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Squeeze It

  Ten Poems on Creativity & Setbacks

  Paul Whybrow

  Copyright 2015 Paul Whybrow

  Published by Paul Whybrow

  Cover Art: Google Images

  Squeeze It

  Ten Poems on Creativity & Setbacks

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold

  or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,

  please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did

  not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and

  purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work

  of this author.

  Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. While some of the place names are real, characters are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Squeeze It

  Ten Poems on Creativity & Setbacks

  'My own mind is very hard to me.

  It is just as if I were carrying my mind around.

  What is the matter with you?'

  Tlingit Tribe

   

   

  Contents

  The Poems

  It's a Blunder-full Life

  Everyone's A Critic

  Reasons For Bravery

  A Heart of Hollow Halls

  Life's A Habit

  It's All Illusion

  Pilgrim Hearts

  Afraid or Wise

  Hyperdrive

  Squeeze It

  The End

  About The Author

  Also by Paul Whybrow

  Novellas

  Short Stories

  Song Lyrics

  Poetry

  Novels 

  Connect with the author

  Squeeze It

  Ten Poems on Creativity & Setbacks

  Paul Whybrow

  It's a Blunder-full Life

  There's no revelation of joy

  awaiting most of us.

  We struggle, often fail

  and suffer through.

  Despair and doubt

  are our perpetual lot.

  Folk will always knock you,

  as you try once more.

  Many give up,

  fall prey to apathy,

  take uneasy ways out,

  their spirits wracked and torn.

  If only we were praised

  just once in a while,

  given a pat on the back,

  told we were doing well.

  That so rarely happens.

  We stumble along

  over stones in the road,

  through our blunder-full life.

  Everyone's A Critic

  What do you do?

  I can't do that,

  But I could do

  It better than you.

  And you could do

  More than you are.

  I don't understand

  Your success, at all.

  You've had these thoughts.

  Admit that you have,

  When watching anything

  Done by someone else.

  Excellence sometimes

  Silences your mealy mouth.

  Or you utter begrudging

  Praise and admiration.

  More fun to take pot-shots,

  To snipe at easy targets.

  Keep them in their place

  With contempt and envy.

  What you detest may be delight

  For someone else, their joy

  Salve for the bile you fling.

  It's chance how things even out.

  Is it that we perpetuate nastiness?

  Do we simply share the pain

  We felt, getting our own back?

  They did it first, so I'm passing it on.

  What have you ever placed on the line?

  That would mean risking being hurt,

  By sharing who you really are inside.

  It might make you reconsider criticism.

  They say that 'everyone's been burned',

  But some do little, while hurling flares.

  It's odd how the conflagration of failure

  Warms the souls of such cowardly critics.

  It's rarely a long-lasting fire, for time

  Obliterates embers with a kick of soil.

  Ghouls and trolls move on, seeking light

  From others' magic to tear down to nothing.

  Reasons For Bravery

  A warrior, now an old man,

  Told me of his brave act,

  Which won him a medal.

  He charged a machine-gun

  Nest, slaughtered the enemy,

  As they were reloading.

  He expected to be killed,

  Almost needed to die then.

  Tormented by bullets and bombs,

  He ran into oblivion, firing blindly,

  Simply wanting it all to end.

  He hadn't been brave at all.

  A woman, now free and living life,

  Told me of her brave act.

  Which won her independence.

  She left an abusive home-life,

  Where her father ruled in terror.

  Brutalising his daughters

  And gentle loving wife.

  She expected to be brought back,

  Hunted down and chastised.

  Vulnerable and open to exploitation,

  She struggled, and won through.

  She hadn't been brave at all.

  Sometimes we do what we can,

  Because it's all that's left to do.

  Backed up to an unyielding wall,

  Forced to jump a fiery pit of hell,

  We endure, despite fears and doubt.

  Others may look and call it bravery.

  Praise us for courage and fortitude.

  But desperation and despair trigger

  Precipitous leaps into the unknown.

  Getting out from under and escaping,

  Even risking things getting worse

  Isn't bravery—it's simply taking a stand.

  A Heart of Hollow Halls

  Listen to the echoes

  resounding in the dark.

  The bang of slamming doors.

  A whistling through cracked panes.

  Hammer-heeled conscience patrols cold corridors,

  Looking in on the man I was, shuffling lost and sad.

  From room to room through webs and dust, the ruins of my dreams.

  I can't see out through moss-ringed windows for the vision I used to have.

  Discarded plans blow past my torn feet: I scarce recall such hopefulness.

  I inhabit this place, wandering listlessly, not thinking of all that could have been.

  A heart of hollow halls.

  Life's A Habit

  Feeling like a robot,

  I looked at who I was.

  I did the same things

  Over and over, no thought

  Involved, an automaton.

  I got through well enough.

  Unawareness my guardian.

  Doing more important things,

  This habitual behaviour,

  Palely escorts my creativity.

  Replacing bad habits with good

  Is said to be the key to happiness.

  My personal customs line-up,

  Hemming me in familiarly.

  I hold onto their support and fret.

  It's All Illusion

  We believe what we can.

  That's it, in a nut-shell.

  Stretching the possibilities


  Is harder than we're able.

  Knocked flat by disillusion,

  We fail to see it's all illusion.

  Dreams are always floating.

  Near and far, they hover.

  We think they leave us,

  But they are ours to hold.

  You can do what you believe

  Or not do it, if that's your truth.

  Try fooling yourself as a friend.

  Shift your viewpoint, nudge it

  Sideways, pinching your gossamer

  Dream by a corner for new inspection.

  It's not so bad after all, is it?

  If you think it will work, it just might.

  Pilgrim Hearts

  Searching for salvation

  Through souls mired

  In grey sadness,

  digging deeper holes

  for precious dreams.

  Something may grow,

  rise up from the loam,

  into a sky alive with wings.

  Such is how new hope

  creeps out of strata

  of weariness.

  Pilgrim hearts linger,

  take stock and grow.

  On with the search,

  scanning horizons.

  Casting our eyes

  to meet others

  wandering

  in search of

  belief.

  Afraid or Wise?

  Life's lessons are harder learned

  Than anything in the class-room.

  No paper qualifications in sight,

  Just ragged diplomas carried within.

  It's easier to learn how not to do things,

  Than to find a foolproof way to succeed.

  There isn't one anyway, whatever you're doing.

  It's all hit-and-miss, trial and error muddling.

  If you're still in some game, you may be brave

  Or just stupid, nor caring what happens to you.

  I stepped out from most things a while ago.

  Does that make me afraid or wise? I'm not sure.

  Hyperdrive

  What's in me

  Is coming out.

  Don't know

  Where I'm bound,

  But I'm warping

  Through time.

  A rooster-tail

  Incandescent,

  Drives me.

  Stellar Mysteries

  Surround me

  Rocketing through.

  I'm looking for

  My destination.

  I may explode,

  Fall to earth.

  Becoming a comet

  Of wonder and doubt.

  Squeeze It

  Put it under pressure.

  See what pops out.

  Some things, some people

  Need squeezing,

  To reveal what's inside.

  They'll just sit there

  If you don't.

  Replete in their juice,

  They'll slowly rot away.

  Stale and wasted,

  Turning in on themselves.

  Goodness turned rank.

  You could have used it.

  So, squeeze it.

  The End

  About The Author

   

  Paul Whybrow has a young head on old shoulders.

  Ex many things, including being a teacher, counsellor,

  librarian, dispatch-rider, milk-man, postman, bar man,

  house renovator, classic vehicle restorer, courier,

  van driver, factory worker, project manager,

  live-in carer for the elderly, editor, photographer,

  volunteer at a community centre, play-schemes,

  homeless campaigns and nature conservation projects.

  I wrote non-fiction magazine articles for ages,

  but turned to creative writing in the summer of

  2013. I've been my own boss for a long time,

  which means I'm working for an idiot and the

  pay is lousy—but the holidays are great.

  Paul Whybrow has a good heart inside a battered chest.

   

  * * *

   

  Also by Paul Whybrow

   

  Novellas

   

  * A Man Out Walking His Dog—A tale of mistaken identity.

  * Burpwallow Holler—Loyalty in post Civil War America.

  * Quarry—A gangster becomes prey in a lethal reality TV show.

  * Ghosting—How a lonely biologist finds peace with the ghosts of her life.

  * Is It Her?—A new start is offered to a grieving widower.

  * A Blue Tomorrow—Temptation and new beginnings on a farm.

  * Hearts On Tour—Small town friends support one another.

  * What Would I Do Without You?—A newly-single wife begins life again.

   

  Short Stories

   

  * The Moon Is Out Tonight—Two soul-mates separated by circumstance.

  * Due-Date—A soul in limbo is given a new job.

  * Jacqui In Space—A 20th century explorer on 22nd century Mars.

  * Over And Out—Things come to a head on a 50th wedding anniversary.

  * In The Graveyard At Dawn—A boy and his dog among the graves.

  * Soul-Swapping—Moving souls, a demon tries to get back to hell.

  Song Lyrics

  * 12 Country & Western Lyrics—hope, regret and seeing things as they are.

  * 13 Kinds of Blue—trouble's your only friend, ain't it?

  * A Dozen Pops—love in a bubble always goes pop.

  * A Dozen Rocks—head down boogie along the highway.

  * Box of Love—songs of love and hope.

  * Howling For You—the sadness goes on and on.

   

  Poetry

   

  * Love Stages—Love affairs seen at different phases.

  * Love Begins—The thrill of the new, the nervousness and delight.

  * Love Ends—What do you do when things go wrong?

  * Love Hopes—How would you like love to happen?

  * Love Wishes—In an ideal world your affair would be like this...

  * Nature's Ways—Aspects of the natural world, happy and sad.

  * Modern Times—What it means to live in the 21st century.

  * Old Age Navigation—Ageing stinks, but it beats the alternative.

  * Darkness—Written from the endless night of the soul.

  * Darkness Darkness—We all have our dark side—how's yours?

  * Loneliness—The poverty of the soul, when you're alone.

  * Solitariness—The richness of the soul, when you go solo.

  * Poems To Ponder—Thoughtful and amusing poems for children.

  * Witches' Knickers—Silly and nonsense poems for young readers.

  * Hold Onto Yourself—Funny and warm poems for youngsters.

  * What Do You Like?—9 Erotic Poems

  * Building Story House—10 Poems on creating stories

  * Lost Among The Words—10 Poems about Writing

  * Friends And Other Confusions—10 Poems on liking others and yourself.

  * Chasing Big 'O'—9 Erotic Poems

  * Squeeze It—10 Poems on Creativity and Setbacks

  * We Stop Ourselves—10 Poems on Creativity, Doubt and Self-Belief

  * Love Scenes—10 Poems about love

  * Free To Fly—10 poems on getting through

   

  Novels 

  Coming soon:

  * The Perfect Murderer—a novel about a serial killer, who makes no mistakes.

   

  .

   * * *

   

  Connect with the author

   

  https://paulwhybrowblog.wordpress.com