I have always liked

The look

The smell

The touch of trees

Old or young

Frosted

Naked

Barren

With or without leaves

I like their shape

Their form

Their fruit

Their spawn

I like the way they grow

Tall sharp and upright

Buckled or bent

Blown and hewn

Not manicured or sawn

I like their roots

The way they

Spread, rise

Contorted and worn

...

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It’s 1972

She runs down the road

Her naked body

Casts a shadow

In Sunday supplements

Not her Sunday best

The times

National geographic

Tabloids

Broadsheets

T.V screens

Behind her napalm death

Burning in smoking colour

Lighting up her village

Her picture cast across the globe

In black and white

A young girl less than ten

Fear written across her fac...

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On coastal path

Up and round

By headland edge on sand and stone

Passing clumps of gorse and heather

Bare rock is revealed as torn skin

Where no grass grows

A patchwork quilt of

Lime green lichen glows layered

Amid a temple with hidden stony beach

Cut off when tide is high

Barren except for knots of sea borne kale

This undiscovered country

Protected, hidden from ...

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Pull the vinyl from the sleeve

Drop the needle

Trip the track

Let the stylus ride the black

Hear the crickle and the crack

Filter out the hiss and boom

Scritch the scratch

Let the music

Jump and jive

Feel your body

Shudder and tingle

As the sound hits your brain

At last you come alive

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Dark

It is the darkest of dark                              

An inky black of Carbon Sea

Where sky and water are of one

Where hell in its fury is unleashed

As it sweeps and swaggers

Upon all it surveys

Fury set ablaze

Its shadow cast upon sea and land

Every man, woman or child that falls

Beneath its breath

Beneath its gaze that witness

The spark and crackle of r...

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Mods in parkas

Riding vespas

With a battery of lights and whiplash aerials

One with a Colonel Bogey horn

Ride up and down our road

In the diminishing dusk

It’s hot and I’m not sleepy

The night is muggy and steamy

One of them the newsagents son

A year or two later died

In a road crash

Leaving his parents with two younger brothers

It was the kind of summer

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Night fishing

It’s Saturday night and I just got paid

The lines of the song come to me

As I walk down the street

A certain swagger

A nervous demand on self

To look, to feel the part

Because I am out

In the night

Set to conquer

To overcome

To find that which seems illusive

It seems an ill conceived notion

Amongst the busy street

Of people and of colour

A...

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Eagerly anticipated

Conscripted into lines

All of the colour but none of the smoke

It’s Friday night

And he’s had a few Pints

Of sup up and soak

There’s a queue at the place

Where the white queen rules

A place for a bit of sniff and snort

Teased out of hiding

With two tenner’s and a promise of more

No thought

No hesitation

No look of heartfelt perspiration

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We the fat and the greedy

Hereby give all that we have

To you the hungry and the needy

We the conniving and the seedy

Hereby give half of what we have

To you the old, the tired and weedy

To you the orphan, the widow

The stateless

And the unemployed

We give

We pledge to ensure

That you we will not go without

That there will never be room for ambiguity

Or doubt

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One and one equal two

A simple equation

But for you

It simply doesn’t ring true

Your life seems to add up to three or four

Maybe more

Bruises and abrasions

That you don’t care to mention

Hidden on the inside as well as out

Like constant sores

Opening out and closing up

Waiting for another poke

Another punch

Another slap in the face

The constant ache t...

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Is it the destined way of man

To plead to beg

To scratch and scrabble

Clawing through naked earth

Like a desperate hungry animal

To dig down to the very depths

Of all that he holds dear

To snip and to sneer

At his own ability

To watch himself flounder

On jagged rocks

Cut and bleeding

To chip away at every sliver

At every splinter of every letter

Of every w...

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Down the pub

It’s the place of breakfast and of beer

Shaded

Darkly lit

A cold pint and hot food

Drizzling ice cold glass

Hot sausage beans and eggs

A hubbub of conversation

A place where every man

Under forty five is a lad

Where standing at the bar

There is vague chanting

Laughing and good cheer

At scattered tables under carpet deep

Sit those who have the ...

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I leave the station on the hill

Going with the flow

A shoal of bodies

Weaving

Winding

In unison to avoid the net

Some like spawning Salmon

Fight the expulsed tide

By going up stream

 Jehovah’s witnesses

Standing battle ready

Disconsolate

Waiting, daring anybody to accept

The proffered hand

Holding a magazine

A book

Designed to bring belief

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As a boy

Maybe five or six

Before a time of mods and rockers

I always complained about

The shingle under my feet

Large hot stones

Protruding, standing up

Pushing, shoving

Brown grey and white

Cooked and baked by the sun

Difficult to walk on

Sitting on small pebbles further down

Leaving an impression of my bum

Whilst nibbling on an ice cream cone

Shive...

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Between every few steps

He staggers

He rocks

He sways like a sail

Caught in a gentle breeze

Then says to me

You’re not from round here

Are you?

I nod in the affirmative

Wanting to move on

As he seeks to make conversation

His ship now stuck fast

Perhaps like his thoughts

Run aground

The after a moment’s thought

He confidently declares

‘You are from Lo...

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City eyes

Twitch and blink

Snick and flicker

As they pass the screen

Coloured lights

Dancing ever quicker

Fade and vie

Flash and bicker

Seeking attention

To catch the eye

Just a hapn’th worth

Of recognition

A few seconds

A minute

To deliver

Download and reform

Your life

Your thinking

On what you want on what you need

A whole new way

To st...

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Down the bottom of market street

Where marks and Spencer meet

 On a corner

In a warm day in April

Sits a man

Under a large umbrella

His badge of office

His shades

A guitar on his chest

His nimble fingers

Run up and down the fret

Sliding down the neck

His voice rasps out

Shame into the day

A harmonica at his side

He sits a rolling and a rocking

Ready ...

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She rocks

She rolls

She turns over

In her head

All her thoughts

All the feelings

From all the words that you said

All that you promised last night

She asks herself

Will you still be there

With her in the morning

I n the daylight

Of her life

Her memories

Her dreams

Will your thoughts

Match hers

As you lay there breathing

Evenly in her bed

W...

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How dark is the darkest sea

That swallows up

And spits out

The unremitting deluge

Of ships and boats

That make the journey

Across its unforgiving breadth

Fully laden

Awash with souls

Packed and packaged

Desperate and Desolate

In their desire

For a better life

How dark is the face

Of human misery

Of they who would be

Transported, trafficked

Pr...

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How dark is the darkest sea

That swallows up

And spits out

The unremitting deluge

Of ships and boats

That makes the journey

Across its unforgiving breadth

Fully laden

Awash with souls

Packed and packaged

Desperate and Desolate

In their desire

For a better life

How dark is the face

Of human misery

Of they who would be

Transported, trafficked

P...

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Duvet

I lay under white smothered duvet

Beneath folds and creases

Fighting coughs and sneezes

Until at last

I snooze and creep

Doze and sneak

Far away from the illusive vaunted

Much talked about sleep

That of a dark Calling

Falling

 Into a chasm

Into the deep

At last encased and shrouded

Not daring

Wishing

Or wanting to move

Barely breathing

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They want

They seek

To scandalise

To brutalise

The truth

To disrespect

Disrupt and corrupt

To take away your youth

How far and

When are not words

 They understand

When is a step

A step to far

To protect

To hide

What’s been said

What’s been done

By whom and when

It’s just another

Cunning ruse

Wrapped up

Carefully packaged

Presen...

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There was a time

When all was

Jumping

Giggling

Screaming at

 And avoiding

The cracks in the pavement

Never thinking of

Looking back

There was a time

That all that mattered

Before mortgages and bills

Aches and pills

Was

Running

Through trees

Across fields of grass

Three foot high

Over gates

Jumping streams

Never asking where

Who or...

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There was a time

When all was

Jumping

Giggling

Screaming at

 And avoiding

The cracks in the pavement

Never thinking of

Looking back

There was a time

That all that mattered

Before mortgages and bills

Aches and pills

Was

Running

Through trees

Across fields of grass

Three foot high

Over gates

Jumping streams

Never asking where

Who or...

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If I were to die tomorrow

Would I die a death?

That only death can hold

To be gripped in a vice like grip

To be held in place forever

By deaths final hand

That has been dealt

The sting

That none can stop

The bite of a fevered

Snarling foe

Who executes

Proclaims its victory

Whilst its poison

Works its evil fate

Would I gradually

Writhe, twist and...

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Early morning light

Pushes itself

Grudgingly

Reluctantly

Through curtains

At first in streaks

Into the room

Casting shadows

On to walls

The mirror, lamps

The kettle, the table

Caught in silhouette

The T.V. always

On standby

Ever ready to burst into life

It’s red pin point light

Ever present in the bleak

Black darkness

Amongst

The land o...

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Dry cracked

Vaselined lips

Over which my tongue

 Would stick

Ignoring grandmothers advice

To keep them moist

And don’t lick

Red legs raw from

An unforgiving wind

Blown ice cold

Through thick grey shorts

Hiding chapped thighs

Whilst Ink stained cotton

Revealed a blob of

Dark blue on a fresh clean

White shirt

A Blue and yellow striped tie

Saili...

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Aimlessly appreciating

Ruminating

Pontificating

Without artifice

Towards any feeling

Of malpractice or discontent

Endlessly trying

Forever tying myself in knots

Thoughts travel through my head

Without a start

Middle or an end

Continually contemplating

A cacophony of silence

Of elongated pregnant pauses

Unpopular and long forgotten

Washed up ca...

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You seek her approval

Hoping above all hopes

That what you seek

That what you feel

Isn’t weird

Or unusual

Knowing that she is the one

That doesn’t need to shout and scream

To stamp her pretty feet

She will give you that look

The one that says you are wrong

Do not persist

Do not even try to carry on

Do not try to offer

Any sort of argument

Defer or resis...

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Enter the pretty young things

With fresh faced blue jeaned legs

Their hair long and blond

Flowing free

Not yet tied back

Tied up

Not yet constrained

By babies, lovers, soft furnishings

Hard decisions and crushed dreams

Their conversation glittering awash

With all there is to do

Bags and coats

Eyes ablaze

With questions, thoughts and ideas

Not for them...

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Cheery laughter

Smiling faces

Lipstick graces

Glasses

Spoons

And cheeks

It has been that time of year again

When we are told to be jolly

Put your life on hold

Let your hair down

Spend large amounts of lolly

Party, party, party

Embrace each and

Every kind of folly

Spend, spend, and spend

Don’t worry if you haven’t

Got it

We can

Lend, lend, ...

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