Poetry

Friday, 1 December 2023

Coal tits

 Under the arches the coal tits dart

Around the quarry they flurry

Down over that little bit of swamp

Where the railway men's waste was dumped

Over the piles of rubble, brick work and industrial trash


The leached-into, the sodden ground, near the river, brown bushes grow

That make homes for the Coal Tits, they flit and dart between them

And hang on to the brick work

With their little claws


In the embers of December, they are the spark

In the grey rainy Novembers, they come again like filaments

of colours in the filigrees of green and brown, agricultural hedgerows

In the borders of the town, where the dogs and dog walkers

go around

Not forgotten about

But just hanging around

Like a resident nobody knows

Except you'd miss their sound

Because they're like a loved one

In the fabric of the town

A backdrop scenic prop

Except they chose to stop

There who knows, what senses

Just an ideal bit of real estate

To live beneath the arches of the viaduct

Close to where the Sheppey flows

Nature line

 In the brambles underfoot

The brash that's slashed with bill hook

As volunteers go rolling by

Swinging slashers and hedge trimmers high

Hear the sound of What exactly?

Slow worms crawling through the debris?

If this is nature unbound I ask thee

What next will they find to tell ee?


I saw a Robin, that I did

Hanging around the neighbourhood

He was interested in the action

The hewn stalks of bramble were his passion

He flew amongst the swinging workers

Willing to do what nature shirkers

Would not do, but oh we few

We merry few the strawberry line crew


Still you mention where is nature?

Well, it's thorns and rotten tapers

Of fallen trees long since died

Heads in the earth, fungi multiplied

Purple patches, even velvet ears

Grow on dead logs rotting near

And they crumble underfoot

Nature found it hard to look

But after humans abandoned it

Soon started bramble that didn't quit

And now we come to reclaim the land

Nature gives us a helping hand

And palms us back this great high five

Saying come and take me I'm still alive

It is something that doesn't want to die

It will strive, and suffer and survive

And every change or drop in pressure

It will respond more robust and better

Ultimately it holds all the cards

To life's big mysteries we find so hard

Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Love upon Love/ upon all

 

I came upon loves fence
Out from a walk in wilderness
And sat there for a while
Many a thought did come to me 
As I rested upon loves stile
And many a feeling too
Though so fleeting were the clouds above
That soon I abandoned love
and walked on

In that time all was white and fine
For the briefest moment all was bright
I said good bye to blackest night
And in my hand
I felt her hand
In my heart I heard her voice
Each was nothing
but ever most
She was too real
Yet she seemed a ghost
Each was hard yet soft
In my dilemma I had no choice
I had to return to love

Either to win the moon and stars
or to lose all of creation
Either to be bold to match the feeling
Or as ash and star dust
be blown away
Nothing was near yet nothing far
As all in Love's landscape
had been changed by trust

And silence moved my very soul
Yet in my heart
I heard music of harps
And all this I found in loves place
This love I found in her sweet face

This is obviously Pigeon Street

 Coo, coo, Ha, Haa, Ho, ho, He, he,

The slap and tickle the cackle free
Of turned up turnips
Tourniquet, tie around
a dignified neck
Telescopic voice calls out
Not a laugh, but a shout

You've reached the corner
Now turn about
back onto Pigeon Street
Real lives turn fake
Taken pride, prison cake
Somewhere within you find
The key to 15 Pigeon Street

Now yours, now his,
This wide eyed blink
Can you believe no Kitchen sink?!
Can you cry out, what drought, what drought,
Its dry on Pigeon Street

Come pour with rain
Come fill your pain
With Tears so distant they
Fall in vain
When windows blow
The prison cell
You'll know too well
You're living on Pigeon Street

Two eyes collide
head on with stuff
Graveyards, bones
Now I scoff at
Flies inside the beggar's belly
Calling out for Pigeon Street

Reading lines from long lost poems
Who wrote the Mayans
When they last wrote Home
Because they died because they lived
In the house on Pigeon Street

Railings cold, and trailers scuffed
Tears dry on tombes
You learnt your books off
And libraries close
And Roman roads all lead
to Pigeon Street

Coo, coo, Ha, ha, hee, hee
Hoo, ho
You know you are a prisoner now
Your keys are gone
but thought lives on
Inside the cracks on Pigeon Street

Take heed my friend
It does not end
That road which leads from here
there wends
When the light is gone
And all is cold
You know you've reached the pigeon road
And there no friend
One may meet
Unless its to ask
Is this Pigeon Street

elephant hearts

 Funny how it starts

And funny how it ends

In the chambers of the heart

Where we might find a friend


Elephants fart

And little mice mend

The holes in dresses and truse

Of the confessions of shrews

Who also need a friend


Elephant ears

 Where are the monsters

Of common sense?

They are living with the elephant

In the room under the stairs

Oh nobody knew

If he was really theirs


Where are the dragons bent on destruction

Fire, fire flames, grow higher

And what of the fairies, elves and dwarves

Where are they now?

Have they gone indoors


Oh show me the way back to that world

Where courage still lives

And all 

Easter Sunday

 Easter Sunday, listen to the bells toll

Easter Sunday listen to the church bells toll

Easter is come walk in the sun

Easter Sunday listen to the bells



Easter Sunday walk into the light

Easter Sunday out from the shadows of dark into the light

Easter Sunday leave the shadows behind

Easter Sunday find your peace of mind


Easter Sunday leave those shadows behind

See the sun blaze like a candle in the sky

Remember the good days and the good to come

Easter Sunday now you can walk in the sun


Key change:

At Easter there are no bad things

At Easter nothing to see but Spring

At Easter everybody sings

And it's Easter Sunday by my reckoning


Easter Sunday see the others strong

All cows in the park and hear the church bells toll

On Easter Sunday there is nothing gets stolen

And the treasure lies hidden deep inside your soul


On Easter Sunday it's either forgiveness or fate

On Easter Sunday you must choose to love and not hate

And to forgive your enemies that stand at your gate

On Easter Sunday before it's too too late


For Easter is a time for love

And to remember the father above

And the son who died on the cross

the cross, the cross, the cross

On Easter Sunday there was gain and not loss


Yes his gain was our loss

Yes, yes we gained and he lost

On Easter we sacrificed a man

On Easter we gotta do what we can

Yes on Easter Sunday we got to follow the plan.