Trees stand nearly bare
Arms aloft in anguish
Or perhaps rejoicing
Finally unburdened
Leaves caught in a crosswind
Scattered down the avenue
The sun is low and white
Shadows stretch
And wander...

So begins a hibernation
To refill and replenish
Answer the changing seasons
Provoked by incessant light
They will bloom again 
With intricacies and treasures
Broken branches
Birds to she...

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There’s an art 
To letting go of something
You never fully held
Refilling the glass
That is your heart

Why do these thoughts
Always cut so deeply
They come in such vivid
Shades of sadness
I can barely breathe

There’s an art
To navigating 
These troubled straits
Letting go of past lives
And vanished friends

There’s art
In the way you choose
To love
And in the way you choose
...

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Dip your phone in boiling oil
Set fire to the Internet
Walk to the edge of town
That boundary 
Of grey and green
Take no headphones
No books
No camera
Let the Autumn air fill your lungs
Go deep into the woods
Talk to the squirrels
Study branches
Search for hidden meaning
In a cloud-splattered sky
You need to be 
Bored awhile...

Turn off the news
Push the paper 
Back through the...

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We’re nighthawks in some moody painting
Haunting stools at a midnight bar
The headlight beams of passing cars
Scan us both as they squeal out of town
You’re telling me of a coming wedding
And asking me to stand beside you both
Well, that deserves another round
To swallow my flattered feelings down
I’ve been chasing love like some wild dog
You’ve been cautious, careful and selective
Look ...

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All my history curls 
Like burning paper
Blown over my shoulder
If I go first, just know
There’s a record
All I did was try to capture life
In all its colours
And if you look with generous eyes
I hope you’ll see
My masterpiece...

The cedars tower above 
This final resting place
All the future that once was
Has now been spent
Discover what you’d die for
Then live for it
And if you...

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The rhythm of a train
Rocking hypnotic
Gets me sleepy
I rest my eyes
And how quickly 
My mind’s delivered
Back to the threshold
Of that urge
Back to the beginning
Of starting again

O, if I run away
If I run away...
Would you
Come with me?

This thing, it lures me
And always has done
There’s a persistent calling
A seductive promise
I hear it between the verses
of my favourite ...

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I still wear your jacket
It’s worn and torn
With missing buttons
Your remnant scent
Was lost some time ago

I want to keep your arms
Close around me
Anything to stay warm
In a dim November kitchen
Still haunted by your voice

Around this uneven table
Five chairs untucked
I've moved between them all
I reluctantly accept
The silence of our house

I'm caught in the folds
Of this in...

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Gritting my teeth, I can begin to admit
I have been struggling
In the first half of this year
I got bruised by my own undoing
Whittled so brittle
On cold spring afternoons

And you have been a salve
The gentle warmth of a grounded voice
Through cheap headphones
Brimming with sweet greetings
Quick with earthy encouragements
Easing me down cracked pavements

Your presence, your message...

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In you swoop, with your skeleton key
Your well-thumbed dictionary
And your careful schooling
Giving labels to vague sensations
Giving names to my complications
Inking in the pencil sketch
Of my loose understanding
Of these ancient inner workings

Your delicate hands, so skilfully
Unspooling films that I’ve been censoring
I rush to scramble the combination
But you come with title cards ...

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The trees breathe
down in the garden
I pause my lungs
running on fumes
I want to work
but the world seems unconvinced
As I begin to speak
a howling sigh of wind
Snuffs out the spark 
of my feeble dream
I’m covered in cobwebs
in my waiting room…

A strange amorphous shape
swells and swallows
Even the vaguest sketch 
of hope I can muster
I can’t seem to shake 
this cloud magnetic
...

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Wandering slowly down
from Mount Otowa
We’d gotten lost
behind Kiyomizu-dera
in quiet contemplation
of the winding lanes
like night and day
from heaving temple crowds

Rejoining civilisation
the souvenir shops
and chocolate-dipped strawberries
We make our way down
to the Kamo River
with crustless sandwiches
cans of iced coffee
and legs in need of rest

Sitting on the ancient path
...

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Daniel, we were kids
racing through the cobbled alleyways
of our hometown, in the Springtime
We were bright
we knew how things worked, instinctively
We were different but we overlapped
complimentary in creative ways
I lived somewhat in your thrall

Daniel, you were the loud one
I was sensitive and quiet
You were popular and active
always quick with a withering quip
While I hid in summ...

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Branches curl their gnarled fingers
Sprouting leaves as thick as hair
I’m older, but drifting alone again
Through the botanic gardens
Roaming the hot houses
I taste that chewable air
Holy loneliness
I hold you dear to me…

The roughness of weathered bark
contrasts the delicacy of fresh stems
Poking from fractured seeds
I feel the world breathe
I’m taking part, I made my peace
I don’t...

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The river flows
and we go chasing
the mysteries of living
We’ve been running
through the meadows
of wildflower notions
Tangled up in nothing but
the hunt
To give life meaning…

Beneath the meeting tree
we stand again
warmed by summer rays
It’s here I see you fully
and you truly look at me
We each bare witness
Tangled up in nothing but
the hunt - it is our nature
To give life mean...

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I still taste you 
in every sip of liquor
O, how quickly
our past begins to replay
projected on the evening lawn
as the oil lamp burns 
ghostly, beside me

You said so little
like some men will
That stillness was a balm
to my life’s tumult
Your stoic way
and silent eyes
a recurring character
in my diary’s scribbled lines

I don’t do much
but work and walk
and play the records
y...

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Shattered glass now frames
the family portrait
All that is broken
I’ll sweep into the past
I’ve been in hiding, too long
it’s time to strike out on my own again
I rented an attic room
high above this sprawling city
and it’s from here
I’ll begin again…

The slamming door, definitive
as my tears kissed the snowy ground
I wandered shoeless into the vacant night
It’s time to bury that he...

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I awoke, on the beach
at Durdle Door
Pebbles jabbing their bony fingers
into the knuckles of my spine
Tear tracks make maps of cheeks
a brew of salt and sand
that cannot easily be brushed away

The alarm call of gulls above
they want my chips
But it’s 4am
and these hands are empty
with swollen palms
and throbbing skull
I have nothing to offer
them… or anyone

The busy sea endlessl...

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Floating on my back
weightless in the turquoise water
off the shores of Koh Phi Phi
Been living hard, too long
All these years without a break
Now, I watch the crust of duty
gently peeled from damp eyelashes
Invisible hands, unburdening me
O, never let me go…

The water’s warm against my wrists
joyous tears kissing the brine
caught upon the tide of living
gratefully tangled in this un...

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This city of rooftops
this tangle of streets
Houses perched 
upon hillsides
This fragmented view
a colour sample chart
of various greys
Choose any shade…

A ghoulish wind rattles 
shivering window panes
as remnants of noisy leaves 
shuffle down crooked lanes
Frozen snow 
blocking passageways
I wiggle my toes
to keep the blood flowing

Between five rivers
a hill I rise, or will s...

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In stop-motion, through a liminal space
a corridor of time without definition
Shuffling, herded by invisible hands
the creeping crawl across a blank ocean
from the mainland of experience
to the vagary of unknown islands

There’s no measure of the distance gone
or the length of journey still to travel
This formless, featureless landscape
drags and expands in all directions
The weak will ...

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The remnants of a myth
torn like sodden paper
A worker in the world of words
now where are your opus lines
where does your gilded poetry reside
A hooded figure
cloaked by Pessall Brook
looking for lighthouses
searching for the sea

O, how did you go
this far wrong?

Show me your pages
blackened with rhymes
your songs of tides
and ships to far away islands
Thunder clapping above
r...

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A midnight bar, chatting with friends
Between the architecture
and white-noise thump
of the background music
Between my lack of sleep
and the alcohol in my bloodstream
there’s a conspiracy at play
Suddenly, the camera
crash-zooms into me
as all of their voices
are sucked out through a trapdoor
and I hear nothing…

I smile, a strange sparrow smile
furtive and darting
patently pained ...

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Autumn nips at my door
another year begins to come undone
Somehow, the change of light 
sends my compass spinning
I question where I am
One anchor torn
while others persist
but where to next...

Autumn brings a tenderness
to the boundary of all I feel
Somehow, this drop in temperature 
sends me reeling
I trace the path of how I got here
Quietly lost and searching
in a moment of shif...

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I see us both, in time
Two candles burning 
behind the thin pane window
of a seaside hotel

Outside, wind and rain
rage hard against the faded awnings
and the flaking paint
of this inclement town

Our flames shiver
then bloom again
Such is life
and slow slipping wax

I’m consumed with all our years
and all the storms
and all the fuel
we burned in our love

I see us both, in tim...

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The smoothness of this train
as it slips the platform’s leash
The window scene begins to blur
viewed through tear-stained eyes
A myriad of questions swirl
they smudge my addled heart
Creeping high above all else
it’s that merciless, that jagged ‘what if’

What if this 
is the last great beauty
I will ever know

Eyes hungrily study details in the cover image
letting the pages fold the...

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We are the lovers
of this kaleidoscope
this ride we’re on
As we twist, we write
of the myriad colours
the fireworks dazzling our eyes
of tears, tantrums, seering sunsets
the veins in leaves
the storms between people
beautiful and terrifying
all at once

We are the lovers
of words on lips
their taste on tongues
and turns of phrase, delicious
The flick of nib on paper
the trail of i...

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That jangling tune 
told of sweet times ahead
Children playing with hosepipes 
on hot summer streets
and gleaming bikes ridden
across freshly swept pavements
How the ice cream van 
sparked joy and hope
O, the heady idyl 
of childhood…

Now the ice cream van 
toils a different purpose
macabre and tuneless
its contents chilling
The limbs of children
parts of mothers
Lifeless figures...

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While great troubles rumble on the horizon
here is calm and peaceful
There’s love on tap
which I love to give back

And when I checked the map
that was the most beautiful part of all
and the big red arrow said

You are here
you are here and allowed 
to enjoy this moment

As fragile as a bubble
floating on the summer breeze
The preciousness of this kindness
is not lost on me

And ...

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A cigarette glows
reflected in the truck windshield
careening through the city night
These headlight beams
fruitlessly searching
for something gone
The Grand Rapids highways
never take me where I want to be
not even close

I drink awhile at Anchor bar
a quarter spinning on the table
thoughts go round, keep coming back
'til my skull's swimming too
Two more beers
heads they’re mine
t...

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On the train this morning
I sat alone, by the window
Where normally there’d be coffee, warm
and all the world’s news in my ear

Instead, I chose dry silence
I chose the undulating wildness
strobing past my view way
I chose high green hills
and glinting mirrored rivers 
I chose lone trees, centuries old
strong against the elements
I chose lambs and sheep
moving in pairs or herds
I cho...

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The streets breathe 
slow and deep
tree branches sway
in the humming heat
A quiet Sunday
a balm for all our souls

Some toil in the garden
some wander up the hill
on the edge of town
the view from here
is a kiss from God
A quiet Sunday
a balm for all our souls...

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Dawn in my existence
swaddled by unconditional love
I point towards the ceiling
a laughing baby
and my first word comes
‘light, light’
And the smile on my mother’s face
first light…

Sun broke across the rooftops
seagulls chattering overhead
As a waking town began to stir
me in my best suit, you dressed in white
Finally, we’re here
dappled in dawn light, sweet light
and the smile on...

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Taking my first girlfriend
to the pub at seventeen
Crossing the cobbles
of a gunmetal grey 
northern market town
Mitten in glove
warm in our teenage
prototype version of love
A chatterbox pint for me
a tipsy glass of white for her
and we’d find a quiet corner

Invariably, some red-faced
shaven-headed native
furtively eyes my companion
“Where do you come from?”
they’d splutter in th...

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There you were again
last night
Always dressed so well
exactly the clothes I’d choose for you
precisely the right smile
My dreams aren’t long enough
the scene shoots by
too soon

You come, you go
I long for you to stay a while
but you’ll never stay for long
Your wild mind, your hungry heart
yawn and snarl
before you turn and go
leaving me alone

Back into the night
you shuffle of...

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Though we have explored
all there is to travel
I still turn to you in awe
Those wondrous eyes
still cause my blood to race
On cruel and foggy days
all jagged nerves
and withered spirit
you lose your gravity
drifting again
on days that have no anchor

And if I must, I’ll do it tenderly
hold you through the waves
of heaving sobs
clutch your trembling hand
and we’ll fathom
the house ...

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The children howl, the house is hell
you close your eyes to cast that spell

Rising high above the endless squabbles 
to meet me down upon those sodden cobbles

The rain and fog are gently taunting
your white shirt billows, opaque and haunting

On Henrietta Street…

Two hundred stairs, do I descend
with full-beam smile to my treasured friend

These precious moments, we get to steal
...

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This melancholy fug
burrows into my bones
After delving back again
into those memories recounted
with such forensic clarity
Comes a cold blue atmosphere
a fragrant longing
and precision-tooled regret

Those searingly stark lines
old faces, wild flames
lost friendships resurrected 
I’m dropped back into the thick of things
Drifting through teenage streets
old freedoms, vintage fantasi...

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Writing a character reference
for a friend
for someone I thought I knew
to mitigate their crimes
to ease them on their future journey
humbled, kneecapped and sore
Two thoughts spring to mind…

What good have they done
and how can it be expressed
Were they always the first to lend a hand
were they always there for those in need
Which of their actions
should I recall and paint in colour
...

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With the consistency of smoke
eventually, our ghostly hands
must let go of this life
We may be thinning and fading
or still strong but cut down
However it’s done
the knot must inevitably untie

The light travelled so far
to dance upon our faces
We're alive, as nature is alive
to be strange or just to be
All that energy must return
into the freezing depths of space

Every smile, ever...

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I kick away the leaves
uncover the carved stones
And reading your names again
I let those feelings flood in

The two of you rest together
laid deep beneath the earth
There’s a tree that grows above you
and here’s me, treading my own winter

Life was in wealth, awhile
but I’ve been chasing that warmth 
for three decades now
I’m tired and my body aches

There will be fireworks tonight
...

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Lit monochrome by the moon
we dance across silver sands
The waves scrawl
like these scribbled lines
written by my yearning hand
tonight

All this turbulent energy
flung into the swirling air
Conducted by my pulsing heart
This fool, who thinks he has control
of all you do to me

A wanton wind whips up the spray
and all I want to do
is turn the beat inside my chest into
sentences sho...

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Going out to meet a friend
to be the ear to their unspooling
coughing up confusions
unpacking problems
unhappy hour
at some pub table

I’m the calm eyes
the easy conversation
pliers to cut the wire
defuse that complicated 
emotional bomb
over a couple of drinks

There’ll be no judgement
only sympathy
a gentle steer
of thoughts towards solutions
or mostly
I’ll just listen

That...

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Out on the balcony, they stood together
wind wild and rummaging through the trees
She wore nothing but the moonlight
So many wishes she could have made that night
As he wondered how she’d like it here
sewn to the pages of this brittle story

A character in a poem
timeless in a way
with him when he reads
but gone
when he closes that book again

One last act before their stories parted
...

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There’s a café down the hill
where I do my wistful Sunday dreaming
Sitting in the front bay window
hypnotised by raindrops
as they whisper against thin panes
I watch the people out in the street
pull their coats over their heads
and dash from shop to shop

Eavesdropping on the other diners
and the occasional glance towards the crossword
I let my mind wander freely
and chat with the wee...

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Walking past The Boot tonight
a warm but sunless dusk
The door was open wide
drinkers shuffling and spilling out

I think of that favourite friend
who brought me here five years ago
We played some pool, supped our beer
as he talked of his dilemma

His partner wanted children
but regrettably, he did not
she gave him ultimatums
and he wasn’t sure what to do

When the world stopped for...

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I tried to bury the fountain
along with a rainbow
but I found you in my bed again
scribbling with crayons
I tried to cover up my tattoo
all these years of printing hearts
upon my sleeve
always yearning to improve

I tried to marry another way
pass the time with some other face
put my tools back in the drawer
and step away from what’s been said
I tried to give you up
as if there were ...

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The lowest point found me
shivering in a filthy kitchen
The second day of January

I'd walked away from my old life
a lover, a home, a decade of meaning
all stripped and left upstream

The blue mind and splintered heart
of a thousand Christmas drinks
conspired behind my leaky eyes

No friends around, no work in front of me
The year loomed huge and empty
a vast and frozen lake of days

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They chatter life and love by the water’s edge
then dive into the shimmering blue
With thoughts of painting ice cream clouds
or bottling the phosphorus moon
Daylight is for dreaming 
or cooking up a stew
The waking hours are for birthing art
or making love in the hot afternoon

Tonight, there’ll be a gathering at the Dolphin café
with wine and smiles in generous measures
mosquito nets b...

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Memory is elastic
and I can’t help but stretch it
thinking back to chasing sunsets
Atop my motorbike in Thailand
enthralled and awed
complete abandon
I never believed 
that moment could be bettered
I never thought
life could be more generous

The air is hot today
frogs skitter on the pond
flowers all in bloom
A cat curled on the deck
the outstretched arms of summertime
Gentle, ease...

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These curtains don’t fit
Daybreak come too early
The drink’s still in my skin
and on that bed of marble white
I lost you from my life

The signals all conspired
the well of guilt refilled
Reality cracked wide open
spilt down the corridors of misadventure
I lost you to the dawn

Tangled in a sheet of white lies
the enemy of love
raises his black hood
smiling at the keenness of his bl...

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