Poetry Blog by Tom

She came to me with pride
and with her sealed conditions
said she wanted someone she could trust
with a preposition 
to ease her cobwebbed lust

It was cold out there on the avenue
I'd been walking lonely for some way
it was the idleness of her greeting
it was the warmth of the fire within

There was little choice to make
and nothing new to say
just come inside, keep it between
the u...

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Always, I want to see 
the place of work
I sit and wonder
of the artist’s desk
what trinkets, what tools
they choose

Always, I picture in my mind
the artist’s desk
and what blue-tacked postcards
what scribbled notes of inspiration
may surround it

Is it by a window
is it in a basement
Do they toil below a craning lamp
or by dim candle light
do they have a desk at all
or just a s...

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Sometimes
I suddenly remember
the last thing we said to one another
parting

'If you're ever 
feeling self-destructive
hell, look me up 
and we can 
destroy ourselves together'

Sometimes
by chance, I remember
the last time we sat across a table
drinking

'If you're ever feeling
like the whole mad world
needs a little petrol
you know where to find me
and we'll
torch the fuckin...

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We walked along the wall
that secret weighing heavy in my pocket
as we circled the old town
my heart beating hard
in a new way
or a way I’d not felt for years

We walked along the wall
passed a bar and got a beer
looking down upon the rooftops
you were pressed so close to my mind
no other thought could form there

The morning sun lit everything before us
not just the view but our who...

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Let's take our bond
seal it within
a singularity

Let's celebrate 
and acknowledge it
There was desire
now there is
fulfilment

A new infinity
of love
compassion
empathy

I've been decorating
repainting everything
renewing the colour
drawing a line here

Like the world
I've been denying
but now I'm ready
and I'm sorry
for making you wait this long

It's time for love
and...

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Waiting for a friend
sipping tea, sunglasses on
passers-by double and disappear
as reflections in shop windows
everything lit golden
then dimmed behind my lenses
I stir the drink some more

Waiting for a friend
they’re half an hour late now
I barely notice
just watch the people
let my mind wander
the liquid turning in the cup

And it hits me, squarely, there
on the corner by the cr...

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Is it not the beads you count
Is it not that blessing
Is it not your seated position
on the far side of the screen

It’s here I come and spill
twisting myself as rope
endlessly unknotting 
a constant confessional

And through the cracks
behind the mesh
I feel your furtive eyes 
licking my salacious lines

Dear reader
you are my witness
you are my priest

Is it not the way you br...

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Looking out to look inside
I see you both
the pillars of creation
above me, before me
deft hands
painting me into existence
with hands of love

Across all time
beyond the sky
my gratitude expands eternally
into a space that doesn’t yet exist
hand above my heart
your two hearts all over my art
the hands of love

Should you ever leave
you’ll never leave me
the pillars of creation
...

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My car stands motionless in the drive-way
but I still don't have my licence
That guitar stays propped against its amp
but I don't know a single chord
and my lover, she lies there in the bedroom
but...

My chess set collects dust in the fire grate
but I don't know what the rules are
That fishing rod looms above the bait box
but I don't have the technique
and my lover, she lies there in t...

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How I long to sleep tonight
forget these thoughts
and rest
Ease my body free 
of anxiety and worry
but the more I try
the more I fail
I fidget fast, roll in frustration
cursing my debt
and conversations that won't end
Where are those waves of darkness
when will they wash my brain
Where is that tide of sleep
of empty-headedness 
of ignorance
and bliss...

Six hours now
I've studie...

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Lit by the distant sun 
in a backyard beer-garden 
overlooking the meadow
my swimming brain spins out
through adventures of the past
forgotten journeys 
by coach, by plane
through unfamiliar landscapes
to the desert 
in California

We rode the Greyhound 
between the sun-drenched cities
your head lay on my lap
and when we could tear 
our eyes from one-another
we'd watch the world pa...

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One day...
I'd love to sign my name
autograph a volume
my words printed in glorious black ink
type-set, spell-checked and bar-coded
head-shot just inside the hard cover
The girl opposite will be saying she loves my work
the way it 'resonates with her own feelings'
she and her man read together at night
I'd be respected, met my potential
achieved something of note
So, when my child seeks...

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If only I could be as naive as you
watch the world, removed
as if it's a bible story
a morality tale
where the wrong we do comes back around
how I wish it was like that

I grew up in the real world
a northern child from a broken home
I saw the things people do
sensed what people really think
it doesn't shock me
it doesn't surprise me
I understand that people sin
Yes, and I join in...

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The strength of your light
catches me unguarded
how brightly you shine
blooming brilliantly
how welcome
how confusing to me

The confidence of your glow
magnetic from all angles
I'm softened in the shadows
but your light does not permit them
so welcome
so challenging to me

Brighter than in our youth
brighter still than photographs
we talk and take a new one
twenty years since the...

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Attic window open in the night
as hinges creak
it's a dim swell of light
from the page, I raise my pen
is that your laugh, your voice I hear
blowing through the years

Is it you, is it you
or a song of the wind
it is you, is it you
well, I never know

I see the miles of white tiles
that infinite airport floor
where you left me statuesque
our future time without a date
that never ca...

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At dream’s end 
we let the water flow
accepting
resolved

At dream’s end
loosening our grip
hold the best bits
release the scenes that never came

I imagined endless parties
some intangible heart that I could puncture
I imagined so much more
turns out it’s just another place 
moving at a heightened pace

Now I sit quietly
by the chequered flag
grateful to have run
chest heaving
...

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Two lovers traveling
two lovers
meeting in the East

Their affair 
was letters inked 
and photographs
Now here embodied 
will they know what to do?

She wakes him one morning, saying
'let's take a boat to an island
let's rise above the Bangkok smog'

Bike beneath them spluttering
her arms knitted around him
they race from bay to beach
chasing the burning sun
with hair wet and smi...

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I've been remembering the garden
we once tended
I've been thinking of the petals
that fell each autumn
I've been working through the list
of things we said but never did

And the rains that fell upon our garden
and the snow that covered all
O, that snow...

I've been remembering the garden
we once enjoyed
I've allowed myself some moments
to reflect with clarity
I've been feeling sad...

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That sixteen-year-old words 
scratched there in a diary
could bring the two of us here
seems almost supernatural

A spring-evening walk, so like us
the us we were as teens
when you were my first and still my only kiss
as we walked the peaceful parks of home

Now so many years stretch across
a wide valley of unshared experience
squealing and dancing between us
slowly and methodically w...

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Dear friend
a sigh is leaving me
I can concentrate now, finally
a statue standing on the jetty
the lake’s slow wash below the boards
hypnotising me

I feel freer now than ever
more than I did back there
I don’t know how you toil on
those boiling days below the city
tinned-life crammed searching for air

You wrote of the love you found
that you always dreamed was waiting
head cocked ...

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We were strangers by the pool
there was summer on your skin
I lay low, opened my whole body
in the hope that you would find me

Then taking it the distance
from the shore raised to the sky
there were many sailors scheming
on the bending of your knee

There’s a bridge in your dreams
as it recedes behind a fog
you wonder what it means...

Even naked your body was a silk gown
as you sc...

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