As the mariner sinks softly beneath the white tipped foam

He dreams of shadowed woodlands 

In his County Antrim home

Where gulls rise in the sunlight echoing and free 

And bluebell glens descend in silver ribbons to the sea

And he smiles a gentle smile that lights up the space around

And recalls the love that once was lost but now is surely found

For the one who stayed beside ...

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One who wish to die

Must have a reason to live

To be worth his wish

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On Death, Grief, and the Fragility of Life

Even before the moment of birth

We are surrounded by death

Before entering the world and leaving the warmth of the womb

Our first home

Even as we first begin to develop and grow our cells die and are replaced 

Death is just one of many inescapable truths 

But there is no need to distress oneself 

Fret not for awareness of deat...

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Momentary peace is a thing,
Lifetime of peace who has ever gotten?
And there exist people who haven't witnessed a single spring,
The fruits they've reaped off life are all rotten.

Time lingers on, it takes small sluggish steps,
While the war seems to last for an eternity.
And though the mind's tired and body's started to sweat,
There seems no concrete vision, no certainty.

Innumerable ...

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Mr Handbag

The cackling sound 

of old led

sat and placed us 

with a person

It echoed out his life

and coughed up

three CD’s

so we sat.

darkness and fingernails

ran out of the room

leaving only me 

with Mr Handbag

his corduroy sweatpants

leaked receipts

covered in syrup

or was it marmite?

my heart began to bleed

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And all the world is wondering what started it.
In the playground, they want to know whose fault it was.
Life goes on, and life goes on,
And don't you know it's fated?

And all the world wants to know who ended it.
In the theatre, they wonder what it 'felt' like.
Time goes on, and time goes on,
Don't you know that it's decided?

Life is hoping that you make it.
The time you spend, teari...

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Cover the mirrors 

Open the windows

Let the mourners in

Through the front door.

Gather around a wooden box

To witness an act

Played by a dead corpse

A tear here and a tear there

Enough to fill a bowl

To water the parched air.

Life is just a circular affair

Never eternal 

But not the end.

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I have been here before,

and yet it is a strange repetition:

this not going out;

this hording of food and handwash.

And then there are some familiar foes.

No use insisting on social distancing,

I am already caught betwixt twin sisters:

Vigilance and Anxiety.

Spanish Flu? Or Swine Flu?

Please, God, not Ebola?

No, none of the above.

This pandemic provision,

c...

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A Life

From the day you are born

On the first day you cry

To the safe place you sleep

In the cot where you lie

On that first day at school

Where you struggle and try

From the first girl you kiss

To the way you feel shy

From your very first job

To the company tie

On the day that we met

To that very first sigh

On that day that you left

To the first ques...

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All around us and within.

Ever with us, birthed by sin.

All embracing, cold finger tracing

A line we all must cross.

All around us and within,

To ignore it that is sin.

Ever with us, all consuming,

Looming, looming ever looming.

Do you laugh and deride it?

Do you fear but try to hide it?

Is it in your calculations,

Figured out, accounted for?

Is i...

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a little brown and white garter snake

lay on my brick floor

brought in by the cats

I picked it up to take it outside

and it lay still

it's markings were southwest woven

rugs from painted desert roadside stands

smooth and cool on my hand

tiny cloverleaf head

ended two spiral curls

of cool gauzy beaded rope

there are no signs of life

in small brick-baske...

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You do not exist anymore 

Scientifically speaking, 

You are absolutely nothing 

Unconscious, intangible, not there. 

You exist in my mind, 

Poetically speaking, 

You live on through that funny anecdote

Or recipe, your legacy, our memory.  

You are my tragic backstory, 

Therapeutically speaking, 

The key to solving why I am the way I am 

What you made me w...

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Lost in life's serenade 
I stood frenzied on my toes,
surmising a glorious dance with death.
Spellbound by his dark sight,
I gently slid my hand into his.
Our feet swayed on the path unknown,
enthralled by the rapture of the moonlit gloom.
All cleared their way for us,
dazzled by our performance well honed.
Rising in my euphoric existence,
when my being was overjoyed;
Descending back in...

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Would it matter, would it matter at all
if one more life withers and falls?
Perhaps it would, perhaps it would not
if one more life ended now or later.
But if not, why roll that tongue to
condemn the already dead as weakling?
Never did you stand in their shoes
so proclaiming a self taught prejudice is your shameful act.
Why feel offended if truth be told
with words pinching like needles t...

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I've lived the times
Of the theater of my life
Dancing in the foyer:

Commedia dell'Arte
Comprised the entirety
Of my personal repetoire;

Dress rehearsals were
Never taken seriously:
The final play was just

A moments decision
Hurried through a huddle
Of half-written plots.

The masterful monologues
Of my long and intrepid career
Were carried off by the

Glib tongue of the cha...

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In the final scene a man waits

in the reception area of a hotel,

a spectator in a moving montage

seated alone,

in a cosy juxtaposition of service and flow.

No one notices him and his watching:

      the discreet frontage of the lifts

      and their smoothly quiet ascents and descents

      to reveal the occupants

      stepping from their padded confines

      some b...

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Idly thinking I wonder where we will be in the future,

will we ever reach the stars after the death of our own world,

killed by pollution, war and overcrowding?

Will we do as in Rome, on a new planet? If we survive that far.

Our path is tough. Some actions we do are abysmal, look at how we treat one another. We do need to learn to talk and not shoot first.

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Feel like a fugitive in my own life, kind of use to it and enjoy it. Filling the gap where your life and love should be. Do you know how fucking alone I am now? That doesn't matter. My views go to ink, captured in my poems. What will you think when you read it? I know you exist, somewhere. If you didn't, I'd be totally alone.                                  ...

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