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Saturday, 17 April 2021

So Swift

The painter paints
Lays oil upon his canvas
Sees further than the sky
His aim never wanes

His picture only to be
For life, for liveliness
To have a new edge
Such that you and I

Can wonder more
At the world about us
My words though to stay
Are by compare

So swift; here, and then away
No pause to escape delay
In sands of time perhaps
But for now; a poem for this day


Friday, 16 April 2021

The Country In City Clothes

There were forty-two
Sheep in the field
Forty-two
Or forty-three

Should it matter
You could count
Them in a photograph
If it is of such importance

If you wish
Pull on your Wellingtons
Plunge into the flooded mud
At the bog end bit of the field

By the stream
If that helps
Because I just wondered
If you would truly enjoy to sink

Cars drive by
Every morning
In sun, in rain
Or as today, today…

The field before the fallen tree
A few years ago now
The flowers too, surely
They will in turn die

A lonely walk this
The country in city clothes
Black on green, red on brown
The flowered lapel

It is the final story
This, and the tears
Which somehow are
Always to follow later


Thursday, 15 April 2021

Sway And Wave A Last Goodbye

One by one the songbirds sing
their long and last good morrows
As heads of corn they sway
and wave their last goodbye
Acid laughter sings a little longer
No more, no, no more sorrows
Newborn generation’s endless tears
of parted love they cry

One by one the songbirds sing
As heads of corn they sway
and wave a last goodbye

Neon lights fall back
into the welcome warm dark shadow
Moments torn, but always they had to try

Once more inside that anguish
One more night
deep inside the born-again rebirth
No less painful
yet the gift of life is a worthy fight

One by one
The songbirds sing
Their long and last good morrow
One by one
The songbirds sing

Where now our matron
our only solid stone
our true soul mother

Where is she
to calm the madness
To turn down beds
and give homage
to the polished tiles glimmer

The gold oak doors are opened
We see the children deep inside
Safe, in far away full night’s sleep

One by one the songbirds sing
One by one the songbirds sing
We walk away
with hands inside our pockets
We walk away
under the silver, middle-night moon

One by one the songbirds sing
their long and last good morrow
One by one the songbirds sing
As heads of corn they sway
and wave a last goodbye
And one by one they sway
and wave a last goodbye


Wednesday, 14 April 2021

A Golden Daffodil And A Fluorescent Raspberry

I want to talk of light
Light on the field
Northern Light
Cold light
Light to cut through
On its way from the west
Across the clear blue sky
Deep on
Into the green field
Up the valley side

Over the five bar gate
An entrance made
For the light underfoot
Stage light
Stage fright and spotlight
Hold tight now
Light, let there be light
Light of a golden daffodil
And a fluorescent raspberry
For the northerner’s midnight plot


Tuesday, 13 April 2021

On The Edge Of Dreams

Cereals and hallucinations
On the edge of dreams
And dangerous situations

As the rainbow skies grieve
The piano plays a soft sonata
Blue is up, and now I leave

Woken moments
Stolen times of long ago
Celebration that’s the word I’m after

Broken binds
Wheel the fault-lines of sorrow
Footprints in sand, clay, silica, snow

Sat on the veranda
Down in the Savannah
Prints of indelible flowers

Insoluble
Earth mother
Surely to show

Snow melts
On the photograph
Steam comes to life

Sliding down the walls
Words on wires
A message to laughter

Frigid with frustration
Madness, caught out
In isolation

Hallucinatory progress
From the bedhead
On the edge of dreams