10,000 Poems

By Mike Bell

This is my daily writing ritual. It started on the 5th of November 2015. It is a 30-plus year experiment to see if writing a poem a day, my ongoing commitment, can contribute to maintaining mental ski... more

· Arts

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FAQs about 10,000 Poems:

How many episodes does 10,000 Poems have?

The podcast currently has 62 episodes available.

10,000 Poems episodes:

March 11, 2023 #2,635 I am aulder than my father
#2,635 I am aulder than my father
I am aulder than my father
ever was [for good] – for all
my rest-of years [until that
time when counting halts]
& I regard all he never saw
here now – What would’ve
been his not-said remarks
‘bout smart phones & acts
of too-smug influencers? –
A loose tooth grin – ‘is too-
occasional unfix of guard –
set across his gaunt face &
years of slog & nightshifts –
four kids – one debt – only
three channels – a wife & a
reduced life to being quiet
[with his loaded shotguns]
...more
1min
January 20, 2023 #2,597 There is more to know
https://mikebellpoems.com/there-is-more-to-know/
#2,597 There is more to know
by MikeBellPoems.com20 January 2023
There is more to know after this time
& I would swipe left with that armour
of hindsight –
we share disasters & all
our summons of thoughts –
I can plot
our conversation
[as if a map –
my life
of ever less meaningful lines] –
A man
talks –
his hands-free chat broadcasts
across this cafe –
no hangover here –
a
few other light grazers look across to
his loud chat –
his builder-voice rough
above snipes of mellow ladies seated
nearer to me –
but I am alone with this
phone & poke-types to re-confirm my
being here –
in this time –
swiped right.
...more
1min
October 01, 2021 Flood Warnings
Poem # 2,187: Flood Warnings
by Mike Bell
1 October 2021
Multiple Bézier curves switch
underfoot – runnels – streams
of banked up fallen leaves – a
foul rain played overnight – a
storm – near-monsoon – was
labelled [by a meteorologist] –
Now wonted pummellings &
flash floods [no longer weird
events] – Rewrite of rulings of
all countryman acuity – cattle
& skies sow a faux reading – &
AI threats of rain will be reset
& new perils forecast – I cross
mown fields silvered by flood
levels – my annals of seasonal
knowing cannot be entrusted
to my children – we are willing
them weather-warnings in our
wake of blown purchases – I’ll
slowly wade in a risen freshet –
a brown eddy – mud & shit will
rise from below us as if a sign –
as Noah rises from his tomb to
eschew his covenant with God
...more
1min
September 30, 2021 I Will Not Learn
I will not learn
by Mike Bell
I will not learn another
language - nor drive at
speeds to Nürburgring
in a Maserati - & I will
not make love to three
others at once [instead
escorted nearer a 60th
year by time’s whores]
& I’ll not be aligned to
right wing sympathies
[as is ageing’s want] - I
stand apart [from that
boorish fall] - Perhaps
baldness will not call -
My chances of being a
grandfather are less as
my kids’ futures crowd
with quiet fears - all we
had was Armageddon -
a quick death - not this
leaden slide into a dire
future of resentment &
constant adjustments -
Earth was home - I will
not know how it works
out - I will cast my vote
[with care] to fix what I
can see as a mendable
whilst my children say
it will not be repaired -
I’ll not know how it all
falls apart - far too old
to learn anything new
or useful as this world
endures every inanity
we imbibed [to profit]
...more
2min
September 29, 2021 That Wooden Bench
Poem #2,185:
That wooden bench
by Mike Bell
29 September 2021

For F
That wooden bench [positioned by
Comité des Parcs et Loisirs] offered
you temporary rest in Nice – there a
hundred-ish squawks of school kids
pulled at recalls – [language welded
by distances & innocence among all
those players of known games] – we
share unspoken rules in all tongues
until childhood naïveté is worn out –
See [from your bench] a hundred-ish
future committee members – they’ll
fix our f*ck-ups whilst we sit in parks
...more
1min
September 29, 2021 Exile Nothing
Poem 2,184
Exile Nothing
by Mike Bell
28 September 2021
We must first agree to exile nothing –
I find myself all alone under ancient
remnants of scaling canopies [dumb
among oaks which enfold thickness –
a century in a grasp] – I’m not myself
as I travel among trapped shadows –
Underfoot that stick-snap will alarm
nature’s easily-frightened [I’m not of
that species – not any more] – A hum –
this woodland reverbs – timbres – as
I press upon pressure-put-on paths –
I’m alone & ready to be brutalised if
I meet my own face in these woods –
This time-slow-mass grinds under its
growth – I lay on mulch & crawl as if a
fungal proliferation – a damp skin – in
shade I bloom as a capped threat as I
burrow between established roots – a
shadow of myself by moon-dousings –
As my auld self rouses my corse – My
voice is lost as I dig deeper among it
all – giving up nothing to sow myself
wide below a wild festoon of buds &
beams [I’ll stay low in Lincoln green]
...more
2min
September 24, 2021 That second-hand wedding dress
That second-hand wedding dress
That second-hand wedding
dress [on a headless bride]
stands too upright - a Whit
Sunday parody of fashion -
donated - such investment
in marriage short-lived - as
an echo of failure to restate
auld avowals & loud denial
of any betrayal - as if stood
in that charity shop - as if it
would appal & warn off any
other fool from tying knots -
don’t advance through any
portal - any-where - in such
a dress - don’t wear this - it
should be stated on a label
www.mikebellpoems.com
...more
1min
August 19, 2021 Here Will Be Houses
Poem #2,146:
Here will be houses
by Mike Bell
19 August 2021
Among moulting thistles &
below lengthening shades
formed by summer bloom
[auld urges commissioned
by time] – it’s here I shelter
from a deluge of showers –
that pissing-off overhead –
I could lie down [now] – go
native in this meadow – I’ll
have no company & still be
crowded out by memories
[Leave ’em be – Michael] – I
will sleep well tonight with
a dry stomach – count each
blessing out – I was regaled
with more horror stories – A
circular walk across land to
be built upon [brick work &
debts piled up] – This won’t
relieve those auld recalls of
flirted-at tradesmen bent to
hammering overhead – I will
move away before this field
is filled by tarmac – our new
ghost-estates – before I stay
mired in this inbred town in
need of distraction-fucks – I
see wives lie with open-legs
& husbands strapped down
by porn & alcohol – My walk
will lead me back to where I
left from & where I’ll depart
without reminders or reverb
of too-long wed – to depart
from grasses & ignorant ants
to find my settled single bed
...more
2min
August 17, 2021 Of Being Fathers
Poem #2,142:
Of Being Fathers
by Mike Bell
13 August 2021
For WM
There is a sudden urgency
among my things – my son
is here – my youngest – not
an ours – he brings his cold
& sniffles [tested okay] – to
sit with me [& his device is
flicked at – phone & game]
& my day is tacked toward
one of value – I interact – to
head into that thing I have
been good at – for some – a
career as a father – as other
parents bury themselves in
other parents & dismissing
fortuitousness to head into
that thing [of being fathers]
...more
1min
August 09, 2021 I Miss That Cruelty
Poem #2,139: I miss that cruelty
I miss that cruelty – it is
a curse [it is fixed in my
blood] – bruised dignity
was my grisly swelling –
She told me things that
would make me sick – a
vomited response to all
her wins – Only from her
lips were cast such stuff
[of unbelievable songs]
& thrown up [again] as
olid slicks [they’ll crawl
across my bared skin] &
I am listening to crack &
snap of her whips – Hear
her now repeating it all?
...more
1min

FAQs about 10,000 Poems:

How many episodes does 10,000 Poems have?

The podcast currently has 62 episodes available.