T
he truth is always medicinal, but not always palatable. It is a sick and terminally ill world and as a result we all need some serious medicine. The contents of this book are condensed cogitations. Like any medicinal “pill� it may be placebo - nothing but sugar, or it may be something other, just what the doctor prescribed. You must consume at your own risk. In writing certain cynical chemistries have conspired to bulk up the content which may induce irreversible side effects. Indications of overdose are bewilderment, mild nausea and or possible hair loss. Manufacturers guarantee is that consumption will not generally be fatal. Contains: Refined verbiage, religious and possible irreligious additives. Extract of insight. Paper may contain vitamin C or high levels of arsenic, I can never remember which.
Disclaimer: Punctuation was employed at youth rates.
No atheists in foxholes....
and none at sea
CONTENTS
(Stuff that fits on this page)
Swept Away Selling Jesus We Will Muriwai Morning Crisis of Rhetoric Dust Eloquence of the Heart Rust Warphan The Process Witness this Death The Fallen Ebb & Flow Hide The Dead Foreign Man Terminator Two Vanity of Thought Trials Massacre On St Valentines Day Bachelors Dream In The Poets Eye Loves never Lost A Sailors Dream Fire In His Eyes The Road Home Coming.. Ready or Not Moral Chasm Some Things Never Change Time / Continued Words Steel Injustice Fat and White Gulf War 1 Eden Communion Killer Virus
13 15 17 18 20 23 24 27 29 31 32 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 54 57 58 61 62 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83
dis-CONTENTS
(Stuff that dosen’t fit on the other page)
84 87 89 91 91 93 95 97 97 99 100 108 112
Scars Crucifixions Continue Man made A City Xmas Wondering Angels Visit Seduction of Technology Oh Lord our God God made Gone & Forgotten Appendix Kidney Spleen
Note: The faces of the other two anonymous art students have been digitally manipulated way beyond recognition. They are almost certainly not Brendan Adams or Noel Ivanoff.
In 1984 I abandoned art school misadventures in favour of following after a man that did more than anyone else to answer the BIG questions in life. I’m still tagging along with him as best I can, and honestly glad of it. Jesus is the man, and he has taught me that true love is eternal, unfailing, bigger, brighter and bolder than the human mind or spirit can grasp. Walking and talking with him has given life reason, and robbed death of it’s substance. He wants us to follow him, not for His sake, but for ours. Choosing to do so was difficult at first - I enjoyed sin, but in the end “absolute surrender” was the sensible option. The name “Serious Medicine” describes the solution to the state of terminal sickness that all mankind are born into, a state of Self Indulgent Nastiness (SIN). Terminal illness requires very serious medicine indeed, an aspirin won’t do, a placebo won’t do and a misdiagnosis in this instance is medical misadventure at its worst. Fortunately in Jesus we find the “great physician” not only diagnosing correctly “All have sinned... and the wages of sin is death”, but providing the very medication we need in himself - “for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life...” and “by grace you are saved through faith and that NOT of yourselves it is the gift of God” Theses poetic scrawls that follow are my offering, extracted from the few working brain cells I have left and scribed before old age shakes my marbles any looser. Most of these poems retain an element of sickness, the cure is a slow recovery at best. May the rest of your life be found in His company.
Alistair Craig - a transient.
12
swept away
13
With a longing groan for her redeemer, earth groaned then cracked, distressed by grinding plates. Swelled the oceans guts and sent a heaving concentric surge over life. Life over now. Persons, once personalities, stench like dead beasts, blistered by the once tourist Sun, yearning now, only for the grave. Mortality of the left behind seems more fragile now, in the light of merely minutes of moving waters. Tired of the appeal, we change the channel. We have the option. We have the remote, but no control.
14
selling jesus
15
Church slipped from community to commodity while we were taking an ad break. Slick and superior sales technique in a bidding war for the souls of the saved. Sin and salvation are so last Century. No modern Noddy needs conviction or conversion, they can always find it in the small print after the sale - if they are so inclined. Let us offer a sanitary salvation, all the benefits. Cross out the cost and offer a bargain. In fact let’s forget the lost and the cross altogether, too messy. Focus on selling the Church to the saved. Rake in some tithers so we can afford to go high tech and buy into TV to promote ourselves in the guise of God. Well done good and faithful servant. I would have seen your tv show but I was busy.
16
we will
17
From cause to effect we’ll explain it away, can’t put electrodes on God, can’t exist we’ll say. Jesus is history, said he’d return like a thief in the night, but he hasn’t come yet and he isn’t in sight. So... We’ll continue to lie, steal and hate. We’ll take our chances with Hell and with fate. We’ll kill babies in wombs and describe it as health. We’ll abscond with your money, for the sake of our wealth. We’ll sell you Johnnie Walker and worthless real estate. If you don’t meet your mortgage well that’s your problem mate. We’ll give you American Express, computer printouts without redress. But we’re alright mate, after all we’re Kiwis, not Yanks. We come from Godzone and for that we give thanks. We’ll thank our lucky stars, our horoscopes and lotto, if we can’t pay the rent we’ll drink till we’re blotto. Then when we die and are judged for our sin we’ll all say... “She’ll be right God, why can’t we come in?”
18
Blue ocean breaks its hold and slides up and down iron beach sand to well in ripples and fold over again, removing mans temporal marks on land. Sun slides its light beams up and over resistant pine clad hills to surge warmth and life to the waking, evicting the evening memory of chills. Pohutakawa sentinels, cloaked in royal red and tinged with gold, stand aged and wearied and watch and know. The zealot flesh of surfing young will soon grow old. Plump jeweled pigeon clothed by God arcs to heaven until gravity forbids its entrance. Plummeting to the manuka branch, ponders its next move. All seen by the soaring harrier, executor of the life sentence. Tui’s sing while a rusting burden coughs monoxide and imitates the life of a van, to ferry its fag smoking occupant to toil in asphalt and concrete environs pro created by man. Muriwai has cleared her throat and waits to see if legal tender can carve the land and supplant the trees with driven piles and concrete castles. Chill, west wind blows upon the Nikau soldiers as they stand.
muriwai morning
19
20
Let us impact the city when we’ve unpacked our theology. Rise up, enough is enough. When the going gets tough, the tough get going and make a stand up for Jesus. Empowered, we’ll live for Him, die for Him, anointed, appointed, washed in the blood, sanctified, saved, contemporary, raved. This will change your life, challenge your thinking, move you to action, fire of God, wind of the spirit, shake you, and make you. Enter into the seminar, the cd, dvd, all deliver, prophesy over me. So how come I’m still the same, unchanged today tomorrow and forever....
(please do not adjust your Halo)
crisis of rhetoric
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dust
23
What have I that you did not give me? Made from elements, formed of dust. I rise above the earth of clay only to worship things that rust. I look up and see the sun and moon, sky and stars, the cloak of space. Declaring myself wise too soon, I see stars and miss the grace. How noble I declare I am, till 70 years have past. The grains of time slink through the hourglass. Dust we were and dust we are. As if by chance we stumble on God and hear the echo of his words declare permanent things exist and are, have come from him and of him we share. Their beauty changes form but never dulls, love grows brighter, never dims. Peace knows no boundary walls and God by Spirit exists within. Stop now and wait, listen. Hear God who speaks, giving to the atoms order forming dust that lives. Full years of selfishness and pride, washed beneath the blood forgives. Wait foolish man on God, where wisdom grows like rivers clear and life penetrates all matter made. All bow and worship Him, declare; Turn this dust to diamond, to refract your light in facets glow and declare the glory of the dust that only the blood redeemed can know.
24
It may not be poetry, eloquent or even listenable. Carriages of thought derailed. Dead end sidings. Words grating like steel on gravel. But I hear the driver, the still kind voice of an eloquent heart beating, throbbing, pumping lifes oxygenated blood to people who attend Sundays triage in hope of healing of the crushing pains that seven days of the week bring, or else to joy in Gods answers distilled and distributed by Gods overworked, underpaid employees in this spiritual M*A*S*H called church. Between the lines of human words hide sweet indications of the Spirits loving infiltration and slowly intravenously the drip of life kills the cancer and we know it was the word of God inspired, an eloquence of the human heart derived by His presence only.
eloquence of the heart
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26
rust
27
Rust never sleeps, so Neil Young grew old. Sin ever creeps like cancerous mould. Seeping leaven, rampant in deaths dust. Must be absent in Heaven, if God’s truly just. No Rustkill or penicillin, we’d need more than a flood to retard this evil villain, but one drop only, Christ’s blood. Once scarlet, reversed in totality. White bride, once a harlot, stainless the eternal reality.
28
warphon
29
Bloody tiles, steel, sharded glass, hot burning black noise smoke explodes continually. Fell satellite guided from the sky and took my only security. Dismembered my family members. I remember, limbs lost and I called and called and couldn’t understand deaths horror mask clinging to my mothers face, gouged black eye unblinking. Wounds seared my souls capacity, mindless numb unthinking now I orphan, coded, numbered and data processed. Hurt, and you can’t extract that pain away with words or bullets or bombs or peace or dollars. It’s mine, paid for with my families flesh, before my eyes, burnt like the stench of cordite into my soul.
30
process
31
Backed into a corner, circumstance prevailed over me till I could do no more. All along the trail, given over and over to God till all that is left is a merciless and beckoning cross. Surely the work of God. My friend, lover, intimate confidant. Our Father who cares for my soul has constrained me to pain. The afflictions of the psalmist I never understood, when God is better than good. But why should I differ, when your own son bled his blood in prayer to say “not my will, but thine be done.�
32
Watched the sun come up. It crossed the sky, went down again. Another day passed away today and time progresses until the end. Ten fingers stretch to touch the world. Ten fingers around two iron nails curled. Washed by blood, two dust covered feet, suspended by spikes, drops blood on the street. And I wonder if anyone cares that the Son of God dies here?
witness this death
33
34
the fallen
35
Cast an eye about you, observe the human race. Explain life extermination, satellite spies in space. The cursed ideology that man is God somehow. In spite of all the evidence, we worship the sacred cow. When God walks amongst us, we hate him to the bone, despise his unique goodness, demand he abdicate his throne. Given time we will evolve to faith of a better state, where the blind can lead the blind with an honest degree of faith.
36
ebb and flow
37
Moving like a tidal flow, emotions ebb and go. Love pours over this mud terrain submerges the mangrove stain, moving ever slow. Cautious crabs hover, waiting the viscous seas safe cover. Pinching the flesh to feed upon the corpse of Adam’s dying seed, to see if he’ll yet recover. Welling up great neap tide of love, your source is from a well above. Eventually you must win, though the moon will draw you out again Gentle like the dove. But even battered he, orbits by your decree. To make us see what lies beneath the oceans of our poor bequeath; the sins of you and me.
38
hide the dead
39
A cemetery to hide the dead, spawns weeds where nothing needs be said. Little wonder that death and hell rejoice, when a bibles quoted by a sceptics choice. But the cemetery can’t hide the view, from deaths side all is true. And the victims remain victims of our loves lack, while on the living we turn our back. All the while in the brightness of our future grows the kingdom closer to our door Poes immortal raven raves “tell the truth no more, no more we’ll tell the truth no more”.
40
30
foreign man
41
Can we understand this foreign man? Who hung from nails on splintered logs. What crime love discovered in his heart and hand? Entire though crushed by demon cogs. We touched his heart with a steel sword but moved it with our hardened gaze. Congealed blood that spilled was from my Lord, not some man bound by mortals days. Heavens ambassador sent on mercies mission, to set free those caught in this earthen frame. To whom pride has held in inhibition, crippled like Jacobs wrestling left him lame. Come for those thirsting for Edens land, this Christ in us shall set us free. While all the while Hells fires are fanned, Oh tell me foreign man, when will you take me home to thee?
42
terminator two
43
W
ith flaming fire from Hells pit sent, to judge a nation with Gods consent. You turn to the IMF and Barbie dolls to see if they can save your souls. So much for you, savage suburban beast, for the power of your dollar has ceased, and those you trod upon now rise to tread underfoot the lord of flies. Led by Christ all Hell exposed, it’s restraining doors forever closed. Justice rolled down like eternal thunder and the angels reaped the golden plunder.
44
vanity of thought
45
Full vanity of thought, that the earth should revolve under my feet. But so it seems sometimes on this treadmill walk, till the corpse is covered by a crisp white sheet, and the body returns to the earths resolve. The race has been run now timeless sleep encapsulates my soul in perfect rest, awaiting the awakening of the holy trumpet sound, when earthen clay will release its best, and I may stand in Gods own court and gaze, knowing that I never knew the power of works done in former days.
46
trials
47
Basted in afflictions, roasted by degrees, seasoned by the trials that will take you to your knees. Count it not a strange thing, this testing of your faith, for gold must taste the furnace and the house must face the storm, dross must burn in earnest if the vessel will be formed.
48
Valentines day, it was a massacre. Plastic tubes and silk cut flowers, love blossoms and then it sours. I don’t want to be the cynic of course, but have you read the stats on marriage and divorce? Maybe it’s the fault of Eros, the God of lust. A god indeed, but not a god I’d trust. He makes love bleed and cash registers sing, takes the heart from the sleeve, makes lives blind to the real thing. St Valentines day, it was a massacre in blood that hung on the horizon this side of the flood. When desiring true love on Valentines day, recall the author of love and the price He paid for the way.
massacre on st valentines day
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batchelors dream
51
For surely now the time has come to put away another’s tale of pain, of love and joy for some betrothed upon the alter rail. Making allowance for natures state, seeking beyond to the perfect land, for freedom of loves emotions traits, when eyes light up, and a fire is fanned. Let another read of my life. The story of love as I have found. Born of God in the deep of night, formed and fashioned by heavens sound.
52
in the poets eye
53
In the poets eye is framed a picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so why construe and endless lecture or sing the song of mocking birds. Who enters life and lives and sees, feels the sun pierce white skyships above, is swallowed by mountains and dances on seas. There is no boundary so broad as the freedom to love. For to love is to live, to love not is to die, as the poet engraved in his son, while his tears mixed with blood as he hung in the sky.
54
Se v wit en d e h Eve in m aths y l ea ry on sou ay su l c i e The h au , on sh he ppre e s a r so bea icle I lov rt. sed h t f e of ull it ing k olds d, all de na a Ye ne ma ve, par t w t n tho once love ds a a gra. n u in gh I aga s the d enve a s kn in an ac ow I staeye dd, re d , oe rec end d se bou rt ss g en c an iproc will c ond ht lo d. d a at w o m e wil ll t d l o ho lov e wh nly se e e be ca will n a f ged gro on , n w d m ow em fre ory e .
love is never lost
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56
a sailors love
57
Far across the caustic seas, sailed your boat in storm and calm, but found no haven, no port of ease no sailor with a captains charm. The journeys end saw journeys return with weary bones and mind fatigue, to sail again the lessons learned, no longer enticed by its intrigue. And so again you have returned. Now bathe and sleep till spirits live and God grants the gift the sailors earned, for nothing is lost of all you give. I’ll anchor the lady, the yacht that is and lock her firm so no stranger sees, while sleep enfolds and rest it gives, the secrets of the ladies ease. Let morning call you fresh in light, rise my love come eat with me and the startled dreams will take to flight replaced by dawns security. We must draw the anchor and sail again for soon the moon will bring her tide and discover in us the burning flame that time the pirate sought to hide.
58
There’s a fire in the eyes of the orbs of compassion, that exposes my soul, like a shop mannequin stripped of its fashion. And it burns away the darkness, like a coal seam on fire, and it heals the wounded as the flames grow higher.
A passionate expression, an eternal dimension. He filtrated creation, a sublime concession. There’s a fire in His eyes babe, if you don’t get saved. Separation. It’s a great gulf fixed and it’s going to take more than your politics this time.
fire in his eyes
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the road home
61
Long straight tarmac, shimmers in the dry heat. The only objection to this destination is the hours it takes to travel this rough road. But with kin and laughter this rattleship eats the miles and we’ll soon be home again, to eat and sleep and plan the circuits of our travel. I know the road remains, though I’m not on it. The heat continues to weary some other traveller, some other day, to coat another with desert dust, to mock mans frail frame. Out amongst the red soil, I recall, the snake was not the only one to hear creations lonesome groan.
62
Riding on a white horse vestures dipped in blood with crown of gold Returning on predestined course with lions heart and nature bold Son of God and son of man Judah’s lion, resurrected lamb
The day dawns on the destruction of the grave The rising of the righteous rewards to the brave A sounding of the trumpet and a rending of the sky An apocalyptic vision of Christ’s glory set on high
coming... ready or not
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moral chasm
65
What moral chasm is that which we cannot fathom. An expanse so great, yet to cross we trust in fate. But to the centre of time we find, a bridge built, sublime. A barbaric cross, testifies Satan’s loss and marks forever a love divine.
66
The mist of today’s happenings have clouded yesterday’s view. We see so many things, we lose our sight of you. A plane crashed today, 69 dead. An unseen abortion adds weight to the body count, but only you watched as that child bled. Only you heard the scream, we were all transfixed by a state of the art TV screen. And we swear on Sunday we’ll come to the cross with you. Just don’t go during prime time, or our holidays... so what else is new?
some things never change
67
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Time the thief, the bandit of men. Lay siege to its bulwarks, but it wins in the end. Just beyond the door lays time retired, entrance is barred till our time has expired.
How time past, so fast, last week I couldn’t sleep, now I find I’m left behind. Years and months we cannot keep, yet to hold them we incline. As if to say we had control of purposed plans and destined soul. Processing time so small, while it with ease eludes us all. Escaped when clasped, it couldn’t last. It slipped with ease into the past. Marching on since Adam’s fall.
time & time continued
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words
71
What can I build with words that will last past a picture spoken, then gone. Words that will live when the futures past, a phrase that will echo on and on. Mortal man needs to be inspired, for if the flame burns clear it is not my own. Man’s words are strained by flesh that’s tired, it’s Gods word that stands unique alone.
72
steel injustice
73
Who counts the slaughtered by mans steel justice? Dismembered by mortars from the human race. Leeches of soul, how can anyone trust us while shrapnel of steel burns deep into face. Don’t speak of the living skeletons, we’re eating please. More important is what we’re entitled to earn. Lets keep the hungry well overseas, these images of war scar our real concern. Like the shadows of the vultures of greed, hunched around the TV set we sit and watch in mock horror as civilians bleed, torturing pet doctrines to make them fit. Guilty is our religion when devoid of God, when we know all the right words to say, but the thorn in our side is Ichabod, the convicted preach go, and with conviction we stay.
74
fat and white
75
I’m fat and I’m liked, I’m rich and I’m white, I’m such a nice guy they say. In the sun in Hawaii you just go brown. Cruise into overdrive, get some exposure in town. Quadriphonic, bass reflex, compact disc, plastic cards, plastic bars, plastic life, no risk. He’s black and lies crying, his mommas dying. They have no food today. In the sun in China you have to go brown. You have no choice in a military town, where the walls surround and the armies red, no master cards, only iron bars and freedoms dead. ... but I’m fat and I’m liked, I’m rich and I’m white, and I gave to charity today.
76
gulf war 1
77
Across the deserted sand dunes that bury the liquid black, fuel fires the tanks and trucks that bring the corpses back. Tornadoes never whisper, and newsmen never lie. High resolution satellite saturation means the media will never die. So now we see civilians dead, between ads for pimple cream and coke. Forget the words the wise men said, prescriptions that the prophets spoke.
78
eden
79
I met a man whose skin was black, his heart was white, his blood was red. Met a white man, his heart was black, he made the black man scared. History haunts the shackled and sold, hating the white man who trades for gold. He shoots white powder and sheds blood red, takes refuge in guns and wants me dead. Read of a red man who lived on the land. Read of some white man, told him just where to stand. On a reservation hidden from justice, blessed him with spirits, so he drank to paralysis. Saw a democrat shouting “death to the communists!” while fighting for peace by using his fists. Heard in the news and I know it to be true of the hate of a man because he’s a Jew. And the Jewish rejection of a man of their own, a carpenters son with a claim to the throne. And its not a wonder nor is it a mystery. Its the fruit of Eden, eaten by our ancestry.
80
Wine for blood the ex pagan drinks, that was pumped by the heart of Gods own son. A human divine sacrificial feast it links, when death thought to have battled life and won. This bread the token upon which flesh feeds is feasted on to renew the heart. Cannibals recall the one who meets the needs, for our body and spirit will be torn apart. Through the ages this link we have with thee, when ripped flesh dripped blood upon my sin, to quote “do this to remember me�, died for silver that you may live within.
communion
81
82
Let loose from Hell this murderer microscopic stalks the land like some serial killer unleashed Each victim the selected meal time topic while the virus breeds till its kingdoms increased When Satan strikes the flesh of mortal man recall the visions of Job and his fools for friends I see just how fragile I really am my words are but dust when God descends But you both cast off this fettered attack and will arise again more alive than before How near to the abyss of death you came back With God as your guide you tasted of war
killer virus
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84
The scars on my head where the blood flows red, I got them when I visited. The holes in my hands, understand, I got them in the Holy land. The scars on my feet aren’t fake, I got them when I trod on a snake.
74
scars
85
75
86
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the crucifixions continue
87
Nailed by media attention all power to the press as they color our perspective like Pilate’s powerless address By inflicting flesh felt wounds Scourged by the printed word By making a public spectacle With slander maliciously inferred To crucify afresh a man Not once or twice but multiplied Insatiable public interest Vultures too valuable to be denied And so like all good Romans purloiners on the justice trail The media hovers with the hammer and is first to drive the nail
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man made a city
89
Man made a city, laid concrete and steel, then clothed it with mirrors to hide what was real. Strung it with lights to look pretty, mans pretty city. But nothing could hide the stench and the squalor. It was deja-vu of Sodom and Gommorah, with lives made cheap by the almighty dollar. The high priests committed treason, though not without reason, while God looked down with a frown, for He understood the season.
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xmas & wondering
91
Satan dreams of “Santa” things, of Christ-less Christmas and financial schemes. Designed to consume the consumer dollar and leave us in a Godless squalor. Thinly disguised fat man in a suit of red, laugh at us until we’re dead. Swap some letters and what’s profound, Santa spells Satan when moved around...
I sit staring and wondering. The silence is thundering. My head and thoughts are numb, stalemate till dawn should come. p.s. I wonder what happens to life when the battery to my ipod runs down when my Nikes get holes, and I’m too old to clown?
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angels visit
93
“Be careful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained Angels unawares�
It was a rare, near extinct situation, the event of my angelic visitation. When unheralded by trumpets she first appeared, the blind never noticed, the rest never cared. But I saw in behind that mortal cloth, where sparks arced within your eyes and burn relentless in the soul, like life’s eternal ties. Across the gap of space and time escaped a spirits spark, which angled deep into my soul and smashed my flinty heart. Burning like new life, burn upwards holy fire - setting free. Now burning together upward into Christ, the angel, God and me.
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seduction of technology
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We fell to the seduction of technologies tower of Babel, in order to satiate our sin. Prisons loose their prisoners and the innocent stay locked in. Seeking for solutions we abandon moral law and built a silicon God, then bowed to worship nature and asked Speilburg for more. With good reason we dispute all truth and propagate our lies, while building on this unsound ground logic suffocates and dies. Maybe we will reach the sun? if the aliens don’t come first, by constructing a monument from junk more evidence that we’re cursed.
96
Oh Lord our God in whom we trust just when we think we have you sussed you shew us just how wrong we are to stand in judgement at your judgement bar. Cursed under the weight of sinful pride, I sigh unto God, my soul can not hide. Rend the heavens, consume this flesh and its lust, for in the arm of this man I no longer trust.
God made the birds, God made the bees He made the cat a home for fleas He made some snow and he built some trees lost the lot to “hairy knees” but not for long, He’ll get it back and hairy knees will get a smack.
oh lord our god & man made
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gone and forgotten
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If you should find my corpse slumped, abandoned and derelict in some chair, have no fear. My old house of cards is that sad thing there. But as for me, I’m elsewhere. Good night and God bless....
100
Appendix
- The truth about my poems.
This section contains all the answers to the questions you were too afraid to ask! It will also dispel the myths of interpretation you developed while reading these works and will ultimately reveal the truly shallow nature of the author. Pg 3 Notes on “Swept Away” My response to the Tsunami Disaster which in the barrage of information is an overwhelming emotional assault on the fragility of life. Bruce Cockburn the Canadian songs-smith wrote “death is no stranger, no stranger than the life I’ve seen.” The marvel of modern media is that it can bring distant catastrophes direct to our living room and challenge us to respond. The images demand our attention and the voyeur in us wants to watch but the overwhelming horror haunts our synapses to overload - driving us to retreat into the escapism of entertainment on another channel. Unfortunately for the sufferers they don’t have that option. A true horror lies in the prophetic picture the Bible paints of the end times where such disaster is only a portent of what is to come upon the earth. Pg 5 Notes on “Selling Jesus” Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Pg 7 Notes on “We Will” The Great Spirit never laughs so hard as when man says “I have a plan” Human nature refuses to recognise the severity of our own sin. We readily distinguish evil as being present in others and consider ourselves to be justified in all we do. We like to judge ourselves on our intentions but we judge others on their actions. Pg 8 Notes on “Muriwai Morning” Muriwai, West Auckland is a rugged beautiful place, my home for too short a time. The unfortunate thing about the beauty of such a place close to a large metropolitan area is that it becomes a magnet for people wanting to live there in turn endangering the very thing that attracts us. The iconic Kiwi, Derek Lind, wrote these song lyrics “they carved it up for real estate and sold it to people to build beautiful homes, beautiful homes made of stone and wood and they never could live in them try as they would, it was a wasteland” or just as astutely put in the sixties classic “They paved paradise and
put up a parking lot” Paradise is only paradise until everyone lives there! Pg 11 Notes on “Crisis of Rhetoric” Christianese rhetoric. Every conference and speaker and resource is billed as “Dynamic” “Life changing”, “Impacting”, blah blah blah” Words are easy, creating substance to justify the rhetoric is always another matter. Less conference’s for the haves and more doing for the have-nots might help. Pg 13 Notes on “Dust” Reality is more bizarre than is readily comprehended. We are all made of atoms that are largely nothing but space, a miniscule nucleus of matter and a infinitesimally small electron buzzing around in orbit. If the space in the atoms is removed and all the actual matter condensed I have been told that our actual physical substance would condense down to something the size of a match head. To top it off this substance is comprised largely of hydrogen and oxygen, two highly flammable gases and chuck that together with a bit of carbon, a dash of salt and pepper and you have a human being. Strange how we can’t design or construct life in the simplest of forms while so called scientists tell us “time and chance” were able to do so unaided and in spite of the first laws of entrophy. (thermodynamics) Pg 14 Notes on “Eloquence of the Heart” Our Pastors are not always charismatic, dynamic preachers. They are mostly however hard working people who sacrificially care enough for people to give themselves to a largely stressful and thankless task. Church often reminds me of the TV series M*A*S*H. A bunch of flawed medics who find themselves in a situation that is largely chaos. The remedy is to do your best and laugh a lot. Christ uses us in spite of our inabilities, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear. Pg 17 Notes on “Rust” For those who missed the seventies “Rust Never Sleeps” was a hit song by an artist called Neil Young. Sin is like rust, once it has set in there next to nothing you can do to stop it without major intervention. The longer its left the more severe the action required to remedy it. Fortunately there is one “rust killer” that really works, the shed blood of Christ. Don’t ask me how, but like some magic and secret formula, you don’t have to understand the chemistry to apply it. Just follow the instructions on the packet!
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Pg 19 Notes on “Warphon” How do we deal with the trauma of war on individuals. The ability of man to inflict trauma on each other astounds “is there no limit to mans depravity”. No amount of anything can erase the horror of mankind’s viciousness against each other. If war doesn’t make you believe in a devil, what will it take to convince you? Jesus said the “Devil comes only to rob, kill and destroy” that “he (the devil) was a murderer from the beginning”. In war the “father of lies” unleashes his true self. Pg 21 Notes on “Process” Gods desire for us is to be “processed” in the sense that we should become aware of our impurity and weakness that we might become purified from the nature of sin. The Christian life is not comfortable because like the clay on the potters wheel it must be broken down and worked to be made supple and consistent. Like gold we need to allow the dross to be separated, which only happens through the application of intense heat. As David reflects in so many of the great psalms, and I paraphrase “life sure throws a lot of curve balls, we are generally useless, but God is good, He loves us infinitely in spite of ourselves and the outcome is going to be good!” Stick with it. Pg 22 Notes on “Witness this Death” The centre of history is a man hanging on a cross. Ignore it at your peril. Pg 24 Notes on “The Fallen” Secular humanism, the belief that man is his own God, the result of evolutionary process. Time and chance apparently producing complex life. Survival of the fittest and given time enough we will evolve into wonderful loving creatures, caring for our planet, feeding the poor, healing the sick and devoid of all religious beliefs. Yeah right! Pg 26 Notes on “Ebb and Flow” Your guess is as good as mine, it seemed deep and meaningful at the time.... Pg 29 Notes on “Hide the Dead” For a while I lived opposite a cemetery. Occasionally groups of mourners would come to bury the dead. Somehow it’s a mockery - quoting a few scriptures over a corpse that never once gave God a thought while they lived. The scriptures that should be shared are the scriptures about the need to repent of sin before death takes us. “It’s appointed
unto man once to die and then the judgement” The rubbish about Jim or Fred or Sheila being up there now partying are vain and wishful. If Jesus bought anything to our attention it was the dire need to adhere to truth, even the unpalatable truth that there is a Hell and without faith in Christ we have no propitiation or atonement for our sin, no amount of good deeds or good intentions absolve us from our refusal to bow before Jesus. “There is a narrow way that leads to life and few there be that find it, there is a broad way that leads to destruction and many are going on that way” Pg 31 Notes on “Foreign Man” Jesus was a “foreign man”. Generally speaking we don’t like foreigners. He came into this world, the world was made by him, yet we rejected Him and left Him to die, naked and beaten, nailed upon a cross and hung up in the sun. Christians belong to that country from where He came. Sometimes I just want to go home. Pg 33 Notes on “Terminator Two” If Arnold was the first terminator, wait till Jesus returns. All the toys and gadgets and philosophies and explosives mankind can muster are all dust before Him. Jesus meek and mild was the Lamb of God at the first coming, but read Revelation. The second coming is Jesus the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Don’t mess with angry Lions. Pg 35 Notes on “Vanity of Thought”
When we are young and strong we feel on top of the world, bulletproof. Let time show up
all things for what they are. Fly in an aeroplane and look out the window at the cities below and imagine yourself down there, soooooo small. Read up on astronomy, galaxies billions
of light years away containing billions of stars, Then imagine what a “mote” you are. Dust we are and to dust we return but the good news is that there is another dimension where “scale is not relevant” Where eternal life can be enjoyed in the presence of a God so grand he speaks and universes are created. Pg 37 Notes on “Trials”
See notes on “The Process” It’s the same thing, but so darn real I had to put it down again.
Pg 39 Notes on “Massacre on St Valentines Day”
Nothing is sacred in the world where there is money to be made. Love is celebrated by
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making sure guilt drives you to buy stuff to express lust. Sex sells. Pg 41 Notes on “Bachelors Dream” I became a Christian at 22, I didn’t marry until my mid thirties. That’s quite a period of chastity when you’re in your prime! Everyone desires to love and be loved. I wrote this as one of the last bachelors on the bachelor bench at Church. It was great to celebrate others love and watch it blossom and grow and lead to marriage but it’s a frustrating business... Pg 43 Notes on “In the Poets Eye” God is the ultimate poet. Sees all and writes his poetry in human life and skies and seas and mountains and stars and clown fish and giraffes and... Pg 44 Notes on “Love is Never Lost” All that time as a bachelor meant I fell in love more times than I wanted to. Each time a person etched something of beauty and grace into my heart where they remained hidden till I finally married and let them all loose. Pg 47 Notes on “A Sailors Love” I had a vivid dream one night and when I woke it poured out with total ease into this poem. It relates to a particular unrequited love and is probably too cryptic but I include it because I think it has a tinge of inspiration and it paints a nice picture. Pg 48-49 Notes on “Fire in His Eyes” Dallas Graham wrote these lines in a song “When Jesus looks you in the eye, He knows what you’re thinking and why, when Jesus looks you in the eye, you have to look away” Nothing is hidden before Him with whom we have to do. Pg 51 Notes on “The Road Home” I have spent most of my Christian life involved in short term missions. One of my most enjoyable times was in Tanzania for 3 months. Africa is an exciting dangerous and somehow invigorating, infectious place. It made me feel very alive and never really safe. The long dusty roads in a beat up old Landrover somehow reflect creations groaning.
Pg 53 Notes on “Returning” He is and its worth thinking about. Pg 55 Notes on “Moral Chasm” Nothing we do can bridge the gap between God and us bought about by our sin. Fortunately the one and only bridge providing redemption spans the chasm completely. Via the cross we can get to go to Heaven and as we cross, like the pilgrim in Pilgrims Progress we find that huge sack of filth bound to us since birth mysteriously disappears. Pg 57 Notes on “Some Things Never Change” We are easily distracted. One reason revival is not happening in the west is simply this - too much distraction, easy entertainment beats the prayer meeting hands down.. Pg 59 Notes on “Time” & “Time continued” The bible stresses often and clearly that life is brief. A vapor, a plant that grows up and passes away in a day, our days are like the weavers shuttle, speedy and over soon. Humans have mastered many things but time is not one of them, we can measure it but that’s about all. In the end time wins. Pg 61 Notes on “Words”
Communication happens in many forms but predominantly we entrust ourselves to the use of words. Some words are memorable, dramatic and rousing. Strange that God should describe Himself as “THE WORD” made flesh in Jesus Christ. For me there is no sentences that are more hauntingly divine in origin than that
of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..”
Who will remember my words? and what have I ever said that is worth remembering?
Pg 63 Notes on “Steel Injustice”
The world is full of suffering and poverty, of pain and human disaster.
What we believe is not reflected by what we profess to believe or by what we say we believe but by what we actually do.
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Pg 65 Notes on “Fat and White” More conscience salve.... “It’s OK, don’t bother me - I gave to charity today” Pg 67 Notes on “Gulf War” My response to the first one, apparently it didn’t work so we had another one... Pg 69 Notes on “Eden” Trace the roots of all sin back and you find all roads lead to Eden. In Adam we all died, through Jesus Christ - the second Adam we who believe are all made alive. Pg 71 Notes on “Communion” The sacrament of communion is some weird ask. No wonder the Jews had problems with Jesus, here is a guy telling them the only way to have a part of God is to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Bit of a tough ask when the law already forbids a ham sandwich. Pg 73 Notes on “Killer Virus” A friend of mine contracted menengitis. He came as close to death as is uncomfortable. One day you feel a little off colour , the next you’re compost for daisey’s. It caused me to ponder that a microscopic bug is all it takes to knock us of our perch. Fortunately he survived to tell the tale. Pg 74 Notes on “Scars” The marks man left on God when all he did was come to help. Pg 77 Notes on “Crucifixions Continue” The nature of man has never changed. We live under the guise of a very thin veneer of culture. In the old days if you had a problem with someone and you had the power you went out and nailed them to a cross for all to stare at. Nowadays we just hang the pictures and stories of their indiscretions before the whole world to mock. The outcome is pretty much the same. Pg 79 Notes on “Man Made a City” All the glitz and makeup and magic mirrors to make us feel great, but still the streets are littered with the human refuse. The hurt, bewildered, poor and struggling.
Pg 81 Notes on “Xmas” We took the Christ out of Christ-mas and replaced it with an X. The mark of an error. Substituted a babe in a manger for an obese old man in a red suit. Pg 81 Notes on “Wondering” the clock is ticking.... Pg 83 Notes on “Angels Visit” This was originally a love poem, you know the feeling when two sets of eyes meet over a crowded room and a little spark ignites the flame in your heart. But as I reconsider the poem I thought actually it may better reflect what happens when the presence of Christ manifests in ministry to the most unlikely. Where true “Agape” love is present in some personnel interaction there is recognition of another human loved by God who also senses the act of the divine in human affairs. Pg 85 Notes on “Seduction of Technology” Boys love toys. But they all break eventually. Pg 87 Notes on “Oh Lord our God”
Judgementalsim is inbred in the human soul. When we stand before God on His judgement day, things will be clear and we will all want to say “what an idiot I was” Pg 87 Notes on “God made”
In memory of all those poems by Spike Milligan who infected me with a brand of the bent and ridiculous.
Pg 89 Notes on “Gone & Forgotten” Truth is we just change location.
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On what it means to be a Christian. Perhaps by now, after digesting the selected bile and cogitated upheavals of my writings you are thinking “what is it all about?” I would like to take the closing pages of this volume to explain the gospel message and what it may mean for you. Firstly the Bible can’t be truly understood without God giving you revelation of it’s meaning. You can know it off by heart, you can rationalise its passages in accordance with your understanding but still it remains an enigma without divine revelation. It was inspired by God and can only be revealed by God. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”1 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”2 So what does it take to go from knowing about God (religion) to knowing God as a personal friend, confidant and guide through this maze called life? Firstly the issue of sin needs to be dealt with. Sin is that old fashioned word which we all hope doesn’t apply to us. Unfortunately it does and the ramifications are both horrific and apparent. Horrific because sin is the very thing that separates us from a Holy and sinless God. It creates a barrier between us. Because of our sin, God who is totally Holy has withdrawn his direct presence from us, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”3 When the Bible declares that “... the wages of sin is death..”4 what it means is the price we pay for our sin is “separation” from God. In the Bible “death” always means separation. When we physically die our spirit (what we are) and soul (who we are) are separated from our body (where we are). There are two deaths. The first death is a result of sin entering the human race “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”5 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment “ The consequence of disobedience was separation from Gods direct presence (prior to this first sin, the first man Adam walked and talked directly with God) and human mortality, the result of a life outside of Gods dominion. Note also that because of Gods just nature we must also enter into a final judgement. The second death is an eternal separation from our creator. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”7 This is the ramification of
sin left undealt with. Unfortunately an eternal separation from God who is the source of all goodness, of light and of true love leaves us with “Hell” Hell is not so much a punishment for sin as the direct consequence of the absence of God. Hell is what happens when we are left in our sin. The result of sin is also apparent. By this I mean it is easily seen, it is obvious. Every night on the news, every newspaper and tabloid, every abandoned child, broken home, crooked businessman, politician, every pornographic exploitation, every lie, every murder, every act of human selfishness. The closer you look the more you see. Our predisposition is the same as that of Adam who when confronted by God over his sin made excuses. We are the same, “it’s not my fault”, “they deserved it”, “it was only a white lie”, “everybody does it”. If you have stolen, you are a thief, if you have lied, you are a liar. We quantify our own sin by comparing it with the sins of others. I am not as bad as Hitler, but maybe not as good as Mother Teresa, but I guess my good will outweigh my bad on the day of judgement. All these are excuses based on ignorance. God doesn’t want our excuses, “why we sinned” He wants to see our repentance. He wants for us to acknowledge and take responsibility for our sin. We are not judged “in comparison with others” we are judged against the standard of Gods laws. In fact the judgement is most severe as Jesus explained, “But I say unto you, That every idle word 8 that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” When you thought no-one saw you, be rest assured - God saw you. Repentance like “sin” is a lost and forgotten word. It means simply a deep regret and sorrow for our wrong doing and a corresponding change in our actions. Jesus said 9 “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:” This is changed behavior. We are not sorry because we are caught, we are sorry because we have committed such an act. We sin because we are sinners, we are not sinners because we have sinned. This may sound like semantics but is in fact a deep truth. You are a liar - not because you told a lie, you told a lie because you are a liar. A thief doesn’t cease to be a thief because they are locked in jail. A thief ceases to be a thief when they have a genuine change of heart and now give their own goods to others. This is true repentance. The result of true repentance is not only in personal change but it is to experience Christ’s forgiveness. When we front up to God and confess our sin, when we are prepared to change, something supernatural happens. We find Jesus, as in the gospel stories in the Bible 10 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” He is the express image
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of God, and as in the gospels he has authority to say to you “Wherefore I say unto thee, 10 your sins, which are many, are forgiven;” In fact a supernatural transaction takes place as God accepts responsibility for your sin and ascribes the separation due to you as being paid for in full when Jesus Himself, the sinless Son of God bore your sins himself upon a cross and was separated from His Father. You may recall His statement from the cross “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou 11 forsaken me?” In a divine act of justice combined with Gods mercy, Jesus at that point of human history bore responsibility for all the sin of mankind. In response He left us with an option. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 12 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” There is not a sin you have committed that God will not forgive if you are genuinely repentant. You may recall the story of King David, the Bible repeatedly upholds his life as an example of a person whom God loved yet we also know he was responsible for adultery and murder amongst other things. Paul the most influential of Apostles was himself a murderer of Christians prior to his conversion. God’s grace and willingness to forgive is never a “license to sin” it is rather the great expression of Gods love to all humanity and opportunity to be forgiven. The BIG question is will YOU allow Jesus His rightful place in YOUR life? Theology is not about abstractions but about God and you. Jesus asked an important question: 13 “whom say ye that I am?” You can try to ignore Him, you can refuse Him, but you can never hide from or run from Him. As the great Christian writer CS Lewis noted about Jesus, you have three options only. He is either a Liar, as he plainly said He was God incarnate - the very justification for His crucifixion was His claim to divinity. He can never be just a “good teacher” if what He taught were untrue. Or a Lunatic, if he is not God then to claim to be God makes him a lunatic, howbeit his teaching, example and legacy would suggest otherwise. Or He is Lord. A fact which if so must give precedence over all things in life. This makes the issue of eternal destiny the single most important question a person can have. 14 15 If it is true that He alone is “The Door” “The Way, the Truth and the Life”, “King 16 of Kings and Lord of Lords” before whom all people must give an account then just perhaps you need to consider praying a prayer something like this:
Lord Jesus I am a failed human, all the good works I do can never make me clean from the sins I have committed. Before you now I confess my need of a saviour. I ask you to cleanse me from sin and make a new person of me. Just as you forgive me, I now forgive all those who have hurt or sinned against me. I let you be their judge. As for me, let me be “born again” I ask you to take over my life and its ultimate destiny. Help me now to relate to you, to learn of you and give me the strength to overcome my sinful nature. I thank you now for this new life and ask your guidance for my future. Amen If you have genuinely prayed something like this then you may need some extra help or guidance. Feel free to e-mail me at nzgodzone@xtra.co.nz or try attending a few Christian churches in your area if possible. There are plenty of good Christian resources on the web If you can get hold of a Bible try reading the New Testament in particular to learn more about the person of Jesus. Read the Gospel stories (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John at the start of the New Testament.) These will teach you about the true nature of God as revealed in Jesus. Ask Jesus to help you understand. You can talk to Him as a friend. It’s a good idea to share with someone what you have done. By accepting Jesus as your personal saviour you have become a “Christian” Whether you are 7 years old or 97 years old with a gammy leg and a bad wind problem, this is the start of your new and eternal life! Most of all don’t take yourself too seriously.
Scripture references used. 1:1 Corinthians 2:14
2: John 3:3
3: 1 John 1:5
4: Romans 6:23
5: Genesis 2:16-17
6: Hebrews 9:27
7: Revelation 20:14-15
8: Matthew 12:36
9: Hebrews 13:8
10: Luke 7:47
11: Mark 15:34
12: 1 John 1:9
13: Mark 8:29
14: John 10:9
15: John 14:6
16: Revelation 19:16
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Spleen - similar to the appendix, but sillier.. This section contains an interpretation in real english of some of the big words I might have inadvertently used. A kind of glossary but with less gloss. Now you no longer have any excuse for failing Readers Digests “How’s Your Word Power” abdicate - pg 25 - what happens when a person moves all the countries funds into a swiss bank account and then flees the country before the general populace hang them from the nearest high structure.
anointed - pg 11 - how Christians describe a person who is slicker than oil, or how they describe any guest speaker they have when they want you to come to their meeting so as not to embarrass themselves when only 6 people turn up and two of those are lost tourists looking for directions. apocalyptic - pg 53 - big bang at the end of the universe.
basted - pg 37 - get covered in hot fat in order to make something delicious.
bequeath - pg 27 - ones worldly possessions and or debts left to help determine the true nature of ones offspring. bulwarks - pg 59 - a great big wall that you can’t get over, under or around. When you see one, you’ll know what I mean.
caustic - pg 47 - stuff like battery acid or my feeble attempts at dry wit.
chasm - pg 55 - big, big, big hole in the ground. Really BIG!, you can’t jump over it, even with a run up. Thelma and Louise tried and you know what happened to them.
communist - pg 69 - a political system you don’t have to vote for because someone with access to guns has already said this is the system of government they want to use and you can’t stop them without spending 40 years in Siberia.
concentric - pg 3 - round circles expanding outward, not to be confused with eccentric which is an old idiot with expanding wrinkles. Use your imagination. congealed - pg 31 - what happens to blood when it leaves the confines of the body.
contemporary - pg 11 - means we have an ipod and blog regularly. Apparently this is necessary to save souls. Also is used to excuse the use of eardrum destroying music in conjunction with strobe lighting and visual effects in order to convince ourselves we are relevant. construe - pg 43 - what you thought I meant when actually I meant something else entirely. You weren’t listening were you?
conversion - pg 5 - police description for a the act of stealing a car, also relates to what happens when Jesus repossesses a lost soul. conviction - pg 5 - some long lost word that apparently doesn’t apply to anybody anymore. Best put in a drawer and forgotten about.
cordite - pg 19 - stinky smell left over when people have finished shooting each other.
debauchery - the sort of behavior that would make your mother weep. deja-vu- pg 79 - didn’t I already cover this somewhere?
democrat - pg 69 - a political system you vote for if you’re sure there are more of you and your sort than their are of them and their sort.
diagnosis - when you or your doctor have a good shot at working out what the problem actually is. derelict - pg 89 - the state of my house.
eloquent - pg 14 - using words that sound good and impress the gullible. As in “He was an eloquent salesman, and I now own 1000 shares in the Sydney harbour bridge” empowered - pg 11 -what happens when you stick your fingers into a light socket while the switch is in the down position. encapsulated - pg 35 - worked out what the actual guts of the situation was and explained it in a way an idiot can understand.
fettered - pg 73 - chained to some large unmovable object. “she was fettered by her slob of a husband” impact - what we like to think we are doing if we are a noisy pentecostal church.
Ichabod - pg 63 - The name of some biblical joker who God wanted nothing to do with. If he turns up at your place, show him the door. ideology - what we believe, and what we want to ensure that the rest of the people believe, even if means that I have to kill them to get them to believe. infiltration - pg 14 - might be something to do with building a cappuccino or something to do with plumbing in general. insatiable - pg 14 - wanting more even though you have had three helpings
intravenously - pg 14 - the use of a horrible great hollow needle to channel stuff into your bloodstream - really!
intrigue - pg 47 - a fascinating thing that may have something to do with the death of a number of very curious feline. knave - pg 44 - a bad guy - cad, bounder, ratbag, scumfilth lowlife or similar. orbs - pg 48 - a ball thingy.
mannequin - pg 43 - a politician caught in the headlights of the media
microscopic - pg 73 - smaller than you can accurately measure with your school ruler. pagan - pg 71 - what I call you if you don’t like what I like. i.e “You don’t like peanut butter and sweet chillie sauce sandwiches, why you pagan!”
palatable - can be swallowed without gagging as in “my cooking is almost palatable” paralysis - pg 69 - how you feel after eating too many fast food meals.
placebo - a pill that’s made of sugar and basically good for nothing but to make you feel good because you took a pill.
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114 Poe - pg 29 - some macabre poet guy who wrote about a ranting bird, also a tellytubbie.
politics - pg 49 - a uncontrolled kindergarten for big people where tantrums are expected. Run for the development of the love of power, money and ego.
predestinated - pg 53 - God knows what you’re going to do, so if its bad - don’t do it!, in which case he also knew you wouldn’t do it so good for you! plummeting - what stocks and bonds do when you own them.
purloiners - pg 77 - rotten stealing thief person who can’t be trusted to date anyone in your family line. quadriphonic - pg 65 - Four sources of unwanted noise. That’s all it means. A bit surprised you couldn’t work that one out yourself. resolve - pg 35 - problem fixed as far as you’re concerned. sanctified - pg 11 - all washed up.
satiate - pg 35 - filled to the max on western luxuries to the point your credit card can’t take anymore.
scourged - pg 73 - beaten repeatedly with a nasty whip thingy that really tears the flesh off you. Not something I would recommend. Speilburg - pg 85 - some guy who got more than his fair share of my paycheck by making movies. sublime - pg 55 - a really good icecream sundae.
suburban - pg 33 - living amongst a crowd of people who are too afraid to live in the countryside because of the possibility that shops may not be open 24/7 there. suppressed - pg 44 - a bunch of emotional stuff buried like some Versuvian volcano within your life that’s going to erupt at some stage and give your spouse or work colleagues a bit of a coronary arrest of their own. sussed - pg 87 - quaint colloquial term for “I reckon I know what you’re up to”
transfixed - pg 57 - what happens when you just cant believe the rubbish they put on tv but you still can’t look away or turn the stupid thing off.
treason - pg 57 - what banks do with your money, and what they charge you for doing it. verbiage - pointless use of verbs, whatever they may be.
triage - pg 14 - medical term meaning help the one that has the fattest wallet first.
tithers - people like me who are compelled to give their money to some other people to ease guilt and to allow for the construction of more empty buildings.
unheralded- pg 83 - no one noticed you at all when you turned up at the party and no one noticed when you left. vestures - pg 53 - old english name for designer clothes viscous - pg 27 - liquid sticky goo of any sort.
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off to bed now...
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