life and death (Remove filter)
The Mariner’s Home
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 ...
Wednesday 13th September 2023 10:31 pm
On Death, Grief, and the Fragility of Life
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...
Monday 31st October 2022 6:31 pm
The War
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 ...
Tuesday 7th December 2021 6:04 pm
Mr Handbag
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
...
Friday 28th May 2021 2:43 pm
Aftermath
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...
Thursday 20th May 2021 12:40 am
A Silent Expiration (Borrowed Emotions from a Ringmasters Perspective)
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.
Saturday 8th May 2021 8:52 pm
A Strange Repetition
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...
Monday 12th October 2020 11:04 am
A Life
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...
Thursday 7th May 2020 2:33 pm
The Enemy
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...
Wednesday 27th November 2019 7:33 pm
Mulligan
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...
Wednesday 24th July 2019 5:38 pm
A Fine Line between Living and Death
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...
Friday 18th January 2019 7:55 pm
Waltzing towards my grave
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...
Tuesday 25th July 2017 8:16 pm
Why would it matter
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...
Monday 24th July 2017 5:23 pm
The Theater of my Life
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...
Thursday 19th January 2017 5:46 am
FINAL SCENE
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...
Tuesday 1st December 2015 8:43 pm
Where Will We Be Tomorrow?
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.
...Saturday 19th April 2014 6:07 am
His Latest Flame/Fugitive
His Latest Flame/Fugitive
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. ...
Monday 21st May 2012 6:58 pm
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