First Light
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...
Monday 1st January 2024 10:58 am
On Henrietta Street
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
...
Wednesday 6th December 2023 10:50 am
For Whom
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...
Tuesday 28th November 2023 12:04 pm
Asking For A Friend
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...
Wednesday 8th November 2023 1:18 pm
Sewn To The Page
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
...
Tuesday 19th September 2023 5:26 pm
Afternoon Café
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...
Wednesday 6th September 2023 4:13 pm
Snow Day
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
Monday 17th July 2023 5:17 pm
The Delicates
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...
Friday 14th July 2023 3:09 pm
Holy Hell In An Airport Hotel
These paths we walk
grounded by responsibility
well-worn routine
practiced intimacy
I could only smile
when you whispered in my ear
‘Take me away from this
take me anywhere but here’
Living in the moment
it’s all we know to do
as you pepper my shoulder with kisses
my fingers explore every inch of you
You said ‘the world is a minibar
cold and empty
but now we’re blessed by this heat
...
Tuesday 24th January 2023 10:26 am
River's End
Some nights, I can't sleep
so, I go out walking
following the river
in my discomfort and anxiety
All too aware
of where we're heading
winding towards that war
no one can win
I pass bonfires of guitars
funeral pyres of pianos
strings all snapped
Art must be rationed out, now
There's a faded memory of a song
from long ago
that hopeless refrain, lilts
'these are our final days'
T...
Monday 16th January 2023 3:12 pm
If It Rains...
You say the world is beautiful
you say the world is sad
And all I have to add
is that it can be
so much more than that
but you must let it in…
You won’t walk on the beach
you say the sand will soil your soles
The lapping waves
like slathering tongues
will only taste you
and you won’t let it in…
O, won’t you come and see
the seasons with me
Won’t you come and see
this world of s...
Friday 11th November 2022 10:17 am
Like Someone Who Knows Me
Through the bitterness of winter
life crawls, so lingering and lonely
and hauling your battered heart into
the shelter of some place holy
Your mind swims with the terrible things
those hands have groped toward
The grit of guilt and shame conspire
to serve as your reward
Such troubled thoughts reverberate
as they echo up into the arches
Gathering their mass and falling back
they’v...
Wednesday 26th October 2022 3:30 pm
The Sunlit Ocean
Slipping between
the scattered diamonds
as turquoise waters part
and gently lisp against my throat
The heat beats down and the sunlit ocean
claims me as its own
Swimming in the shallows
fish and rocks, bend and merge
the lapping lens obscures them all
weightless in the womb of possibility
The purest pleasure
of the planet against my pores
The dipping sun, a molten iron ingot
a n...
Tuesday 20th September 2022 10:34 pm
Late Night, Harbour Lights
The air is warm tonight
the sea no longer ravenous
As the shawl slips from your shoulders
there’s a feeling that breeds in us
now, we are home
or close enough
A candle flickers at every table
the seafront cafes like crooked teeth
The harbour mouth is kissing us
with its swing bridge tongue and river beneath
We feel that we are home
or close enough
Tied by these rings
and the meani...
Friday 19th August 2022 11:10 am
Dark At The End of The Street
We've had some fun
but our story is complete
The moral knife still twisting deep
That improper thing must always be beat
So, you turn your back
and off you creep
Promising me each memory
you’ll fondly keep
And with my battered trust
and my itchy feet
how firmly you believe
I’ll casually retreat
back into the dark
at the end of the street
We knew the rules, we knew the game
a...
Saturday 16th July 2022 11:12 pm
In The Nude
The wilting hours now begin to yawn
between our parting looks
You’ll soon pose me in some gallery
or print me in your books
Strewn across the coffee tables
of all your literary friends
They gleefully rifle through the wreckage
as our love surely ends
It’s a responsibility you won’t accept
but there’s a cruelty inherent
owned by the one who wields a pen
the one who is the poet
I marv...
Friday 17th June 2022 11:08 am
Lady Generosity
Lady Generosity
suddenly, standing before me
Says my voice sets her at ease
and she’ll do anything I please
The night was a vicious dark
so, I wished for more moon
and with a flick of her hair
we’re climbing the stair to her room
She’s a lonesome soul and she tells me so
Loves the silence of being home alone
To hear her laughing loudly with me
a sound I remember so fondly
Though,...
Thursday 26th May 2022 1:38 pm
Headlights
Picking you up to go driving
I’d get there early to watch you get ready
both seventeen and tangled
in that unspoken thing between us
Cruising the looping country lanes
in those dim headlight beams
That was our place, alone together at last
Two teenagers, eyeing each other sideways
and wondering who each of us would be
would you always stay right there
would you always be
in the car with...
Monday 17th May 2021 1:09 pm
The Causeway Between Our Hearts
Tonight, I eye the wind
as it dances on the water
singing of the distance
that no longer can be closed
Well, I told you I was selfish
there were no children in me
Unwilling to stir for a moment
from this endless daydream
where I father my creativity
You told me that you knew me
our hearts beating to that same drum set
and no one must wake you either
That carving pretty worlds
b...
Monday 24th August 2020 4:04 pm
Renee By A Thread
Audio reading: https://soundcloud.com/tomalexwrite/renee-by-a-thread
Down the corridor, comes a scream
Was it physical pain
or the horror of finally learning
the way this game is turning
They took your clothes
gave you a gown
there was nothing to do but lay right down
Now, the machine breathes
for you
hung by a thread and leaving soon
Faint flashes behind tired eyelids
recalle...
Tuesday 5th May 2020 4:53 pm
High Tide, Low Life
You paint yourself blue, always blue
this letter brings me down
perched upon a rusty trailer
paint peels over my shoulder
I've been drinking
since the boats were rested
on the muddy estuary bed
It's high tide, low life
high tide, low life
I won't stop my reaching out
if there's any way to help, I'll find it
you're so slow to take my hand
scratching at your skin for answers
I ...
Monday 20th April 2020 1:45 pm
There Will Be Birds In The Morning
There’s a girl in tears
upon the cathedral steps
as I walk to work
the rain; a mist swallowing us
leaves blowing by
I want to wrap my scarf around her
and say
There will be better days
there will be lighter times
there will be happiness again
And there will be birds in the morning
singing for you and me
singing for you
There’s a boy in a phone box
framed behind glass, he sighs
...
Tuesday 17th December 2019 12:04 pm
Born To Muse
In the hammering rain of last night
I slept the best I have all week
I slept deeper, longer
than I have done for months
And would you guess who I should meet there
on the dream stools
at the dream bar
ordering her dream gin
sliding me a dream beer
Well, you come here often
I don’t have to ask
I’ve seen you here so many nights before
but it has been a while
(and I’ve missed you)
Friday 8th November 2019 4:05 pm
A Song of The Wind
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...
Monday 13th May 2019 11:43 pm
Between A Blue Night And Dawn
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...
Sunday 28th April 2019 11:44 pm
Pocketful of Rain
What do we have
at the end of our walk
just the smiles on our faces
and a pocketful of rain
I have learned from you all
I have laughed with you all
I have burned for you all
but always, always you'll be gone
What do we have
at the end of our walk
just the things we have shared
and a pocketful of rain
So grateful to have seen you
I'm honoured to have met you
indebted to your fr...
Sunday 10th June 2018 11:17 pm
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