The Raising Of The Trickster
The Raising Of The Trickster
When the western sky turns slowly into the colour of an old bruise
And the last orange streaks of daylight bleed from the setting sun
A cold white vapour swirls through the fields of corn its fingers prising apart the stalks
As the lands of Albion darken and strange noises start to crawl from the mist.
At the edge of the fields there sprawls a ...
Monday 14th December 2020 4:47 pm
Ghost Towns
Ghost Towns
Somewhere off the data highway
Quite close to router sixty-six
There lies a ghost town of splintered glass
A graveyard of useless stones and bricks
This is where the glitterati lived
They used to come in rumbling hoards
Stumbling through automatic doors
they walked the aisles of shiny floors
Nothing there now but skeletal racks
Dust settled ...
Thursday 3rd December 2020 2:10 pm
We Get It!
We Get It!
We get it
It’s dangerous
Lethal, I think they said
We hide indoors
Obey the laws
It’s better than being dead
We get it
But it won’t harm
Getting a hug or two
It’s Christmas after all
And deserved
After what we’ve all been through
We get it
The vaccine’s near
So we’ll all end up being alright
A kiss
Under the mistletoe
...
Wednesday 25th November 2020 2:33 pm
A November Haunting
A November Haunting
Halloween
Has come and gone
Leaving us with its
Vicious little demons
The howling wind
Screaming down the chimney
Like a banshee
Brittle twigs
Whipping along the windows
tiny scratching claws
of desperation
A wolf howl
Through the eaves
The cloying damp touch
Of dead leaves
Ice cold drizzle
Down th...
Wednesday 18th November 2020 2:50 pm
The Unknown Soldier's Prayer
The Unknown Soldier’s Prayer
I could be your husband, father, son.
The lost bones of another pointless war.
A flag to drape across my resting place,
transported from a distant, hostile shore.
I could have been a tinker, tailor, thief ,
lying here for a century and more,
those passing trades mean little to me - now
the angry guns have relinquished their roar.
...
Wednesday 11th November 2020 3:49 pm
Wraith
Wraith
We all reach that point in life
Where Halloween holds no magic
The ragged clothes and haggard looks
The pale of face and wrinkled mask
The wild unkempt hair of cobwebs
The brittle touch of ancient hand
The racing heartbeat
Pounding out its horror rhythm
The nervous look into dark corners
Death waiting across the grey veil
A cold sweat and night chi...
Friday 6th November 2020 2:08 pm
Spirits
Spirits
The first
Showed me how it had been
The laughter and the tears
Sliced turkey
Rich juices flowing
Lights and tinsel
Greens and reds and silvers
The smell of pine
Needles on the carpet
Arguments and recriminations
Old wounds opened
New wounds pierced
This was how it was
The second
Showed me how it is
Lonely day holy night
The only ...
Sunday 1st November 2020 12:52 pm
Damnation Trail
Damnation Trail
Through forests dark and shadowed vale
He follows the damnation trail
Along the river’s twisted course
Through bracken thick and clutching gorse
The ancient path cut through the land
He walks with devil’s hand in hand
And where his steps flatten the crops
No more will grow the wheat and hops
For he has footsteps cast in death
He steals the fa...
Wednesday 28th October 2020 12:25 pm
Corruption
Corruption
Here in the verdant meadows
All on a summer’s day
The dreaded army of the dark
Met with the noble fey
They fought until the long sundown
And the lost blood of the dead
Soaked into the sacred ground
And turned the roses red
When the fight was over
And the legion of the flies
Had swarmed across the corpses
Stealing hope from sightless eyes
...
Thursday 22nd October 2020 11:05 am
CrowLore
Crow Lore
We sit and watch the world go by
On fences long and oak trees high
The waxing moon the setting sun
We are the crows of Albion
We chronicle the human ways
Their restless nights and confused days
Mother, daughter, father, son
We are the crows of Albion
Our stories written down in books
Guarded well by crows and rooks
And no one knows what we ...
Sunday 18th October 2020 6:33 pm
Prophecy
Prophecy
The crows tell of the walking man
Who travels fields by day and night
The walking man who’s not a man
Who strides between the dark and light
Soulless, cursed to stumble through
The endless hedgerows of the land
He wished for life but walks in death
He is the sweet prince of the damned
The hares and rabbits run from him
The fox and wolf walk by ...
Thursday 15th October 2020 5:39 pm
Lazarus Curse
Lazarus Curse
I trudge across these ancient lands
Where crops are reared by human hands
And all I leave are footsteps deep
a crop the scythe will never reap
I see the changing seasons turn
The new shoots grow, bonfires burn
From the soil the world will grow
I track the sacred rivers flow
These things of beauty pass me by
I have no soul I cannot die
F...
Monday 12th October 2020 11:24 am
Resurrected
Resurrected
Down here where the beetles crawl
Where the leaves of autumn fall
A spider’s web of veins uncoil
To animate the resurrected
Sap permeates the ancient heart
A life’s blood for another start
Coursing through the body
Of the newly resurrected
Orbs of light spark into eyes
The keening of a newborn’s cries
Escapes the brittle twisted lips
T...
Friday 9th October 2020 11:18 pm
Apothecary
Apothecary
Beneath the ancient gallows tree
There sits an old apothecary
Where deep within its ancient rooms
Resides an old man selling ‘shrooms
That he has harvested from soil
Of graveyards where the serpents coil
And if the ache screams in your joints
Just follow where the way-marker points.
The place smells of dust and moist mildew
And the foul dark liqui...
Tuesday 6th October 2020 11:36 am
White Witch Of Winter
White Witch Of Winter
Corvus the white witch
Once flew the sky on crow’s wings
And fed on battlefield dead
She ate the hearts of serfs and kings
But soon she lost the taste for flesh
And transformed into what winter brings
Her skin is cold to human touch
She feasts on other-worldly things
She turns snowflakes into blizzards
Freezes your blood and tears
Sh...
Saturday 3rd October 2020 11:47 am
The Pumpkin Queen
The Pumpkin Queen
The pumpkin queen is orange
Like the colour of her fruits
She wears a giant apron
And polished hob-nailed boots
She has a heart as big as Oceans
And helps others when it suits
The pumpkin queen is deeper than
An oak tree’s ancient roots
She sits in regal glory
On a throne of wood and leaves
And will animate her chosen one
As long as i...
Thursday 1st October 2020 12:38 am
Messiah Of The Fields
Messiah Of The Fields
They left me hanging on a cross
The saviour of the summer crops
Just rag and straw so no great loss
My blood is in the wheat and hops
I faced the black and vicious hoard
Their coal cruel eyes and sharpened beaks
I am the ragged overlord
Who scares the crow yet never speaks
They pray to me to save their soils
From dark boned devils ...
Sunday 27th September 2020 11:21 am
Britannia Waives The Rules
Britannia Waives The Rules
Rule Britannia?
Britannia waives the rules
Encourages returning to the pubs
Puts students back in schools
One rule for the inebriated
One to avoid uneducated fools
The slavering wolf of commerce
Rolls its bloodshot eyes and drools
Britain’s never, never, never
Shall be slaves?
Burying its vulnerable
In Covid-shallow graves
...Friday 11th September 2020 2:56 pm
Aching All Over
Aching All Over
My back aches and my head aches
And my eyes ache in bright light
My arms ache and my hands ache
When I go to bed at night
But when anybody asks me
I just say that ‘I’m alright’
Aching All Over
My ears ache when I listen
To those heavy metal hits
My stomach aches after a curry
My arse aches after the shits
My toes and fingers ache
As ...
Sunday 6th September 2020 5:25 pm
The Mound
The Mound
It started way back when I was a child
One cold November night in sixty-four
Old furniture and windfall from the trees
Piled high into a mound of combustibles
Each year new kindling was added to ashes
That had smudged the verdant back garden lawn
Layer upon layer added to the blackened hill
That was gradually growing towards the sky
One year I lo...
Wednesday 2nd September 2020 2:41 pm
To The Saint Of Lost Causes
To The Saint Of Lost Causes
Melancholy Monday
Brown sugar blues
In the same vein
As your father
But you never made it
Across the river
To the other side
When you combine
The names of flawed giants
Who have fallen by the wayside
More than once
There is a grim
Divination
You leave us
Those sweet moments
From the Tennessee sun
To ...
Tuesday 25th August 2020 2:36 pm
Turning Mirrors
Turning Mirrors
Roll up, Roll Up
For the job swap circus
Where the occupations
Of minor celebrities
Drawn to the power
Of politics
Are filled by the learned
Men they depose
Hanz Folckhart the physicist
Walks on a tightrope
Whilst juggling the balls
Of the theory of gravity
Bernard Bochelli a notable chemist
Throws great custard pies
At the blo...
Wednesday 19th August 2020 12:41 pm
The Bayonet In The Shed [REPOST with audio]
I'm reposting this poem with the audio I recorded of it (as a song) to commemorate my father and the other soldiers who fought during WW2 in Asia - The Forgotten Army of Burma - for the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day
The Bayonet In The Shed
He put it there in forty nine,
in a woodworm riddled drawer,
wrapped it in a greasy rag.
A remnant from the war.
On top of it he laid h...
Friday 14th August 2020 4:14 pm
Dog Day
Dog Day
The day was hot
Hot and humid
Stretching out
Into a dog day afternoon
The boy was young
Young and stupid
Stretching out
Beneath the furnace sun
The tarn was cold
Cold and ruthless
Stretching out
Along the sunny banks
The swim was exhilarating
Exhilarating and cooling
Stretching out
And heading for the shore
The tar...
Wednesday 12th August 2020 12:36 pm
Otherness
Otherness
We all know they’re riddled with Otherness
And they’re bringing it over here
I don’t care if they have the same body parts
It’s their Otherness that I fear
They’ll only have to look at you
And you’ll catch their Otherness too
They’ll be lazy, scrounging, Otherness spreading
Heathens – not like me and you
I bet they had lives of champaign and caviar
...Saturday 8th August 2020 3:29 pm
Covid Mary
Covid Mary
This world is made of razorblades and bile
Where every step is dangerous to tread
Bloody footprints stretch out mile after mile
Leading to the bone mansions of the dead
They chew on rotting meat and bitter wine
And breath the fetid air of charnel house
The graveyards filled with beggars is a sign
Of every corrupt moral they espouse
In darkened rooms they ...
Tuesday 4th August 2020 2:21 pm
Curfew
Curfew
Leave the light on – lock the door
This ritual plays out each Friday
A barrier to the debauched reveller
Who slips behind the clock returning home
A curfew for the beer vampire
Who will only find a soothing bed
If father specifically invites him in
After knocking twice and shouting through the letterbox
This ancient tribal face off
Between uprigh...
Friday 31st July 2020 2:33 pm
The Turning Of The Tide
The Turning Of The Tide
Walking along the beach at sunset
A romantic moment at holiday’s end
The sand and condoms slip between our toes
The dying red rays reflecting in rock pools of piss
And glinting off discarded coco-cola bottles
Children collecting the shell-like husks of food cartons
And skimming smooth flat plastic plates into the sea
Surf lapping gently against ...
Tuesday 21st July 2020 11:41 am
Amputation & Education
Amputation & Education
Some wounds won’t scab over
As some wounds never heal
They are infected by colonial blades
That hot irons won’t seal
Puss filled abominations
tainted by avarice and greed
you cannot absolve the guilty knife
whilst open wounds still bleed
You say ‘history was not written in pencil,
You cannot rub it out’
It’s not what it was written ...
Tuesday 14th July 2020 12:08 pm
One Hundred Days In Plague Town
One Hundred Days In Plague Town
I met a man in Plague Town
With bird’s beak and a long black coat
He carried a cane in his left hand
He spoke to me and I quote:
‘Don’t travel far from your fire son
Go runaway and hide
For Fear stalks the streets of Plague Town
Some are ill and others have died’
So I went back home as he told me
And I sat and counted the days
...Thursday 9th July 2020 5:06 pm
Insomniac
Insomniac
The floorboards above
Crack like rheumatic bones
Late at night
The house groans
And wind whispers
Through the open windows
The curtains open
The lights out
The darkness presses
Against the window
A streetlight drops
White light on the path
I can see a pale moon
Crawling through the trees
A cat sashays
Beneath the porch opposi...
Wednesday 8th July 2020 11:36 am
Six Grandfathers
Six Grandfathers
There is a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Where the sculptor Gutzon Borglum chiselled rock
Into the shape of four gigantic heads
Symbolising birth, growth, development, preservation
Sixty foot high lies on the formation of a nation
Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln
You were not here at this great lands birth
You stole it and sha...
Tuesday 7th July 2020 12:55 pm
Marketplace
Marketplace
This space is like a ghost town
Trestle tables row on row
Echoing with the hustle bustle
Vendors cries of long ago
I held my mother’s hand
And listened to them shout
‘apples sixpence a pound
Come on get your money out!’
Comics stored in cardboard boxes
Toys stacked high on stands
Gleaming in the Friday sun
Just out of reach of sticky h...
Monday 6th July 2020 12:50 pm
Spells
Spells
She paints pebbles with rainbows
And places them on walls
Poetry on larger stones
For others to find
It is a small act of kindness
Of acknowledging our plight
She takes the paints and daubs
Her handprint on a slate
All over the footpaths and walks
Her art is left to the elements
A bright sun shining
through dark clouds
the people wh...
Sunday 5th July 2020 12:30 pm
Old Vic
Old Vic
Once these doors close
The lights are dimmed
They may never open again
The soft ghosts of actors
Fading in our memory
Leaving only distant echoes
The bright gaudy costumes
The greasepaint and powders
All left where they last fell
The empty seats collect dust
The stage becomes a mausoleum
Of tragedy and comedy
Pennies draining ...
Saturday 4th July 2020 1:59 pm
Needles & Thread
Needles & Thread
I remember her sat at an old Singer sewing machine
Turning the handle in the half-light of autumn
Making dresses and skirts for herself
So that precious pennies could be invested in children
She made me a Lone Ranger mask
From remnants of black cloth
She had left from one of her creations
I wore it with pride and a whoop and a holler
When ...
Friday 3rd July 2020 1:59 pm
We Never Suspected A Thing
We Never Suspected A Thing
Serial Killer
Feathers on the patio
Innocent soft eyes
Thursday 2nd July 2020 3:05 pm
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You could own an upright piano
The newspaper advert said
And although I can’t play one
The words got messing with my head
We had one when I was a young boy
It stood in the front room, unused
Because no one in our house could play it
So it left all our visitors bemused
Well – actually – I could play ‘Chopsticks’
And my gran...
Wednesday 1st July 2020 2:38 pm
Hand Count
Hand Count
Sixty times a minute
I have travelled round this face
Three thousand six hundred times an hour
I have faithfully kept pace
Eighty six thousand four hundred times a day
I’ve ticked along
Six hundred and four thousand eight hundred times a week
Always right and never wrong
Eighteen million one hundred and forty four thousands times an average month
Relen...
Tuesday 30th June 2020 2:08 pm
Bull In A China Shop
Bull In A China Shop
‘all breakages must be paid for’
She told the bull in the china shop
As he stamped his hooves impatiently
And snorted through his ringed nostrils
So he tiptoed around glass cabinets
Admiring the fine white porcelain
The delicate hand painted vases
The plates and cup and saucers
Until he saw the red beating heart
Pumping rhythmically...
Monday 29th June 2020 2:44 pm
The Dig
The Dig
Thousands of years later
They found the sacred site
And used their soft sable brushes
To clear the earth from their finds
Here was what looked like a drinking vessel
Owned by a Covid-19 man called Persil
And look part of a plate with the lettering McDon
So possibly owned by someone from the Northern Zone
Inflation devices with logos of Asda and Lidl
Ancie...
Sunday 28th June 2020 6:17 pm
Eye Of The Storm
Eye Of The Storm
The black clouds gather
Heavy rain drops splat
There is iron on your tongue
The bitter taste of storm
Head thick with thunder
White light splits the sky
The trailing crack rattles windows
A cat cowers beneath a bush
Shivering in its fear
The deluge follows
Straight javelins of rain
You lift your head back
As the heavens empty
Water fi...
Saturday 27th June 2020 2:48 pm
Independence Day
Independence Day
At first they said ‘infect the herd’
but experts told us ‘that’s absurd,
you will cause deaths in the old.
What sort of shepherd risks the fold?’
So they put the cattle in the pen
only to be let out when
the time was right, or so they said,
they didn’t want their people dead.
The woolybacks baa’d and the daft cows moo’d
And farmer Boris calculate...
Friday 26th June 2020 1:52 pm
Lucky Coins
Lucky Coins
It would have been about nineteen seventy-seven
Outside The College pub at ‘Closing Time’
When I nearly stumbled over an old man
Lying by a slate stone wall.
He was dressed in dark clothes and had grey hair
That lay across his face
So that his features were obscured
And he was trying to pull himself up to his feet
I stepped towards him and help...
Thursday 25th June 2020 2:35 pm
Lockdown Birthday
Lockdown Birthday
We walked up from the river
Beneath a canopy of trees
The air was filled with birdsong
On a warm and gentle breeze
The sun was high in the June sky
The road stretched out ahead
We drank some wine together
shared cheese and new baked bread
After lunch we wandered home
The air was hot and hazy
Then we sat around and drunk beer
Refused t...
Wednesday 24th June 2020 12:55 pm
Mask
Mask
Mask
Covers face
Unknown eyes watching
Religious tolerance found wanting
Fear
Mask
Double standards
Stops the spread
Of disease and death
Secure
Tuesday 23rd June 2020 2:03 pm
Save The Planet & Your Heart
Save The Planet & Your Heart
The seed drill not the fracking drill
Will serve our country best
The vegetables not the beasts we kill
Will be humanities test
Plague is never spread
from the fruits of the earth
when we pay such a heavy price
what is a carcass worth?
From cattle, bird or bat
There spreads human disease
Letting the gristle and the fat
Brin...
Monday 22nd June 2020 2:14 pm
Mischievous Pedant
I wanted to wish him happy Fathers Day
But according to pedantic Facebook chatter
I’m not allowed to do that any more
Because hashtag ‘All Parents Matter’
Sunday 21st June 2020 3:28 pm
The Biff!
The Biff!
I’ve seen it happen anywhere
Rochdale on a pouring down Sunday afternoon
Melbourne on a baking hot Saturday
Featherstone on a cold midwinter Friday night
Sydney on a misty winter Wednesday
The Biff!
At the eruption of a scrumdown wrestle
The stiff arm of a bewitched fullback
As a dancing standoff sidesteps his frame
A punch that comes from the seco...
Saturday 20th June 2020 12:56 pm
Creation Myth
Creation Myth
If you were God
You would create a back story
On how you came to be
Something about a mother
And a father coming together
You would gradually create
The world around you
And the history of what went before
In order to keep you sane
You would form existence
to fit your needs
And each thing learned new
Would be to satisfy the r...
Friday 19th June 2020 2:07 pm
Blurry
Blurry
The world through a net curtain
Since the blood vessel burst in my eye
A Jackson Pollock of dark splatter
Swirling and whirling like oil on water
Swooping and looping like dragons
Drifting in ancient skies
One good eye doing the work of two
And suddenly you are vulnerable
Knowing that losing that one too
Would be blindness waiting to happen
So you ...
Thursday 18th June 2020 2:33 pm
Return To Jungle Land
Return To Jungle Land
The windows are thrown open
Somewhere Springsteen’s ‘Jungle Land’
Spreads saxophone and horns
Into the humid north west air
There is sweat and naked flesh
In the room on Mountbatten Avenue
Where young love consummates
On white linen sheets
The rats have deserted the city
Where there are no restaurant takeaways
Cascading from backstre...
Wednesday 17th June 2020 12:39 pm
Chucked
Chucked
Dear Clark - I write this letter as a way to say goodbye,
I know we’ve dated many years and I know I said I’d try
to get over all your little quirks that really drive me mad,
but I can’t, you see, and so for me It’s all ending rather sad.
It’s the way you seem to run away when things are getting tough,
If your penchant to hide in phone boxes wasn’t reason enough
...Tuesday 16th June 2020 2:54 pm
Half Time
Half Time
I was playing centre half
With Athletic five nil up
In a prestigious third round tie
Of the Inter-City Cup
Sunday morning football
After beer the night before
The referee blew for half time
It was a disappointing score
The captain’s girlfriend Elsie
Brought a tray of oranges out
Some of us took one and sucked
And tried to forget the rout
T...
Monday 15th June 2020 2:11 pm
Patriot?
Patriot?
Young Tommy didn’t get irony, cross,
he set off with the boneheads and boots
to guard statues of old Winston Churchill.
Signalling intent with their Nazi salutes.
Sunday 14th June 2020 12:01 pm
The Last Breath Of Evening
The Last Breath Of Evening
The sky is bruised purple at the last breath of evening
The air stilled from violent storms before the last breath of evening
From the new sunrise and the slow burn of a waking day
Stretching ahead in unknown pleasures to the last breath of evening
A day of honest work and muscles that ache
With the strain of reaching the last breath of e...
Saturday 13th June 2020 2:42 pm
Plague Doctor
Plague Doctor
One thing this plague has taught us
Is that close proximity can be lethal
You could be a carrier of ideas
Asymptomatic in their spread
Just your unthoughtful actions
Triggering others to violence
You could infringe on the personal space
Of other people’s beliefs
Carelessly trampling over them
By thinking only of your own gratification
Endang...
Friday 12th June 2020 4:10 pm
Sell Me Something More Than Snake Oil And Lies
Sell Me Something More Than Snake Oil And Lies
They say that pulling down statues
Is rewriting history
As though the sculptors who made them
Were historians
And not some commissioned artist
Doing what he was told
Sell me something more than snake oil and lies
It is a form of history
Cast in the wealthy viewpoint
From the stance of the privileged
It’s...
Thursday 11th June 2020 2:21 pm
New Normal
New Normal
We hang around like statues
At McDonalds and Ikea
We wait in line for haircuts
Or to grab a pint of beer
We stand apart together
Following the six foot rule
We can gather for a shopping trip
But not to go to school
We spy upon our neighbours
And complain at barbeques
We daren’t go too far from the house
Because of lack of loos
We wear a m...
Wednesday 10th June 2020 12:41 pm
Satan's Dustbin
Satan’s Dustbin
Satan, at number 666, is putting out the bins
Which are overflowing with hatred and all of mankind’s sins
The refuse collectors stay away they refuse to go near
Part of it’s the cloying smell and part of it’s just fear
Despite the warning label clearly stating ‘no hot ash’
He insists on putting them in there along with all the trash
The sad truth of his be...
Tuesday 9th June 2020 5:11 pm
Clang!
Clang!
Across the centuries
A clanging sound
The clang of a statue
As it falls to the ground
The clang of ideology
Toppling from its perch
The clang of the chains
And the swish of the birch
The clang of a bell
Ringing across the land
The clang of the people
As they make a stand
The clang of oppression
And the clang of the strange
And the clang...
Monday 8th June 2020 2:53 pm
The Midas Touch
The Midas Touch
I saved the life of Lady Luck
And as a thank you I was told
That all I touched metaphorically
Would surely turn to gold
This gift came with a caveat
That seemed to be quite fair
I mustn’t get too greedy
Or all would turn to despair
And from that day without a doubt
I’ve found this to be true
I’ve won small bets on horseracing
And a game...
Sunday 7th June 2020 1:27 pm
The Truth Of Colour
The Truth Of Colour
The colour of humanity
Is not white skin
Or black skin
Not brown skin
Or yellow skin
It is the red blood
Of a beating heart
A blue shield
Is not the colour of humanity
When it takes a life
And all the greys
of muddled opinions
cannot change the truth
that a man could not breathe
because his skin colour
was...
Saturday 6th June 2020 3:53 pm
Hoodoo
Hoodoo
The hoodoos rested here a while
And turned to face the great Bow River
Rocks and pine trees at their backs
This family of albino giants
Wind hewn and born of the water
White wolves of the sedimentary
Standing on the Inuit trail
That led them from the turqoise tumult
Towering to Alberta skies
That shimmer in the August heat
These monoliths of time s...
Friday 5th June 2020 4:29 pm
Banana Republican
Banana Republican
He’s totally bananas
He’s cowardly custard
He nods like a daffodil
His views are all mustard
He thinks he’s a dandy lion
He’s a long streak of piss
Frail as a buttercup
With acute jaundice
He smells of hell’s sulphur
His hair is fake blonde
And he looks like old weeds
That died in a pond
He tweets like a canary
That’s ...
Thursday 4th June 2020 2:18 pm
It Rained Today
It Rained Today
It rained today
Breaking the strangling heat
But it wasn’t a cleansing rain
It didn’t dilute the colour of our skin
Or wash away the blood on our streets
It just soaked
The lonely man erecting barricades
So that McCars could McQueue for McBurgers
As consumerism kicked back in
And the deluge began
The air felt clearer though
Cracked...
Wednesday 3rd June 2020 12:03 pm
What Have You Got
TRIGGER WARNING: contains profanity and quoted use of racist language
What Have You Got?
What have you got
When you haven’t got a tweet
That will work on the masses
And keep them off the street
When your corrupt policies
Are all laid bare
And the people are as unruly
As your fake blonde hair
What have you got
When it all goes South
In pillow case ...
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 2:38 pm
Pandora's Box
Pandora’s Box
barbeques and beaches
your own little playground
complaining about others
who sit in your space
incandescent
that schools are reopening
while little Johnny plays
with his mates in the park
lighting a fire
to cremate your pork chops
on the grass and heathlands
where sparks are bullets
leaving B&Q
with a six foot mirror
t...
Monday 1st June 2020 2:11 pm
Mustn't Grumble
Mustn’t Grumble
Thinks he’s the bee’s knees
One big bumble
He’s doing his best
Mustn’t grumble
All around
Dreams start to crumble
Chin up chaps
Mustn’t grumble
Gets his words
All in a jumble
An Eton boy
So mustn’t grumble
Discontent
Begins to rumble
He’s such a card
Mustn’t grumble
Staggering on
He’s bound to stumble
...Sunday 31st May 2020 12:56 pm
Ritual
Ritual
It is a grey morning
I am awake early
The backdoor is open
And cool air enters the kitchen
My father is on his knees
Scrubbing a wire brush
On the fire grate
Newspapers on the floor
He takes a rag
And pours black lead
Onto the stiffened fibres
Then he smears it
Onto the scrubbed surfaces
He balls up the newspaper
And throws it on the hearth
...Saturday 30th May 2020 2:34 pm
Away The Lad
Away The Lad
When you haven’t got a friend
Or a carer you can reach
Then plan a family trip
To the better equipped North East
County Durham’s nice this time of year
Or so I hear them say
And simply by happenstance
It’s only my wife’s birthday
You see me and the Missus
developed a little cough
so we panicked and headed North
and all the newspaper can Fu...
Friday 29th May 2020 2:13 pm
Kneel
Kneel
I saw a young man kneel today
He hung his head as if to pray
But he would take a life away
To honour and protect they say
Another black man has to die
Before the country questions why
They let enforcers kill and lie
and let another mother cry
Fear and hate mix with malice
A city faces the abyss
A cocktail of vinegar and piss
On the streets o...
Thursday 28th May 2020 2:35 pm
Death (XIII)
Death (XIII)
My entrance on a pale horse
Raising the black standard with white rose
Is anathema to most
These bones are survivors
Of the battle between
The worlds of living and dead
This black armour
From the land of eternal sleep
Is unsurmountable
Before me
The clergy, kings and peasants
Fall beneath my hooves
When she flips me over
...Wednesday 27th May 2020 11:29 am
Tunguska Dawn
Tunguska Dawn
The day the false storm came
My brother Chekaren and I
Were asleep beside a campfire
The smell of burning wood drifted
Across our sleeping forms
When suddenly a thunderclap
Awoke us from deep sleep
And we saw the second sun
Blazing white heat tore our shirts
And made our skin hot to the touch
And all around we heard the sound
Of the secon...
Tuesday 26th May 2020 2:26 pm
Label On The Bottle
Label On The Bottle
The label on the bottle told me it was strong
But I drank it all night anyway
And didn’t think that I’d done wrong
It made me very happy in a lightheaded sort of way
It was deep amber in colour
And I would regret it all next day
It burned the back of my throat as a sipped the evil brew
It smelt of cinnamon and spice
And bit by bit my co...
Monday 25th May 2020 7:00 pm
Elegy For Days Lost
Elegy For Days Lost
Another day has come and passed
Left pain and sadness in its wake
The seconds, minutes, hours amassed
The sun will give the moon will take
The distant friends the loved ones lost
Amid the times of dread disease
Each family will count the cost
And curse the name of days like these
And yet the sky was clearest blue
I wrote a poem, sang a so...
Sunday 24th May 2020 1:34 pm
Fog
Fog
I have never felt so alone
As the time spent in November fogs
When I was not yet in my teens
Wrapped in heavy clothes
With hat down low
And scarf around my face
Cut off from the world
By this dense yellowing cloud
Unable to see more than a few feet
In front of you
And the hollow muffled sound
Of someone heading towards you
All other backgro...
Saturday 23rd May 2020 12:57 pm
Those Low Down Bottle Blues
Those Low Down Bottle Blues
The day the clock struck thirteen
We took it as a sign
That the world might be in peril
So we all broke out the wine
But it probably was nothing
Just a poor miscounted chime
An end to our sobriety
And not the end of time
The night the stars rearranged themselves
In a moonlit sky
We all dived for the whisky bottle
And some of...
Friday 22nd May 2020 3:09 pm
Narcissus In The Age Of Plastic
Narcissus In The Age Of Plastic
Beauty is skin deep
Layers of paint and plastic
Daubed with unsteady hands
Glance in the mirror
see the full bee-sting lips pout
and fake eye lashes
the tattooed eyebrows
filler in the crows-feet cracks
tell-tale nip and tuck
Nemesis smiles and
Avenges fading Echoes
Of a youth gone wild
When you are old...
Thursday 21st May 2020 3:02 pm
This Machine Kills Fascists
This Machine Kills Fascists
He was the dust bowl troubadour
A Socialist down to the core
Resist the rich protect the poor
This machine Kills Fascists
Dylan, Ochs and Johnny Cash
Seeger, Strummer, Billy Bragg
All of them would raise his flag
This Machine Kills Fascists
He plied his trade on Texas streets
Busking to earn some money to eat
Harmonica blu...
Wednesday 20th May 2020 11:33 am
fly
fly
a haphazard weaving
of unclear intention
the drone of annoyance
the beating of
full spectrum wings
the tap
tap
tap
tap
of attempt after attempt
to get through the glass
of the window
and reach the free domain
of the out there
the buzz
...
Tuesday 19th May 2020 4:07 pm
Zoomnation
Zoomnation
He stayed in beautiful isolation
For so long
He became a memory
A shadow on the wall
A stain on the carpet
When they sipped red wine
They remembered him
In the taste upon their lips
In the pause
Between the small talk
The chair remained empty
The corner a little darker
The mirror over the bar
Cast no reflection
Of him
A...
Monday 18th May 2020 4:18 pm
Ye Tale Of Brave Sir Moppalot
Ye Tale Of Brave Sir Moppalot
I wasn’t quite there yet
So this story is told second hand
Of the bravest and noblest knight
To ever gallop over this land
He was sitting quietly at home
When a neighbour just down the street
Knocked on the castle door
To advise him to get on his feet
A princess in need of his help
Had called out his name in the night
Be...
Sunday 17th May 2020 12:26 pm
Cuttings
Cuttings
They took a sprig from Hatfeild Hall
And planted it in Wakefield Gaol
A Mulberry bush grew on the spot
Its humble origins forgot
And there prisoners exercised at night
Beneath the pale Yorkshire moonlight
Round and round the tree they went
Those sinners who could not repent
Before that Mulberry tree had died
They took some cuttings to the outside
...Saturday 16th May 2020 2:09 pm
Heart Of Stone
Heart Of Stone
Medusa couldn’t get a boy
No matter how she tried
She had a go at on-line dating
But on her profile she lied
She was hoping for some desperate lad
Looking for a bride
But when she posted pictures
They would run away and hide
She spends many an hour
Teasing and straightening her snakes
And applying subtle make-up
To up the beauty stakes
...Friday 15th May 2020 2:52 pm
For Whom The Hammer Tolls
For Whom The Hammer Tolls
Dreaming of a hammer
A slow arc of deadly intent
A shaper of metal
The clang of contact
On a wrought iron anvil
That resonates threat
The white-hot sparks
From the red-hot ingot
As it succumbs
Weighing its power
In the palm of your hand
With a smack of skin
Its dull grey mass
Balanced perfectly
On a sha...
Thursday 14th May 2020 2:11 pm
Unclean
Unclean
So only the dirty, the unclean, ungodly
Will be refused favour come judgement day
They will sit in their hovels of dust a distress
And live out their lives in their dishevelled way
They will scrape in the filth for a reason to live
They will hurt, they will need, they will cry, they will pay
For their corrupt and defiled code of getting on by
Where they sin and...
Wednesday 13th May 2020 12:09 pm
Wastelands
Wastelands
Canal side moorings and old mills
Stretch their northern roots into the collapsed rubble
Of Industrialised wreckage
Overgrown with harsh grass and weeds
An old man sits at the side of the grey water
And dips a hopeful line into its murky depths
There are parts of old bikes and shopping trolleys
Poking from the surface like Leviathan bones
Paths ...
Tuesday 12th May 2020 12:57 pm
Casting Runes
Casting Runes
What price the steaming goat entrails
Coiling on a dusty Roman street?
The clouded mysticism of a crystal ball
Peered into for some future comfort?
The divination of ancient Gods
To tell us where our slouching bodies go?
The smoke and mirrors of
fortune teller, crystal-gazer, spaewife, seer,
soothsayer, sibyl, clairvoyant, prophet,
oracle, augu...
Monday 11th May 2020 3:04 pm
A Second Changes Everything
A Second Changes Everything
A bullet leaves the barrel of a gun
A man thinks ‘what have I done?’
The sky is cornflower blue, without a cloud
The President waves at people in the crowd
A woman turns slightly to look at him
The sun glints off the Lincoln’s trim
A watcher points a cine-camera at the parade
A secret service agent dreams of getting laid
...
Sunday 10th May 2020 4:14 pm
Tank Man
Tank Man
Here is a tank
Rumbling across a vast expanse
A square
Here is a man
White shirt
Black trousers
A shopping bag in each hand
He steps before the tank
Raises his hand
Palm out
Stop!
And the tank stops
Manoeuvres
The man alters his position
Manoeuvres
The man climbs onto the tank
Talks to those in the tank
He...
Saturday 9th May 2020 3:38 pm
Magyk
Magyk
I had a book all full of spells
Where childhood magic
Weaved its way
Between the yellowed pages
Where dragon’s breath
Set woodland glades alight
And lost children danced
With the frightened and the fey
The teeth of angry wolves
Chewed at the edges
Whilst chattering little demons
Clawed along your spine
Strange apples fell from wizene...
Friday 8th May 2020 2:40 pm
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
Some Words
Some Words
I had been her son all my life
But not all of hers
When she started calling me
By her brother’s name
Not my dad’s
Her bother’s
Dead for these past 10 years
A stroke will do that to you
Make you forget what you were saying
Struggling to find the rig...
Wednesday 6th May 2020 12:04 pm
Third Beach
Third Beach
This is the sunny place my spirits rest
Sat on a wooden bench watching the sea
The shimmer from the bright pacific west
The only place on earth I long to be.
The walkers and the cyclists passing by
Upon the wide and welcoming sea wall
The seagulls and crows desperately try
To out call the other in pine trees tall.
I watch the tankers in the distance drif...
Tuesday 5th May 2020 2:25 pm
Freedom At Last
Freedom At Last
Flames raged in the cornfields around it,
Bobbing there in stagnant waters
Tethered to a solid mooring post
With a thick, coarse rope.
Each spark from the furnace
A risk to its rotting timbers
As it took hold and smouldered
And smoked and spread
Oars crossed and laid on its floor
And the spattered markings of crows
Bleaching spots of ...
Monday 4th May 2020 2:24 pm
Black Metal Band Looking For A Name
Black Metal Band Looking For A Name
Cannibal Sewer Rats
The Sweat Of Judas
Black Candle Prayer
Vikings Of Stavanger
We need a name boys
We need a name
Black Metal Band
Looking for fame
Sons Of The Necropolis
Sonic Angel Spit
Kitten Paws (No! Kevin No!)
Demon Suicide
We need a name boys
We need a name
Black Metal Band
Looking for f...
Sunday 3rd May 2020 12:23 pm
Experts
Experts
Just inject it
Or swallow it if you like
I think that will be OK
Maybe shine a light
Or if you can
Get the light inside you
That will work, right?
Or pray
Praying’s good
Pray big
That should work
I’m an expert
I’m a big expert
There’s no bigger expert
Than me
He said it
I don’t believe it
He actually said it
What’s all this a...
Saturday 2nd May 2020 2:11 pm
Mother's Ruin
Mother’s Ruin
My mum would not touch alcohol
She never told us why
But she made rhubarb wine a lot
And also rhubarb pie
Sat in the Rhubarb Triangle
You didn’t have to try
To cultivate or care for it
It grew wild quite nearby
She got a secret recipe
To make a potent wine
She picked the fruit and followed it
Everything looked fine
Twenty-one bottles l...
Friday 1st May 2020 12:55 pm
The Lodger
The Lodger
We let him in
And he stayed
He had been pleading
Out there
Wanting somewhere to stay
At first we thought he was just like all the others
Some fly-by-night who would be here then gone
But no
He wanted to hang around
He was everywhere
Into everything
He made us change our daily routine
He was probably in the kitchen (and we w...
Thursday 30th April 2020 11:54 am
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