The Rhymes of Time

8/14/2019 The Rhymes of Time

1/21

The Rhymes of Time by Graham O'Brien

Written in 2006 / 2007

i.A Stroll through the Capital

As I watched the rain-soaked window pry away from my eyes

I viewed someone different to my surprise

I saw the streets below full of paying customers

Cobblestones and marble they walk on

I sat for hours watching the heads go by

I had the Mountain View and quietly sighed

Up in this castle of Georgian strife

I wondered what has gone on in my life

Reluctantly picking up a guitar, I start to play

Any chord or song, come what may

I had seen this scene many times before

Less is my contradictions of mind, my intelligence grows to boreThis hapless soul whose only power is to write

About his surroundings within sight

When I woke up along the river bank the other day

The fish below were singing in a unique way

Another day alive and under

The killers of cannibals began to wonder

Time passes by as I view the giant watch of wisdom

Hanging from the tower of the kingdom

Shadows begin to fade at the break of dawn

The sun slowly rises as I yawn

Sin to be up this early at night

Struggling to keep my mind right

Sleep is for the weak and the feeble

For one night I slept in a school

Sometimes I would scream into my pillowOnly other place with this luxury is space

Books can be bought on compact disc

A new format for an age-old tradition.


2/21

ii.Sleep is Not Welcome Here

Walking around my birthplace, an ever- changing city

Sometimes though I feel pity

For our people in need

Another church recites the Nicene Creed

The people who steal to survive should cry

Lending money and not returning could see you die

Inflation, oil, and prices are on the riseYet companies get the bigger prize

The secret of success that burns all walks of life

Taking most monies from young husbands and wives

Ambition to succeed is at a low

People just want to take life slow

If they do not find a way to get the best chance

Avoid the anger and the constant rants

Wanting to escape this dangerous place

Surveying the damage on the people's face

As I sit here now, writing a random script

Not knowing what there is to depict

Times are changing for the unpleasant

This is not some adolescent fad

Permanent damage has been done here

It is only a matter of time before friendship turns to fear.


3/21

iii. Random Writings of a Sleep Deprived Man

I am a man of bones

Deprived of sleep, I slowly work

Eyes shot with blood

Can't recall the last time the shop was closed

Open twenty four hours and a minute

The times when the trucks unload their load

Goods and services sought for useCurtains hiding a window; a rare sight

Wondering if sand came from mountains

Total eclipses happy with darkness

Which causes light to get pissed off

The floor remains carpet but wants to be wood

Said in a conversation with a wall

The clock said to me one day that it didn't have the time

I threw the computer out the next day

A printer once said wallpaper was the answer

Before being directed towards the door

Wilderness excites me

Those koalas really enjoy those trees

The steel said to a gas once that I am the greatest

Before being knocked with the first punch

The light outside my house goes on at half-four

Wish sometimes you could turn the sun off

Newspapers report recycled garbage

Not surprising because it's made from the stuff

The waves in the sea are trying to tell me something

Lakes just don't listen as well as they used to

Pink is the new black

Let's hope brown won't want to be grey

The deep is wild, lot of unknowns

Probably where the invention of the egg came about

Introduction is like opening a wardrobe

No direction in particular just paid the first thing that comes to mind.


4/21

iv. Inside the Mind of Insanity

I saw a bowl of mustard once

Well, it was the anniversary of William of Orange's conquest

Clouds are cool too

Another reason to make weather that much more mediocre

Had pizza for breakfast

Do they still call it pizza if cereal's put on bread?

Unaware that my room is painted silverNot gold, to use the term heavily

Dialled up a number and it said keep trying

Gave up the instant it told me I had won time

A house screamed purchase

Before being knocked down for yet another ice cream kiosk

A maverick of sorts once told the tale of legend

After catching the fugitive in bed with his mother

Under a bed are books I never read

Who would want to read about 'How to Save the World and Get the Girl?'

Sounds like another quote from a comedy

Tragic to see a cowboy losing his prized whore

In a world where bombs drop at the sight of a mission

Funny how so many are made by people who develop spoons

A cup of coffee that is perfect

About the same chance as me becoming a successful poet

A man without his keys

Can't get into the kingdom

Important to have the essentials

Need a ladder to get of this hole

Weird how children scream while running

Quiet when sleeping to music in the background

Men with ponytails

A farmer's dream comes true

Blue skies with cloud

Like chocolate cake and broccoli

Once talked to myself for days on end

Learned a lot about the others

Leaves with different colours

Humans exist this wayA room with a view of the sea

Another reason to buy flowers

Grass and concrete do not mix

No matter what magicians say

Don't get me started on how air planes fly

Forbidden to know the laws of a stone

Why I understand, I couldn't tell you

The spirit carries on and on and on and then a little more

Like varnish on an old abused table

Which shade of white do you get when you put white paint on it?

Ladybirds are orange and black

Do not listen to books

A teardrop is different to rain

More emotion on your feet

Comets collide with planetsA good time to rebuild what has been won.


5/21

v. The Old Hall of Non - Study

Two hundred orange and black

Three men overlooking

Another two men and a women staring at them from the back

Yellow clashes with cream

Brown and beige floors

Four green doors with eighteen exitsIf you are more daring

Filled to the brim

Or derelict depending on the season

A path to nowhere awaits the failing

Navy and yellow is what you sit on

Blue and black is what you write with

Green when a day like this is occurring

Count the dots on the wall

About nine hundred and fifty thousand last time I checked

Yellow signs of silence are met with red faces of indignation

Not wanting to play a part in lunchtime detention

At my worst, I didn't see this place

Not even a penalty sheet to my Grey collar name

Some get their kicks by getting many to feel alive

I coincidentally feel dead inside

As I look at my dreary grey jumper and

How depressing it is to wear a uniform like this

I just get on with it, ignoring the gloom

Surveying the room in a imprisoned class

Many colours are found in this hall

Eighteen lights to guide

Creates a light show to great effect

Just sitting here, writing about a big room I am in

Hall of study, shame to call it that

Considering colours dominate this most depressing of rooms.


6/21

vi. Old Man Plane

Old man plane fell out of the sky

With people in his hands

Thirty miles outside the capital

I couldn't really understand

Rare to see the green and white

In a heap in an empty field

The people that saw this man go downSaid that he was crying

Smoke-filled tears; people dying

The scene of war has become a scene of peace

But tragedy is ever present

The doomed sleeping in their chairs

As they approached the final descent

Made a prophetic crash look like an accident

This field finally has a use

A scene where an old man lost his shoes

And struggled to stay upright

Eventually in tears, falling to the ground

Insurance was useless except for the plane

And for the few that made it

Eight people in all witnessed and survived

An event that changes any life that it touches

Wish the old man could bring me to the city

Which is bound by perilous history

Should have seen this beautiful city

But fat said it wasn't to be

I guess we all have nightmares

But it is worst when they become reality

If only he hadn't lost his cane

Old Man Plane (and about a hundred a fifty passengers)

Would still remain.

I saw the plane

Couldn't wait to go on

The view outside the window pane

Seconds later would be gone

Thousands of feet in the airOutside the cold is too much to bear

I then saw windmills below

Wish it snowed

For then the flight would be delayed

Then the game wouldn't have to be played.

I have these dreams

Of flying machines

Falling out of the sky

Many people die

But I was wondering the other night

In the sky was a burning light.


7/21

vii. Excessive Thought Patterns

Weird how I think these things

I think too much

People tell me this all the time

But sometimes, it's good to think too much

Everything and more is covered

Sometimes more than it should be

Is it even worth writing about?I don't know really

I guess I do think too much

I need help but not directly

Going through a phase that I feel trapped

Page after page

Line after line

Is filled with rage

My life would define.


8/21

viii. Thoughts of the Future

My future is uncertain

Will I become a success?

Or will I wither into the abyss?

The first one would be nice

Because then I can see myself living

But if the latter happens

I cannot see beyond itAm I depressed?

Do I even know its definition?

Am I so sure that my life will turn out in a certain way?

Who am I to judge whether I'll achieve my dream

Four floored Georgian house on a three - Acre Island in the middle of a lake

Ultimate isolation

Eventual desolation

If I do achieve this, will I be happy?

Would I need all that space and subsequent isolation?

Questioning my existence has grown up with me

I am yet to discover my true function

Controlled by a panel of ''experts''

They have mapped out my life

I wish never to see it for then

An eternity of strife-ridden predictability waits

Life is a fast thing.


9/21

ix. Lifes Philosophy

My philosophy on life is:

'You live in the past and when the present comes, open it.

However when you see the future, it is beginning of the end'.

Though I am young, I feel old

I am feeble yet I am a teenagerTo define any status of life is impossible

Wills do not come into the equation

The will to do something is beyond me

I laugh as I turn pages

Into little cages

Each one locked up to fit my sorrows

Against the wall that I can never touch

When I feel down, I write

I write ten pages a day

I am the happiest man in the ward

I am going nowhere, last time I checked

Constant reminders of my fifteenth year.


10/21

x. Requiem to Study Hall

In this room of depression

Feels like another economic recession

I sit alone looking in front of me

An empty space that has never seen light

Reminds me of the blight

Forbidden to eat, a felony to talk

This is not a place where you can just walkIn and out; different beings

All with different stories and meanings

Sit on the chair and be quiet

In this place once was a riot

The blinds protects the beings from the outside

Nowhere or no one to confide

Make a sound and you will be caught

Instant detention will be sought

No trial straight to be confined

No words described

Rather than to show false hope and embrace it

The colours of the room remind of a faucet

Letting thousands out, only few in

Will to show up has been thrown in the bin

Black as night in the middle of the day

It's bright but it is marginally kept at bay

No doubt this place exists

No goals to report, despite infinity of assists

Ink bleeds from the tools we use

An offer we cannot refuse

Another sentence passed

Avoid being gassed

In this prison of fun and games

A pursuit of squires but no dames.


11/21

xi. Finding the Roots

Am I to discover the roots of the equation?

I then realize there is a credible contradiction

The main function of a living human is to die

The ultimate irony

No immortal beings on this ship

Set a course for yet more emptiness

All of the possessions of the wealthyAre worth nothing in the real world

Is ninety eight per cent of Mathematics irrelevant in real life?

The answer is x or y or any other symbol you can think of

Plus and minus make the world goes round

Not how to differentiate something

Algebra: every man and woman's quarrel

Like Marmite; love it or hate it

Spending a day in school is not worth it

If you over half of it will not be in a classroom

Suicide is a complicated matter

Methods many, but some have no choice

Sometimes I look at pictures of space

And wonder what happens if I keep going north

Chances of me getting out alive

Try winning the lottery

While getting struck by lightning

You get the picture that is painted

Use of vivid colour is not tainted

Times when I just want to get out

Of this pointless life

Not to sound suicidal

Almost but not quite there yet

When I leave this world

I can say I will be sarcastically missed

They didn't even knew I existed

The entire world seems small to me

Wondering if I'll ever see Jupiter

What it feels like to be commanding

Wondering if I'll ever have confidenceTo speak in front of myself

Mentally I am a plane crash waiting to happen

A collapse of all things around me

Up and down like stocks

Buying and selling events at prices

That only few can acquire

Many people's desire

Is to jump off a bridge

Just to find out what feels like

Feels like suicide to me


12/21

xii. Fragile: Cannot Be Returned

I am the master of broken electronics

Everything I touch cracks like a mirror

In a way, I am like a mirror

Fragile and non - refundable

I see the world also as this

It is cracking ever so slowly

Amplifiers, various music playersHave fallen victim to my bad luck

In a way, I am not surprised

It has always been this way

Hopefully I will not brake

Like a twig found in an derelict forest

Remote island not seen for an eternity

Finds refuge in its peace

I see my clock ticking but not moving

Like a heart

Batteries not included though.


13/21

xiii.A Principals Visit

The man came in the door

Commanding presence, he witnessed

Showed distain at the people's shortcomings

But complicated their achievements

A man of few words, he keeps it short

Brief encounter with lasting impression

Although this man has everything going for himInside he hurts

Brain tormented; heart split

A dilemma has broken him

Lowest denominator at the highest level

Depression follows quickly; his mind falters under pressure

Coming in the next day distraught and out of place

His lack of energy and love for life is soon realised

Depression takes hold of him as goes down

In the abyss of a broken dream

Seeking refuge in disappearing from the school

Of despair in which his fate was sealed

Hope is there but it is too late

All I wanted was a safe passage through life with little danger

This proved not to be the case.


14/21

xiv.Fake Friends and Other False Answers

Bruised mentally, I struggle through one of life's many institutions

School proved to be the place where my spirit & confidence

Faded away like an unsung hero

Intimidated by people whose arrogance will eventually show the real them

Strange how anyone would see these type of people as friends

But yet some do and feel torture inside

Funny how life throw you rosesAnd forgets to tell you about the many thorns

Of future regret that is to come.


15/21

xv. Dreams of Flying

Blue skies over my head

A young growing boy once said

Clouds make all kinds of shapes

Before time, before they made tapes

On the way, playing in my head an old guitar

Wonder if this will get me far

Music flows through me like a boltOf lightning with many a volt

Looking out beyond the gate

Where it matters when you have no date

Inside here I am alone

Talking to myself silently while I lick an ice cream cone

Many interesting things to know

How in an airport, people come and go

No time to stay and enjoy the view

Out with the old and in with the new

Boarding this flight to get to the top

Airplane food is usually not nice so I bought

Sweets from the duty-free shop

In- flight movies are usually good

Put me asleep then any other thing could

As I glide over the ocean in this plane

I have here something to gain

Air miles that in time will prove useful

And a girl sitting next to me who is beautiful

We talked on the trip nearly the whole way through

Have a lot in common we both do

In a bar, a school, or in my case

Thirty-five thousand feet.


16/21

xvi. Not Acting My Age

Times I felt good are gone a long time

Weird how the events were chronicled in my prime

I feel I am in my prime now while I am young

As I feel the future for me is blurry

Unlike some people who see it before their eyes

My future lingers in my between my past and whatever comes

After the uncertain and blind presentArrogance kills people from the inside

But they hide it very well

Even though the pain puts me through hell

I feel this hell but about arrogance

I just feel comparisons determine where I will end up

In the middle of a foreign street, lying lifeless

Or in my sleep after a full life

I think the first choice because I have no choice

Thinking of taking my own life

Has been considered

But I might leave it to fate

Even though I will hate

The sight makes me feel tormented

In choosing love and life or depression

I write my pains

So I don't have to feel

If I were to leave here tomorrow

I have seen the future

And it doesn't paint an ideal picture

Religion clashes with hate

War ensues

And eventually hope fades into despair

An ironic way to see the auld world go.


17/21

xvii. Foreign Street Fumbles

Running risk of losing the best thing

That has ever happened to me

A chance at life for the entire world to see

But will I waste the chance by ending it all

In the name of the street where I fall

Out of a window of opportunity

Onto the hard, unforgiving groundBreaking me until I feel nothing

A blessing of sorts

But an ending not ironic

To this life bestowed upon me

Emotions need not be here

Only in my writing can I be heard

I am deaf otherwise

I walk through streets of emptiness

Streets I know too well

Welcome to my personal hell.


18/21


19/21

xix. Trip with Friends

I arrived early at the entrance

Once there, I had a short glance

Security was fine; I went through

To duty-free, where purchases were made by a few

I didn't buy a paper which I now regret

Not knowing what horse to bet

Breakfast was quick and efficientNot yet wanting to become self- sufficient

We then waited to be called for our flight

The plane was a nice auld sight

The sun rose from its slumber

When the attendant called out our number

Wrote this on this flight over

Flew over Liverpool, Amsterdam and Dover

Like breakfast, the flight was fast

Head above the clouds and birds below finishing last

As I survey the itinerary of the tour

Many interesting events to occur

Nice to have such good friends

Who will be in my memories until the end.


20/21

xx. Return of Frustration

The return of frustration is a sight all too familiar

Religious beliefs collide

Spiritual guidance they do confide

Oil is thicker than blood

Usually a good source of income

You cannot cross the kingdom

Unless you have deep pocketsModern attitudes ignite this fire

Emitting infinite revenue

With death as its only expenditure

Commercialism is a thing of the past

They say the dream will never last

The world is a beautiful thing

But not for long if it continues the way we live today

In our own special way

Society is changing for the better

Not for the pretentious trend setter

No one turned into someone

And then thrown into the archives

Of an once majestic being

That brought us life and seeing

It fade away seems too cruel a task

But eventually the inevitable will happen

Hopefully our train of thought will take a turn

Into a future rather than no future

And then I can die happy

Knowing the next generation will be able to

Handle the problems of old

And use the prior knowledge they have been told

To save this old bird from falling

Into the abyss of the unknown

Territory we do not want to invade

For any reason: none of the above

Loneliness loves misery

Misery loves company

A quote all too familiar to me.


21/21

xxi. Return to the Capital

While I walk again through my birthplace

I see a face looking back in my direction

Looking at me with sparkling blue eyes

A look of flirtation, not of despise

Rare for a young man like me

Everyone usually sees as ugly

Perception of one's looks is commonplaceAll they do is look at the face

And don't bother to look beyond the surface

Lies I have told many

But not as much at me than told

I tend to see and conserve inner beauty

Rather than show it off

An armies display of power

In the past though, I have peaked myself too soon

Almost to the point where I thought I can fly

But I came down to earth with a thud that would rival Tunguska

Shattered expectations for a time veered me off course

Threatened by my friends became no surprise

One day I became deaf

Then people suddenly started to become interested in my life.

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The Rhymes of Time

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