
A memory stirs
A rush of emotion
But the picture blurs
Bittersweet
Nostalgic charm
Or only bitter
Suppressed harm
Bittersweet
Wistful longing
Or only bitter
Never belonging
A jumble of flashbacks
Kaleidoscopic sensations
Dizzying artifacts artistically arrayed
In artificially architectural abstracted accentuations
Relief supplied as past trauma denied?
Or the pain too much to bear?
Noise tentacles inexorably infiltrate
Within, without, everywhere
Just out of reach
Straining to retell
Can’t put my finger
On exactly what befell
These partial recollections
All smeary round the edges
Remind me of time’s pull
On my present-only existence
Jumbled details
Forgotten whispers
Errors creep in
As I enter deeper in
To forgotten vistas
And accuracy fails
It’s an exercise in noisification
Some memories more, some less
Shuffling through the crinkles in my mind
Trying to make sense of this mess
The emotional charge of noises revisited
Further ‘noised-up’ by the fading crackle of time
Vinyl scratches, sepia tones
Nothing remains in straight lines
Obfuscating, obscuring
Frustrating or alluring
Deceiving, manipulating
Depressing or elating
Clouding, smudging
Eluding or nudging
Distorting, twisting
Embracing or resisting
Editing, revising
Recalling or surmising
Fading, masking
Yearning or basking
Welcome
Not welcome
Welcome
Not welcome
Noise is a gift, a blessing
Noise is a burden, a curse
Noise is memory and memory is noise
Whether for better or worse…
from Voice of Noise 4/4 –
Psalm 29 Paraphrase
Give a great cheer for the Ultimate Noisician
Anticipation is high, every breath is held
Noise legends, noise lovers alike must revere him
The power and wonder of his noise unparalleled
He deserves his reputation and any plaudits he gets
The purity and brilliance of his art is clear
All who hear him feel humbled and speechless
But wait – he looks up… the start is here!
A voice of thunder: he bellows, he roars
Rumbling and crackling, piercing the air
The crescendo of noise, the alarming bombardment
What a way to commence! All stop and stare
Not a drizzle but a torrent
Not a splash but a deluge
Not a drop but a flood in this place
Now this is true noise, no messing around
Our doubts disappear without trace
His voice unabated still thunders and thunders
Commandeering the waves: every trough, every peak
His voice is dynamic and fresh, ever awesome
Commanding our praise, yes he is unique!
An amalgam of frequencies too crammed to decipher
Earth-shattering, ear-shattering, pitchless tones
Ripping to shreds and exploding wildly
Depths of sub-bass unplumbed, unknown
And this is just his voice, nothing else!
His shout devastatingly loud and intense
Wonderful, masterful, frightening, wild
Astoundingly clear, gut-wrenchingly dense
Pillars and beams, those trunks of our buildings
Split asunder by the sheer vocal power
Adding cacophonous layers of clatter
Each hour a second, each second an hour
The floor leaps for joy and us listeners with it
Uncontrollable shaking below
Startled, delighted, terrified, quaking
No escape from our Maker’s noise show
The thrill of the danger, fearing the worst
In convulsions of space-time I am totally immersed
Everything shakes, will walls or ceiling fall first?
Bodies vibrate, ribcages threaten to burst
Yet he controls the whole place with a gleam in his eyes,
While dizzy with wonder we lurch and we sway
The ostensible chaos isn’t quite what it seems
Transfixed on his face – we can’t look away
Now comes the climax, the zenith, the apex
Amidst this noise orchestration zone
Fire that spits, fire that splits,
Flames plummet fast, black overthrown
A split-second of silence heralds the shift
We’re reminded he’s separate and pure
No confusion, disorder, futility, death
His nature and motives are flawless and more
No time to stop, the flash comes and goes
His thunder crescendos with momentum renewed
New heights and new depths, more shocking than ever –
With his voice razor-sharp the actual lightning he hewed!
The maelstrom of noise makes particles whirl
Swirling eddies of air, vapour, dust
Tornado of timbres, a sonic cyclone
Hairs bristle and sway in the gust
A whirlwind of waveforms in the wilderness
A groundbreaking, ground-shaking din
Not a dry eye now in this wasteland of noise
As a baptism is unleashed without and within
Twisting the sounds into more complex forms
We’re through the other side now but not slowing down
Shivers down spines, tingles on skin
Progression of noise textures spiralling round
Astonishing soundscapes from all corners fly
Revealing treasures we’d never have found
We gaze at the master, his eyes catch ours back
Too much to take in, we drop to the ground
Glorious glory – the words timelessly come
As if from each atom in space
Weighty atmosphere, tension in the air,
Majestic infinity emanates from his face
Over the torrent of engulfing soundwaves
Over the flood of noise
Over the crushing and raging and pressure
The Ultimate Noisician’s calm poise
He is the King, the true King of Noise
He sits on his self-made throne
Eternal, infinite, unbounded rule.
All noise-makers and noises his own
He owns me too and I love to be his
For the mystery deepens still more:
He gives me his strength, more strength than a tempest
His voice my guide in the noise of the storm
Yes I’m always safe in the eye of his storm
Peace, such peace! As the noise subsides
He gave me wild visions beyond my weak dreams
Now he fills me with peace that abides
I am ready to rest, I take a deep breath
The exhilaration still fresh in my mind
I gave my attention, then he gave me himself
My feebleness left far behind.
The Word on Noise 