Dust To Dust

Sand dunes

You were on my mind

Seeing straight through

The soles of my shoes

Sand dunes

You were on my mind

Another quay

Another other time

Seeing beyond youth’s truth

The midlife, in life, sayer-sooth

Another, another quay

Journeys, journeys lost in time

A glimpse behind the shoulder

Silk-scarf, swirling in the breeze

Laughter passing by there

Friends with all she meets

Perhaps she will look this way

Maybe she just might

Sand dunes

You were on my mind

Sand dunes

Looking back in time

Way down there, by the waltzer

Cheesecloth, crumbs of cheesecake

Taffeta, shiny glowing toffee apples

Joy unadorned, also candy-floss

Perhaps she will look this way

Maybe she just might

Sand dunes

Forgotten tunes

Remaindered runes

Stillness soon

Sand dunes

You were on my mind

Sand dunes

Journeys lost in time

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Haikuish

Drops of dew glisten

Stars trapped in the dawn day sun

A strangers galaxy

Reservoirs covered in snow

Icicle man astride

The pedestrian's fluid divide

Bach of beach seasons

Surf over summers tales of reason

Blues sail on the perilymph

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Temeraire

Horizon, sunset on the horizon

Light scattered falling from the sky

Reflections, ships on the water

Shorelines, cityscapes; fade, fade away

Orange, yellow, ochre, rust, blue

Flames flare from her chimney

As she tugs the majestic sailing ship

Underneath a sky with sun, with moon

Did he ponder on the galley

Wondering why not a soul in sight

Could the sea have been so many colours

Would that the imagination beamed so bright

From across the oceans, sailors gather

Line the decks as they reach the shore

Yesterday was flags and bunting

Today is calm, good men quietly go

Storm clouds behind the night

Bring brightness to the fore

Light, a likeness to your image

Your sun drenched early evening sky

Mandolin wind, you have the weight

Strings whispering, you are so so nearly being

Drum skins smoothed, brushstrokes wavered

The bass guitar plays, you gently weep, you cry

Promenader's right behind you

Waiting, watching your vision unfold

Your story you gave us on the canvas

Eight score years or more ago

Reds, greys, silvers, whites, golds

The flickering flag atop the mast

Ropes, rigging tidier than nature

Close up close I spy a crew

A sea of two-tone reflections

Mirror sun, mirror moon

Painting thousands of projections

For the nation to consume

Did you say you were going nowhere

No more the sea to be a roving

The last voyage has been taken

The last journey gone

We should have seen the sadness

The colour was without your joy

The smokestack racks our guilt

Cracks upon, our mistaken preconceptions

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You Are A Long Way From Home

It seems to me

From the way you dress

That you are a long way

A long way from home

I also surmise, surprise

That you are lost

Lost inside, I find

Inside your sketchbook world

Looking backwards

Back along the promenade

To the turret, to the tower

They are your silhouettes

The clock in the square

The coronation cross

They are your foreground

Your definition, your detail

This picture

Framed to the East

Framed by the faraway shores

Beyond the distance, beyond the horizon

These Jurassic cliffs crumble

Their history cloaks another mankind

You are I surmise

A long way from home

Are you here to escape 

Escaping the troubles of mad mankind

Are you here, stored away, but crippled

Crippled, by your wandering mind

The stillness, the calm 

Of this present situation

Behind the wars, behind the warriors

Is it they that test your patience

The injustice of your situation

Not by choice, or in context

Simply an artist drawing

On what’s left of this day’s life

The light is fading

You have moved along

The chorus of the song has gone

The stolen lives of those you’ve left behind

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I Pretty Much Trust Magnetism

Of people, of ideas, of jewels

Of music, of prayers, of laughs

Of drugs, of glances, of guilt

Of fire, of water, of storms

Of, you know, those

Naturally occurring pulls toward

I’d go further than that in fact

That trust, that magnetism

People swaying, ideas playing

Clusters of jewels, mountains of music

Mosques, synagogues, chapels, churches

Prayer, laughter - those hugs of civilisation

No longer scared of sideways glances

No more by guilt to be bound

Neither from the fire, nor from the water

Instead to embrace the reviving storms

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