Inkblot Preamble

I have a propensity
A desire almost a calling you could say
To better understand that other worldly stuff
Such that I might believe in these unexplained things
Which happen in my life which happen in my dreams

Especially if it is something which suggests
That I have more in common with you
Or that I am or maybe I am closer to you
Than might be apparent from this one world view
Which I mostly acknowledge

Also if it is something which suggests I have less in common
With someone who troubles me
Or some person
Who I for various reasons connected to you
Find implicitly…

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Blue

It is such a bloody good colour isn't it and when you read about the colour blue In Rebecca Solnit's book A Field Guide to Getting Lost you say to yourself she is a bloody good writer isn't she and after you have photographed all of the curators artworks in the Longside Gallery you again say to yourself they make bloody good pairings I should say don't they such that you go outside to purchase a black americano and a raspberry-sorbet ice cream and say to yourself this is the life it bloody well is isn't it as you sit down to look at the long field of tilled earth with the sun and the clouds shadows taking it in turn to sweep towards you and once again you say to yourself I'm so bloody well glad I came here today aren't I just now so excited you almost forget to mention the breeze which zips into your life and reminds you when as a teenager you scrambled wilful over the big-house estate walls and so you say to yourself I was bloody lucky to be born near here wasn't I to be able go to the Young Farmers dances on high days and holidays there down the road by the triangle at Cawthorne and so yet again you say to yourself isn't it just magic to have memories to look back on yes it bloody well is isn't it such that today couples and families walk up the path which you often strode down when walking here alone from your mothers which makes you think to say to yourself she was a bloody good mum and she looked happy in that blue dress now didn't she bloody well just

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Ignored

One of the downside consequences of choosing to be aloof is that you can quite easily be ignored your grateful words may not be read or at least not read by many and so very few who choose to respond

The photographs you post of YSP may not catch another viewers eye or at least not spark their imagination and the extracts of your Red Telephone Box book may not be endorsed even if they were read in the first place

Yes there are consequences of standing apart from the crowd for out of the mainstream you may well be ignored but is it not better to be yourself to go and gather your own unique thoughts in your own way and in doing so build up your own inner strength

Saying hey this is me yes here I am you can take me or you can leave me but don't expect me to do just as you do for if everyone did that how dull would the world soon become if it was not already dull because of you in the first place

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Amplification

Much of my poetry is an attempt
To amplify those experiential moments
The ones which I share with myself

Those slight glimpses of the past or of the future
Which enter unannounced silent
As a thought or indefinite as a vague fleeting image

Which require the crystal-set amplifier
Of amplification to be turned up to the very top
Such as if Roger Bacon's magnifying lens

Might be used to inspect the cell
Or the Jodrell Bank telescope may be used
To interrogate the stars or the cosmos

Imagine now if you will that deep meditation
Which realises itself as a visualisation
However with no Polaroid or such device at hand

It would surely fade as easily as it arose
Becoming obscured
By the mere transience of life

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Yorkshire

Sat on the real stone steps
Sheltered by the Hawthorne and by the Oak
From the prevailing wind

Or should it be
Sheltered by the Bougainvilleas
From the ever fragrant breeze

Either way the sun shone
And the gardener mowed the grass
With his rather noisy eight-bladed machine

The children
Now as then and then as now
Engage with the sculptures

Perhaps see something of themselves
Reflected in the works of art
See something of their future see something of their past

And the visitors from near and far away
Jostle with all of a vacation's excitement
They hold hands as they walk down the pathways home

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