Beware The Poison Chalice


Beware the nerdy photo geek,
The camera club conditioned clone
Who says odd numbers must prevail,
Three or fives or stand alone,
Forgetting that no bird or flower
Knows the camera club’s strict rules
Or sits inside a studio
Posing for these geeky fools,
Waiting for members there to show
Their expertise with photo tools.

Beware still more the photo geek
Who sits in judgement on your shot,
The self appointed one who knows
What is acceptable, what’s not,
And in a patronising tone
Says the birds in your blue sky
Have no place, should not be there,
Without ever thinking why
The very self same birds
Choose where and when they like to fly.

But worst of all despair, despair
Of those constrained by folk like these,
Who kill their creativity
In an effort to appease
The camera club conditioned clone,
The know-all in the judges chair,
And blindly follows their advice
And in doing so despair
Of their own aesthetic sense,
This is a poison cup, beware.

© Lynne Joyce 10.07.2013

A Writer’s Sonnet

Human in theory, the writer sits
Outside the seething, teeming human herd,
A silent observer, one who never fits,
Labelled an oddball, loner or a nerd
By those who follow common rituals,
Rituals that say they’re all the same,
Wear the same clothes, eat the same victuals,
All part of the human bonding game.

Immune to this she listens and observes,
Closely notes their tragi-comedies,
Elegantly mixes words then serves
A distillation of their tragedies.

While writers sit outside, observe and write,
Herd members read to learn and gain insight.

26.05.2012