Poems for seekers, thinkers, and reflective minds
About me
Poems on prescription
My books
The Hundredleaf - play in your browser
Gorse Roll
Thoreau BASIC
Retro Games
Contact, Facebook
Poems
Impressum
About me
Oli - the Gorse-Found.
I am a poet, a forager, and a chronic wanderer in ungardened places.
My writing grows from Transcendentalist roots, the belief that wildness is not a backdrop but a teacher.
I write for those who feel more at home in the forest than in the room.
Poems on prescription
Sometimes the right poem, arriving at the right moment, does something no advice can. Write and tell me where you are; I'll take my time, and send a poem back. No charge, no hurry, no obligation to say anything about it afterwards.
Quiet Rebellion
Get the book on Amazon or in your local book store.
ISBN 978-3-384-62358-4
Or download for free as PDF.
Poems Told By Nature: From Roots To Flames
Preview or download the e-book
on Kobo or Amazon.
Also available as paperback and hardcover.
The Hundredleaf
A gentle game of small swaps. Find what the folk of Brindle Vale long for,
and grow a hundred leaves on a sleeping tree.
Play it here in your browser, free.
Or get the Windows version on itch.io.
Gorse Roll
Roll a ray-traced glass marble over roads
that float high above the world.
Play the free demo on itch.io: the whole first world.
The full game is on Steam.
Retro Games
I also write code the way I write poems — obsessively and for the love of it.
And I write poetry in my games.
Visit tarjan.itch.io to download my free retro games
for Windows, DOS, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.
Thoreau BASIC
I also build small, old-school things in code. Thoreau BASIC is my 64-bit BASIC interpreter for Windows and x64 UEFI, with classic GW-BASIC roots and the ability to turn BASIC programs into standalone EXE or bootable EFI applications. Visit thoreaubasic.com if you enjoy retrocomputing and software that stays close to the machine.
Two programs written in Thoreau BASIC:
Northern Lights Forecast
A live aurora forecast on a world map, with day and night,
the Kp index and the solar wind, straight from NOAA.
Northern Lights Forecast on itch.io
Pixel Prose
A text adventure through a forest full of memories of classic games,
with a picture for every place.
Pixel Prose on itch.io
Thoreau DOS
A DOS-style command shell that boots a PC straight from a USB stick,
with no other operating system. Your BASIC programs run in it as EFI applications.
Thoreau DOS on itch.io
Contact
info@feralrebel.com
I keep a small, quiet circle on Facebook - seekers, thinkers, fellow wanderers.
You're welcome in.
Or check out my YouTube channel.
Some Poems
I came to nature to ask the big ones
And nature invited me to stay.
I came to poetry to tell this story
And poetry invited me to stay.
My Kind Of Beauty
I will not write of daffodils,
Nor will I praise the rose.
Don't get me wrong - I see their beauty.
I just don't connect to their charm.
Sweet and tender they shine,
Picked, sold, gifted as a treat.
Beauty to look at, easy to get.
I do not want what I haven't got.
Instead, I'll write of sunshine,
Of untamable feral perfection,
Of things that bite
Should you try to claim them.
I'll write of striking composition,
Wilting within our gardened trip,
Yet blooming when undisturbed and wild,
Sharp-edged and stubbornly bright.
I'll write of what my soul needs most,
I'll write of gorse.
Don't get me wrong - I see their beauty.
I just don't connect to their charm.
Sweet and tender they shine,
Picked, sold, gifted as a treat.
Beauty to look at, easy to get.
I do not want what I haven't got.
Instead, I'll write of sunshine,
Of untamable feral perfection,
Of things that bite
Should you try to claim them.
I'll write of striking composition,
Wilting within our gardened trip,
Yet blooming when undisturbed and wild,
Sharp-edged and stubbornly bright.
I'll write of what my soul needs most,
I'll write of gorse.
Forgive me
Forgive me for the silence.
I drifted, lured by the chorus
Of shoulds and musts,
those hymns of the hollow-hearted.
They called it living.
But it led me far from life.
How strange it is,
to meet you again.
Like an old friend in forgotten woods.
The world was loud without you.
Empty, though full of noise.
Come, soul.
Let me see the places that hurt.
Let me sit beside your bruises.
I won't leave again.
Not this time.
Soulspeak
I taught myself
A language of soul
And it feels so natural
To build upon its words.
Condensed and simplified,
I let it flow
Like forest's airy whisper,
like nature's warm embrace.
Come, speak with me
And be surprised
At your own soul's might.
A language of soul
And it feels so natural
To build upon its words.
Condensed and simplified,
I let it flow
Like forest's airy whisper,
like nature's warm embrace.
Come, speak with me
And be surprised
At your own soul's might.
Impressum