Being on the upper side of 50, much of Douglas’ biographical material can be assumed (various careers, relationships and university qualifications [even industrial hearing loss and roaring tinnitus related to playing in Ska bands]), but this may be a little unique – he is still married with a great wife and two children (it does happen) and is seeking to enrol in a PhD (towards producing a speculative notated memoir of a 1st Century CE Greco-Roman author … it is intended to be an innovative project in Creative Nonfiction). To date, a number of his works have been published online (at ‘New World Writing’) and in a number of print anthologies (including ‘Erotica of eternity’ [2022], ‘Let’s begin again’ [2022], ‘Garden of poets’ [2022] and ‘My Glorious Quill’ [2022]), in addition to gaining praise such as “… eliciting a strange sense of awe … [t]his is ground breaking and gorgeous … writing and deserves   to be read widely” (The Editors, POETiCA REViEW).

Noodles, yurts and livelihoods, kin, liquid and initiatives, verse, cadence and battery

Weak, timid, indecisive or slow –
a bundle that encloses and ensures ... 
to have a winning hand,
live, grow and create
solutions.

Relationships
may be firm, ardent and unyielding
(even tearful) –
the juice
that is peaceful, harmonious, gentle, kind and temperate 
generates, expresses and dispatches
awakening and ascension.

The zeitgeist –
including ambition, integrity, drive, 
circumstances, etiquette, links,
constraints, limits and control – 
has a rhythm …
to make peace,
attack violent conflict.

The foremost ‘sack’?

An unrivalled inner state
impassioned, excited and fond of play – 
flowing freely …
the latter dispatching excellence. 

A day of celebration?

The conjunction of all the planets on one sign – 
the world destroying the lowest …
the garment
known as ‘division and destruction’.

A thesis, position and conclusion
that a person’s life is above
beginning the flow of blood
is above burying validity and certainty 
(even power or authority).

Battle by day
the skill, cunning or intelligence 
targeting the darkness
of death, ignorance and deceit 
more than war.

Merit, fitness, dignity and greatness
is the origin, the summit and the leader
(in short, one’s life) –
harshness, offensiveness and being unwholesome 
preceding flowing blood
is the greatest fall.

Being able, strong, mighty, potent and powerful
is giving, yielding and adducing –
a sage, philosopher or wise person 
is the territory
where the ‘League of Darkness, Concealment and Ignorance’
is destroyed.

In nurturing and growing one’s mind, 
the weight of violence and force – 
wet blood –
is the greatest misfortune.

Strength gives things to people. 

A wise conclusion?

That which is dark or murky
is a fellow of –
or in partnership with –
that which carries, holds, has and does 
what is shameful and disgraceful.