Poetry

Wednesday 22 August 2018

Yes, Mr Rain man

He is not all I thought he was
There is a certain hole in the head
He gives
Like a stroke
To the weather
The storm clouds fill dark skies
And I am in the hole

A rain doctor came to forecast my health
He gave a dance
Then rewarded himself
By pulling the oceans around the shoulders
Of the land
And comforting the wet sand
Of unknowing universes
Of unkind minds
And the dredge of what
The swallows call spring

He tied a poesy around cider with rosy
And let her be the single
Succulent tree of life

 Because the truth is nobody gives a shit
About the little man
We are the inconsequential stuff of life
That others more powerful
Gauge their own success by
The measure of what it means to be free
By degree
But no-one is truly free
Just the anointed hierarchy
Of a duodenal dawn
That leaves everything tochance
Even the consequences of being born

The juggernauts are coming, oh my gosh!

I should have bought you flowers
But I gave them to another woman
It would be nice to talk for hours
But I prefer a nice soft bossom

If you asked of what am I made
I would say the salt
That drove the slave trade
Because a slave is what I feel I am
To the idea of being a man
I am fed up
With these anachronistic hubris
Of the unplanned
The self entitled being
That loves
Then loses feeling
Quicker than quick sand
And I am falling
I do not deny it into a deep dark hole
Where my future's wishes don't match up
To what will make me whole

But I see it is only excess hubris
That has disillusioned me so far
When I knew really
It was under another use of 'Us'
That they named a falling star

Only the kettle kept boiling over and the river over spilt
The kittens in the bags were no well man's pursuit

Monday 20 August 2018

A Celtic Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wedding bells ring true
May the scarves of the well wishers
Fly down the wishing well to you
May the halves that were divided
Be placed back in the seal
May the swords of our fathers
Be put in heat to melt the steel

Perhaps I deserved it - you know I tried 
the volunteering it was ok,
I tried not working but I became a slave. 
I tried giving over all power into another's hands
But it left them like a desert wind blowing away dry sands. 
You know I tried the course of least resistance
I tried the fool's road
I tried the path where her insistence
Would have brought me relief from the load
But the only luggage was in my heart
The only real thing I possess
I cannot let go
Of what I start
Even if ends up a mess
The only season I know is joy
The reason I have to destroy
All that I can't second guess
Is the residue of what I confess

Wednesday 8 August 2018

Poem for teachers




Teachers, teachers don’t be preachers
You don’t know what the students may teach us
You don’t know the truth of all things
Power in the class room ends when the bell rings
Outside
Only respect rings true
But it rings hollow
When activity staff look at you
They have venom, and bitter jealousy
It is wrapped up in their modicums
Of daily pleasantries
It is barely hid
By the failures of their day’s pursuits
But hey everyone needs a scape goat
When a leader they can’t shoot

Power to the powerless
Power to their heads
Run around a young circus
Who have no frame for the nervous-dead
Some incognito tribal rallying drum
Beats their rather void like lives
For to borrow the gun
Aim it like a coward at someone else
But them
Then justify their actions
In the guise of men

Nothing can excuse them
Not even being young
Just the misuse of wisdom
Borrowed from someone
Just the stupid actions
Of some young guns
When eighteen meant dying for country
Now it means dying for fun

Well go and die for your gods
For your false idols
I had my dreams in education
Of the ranks of chivalry or bone-idle
And I see that it has failed if a pupil
Can turn out like you
That a few glasses of the strong stuff
Can reveal your true colours to be
A faded hue
Nothing but the shades of racism
In a classes war
Nothing but the bitter rivalries
Between rich and poor
Nothing but the dumb distinctions
On a playing field
Where if you paid attention in school
You’d remember
all men were created equal
And deserve such dignity
Despite the way your insecurities
May make you feel

English Oak


Old tree stump
What do you know?
The corn has been cut
Now only corn storks grow

Where are the dancers
Who with their right hand
Lead you in the dance
Across an ancient land?

Plush are the hay bales
Rolled up to sleep
Lying in their yellow beds
Yellow blankets at their feet

Somewhere salty death
Is wrapping her fingers
Around the candle stick oak trunks
And waxing its leaves

It’s bleeding in the heart wood
It’s rotten to the core
But it stands upright in the night
And shines on all the more

It shines on in its dying
And in its finest hour
It shines until the sunlight
Has burnt out all its power

And in the death of the English oak
Grows something more
Not as strong as once was known
Its mantlepiece not made of stone
But a force to hold a door

Less in its redistribution
among the rising ranks
But in its ten thousand multitude
For its own strength we still give thanks

Cloud Watching



Once I did see jellyfish
Swimming above in the sky
And then a tiger’s stripes became
The image in my eye

Sudden flames of grey hue
Change to lakes of sacred dark blue
As the fires which rise in heavens
Part from their earthly curfew

And the firmament of stars
Turn in pin prick turns
The saddle of the space cowboy
Cradles the knowledge he learns

And from the tentacles of grey grew
The leaf veins of life
The lung like bronchiole tendrils
Breathing in space dust

I stayed out upon the hill
Feeling that familiar chill
When the sun has lost its grip
And the moon’s power is yet to slip
Its hand to take the reins of control

That twilight- dusk
Where do cross the souls
From one side to another

To my left the sad dark forest
Green in all its envy
Yet to the right, chasing the light
The creatures like me
Flee to keep up with the sun

A cheesy line




A pleasant scene
So nice and green - a riparian garden
Through the hills
The winding rills
Twist gentle then they harden

The Summer spring in elysian fountain
Coy carp rest easily in reflected black
The lilies float
In moon mountain craters
Elephant footprints smack

A trinket for a cat
A piece of reed
She swallows flat
The tiger and the mouse
Both escape near Martin’s House

For the followed, swallowed fog
Has escaped the abandoned dog

And the buzzing dragon fly
Beneath the cat’s claw does lie

Out upon the frosted moor
Where grass snakes knock on the door

To the anima enlightened
Just the wolf don’t be frightened