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Friday 21 February 2014

I Stole the All of Joy

Did I truly
Make off with your ebullience
Hijack your bounce and verve

Is it true that only the downtrodden
Was left behind
The cast aside and trapped free thinker

Under sodium skies
With winds set down for late evening
As though the truth of one

Can be at one with one
Who sits somewhere in transit
Over the distant darker blues

Underfoot undulations
Night visit to neighbours; harmonious
Welcome, careful journey of love

I drink my Northumbrian water
Hear you talk of limestone dissolved
See you swim; in river, loch and cave

I was on the edge of sleep
But I have been awoken by painters
Poets and writers talking of wild swimming

I will buy Hughes’ book of the river
Paddle again in the streams of my childhood
Tingle my extremities with the touches of water

Everyone celebrates Roger Deakin
He was infectious with his desire
To let one share in his excitement

Though boy o boy we didn't expect
The skinny dipping
Or did we

Intoxicated by water, water on skin
Skin glides through water, intense
The immersive other place of water

It was one line, spoken with little
Conviction; five words, no more
No less: "come and see me later"

In the past I would have been ecstatic
Right away my whole body
Would have trembled

My mind in an instant
Would have been fuzzy
Frazzled to the core

Then I would be hanging
On to her every word
Instead it is the swallows 

& gliding house-martins
That bring a smile
To my less tired eyes

I don't think of her on waking anymore
Which says something I suppose
About the passing of time


This is a poem from Filmic: Love of Our World of Purples & Blues

Available as ebook from Kindle
or as a homemade print book with audio cd from  poetryshop