All but there

In her absence she often turned to meet him

With feigned presence

He always returned her greeting

In her absence defeated amusements begin

With indiscrete diffusions

She renders him unworthy of further meeting

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Curved Ball

I will close down, so soft, so slow

Walk again

Where the cherry blossoms grow

I say these words

On a wind worn night

With peace, not fear nor fright

The time may be long

Beneath the light of your moon

Let that I may be strong

In the swathes of poppies

Through the fields of corn

Sworn to beholden, feet worn

Howling gale, beating rain

Sounds so loud

They drown the retreating pain

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Artist’s Model

Water-paint of upturned breast

Impenetrable as the dawn mist

All else hidden by a scarf

That I imagine surrounded you

Untouchable as the dusk’s light

That laid low your shadow

I have a desire to touch

Disturb your soft free locks

& whisper my first soliloquy

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Channelled

Coldness creeps in

Through the open door

As light fades

From the once blue sky

His conversation

Easy and eloquent

A tale of a life

Passed staggeringly by

Window’s on to poppies

Girl in a printed dress

Art that takes over

Caressed as we fly

It's true I could scream 

To be there again

Back into the last

Christmas that I cried

Out on the cold moor

A derelict landing strip

Sat so clearly alone

Old ideas slung out to dry

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Home Hope

The snows await, the

Low sunlight’s strength of

Reflection suggests so

Last summer’s leaves

Flicker and fall

A sharper breeze blows

Pink and crimson

Blossoms now a memory

Past limes laid to rest

Replaced by winter’s

Cherry red, prickly

Hawthorn berries

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Love One

Is it about love

It is about life

Love is of life

Is it about one love

It is about one life

One love is one life

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Aghast

Through hallways and shopping malls

Teenage girls, beside spotlit mirrors

Snowflakes fall, her sisters call

Why the hell you running with scissors

Why wouldn’t we think of that winter

When we walked on ice floats

Tripped unsteady, by the fissures

Thinking of you, running with scissors

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Nadir

Killing time

Still they mill around

The blue bloods of injustice 

The faded grey line of injustice

Watch out for the signs

Walk in line

It’s the killing time of injustice

Killing time

Still they mill around

The blue bloods of injustice

Killing time

Still they mill around

The blue bloods of the justice 

The ministers crime begs out for justice

Watch out for the dimes

Step out; resign, resign, resign

It’s the killing time for the justice

Killing time

Still they mill around

The blue bloods of the justice

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Nape

Lost and found
Gone to ground
Lost and found again

Lost and found
You're not around
You've gone to ground again

Lost and found
Gone to ground
You're not around again

Lost and  found
I pound to out of bounds
I'm lost and found again


from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Neap

I was all for looking neat

The painter at your feet

A weekends lost receipt

I put myself to sleep

You were all for being deep

Conscience that you keep

For all their failed deceit

I put myself to sleep

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Basis

Scent

The one last probable great imponderability

That calls you back into my life

Scent

That I can pick off the pages, or dissolve 

From another young woman’s photograph

Years have passed

Way beyond absolution

Arches of roses collapsed

Bicycle of joys trundled

Certain as the stones

Laid out before

We, as all others

Caught by institution

Scent

Homogeneous in a few lines of text

That neither you nor I wrote

Scent

Worthy of being named the great imponderable 

That rolls you back into my life

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Listen & Observe (Spring)

A creaking door opens

Birds chirp

A solitary eastern cabin

Placed on an island platform

In the middle of a lake

Strings of bells chime quietly

The teacher yells at the young boy

It is time to get up

To sweep clean the boardwalk

Before we jump into the rowing boat

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Listen & Observe (Into Great Silence)

From the mist to the prayer

Rising and falling

Knock on wood

Patience comes calling

Quiet, stillness; silence jinxed

An identity parade

A single eye winks

I am seduced

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Row

Lavender fields steal away my resentment

Instead to reel off the whiled away hours

Wander among the rows of fragrant flowers

Shower the love; as once upon the coastal towers

Powered another kind of war

Loss of love, touched along the shoreline 

Unable to handle that which turns sour

The smitten intellect weaves away with power

Seeds planted in rough ground; scoured

Redefined in a clumsy kind of score

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Seasonal Ego

Yesterday the sun’s warmth 

Warmed my love of the world

Today grey skies & incessant rain

Reigns in my positive imagination

Photographs try to give momentary respite

Yet they throw out little thermal energy

For you I do recall the gentle Zephyr

Should you ever wish to return

from the collection
The Curved Ball of an Artists Model
Love Encouraged By the Breakout
Available from itunes by clicking here

Life enhanced

Always with a surprise

Yesterday a kimono

A white fabric, hardy

And well hung

Your smile gives away your pleasure

Today and for a long time

A presence more than being

Softly strung

You get on and you keep at it

Whatever got you down

You got it, shook it

Worried it right out of town

In touch

With your sensitive senses

You mend those

Who broke, and fell apart

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Trust anything but time

Pastel colours in quiet refrain

Hands still on the chiming clock

Whisper in case I hear myself

Look behind the picture frames

Dust, a relief of many years standing

Unplugged, from the upright room lighter

Unmoved from a mother's generation

Flock wallpaper abides in the memory

Even of just and only the place

Billericay Close or Quebec Narrows

All I ask is contemplation

About and around a race of which I'm out

All I ask is elevation

About to surround myself, unable without

Pastels, flocks & dust; trust the

Background music, the mood, the blues

Create paisley patterns; young men, bare feet

Pylons, stanchions, mill floors flattened

Valleys of derelict cotton works

Countries of windblown cotton fields

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Searching for a feeling, an essence, an evocation

In your room I am ironing
I feel pretty good about myself
I feel the goodness usually reserved
Or given a fairly lofty price tag

Much the same when you return
From your dutiful day at work
While all the while I toyed
With some unlikely protestation

Later, sat on the three-seater sofa
We feel pretty good about ourselves
We did kiss
But that was somewhat earlier

The iron is still, all else is steaming
Afterwards we mow the lawn


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Beyond the easily forgotten

Sentimental, awash with nostalgia

Do you remember, or are you scared

Think on - only from the past

No ideas for an unknown future

Nineteen Eighty Four is way back

A place no more than a wilderness

The Easy Rider’s have smoked

Their last cheroot, today is a reflection

But what of tomorrow

Walk naked down the high street

Or some other form of soul baring

Or extravagant expression; rose petals 

In gardens falling, more or less to dreams

To intensify - autumn’s fresher schemes

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Turn away from the return

Escape to this piece of England

Determination your sensitised survival key

Something snapped; one final silence too far

One magazine article, one mission

Two hundred miles apart

You are going or even may have gone

Purposeful; with direction and organisation

Another way of life to give back a life

To vibrant youth; no more to carry the still 

Misplaced child found in a house lost of love

Once, twice, but never ever a third time

Sound of fortune cards pulled from the pack

Wise words taken with a wiser smile

Shall we go home now

The first song on the first date

Soon together & determined at one

Purpose with and in a single key

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

White light, clear evening

Always forwards with preparation

Except this time to give chance its chance

Unexpected, the floodlit clock tower

The touch of hand on hand

In such a rush to build a past

To look forwards, to look out, for

Flashbacks of the future, memory of now

Wait; spare a moment from the cobwebs

Feel skin pressed hard against skin

Teeth bite hard into necks

Sink into softer navels

Bodies clenched tight

For fear of misunderstanding

Risk all

But do not call it desperation

Tall towers …longer views

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Bounded

Even asleep the heat overwhelms to wake

With perspired skin; here still the prisoner

On the final journey, a courtesan about to fly

A writer to hold the broken lead one last time

Outdoors it is marginally cooler

The draught floats through the open door

Into the courtyard, into the library

Across the road from Grand Central Station

Backalong, in bars and sherbet fountains

We were glad; expectant in high summer

Mad with excitement, pretty dresses

Long legs, friendship, gaiety was all around

Surrounded life closed in & leaves fell

Four seasons, the reason for the winter

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Grasp

So soft and still the irony

Times pasture’s thrill I mean

Rosebuds then tulips

Corn on the cusp

On the turn from green

Youth was never ever lasting

Passed there in between

Here and now and casting

For the love I need to seem

Stickleback  and tickled trout

The hay loft and the stream

Quiet, quintessentially without

The shout of silent lest I mean

That no one knows, or enquires 

Of what I gleam

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Not even frustrated

Downbeat town

Otherwise known as Beirut

Cap and gown frowned

Otherwise known as shoot on sight

Noise

A racket or unjust interference

The down of depression

Is killingly real

Deadbeats, downbeats & druggies

Half life’s and those less hopeful

A bigger question needs a bigger picture

Wiser than government

Inexplicable to the ordinary man

Caught here among the crossfire 

I though don’t feel it

No chance that I can say it

No way for me to contribute to change

This is not a poem

It’s not even coherent

What or why is all that’s left

Undone, hopeless

Nothing

Out of however many

You might wish to score it

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Floppy hat, flowered trousers and a ladder

Afternoon

In East England

Lincolnshire, or any other

Back water

Out

In deep & quiet country

A farmyard, a pasture

Or any other roadside stables

Old patient

Younger nurse

A driver without distinction

Or any other clues yet due

Except

College together at Oxford

And

That they spoke so very well

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Redeem this song

Smile; always and forever

The first kiss of late evening

Anticipated excitement

Fingers touch

Missiles miss, much

Thank you, now or never

The first engagement of assistance

Unexpected, tough to come such

Unusual to trip the light fantastic fandango

Under the moons many colours

Detect, introspections hobbled crutch

Unease yet easy & plain to see

Together is the love of kindness

Life it seems redeemed for free

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Faraway

I send you a letter
That I love at the time of writing
And then forget
Next day another phrase catches my ear
But let  it not be called an internal rhyme

We talked of the camera obscura
A photograph, a thousand points of view
Through the window, over the valley
One mile more or less from the ford

In summer’s heat perspiration began
The muddled, befuddled mind…
To slow down, or jump in the pool
With or without question

In the letter I hoped for a reply
Did you


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Who goes there

Prickly stalk of bramble
Who would not be hurt by your graze
Or by the loud voice of that bully of a teacher
The fat show off, full of arrogant contempt

Willows; sway in all those wild winds
Of slaughter
Show your flex to sustain your summer
Give your shape, it’s beauty, fair play and free

Tarmac, trodden with heavy boots
Braziers, flames, smoked aromatic moisture
Laid down over lost pastures, flattened
Trimmed, dismissive, with a massive machine

Freeway, autobahn, rhetoric
The rhetorical question
Listen - can you hear the tough guys
Hear them, they are all alone


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

A young man becomes an old man

Warm silence
Ice cold beer
Anger and forgiveness
Inadequate without complaint

Mellow gentleness
Distraught with blame
Shadows and suspicions
Unable to find a name

Whispers cold
Chilled; the
Sisters of mercy
Awash with fear

Soft sensitive
Belongings
A quiet  walk
Before being buried alive


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Wait - please do not disturb

In between the rafters
Beneath the flattened lead
A regenerative recirculation
Still yet moving, slow air

The breath of silence
Slower than the breeze
Black cloaks stride out
Tread the aisle with purpose

All of those old words
Roof space freely had you
Praised other men’s verse
Worse to leave you left

Without your own memories
Absent of your own meditations


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Find only our fortune

White linen suit
Frayed fingers in your making
Can you turn me into a poet
Can you take me to Bohemia
How many wages were spilt
Before being distilled
Made ready
Initiated
Into fashionable society
Arrogantly taken off the peg

The lost province of aristocracy
Past cities of the intellect
Retailer
Wholesaler
Packer
Shipper
Importer
Advertisement executive
And Mr Big

Anyone but you takes the money
For your intricate handiwork
Your lyric, your chorus
Your woven weft
Bereft of any of their cluster
Instead to the isthmus
Or the black hole
Of singular isolated pain

We may find
Only our own fortune
Which may or not sustain
Even for a short while
Until tea or a late supper
Eventually we must
All step out

Bled and undressed
In time for the better fed


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Ride

The wind blows with gusto
Blusters across the warm garden
If this had been an holiday romance
The sense of it would already be upon us

Warm winds of the west Atlantic
The thrashing storms of Regis seas
Sixpence in the bubble gum machine
Parachutes hung from the citrus tree

In joy we seek out shadows
In sorrow search for somewhere light
That is why we ride the roller coaster
Why we step upon the magic bus

In my deckchair
Meadow grass and mistletoe
A book of passionate poetry
A few daydreams, still time for me


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Too good to be true

He plays your already chosen songs

Something uneasy for you about him

Sully face, optimistic smile

Darkness she lightens

If it wasn't for her

Not enough of life would be left

You think he's fine, and why not

The public persona is stage managed

Given what we have, what we want to hear

Takes odious steps, ingratiates with practice

Only simple and ordinary men go lightly

White washing blows outside on their lines

More goodness even than to understand

A fragile walk over the derelict rail crossing

On and on and on, deep into the tunnel

Colours drain; your edgy cheeks chill

Is this still pretence, or is it for real

Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Back Off

Your intellectuality burns me
Turns me off
Puts a distance between

…I have heard of the inferiority
Complex, just what she can muster
Harbinger and buster of angst unclaimed

Shame they say is thrust by our
Childs abused muse; in your cloisters
Did you play that game too

Show off to the weak and the lonely
Take advantage but miss the feed of you
Snapshots, crackpots, simply a simple few

Hey I say
Back to where you once belonged
If, in your image of reality it still exists


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Wild Flowers

In the roof space of silence
And echoed evening’s long
A place this morning
Not yet reached for

Held up by stone pillars
Here in worshipful gathering
A few simple words
Prayer, poem, calls to arms

Wide lakes of sidelights
Shadows grace falls
Touched, just by being
Still with you; to gather

On the slat wood
Sat in the pew
Inset offset imagination
Inactive, attractive so soon

Propagate wild flowers
Poppies, primroses of evensong
Closed and then open
At the time of times sunset

Also open, throughout
The whole of the night
Splashing her perfume
The old peculiar of

Old tobacco, Old Spice
Dominoes, counting games -
Maybe one day she might.
Except once more unable

Tables turned you edge away
Out under the stairway of silence
In flight
You still mis-taste her bite


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Psychological Welfare

You
You at this moment reading
You, my lover, my friend
My follower leading

You
In a meditation garden
Quietly beside
Your forty winks

Who else can turn
To whisper in your ear
Who that learns goes
With stillness to re-appear

You
In sunbathed shelter
Rare inside
Your hyacinth haven

You
Who at this moment thinking
You, my mother, my brother
My lifetime scent

Who else to can you turn
For always shone
And forever
Who to dare you to move on

Fold the page
Close the book
Walk into your garden
Real or imagined

Dare to turn
You
I dare you, to move
On


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Fairground Riches

Picture postcards
Messages from well wishers
Givers of thanks, from thanks givers
Care - earned and banked with will

A clock
That these past few months
Moved on so little
Fingers of time stood quite still

Spring is now summer
Words in aspect south facing
Love unchained the melody
Pictures stay framed until

Hands stroke shoulders
Kisses on lips
Smiles and whispers
Night & morn the thrill

Read & write – draw together
New pastures
Comb the wilderness
Of the unknown chill

Chance to light on
Summers and autumns
Winds blown softly over
Frosted winters on the hill

Pictures and postcards
Wear fairgrounds riches
Virginia walls creep, seep
Into tender love of life’s tendril



Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Social Gatherings

You trimmed the roses
I cut the grass
You smiled demurely
I coarsely laughed

Under my trousers
I was underwear free
You smiled profusely
Sat on my knee

You strummed unbroken
Around the trees
Your garden our token
Of flow and breeze

Your petticoat
Is discarded at rest
I smile into your hand
My card at your bequest

Under Milkwood
And at countless other
Social gatherings
Pleasure is understood

Weather changes
Passions blow high and low
You say Cut the crap
I say …Hello


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

Cool Morning

The breeze blows
A little cooler today
The weather programme
Had the talk of thunder
Nevertheless
The evening primrose
Opened her petals
And the insects moved
More workmanlike
About the concrete flags

I forget
That I am on holiday
That for today
These words
Are not my work
That the birdsong
Is the echoed cry
Of a freedom
Already found

What is to become
Of my poetry
Who can say
Or would see
Why he or she
Should dwell awhile
Take time to look out
Over the Pampas Grass
Think of the Riviera
At home or abroad

Recall strolls
On long promenades
Or visits
To the winter gardens
Afternoons at the air shows
Balloons with passengers
And pink champagne

The hedgehog
Is back into hiding
It has had its three
Minutes of fame
Now time for the white
Crested blackbird
And another flower
That I am unable to name

Only that it is green &
Yellow and white
Impregnated
With garlands
Of crimson &
Hanging claret

Such an endorsement
That would look well
On the dance-floor

I am reminded
Of Saturday nights
Of mohair suits
And chisel toe shoes
Of warm nights
With sensual conversation

I pause
Before the applause
Of the cool morning breeze


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

No wonder why

Yesterday we worked in the garden
Until late on in the evening
Mowing grass, pulling weeds
At a distance, yet together

Midway we paused for a salad
A quiche, a cup of tea
Glasses of white wine
Sparkling chilled water

Later, or just on darkness
Before the end of faded light
After a rest, a shower, and in
Our own fresh made bed

We loved together, as lovers do
Who do not always go to church
For the day before had been
Another kind of wedding

Kind words, encouraged laughter
Confetti placed around the cake
Named two children; each given a name
A bond for their lifetime's yet to be made

Yesterday we sat in the garden
Under the mid night sky
No wonder why, we and they
Believe in the place of love


Taken from the collection Words in Aspect South Facing - Available from Amazon for Kindle

You, Away (Cowdust)

A simpler way
Similar of the day
& of the night time

Meditation sways
Calm of purpose to play
With children until lights out time

Picture peaceful Mandalay
Restless chaotic Bombay
Rich colours intertwined

Away for two days to stay
Here alone in our bed I may
Write of the new lovers sign

A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Tumblr

Escape, without words
A mind filled to overflowing
With maps and images
Famous painters
& women's breasts
Still mountain mists
From the east of Saigon

Enter into the night time
Wait for quiet to fall
Darkness to take her shadows
Memories of dusk clamber
For your erstwhile attention
Detention is worth the call
From the rest of the world


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Thin Air

The words hold themselves
I have no way of propulsion
You, where my thoughts go
Might be scared that they lie

Unable to hold or elucidate
I can only wish of her lost ether
Readers, in their lonely rooms
Call out; this is a torn lovers cry


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Pre Prenuptial

I tried to believe I could let go
That was even before we started
I wanted to show, define
That my love was so strong &
However long we were together
The treasure would have been mine

I would be sure & secure enough
To wish you much future happiness 
On the day that we would surely part
Yet set apart by your refinement
I inclined to play the game too well
I lost & in pain I rearranged my settlement


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

One person missing

I was buying cut flowers
All I cherished were bright loud colours
Emotionally strong fragrances

Next I was sat on the steps of a greenhouse
At a big house with front and back gardens
A girl shouted from inside the house
There was someone at the door

Wanting a home tutor for their daughter
Could the protege please come quickly
We could hear her explaining & negotiating
She sounded very professional

An agreement was reached
She came into the back garden
To recount her happy tale
You walked from the middle of the garden

Where you had been playing with the boy
I held out my hand and asked you to sit with me
Your finger brushed my hand but
You walked by without pause


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Mon Plaisir

I cannot drill down any deeper
Alone I am unable to magnify
The view; I do remember a window

The lane a little steeper, there
Was a garden & a small kitchen
With two colourful cockatoo

There were fields for potatoes
Before the long curved beaches
Yet out beyond the reaches

I was so often absent
Just as the image shows
I stayed out of focus

There were pedestrians
On the promenade, they
Sojourned towards the town

Did you wonder that I
Wondered on the hope of you
Always to know that my love

Would tie you, no, worse
Much worse by far
My love would let you down

A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Aznavour

She, woman of man's life
Where would he be without
More skewed attractions

He, man of woman's life
Where would she be without
Less undue distractions


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Absence of Free Will

It is not that I am torn
It is more that my mind
Seems to go just wherever it damned well chooses

I have been in love before
I am in love again, now
Images & memories, that my mind frequently uses

If on occasions forlorn
If caught on barbs that bind
I am resigned to follow her wherever she pleases

If to think of the spotlit dance floor
To shuffle so lightly how
With footsteps and body sways; she poses, she teases


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Glow If You Dare

Flames are lowered, gentle curve of decay amongst the embers
Turn pages of the picture books, remember those past Decembers
Lend her the lyric hooks, sing songs of joy and tenderness
Suppress at once the negative looks, that is no way to send her
Fend off your depression, close up the downbeat
With the light of impression share her romantic nooks & crannies
Play her Danny and the Champions of the World
Swirl her on to the dance floor
More you shout, folklore edicts the damsel fair
Rare as sacred through wildest air
Care of the curved decay whose lowered tones blend her wishes
Superstitious as she becomes
Run now, run your words down to the floor
The core is gone, the story flickered, lest it shone


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Nobody Knows You Slowly

You wear curled up boots
& smoke a slim cigar
You've got a ten gallon hat
& a Buick convertible car
But nobody knows you slowly
Nobody knows who you really are

You sell your soul for money
In half lit American bars
You dream of walks in moonlight
Under a night of silver stars
But nobody knows you slowly
Nobody knows who you really are

You stand assigned to keep your time
Strumming an eight string steel guitar
You’ve walked the line
Your music’s heard near & far
But nobody knows you slowly
Nobody knows who you really are

She saw you in the drive-by
Thought how doubtful you are
She heard you at the movies
With your mournful la la la
She wants to know you slowly
To find out who you really are

She wants to know you slowly
To find out who you really are
But nobody knows you slowly
Nobody knows who you are
She wants to know you slowly
To find out who you really are


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Crystal

Turn down the night
As the cars go racing
Settle to the inner sight

Again to walk the machair
Trip down the sand dunes
All at one with two once fair

Take a balance to the light
The clock of time is south facing
The fiddler fettles as well he might

Again to drive on as we dare
Pulled by tractor through golden rills
All at one with two to care

Stroke the glass ball, here your plight
The mirage of worlds are pacing
Life unfolds at the reasons for the flight


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Dunes

Low slung moon
Slow sung tune
Palms with shadows for branches


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Station

Propulsion
We are all propelled

This way and that
That way and this


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

That Afternoon

My hand on her firm tummy
Her skin suntanned and warm
Our child lively in her belly
One day of love forever frozen


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Interruption

The sun is warm on my face
Although my feet say day is a recorded dawning
I browse the many images and words
Love is ever a blessing

The telephone rings
An urgent message
Regarding my payment
Protection insurance

The sun is warm in my voice
Although the shock of her prerecorded warning
Was colder than bare skin in darkness
Silence is ever a blessing


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Windless

It is an encouraging light
Through all eleven windows

In the main it is quiet
Constructors at lunch
Factories wound down
Traffic stilled by time

It is easier without projections
Listen to the absent tick-tock
All of love, all of care
Gives a renewal of energies

Browse the poets & the artists
Who each strive to bring beauty


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Hermitage

In search of one
A symphony of simple

Cool, calm
Of a tradition

To dream
Dream of all but silence


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Canal Side

Restrained
Without of understanding

Unsure of belief
In ones own thoughts


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Hermitage II

Listen
The chink of china
Informal conversation

A European City
Out for afternoon tea


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Roberto

Before the stillness
Among the crazy time

Bound, by papermache
The gluepot
& the paste brush


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Cobra

A place to become unsettled
Legs turn, unsteady

Humans, with the voices of birds
Fires, pyres, screams of poets


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Water

River boat
Down besides the flat lands
& the bicycle palaces


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Absence

Little girl, by her mother
Sips Ice Cream Soda
Through a straw

Today her father
Is elsewhere


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Bars

Plums et la tomatoe
Generation through generation

A spotted dress
Drinks from my coffee cup


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Pristine

You took your time
To look so good
You took your time
They said you would

With half a mind
The half that almost misunderstood
More than half unkind
The half that knew I no how should

We danced the line
Swayed yet somehow leaning stood
I said you're mine
Venture here to be deep set in my blood

Time stood still
As if our place was under rainbows hood
Time cared only for the thrill
The rest left scattered in bluebell wood

The days and nights took their toll
Our play turned bad, we'd had it all too good
We parted, and parted the drift began to roll
Our hopelessness ended, as we knew it should

You look so good
I take my time
I dreamt you would
It was sublime


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Flirtatious

Cockatiel & coffee cup
Steal the dreams of able
Sit there by the mirage fair
Cards laid on the table

Ace is high but draw it slow
Takes a while for love to show
Kings and Queens they stand in line
Touch their breath & pray for time

One and one is as could never be
Mismatched over by the stable
All to hope is all can change
By mail or text or telegraph cable


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Visitation

Another teatime supermarket cafe
At the end of a rain filled day in Yorkshire
Should I stay or should I walk away
Who is that sat at the table in the corner

I replay the mind games where she says
Where her movement is there in time
Soft skin wrapped around the sounds of violin
Let me leave you now & go become the loner

Twisted scarf and tied up hair
Arm that moves with thoughts so fair
Should I stay and fill my coffee to the brim
Is that my sweet Rose, or faithless Desdemona


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

It All Adds Up

I feel you in my bones
The whole erasure of you
Unfolds within my body
I smile as you play with my mind

In this there becomes a new entity
An entirety of more than one
Faith enough to move on
Courage gathered to go forwards

I cannot embrace you
In a screen filled photograph
I cannot chase you
Through an unspoken conversation

I no longer expect a special journey
Into the supernatural
Although we did once believe
In the power of transference, didn't we

The pampas grass and blossom
Blows vigorously
In the windswept, rain drenched
Beautiful Northern England

Quite unlike the settled palms
Of your islands waterfront
Where the promenade
Erased me from your arms


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Rich

Lightless windows
At the end of the day
A strength of blue
Purpose made
For lovers at play

Play on the waterfront
Play in the drinkers bar
Play at the all-night discotheque
Before the moonlight arrives
With the morning star

A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text

Recoil

I stare over my coffee cup
Take care not to mix you up
With someone other than me

I share your arm movement
Bare skin of singular intent
Meant for all to see

There is little now that stirs
I defer to my memory
Despair that she is not to be


A Poem from Outline Sketches and Vague Reasoning - Love Within a Drifting Mind available from Booktango by cliking anywhere on this text