Dark Dawn

A car goes down the drive
It is six in the morning
Is my elderly neighbour well
Has his grandson found a new job
Is the world everywhere
Slowly awakening, preparing
For a new dawn
A fresh light over the horizon

There is a stillness, a calm
Carried by the darkness
It is as if a secret is being shared
As you might have done
In the junior school playground
With your new best friend
You might even have whispered

No point now then to go back to bed
You have an early doctors appointment

In an hour or so; when the water is warm
You can take a bath
Have a few minutes of blissful release
As you submerge yourself
Physically, and metaphorically

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Tether (End Of)

I am no good with pain
I do not bear it well
I am not fond of suffering
I am absolutely no saint

My current dilemma
Is that the longer I sleep
The more painful my shoulder
When I wake

It’s like a good night out
The better the evening
The more joyfully inebriated
The fiercer the hangover

Or with matters of love
The deeper one throws oneself in
The harsher the heartache
Upon dissolution, upon closure

I know I should be grateful
I am grateful, for the good times
Yet, in the black of this night
I do not take to pain too easily

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Facsimiles II

Choose your music carefully
Or randomly

One is for explorations, triggers
To something new for appreciation
The other is for contemplations, backdrops
To soak into, to dwell among

Ok, so you’ve gone with Arvo Pärt
Da Pacem (Estonian Philharmonic 2006)
So sit still, at least for fifteen minutes
Let the choral voices wash over you

Yes, you may tell me
Of the pink/red/rust coloured leaves
Flickering in the breeze
Beneath November’s blue blue sky

Or you may close your eyes
Recall the deep sleep
Which you were woken from
By a soft touch to your brow

You might even visualise
Monochrome, or mute blue
Or vast aubergine sunsets
Alive with visceral orange

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Facsimiles I

How to replicate
How to create
Stillness, silence
Peace
Engagement

Find one window
Note all, yes everything
Which you see there

Come, and go
At various
Times of day
In all kinds
Of weather

Let your mood be
As it is
As it wishes
As it finds itself

Zoom in
Zoom out
Describe the leaves
Of leaves
As being what you see

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Sex

Black; A touching you didn’t know existed (John Berger)

Of course John, black and sex
How could you not think of them together
Why, didn’t we all get married in black suits
And go to raucous society do’s in black ties
Don’t modern girls crave a little black dress

And just how far is it John
From parading our wanton sexuality
(In whatever black robes we can muster)
To where black suggests something stronger
About desire, passion, negligence, indulgence

Is that why she screamed at you John
Had the black taken you a little too far

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