Coat hangers queue like question marks 

waiting for answers -

asking why they have no shoulders to cry on, 

no clothes to rely on.

"Perhaps," they might say, " our owners have

left us on the dead rail;

but why O why did they go away?"

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School photos, a ritual,

cherished likenesses of ones' self,

thumbnail prints placed on a shelf

or mantelpiece with pride;

matter of obligation for parents

a record of proud growth. 

Cameras with their elephant memories

blinked portentously,

nothing personal.

We were rounded up by disreputable fellows

with a taste for pin-ups,

stage-sets, black cloths,

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I'm worried about the presents this year,

I used to give money, but now it's clear

that the giving of objects seems more sincere,

so i'm worried about the presents this year.

I'll have to find out from Roger or Paul

whether Tanya is allergic to perfume at all;

if so, then those slippers with animal heads

i'll get with coupons, they look rather cool. 

I'm worried a...

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and the celesta, glockenspiel,

tubular bells, sleigh bells,

mark trees, tambourine,

all manner of instruments

stepped out of their covers,

their cases,

and a strange thing happened. 

Spirit hands began to move

over and under and around them,

and sounds of Christmas

were heard throughout the land. 

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the book of Turner's paintings I held

in awe like a whisper

the agony of such scapes

where a brush once had laced

together a purpose and a vision

for a moment blinded me

to the shop, tucked in 

as I was, away from the splashes

of celeb chefs, the cacophony 

of tumbling Christmas mock Blytons

Ladybird books that would fly

to post turkey glutted hands for humour

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me, me, look at me!

cries a cold lonely star,

my heat is wasted

my heart grows old

      we see you, we see you!

      cries the man behind glass

      we see you by an ancient light

      your curious tenure by day and by night

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heads on spikes on london bridge

heads on mounts in castle halls

severed from humans and animals both

heads held high for all to see

for grim respect and symmetry

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What we often remember

my brother and I is that

on intense summer nights

steam engines struggled

on a slow incline with the parcels special

when we lay as though tethered to the ride

wishing we had meccano sets

not to be;

turning over schoolboy fantasies

that burned under the sheets

curtained against a dying sun. 

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No air no air

we have no fresh air

it's what Mr Khan says

in his role as the mayor

aware aware

of polluting the air

take a stand on the issue

Mr Khan if you dare

do we care do we care

if the air is so rare

and the lungs of the capital

cannot repair

Mr Khan O Mr Khan

were you born in a barn?

will you join us in a prayer

for a breath of fre...

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a low sun teased me out

from a pool of shadow

searching for signs of new life

even as the soil plotted against it

overhead a plane like a silver pen

wrote a lazy trail

scattering high hopes

dead leaves in disorderly fashion

a classroom of empty heads

awaited my rough comb

and a crisp goodbye. 

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Here comes Mary like fairy dust

gentle queen of cake and crust

proving dough and proving to us

that baking is something that we can trust. 

Her wings fold down, hair a-shimmer

the hot fairy rings begin to glimmer

all good things she doth impart

from the jam-packed cake to the humble tart

her perfection is part of a riddle

hey diddle diddle, cut down the middle

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Behind castle walls decisions are made

muesli or toast and marmalade?

where battlements rise to recumbent skies

the chef is planning a big surprise

outside the entrance there is a sign

in the Belvedere room the tasting of wine

where once the hordes were kept at bay

views are enjoyed of a distant bay

festivals bring back the hordes

with beer and burger...

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RUN RUN WITH THE HOUNDS

'TIL THE PISTON FIST IN YOUR CHEST HAS BURST

THEN YOU WILL SHARE

THE FLIGHT AND DEATH OF THE RUNNING HARE

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The GOD  APP is very comforting

for those who seek to find

covering topics for the otherwise blind

opening your eyes to the wonder of LIFE

as it tries to keep up with discoveries

such as this new app

simply download online

from the CHAPELSTORE

select your harmonic colour

(favourite) for screen compatability

and empathy maximisation

GOD will speak with you...

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Take signs for town centre

two parallel lanes off the ring road

up the ramp for car park -

bollards, newly resurfaced - drive slowly.

Window down, ticket spat out

at last a space, tight squeeze.

Mental note - green A3

joined the celestial starburst throng

sought out visual plan 

on store locator to find the shop

low blood sugar kicking in

Costa like an open wound.

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Don't fall in love with visions

don't believe in dreams

they belong to the super rich

those who have the means. 

Weave their magic carpets

with resources and with thread

spend your lives in servitude

raise a tipple at Christmas

console yourselves with those worse off

one day we'll all be dead

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At St. Andrew's parish church

thoughts rise up at once sublime

and bow with cursory respect

where ghosts and guides of old confessors

share the soil with dead professors

who always seem to have the answers

while disconcerting questions hang

and looking up at moving clouds

follow the finger of St. Andrew's church

in accusation of earthly souls

who regularly f...

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IS THIS THE PARADISE WE WERE PROMISED

they shouted

like headless chickens with beards

in a slaughterhouse exposed

while demons came from every corner

with mirrors reflecting the sun

blinding them with night

and the Gods of Hate so pleased with them

for bringing the innocent

to the funeral feast 

and never an end in sight. 

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In the Wheatsheaf recently refitted

tiny ceiling lights shone down

in celebration of the empty space

we two sat in the window seats

leather bound with guinness and scotch

in the afternoon of the day

where histories of the hop were planted

coaches and horses passed away

we two sat and talked and spun

in truth a sharing of thoughts as one.

The ceiling lights b...

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A miner walked from Wheal Kitty

to Trevellas at the end of a day

and the path he took was atop the cliff

for that was his easiest way.

The moon rode high oe'r the breakers

as the path did twist and turn

and the Gods of the deep were lurking there

with nothing new to learn.

Fourteen hours at fifty fathoms

had taken the breath from him

and the night was quiet ...

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The kids have left home

you're both alone

the phone is horribly silent

garden centres with their cosy diversions

still seem a lifetime away

you stare at the garden

it seems somehow sad

with its reminders of seasons passing

selfies stuck in too recent times

stare back your stomach turns

mum is concerned

recently busier to pass some futile time

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The kids have left home

you're both alone

the phone is horribly silent.

Garden centres with their cosy diversions

still seem a lifetime away. 

You stare at the garden

it seems somehow sad

with its reminders of seasons passing. 

Selfies stuck in too recent time

stare back, your stomach turns

Mum is concerned

recently busier to pass some futile ti...

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sent for by the headmaster

in trepidation I ventured forth

through unfamiliar blunted corridors

then finally to face the man

in tweed jacket, piercing glasses

smooth hair. 

his back was turned busy at a cupboard

I knew he kept his cane in there

instinct told me, amongst other

savage collectibles

known only to top men in charge.

then a brief acknowledgment

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What will she do when her looks have gone

when the mirror resents her advances?

What will she say as her dreams fade away

of the handsome knights

no longer down on bended knee

to offer more than they could fulfil

what will she do then?

What will she do when weeds grow through

familiar paths of love's sweet past

reaching out for bounties lost

and the handsome knig...

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Those of us of a certain age

will remember the penny amusement machines

as they caught the blowsy light off the sea

with their feet on bare boards

on piers from Worthing to Caister and how

we raked through pockets weighed down by copper

with gambling intentions that felt good and proper

early adrenaline supercharged

preparing to use our Britannia discs

taking what s...

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posing like an undertaker

Larkin gazes into his lens

with a distant look

past the obvious

a self - timed study

in black and white

        a selfie

(he would have hated that word,

too sweet, narcissistic

for such a considered moment).

and we see the puritan look

curiously drawn to death's impediment

side - lit through lace

and sense that poetry lurks...

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Once I saw a vampire on a lead

a muzzle around its face

quite harmless it seemed

with its red rimmed eyes

and a sense of time and place.

I smiled at its keeper, he smiled back

no words were necessary

the vampire used telepathy

but I didn't find it scary 

I knew what it wanted, it knew that I knew

and the sun was low in the sky

so I raised my crucifix just...

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those mayfair hotels heavy with servitude

exacted a heavy price

as I toiled to create a dance paradise,

youth and energy on my side

a roller coaster ride.

Where their rubbish piled up

the alleys were too dark

to give away secrets, 

so I fled the confessional through 

the church doors of the salty night,

followed the thames for home

galleon black reflecting lon...

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Autumn makes plans that never work out

then collapses in tears as her leaves break down

but sympathy saves her with mournful reason

nostalgia for light in the dying season.

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Mrs Drogue late of The Limes

has had an accident today

she would have pressed the buzzer

but felt a little confused,

she thought her son who passed away last year

would be coming to visit today. 

It's when the body makes its own decisions

one carer told me

that's when these things happen. 

We go back a long way

Mrs Drogue and me

she was never easy, an awk...

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relish your dark woundings

prime your pellets

check your powders

for soon comes the hunters' moon

polish your stock

let your barrel breathe oil

make slick your cloths

preparations

practise footfalls of stealth

bayings of night creatures

the crack of flight

all this must abide

and you must hide your dreams for now

while fen and forest

sweat a...

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ray winstone's lying in the sun

ben kingsley comes to stay

an acting lesson and no mistake

ray is trying to keep his cool

ben is having his say.

"no no no you can't say no

you piece of fuckin' shit,

i'm 'aving fuckin' none of it"

says kingsley (looking fit)

"I can't " says ray, "i'm off the job"

ben says teddy wants him

more swearing etcetera

ray is fl...

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Disappointment comes riding into town

on the back of others' success

streaked with self pity.

Get over it say the old timers

who ride up front

jaws set tight against 

the bitter winds of defeat

before they take that step up

through swing doors

into a pure chance saloon. 

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The long shadow of Blenheim has cast

a longer shadow of victories past

of men who led against the stream

to tackle tyrants and crush their dream.

Come you to Blenheim now to see

these walls and arches of destiny

come with your denim and pocket guides

to see where fragile peace abides

and ask the ghosts how they made their play

that finds you alive in Blenheim t...

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In the gypsy lavender scented tent

she gazes into a crystal ball

at a gypsy table with beaded cover

like a stage set of a gypsy's lament

Gazes intently with head like an alien

into the squatting orb of the ball

knowing everything and nothing at all

her mind plays tricks

the glass is dark

where ocean meets the sky, 

future bleeding with a tremulous sigh

he...

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 in the garden

spiders' webs brush my face

I thought they were tears of regret

for passing summer gone dry

but perhaps they were tickling fingers

stroking a conservative sky

whispering of a short future for spiders

and another long goodbye. 

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Long limbed viaduct

strides with its giant tread

feet dressed with frills of trees

that brush its brickwork

as the train bears down

as those who ride look down

at the wriggling stream. 

Now no-one is looking down

no-one rides

the brickwork no longer strides

the frills of trees have taken over

where feet pressed down

no more strides of no long limbs

where...

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"Take a look around, I won't pester you"

said the carpet salesman, so we looked at 

the pillars of skyward carpet rolled,

onlookers in a forest of compressed comfort. 

We changed our mind as to colour

saw a pattern we liked,

took a seat

made a deal

agreed on Friday for delivery

all cut and dried.

His radio played Telstar

first ever british number one in A...

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I scraped some music off the walls

it slithered down in waterfalls

tasting sweet upon my tongue

fragmented songs as yet unsung

bursting out was heavy rock

that scattered all delicious dreams

my ears were caves where settling in

were Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Memories are made of this

such private moments of plasterwork

when the decorators come in

they'...

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the English played away on judgement day

over Europe's darkening skies

vengeful fleets of planes

made music of fear. 

Blitzkrieg tit for tat to subdue old Dresden

masterminded by Bomber Harris

the laying down of a gentle blanket

a technique perfected

with excretions of terror and blast

incendiaries and bombs

destroying that treasured city at last

of refug...

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in the father redcap on camberwell green

a fight broke out

the worst i've seen

blood and beer all up the walls

all the fault of billy bloxsome

now the pub has changed its name

it's called the nollywood club (for nigerians)

fair do's.  I've never tried to knock one out

all those boozers have changed or gone

familiar faces on the streets an age away.

More came...

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reaching into a chest cavity

he wrenched out the beating heart

drums crescendoed in the flaming night

faces crowded in with tribal eyes

falling back in a profane festive dance

strange lights swung high arcing down

in a careening conglomeration

waves of gore became a river to cross

an unspecified far bank

sensed but unseen

forbidden, unclean. 

      A wind...

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"Luftwaffe Luftwaffe where have you been?"

to London they say to cause a scene

a firestorm of devastation

a lesson of war to bow the nation.

Now as I look through a magnifier

at the 30's map the view distorts

under the glass bulging swaying as my vision shifts

north jerking west hither and thither

 ink runs with the camouflage of streets

now history is silent, ...

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My body resting considers the lure

of an unexplored corner.

Who knows what lurks there

what smile - the love of your life

yet to be, or simply a concrete wall

lost to time and space, leading

nowhere

but i'll never know either way

i'm tired so. 

I have scooped up enough for a lifetime maybe

so instead I muse

on the devil may care happenstance

passing by,

...

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In the venus fly trap

my thoughts are digested

legs folding in mortise constraint

isn't nature wonderful

if my destiny is only to give

that alone is worth

the perfect life I used to live, 

to participate in such rare beauty

to be absorbed subsumed

into this witches' brew

sweet is the alchemy that God designed

a hideous death for the privileged few.

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On this lazy stretch of field

horses graze in quiet repose,

the sun casts no shadow save

to define their necks and flanks.

Soon machinery will arrive

to squash the earth for houses

bring death to grass and buttercup.

There is no sleep as the dream moves on

soon these horses will be gone. 

Those who shall dwell upon this land

will covet that image of hor...

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The power line supports two pigeons

buttressed against a sly wind

                for a good hour they hunch together

                nature sparing them a need to move

I approve of them together

find them a good pairing.

                 They can get up to mischief I know

                  with their white napalm on cars

                  irritating the hell...

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The wind has been playful all day

along the castellations of the coastline

ducking down behind signs

aquaplaning through valleys

puffing deckchairs inside out

brushing the pelts of heather and vetch

forcing his attentions

fancying his chances

troubling those in age's advances

and like all young souls has worn himself out

hands deep in air pockets

cre...

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DONE THAT

GOT THE T SHIRT

BEEN THERE

NAME IT I'LL SHAME IT

NEED TO KNOW BASIS

I'LL SHOW YOU HOW

I'M HERE TO DO THAT

IF I WASN'T 

YOU WOOTEN 'AVE FOUND ME

SO PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE

PEOPLE LIKE ME ALWAYS KNOW BEST

THAT'S HOW THE WORLD WORKS

NO FRILLS

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Young Alfie and Jack right on track

with Scalextric all over the lounge

coloured paper crudely discarded

"Granddad granddad look i've won!"

said Alfie turning his body

around on his knees

scudding the pile of the carpet.

Granddad gazed down from his silent Shop Rider powerchair

like the keeper of the gate all knowing all suffering

leaping the gap of years to fi...

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Mohammed al Aziz climbs into his waiting Rolls Royce

a new driver he notices but says nothing.

The trip to Israel has been successful

his private jet turns slowly ready for checking again.

Mohammed soon joins his wife

they hold hands, look out over the Gulf

"All will be well," he says

her brown eyes are pools of deep hope. 

"Our child will be special, 

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"Sex with her was like an out of body experience,

with a body like hers it needed to be,

mind you she's got a face like an angel,

a hell's angel!

We've had ten happy years together,

been married for thirty;

it seems like only yesterday

I wish it was tomorrow

i'd cancel the wedding!

Here: I said to her: I'm gonna dance on your grave -

that's good, i'm getting buried at...

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She loved that cardigan

really took to it,

good quality

had it from new

not a strong colour but versatile

warm and cosy

handy for nipping to the shops in

good for evenings spent indoors.

She wore it in all weathers.

Never saw her without it

I expect she wore it to bed.

She couldn't bear the cold

and telling me that over and over

somehow must have ju...

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In the year of our Lord two thousand and thirteen Joanna Lumley had a dream

of a bridge too far with shrubs and trees, sweet nectar, birds and bees.

She got her chums on board; an architect of her dreams, high flying illuminati

offered their gentlemanly support in this far flung horticultural sport.

Standing out in that austere circle like Marilyn Monroe on  presidential podium

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The wind of change blows along the Humber

the city of culture is doing the rhumba

with civic joy

for the famous bridge has been duly listed

along with the flats where Larkin lived

and a barrier for the tidal surge,

Edwardian toilets for men and women;

all's well for the City of Hull.

Meanwhile in the deepest south

there are rumblings and winds of discontent

as th...

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The autobiographies of the famous

are a kind of afterlife

that glory demands

and God is bribed by illusion. 

The books of those lives

covers, spine, contents

are the pressed blood of works

dried but not forgotten

like bodies they are sealed systems

 autopsies when opened

then the glory tumbles out

to inspire the aspirants. 

Others with more furtiv...

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After the meteorite ploughed a crater

into the Kentish Weald

the sky was a black void

of swirling smoke and steam

all the air drawn up into a vortex

like a burning breath. 

Thousands were vaporised where they stood

but Arthur Wellesley agoraphobic

had stayed behind doors

watching X Factor

considering the rising stars

of Simon's galaxy

as the windows bl...

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like hermit crabs out of their shells

they came, all pink and personal

blinking in the freedom of light

they looked around

not over their shoulder

slightly wiser

and slightly older. 

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The poetry of bliss

is in a kiss

and in the promise of more to come

I will touch your lovely bum

bumbedy bum bum

that's fuckin' poetry innit?

If you feel the beat of this

you can kiss what brings me bliss.

Although a man

i'm just a slut

and apparently i'm off my nut.

Enjoy!

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Hickory dickory dock

under the station clock

i'll meet you there is what he said

but eleven in the morning came and went

the hickory dickory hands went round

without a sound

no explanation came.

By twelve the moment had breathed its last

the meeting never came to pass

under the hickory dickory clock

with the silent hands

and no tick tock. 

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When Santa comes to stay

the children stay away

they seem to find him overwhelming

not quite true in his special way.

For nothing comes but once a year

without a price to be paid

with his funny suit and fatherly grin

knowing innocence must fade.

He never really gives us hope

filling sack and stocking

we need a saviour to come to stay

with revelations shoc...

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"It's the laughter lines you see

they stay with you right through thick and thin

eyes you can hide, but not the lines

the network changing constantly

like the points in the rails you keep going over

in sluggish and sullen towns.

They don't mean us any harm the audiences

but you need to earn every penny

we take 'em out of their drudgery

eight to five lives doing...

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When loneliness drags its heels

slouches in the slow lanes

anxious going nowhere

all eyes are unfocussed

and that nagging shadow 

won't look up

when hope comes to call

hearing that lonely bell

where loneliness calls instead

with a silent voice

echoing down empty halls. 

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Sometimes you meet your enemies

face to face

your hands tied

you are at their mercy

you wait for a move

        this mainly happens in films

for dramatic effect. 

In real life usually the enemy

remains hidden

working on his strategies from the inside

biding his time

to finally have his way.

      The doctor explained

      to my step daughter-in-law...

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You fall in love with eyes

because the eyes have it

they write histories in the making

they are wine for the taking

never perfectly saying no

always willing.

Because the eyes have it

they will follow you in every detail

as you take those histories

and make them futures

until those eyes make light of will

and see you and see you still

behind the grey wa...

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Stretched like a contented cat

Nine Elms Lane

from west to east, the Thames hard by,

from which savage cuts have made

a ditch at low tide to guide

flat bottomed barges weighed down

with black gold to feed the retorts

with their tongues of flame.

A mist meets each morning with a curse

of workers spilled out from buses and trams

knapsacks for the hard day ahead.

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Go binge

make us wealthy

have yourself a ball

watch TV

do nothing at all

the world of film awaits you

so go binge

make us wealthy

have yourself a ball

watch TV

do nothing at all

the real world can wait

do nothing at all

is all

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It's fun to be from the north

it really really is,

everyone's so friendly

we tell you the way things are

no fancy frills

no slippery words

we say the way it is.

You can count on us from the north

you really really can

helpful in every possible way

no needless fuss

from the likes of us

we like to keep it thus.

We're not stuck up like the southerners

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Sammy Friedland is on his exercise bike again

looking out through diamond leaded glass.

Becky labouring at Schubert in the music room,

smells of kosher cooking seeking entry

around familiar corners.

His old primeval blood finds its way

through the looking glass heart

with its strictures of spreading pain

he reaches for a pill.

"goys and girls come out to p...

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A man looks down to the water's flow

from an iron bridge

the river below.

Something stirs

his mind goes back

to a North Atlantic flotilla attack.

"Hard a starboard!" he shouts aloud

drawing a disbelieving crowd

then draws his duffle coat tight around

hearing the peremptory sound.

Momentarily startled

he sees the swans

in some apparent disarray;

his ...

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BRITANNIA WAIVES THE RULES

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When I dragged out the box of coal

in the yard there was that moment

when I destroyed a snail

or at least its shell

and thus its sole means of defence

created from pure beauty of design,

the soaring strength of spiral,

the soft palp glistening and exposed.

The death of a snail on a cosmic scale

of one to ten would I know be regarded

as quite low maybe above the i...

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Sex on a shoestring

it was always thus

no expensive follow up

only a flexing of witty repartee

and a firtation with responsibility.

He who plays the pipes must play the tune

but with the money for the jukebox always running out

I always twisted about

with a backward corkscrew motion

and left those ravers with their

pretended favours,

as sex on a shoestrin...

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This concert I wanna tell you about

pivotal, '92 it was

grunge out of Seattle

you would have been there

I kid you not

if you'd knew about it

I was totalled then, a storm building

wipe - out brainwise.

Can't even remember where it was

this concert I wanna tell you about.

but it happened, know what i'm saying

fuck me it was up there

with Hendricks and th...

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While worker bees in their hives make honey

the queens are thriving and making money

in full metal jackets the workers live

spent shells to remind us to regret but forgive.

Now the keepers come in their suits

avoiding stings and natural disputes.

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you say yeah yeah

I say yuh

you say motor

I say car

you say garridge

I say gararge

I say live well

you say give it large

it's really no use

we'll never be alike

so you say vanish

and i'll say "on your bike"

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We grow old

even as our cherished aims stay young

overtaking us

with their demands

their expectations of us

and out we come from behind

cobwebs of effort

looking for more light and energy

as they begin

inevitably to fade

but we played our cards right

speculated with loose time

like cast off change

now we throw in our hand

knowing at last we will

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Aunt Nora suddenly last week

got her picture in the Yorkshire Post,

met up with a fella

who took her for a ride

in his vintage Rolls

a Silver Ghost.

Like Bonnie and Clyde

they took that ride

Nora in the back

with her top right down

as they slowly drove

through a Yorkshire town.

A misunderstanding about the tonneau

caused Lady Godiva

to compromise...

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The birthday balloon

toys with the air

swaying and swooning

tied to a chair.

The party's over

time to think

of 70's bright promise

the years just a blink.

It dances to a fan

a fandango of heat

head held high

to heart's gentle beat

and then quietly subsides

like the huff and puff of age itself.

It's makeup can't be removed

and, slipping si...

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We're going down to the Cotswolds

where the air is fresh and clean;

though Chelsea is our spiritual seat

our other dwelling is rather good

quite isolated by hedges and wood.

The local message is understood

we contribute to the great and good

supporting local stores and our pub

we like to mix and match our life;

Jem is doing well with ponies

Toby and I are joining...

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The wayfarer

hard pushed to find his way

ascending the slippery slope

saw the beacon of raging hope

flames sent out a guiding light

in the sultry dense suburban night

he thought he might just tarry there

not being one to easily scare

but like an offering to the Wicker Man

he'd found the place where this life began

and ended.

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The estate was built

in nineteen thirty eight

my mother there since nineteen forty one.

My mother came out

for the very last time

my mother came out

through the familiar gate

the one that clicked at

my father's arrival every day

before he finally went on his way..

    The black car strangely incongruous

    patiently waited in its own shadow

    while curio...

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The birdman has news

fresh spirals of air sweep through his thoughts

his declination to fresh pastures set

aloft

black fluttering crowds

follow his name

decisive in supported flux.

The news travels fast

what is left behind is stored

in subtle energy, collectively

aloft

and what beauty follows!

swifts and swallows

fanning out like a courtier's c...

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The case of Silversides v.Charrington

unique in the annals of crime

prepared for the courts,

in a curious sense

presented no reason nor rhyme.

Silversides was a robot

and guilty as guilty could be

in strangling Mrs. Charrington

in metallic ecstasy.

The victim was found upon the ground

with rigor mortis set in

"as stiff as the robot," said Dr. Wiley

wit...

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The automatic weapon carries his weight

as like the twist of a coin

destiny focusses in significant sight

his to serve the piercing spinning bullets.

Panther still

half crouched

behind deep shadowed walls

in blistered sun death whispers

unheralded names

in sand.

Personal histories explode to oblivion

cacophonies of blood oiled tendons

reap death h...

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down memory lane the other day

bought a suede jacket

happened to see it hanging there

biscuit brown soft and classy

nineteen sixties

down memory lane the other day

short lapels

button missing

turned one on me lathe

sewed it on, big deal

just the thing

waltzed out down the town

down memory lane again

confidence boosted

well up front

convinced me more tha...

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Imagination fully stretched

in bricks and concrete permanently etched:

Byron Avenue

Keats Drive

Longfellow Crescent

Tennyson Road

municipal tributes

to the muse and the ode.

Bricked up versions of memory's incursions

stretching out across former fields

insulting nature

with their token trees

the obsessive regard for birds and bees.

None of these g...

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A jealous wind blows through the rooms

of St.Augusta's Nursing Home

Mrs.Grundy come last Monday

wore her come to bedtime eyes

to beckon Mr. Albert Gregory

and work her charms now recollected

her hands to places reconnected.

The word went round from nurse to nurse

whose jobs were often well rehearsed

especially in Mr. Gregory's case

large as he was in the fuselage

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I thought i'd have a go

at writing a poem

a man I know said

it has to flow.

I thought it would have to rhyme

as well,

but he said not necessarily,

but mention that you get depression

everyone will enjoy confession.

Take a few ideas from Wordsworth

using nature to make your words worth

more (that's a device to overrun a line)

that's what he told me...

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Global high fliers

strangely captivated

by Big Ben from a yacht

London Bridge

Henley Regatta

all flowing past

like their gowns from Balmain

or glory holes of Mayfair.

High heels on lonely hard marble

of bright foyers

to camera flashes

lightning results

always the sun, for the rain

reminds them of peasants

tractors,

now it's X factors

and the wor...

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Fast tracks to paradise

exploding myths

brothers wrenched from the womb

already lusting for the tomb

the scent of death

blood brothers

all that binds

blinded minds

that knives can cut

furnaces that forge

already yearning for the burning

all will be well in hell!

wrongs righted

old wounds healed

in paradise.

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Nineteen sixty nine was a good year for me,

I take down the bottle so marked

in a special room

remove the stopper

the genie is free

I am twenty five again

refreshed and more alive.

I have become addicted to the bottle

going back to the experimental years

again

again

but   back I go to sixty nine

no one else need know

and yet -

it was a ...

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Driver Williams (Kings Cross MPD)

has cleared the twin tunnels

Gasworks and Copenhagen then

struggling free the Peppercorn is panting

Fireman Higgins already tickling

the throat of the firebox with coal -

some to the left

some to the right

with a twist of his shovel

a pause then withdrawal

the eyelid closing.

Taut as a longbow is Higgins

for the climb to Fe...

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let us go forward together

let us take fate by the hand

we can make a difference together

make great again this land

with right and proper policies

with a strong and resolute plan

we can go forward together

don't say we can't - I say we can

go forward together

a bigger and fairer society

with trust in ourselves and the future

and good and honest piety

...

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My audience of pigs

was good and ready,

I in a barbour and waterproof hat.

Their tails like question marks

snouts in the troughs

some looked up with piggy eyes

on the hand selected animal farm.

In an experiment in animal reaction

I wanted to practise the nuance of rhyme,

an observer (which every experiment should have)

would have been impressed for sure

as I g...

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It was nineteen eighty

Peter Sellers was dead

my hero, his voices

inside my head

I bought a house

relationship failed

she wouldn't move in

the grass in the garden was

deadly long - scrubland

in heat - ventured through it

with scythe and song

at a swing and then

I found the cat

a clump of fur

on a bed of rough grass

lifting it with its light dead weight

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I've seen too many coffins of late

flowers arranged lying in state

fragmented thoughts

flayed emotions

too many cars in black

too late for the seance of reason

the holding of hands

to contact the dead

too late, too late

when breath has ceased

the spirit released

Too many eyes

haunted by questions

betrayals of trust

too many coffins

too much du...

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He's like really amazing

and he thinks i'm amazing

it's amazing.

i'm like so into him

and I think he's into me

it's so amazing.

like he sent me this selfie

and i'm like scrolling down

and there it is

and it's like so amazing

 and i'm like so in love.

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Sometimes a curve is all we need

to make our hearts and minds succeed

straight lines the march of time

illusions of supremacy

the ambitious cocky stiff salute

to distance conquered

progress gained

but the curve was never made for war

the rifle bent is a head

hung low in slow repent.

Sometimes a curve is all we seek

when hands in sweet caress combine

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Two men play chess

by the light of a candelabra

on a stone plinth

in a castle hall.

An adjudicator sits nearby

silence reigns

a thin evening light casts its goodbye

through a high slit,

runs its finger down

a tapestried wall.

The men in velvet doublets and hose

solemnly cast in concentration

both equally guilty

only the loser of the game will die,

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Pausing for effect

then turning around

to face the hour

the day

the week lately past

now stowed indefinitely

as in a festooned attic

he waved himself goodbye.

He had no idea when that dream ended

and when this one had begun.

All the good things of the world

could not save him

from staring into the sun.

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Whatever happened to the debonair

those vile bodies without a care

the Mayfair Johnnies

Burlington Berties,

scamp scaramouche

the amoral

the louche?

Where did they go

the quick quick slow

scoffing in Bentleys

in the know

was it the war

that buried them deep,

put these scalliwags to sleep?

with their debutantes, groomed for season

bouquet ...

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smooth shanked in tumbling air

descending

we went on cycles

England's proud flank dogging our heels

Wales to the fore,

her blue and tidy pride

far outweighing our speed

and oxygen thumping chests,

tiny carriers of water and vests

packed tightly for spreading out

in the thin line of tomorrow's redoubt.

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Nothing seemed to comfort him

his troubled soul cried out for relief

then he heard a clarion call

offering a firm belief

born again ! born again !

never the same the same again

he was inducted

like lightning conducted

by Billy Graham's rally cry

ringing out ringing out

from uncertain ground to heavenly sky..

    "Billy Billy you are the bes...

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Bob Payne opened his door again

six years now elapsed,

looked older, nudging eighty

I guessed

oak and mahogany maintained

rugs respecting remembered silence

punctuated by a shouldering grandfather clock

spinning interior hours, days

weeks, years.

I had left his house before with

all surfaces polished.

Now I saw the rings that cups had left

a puppy's teethma...

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Still there, those old beasts

at the watering hole

wallowing in sentiment

thin skinned

thickset

brass necks.

Those were the days my friend

we thought they'd never end

but they 'ad to

balaclavas and sawn offs.

The barmen keep their distance

behind optics,

behind Victorian mirrors

they know these faces

know that tales will be told

egos massaged

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He was gently lowered into the ground

Desmond Hugh Aloysius

while late daffodils hung their heads

for Desmond Hugh Aloysius

A large liver and giver of life

a roystering boisterous musical man

he left behind a re - married wife

whose husband stood by unexpectant

a gentleman of sombre demeanour

whose thoughts and opinions, never vicious

were discreetly held ba...

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I reckon I got it figured out

the big picture, how we got here

why we're different from those early critters

who stood and couldn't figure diddly squat

you know - that blink of time

when something big came to town

from out there....

     looking up I followed his gaze

 Then I figured how easily you can lose your way

your mind back to being a child again

all ...

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It's legitimate to kill a wasp

to remove its presence forever

even though its design provides us

with evidence of flight,

something we humans aspire to

with our superior brain -

but kill we can

and justify it we may

there is no declension

worthy of a mention

and so it must be

that some will sacrifice the children

the stunned and scared

the political...

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We had sex in the stumpery

sex in the Aston,

I discharged my royal duty

like a good 'un,

sometimes the mood would take us

on bracing walks in tweeds

discovering the peripherals of pleasure

after the pie and pudden'.

I oft would try to catch her

where the compost bins grow high

with the sweetcorn erecting

i'd love her with a sigh.

Alas! the seeds of Aut...

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Thank you Alfred Hitchcock for capturing

the heads of Mount Rushmore on film

too big to be a joke

proof that nature must be made to serve man

as near to God's image

as his giant imagination can get.

God Bless America!

and preserve those travesties

in all their rocksure

cocksure majesties.

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He had built a fort for the kids

with wood saved from a skip,

health and safety just a four letter word.

There were heady views over the neighbours,

added extras -

viewing platform

door with no purpose

no safety rails (not an extra).

Two old water butts for eyes

with ramps to a different level

like a masterpiece of confusion by Escher.

The kids became pir...

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He shot his mouth off with his tongue

what a mess.

What he is on about

is anybody's guess.

Airwaves recoil

perplexed

at the mortal injury they sustain

and yet

in the wider context

nobody seems to complain.

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Those old politicians

once so full of promise

they all had political leanings

left or right

sympathies with flow and flair

some imagined a purpose

all adopted a cause of sorts

assembling on the benches of

altercation and derision

astride a striding edge

of contorting exposition 

each and every one of them

with their minds to the grinding wheel

polishing ...

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We enjoyed the mysteries of the pyramids of Giza

looking up at the leaning Tower of Piza

and other visual delights

then with curiosity sated,

in various hotels

deep into the night

we discovered the mysteries

of interplanetary flight.

Long have we been together

those mysteries now dormant like dreams,

but I do know this, that

still on a whim

those histo...

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Yesterday I was in gypsy Spain

with hot haciendas,

under azure glare

passions aflame.

Today I am in a sukh

buying killims and thobes

 courtesy of Marrakesh.

Meanwhile it has come on to rain

in the home counties and it's

uncertain where my dreams lie,

under which shifting sky,

but with pillow talk

I walk the walk,

and now I know there are no pig...

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I found my doctor a little remote

as he checked my lungs

and checked my throat.

The trouble was the blinking screen

new guru of the live well scene,

it seemed to come between us

as he consulted comparison apps

I said I was recently prone to cramps

and suffering memory lapse.

The screen came in between us

as he searched for answers online

and, offerin...

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I the undersigned accept

my authority being undermined,

all decisions I shall forfeit

my personality will be deemed to fit.

If I take steps to avoid this fate

I will engender a tete a tete

and thus upset this holy estate

so I simply accept the inevitable

and end up a simple vegetable.

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How I dread your immortal gaze

your implacable cold embraceable ways.

I have confessed my mortal sin

my love for you is overdue

now hold me tight with penetration

as my blood spurts into you.

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Like scruffy schoolboys the locomotives

with hunched shoulders, disgraced,

mooched off to Dai Woodham's

scrapyard in Barry

for a holiday by the sea,

no buckets and spades

only old rakers and scrapers

witch's wares, eyeless cabs

blunted back to front

the final ignominious shunt.

Then came the vultures

flapping on nostalgic wings

seeing some of their fav...

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London lost and London found

above and below the teeming ground

where worshippers and young bucks too

lived out their daily aspirations

and lower delights

to the call of bells

or the lure of nights,

overlooked by the leering lanes

where God's ideals flowed down the drains.

Brick Lane, Drury Lane, Love Lane all remain

others merged or built upon

as Bear Lane, L...

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I am a stick of rock

with poetry running through,

many stories in my spine

telling me what to do.

Sticky sweetness of nectar too

bursting from my head

I am addicted to myself

to myself I must be true.

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The Times it is a'changing

crumpled headlines rearranging

in the fire at my feet

scorching, giving way to heat.

"Immigrant crisis on the way"

the problem waits another day

as the message goes up the flue

giving more room for me and you.

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Deny the forest

the monsters

a voice

deny the whispers

the knowing looks

soft swell of ground

prepared for nature's choice

deny the children

imagination

their voice

deny their wide eyes

their wishes to know.

Instead prepare the soft swell

of their souls for sacrifice

on the altar of adulthood

and the growing apart

from Gods of wonder

for...

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Fate had me worried

it seemed to beg my attention but

never knowingly over - impressed by

life's extensions I gave up the idea

that there is a place for it

in any real controversy or plan.

Like a pop desiderata or a sweet romance

for me it is

the ultimate copout,

leering over our shoulders

like a man in a white van.

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Ground his way up the shining hills

in a climb to silken serenity

captured with tripod and film

the towering Yosemite.

Grizzly in his towering frame

Ansel Adams stood right there

a future captured with his name

with grizzly beard and grizzly hair

to show the world the wonders of light

how nature sings its wandering song

and captures souls on wings of flight

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Chelsea Creek is in my head

winding back through imagination

passing the scrapyard of Johnny Fenn

past the retorts of Chelsea Basin

and the teeming yards of railway trucks

diverting where the rails rise

to Cremorne Bridge and the postman's special

the southside Battersea conurbation.

Ducks dwell close to reeded banks

on Lots Road power station's flanks

and soon, ...

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The ancient couple sit side by side

in perfect harmony

I have given them a home.

To be precise: two ashtrays

one of malachite, rich dark

lustrous green with conchoidal rings

and its companion

lapis lazuli, royal blue streaked

with fool's gold

both smoothly scooped

for stubbing out

Having now no purpose

other than to give exquisite pleasure

as create...

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Crudely persuasive

TV soaps

more influential than isotopes

more affecting

than drug injecting

and the plots go on

like the drift of clouds

to please the torpulent

corpulent crowds

      What happened to Eddie

      was he going steady

      yes, 'til Charlene came along

      then his girlfriend's brother

      took revenge

another plot as old as Stoneheng...

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When Tobacco Road

Concrete and Clay

were tunes of the day

in nineteen hundred and sixty four

down to Looe we went by train

where it hugged the coast

with a snaking lasso.

The King class loco with its rake of red

arrived at Liskeard a little late

from its stable at Old Oak Common shed

the connecting tanker

freshly fed, obliged to wait

a duty of service ...

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They came to check for the meaning of life

found only the deadly sins

hiding there with a virtuous face

mistaking them for signs of grace.

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On the other side of Reading

    people smile insanely

    instinctively drive on the right.

On the other side of Reading

    bollards and traffic cones  are welcomed

    as artistic design icons

On the other side of Reading

    roundabouts have too many flowers

    in a civic equivalent of bliss

    as if in celebration of potential accidents.

On the o...

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Nah nahnah nah nah you can't catch me !

read the facebook message from Moriarty,

Sherlock reached for his calabash and the needle

shouted for Mrs Hudson

went into a dream.

Watson was stuck without a computer,

so a boy was sent to fetch him at once

but the doctor was checking Mrs Watson

and didn't give a fig for his friend,

When Sherlock saw the light again

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On a rifle range within the Tower

Josef Jakobs was shot in a chair

he could not stand

his ankle broken

from landing in a Huntingdon field.

He was no foe he later pleaded

but died he did and the chair never healed.

Shot by eight good men and true

five bullets hit him and all went through,

his wife and children said fond goodbyes

but the clouds rolled on under wart...

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There once was a cave in the side of a cliff

just a gash to be entered because it was there

no other motive was needed at all.

To be the first in was of prime importance

to photograph its mysteries,

lay bare what might be discovered there.

Much planning was needed to conquer it

with ropes and tackle as the cliff was wet

and strange vegetation defied a hold

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the eight fifty eight

will be late again,

the customers late

for their dates again.

The nine thirteen

would be running today

but due to staff shortages

was cancelled anyway.

Someone stepped out

being tired of life

so Salisbury station

will suffer delays

but the six fifteen

will arrive on time

and for that we must draw

some satisfaction.

      None of...

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Hyponchondria the libertine

keeps you on your toes,

her ideas are top of the list

you can't ignore her woes.

Then she lets you off the hook

with a smack of stunned surprise

when you find that pressure spot

is just behind your eyes.

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Serenity

golden beach

kalua kiss

the state of bliss

these are tricks of the brochure

and online courting

the lure and bait of extortion

in a velvet glove

it seems to me

available for all eternity.

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A sewage worker found Jesus in a sewer

for his disbelief he found a cure.

The sewage system is an awesome place

to find relief and a state of grace.

It could have been the methane's rise

that worked its magic to his surprise

yet to this theory he won't admit

immune to the presence of piss and shit.

It seems that life may be enhanced

in quirky and murky way...

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LIVES IN MEMORIAM

LIVE AT THE CREMATORIUM

SHAKING OF HANDS

HEADS HUNG LOW

COFFIN SAFE THE MEMORIES

AS LONG AS WE LIVE ON.

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One day these kids will show off their past

with photos in frames on mantleshelves

"That's my grandad, I was five"

they'll say

recalling with misty eyes

the heritage railways they visited together

knowing not the torture of those earlier days

when locomotives taught their men a lesson

they'd never forget

of fiery alliances

on reckless rails

leaving h...

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resigned about the nuclear event

they bought themselves the latest tent

and set it up to face the world

to share its fate as fate unfurled.

Newly minted as husband and wife

their dying would be a gesture for life

and a tent was as good a place as any

from which to watch the death of many.

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From the uncertain depths of diplomacy

rose up this Kraken

his massive mouth spouting

and no one knows the ocean's mind

or the depths that it can sink to.

In the ascendancy he is

scornful of harpoons

the hide impenetrable

so, all you travellers on the seas

and on your land and in the air

remember to take some extra care

as others legitimize those loony tunes.

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(DEDICATED TO PAUL WARING)

I went to my cupboard

but Mike Hubbard was bare,

so I closed the door

and left him there

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pavements are damp

people like towels brought in

off wet dripping lines

or as ducks flapping in packamacs,

windows defy gaze under blinds

crying tears with their wares.

Mr. Protheroe stares out from his outfitters

at the rain running away with itself.

Damp slate answers back a sky

hewn from hills.

There are buses due, themselves

havens of damp, Cerri...

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After the rain the sun

after the sun the North Circular's joust

low silhouettes of abrupt streets

then sunset of Essex

no brochure could contrive.

    In the marquee the tableware set

reams of cutlery arranged

flattering on white

napkins rising majestically

small flower sprays,

a legion of glasses

and profoundly grinning the melon segments

with their tears ...

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Now he was stuck with the body

in control of it but not of himself.

He spooned an eye from its socket

angry after the kill,  his purpose spent

the  climax had been in the planning

subtle persuasions of trust, manipulation

and now here on the plateau

it always felt this way

and he needed a memento.

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Here on the winter high street

things were looking up

footfall strong, shops brisk

then I saw the bundle on the ground

Big Issue seller, news of

Trump the billionaire

a moment for that bright hair.

Coin of the realm slowly trickled down

discs of bright conscience

salves of small guilt.

under his hood shined in my vision

a former dweller under different sk...

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I used to believe that belief was pivotal

that signing your life on a dotted line

was like a club for the initiated

the way to go, you know what I mean

but doubts have left me blinded by the light

I find life more comfortable not knowing why

and solace in the darkness of a starry night.

Despite the pleadings of suits and cassocks

those moral dimensions never rang true

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second hand books like refugees

dog eared,

the worse for their experiences

wait patiently in rows

psalms embalmed

some with photographs tight held

loved by the departed

resources behind

and around their spines

obituaries of once -  bright age

of facts captured

and

like refugees they come and go

to join new families

in new musty ranks

in holdin...

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