The Placebo Diaries (6)

an art installation
in the middle of nowhere
floating
in a sea of nothing
CREATION

way down
in the Cavern Club
sight and sound
TWIST AND SHOUT
a disparate generation
feeling the rub
tasting the height
breaking new ground
performing the art
VISIONS AND DREAMS
life given meaning
everything in-between
the distance of darkness
born in silence
and the gleam
a mere reflection
of a light unseen
CREATIVE THE SUBSTANCE
from behind a torn curtain
heaven is the addiction
love is the drug
way down
in The Cavern Club

. . . to sleep
perchance to dream
ay, there’s the rub
for in that sleep of death
what dreams may come
when we have shuffled off
this mortal coil
must give us pause *

THIS UNIVERSE
of natural laws
cause and effect
is performance art
every piece immortal
the gloriously imperfect
the divinely beautiful
shake it up baby now
TWIST AND SHOUT

TOMBSTONE BLUES

the underground anthem

of the Placebo Town rebellion

Fear and loathing

found in the lining

of a scarecrow’s jacket

where Judas the Priest

and the spirit of antichrist

jangle a pocketful of religion

(from every angle a profitable racket)

After a relentless

interdimensional alien probing

(those secret agents just ain’t human)

and being amongst

the Medicine Man’s most loyal clients

(those at least who’ve repeatedly

died in the process)

I had my life support system modified

to convert pain into morphine

along the neural pathway

to cemetery happiness

It’s nothing to do with superstition

and I wouldn’t call it sorcery

It’s just rocket science

In Placebo Town it’s the done thing

when stoned in the tomb

No dying need

to put on

any living pretence

on the dark side of the Moon

Words by David B. Redpath © 2023
( . . . * and William Shakespeare 😎 )

Artwork courtesy
of Multiple Michael © 2023

https://multiplemichael.wordpress.com/2023/01/17/disciple/

“We are blind and live our blind lives
out in blindness. Poets are damned
but they are not blind, they see with
the eyes of the angels.”

~ William Carlos Williams

49 thoughts on “The Placebo Diaries (6)”

      2. Being Summer here Down Under 🌅
        way back in November I promised
        my lovely Linda to make her pleasure
        the centre of my earthly endeavour 💞
        Ever since I’ve been doing my best 💪😎
        not to fail her 🚫

        Liked by 2 people

  9. They were such ‘ bairns’ on the photograph. I remember when my big sis smuggled in eh EP of Twist and Shout. She’d been working away and came back quite the diff person. ‘You have to hear this,’ she said, banjoing the mum’s South Pacific and Doris Day collection aside and bunging it on the ancient gramophone. Sufficient to say the mum came downstairs and yanked the Beatles off in five.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. What a musical extravaganza! Parts of it read like an enlightened master teaching his students. You’ve really toured around placebo town a lot. A wonderful vicarious experience for me… or perhaps not so vicarious. There are Placebo towns everywhere these days… most of us just can’t see them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Most Placebo Town refugees speak
      fluent poetry as it is the language of
      those seeking to be free … and the
      sound of a good song helps one on
      the journey. Thanks for your perceptive
      observation, and Viva la Revolución
      Tanmay ✌️😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thanks for taking the Placebo pill, Tamara.
      I often forget if it’s the blue one, or the red
      one, but what the heck 🤔🕶️ With a trip
      down memory lane you could end up any
      place in time and space. I’d blame Multiple
      Michael, and his artwork, if by you ended
      up in a trance 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Ever since being granted sanctuary
      by La Niña, the Rain Goddess 💦 of
      Gondwana, I’ve been doing my best
      to stay dry in a flood ravaged land 🌊
      but I mustn’t complain. There’s been
      scarcely a bushfire 🔥 this Summer
      here Down Under 🌏⬇️
      Hope you’ve been keeping warm up
      there in the Northern Hemisphere.
      Days away from our Autumn, my
      feet are starting to itch 👣 so I’m
      getting ready to fly north for the
      Winter 🐥 … possibly Vietnam.
      Great to hear from you too, Basilike.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Vietnam sounds like a great plan. I hope you’ll post pictures of your travels.
        We are doing well here weather-wise. I can say, and I wouldn’t be exaggerating, that winter this year was only two weeks long. Heading for spring now, and I hope it doesn’t turn into summer overnight.
        I granted you access — can you see me?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yes, thank you Basilike.
        I’m happy as a hangman masticating
        your poetic pastries 🥐 in Bedlam’s
        finest bakery.
        I’ve been commissioned by the ghost
        of a dead Queen 👑 to deliver her
        most royal apology to Ho Chi Minh City
        for the wrong done to the Viet Cong by
        the forces of Compulsive Capitalism
        disguised as “Democracy”.
        So, it’s a diplomatic mission
        rather than a decadent vacation … Not
        that I’m into that kind of thing, but I am
        looking forward to sharing my holiday
        snaps with you, Basilike 😎 🖤

        Liked by 1 person

  15. true dat, heaven’s the addiction… but I often diagnose the 60’s involving hallucinogens being the poisoned pill, luring each into their own private subjectivity cosmos, working against the unified truth vision… twisting & shouting our ways out of mirrored paper bag. very good to see you again, DR.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. “Freedom” is not free … or is it just
      another word for nothing left to lose?
      The forces of prohibition have always
      stood against human evolution.
      Many did get lost along the way (thank
      you Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary).
      Many a casualty along the path of a long
      overdue zeitgeist, no doubt delayed by a
      world war or two. I suspect that humanity
      would thrive in a state of peace and
      freedom. Perhaps one day we’ll find out
      if that’s true or not, but, in the meantime
      how do we reverse the collective
      homogenised decline of civilization?
      Perhaps it’s time to shake it up, maybe?
      I greatly appreciate your insights, RS 🙏

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. sorry for delay, this thread got lost in my online sea… How to shake up? I think the benevolent gods collab to make earthly conditions resemble an inner emotional desert (psyche-wise) with social alienation as we continually ignore the spirit. This creates, eventually, sparks of innovative evolution within certain souls and the conditions are now in place for fairly rapid spreading of something good when it happens somewhere. Even the oppositional gods assist. For they push us further and further into bleakness as long as spiritual perspectives on things are buried and flattened by a growing physical-only “pragmatism”. Kind of like one of Leonard Cohen’s deathbed tunes: “You Want It Darker”. All I got at moment. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I was just discussing the early childhood
        of Salvador Dali, the genius of surrealist
        “nuclear.mysticism”, and how he shared
        the name, Salvador, with an older brother
        who died before Dali was born. Being
        from a good Spanish Catholic family, a
        crucifix with a dead ‘Salvador’ attached
        was Placed over the young Dali’s bed.
        Curiously enough, the constant reminder,
        last thing at night, that he was named after
        a dead brother and a crucified saviour had
        a disturbing effect on the young Dali’s
        psyche. All to the enrichment of humanity,
        culturally, through his art.

        Liked by 1 person

  17. Your poems about Placebo Town, David, are always so intriguing and full of insights.
    I suppose that’s because this planet really is one vast placebo town.
    Even the real drugs are placebos as people desperately search for the Real Thing.
    Who’s to be found in Christ Jesus.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. The pseudo correctness of Placebo Town
      versus the real deal, Jesus Christ, who
      wears the crown of true righteousness.
      Thanks for the dose of veritas, Chris 🙏😎
      . . . Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat

      Like

      Reply

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