Beyond Reach Perhaps

Beyond the window a stillness

Beyond reach perhaps

Even if one was

To lay down naked

On the dew covered grass

Or paint

Ever so slowly

The slight wavering bush

Even to float

In an hot air balloon

Among the unanimous grey sky

Beyond the partition doors, conversation

Beyond reach perhaps

Even if one was

To proclaim

The whole of virtuous love

Or recite

Ever so slowly

The poetry of the spheres

Even to levitate

In a spiritual sort of way

Among the magnanimous prattle

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Buildings

I walk past a row of Victorian terraced houses

The iron railings have been clumsily removed

From the walls of their owners front gardens

I see a lady get off the double-decker bus

She is carrying what looks like a metal detector

I thought, but didn't say...

Were these two things in any way connected

Before I saw the lady get off the bus I was

Thinking what a small life we Englander's live

I was taken back twenty years or so, to a work

Colleague showing me his holiday home villa

Somewhere in the sunshine state of Florida

Back then it was the size and the spaciousness

That hit me, impressed me, and it hits me again

Today I lead a small life, in a small thinking country

Perhaps it is time for adventure

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Set Out, Lay Down

If it should so happen
Shouldn't I know soon enough
If I should take a stance
Wouldn't you know soon enough

Between the making it happen
And the taking a stance
Wouldn't I know that I know
Couldn't you know that I know

Between the shouldn’t I
And the wouldn’t I
And the couldn't I
I know that you know

So let's get off our high horses
Move away from the circumspect
Discard the distant therapy
Settle for what we know

Which after all is not the same
Not even for we two, who
As happenstance would have it
Could not already have been closer

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Practicalities

I feel the hot water

As I lower the breakfast plate

Into the washing up bowl

I feel the cold draught

As I open the fridge door

To replace the eggs

I take pleasure in the white shirt

And the blue jeans as I walk out

Into the frost covered garden

I enjoy the music & poetry

On the car stereo as I drive

Down the country roads to work

I remember last night's happy

Telephone conversation. I write

A few words for the record

I reach a high sense of achievement

By methodically repairing my computer

Which yesterday was entirely dysfunctional

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Renato Guttuso - La Vucciria

The market hall
Is filled with peppers and tomatoes
With chillies, and onions, and eggs
A side of beef
Hangs beside the hare
Itself awaiting the jug

Walking beside the sardines
Is a young woman
With well made legs
And a regular Italian backside
There are cheeses
And there are mushrooms

There are apples and pears
A young man, with
Brown jacket and yellow jumper
Walks towards me
He might have designs
On the young woman

That is the clue I am given
From the stall-keepers eyes
Which clearly suggest amour

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