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Saturday 8 May 2021

Passing By, Almost Forgotten

Slow train from Siena
Slow train to Firenze
Do not go beyond
The yellow line

Ten times more emotional
Than a picture or a painting
How sweet the sounds
That saved a soul like me

Cypress lined roads turn and twist
To the villa on the hill
Also simple apartments, beside the railway
Behind the allotment gardens

Castelfiorentino, where fake windows
Are painted on the building walls
Where the poppies grow, alongside
The diesel covered, extruded steel rails

A place where the washing hangs
Beneath the open windows
Where the old factory rooftops
Are covered in grass

These are the slow times
Of the twenty-first century
Where a new kind of man is required
To kick off the next renaissance


Friday 7 May 2021

Day Trip Traveller

Leaving Poggibonsi
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna

Leaving Poggibonsi
Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Hare Hare

Tickets scanned
Diesel online
Acceleration
Rama Rama
Hare Hare

The church is on the hill
The fool is on the hill
Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna
The fool is by the till

Rama Rama
Factories and farmyards
Victories and vineyards
Hare Rama
Rama Rama

Entering Certaldo
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna


Thursday 6 May 2021

Daydreamer

Shee Vo Humm
On the earphones
Meditation music
On the rails from Firenze

Foot tapping
Eyes closed
A tired return
On the rails to Firenze

Shee Vo Humm
On the way
From paradise
And the stairway to heaven

Meadow grass and music
Mansion and meadow grass
Beekeeping, and vine-growing
Vine-growing, and beekeeping

Wichita do we ah
Wichita do we ho hey
Keep the foot tapping
Keep the eyes closing

Past the water pipe
To fill the steam engine
Opposite the water pipe
Which fills the steam engine


Wednesday 5 May 2021

Methodologies

I can shoot a photograph
I can write a note
I can make a gesture
I can do all of these
Simply to build a memory

I could talk of warm sun
I could talk of a cold breeze
I could talk of thunderstorms
I could talk of snow on mountains
All of these to add to the memory

Yes, to be in awe
Of the black and white marble
Of the religious fresco
Of the walkway in the sky
Of the seat, on the outdoor shelf

How long is the queue
Already three parties
Have pardoned themselves
Yet the three of you
Return without venturing

Instead to find a bar
To carry out
A triangulation exercise
To find the height
Of the minaret


Tuesday 4 May 2021

People Past Purpose

How silent the camera
How silver
The quiffed and curly hair

How careful the restoration
How tidy
Row after row of the fold-away chair

Fingers point
And brows are furrowed
With this popular tourist affair

The older woman
Talks of her girlfriend
I whisper, you know, sublimely self-aware

Eyes in sunken sockets
Yes, you guessed it
They said to stop and stare

So, to prevent raucous laughter
You put your finger to your lip
As if you were musing, with Tony Blair

No wonder he turned Catholic
After that new labour crawl
We said we will, we will, do or dare

The American eschews her gravy
Then talks through the silence
For she has neither style, nor care