Phantasy

The rules of deception
A modern boutique hotel
Sepia tone pictures on the wall
Leather clad menus at the table
Sultry jazz music for wallpaper

Sat at separate tables, to begin

The cast iron posts and rails
That divide off the raised area
They appear to be authentic
Carry years of painted layers
Fixed down by torn headed bolts

We look away at the sea-view, to begin

Her long hair is dyed jet black
Straggly, but not in any way untidy
Sure, for sure to be authentic
The significant ring is on her finger
If you don't know me by now
You wont ever, ever know me

Elegantly she moves, to begin

Dressed entirely in the finest silk and lace
She makes slow passage to the ladies room
My watch drains towards eternity
Into the light the black clad mistress emerges
Floats on air past me without motion
Past me, on to the funeral directors parlour



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Engineer, Mathematician, Poet

Twenty-five years
Before I dared
To use the p word

You used it
In the first poem
In your first published collection

Although even you
You the most forthright
Of your generation

Even you
You dared not go there
Not on the first line

Instead you cared
To lead us on
With a quaff of the black stuff

& words drawn
From the north-south divided
Attractions of polar-physics

Later I will paint
Fall in love
With absorption

Think of gin
Stilled in my
Grandparents parlour

Later still I will dream
Walk or fly
Run or skip

Become endearingly
Overwhelmed by the days
Experiences & visitations



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Nuclear non-laconic

All of all time
Dwell on physical love
Soft blown heads of corn
Newly mown, fresh laid hay
Warm skin with the elements
Traced lines in virgin fields
Fondles on summers sands
Shadows, on and off the page

Temptation of sensual deliverance
Open to touch, open to exploration
Manyfold the layers of reflection
In the hazy afternoon sunshine
Daydreams of coastal paths
Of bathing in salt water
Naked and immense


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Shag

Shag
Wings open
To catch the prevailing wind
Lord of all he surveys

Lord of the waves
The sun, the crescent horizon
Lord, of the diminutive rock

On which he stands
Lord of the igneous intrusion
Further out at sea

This is the blue
These are the blues
Blues you are my colour

Thus he sits
Night to day
To keep the flock in order

To absorb the blue light
To infuse the blue energy
To turn his back on Prussia's blue

To rush through
Way ahead of the rest
A seer
A black-blue guide
A singular portrayer
Beyond the oceans cosmos



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Take

Take in the air
The smell of the sea
The stench of seaweed
Beached by incoming tide

Take in the sound
The soft splash of leaves
The shriek of gull
Swooping for your ice-cream

Take in the view
The unhurried horizon
The tar splattered rocks
Of the environmental disaster

Take in the touch
The so submissive sand
The discarded broken bottle
That gashes your careless barefoot

Take in the taste
The neeps & tatties
The stale steak and ale pie
Left on the squalid pantry shelf





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