Great Breech Wood

I went to walk in Great Breech wood

And found myself where trees abound

The North wind blew between dead twigs

And curled the leaves that lay on the ground

My nose it twitched, my ears they itched

I felt the presence of deer and hounds

I saw a squirrel run to a trees furthest reach

And heard the forest birds song of sound

The nettles stung, the beeches browned

The Oaks were strengthened by the ground

The leaves curled in the winter furls

That twirled the wind and around me wound

And my love did call from beneath an ash’s eves

Like a satellite I was drawn to its planetary crown

Then Great breach wood was torn asunder

It gave forth lumber of Larch and pine

All of it under a winter storms thunder

Which rattled the bones of all those near

Their toppling heights and treacherous climbs

My dear lady was struck by a bolt of lightning

A love dart from the Gods struck her in her prime

And the planetary dark that ensued was a wonder

To walk in this park I felt was a crime

My romantic soul wished to lurch in search of a number

By which I could dial then bring back the time

But the forest which was wiser than mountains

Held my soul fast so alone I did climb

To birth the last hope I had of my loved one

And set her soul free her one God to find

Now alone I walked through the forest alive

Badgers scurried like bank clerks collecting

Their wad of twigs and worms like knives

The wood pecker sung the pigeon cooed

A single black bird alone mewed

And rats slumbered beneath

Rotting tree limbs

As foxes cavorted singing howling hymns

Then the forest was then quiet as a graveyard hushed

As greenery flourished

And foliage lushed

The sandal wearing saint was knighted

The night began its game

Half housed between this world and the next

Advantaged

As in the eves called the owls

And many Stations of the Cross were planted

As herbs and forest plants were avowed

Into sacred celebration

Of the moon lit majestic cows (boughs)

Who’s alien forms besmirched the landscape

And past the night with heavy sounds

Until in the dawn rose the single starlings

In the flock of chorus loud

And beneath the canopy of heaven

Wrote the names of those in shroud

To be remembered by the martyrs

Who had seen and died,

And lived then bowed

And this I saw while I was walking

All this was mine of to be most proud

Inside the Breach of the Great Wood Vaunted

And opened its vaults to the sun and the cloud

Otter

 

Otter sleek, Minky whale black

Bitter as beer, the coal black water

Mirrors as obsidian

This corpuscular form

Meiosis divided itself

From the jelly mass of the lake

Yet never breaking the meniscus

- it bobs it's whiskers appear damp

And shining

Back rises and slinks back into the black

The fox

 The fox stalked across the field in the late afternoon light

A ragged and thread bare specimen, ravaged from the cruel cold winter

That lengthened into February

He stops looks round searchingly

Yet distracted, somehow fidgeting with his own dire experience

His own state of affairs

My mother points out the starlings swooping above him as they ready to roost

Among the levels further down along the reeds

The fox moves sleekly, slinking like a chain of bones concertinaing

And then squats to lay his scent or shit

I have almost lost interest as he becomes the grey of sky, the brown and pale yellows of winter hedgerows

May be he was the fox that ate our chickens I say to my mother

All those years ago

He is an intruder, yet somehow respected for his cleverness despite this. And I feel somehow very safe and sanitized in this my mother’s house but seeing him also vulnerable. Like seeing a thief from behind the confines of a ‘CCTV’ camera – catching him in the act. It is the interest in his survival, his spirit and hut spa. Confidence in wildness, somehow he will always be there, in the back of your mind.

Desert

I guess I should explain that the desert is cold
You'd have thought it would've been hotter
But it's out of this world
When the sun goes down there's no sense in being bold
Just bury yourself in the warm desert sand
And don't emerge again til you're old

Medley o

 For sometimes the dust mouse

With the balloon legs flies

And jars against the corners of coroners

Who are borrowing rainbows from wet skies

And velvet like a jet plane

That too smoothly

Leads the pop charts

In Rocket man serenades

Of American football players

As I empty my conscious mind on the page

And jollop of the trollop

Who with Anthony now pays

For his term in Hell

As berms like barrows swell

With ever more victims

Of Anglo Saxon descent

On cut corner garages

Where the fuel pipe is spent

By Alpha males who drive oil trucks

And dig the graves of otters

Who sereptiously at nightcall up their mothers

That twinly like the windmills

On Salisbury hill

Turn in ever soft records 

Where the blue birds trill

And fellow knights of Henry

Have arrived by Welsh appeal

To garner the orange men of Wednesday 

With their Zesty peel

And toothless crows will talk in hedgerows

Of Black Friday wills

Where Jesus was a charioteer

And Neil Diamond steals

The lime light of lemon trees

In elementary muse

So cut throat in pleasantries

That he must be killed

Swan

 Swan you little plesiosaurus

Look you up in a thesaurus

You're a synonym for white

And some how you learnt to fly 

but prefer the water to the sky

I can't control it said the swan

The sky and the earth on this day

I am the king of the pond

I am the mirror bird I say

I hold your reflection in my mind

And I give back you my white in kind

Give back the white

Oh will you read between the lines

Of the black and white

And see through to the otherside of the mirror

Said to the lily, why be a pad

Like a biscuit

I sip from your waterlip

And swill down the plankton

Into my gullet

And you have to give me your yellow

And I'll cut loose Mr goose

And give you back my white

Give me your green Mr froggy

And he said ribbet and swam along

I'll give you my green if you sing your swan song

So the swan sang a beautiful blood red tune

And Froggy gave him his green

And he gave back his white

Give me your brown Mr Otter

And the Otter dipped into the jelly black lake

Said I'll give you my brown if you prove you're no fake

So the Swan rose up like a dragon and beat his wings

And Otter gave him his brown

And he gave back his white

Give me your black Mr Raven

And Raven said no way and flew away

But wait! cried swan, you swore you were my mate

And raven's beady eyes spied him, said Ok

Friend, you can take a piece of my black

And Swan gave him his white

And Raven danced his Magpie jig

Why then, said Swan, with all these colours am I still white?

And the lake spoke up and said you made a grave mistake

While you gave away your white there was no promise made the other way

So the only colour your young may be is grey

To remind you of the trust you had in other animals

Then the white to remind you that all animals lie

Cloud Cities

 Oh to be up in the clouds

in the castles way up high

Oh to be believing

That I shall never die

Oh to be up in the cloud castles

Where worlds range and people are free

Up in the clouds where heaven awaits

And I am simply me

Oh to be up in the cloud castles

Where so many worlds exist

And inside this, and outside that

And nobody will be missed

Oh to be up in the cloud castles

Where buzzards reign

Oh to be up in the cloud castles

Where we are all the same

Oh to be up in the cloud castles

Up where the cities of gold shine

In the bright sunlight

Where they walk light footed and swift