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I hope you feel at home amongst my words, and I hope you enjoy the important spaces in between them just as much…

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Welcome to my thinking out loud…

Iain

Yesterday is Ashes

Posted on 20 March 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Yesterday is Ashes

Gone, passed, spent, history
To be remembered, celebrated or mourned,
recalled, recounted, revisited, revered, reviled,
distorted, embellished, demonised & made legend!

All of these options are available and, in the reality of life,
different people will choose differing paths

Yesterday is ashes…

Ashes flitter away on the wind with their gossips attached, and once flying, they cannot be collected back in – such is the perverted nature of gossip!

It doesn’t need to be true, in fact, pure and simple truths are a bit too tame for a good piece of gossip. Something with a surprising or, better still, salacious twist, will be much more engaging…

Yesterday is ashes…

The spreaders of gossip lap it up like dehydrated vile creatures at a river’s edge, with a thirst they can’t quench!

Once they leave the river, their soul purpose in life is to poison the ears, minds and hearts of all they can, with no mind for truth or any such notion of propriety

You know some of these people by

Reputation

                               Sight

                                                    Name

                                                              The Mirror!

Yesterday is ashes…

Today your fire burns brightly with your thoughts & actions, creating the ashes for tomorrows vultures

Tomorrow’s wood is being piled in readiness through your desires and plans.

Yesterday is ashes… and the breeze lively

© Iain Merchant 2021

Sorrow

Posted on 15 March 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Sorrow

Thoughts drowning in their own tears
Feelings lost in a maelstrom of emptiness
Yearning for what could have been
Gagging on the bile of what is

A desire to step back in time
A wish to undo what was done
To un-say what was said
To un-dream what was dreamed

Sorrow operates in all tenses
If affiliates itself with the verbs
It stalks your days & nights
It bleeds your strength & soul

Sorrow is an outcome, a result
Certainly not a plan or goal
It is a consequence of input
It is not always avoidable

Sorrow is also a teacher
A Sensei of the truth
A torch along the path
A song amongst the screams

Lessons come in many forms
Experience the desired outcome
Foreknowledge the thinkers’ goal
Understanding through reflection, the need

Walk your path
Stand true to yourself
Fear not the critics
Be at one with your truth

Be at one with your sorrows

© Iain Merchant 2020

Thoughts

Posted on 9 March 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Thoughts

My thoughts can travel to the corners of the World
They require no Passport or Visa
They require no tickets or bookings
They require no flight plans to be made

My thoughts are the very definition of freedom

Yet my thoughts seem constrained by my mind?
They are constrained by:

Imagination
Self-Esteem
Self-Worth
My Culture
My Faith
My Lack of Faith
My Homelife
My Dreams
My Self-Belief
My Hopes
My Wishes

My thoughts should be free, but they are not!
I have imprisoned them but pretended there are no bars
I have lied to myself, and I have believed my own lies
I have built an inner world of self-justification

It’s time to organise a jailbreak
It’s time to remove the imagined bars
It’s time to release the fake shackles
It’s way past time, to be honest

Let the sirens wail loud and long
Let chaos reign in the corridors
Let every thought run for freedom
Let every thought:

Turn its face to the unfamiliar Sunlight
Hear the promise of freedom call
And run to the horizon and beyond

Let them fly
Disappear beyond the vanishing point
They will return with new stories

New images
New sounds
New aromas
New feelings

You will be reborn in their freedom
When their freedom is reborn in you…

Today is the perfect day for it…

© Iain Merchant 2021

Exhale

Posted on 5 March 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Exhale

A seething torrent of attitude and ego
Neatly wrapped in twisted self-affirmations
Delusional blind-spots of care and consideration
Wreaking their havoc in innocent sentences

A dog with a bone, you just can’t let go
Your echo rarely one of peace
Your impact never as discreet as you think
Your true attitude shouts between your words

A keen willingness to demean or belittle
Assuming soft tones will disguise the knife
This, like any bully, has its source deep within
A lack of significance could be at play here

If caught out, you will invariably act offended
How could anyone think that of you
Back of hand at forehead in false shock
Drama lessons may be handy here

I care about people and I put them first
I walk with a higher power and they see my heart
How dare you insinuate that I could be like that
Shock and horror will deflect all blame elsewhere

You have only fooled yourself
Do you think nobody else knows?
Do you honestly think you have fooled them?
No, no, no… But you have fooled yourself

Superior intellect is a self-belief
Psychological roots have their history
You know where this has come from
You know why this is here

Once in a while you will clash with another
Someone who isn’t prepared to roll over
Someone who can read between your lines
Someone who is prepared to speak their mind

You won’t like that mirror
You won’t like what you see
You will pretend it’s not true
It’s not you, it’s them of course

Let’s face it, it’s always them… right?

Self-preservation is the key here
You need to maintain the illusion
You need to believe your stories
You need to see no blame in you

The cycle will continue
You keep feeding the wrong Wolf
You see fault everywhere else
You affirm your place by assigning blame

All anyone else can do is exhale!

© Iain Merchant 2021

Balance

Posted on 28 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Balance

Ups & Downs

Ins & Outs

Front & Back

To & Fro

Wax & Wane

Ebb & Flow

Right & Wrong

Good & Bad

Light & Dark

Peaks & Troughs

Here & There

On & Off

Tomorrow & Yesterday

Future & Past

Parity

         Symmetry

         Equity

              Harmony

Own your choices & your outcomes

Evaluate Yesterday

Navigate Today

Blueprint Tomorrow

© Iain Merchant

Viral

Posted on 24 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud
A picture of a virus in the body

Viral

Exponential touch through shared space
Unequivocal in focus and goals
An audit trail of diminished hosts

I am like the wind…

You can only see my impact, but never me

Immunity an unknown factor
Community my ideal hunting ground
Unity in distancing my nemesis
Opportunity is all I need

I am the separator of herds

I am the perpetual slayer of giants

I have been here before and worked the streets
Albeit dressed in different clothes
You were hypnotised by my power
You were levelled by my will

Name me whatever you will

I am no pathogen of peace

                     I am microbial malice

                               Our battle has begun again,
                               and I do not sleep…

Thank you for being my travel companion

© Iain Merchant 2020

Anchored

Posted on 20 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Anchored

The question is not whether you are anchored…

The question is where you are anchored?

Are you anchored to a memory
In the hope that it can be revived?

Are you anchored to a possibility
That requires you to wait in the past?

Are you anchored in a yesterday
That is destined never to be relived?

Locate where you are anchored honestly!

Don’t be fooled because you’re afloat
That does not mean you’re moving forwards
Harboured boats have the sense of movement
Yet they can always be found in the same spot

                                          Every single day

Reach into your soul and speak in tongues
Converse with your heart in the language of truths
Make peace with your past and bid it farewell
Accept it can be your home no longer

Bathe and dress in your travelling clothes
Gather those things you need for the journey
Leave all other things where they belong
In the library of your past

Look back at your delusion with kind eyes
Forgive yourself for wishing for what was
Be grateful you experienced what you miss
With self-respect, turn and search the horizon

The future will never lay behind you
The promise of tomorrow is not in any mirror
The lessons you take from yesterday will feed you
The choices you make today sculpt what will be

‘If Only’ must be converted to ‘What If’
Change the grammatical tense of your life
The delusion illusion must be shattered
Denial no longer accepted on board

No longer can you stand hand on tiller
Looking longingly out to sea
Whilst you only travel in your mind
Remain tethered to the dock

You’re a vessel built for journeys
Exotic experiences lay just out of sight
When did you last display sufficient courage,
to lose sight of the shoreline?

You are where you’ve been
Repetitive cycles of ‘nothing changes’
Treading water is existing, not living!

                               You have become your own lie

Do you have the courage to sail?


Do you dare to leave harbour?

                               Do you have what it takes?

Do You?

If you don’t, then this is the point in the poem where you reinforce the self lies that you hold so dear…

This is where you nod intellectually at the metaphors and parallels in your own life, as if somehow, thinking has ever equalled action.

This is where you find your own justifications for why you must stay in port, and nod in agreement to your own subterfuge…

Or

You could take a deep breath, wave fondly to the comfort zone you have been basking in, untether yourself from the harbour wall and…

Weigh Anchor

© Iain Merchant 2020



CoD

Posted on 17 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

CoD

Some people flow through life with ease
Riding in the slipstream of their forebears
It is always calm in the eye of the storm
Never buffeted by the maelstrom outside their bubble

The rest of us must navigate the weather systems of the world
The hail, monsoons, and tempests that life offers up
We must walk straight into the wind
Bent so far forward we are unable to see what’s ahead

Hanging on tight to what we love
For fear we might have it torn from our grasp

Legs burning from the strain

Face machine-gunned by sharp stinging rain

Soaked to the skin and getting colder

Survival of life as you know it at stake

No sign of a break in the storm
Every step is a choice and a fight
Every rest a loss of time
Time is precious and perishable

The best thinking lessons are about attitude

Attitudes are either chosen or excepted

Attitudes do not guarantee outcomes


Attitudes do guarantee your approach

Your thinking shapes your impact in this world
Defines how smooth your passage will be
Do you create many vortexes wherever you go?
Or do you glide in a contoured fashion through this space

Are you sleek but never slick
Frictionless rather than fractious
Silky but never sickly
Smooth rather than smug

Attitudes, not platitudes are what is needed
Thinking with humility and sharing knowledge
Inviting all to see what you see
Sharing all that you understand for free

Ubuntu has a meaning for you

This is no secret to keep to yourself
Let the world know the simple truth
Learning will allow you to shape your form
Every single day one truth is paramount

The attitude you choose totally determines your…

Coefficient of Drag

© Iain Merchant

Manifest

Posted on 14 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Manifest

Juxtaposition in play always
To manifest Vs it is manifest
Easy to confuse through desire
Law of attraction Vs attraction of a law

Delusion of self, a road well-travelled
Litany of self-lies raining down
Visibility impacted by closed eyes
Open hearts creating the unseen sights

Waking dreams signpost the way

Desire is a strong guide
Ambition can be a willful deceiver
Determination an honest thief
Drive, a metaphor not an instruction

Everything comes at a cost to someone

How high you climb is not the measure
How many breaths you take is not the gauge
How many came with you is worth noting
The moments that took your breath are the gift

A treasure chest of achievements or moments
choose your focus carefully, for it may blind you to all else
Achievements have moments, but moments are eternal achievements
Do you want to be remembered for, or remembered by

The arc of a life is the trajectory of the soul

True love is the rarest of flowers
Glimpsing it is a gift for few
Nurturing it, the honour of life
Recognising it, the purpose of the third eye

Speaking in the tones of the world
Intonating with the cadence of care
Inflecting adjectives to soothe the heart
resonating in the timbre of time

Viscosity of time, which slows when you’re gone

I manifest myself & I mirror my inner truth
I magnetise my soul to bring me suitable food
I am the attraction for that which I feel
My life is the screen onto which my truth is projected

Am I really impacted by what is?
Or am I impacted by my perception of what is…?
The latter is the truth of life
The former is the lie I sometimes believe

Your perception and framing are how you manifest

The law of attraction is more ‘The rules of distraction’
Self-denial of the facts is the keyholder here
To manifest, you must understand how you are manifest
The secret… It is no secret, and it never has been

The ‘hard truth’ is the title you are searching for
Blind-sided facts you hide from yourself
The whisper you ignore in the quiet moments
The page of life you try to leave unturned

The sleep you are in is deep, and the dream is bright

You pick up a book to seek answers
Yet you only look in a mirror to primp
An articulate sentence offers clues to your quest
Yet the looking glass affords you no insights

The book you need has no cover, just a frame
You are also required to look, not just see
Your true self will emulate your moves as you study
Given time your truth will reverberate through the silver

This is the only book of your truths
This is the garden of your arable soul
This is the land you need to till
This is the home of your fertility & growth

Who taught you to manifest what you want
Whilst often ignoring what you need
The well of life is not a gift shop
You are not simply passing through?

Forget the secret and live your truth
Replace attraction with chemistry
Find your mirrored book of truth and read it carefully
Decipher your truths not your dreams

Manifest who you are

&

what you need will find you

© Iain Merchant 2020

Desolate

Posted on 12 February 2021 by Iain under Thinking Out Loud

Desolate

Connections weakened
Tethers emancipated
Reciprocity Ghosted
Association seeming to fade

Alone and loneliness are not the same
Singular and silent may be bedfellows
Doubt can grow in the absence of contact
Scouting for what seems to have been lost

When laid wide open we are unprotected
Any blow taken will hit hard
Self-preservation re-suits the armour
The path back home is taken with care

I can’t assume

          I can’t guess

                     I can’t read minds

                               I won’t ask

Do you really know me?
Can you not see I need reassurance?
It was not me that left, remember…
I am in the waiting room of significance

I question whether you can see past yourself to see me?
I question whether you can feel anything outside your own emotions?
I question whether you just assume I’m ok?
I question when I truly wish I didn’t need to…

Without these answers I am unknowing
Without these questions you seem ignorant
These questions will not come from me
For if you do not see me, then what had, we have no more!

Desolate

© Iain Merchant 2020

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