The Mansplain Project

I have been with WordPress for 11 plus years and I’ve run out of things to say/write on a daily basis: for the last year I’ve been recycling mainly previously published- whatever you might call these things I write…

I am done with this phase of my life and daily writing in WordPress.

We just filmed ‘Rule #2- and the post production is almost completed. We are very pleased with what we have and are attempting to be accepted for the 2026 Toronto Film Festival in September.

I have outlined and will be pitching a concept for a novel and screenplay for something that has the working title of:

The Mansplain Project

If successful, I am expecting to be pissed on from great heights at some point in the near future…

I will be posting periodically about

The Mansplain Project

Cheers and warm regards

Dennis Mantin

Breathing Fumes

Breathing fumes down at the gas plant.

He smiled, “You can graduate to shift.”

I paused and said, “No, I just can’t.”

Then, down that road, I drift.

There is something in not knowing.

That beats the pain of 2 small pairs.

Seems I’m coming now or going.

There’s no one left who cares.

The bright lights they sure is pretty.

In the night they show there’s more.

Another train, a plane, new city.

In the distance, is why what for.

I don’t need your Shaman Healers.

Just some meaning to the light

Left the table and all the dealers.

Choose the day and sleep the night.

Dennis Mantin

Pretty Things [Ode To Banff in the mid 1980s]

The pretty things were all dancing.

And we were looking for a sign.

Dexter danced and shook it off.

Like a Madman on the shine.

We were drinking at the Cascade.

At Leo’s five and dime.

Nothing much was making sense.

Until The Villians were the crime.

It came and went so quickly.

Like a fever at high pitch.

The Era went, and no one saw.

In silent darkness came the switch.

No one gave us warning.

Or at least not one that I heard.

And all the pretty things were dancing.

And the lines were kinda blurred.

Dennis Mantin

High Stress

It’s high stress all this loving.

Heart beating hard now triple timed.

I’ve been parked now on the off-ramp.

In those shadows less than kind.

She’s been worried about high flying.

I don’t fret about those fears.

Riding rough and sick of trying.

Now stop crying, faking tears.

I’ve been writing a new chorus.

I’ve been looking for fresh chords.

Rich man drives fast now in a taxi.

Passing poor men in their Fords.

We all are walking in cold shadows.

Under blue skies filled with rain.

I am quiet, no more promise.

I will let you live your pain.

There’s a lesson if you listen.

To a voice that lives inside.

Telling me that it’s not over.

Doesn’t care how hard you cried.

Dennis Mantin

Broken

I was thinking, partly listening. I was nodding, but deep in past.

You were talking. I know it’s shocking. You were thinking this can’t last.

The balance is fractured broken. . There’s a movement in the air.

All that talking, and no listening. Spinning stuck in, ‘I don’t care.’

Dennis Mantin

Love or Cancers

He was looking for the answers.

Not for money, nor for fame.

Not brought down by love or cancers.

So informed by guilt and shame.

He lied about so many things.

Just to keep them on their toes.

The rich, they yacht. The poor they sing.

The lies are everybody knows.

Some said he was a poet.

Some said he was insane.

But they could never know it.

What was running through that brain.

He was looking for some answers.

Not for money or for fame.

Not brought down by love or cancers.

Not informed by guilt or shame.

There’s such a quiet in the morning.

It’s just a silent cooling still.

It’s hard to know what is a warning.

When you’ve calmed that urge to will.

Dennis Mantin

Dream # 1482

She had a look all business, that some mistook for cold.

I charmed my way into the dark, a sort of drama did unfold.

She said I lacked commitment. That she would change me from within.

She showed me all her prowess. How and where I could begin.

I was looking for an exit, a strange light outside appeared.

I made my way I don’t know how, like the seas a path was cleared.

This story has no moral except somewhere else I did arrive.

Unless she’s here and in my dreams, then I made it out alive.

Dennis Mantin

The Neighbor

The neighbor took to drinking.

And then fell into a rut.

Following the appearances of deep thinking.

Then, got all bloated around the gut.

There were moments of rage and ranting.

Followed by hours of hot debates.

And in the sparkling twilight hours.

Where so many mapped their fates.

He went out without a whimper.

I swear he didn’t make a sound.

And fell into the ether where…

So many before have drowned.

Dennis Mantin

Excitement

I was shunning the excitement.

Fell in love with being bored.

All the reading and enlightenment.

Fell to faith and was restored.

There’s a moment in the ether.

Like a clock forever broke.

You just relax and take a breather.

And watch the past go up smoke.

I am taking in the stage play.

From this perch of breezy cool.

There’s a maiden and a horse Thief.

With few Kingdom’s left to rule.

Dennis Mantin

When The Trouble Began

He was staring at me in that way that has a tendency to make one feel uncomfortable.

The streetcar was crowded in the way that 2 o’clock in the afternoon is, and there was nothing between us but the empty Isle.

“You have a problem, friend?” I asked quietly.

“I’m not your friend.” He snapped and stood pointing his finger at me… He was bigger than I figured. 6’2″, 200 pounds. “You want me to kick your ass?”

“Be careful what you wish for.” I answered and continued. ” I jump over guys like you to get to a fight.”

And that’s when the trouble began.

Dennis Mantin