from my new poem book WOW! TATTOO MY BUTT read live in ring of bells, midd, june 2013   Library Girl

She worked in the local library part time.

And liked to read Harry Potter books.

She liked a lad who popped in fortnightly.

He was quiet just like her.

Her eyes sought him out whenever he was there.

A shyness inhibited her asking him out.

In time he stopped go...

Read and leave comments (1)

I'm sending a fairy for Miss,

you see,

as she makes me happy,

but sometimes,

I worry about her,

as she gets a little depressed.

My fairy is called Tinkerbell,

oh, we all know that one !

She's come to give you one wish,

she advises,

you wish sensibly,

or Tinkerbell,

may get pissed,

you see. :)

Read and leave comments (0)

 Hi Folks - the closing date for 52 Hertz entries is today.  You can still enter if you tag your poem with 52 Hertz, as it will be picked up by the link I give you to all the entries.  The longer you leave it though, the less opportunity you will be giving people to read and vote on your work.

I've been delighted by the number and quality of the poetry submitted - and blown away by the diff...

Read and leave comments (0)

 

Deep within its depths

it strikes you like a chord

 

An aria known only to you

 

You follow along your path

searching

for something to connect with

 

Another soul

binds you

until you break free

 

You are not like the others

They do not understand

 

You

 

are alone

feel the void

expand with every breath

 

...

Read and leave comments (5)

Fucking hell, what is that noise?

Waves of unwanted interference

fading in and out again,

your absence is more of a presence.

 

Breathe deep, shake my woeful head

attempting to retune my brain

to eliminate buzzing static,

transmitting me to join the insane.

 

Am I crazy? Or are you thinking of me?

 

In the crazy way - we used to be?

 

© Ka...

Read and leave comments (3)

(Shadow) 

 

There’s a constant ache of a memory -

Your eyes, your smile and your hair;

I fell in love with a shadow,

Though, of course, there was nothing there.

 

The pulse of the thing was enormous

It beat in my head night and day

The piteous joke and pain of it

Was it only travelled one way.

 

So the pulse throbs on unabated

A secret cross t...

Read and leave comments (4)

(sorry -can't leave my stuff alone- had to edit this cos I wasn'y happy with it)

 

I’m sending out a signal, sending out a call

It’s for someone I knew years ago

That’s if she’s listening at all.

 

Silent years, lonely years are in between us now

So let us talk, let us bridge the gap

So softly, ask me how

 

Send me a message, send me a signal, I’ll be wai...

Read and leave comments (1)

There's Blackberry, Blueberry, 
Northern, Bog and simple Bilberry
Lowbush, Highbush and Mountain Cranberry,
Chokeberry, Dewberry, Elderberry, Guavaberry

Bearberry, Cowberry, Crowberry, Foxberry, Gooseberry and Mooseberry

Huckleberry, Jostaberry, Lingonberry, Loganberry, Myrtle Blueberry, Pineberry, Black Raspberry, 
Red Whortleberry, Squashberry, Tayberry, Whinberry and Wimber...

Read and leave comments (0)

Buy our V12 detonator

To propel you into oblivion’s arms

Try our online, interactive, user-friendly blogchat charms

Ingest our vicious, nutritious, delicious, pernicious foodstuff

Smile and feel so satisfied

Almost gratified,

Quite mollified

That you bought into our corporate dream

Our tiny scheme

Our blue sky thinking

All our strategic initiatives

Th...

Read and leave comments (2)

While the 4th of July commemorates some minor incident in the Americas, ThePoetry Spoke, Open Mic poetry and Guest Musician Jim Pearson spin wildly into the bigger theater of Birkenhead!

Actually only part of that is true ;) 

Jim Pearson will be whimsical, bitter, sombre, wide-eyed and hopeful – thematically speaking. He will also be lyrically tasteful, low-key, uniquely English, sa...

Read and leave comments (0)

Northern Lights (54th)

 

The Northern Lights are ablaze tonight

And, oh, I’m feeling down.

You never could just treat me right,

You always played around.

This fallen angel’s lost his wings

And come, at last, to ground –

While all the while my world turns

And those Northern Lights go round.

 

The heavens glow with neon arcs

The skyline blazes brigh...

Read and leave comments (3)

"The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life."

-Shakespeare

 Post-Romantic Bop

She avoids my eyes like there’s

Something she doesn’t want to say

I don’t know what it is

I’m not going to ask

It’s bad strategy

Either she’ll pull it up and spit it out

Or we’ll leave it like that

First it seemed incidental

Now it’s intentional ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Read and leave comments (0)

Read and leave comments (6)

Where is he going?

I see him sitting where he always sits

Sun rays blinking over both of us

we shake with the rumble

of our own lives, hands rest on knees

and nothing really changes.

Where is he going, I want to ask him

who is he running from?

And outside life fly’s by and nothing

really changes, hands rest on knees

and never ever wave for fear of change

...

Read and leave comments (4)

Im taking a stand,

never going to let you make me feel this way again,

and i'll hold you responsible for every word I say 

 

Cause you got me tripping,

on silent words,

things you refuse to say 

 

and not knowing what happened,

well it drives me insane,

off a cliff,

were going to fast,

but suddenly you stopped,

and i realised it was all just a...

Read and leave comments (0)

                 THE LAST SONG

 

 

Dim are the depths and deep are the dives

As he glides on his solitary way

Through forests of fronze and rainbowed reefs

Round rocks where the guillemots play

 

 

Past silvering sands and palm dappled beach

And out to the oceans embrace

He follows the path that his ancestors took

The last of his line and his race...

Read and leave comments (6)

 

Edward Snowden’s in the spare room

spies are hiding in the bin

a pack of Fleet Street’s finest

are struggling to get in

there’s paparazzi in the flowerbeds

and killers in the yard

And Ed thinks he’s in Cuba

it’s going to be hard

to explain this is a terrace

in a sleepy cul-de-sac

which may be nothing like Havana

but he’ll have to watch his back

...

Read and leave comments (10)

 

Read and leave comments (0)

License to play,

not get too serious,

just have lots of fun.

Losing you was too much to bear,

it even made me a little crazy !

 

So I applied my make up,

styled my hair,

dressed in my finest party frock,

wearing a smile to hide the sadness

and painted the town red.

 

I went night clubbing here,

night clubbing there,

drinking vodka,

smo...

Read and leave comments (0)

There was a man who understood,
everything he thought he could,
so sure was he that all was clear,
he didn't make time for someone dear.

And when at last she'd packed her case,
he realized he was losing more than face,
but change was then much too late it seems.
for her heart was broken by shattered dreams.

Years then passed by in such long procession,
his own life floun...

Read and leave comments (8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw birds

flying high

in the sky.

 

I wanted to

join them but

I can't fly.

 

Sometimes I feel

low, and I

just want to cry.

 

My smile, for

you see it

is fake.

 

Cause my soul

it surely

does ache.

 

I look for

a glimpse of

peace, ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Where do dreamers go ?

when reality strikes it's final blow.

The penny drops,

the fairytales read lovingly by mum,

I believed every word,

she is a really good mum,

a fairy indeed,

used to tell me she was out with Father Christmas,

I'd swear from my bedroom,

I saw this,

then the day with the step family from hell,

they all laughed when I discovered Fat...

Read and leave comments (0)

 

I keep arriving in the present moment

but whoops there it goes again.

Arriving doesn't stay put.

Is it impossible to really arrive in now?

As to that

I've not arrived at a conclusion

 

I am here.

It's somewhere I've arrived at

but orbits and galaxies and all space are moving.

Relatively. Relativity-ly.

So here is gone.

Whoops there it go...

Read and leave comments (5)

BARDI REVISITED

 

The road is better now

Climbing from Fornovo

Leaving behind the river

And the valley’s flatness

It’s surface is smoother

Than the winding track

That stirs my memory

 

At a certain point

The driver pulls over

Waiting for a colleague

To arrive on the down bus

After they exchange places

Our ascent continues

Towards B...

Read and leave comments (1)

How beautiful this night is! The Moon appeared in all its glory. The biggest moon, the brightest light Will hide in mystery the love story.   Rose Moon, Full Strawberry Moon Winks at the lovers on Earth Marvelous songs the angels croon. Admire this event is worth.   This amazing and inspiring sight The watchers can tonight enjoy. Supermoon won’t g...

Read and leave comments (0)

Signs of Recognition

 

He’s busy watching all the titles

Each one linked like a slow

Train to Hull,

     But they keep

Rasping and grating,

Faking the cargo within,

Not many would he -

For a free meal

Or drink of nutrition,

     for,

He knew,

He knew he was alone

Like others who

Thought that peace would come.

 

     All alone,

...

Read and leave comments (0)

Read and leave comments (1)

True tale of invitation at an early hour,

To rhyme or not to rhyme?!

 

Are we antique if we park where indicated?

Teddies and teapots, soft sleep suits, downy duvets

 

This is one passage that I will pass

 

Antique books; antique folk; antique buildings;

And the greatest antique of all – poetry.

 

A giant poo stuck in the loo

Place is now and the ...

Read and leave comments (1)

So I asked if the Humanist would give my address:

I'd be careful to avoid words like God and Bless,

'cause to get these sentences humanely dispatched

they must pass his censorship without any catch.

Could I speculate upon What Comes After?

I felt like the bloke in that book by Kafka,

on trial for offences that weren't made explicit

and in fear that the secular police...

Read and leave comments (3)

Half way through the year of the travel bong

With nicotine cordial-

A nursing tool for a caterpillar-

Exaketededly,

I realise that cigs haven’t been around that long

And perhaps like corsets

They will soon become a fetish

 

But at the root of it all

Plants have devious ways-

And as the cane and the bean

Still make their filthy way

Around the world

...

Read and leave comments (2)

Wrapped up in ideals and a uniform,

Less than apt for one so unique,

The roads have wound and conspired to take you back,

To far before you learned to speak

 

Don’t let the surroundings hush out the voice inside,

Keep striving with your ends in sight,

Have only the time you need to realise,

There’s no stronger picture,

Whatever it would be for,

Than t...

Read and leave comments (1)

 

(A full explanation of the mystery surrounding 52 hertz)

 

It`s attested scientifically

 

That that fish I`d had last night for tea

(Battered so deliciously)

Had now become a part of me

Sat here writing poetry.

 

(Sitting – as I was wont to do –

Poohing and peeing on the loo

Penning verses earnestly

To Lily, who`d abandoned me).

And down...

Read and leave comments (7)

Itchy eyes get claustrophobic
And crawl out of their cradle skin,
Down copper and carbon conductive tracks
That refract, through a Prism.
On through invisible fire walls of steel machines,
A thousand eyes, packed inside, one computer screen.

Crashing through Windows like sun light,
Juicing Apples, and goggling your Google Plus.
The paradime online, access anytime,
Free ride...

Read and leave comments (2)

Just one perfect day,

is all we had,

till life turned sour

and things went bad.

 

Walking hand in hand,

surrounded by oak trees,

flowing streams,

squirrels playing,

birds courting.

 

My knight in shining armour,

you said,

charging on your white steed,

to defend my honour,

SOLDIER BLUE,

I truly loved you.

 

Reaching our dest...

Read and leave comments (3)

Subtle noise.

I try to poise my thoughts.

Read and leave comments (2)

Read and leave comments (2)

Summertime, here I am waiting just for you,

Cloudy skies are making me feel oh so blue,

Summertime, capture me and steal my heart away,

Warm me with a golden ray of beautiful sunshiny day,

Summertime, knock on my door and hit me one more time,

Intoxicate me and fill my glass with dandelion wine,

Summertime on the streets and the living is so easy,

Give me all you got...

Read and leave comments (0)

 

Spring arrives and blossoms burst

As green shoots sprout and quench their thirst

On sunshine from the sky up high

A joy to see and breathe a sigh

Be-petalled stars, beads of dew

Nature’s gift is flourished anew

 

From winter’s dearth, a colour explosion

Emerging buds nurtured with fruitful devotion

High in the branches filled with birdsong

Laden wit...

Read and leave comments (5)

 

Where are they?

They disappeared in a broader picture

Denied access to

Think of the first wave,

The right to vote

The suffrage?

Think of the second wave,

Equality?

In the midst of patriarchy

Take up her pen in defence of her sex

 

Think of the third wave

Served to hinder the repeated occurrence

Of the second...

Read and leave comments (0)

If you stood in a forest, you would be, as insignificant, as a Worker Bee.

If gathered were you, with friends, in a copse, the beauty of you, would surely be lost.

If you lined a roadside, i would find, as i swiftly passed, i'd leave you behind.

 

Though there you perch, high on your lonely hill, a solitary figure, rooted still.

More unique than all your kind, sloped and ben...

Read and leave comments (0)

A narrative poetic thought.

 

.

 

 

 

Read and leave comments (1)

Lovelocks

 

Dawn sunshine over Seville highlights a filigree metal bridge crossing Rio Guadalquiver.

 

Hot Andalusian sun warms a thousand padlocks clipped to iron each with two names and a love heart.

 

Scratched and etched with a stylus or a marker pen

Locked and Interlocked to form a Love Chain.

 

Young love in Spain, the start of things to come.

Lives...

Read and leave comments (0)

Read and leave comments (1)

 

Snowman

 

Lived in half breaths

taken with one lung

christened in haste 

for expected brevity

given a half name

 

Bert

 

Bert

not Albert

or Herbert

or the apocryphal Plain Bert

as inscribed by the officer at the Labour Exchange 

 

Bert

 

the name that lasted him for seventy years

of milking, ploughing, hedging, ma...

Read and leave comments (1)

He came from nowhere

And Rode Roughshod Over Everyone

A man as big as a barge

Set Off On The Wrong Foot

No one could stop him

He decided To Play Fast and Lose

His shadow teeters

Fiddling While Rome Burns

Then a moment of silence

He decided to Burn His Bridges

Followed by the violence

To Take Umbrage

Into the future days

Out Of Kilter

Natur...

Read and leave comments (0)

 

So quiet and peaceful

the snow

 

The monochrome light

shimmering on late

crystaline forms

 

The seasons

debate

argue

press their agendas

 

Winter does not wish to

awake

Spring fears

the responsibility of birth

 

The snow settles quietly

into nightfall.

 

Morning tells.

 

Read and leave comments (1)

 

Read and leave comments (1)

So, it's been a while and I am more than a little hesitant about it but hey ho, here goes!! My take on this months exercise :-)

 

Flax flow

Eyes down

Rode high

Over turn

Torn free

Mind tick

Back pass

Lost life

Cord last

Ever more

 

Read and leave comments (3)

Brightening Rings

 

My seventieth year, and my new second spring,

Life’s closed endless circle and natures bright ring,

Its here I have written and here I have wrought,

Have built up and rendered and salvaged and sought.

 

I have reached to the age when my late father died,

I’m recalling his passing, the tears that I cried,

The unspoken words that are stream...

Read and leave comments (1)

 

 TwoTrees

 

Two trees standing in the woods

Reading last night’s paper,

An advertisement said auditions welcome,

For a part at the local theatre

 

The play was a chilling drama

Set in a cottage in the woods,

There must be parts for us they thought,

Young actors just in bud

 

But there were many others there

For the role of talking trees

...

Read and leave comments (1)

3 miles of moss...
was enough
the steep wasn't steep as we'd imagined
though neither was the tuna 
3 miles of curlews
of curved beaks
of blistered feet
and water courses
3 miles of binoculars
dogs called Holly and Bella
of sandwiches wrapped in foil
3 miles of silence
or paper tissues
of waiting for a bus
3 miles of one foot after another
of taking the escape route
...

Read and leave comments (3)

When we consider Man and Beast

And condemn what we see done,

How much easier if that we loathe

Can be vilified "for fun".

 

Let us examine the predatory fox

In the English countryside,

Pursued by mounted Man and hound,

Using instincts to run or hide.

 

The fox will do what foxes do,

No less the chasing hound,

Obeying the laws of nature

With ev...

Read and leave comments (5)

My first full length poetry collection will be available from Flapjack Press on the 20th: http://www.flapjackpress.co.uk/page12.htm and we have a wonderful launch on the 22nd: https://www.facebook.com/events/162191573954947/ I've included an audio file preview with this post but you can find more here: https://soundcloud.com/amdppoet. The book is beautifully illustrated by the person who has il...

Read and leave comments (1)

The cigarette smoke hangs heavy in the air.

Looks good in films

But in real life,

In this place it clings to you

Like a broken dream.

 

The neon beer light covers many sins

And many more failed lives.

In the corner sits a man,

Pondering if tonight

Will be his last.

Time for one more drink.

 

He won’t be the last to sit under this neon light.

...

Read and leave comments (0)

with a ruder writing awakened

this executioners mark sat wasted on a girlish pout

once the stupid bodies of the foolish dead

were dragged by the fanned shoes

crooked classics needing no further background checks

 

unbridled is what it is

the empty right hand hugged as tumbled denial

where distance curled your recognised existence

pine tobacco growled a rounde...

Read and leave comments (0)

She is so tired - almost lethargic

Drugged by wet heat and sweet oil.

If she succumbs, sinks down deep

Into scented foam, will her nerves react

As water slips up her nose?

Does she have a safety system to shock her awake?

Smoke sifts insidiously into the lungs.

Would water?

 

She is afraid – she – who spears cold surf

Slicing into elemental thrust laughin...

Read and leave comments (11)

She had that arched eyebrow,

a black eagle’s wing.

 

This eyebrow asked

what you are worth to her.

 

I liked that.

 

She said she was from the dark end of town,

that place where thievery smoulders

and street corners are plagued by crows.

 

None of that mattered.

 

I imagined that moment

after our first time in bed.

 

The weight...

Read and leave comments (6)

A simple prayer

 

Dear Lord, yes it’s me again,

Sorry to bother you with my pain,

I know your busy and work so hard,

But I need you to listen, to my bard,

Just a little favour is all I ask,

From you a small but mighty task,

I ask you this with all my soul,

In my life now it’s my only goal,

I’ve never asked from you before,

I promise I won’t ask anymor...

Read and leave comments (2)

...

Read and leave comments (1)

I saw you waiting 

in the light 

Read and leave comments (5)

Jimmy Who?

From a terraced house in Leeds he be

To then make it as a DJ Celebrity

From rags to riches they may say

But in the end he had to pay

A staunch Catholic at heart

Those young folk he tore apart

Accused & contested but never caught

So off to London & a Rolls Royce he bought

Apparently he fixed it for you & me

But did he offer you a tour of his dre...

Read and leave comments (2)

Time, from beginning to end is long

But the time in between is short.

 

A day, from dawn to dusk is long

But the moments in between are precious.

 

A walk, from beginning to end is long

But the joy in between is forever.

 

The distance, to the horizon is long

But the space in between is wide.

 

A life, full of learning is long

But the fulfilme...

Read and leave comments (1)

 

Mental Health Incarceration

    In Pyjamas creased like discarded Paper

Shuffling aimlessly in worn down slippers

Come the fresh fodder for the Psychiatric Machine

Eyes staring intently into obscure realms of Fantasy

 

With word salad chatter so wayward and bewildering

For morning medication they agitatedly wait

Chlorpromazine drugged Psychotics, li...

Read and leave comments (2)

Congratulations, Stevie. You really are at the height of your writing powers! Well, don't mention it (no really, DON'T MENTION IT).

And thanks to all who inspired me: Julie Burchill, Mary Kenny, Carol Shields, Michel Houllebecq, JD Salinger, Billy Collins, Wallace Stevens, St Paul, Ethan Canin – humans who've proved that writing matters profoundly.

Plus all my years as a newspaper colum...

Read and leave comments (0)

We Are Missing You

 

We are missing you

The cold still air wonders where you are

A bottle of wine, chilling, waiting

Anticipating your salivations

Nipper ever listening

His white coat glistening

Vigilance rewarded

Afforded to his masters voice

We are missing you

 The quiet bedroom wonders where you are

The fleur of Scotland, spread waiting

Anticipating sw...

Read and leave comments (4)

The Final Draft

 

Always seeking synthetic success, for

reasons no psychiatrist is unsure

of. Like Andromeda’s black hole, the core

is unstable, and breathes in media whores’

influences and agendas. Your IQ

is beyond atomic numbers, but you

are consumed like an ale in Bavaria.

Past Plutonium thoughts grow scarier,

whilst lost dreams entwine with absent lo...

Read and leave comments (0)

The Hitting Game

 

 

On the island’s south side

a solitary town fizzes

like overloaded circuitry

on dark, motherboard hills.

 

Across a sticky, smooth-tiled walkway

an amusement arcade spills

a test of sexiness based on how clammy your palm is

and the hitting game.

 

You spin in coins so they register

on sensors worn numb. 

A padded st...

Read and leave comments (2)

Good people of this Christian land,
Here before you now I stand
And come me hither I, to die,
For by the law condemned am I,
And not a word in protest muttered,
Let not a ‘treachery’ be uttered,
These lands demand my soul depart,
By pain of death and muted heart.

For at thy King’s pleasure, ‘tis true,
I soon, to take my leave of you,
I pass not blame, nor beg for life,
...

Read and leave comments (1)