Stern Reality’s Cold Embrace Poem by Margaret Alice

1. The Cold Embrace Of Stern Reality

Remaining steadfast within the
cold embrace of stern reality,
taking Tiaan to town, he sets
off an alarm in the Main Library,

we leave without a book, return
to the page in the Swiss Missionary
document, continuing adventures
of discovery – marvellous mysteries

of meanderous bureaucracy, of
yet another person again trying
to obtain payment, being sidestepped
by a magical system;

looking for moral support of my writer
counterpart – finding none, all is quiet,
not a word has been sent, not a mote
made it past the quiet portals of infinity;

thrown back into reality – Miss Jaquet
died at the age of forty-two in Jerusalem –
this is deep indeed, a point to ponder, food
for thought – all life comes to naught

and here I am, wasting away a lovely
and clearly-outlined day in an office
without a window to the outside –
with a little boy in tow –

it is time to start a new dream,
a new adventure, a new fanciful
scheme to escape from flat,
one-dimensional reality

into a multiverse
of infinite possibility,
a myriad probabilities where
I’ll be making the rules…


2. Lightens The Burden Of Insight

Suffering boredom, wishing
I could embark upon an exciting
trip researching mysteries unexplained;
cannot be content in a world
without beginning or end –

These cold, here and now moments
without meaning, without direction,
I fill them in with emotional content,
with overpowering sentiment –

Thanks to all who consent
to play roles in my dreamland
fairy-tales, by being yourselves
you make donations enlarging life

Thank you to boredom, to the
need to do more than relay
reality in grey; I will go digging
in the library’s garden of delights,
find the spark that lightens
the burden of insight…


3. Pocket-Full Of Starlight*

Under a gloomy sky
I found a book – found
four actually – “Gates of
Glass” with glittering
stalactites and rainbowed
cliffs the most exciting

from a library of dreams
“Dream Weaver Chronicles”
afforded me a glimpse of
golden threads connecting
life – with these books in hand
I catch the falling stars I need

a pocket-full of starlight meets
the darkness of the way ahead,
I’m keening for a falling star,
to save it for a rainy day

“For love may come an’ tap you on the shoulder
some star-less night.
Just in case you feel you wanna’ hold her
You'll have a pocket full of starlight.…” *

* Lyrics by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance


4. The Emotion’s Just Too Much

Closed office door in crying fit,
lost control of rational thought
when Internet site opens slowly,
couldn’t find e-filing, finally did;
had no reference #, went to get
one a block down the street,
entered in form, log-in name
wrong, password rejected –
finally site accepted conditionally
as long as I went through form
and okayed everything, clicked
and clicked, list appeared telling
me what steps to take to check –
step 1 came on screen but all
the rest disappeared, back to
Help-function, computer hung,
stunned by what I’d done – lost my
head, closed site and tried again –
brain exploded in red-hot searing
pain, couldn’t try again, smouldering
heat welled up, closed door with
tears threatening; adding injury to
insult an SMS on my cell-phone,
Internet instructs me go to e-filing,
check all details before form will be
accepted – cried exasperated I tried,
tried in vain, bawled in frustration –
can’t think with brain burning from
this mad explosion, can’t think at all,
the emotion’s just too much…


5. A King’s Ransom

I have spent a king’s ransom on medication
to enable me to earn the money with which I
can pay for the medication that enables me
to carry out nonsensical tasks, so I can eat
and sleep in a clean house and drive a car that
won’t fall apart on my way to work, to earn the
loot with which to buy more medication just
for me…


6. Flights Of Fancy

Flights of fancy enable me to survive
the inane routine of life: “When the Sky
Fell” by Rand and Rose Flem-Ath provides one
of those: As the earth tilt changes an interglacial
period starts such as the present, which began
twelve thousand years ago, we still have twenty-
nine thousand years before the next glacial epoch;
this is long enough to try and clear up our emotions

Everything else is fine, technology’s divine – but
humans are not, we grumble and suffer, looking for
meaning while our natural feelings are in a mess,
all our meditations about life, its sense and purpose,
have led us to conclude that life is not worthwhile;
I agree, if life is to be spent in suffocating the soul and
suppressing emotion – distrusting the universe and
hating our essential being – we have become

Criminals all, contained within the constraints of the
imprisoning reality we have constructed by ourselves!


7. Old-Fashioned Aficionados Of Armageddon

I accept everything is real; we sort everything
in terms of purpose and desire; therefore I
read “The ECK-VIDYA – Ancient Science of
Prophecy” at speed, knowing it is a possible
avenue of a probable reality

I don’t like the slant author Paul Twitchell takes
on reality, the way he rewrites history, though
his perspective is as valid as the next boring
history professor’s view, I choose not to
make it true for me

Being a master of an ancient esoteric cult
he makes detailed predictions about the future
of humanity, creating a probability that only
old-fashioned aficionados of Armageddon
will cherish with relish, delighting in

Paul Twitchell’s visions of complete destruction
in completion of a six-million-year Sugmad cycle
in which so-called Heraclians and Clemains will
hold sway; I prefer positive evolution of human
consciousness, learning to love our emotions

To honour the world and all its manifestations
of consciousness in various degrees of complexity;
the ECK-view of a master taking all “children” back
to perfect Oneness with the All is much too
negative – though, of course

I respect it just as much as I respect yours, whatever
your system may be, if anger and righteous justice are
the way you follow to your happiness, I wish you joy
while wending my own tortuous way to the Wisdom
I have been seeking for so long…

Paul Twitchell “The Eck-Vidya – Ancient Science of Prophecy”


8. Life is Full of Surprises

Life is full of surprises – for me, moving the burning
sensation of low-blood-sugar right into a migraine
is one of those – however does the mind manage it?

First there is the ringing in the ears called tinnitus
then the heavy feeling of weakness; I run and get
food – sometimes peanuts, other times a waffle

But I’m always baffled – the hunger is stilled and
the head starts to throb – why in heavens name,
why? I can’t eat wheat so whole-grain bread is out

Cheese and meat cause migraine, salad worsens
the low-blood-sugar pain, I’m walking a tight-rope,
balancing between feeling bad and going insane

The phenomenon drives me mad; New-Age theories
make me sad – apparently it is all psychosomatic,
were I but better in feeling and thought

I would have been as sprightly as a pin – but no;
my psyche insist on dragging karma and feelings
of guilt– if I’m to be this maladjusted

In eternity, there is hell before me – I prefer to
believe I will be free of pain in infinity…