Wind Band

It is, is it, just a room
Like many other
A simple carpet, bedspread
Eiderdown cover
Carved tabled
Embraced with lace
Drawers for dressing
Lathe turned legs
Listening to the Ironmonger’s Ball
Over the rolling, calling, windswept wall
It is, is it, just another room
Like, alike, alike many, many another
A space, stark, dark, dark turned light
Sounds escaping into a classical night
It’s a living, breathing, developing art

Fighting, fighting for it’s very future
In this room, towards Nirvana
A wind band, a wind band orchestra
Colours combining, harvesting in my mind
In this room, unlike the night

Unlike any other

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Chronicle

The cathedral’s silent space
The blacksmith’s forging flame
The British bed and breakfast
Walking over the reservoir ramparts
Canal boat over the sky-high viaduct
Coach trip to the seaside
Scared that it could all be lost
Scared that there could be even more
Scared by the shifting sands of minds
Time is the ethereal enemy
Understanding the hour

The minute, the day
Missing by a mile the year

The generation, the life

The railway platform at mid-day
Apples and oranges on the market stall
Ale house and alfresco foraging
Cars boarding the over-night ferry
Fishermen landing their catch on the quay
Cricket whites and willow battered ball
Scared at not meeting the cost
Scared that there could be even more
Scared by the fluidity of inflation
Money is the surrealist enemy
Understanding the pound in our pocket

Missing by a mile

The millions flowing through a lifetime

The works Christmas party
Bingo at the club
Dominoes in the pub
The aeroplane

Going from ground to cloud
The ice cream on the promenade
The surfboard cutting spray
Scared at being somewhere different
Scared there might be even more
Scared by a changing space
Place is the straight-jacket enemy
Understanding the room

The yard, the town
Missing by a mile the city

The county in the country
The cinema screen imagery
The theatrical actor’s observations
The brass band playing eulogies
Mountains of misunderstood meetings
Thousands of insincere greetings
Waiting for Murphy's law
Scared at not saying
Scared that there could be even more
Scared of listening and feeling
Communication is the free-world enemy
Understanding hello, goodbye, yes and no
Missing by a mile everything in between

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Untitled 1

I laugh on my own, but I am not alone
No, you are here
You do not disappear
Is this the same
For lovers in grief
The disbelief
Shown by friends and family
Who do not
Will not understand
You have not gone
Not away
Just to another peaceful place
Where I join you
Everyday
In my own way

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Temeraire

Horizon, sunset on the horizon
Light scattered, falling from the sky
Reflections of ships on the water
Shorelines and cityscapes, fade, fade away
Orange, yellow, ochre, rust and blue
Flames flare from her chimney
As she tugs the majestic sailing ship
Underneath a sky with both sun and moon
Did he ponder on the galley
Wondering why not a soul in sight
Could the sea have been so many colours
Would that the imaginations

Might beam so bright
From across the oceans sailors gather
Line the decks as they reach the shore
Yesterday was flags and bunting
Today is calm; good men quietly go
Storm clouds behind the night
Bring brightness to the fore
Light, a likeness to your imagination
Your sun drenched early evening sky
Mandolin wind, you have the weight
Strings whispering, you are nearly being
Drum skins smoothed

Your brushstroke wavers
The bass guitar plays

You gently weep and cry

Promenader's right behind you
Waiting and watching your vision unfold
Your story, you gave thus on the canvas
Eight score years and more ago
Red, grey, silver, white and golden
The flickering flag atop the mast
Ropes and rigging tidier than nature
Close up close, I spy a crew
A sea of two reflections
Mirror sun and mirror moon
Painting thousands of projections
For the nation to consume
Did you say you were going nowhere
No more the sea to be a roving
The last voyage has been
And gone
We should have seen the sadness
The colour was without your joy
The smokestack racks our guilt
Cracks upon, our mistaken preconceptions

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Praxitella

Praxitella, ample fella, dynamist
Kissed by your own imagination
Kissed as a mistress
Kissed by your monumental sculptor
Beyond existence, enlisted
All fingers and fisted
Your picture is a writer
Your writer is a picture
No wonder that you missed her
Kissed her like a sister
Realism on society’s cubist blister
But the lines they would not

And could not go away
The lipstick, the saddened eyes
The emphasised thighs and steely wrists
Emphasised gestures

And so so suddenly to be kissed
How much you must have missed her

Hair cropped and shaped
From some pyramid picture
No joy portrayed
Whoever the lear that kissed her
Tapping of the finger
Splinter in the Wyndham
My he almost missed her
Looking for her sister
Now you sit
Between the Dance Club
And Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem
Praxitella
Were you invaded, persuaded

Even confiscated
On Jacob Kramer’s Day

‘The Day of Atonement’

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Anew: A long time ago

Saturday morning

White washing, sharp frost

Clear blue sky
Beginning of a new beauty
Doing, leading to being

Being of a new beauty
Change of font and change of style
Chance grasped, exploration espoused
Coming to calm, walking to warm
Loving the platinum gold sunlight
Melting the bright white dewdrops
Saturday morning awaking to awakening
Smiling, a chuckle from within escaping
Joys of journeys through minds past
Change of tone and change of context
Glance clasped, interpolation allowed
Coming to calm, caressing the air
Lullaby of birdsong
Fresh new day, fresh new way

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Hold Her Tight

Midsummer motorbikes
Leather and lace
Chasing the pace
Gliding with grace
Race, after race, after race
Gearbox grinds
Castrol GTX
Accept nothing less
Speed to excess
In your leather gear

And your carbon head-dress
Donnington to Daytona
Meet the worlds best
Taking the test
Over the crest
Bury the rest
James dean
Barry sheen
Silver screen
Racing machine
Living the dream
Ride on Easy Rider
Remember Harley Davison days
Long hot rides
Long hot lays
The devil blindfolds those who play
Early start
Kerb cracking summer sunrise
Engines overheating
Fear of missing the meeting
Why do you deserve mistreating
I love my girl
I treat her right
She holds me tight
A pillion passenger’s pure delight
Wind-warm day

Sexy steamy night
Rock and roll
Hells angels caress
Honda Gold Wing riders overdress
First place is a short lived success
He passed the rest

With the yellow flag flying
The Jagger of a rolling stone
Inside the Sunday supplement
Sixty years of engaging entertainment
More than once

Against the wall with Marianne
Just like sussy pussy

Stood proud outside the winners Caravan
Dawn to dusk
Bitches and biking
The circus stalls
The chequered flag falls
Another year of mustard memories
Astride the night
Revelations in sight
Roaring and scoring
Sensual summer sojourn
Easy as the aura adorned

Two hundred miles an hour
Re-live the heroes
Beneath the wires and the crows
Faster than the speed-cam carrier
Once more then you'll marry her
Into the garage in the half-light
It's an awful long time since midnight
You hug and you hold yourself tight
If you pinch you just might
Believe it, you've been, you've seen

You've gone and got insight

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Sputnik

The Navigation Arms
Let loose your senses
Release your defences, of navigation
Nicotine amber and creamy stout
Blackcurrant, cider, scallywags about
Mingling in with the inn crowd
Sing along, now sing along for Tom Dowd
Unsteadily stepping on the pebble shore
Pause, for a wee under the balustrade
Heads already beginning to thicken
Slowly breathing

Breathing completely clean, seaside air
In the distance, listen

The screams of delight
Shivering and shaken

Shaken out of the moonlight
Beach night, moonlight

Starlight, summer site
Listen to the screams

The screams of delight
Branscombe Beer, Plymouth Gin

Sip the gin and tonic
Only human, this is no Sputnik, Brojnic
Back in this room, been here before
Eiderdown, radio, worn out floor
No one rings tonight, no one ever does
Words arise from below
Conversing, wandering, escaping
Philandering along the promenades
Planning permissions

Applied for
To turn it into flats
The locals complain
Out loud, but they have, have they
They have never stayed here
Never crossed the threshold
Into this ancient decaying

Dilapidated space
Some say they’re business folk that run it
In it for what they can get out
But In fact that’s why I stay here
Not to be distracted

But to feel the man, feel the man
It’s closing time at the Navigation
To close this page of history
Close this page so slowly
Navigation; you are

You are, localised folk lore

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Dust To Dust

Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Seeing straight through
The soles of my shoes
Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Another Quay
Another, other time
Seeing beyond youth’s truth
The midlife, in life, so say sayer-sooth
Another, another Quay
Journey’s, journey’s lost in time
A glimpse behind the shoulder
Silk scarf swirling in the breeze
Laughter passing by there
Friends with all she meets
Perhaps she will look this way
Maybe

Maybe she just might

Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Sand dunes
Journey's lost in time
Way down there, by the waltzer
Cheesecloth, crumbs of cheesecake
Taffeta, shiny glowing toffee apples
Joy, unadorned and candy-floss
Perhaps she will look this way
Maybe

Maybe she just might
Sand dunes
Forgotten tunes
Remaindered runes
Stillness soon
Sand dunes
You were on my mind
Sand dunes
Journey’s lost in time

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Rivers Deep

Wistful, whistle, walking at the wave’s edge
Caressing, choral

Through the fields of corn
Majestic, meditation

Moving by the mountain side
Suggestive, song

In the silent sensuous sultry summer
Angelic, orchestral

Amongst evangelical ethereal skies
Mantra, chant

Immortalise Gregorian’s pastures
Bass wind, bassoon

Winding its way through wind and wind
Strum, vibrate, resonance

In season and circumstance
Vibrant, good vibrations

Surround sounds bounce around
Awakened, woken, voices softly spoken

Larks rising, ears opened
Nature, nurture, growing by feeling

Listen for the ragas reeling
Celtic, Irish, romance fiddles fast

Fiddles slowly, today and yesteryear
Tenors, troubadours

Walking in the heaven’s

Talking with the god's
Lutes, flutes, believe in the safe

From scary fairies

Dare to enter another world
Operatic, soprano, oh, oh

Can the beauty be imagined so, Ave Maria
Xylophone, flugelhorn

Bass trombone, saxophone

Jeroboam, of champagne
Nothings the same
In this campaign
Of music's reign
One last refrain
I can't sustain
This purple rain
This love and pain
This Virginia Plain
Everlasting love
One last song
One last goodbye
I could cry
Cry if I try
Cry if you want me to
Cry tears of happiness
Tears of joy
One last hit single
Let’s make them tingle
Looking for Linda
Looking for love
Looking for work
Looking for shipbuilding
Nothings changed
Words re-arranged
One last hit single
Guitar, from afar, you gently weep
Blues, bluegrass, chewing tobacco

Working the fields
Can you soothe our pain

Slide and steel us

From being dazed and confused
Gospel, possession needing no property

Possessing our own self

With amazing grace
Soul, black and white, girl and boy

Love never knew such yearning
Tearing, torment, such soulful

Can you imagine nights

And heights, of passion
Singer songwriter

Weave your wondrous words
Leave your blood on the tracks

Stand by your man

Remember caravan

And Vincent
Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and rock

Rhythm and rhyme

Havens even Dali-rhythm
Stones and Gaye

How could you not fade away

No, not fade away
Gypsies and Kings

And Richards and Stings

And everybody sings

And dances and romances
Lovers do
They save the last dance
They Caress, sun-blessed

Believing, conceiving

That it’s forever before the morning
Samba, mamba

Kid Creole, that old rock and roll
Jives alive, brothel creepers

And skin tight sky-blue sneakers
Canaries and calypso

You never saw such life

Absolutely new life
Nothings the same
Nobodies going to stop us now
The romantic refrain
Emotions strain
Lipstick stain
In love again
One more night
It’ll be all right
Another magic morning
Where I shouldn’t be
But I couldn’t see
Blinded by something
Deep inside of me
Everlasting Love
Linger
Ravish
Soul singer
PP Arnold
Engage us again
First cut is the deepest
Linger
Crave
Soul singer
Aretha
One more time
Six three four five seven eight nine
Linger
Infuse
Soul singer
Otis
Take us again
To the dock of the bay
Mandolin wind

Piano string, violin and viola
Summer sunsets, evening concerts

City halls, country balls, waterfalls
Bass Guitar, Indian Sitar

Near and far, sounds surround
Around the world

Around the country

Around the home

Around whatever’s inside
And more beside

And much more beside

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Triple Jump

Morning dew listen
Trap the dawn sun
Stalagtactica galactica
Reservoir snow cover
Icicle man astride
Pedalo’s oceans divide
Beach Seasons
Surf over summer
Blues sail the perilymph

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Crescent Moon

I don’t know when I lost you
Or when I lost myself
Beneath the crescent moon
Bathed by clear night’s scars
I don’t know when I lost you
Or when you lost yourself

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Mendip Morning

Flickering leaf
Your life so small
Backdrop against the cloud
Grey turning to gold
Bringing the morning
Breeze blown streams
Beside you the tree

The tree is already bare
Slimmed down to a minimal load
For the winter ahead
Blues and pinks
Wander over the skyline
Shepard’s warning red sky morning
Still like a skeleton
Magnificent from branch to branch
Closing down for another year
No nests to survive

Just you and the sky
With your friend in the foreground
Still covered in leaf
Every cloud has a silver lining
In this early sunrise morning
Bewitched by the gaze of pink and blue

Light glorious light
From where once again
Your pleasure never stops calling
The levels and the Mendips
Under water-born dew
Natural friendships;

Oaks, sycamores, sunlight
Shadows cast across the canal
Into the orchard

Seeking
The laws of relative relativity
Rising by the metre
Rising by the mile
Over railway lines and radio waves
The horizon becomes the centre
Setting balance in the work
The low trees red leaves are waking
The cold grass aglow

With deeply sprinkled sunshine
Pathways wandering in the waves of fall
Warmth rising

From between the space and time
From between the here and now

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And So We Go Our Own Way

And so we go our own way
A path not trod before
Each bracken broken
A breaking new
We know this way to be our own way
Our own not known before
Each thought awoken
A thinking new
With light and might we walk our own way
Stealth of stride alone no more
Each slice of slight
Incite light new
And so we go our own way
But thanks
Thanks for this bit of street light
Given in your own way

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Black Book Poems - Eleven

 

Black Book Poems - Ten B

 

Black Book Poems - Ten A

 

Black Book Poems - Nine B

 

Black Book Poems Nine A

 

Black Book Poems - Eight