Preamble

The bramble is in bloom
The yellow gorse

There's yards and yards of it
The rain speckled rambler
Walks, smiling all the way through
This pathway followed by monks of old
Today's story told
Around last centuries newest abbey
Amongst the twisted vines and lavender
In the bookshop, reading of retreats
Buying Aristotle's thoughts on happiness
The gentle people congregate
Smiling eyes, soft-spoken voices
Back on the moors
Back among magnificent vista's
A thousand years
A million miles
The beauty brings alive

The eyes and the ears
The traveller thanks his lucky stars
Nature has many more surprises
The river rises, in a flash spring spate
Meditation in stained glass surrounds
To a backdrop of glory and giving
Being your brother’s keeper
Contributing for continuing living
Sunshine and showers
Photographs of flowers
Reaching peace
Touching love
Being there
Just being
Immersed in adsorption
Feeling, by being alive

 

Ten; Around Then Anyway

A momentary lapse of…
A reason to believe in dreams
Cobbled stones

Rough-hewn meadow lanes
Summer skies

Children’s joy, butterflies
Bilberry bush, strawberry jam

Birds and bees
Picnics by the big house lake
A fleeting glimpse of…
A season to remember a stinging sense
The cane, caning to care
Wrapped in cotton wool
Playground pranks, slipper and spanks
Education’s cock and bull
A flashing passing of…
An aromatic memory of yesteryear
Tar-macadam steam
Workmen by the brazier
Smelting, melting, snorting, blowing
Machines amortise nature

Blackening the country mile

 

I did not take a black tie

I did not take a black tie
I came to see my mother
Ward 11 said Mary
I left a message, on the mobile

For my brother
I did not take a black tie
I came to see my mother
Ward 11 said Mary
I left a message, on the mobile

For my brother
I did not take a black tie
I came to see my mother
Ward 11 said Mary
I left a message, on the mobile

For my brother
Sugar Diabetes
Broke the best part of my grandfather's life
And my mother’s sister
For ten years she's lived in fear
Of chocolates and cake
And the desire to gorge
The desire to gorge
I did not take a black tie
I came to see my mother
Ward 11 said Mary
I left a message, on the mobile

For my brother

Sugar Diabetes
Broke the best part of my grandfather's life
And my mother’s sister
For ten years she's lived in fear
Of chocolates and cake
And the desire to gorge
The desire to gorge
And here I am at 47
At the end of half a week of visiting

And communicating, and feeling
Yes feeling for the goodness of people

How everyone contributes

And everyone cares
I did not take a black tie
I came to see my mother
Ward 11 said Mary
I left a message, on the mobile

For my brother
Sugar Diabetes
Broke the best part of my grandfather's life
And my mother’s sister
For ten years she's lived in fear
Of chocolates and cake
And the desire to gorge
The desire to gorge
And here I am at 47
At the end of half a week of visiting

Communicating and feeling
Yes feeling for the goodness of people

And how everyone contributes

And everyone cares
Now alone in the Sculpture Park
Beneath the sun and the crows
Thinking about life, about art

And sculpture

And doing things, with care
Tonight we bomb Yugoslavia
Trying our best to care

 

Now There Is No Horizon

The waves roll over and over
Rolling along the curve of the shoreline
Their stereophonic splashes washing over

Washing over
Silently the sodium lights glaze the ripples
Incidentally highlighting the ebb and flow
All the while the buoys and marker lights Bobble and flicker
All of this through the blown open

Broken bathroom door
This after Yentob on Freud on the radio
Only pretending to understand
Wanting to remember this time
Wanting to describe the space
Describe the feeling
Sodium at the seafront
At midnight
No other sounds
Sea moving, air flowing
And earlier, Hockney saying painting
Painting is the real thing
A photograph could not capture
And you know he is almost right
But behind me is the sink
And down below the window
A solitary moment, a stranger passing
Neither captured by the flashbulb

Nor the paintbrush
Both unable to synthesise all of the view
But with these words
Written down, beside the corroded

Cracked glass single glazed window
With a cream windowsill inside
And outside

Sky blue, mottled, exterior paint
I can see out into the blackness
To describe that; now there is no horizon
Only a two-dimensional black space
A completely starless night sky
How would the painter work
Without depth and perspective
How would the photographer touch
The thousand miles of nothingness
Between here and the next continent
Or remember the background sounds
Beach bound pebbles crashing
Like sacks of marbles
Or the roar
Of the last motorbike
As he serenades
And leaves
The shoreline
Promenade

 

Another Invitation

Where are you now
Write to me more often
Where are we now
Softly spoken
Where I am
Fairly often
There you are then
Nothings broken
A writer’s invitation
Simulating tactile sensation
The coffee’s black
In Massarella’s café
The light is bright
Behind the lens
I smile, awhile
In moments of magic
Where are you now
Write to me more often
Where are we now
Excitedly spoken
Knocks on the head
Some say I’m still suffering
Knocks on the head
Woken, spoken with beauty
Where are you know
Write to me more often
Where I am now
Panicking slowly

Concentrate

Imagine a transparent mind
Postulate, bring to life

Disordered thoughts inside
Motivate, drive me madly
Introversion, extrovertly
A birth is more special
Than I can yet contemplate
A life is more special
Than I care to admit
How to release
Unwise ineffectual pressures
But retain, explain
Love’s compassion learning

Where are you now
Write to me more often
Grow me
Slowly
I feel to exude high expectation
Is this received, perceived, untrue
You seem able, stable, of invention
Thoughtful, real, true, you, you…
Supportive or disruptive
Challenging or cajoling
Balanced or biassed
Me or you
Energy flows
The picture grows

The smile returns
Doubts burn away
Where are you now
Speak to me
Speak to me more often
Kick me
Metaphorically
Engage me
Excess of sensuality
Draw me in, repeatedly
Tell me
What I should give
How you, you demand of me
To reach, within you
Command, perhaps
On reflection
The flow should meander
A little
Where are you now
Still with me
With me more often
Being
Distraction
Extracting self from self-satisfaction
Self-sufficiently
So so efficiently unaware
People need people
Communication complements Consumption
Interaction is
The second oxygen of life
Where are you now
Will you be
My

One and only