Oh won’t you come down with me Whitechapel ladies

Oh won’t you come down with me Whitechapel girls

Sing for Mary and Annie and Long Liz and Catherine

Mary Jane Kelly and all of their woes.

Oh when you go down to the streets of old London

The alleys, the rookeries, doss ’ouses too

Remember us ladies who did it for pennies

And never no never for the love of you.

For...

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And in her arms a baby

bright as a daffodil.

Rays of light

emanate

from this child.

He remembers a game -

“do you like butter?”

and thinks he sees

a golden glow reflected

on his young wife’s throat…

Pollen-headed

the baby has

a smile that gleams

audacious as the sun!

Holdmefeedmeloveme

undeniable demands

as a full breast is nuzzled

...

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Oh me baby went out with the bathwater

‘e went sailin’ darn the drain

Me baby went out with the bathwater

Ain’t it just a blimmin’ shame!

‘e was never a beautiful baby

With a face like a little pug

Me baby went out with the bathwater

Cos I forgot the plug!

I remember when I ‘ad ‘im

It came as a big surprise

When ‘e popped out with a scream and a shout

I c...

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go back go back

to the salty sea

go back to the salty sea

to the salty sea

gannet gannet on the beach

beak is dry as bone

eye is just a hole

feathers

feathers blowing in the wind

gannet

gannet on the beach

beak is dry as bone

and you

with your beak so sharp

and your eyes so blue

go back

go back

to the stormy sea

and you

y...

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sleep, queen memory, sleep

for once, be emptyheaded

let every ounce of bitterness and sorrow

leave this room

sleep, queen memory, sleep

in green calm spaces wander

happy to be lost, a newborn

entranced in this desolate land

sleep, queen memory, sleep

follow each note, each ripple

it does not matter where you go

or who you meet or

who you leave beh...

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http://youtu.be/IxAucsmcTEA

owl sinks soft

like a silk handkerchief

bringing blackness to vole and leveret

soft as fog

sharp as razors owl sinks down

like a blanket over a birdcage

then

swish, away, a lens shape,

slips into the barn

quiet as snow….

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http://soundcloud.com/ann-foxglove/song-lavender-man

http://soundcloud.com/ann-foxglove/song-lavender-man-with-echo

Lavender Man

Oh the Lavender Man

He didn’t come today

We stayed in all morning

He didn’t come our way

The sun was so bright

We wanted to go out

But the Lavender Man

He just wasn’t about.

Now ladies need their lavender

...

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you breathe out

I breathe in

I breathe out

you breathe in

I decide….

not to breathe

so we stand

lip to lip

heart to heart

hip to hip

open my

eyes to see

your eyes

widening

why should I

give my breath

I can stop

when I want

as you wait

for oxygen

I see thoughts

behind your eyes.

I hold my br...

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the water is cold

as I dip my hand

silver-eyed -

a minnow

approaches

my fingers open

my hand

is a cup

the minnow

visits

the minnow

means

everything

to me

magic and fleeting

a mercury being

the whole world

echoing

within

his scales

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There is a city, hidden in the sand

where few have visited. I understand

it glitters in the scorching noonday sun.

To find it is the dream of anyone

who feels that they deserve great wealth,

who follow, creeping like a sphinx, in stealth

to enter through the golden portals great -

answer a riddle and confirm their fate.

The city’s treasures are truly renown...

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Back in her box on a bed of cotton wool

the January fairy closes her eyes with a tiny click.

Laid on wings of wire and net,

dusty tissue covering her faded dress.

Gauzy girl, she knows nothing of spring breezes,

has never seen a daffodil,

felt the warmth of a summer night.

The fall of leaves in autumn is a mystery -

she’s never seen the budding of the trees.

...

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There’s a dead sheep – swelling by the hedge

a woman standing by the cottage door,

a ghost

waiting for her man.

What should she do?

The sheep is dead with lamb wedged deep inside her.

Night creeps in

she lights the lamp

and paces.

The sheep is heavy

on her conscience now.

A female presence,

a legacy

of treachery from lo...

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I always thought that I could be a dowser.

Why did you never come

to sit at my table?

I hear of spirits met -

a soldier sitting at the bed end,

one shoe off.

I’ve never seen a ghost.

No soldier ever spoke to me.

If anyone could reach back through the dark

it would be you.

But you have never spoken.

Once, at midnight

c...

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There’s nothing so pretty

As shrimping net city

Where rock pools are tempting

And hermit crabs charm

In gingham and sandals

With sand between our toes

A spade and a bucket

Held in freckled arms.

The grannies are wiry -

Running down to the ripples

A chorus of children

To left and to right.

As the gulls wheel and deal

On their pasty patrol

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I went into the pub and sat

down on a wooden bench.

There was an old chap sitting there,

“Now listen to me, wench!”

“It seems to me” the old man said

“That life’s all upside down”

I asked him what he meant

and he continued with a frown

“Cos when you’re young and bright and new

you are so fawned upon!

Everyone admires you

and you can ...

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the season's over

everybody has gone home

the seasons over

leaving me here all alone

summer was fun

but now it's done

the season's over....

the shops stand empty

and the cafe's closed it's doors

the sandcastles have all been washed away

a pair of old flip flops are lying in the hall

waiting for another sunny day

the season's over

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When I was first alone

I cut off all my hair

time turned upside down

sleeping in the day

sleepless all night long

world service mornings

warmed by the rayburn

with a cat for comfort.

For weeks my fingers were so cold.

I'd touch faces -

people would recoil

at my icy icy hands.

It was my party piece...

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Nimrod coasts across the bay

heavy as a swan.

I sit on the ruined harbour wall

reporting back.

Lifeboat Day - St Agnes.

I drew a picture - a cartoon -

me on a rock

a huge plane flying by

sent it to you.

Clearing your home

I come across them all -

cards, drawings, letters.

The doings of the hens, the cats.

Now, even Nimr...

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I awoke to howling empty screams

and then I knew.

That all the children of the town

were turned to seagulls.

Soaring and wheeling over their old homes

where mothers are busy frying bacon.

They don't understand.

Where has the old school gone

where they were slow to go?

Why are cars parked up on the island

where they used to pitch their tents?

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When Wally won the wellie wangin’ contest

It’s true that a few eyebrows had been raised

Cos Wally, he was never very sporty

His athletic prowess it was never praised.

And Mrs Simms, her that worked in the chemist

Was suspicious when old Wally had paid up

For twenty bottles of that there lovely Tixxylix

And Benyline, Cornovia and Vapour Rub.

Cos ...

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We move in together

your eyes are beautiful.....

They told me you'd been lonely

though they said little else.....

My friends think you are a real catch...

But sometimes you look at me

as if you are expecting the world to start..............

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It seems too unlikely.

Little girl, pink frock, barefoot

wandering through a glade

following a peacock.

There’s no-one with her.

Just this sapphire creature

at her side.

Putting down our sandwich lunch

worried, we approach.

“Where is your mummy?”

The peacock disappears.

“Over there” she gestures

unconcerned.

Tells us he...

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The boy on the bus has eyes like fishes

not dead cod eyes but

perfectly elliptical

fish shaped

slanting.

His father is old, his mother

wears sensible shoes.

An only child

alarmed by noise, counting solar panels

obsessed by bus timetables.

“What’s that?” to everything

clutching at mother when a branch

clatters on the roof

or...

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We lie between the pages of a flimsy book

Sighing in a quaver’s breath

Flit like a dream

Wafting like autumn valley smoke

As enduring as a love letter in sand

Soft as a water colour after rain

Melting to nothing nothing nothing…

Open a window let me fly away

Leave go my hand and don’t say stay

Other atoms wait to stir me in

I go with nothing n...

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There’s a roman statue in the garden

steps sweeping down to a dewy lawn

tables, napkin-laid for tea

and I am waiting for Maxim de Winter…

We would never have stayed in this place.

Haversacked and anoraked,

peering over the wooden palings

unkempt windswept back packers

noses pressed to the sweetshop window.

Now here I am again, wondering

...

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We used to sit on this bench

waiting for the sun to set

into the sea

like a big red boiled sweet.

It changed its shape,

looked like an onion or a pear

slipping so quickly underneath

the waves.

The sky stayed blue

so long -

we waited to spot a planet

appearing like the first note in a peal of bells.

The night sky was our dark symp...

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There’s no room in my tent for you

Only space enough for me

My feet poke out quite brave

The rest of me hidden away.

Bees buzz, grass tickles my toes

That’s all of the world I need

If my tent had a big iron lock

I’d lock it to keep you out.

I’ve got crayons and a big book

And sandwiches in a tin

And I don’t have to let you talk

And I don’t...

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Well he’s off to Nova Scotia in the morning

Where the whales sing and ice burgs touch the sky

He’s tired of the fusty stale old workhouse

And he needs the salty sea to spark his eye.

He remembers when he was a child of nine years old

To Newfoundland he surely found his way

The ocean was his home

Wherever he did roam

And Penzance was a lonely pla...

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When young Adam fancied a fumble

He asked Eve to make him a crumble

The serpent said yes

Then Eve made a dress

And now to our doom we all stumble.

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I don’t want a Labradoodle or a Borgie or a Corkie

Or a Boingle or a Bichpoo when I go out for walkies

I couldn’t stand a Borador or even a little Bogle

Or a Sprocker or a Springadoor or a cute and cuddly Rottski!

A Huskamite might bite me

And a Patterpoo would poo

Well I guess in the grand scheme of things

All god’s creatures do.

A Sheltidoodle or a Poogle...

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You were always touching the void

never at home, with your boys, with your woman -

always away - touching the void.

You saw beyond the brown horse on the hill.

Beyond, beneath,

you saw the skeleton of rocks and mines

of men and minerals –

of Cornwall

the old heathen land

the body of the land

the backbone,

the carcass of it

you s...

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Renee Scoble's cat

used to be quite fat

once sat on the mat

sometimes chased a rat

now she's just got flat

and...that's the end of that!

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Daffodils on my table

stand in a coffee pot.

The pot is cream and gold and green,

so pretty, I use it as a vase.

The daffodils on my table

never bloomed.

But they are dying.

Maybe it’s too warm.

I bought them from a roadside pail.

They stood proud, gold and green;

full of promises suppressed.

Now, fat buds are soft,

rottin...

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On this opal morning

I miss my mum.

If she was in the kitchen

making coffee,

everything would be alright.

We’d have plain chocolate digestives.

Dip the smiling edges till

the chocolate melted

warm as love.

In an Ealing garden apples trees

would be clad in pink and white

clothes hang on a sagging line

propped by a cloven branch.

A...

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She has an Ingres back

She is a violin

And when she’s in his arms

She sweetly plays for him

She doesn’t know the words

He doesn’t know the tune

There’s a duet of sorts

In that sweet dark bedroom

His fingerwork is good

Her mouth is soft and warm

While she is in his arms

They will not come to harm

Her voice is like a lute

And y...

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The rain snaps

on the window pane

like sticks.

Sleeping

a young man’s sleep -

he’s gone

head back

neck curved

a swan.

Breathe even

breathe deep

dream on

dream sweet.

I don’t sleep

lie thinking

I’ll not pass

this way

again as

dawn breaks

with rain.

Next night

alone

I fe...

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Smile sits, content

a dove upon a nest

settles down

for morning snooze

in arms, not meant.

In arms not meant

smile stretches

like a cat

in warmth

and harmony

content.

Smile knows

no matter

that it is not meant

for pleasure grows

and echoes

in another smile

another smile

content.

With warmth of ...

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"Did you have a good fuck?"

The note lies in the kitchen bin.

I've just come in from a date with the new man.

To me, our marriage was long over.

But the jagged writing told

this was not the case for you.

And, if I did have a good screw

I can't remember.

The pain held in that note

is with me still, thirty years on.

And your kindness...

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It was on Monday that I first saw the unicorn in my garden.

I noticed that he had to eat leaves from the trees.

If he bent his head to the grass his spiral horn would stick in the ground.

I started to feel sorry for the unicorn. He seemed lonely.

I realised I was in love with the unicorn.

He was so beautiful.

The unicorn and I talked for the first time.

He was ...

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Catch a piece of space junk

Put it in your pocket

Save it for a rainy day

Maybe you could hide it

In your airing cupboard

Or you could sell it on ebay.

I guess a good place for you to keep it

Would be underneath your bed

Maybe today though you should stay indoors

In case a piece comes falling on your head.

Remember it’s the property

Of the...

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Born in a bucket

Brought up by bitches

Fed on red mullet

Schooled by old witches

Housed in a pig stye

Ensconced in a rat run

Dressed in drab tawdrey

Shod in old cat gut

A mother called Rancid

A father called Squallor

Shat on and spat on

Biffed by a truncheon

Jailed in a drainhole

Pissed on by tossers

Left on a scrap heap

Torn at ...

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I guess I should have worried

When you used to chop up worms

But I was your loving mother

So I wasn’t too concerned.

Maybe it was a bad sign

When you set fire to your bed

But I was just so doting

“Oh dear” was all I said.

And on the occasion

You hacked off your sister’s plaits

I must have been on your side so

We’ll draw a veil o'er that.

The...

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Lying on the muddy grass

among curled leaves

a shell, new hatched,

the inner curve

faint veined.

It is October now

how can this be.

An egg in autumn?

Above the estuary

silver shafts

glance down.

A curlew trills.

And I feel empty

as an autumn egg.

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Solitary in winter

I find you on the beach

sleepbound.

I’ve walked some miles across this sand

wind knocking me back.

On my right the sea battles.

My hair lashes my face.

In this chaos of desolation

you are a concentrated essence

a nugget of pure exhaustion.

What lies behind your dreaming ruby eye?

The pressure of the sea

h...

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If love is a tree

It is a tree in winter.

No lush romantic blur of green

To hide behind.

When spring gales blow

The branch will break.

The lightness of the naked winter bough

Springs back in gusty January days.

Nothing is hidden

From the heart or eye

As we stand firm against the chill.

Beautiful in snow.

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I walk back up the lane

my toe within your heel

two journeys marked in mud.

The bus has gone

you’ll text me when

you’re on the train.

Back home, retrieve the key

wash up two cups,

and two crumbed plates.

Fold back the futon

shake the duvet

wash the sheets.

Put away the sugar till next time.

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Cascades of pink lace

Adam and Eve in Eden

Skin, flesh, pip, stalk, gone

Cascades of pink lace

Adam and Eve meet a snake

Skin, flesh, pip, stalk, gone

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“The last remaining mara hare has moved on . . .”

I wonder where he went.

Was he upset because Scampie the meerkat died aged twelve?

A good age for a meerkat I’d suggest.

Or was he miffed because a new milk snake is on display

in the Tropical House? Did he want to be there too

snug in the palm-tree warmth

hopping over all the lizards, showing off?

“Th...

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On Porthgwidden beach

I was beguiled by seals

as, slippery as eels

they smoothly sparred and courted

romantically cavorted

on the darkling tide.

Nipping, so I could see revealed

two pink mouths snapping.

Their backs made

Loch Ness Monster shapes

then, two heads alert,

eager as dogs waiting

for a ball.

Chasing off again, both caught

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