Poetry Blog by Tommy Carroll
"excuse my hand..."
Love
A term I seldom use
Summer clothes
Packed in tight
Memories
A voice declares
"Doors closing"
Faces forward
Such quiet
A hushed phenomena
What would our ancestors
make of this crushing
closet?
Strangers allowing strangers
their Intimate space
Expelled air
The body's breath
A nervous cough suppressed
A weary sigh
eyes meetin...
Tuesday 19th March 2019 9:58 pm
Knock - Knock
Hard is the knock-knock
of a world bent and lent
against its self, gone awry-
The thinking strands
that cannot find their
ends to meet themself,
this self has ever yet
to mean it; prove it-
Yet all this squandered time,
these uncounted hours have
a time to thrill
a time to its own purpose-
I will post this warning:
(to a self)
I fear de...
Sunday 17th March 2019 12:12 am
Wipers in D minor
Jazz piano
Slow
in D minor
A note that's allowed
like
the pain
that's caused
and delivered
the shadowed sound
from the speakers
is the sigh
that pulls me back
to that place
that she once held
but I wont respond
just keep
the kerb a foot away-
from turning
back around
to her my wants
are the rear-view
mirror
that cause the
eye's to blink
wet memories away washed ...
Tuesday 12th March 2019 10:00 pm
Mum
Not only time ticks
but the felt tug
of sadness
ticks its loss
in the un-measured
wants and aches
and costs.
Tuesday 12th March 2019 2:02 am
The Votive Offering
He quietly asks
''here- hold this''
he offers it to her
she holds out
her hand
''keep your fingers together''
he smiles
she sighs
holding her fingers apart
''try and grasp it''
he watches her
looking at him
she forgets her hand
it drops to the floor
he picks it up
and, again smiling,
he repeats
the votive offerin...
Saturday 9th March 2019 9:39 pm
I never sleep when...
I never sleep when
looking at you,
I never sleep when
counting your breaths,
I never sleep when
watching you dress,
when you serve a dish...
when you write a report...
or choosing wine...
I never sleep
when you're turning a page...
when you're sitting astride...
when you're folding your arms and
pushing your toes into me.
I never sleep...
Saturday 9th March 2019 2:38 pm
Schemata
Please do not turn me into
rhyme
leave me out of your
schemata
leave my name and
broken
ways for some other
tongue
for some other days.
Just write about that
of which you know
and
do not speculate
nor
pitch dramatic
verse into the space
I have left.
I've taken my books
from your dusty shelves
and
stepping over your
out-stre...
Thursday 28th February 2019 9:21 pm
My book shelf
My book-shelf
is
filled with
the campaign
medals,
self-awarded,
from battles
with
an inadequate
education.
Words and image Tommy Carroll
Friday 22nd February 2019 10:14 pm
'The trouble with Derek'
( In response to an ITV Documentary attempting character assassination
"The trouble with Derek"
about former Liverpool City Council's Deputy Leader Derek Hatton and the furore of his recent re-joining of the Labour Party )
The trouble with Derek :
was that he was a socialist
that he was a militant Socialist
The trouble with Derek
was that he was working class,
t...
Thursday 21st February 2019 2:16 pm
Cheap not cheerful Inner city development
This butchery of space
wears its frontage
like a pantomime dame
wears its lipstick
with eye-lashes to match.
Its sunken eyes
fails to flutter the hearts
of passers-by,
fails to warm to the gaze.
Facades that portray
a space-invader face.
Words and image Tommy Carroll
Re-edit
Monday 11th February 2019 1:02 pm
Not for me another love
Not for me another love
like choking fear
It will not budge
I dare not blink
for it now seems
that by choosing drink
I dwell in dreams
I grind to bits
my words and teeth
when searching through
my history:
to lift above
what lay beneath
all that broken masonry. ...
words and foto Tommy Carroll
Friday 8th February 2019 10:13 pm
Mirror mirror
I stood and stared
a long time seeking
a welcoming gaze
that returned my greeting.
The World stared back
then went its way,
perhaps to lunch,
perhaps to play.
My friend the Mirror-
a listener of sorts-
in silence watched
and kept its thoughts.
Words and foto T Carroll
Friday 8th February 2019 4:04 pm
Thyme
We've each got
different partners now
and we're having
a real nice time
we agreed to separate
Parsley Sage Rosemary and ...
We both were once so in love
now we just stay in touch
we cherish the time
we once had
but we don't see
each other much.
I once saw her on the bus
once chatted on the phone
we sent each other
a couple of texts
at work an...
Wednesday 6th February 2019 11:31 pm
Accidental Curator
Liverpool Biennial TATE is the largest festival of contemporary visual art in the UK.
Children's coats were dumped
in a pile on the floor
so I lifted them up
to some hooks on a door.
When I came back
to my lasting surprise
a crowd was now gathering
to award me first prize.
Words and images Tommy Carroll
Monday 4th February 2019 6:14 pm
Translations
A page turner
another page turned...
The book's folded jaws
bites
with written teeth
my fingered marker.
Looking out the window
from my seat.
And back to the book's
closed jaws.
Yet another attempt
at un-giving text?
Looking at the fire...
Feel the warmth
from its coals.
Thinking
The words...
will not make sense...
Why am I wakin...
Sunday 3rd February 2019 12:08 am
Aphasia or inebriated spoke schism
My letraseted syntax
with its addled Lexicon
and garbled scrabble pattern
with their coats and hats not on.
Words and foto Tommy Carroll
Saturday 2nd February 2019 1:06 am
Away from my shoulder
As a passing cloud
lit by moonlight marked
a rimmed spectacle
of a tv arial
I shifted weight and blinked
and recalled wordless feelings
before trying to put into words
useless aphorisms.
It's the words
with their wanton
un-mouthed ache
that bleat silently
against the ear
and tangle those as yet
un-marked and un-surveyed
desires while their cerebral
...Thursday 31st January 2019 12:44 am
Philosophy made simple
Wittgenstein posits:
''language pictures facts''
Then changes his mind and retracts. ''
It's more complex than I at first thought;
my tractatus has all come to nought,
and there's more, to them cats, on those mats''.
And If logic's the theory of proof
and inference a process to truth;
then it's impossible to state,
a premise, then negate,
the conclusion-
unles...
Sunday 27th January 2019 1:17 am
Break down
In the mirror
It held a face
that held a face's stare,
In that mirror
the face that stared
stared back at me in fear...
I knew that once
I turned away
that we would meet again
that he would watch
the back of my head
whispering my name.
Words and photo Tommy Carroll
Friday 25th January 2019 10:15 pm
Trouble and strife
The complainant's
complaint
is a constant refrain
Woe is me yes me
they're all to blame!
I'm squeezed in the middle
by those with no name
pity me not them
they're all to blame!
why don't they just send 'em
all off to jail?
give to me not to them
coz they want the same
give to me not to them
coz they're all to blame
them paki's and blacks
them poles ...
Friday 25th January 2019 12:54 pm
Elliot {Le Spectacle}
Elliot likes to show
his learning
In French, Latin
and Greek
And with references
hiding aplenty
There's work in his words
so to speak
Words and foto Tommy Carroll
Saturday 19th January 2019 2:06 pm
Robbie Burns warned -
My love is like...
Another's name
a missed bus
a forgotten address
a lost key
an unread message
a belated apology
a frivolous excuse
an unanswered call
unsubstantiated rumours
but then...
another missed taxi
another missed bus
another forgotten date
another forgotten address
another forgotten birthday
another lost key
another unread message
an...
Friday 18th January 2019 2:42 pm
Everything is in context or not
When is a frog not a tadpole?
when is a giant just tall?
how far must you travel to journey?
and whom deems a sacrifice small?
It depends on whom does the sizing
for they choose what's big and what's small
for whom holds the tape, measures context
holding history's context in thrawl.
Words and image Tommy Carroll
Wednesday 16th January 2019 7:20 pm
Higg's Boson
(125 GeV/c2)
The Boson that is Higgs,
hides when it jiggs,
with an end nearly instant
-and the unification of quantum chromodynamics still quite distant-
the search for the particle,
was often quite farcical
the technology involved
in the mass that's financial
unlike the thing itself
was massively substantial.
Words and lmage Tommy Carroll
Saturday 12th January 2019 7:22 am
Come and see
Assertion1:
Come and see
Young Alexander
whoes shadow is cast upon
the arm of a man at rest.
And declares of him
"It is yours, just ask,
I will grant you all
that you request."
Response1:
Then come and see
as Alexander casts a shadow
upon the sunbathing Diogenese,
Alexander waited for his
considered reply,
"move out of my light if you please."
...Thursday 10th January 2019 6:57 am
Expressive Allowence
The penned letter upon the page
is made from strokes and swirls
not rage
forget not the colour of the ink
nor its impression upon the reader
let into reason those thoughts
to sink
not the Editorial into its Leader.
Words and Image: Tommy Carroll
Wednesday 2nd January 2019 2:26 am
Recent Comments
Tommy Carroll on Wipers in D minor (15 hours ago)
Stu Buck on Knock - Knock (4 days ago)
Tommy Carroll on Knock - Knock (4 days ago)
Martin Elder on Knock - Knock (5 days ago)
raypool on Wipers in D minor (10 days ago)
Jason Bayliss on Mum (11 days ago)
Martin Elder on The Votive Offering (12 days ago)
Jason Bayliss on Schemata (Thu, 28 Feb 2019 11:50 pm)
Jason Bayliss on Schemata (Thu, 28 Feb 2019 11:46 pm)
Don Matthews on Schemata (Thu, 28 Feb 2019 09:45 pm)