The buffeting wind is the ceaseless word
of all those silenced before now.
These leaves clinging on the trees are nodding
universal recognition.

Voices from distant lands and from the past
are reaching me now and telling
how important it is to understand-
they don't do things differently there.

As ornaments the surviving chessmen 
conclude, shadows mixed and lengthened,
the game...

Read and leave comments (1)

I have lost the plot but keep reading
like rambling through mist.
The rain has soaked me 
it can do no more.
I can suggest no moral of the tale
but sense there can be clarity.
Having sought and found the last line
I'm none the wiser, be it uplifting or morose
an epitaph to a riddle
'I stoppped chasing them, they stopped running away
now they surround me'

Read and leave comments (1)

Not quite a lightening bolt
still something, illiciting 
an automatic response.
A little explosion of adrenaline 
in the solar plexus
when you hear a baby cry or a child wail.
It's like being startled from a daydream
by someone calling your name.
Your instant reaction like a kung fu guru
an exemplary move from a grandmaster.
There's no  time to think, decide what's best.
It's right...

Read and leave comments (0)

For you 
a surprise, a discovery
a crumpled scrap of yellowed paper
you find nested in your jacket pocket
warm sun that cannot burn you
deep ocean that cannot drown you
I write to help you (why else would I write?)
but not to teach you, explain or reveal
I'm a lucky charm
let leaves fall crimson and gold
if that's how you like it
and bring on all the rest-
turtles, alpacas
your o...

Read and leave comments (0)

The children have seen 
where I have been blind
when they look at me 
I can but turn away
In my mind I see 
they want to know
the contents of my heart
that wild beast loves to flee
dragging the body as prey
I wake in the badlands
life and death here two sides
of a worthless blank coin
truth and lies, right and wrong
gain no purchase here
and I, not yet exhausted
must return to ...

Read and leave comments (0)

 A line forgotten here or there
one detail or another mistook
a good novel takes a rambling course 
no pressure, no consequence
just an unguarded conversation.

A poem? Now it's personal.
Upright posts erected lifetimes ago
lean at any old angle; warning signs
rusty, quaint all wrapped up in ivy
heiroglyphs still good to go.

If ever there were a true prince
he'd carry a poem in ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Careful to always show her best side
she could be a siver coin on black velvet
but we've sailed beyond a flat earth
and regard our spheres with inflated pride
while still unable to deny her flight
is well likened to a flag waved overhead
printed with her unearthly loving face

In poetry there is a dashing captain
one who captured a glistening mermaid
his head in a spin day and night
...

Read and leave comments (0)

A torturous yet certain plot, the slow death of dreams,
haunts these streets. No-one is surprised by the ghost 
stood in any window just as soon as 
one more forsaken soul slips away.
The scrawny houses hoard secrets
everybody knows, secrets held in common
cliched and anonymous. Natural it is 
to feel deprived of living detail, mired 
in impersonal misery, natural
to become the story...

Read and leave comments (0)

I'm of the the diminishing number
who remember Pluto as a Planet,
the Moon out of reach.
Believe me, as a child I played with the triceratops.
Soon after I followed Plato and Aristotle
in thier convolutions until thoroughly lost
and found Old Johann Sebastian there 
perfectly happy to accompany weeping.
The giant Yeats confirmed at last
this was indeed a charmed wood
home to magic of a...

Read and leave comments (1)

Music and the instruments love to co-evolve
like flowering plants with the birds and the bees
yet a constant lament tumbles over the ages
like a thunder cloud tailing the hero

When will our philosophy grow to such a pitch
that war and violence consent to extinction?
We have waited long enough cry mothers
whose hurt was, is and will be, church-bell loud.

Atoms of a greater body, th...

Read and leave comments (1)

I'm not the first man on Mars
it just feels like it
every seed that grows here 
was sown by human order
and every creature suffered to live
exists by virtue of it's use to us
(mainly as food)
no use here for the word wild, nor exotic 
and we can all predict more extinctions.

Fabulous tales of mysterious Atlantis
and the Garden Of Eden entertain us still
and when we relocate to Mars
g...

Read and leave comments (0)

"Look, look, look." I say in the dream
you indulge me with your presence
I take a large kitchen knife - don't worry
and cut the apple in half, keep watching...
two sweet halves rocking on a bread board
I scoop them up with both hands
and press them together as if combining clay
sure enough I have again one apple
and spin it in the air to prove it
I toss it to you and you take a bite
mo...

Read and leave comments (0)

Come get your crows-nest views
swingboats are flying high up the beach
powered by fathers skilled in the rigging.
You can learn too but mothers take care
and time rushes like rope through hands
until gaudy planks creak for the disembarkee.
But while riding a pendulum 
your tummy lurches with each wave 
and motionless on each peak 
you have sight of ye olde beer garden 
where trees grow...

Read and leave comments (1)

8 Billion hostages kept in the dark.
He who would run 
runs around in circles
she who turns her back 
looks out on what else.
Blade-cold and sudden, the light 
that cannot as yet be controlled
uncovers all of their suspicions 
maddeningly clear.
What oppresses them?
All the doors are wide open
and their number is an unequalled strength
those whose tears come randomly
who shout in...

Read and leave comments (0)

We, the poets, witness history passing 
fifty summers see all shades of cloud
race to and fro around the heavens
we watch like a line of gilded buddhas
each poem one breath 
in a continuous conversation.

I suppose some bleeder won a tennis match
and doubtless there were evil wars
we claim to witness history passing
Andromeda heading straight for the Milky Way 
moreover to converse se...

Read and leave comments (1)

Tell us the one where the leader was wise
the followers meek
their disaster was certain and tell again
why didn't they speak.
Tell us of mountains brought down to earth
our heads in a spin
on timescales so long we quake and lose faith
we might ever win.
And of the blind pauper who saw visions
how the verses shone!
Fans of the norm frowned and refused to see.
What was going on?
And al...

Read and leave comments (0)

A farewell from the sixteenth century
in music, like a loving and much loved hand
slipping away in slow motion leaves me
greyscaled and sobbing and feeling agrieved
to turn and live with the still-life living 
dwelling on the cusp of death and nothing
but  the plight of Gaza can fill our minds
while a dung-beetle pushes a rough globe 
before it, that strength has abandoned us
sad to ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Summer,

winter,

foliage hung about tall trees 
will practise repetoires of splendour
winter, summer, new roads 
will be made, and houses built there too.
Occasions, like the boat race,
once highlighting joy, 
on reflection, will come to bring 
just another wrinkle.
On the calendar a coming solar eclipse is marked;
amazing, the human race.
But not the end or beginning of any ...

Read and leave comments (1)

An elder accepts
(her years accelerating)
a real desert is fatal
while she translates bold robin's song
and moves to scatter crumbs.
She long suspected
knowledge accumulated
doesn't amount to wisdom,
it's her loving ways that guide others
but others have the feet
and walk where old mineshafts lurk.
You could swear you hear a bell
she hears it too and calms you
as the first stars ...

Read and leave comments (2)

Before the last disaster - Covid- 
is properly put to bed the good folk 
of old England must uphold their good name 
now a new plague has begun- it has a sign
a white patch with a red cross; looking like 
nothing so much as a swastika.
Englishfolk inspecting their horizons
-where their hopes lie- find a darkening
that threatens the land. Now, not for glory
but having contended so muc...

Read and leave comments (0)

So I found a poem. All I can say
is it went over my head
or it wasn't my thing, or I wasn't in the mood
or I just didn't have time.

A colleague happened by and looked over
the words while a made us a cuppa
then, biscuits between us, together
our analysis hobbled on.

Who would create this little scene
and for what purpose? Is there
a keen audience ready for just this
or is it a ...

Read and leave comments (1)

all our questions left unanswered
birds create in song before night settles
whereof dreamers sleep to dream
one infinite menagerie
and lovers lie entwined still
inclined to never part
then come artists godlike and paint
every blade of grass in the field
and every word the poet utters
reverberate through caves and chambers
light and dark and sparkling
inaccessible and wondrous

Read and leave comments (1)

A lost ant, on the moon,
this donation can not effect much
but withholding it would need
cell walls unfeasibly thick.
One more overdrawn gesture
a handful of grass the horses disdain;
a call into the vacuum;
a message from the other side.

A soap-bubble a child blows
clearly holds more oxygen,
though the wind from a firestorm 
lifting my hair glamorously
is real and, not quite a ...

Read and leave comments (0)

A cloud of metaphysics
would have us all in a fog
how to pick a credo 
from suspiciously many
one should first feel the rain
to consider the tattoo 

be humble
be charitable 
work for the greater good

In the library's dim maze
tomes of infinite opinion
do not crush me
let the decision be mine
the lyric I return to
throughout the living diary

be humble
be charitable 
work for ...

Read and leave comments (0)

We awoke upon a narrowboat

new to the reeling aboard

an eagle scanned the waterway

as a poet would record

Sixty fields we laboured 

to give hours to the waves

yet this season flows on swiftly

no time can be saved

Hence we navigate our history

drift slowly from the roar

a little further, out of sight

the perfect place to moor

Read and leave comments (4)

Summer sky with spitfire.
My wife says it's her dad.
And loud the old engines roar
holding my attention.
Ants shall raise their antennae
wild birds make for a perch.
Our vision extends to a distant speck
hard to say exactly when
its gone.

Hold hands and carry on.

Read and leave comments (0)

Your troubles began long before you were born;
it's not your fault. You could boast, if you would,
of walking towards the light.

When young you think you can fly. You think
you can live forever. You thrill to think
you will escape a forest of razor-sharp thorns
and fall into the open arms of Love.

So suddenly old, you do reach the heights-
relentless mountaineering just a way of l...

Read and leave comments (0)

This lesson only grasped through time

Our view emerging in the climb 

Its vexed infancy played out the longest:

Our army without guns is the strongest  

So sing the old songs, drink deeply

And with tears drying become sleepy

To dream swift, golden spears of sun-rays

On the eve of our momentous day

Read and leave comments (0)

All that can hound you to your grave
howling and slathering
takes form from your mind
where the consequences 
of your chosen path
pierce the mist step by step

You'd love to slam a door
like a human being would
but the hole you're in has no cover
unnaturally you'll scream for sleep
knowing your bad dream burns fiercest there

Could this tumbling world afford
respite for rabid creatur...

Read and leave comments (0)

For my complaint
they hold the pen
like a boat oblivious
over the Titanic
exhaustive discussion
they summarise
and I, exhausted
put my name to their craft
on the surface the deed is done
and the deeper point is missed
 

Read and leave comments (1)

It took time but he learned the old lesson
found he couldn't relish his feast
while all around were hungry faces
closed doors and loud music
couldn't lessen the needling pain.

How could he enjoy heaven 
knowing others endure hell?
Don't all gleeful thoughts of 'heaven' 
preclude the grim idea?

This Buddha envisioned humanity
sharing one shattered heart
and the question was not how t...

Read and leave comments (0)

Life! That joke-
the man is a voodoo doll
everywhere pin pricks 
disfigure the days
with upset and aggravation 
with calamity and irritation 
frustration disappointment despair

odd to be metamorhic
after both carrot and stick
shrivel and drop
whence came my achievement
now it's over and I'm not yet dead
another funeral negotiated
and I'm moving on
this my achievement

greasy pole...

Read and leave comments (0)

Harsh and dangerous years
grey pebbles encased in ice
seasons in their perpetual cycle
visit yet to gather their tithe.
Black covers of a book slammed shut
epitomise time here where we are
thankful of sleep as the hours may pass
but think too of the unconscious loved one
that precious time you realised, dumbstruck
they had fell from the heavens for you
a pristine figure you had to reac...

Read and leave comments (0)

The very idea of it
fair distribution
does violence to the picture held
by America-with-a-mask:
A vision of good folk alfresco dining
oblivious (can you believe it?)
to their closest neighbours.
Their frayed neighbours would beg them 
to keep the racket down but know what
reception they would get.
America-with-a-mask at their best
in a reverie, see no futher 
than silken robes of ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Along the familiar boundary sniffing
Lady twitched a loose leash.
That bird, still unidentified,
gave her curious call.

War begins in earnest and already
the tallest trees are felled.

As before the anthem goes
"only warriors will protect us"
the b-side of the medal has scratched
"only warriors will attack us"

Now sentinels have grown smaller
face the cold, check the cloudspee...

Read and leave comments (0)

When I'm recognised
as an enemy of the state
my dogs may survive the catastrophe
and don the golden collars of the tyrant
I say life was good when I leashed them
with lengths of rope I'd find
and dogs can never be happy with unjust masters.
Into the woods we'd wander where
soon will be a leisure paradise for a price
but heaven was unbranded when 
thin branches whipped our skin
as w...

Read and leave comments (0)

The wheelers and the dealers, middlemen singing the blues
(you hear that...?)
my wheelers my dealers my middlemen all singing the blues
( I hear you!)
I see what you got, you got nothing I can use
(all right.)

and the seargant at the station he's always singing the blues
(you know it)
yes the seargant at the station got to be singing the blues
( I know it)
his boys go around and round,...

Read and leave comments (1)

Had a little drink about an hour ago
catfish on my line
push out on the raft where the river's slow
steamboat passing by
gives my such a wail like a thundering train
hat's over my eye
give another hoot like the express train
thats a two-step in ragtime

Been dreaming again I was twenty five
summer was ablaze
you wake me, shake me, see if I'm alive
what for are my days?
you can sa...

Read and leave comments (1)

I was told to stop
It was then I was 
a man thrown overboard
sinking further

joyous light grew dim 
but never would I stop
I got the blues deep
played the walking bass 

along the sea bed
my guiding light
bio-luminescence 
picking out my two-step 

shuffle beyond a wreck
passing through shadows 
sensing my path rise I found
the shoulder of an island

perhaps I should call...

Read and leave comments (0)

...and I'm back
in the poetry shed.
Uneasy with creatures in dark corners
never really convinced
they can do me no harm.
And why am I here?
No latest episode to relate
no issue I cogitate
I have no gong to bang.
Why am I here? You tell me.
Whatever progress made through perfect stillness
to dim unholy light I surface
as foxes emerge from cover.
Stars hang over like guardian's eye...

Read and leave comments (0)

A curl of orange peel
falls like a helpless marionette
with each pip deposit the plate rings 
your window frames the young sun 
sweeping a heaving ocean of prose
also through glass arcs of breaking waves 
appear as poetry beyond collection
their shoosh heard all throught the night
never one concerned to get somewhere
you balance some time later
upon volcanic dust by those hooked wav...

Read and leave comments (4)

 (To the tune of the same name by Phil Cunningham)

Violet Tulloch, Queen of Lerwick
will you count me in a last time
round and round we go a last time
round and round we go

I remember one september
Violet Tulloch, Queen of Lerwick
Winter on the way one more time
round and round we go

Mists encroaching, frosts grown deeper
becoming the season
there's a ribbon, silken ribbon
windin...

Read and leave comments (4)

Mists lift from the lake
     it's found to be a mirror
you find it good to bow your head
     for low branches
like crossing a threshold
     entering a magic circle
instantly, on the path
     I dare say any path
the lord, a handful
     appears before you
a robin redbreast
     who'll weigh your soul
offer safe passage
     just as long as
          you know who's boss
 

Read and leave comments (1)

The little boats
Incidental to the ocean
oscillate and jostle
seem precious to no one.
And disappear without comment
paint to peel, iron to rust
further downstream-
orphans stunted for lack of a crust.
Or nations small as islands
never considered before
about to go under-
little boats, bring worlds ashore.
 

Read and leave comments (2)

Dragged by the hand to market
I'd bring nothing to the table
for these poems cannot be bought

Who I hear whisper to me
I whisper to in response 
no one could sell such poems

Or shouting my urgent warnings
desperate signals in desperate times
poems for peace not for profit

Singing if I see swans rise
not if someone'll pay me
poems not wrapped up for sale
 

Read and leave comments (0)

Dragged by the hand to market
I'd bring nothing to the table
for these poems cannot be bought

Who I hear whisper to me
I whisper to in response 
no one could sell such poems

Or shouting my urgent warnings
desperate signals in desperate times
poems for peace not for profit

Singing if I see swans rise
not if someone'll pay me
poems not wrapped up for sale
 

Read and leave comments (0)

From the point where heart and mind meet
fields where innocent lives enjoy leisure
are found to offer sanctuary to all
and all, spiritual swordsmen from birth,
are roused to work defending beauty
should dark senseless clouds encircle us.
 

Read and leave comments (1)

Once there was an orchard it's true
well maintained in lines
where nettles now fill the wasteland
still a lone ancient looms larger
growing wildly with every whim it seems
in reality collaborating 
with a changeful sky and all life around
atuned to symphonies through the leaves
entranced by the tingle of involved roots
windfall offerings precious as ever
follow gravity to the centre...

Read and leave comments (0)

Actors from other plays
and there's no crime in that
shared the stage; 'shared' meaning
each in their own speech rapt
from those unspoiled days when it was safe
to step out in the sun and nothing was 
more natural than a breath of air
strife in paradise nonetheless
in entangled languages was heard declared 
like competing birdsong 
from impenetrable brambles
taken, for were we not the...

Read and leave comments (0)

dancing through
a bent note ridiculously sustained
look an idiot and carry on...

not deafened but failing
to hear a whispered message
there's always tomorrow...

we've been here before
what can be offered now
to bring us back again?

pour new seeds in the old design
a signalman's lamp swaying 
just possibly enough...

...as long as the birds come to the feeder

Read and leave comments (0)