15

Tree of daylight moon, with sky of pink stripe blue

The faraway soul sings, yes my friend it's true

Ever so calm now, you know you can't accrue

Ground of effortless frost, with North light new

Your deeper call sways, yes my friend it's true

With this peace now, you know you can't go through

Water of wave lapped shore, with hopeful sunrise hue

The lighter drawl stays, yes my friend it's true

Among this love now, you know you can't undo

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14

There is the ache, I don't need to fake it

Why try to escape, there is no way you'd make it

Remember the darkness, remember the lights in the tree

Remember the wood-burner, remember just what you see

Feel for its silent entrance, is that any more than chance

Through the hearts gape, surges the heartaches lance

Remember the warmth, remember the lasting view

Remember the arms around, remember casting you

How swift it departs, how often it strays

No more need to chart, these are forever days

Remember the solitude, remember the sin of debt

Remember the breakout, remember the winter let

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13

I could write as if I was a tree, but I am not, nor ever have been a tree of any kind

I could write as if I was the sea, but if you inspect closely that is not true I think you will find

I could write of seas, and trees, and wannabes, but how could I write about me

I could write of those eighteen-thousand nights of making love or masturbating, and wonder at how the body is so efficacious in recovery

I could write of those fifteen-thousand mornings of waking up, together or alone, embraced by joy or pain, and wonder at the minds ability for reinvention

I could write of sleep and sex, yet still I expect, I could not write about me

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12

A pupil, a failure

An apprentice engineer

From a fault line, to a fault line

To becoming an engineer

A mind, a body, a man

An accomplished engineer

A person, a parent

A successful businessman

Only money, only income

A lost soul from the engineer 

A wanderer, a waster

Off the fault line

Of the engineer

A pauper, a reader

Not an engineer

A poet, a writer, a parent

A lover

Anything but an engineer

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Onwards And Awkwards

The young man recites Larkin - from memory

These words, the first I hear

Far from Lincolnshire; where my sky meets my fear

Far from sunshine Southwold's friendly B&B

These words, the first I hear

Where the ex naval officer's wife runs straight and clear

Thus traditions are built, prolonged, initiated

Slight use of the tools of fear

Breakfast will be served 8:30 to 9:00 prompt, no beer

Neither a chance for the pose of half understanding

Slight use of the tools of fear

We were meant to have arrived by three, that was the steer

The landlady asks if I am always so unreliable

I was supposed to phone when we got near

No need to worry I say smiling without a hint of dear

Next day she laughs as she tells us of last nights rape

I was supposed to phone when we saw the sea so near

As for Larkin, well, he will not be the last King Lear

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