Inside Out

The goodness of men and women

The gentleness of men and women

The varied lives of men and women

My words, sincere and heartfelt

Straight out of endoscopy; one probe

From the top, one from down below

Professor Anwar set the scene

Although the nurse before him

Put me at ease with her cheerful manner

But it was the Prof. (I heard others say this)

Who talked the talk before he walked the walk

All the while keeping me informed

And now I look at Jung’s book

And wonder if I might start

My one on one meditations again

For I have a certainty

That my peace and calm

Throughout the procedure also came from within

From my breathing

From my loving kindness

From all the years that my contemplations taught

Such that I might make a trip

To the Abbey in November or December

Investigative results permitting, that is

Boxed In

The first one-third of a litre

Is in the body

Another third is to follow

In thirty minutes or so

I am reading Refusing Heavens

Poems by Jack Gilbert

How can we not

Compare our own lives

Think of good and bad times

Though most are melancholic nostalgia

For what, in all probability

We never truly shared in the first place

The hospital process is new to me

Though hardly an adventure

Although my brother told me

He thought afterwards he could climb Everest

He was a mechanic

Then he taught accountancy

Yet he has offered a medical certainty

In a way which no one else quite achieved

Jack, in his poem Kunstkammer

Says: but the heart is different

It never forgets

You may feel, my body’s definitive reaction

Socially Distanced

The new playlist

Is one-hundred songs

Based on King Crimson’s

I talk to the wind

Bought for a birthday party

Not long after

Losing my virginity

In the most well-known sense

The wind does not hear

The wind cannot hear

The wind cares not a jot

About my virginity

Being more intent

On whipping up storms

Or crashing waves on beaches

Or blowing flags purposefully inside out

All of which

Is pretty much how I felt

When I talked to the wind

When I lost my virginity 

Silent Distance

Without question

I have made a judgement

Without knowledge

I have made the call

Is this arrogance

Or is it affection

Is this with purpose

Or form without content

And what of

Tirade

Or rant

Or unconditional love

Where would you sit

Where should I sit

Where might we sit

Together

No, no, no

Not ever those words again

Without doubt

I have made up my mind

Rhythms; Past, And Present

Wave after wave

Of shade then light

Wave after wave

On the ocean that night?

Memories rise

Memories fall

Wave after wave

With sequins do they call?

Wave after wave

Of doubts after passions

Wave after wave

Wear at the mind’s rations?

Reactions come

And reactions go, slow

Wave after wave

They seek out the flow?

Wave after wave

For artist and poet

Wave after wave

Don’t you just know it?

Purposes arrive

Then purposes depart

Wave after wave

The horse and the cart?