Wrap the box

Fold the sox

Hang the decks

Iron yer kecks

Oh Jesus Lord above

bless this land

bestow your love

Merry berry

Jingle cherry

Holly folly

Fill with stuff

Your shopping trolly.

Tommy etc

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Arms folded

When you speak

you serve bits

of yourself,

the bits that have

hung around 

the kitchen,

bits, that like waiters 

tending tables, 

you offer into 

our arguments.

The words-

with your legs kicking

and you asking-

"how can I be of service?

how ?"

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When is a frog not a tadpole?

when is a giant just tall?

how far must you travel to journey?

and who deems a sacrifice small?

It depends upon who does the sizing

for they choose what's big and what's small

for who holds the tape, measures context

holding history's future in thrawl. 

words and foto T Carroll

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Poems (or words to that effect)

rummage through the

relationships of those

that I have wrecked;

recalled assignations

with bleeding intent,

wordfull and contrite,

sincerity now all spent. 

Words and image Tommy Carroll 

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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 crushed

closet?

Strangers allowing strangers

thier Intimate space

Expelled air 

The body's breath

A nervous cough suppressed 

A weary sigh

eyes meeting 

eyes ...

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Bitten,

In from the cold

standing I move

sitting makes you old

standing up I move

with nowhere to go

watching the parade 

but missing the show. 

Words and image Tommy Carroll 

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There are many
ways to kiss
a cup
There are many
mouths from which 
to sup.
What's not hidden
but remains un-seen.
what lays within
betwixt and between.

Words and foto Tommy Carroll

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Did you brush it from your hair
or maybe from your teeth
your clothes
perhaps it was washed from your sheets
or tights
or with your bath water
flushed behind a closed toilet door
dreamt away
coughed and spat out
maybe you strode away from it

did you ignore it in a bar
did you lose it on a train
a taxi or in a fight
perhaps you changed its channel
was it used as a book-mark
don...

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Elliot likes to show his

learning

In French and Latin and

Greek

with references hiding

aplenty

There's work in them words

so to speak.

There are many ways 
to kiss a cup
There are many
mouths from which 
to sup.

Words and foto Tommy Carroll

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When Religion copulates
        with politicians
           and the Law
    it spawns Asylums
              in which
     to lock up the poor
             whether
      dragged off to Jail
                   or
         sent off to war
              It's the
        cell or the trench
           for you that's
               in store.

Words, photos and photomontage by Tommy Ca...

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красный red [krahs-niy]

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When Religion copulates

        with politicians

           and the Law

      it spawns Asylums

               in which

       to lock up the poor

                whether 

        dragged off to Jail

                     or

            sent off to war

                   it's the

           cell or the trench

       for you that's in store

re-edit

         ...

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She lifted her arms

to catch

and

I fell backwards 

laughing

and 

I saw her curl

and she looked at me

and I  smiled and

she frowned

and I thrilled 

at her subsequent grin.

Words and photo Tommy Carroll 

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Poems

(or words to that effect)

rummage through the

relationships of those

that I have wrecked;

my recalled assignations

drip with bleeding intent,

wordfull and contrite,

sincerity all now spent.

Words and image Tommy Carroll 

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"Conniving madness

 brimming rage

ever in the wings

now centre stage

strutting with a stick

with which to stir

a pot of bile

and fetid fear."

Words and photo  Tommy Carroll 

re-edit

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Says he

"Language just pictures facts"

Then changes his mind

and retracts;

"It's more complex

than I at first thought;

my Tractatus has all

come to nought

for there's more to those

cats on them mats".

Words & photo Tommy Carroll 

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Scales

At what point is love in balance?

resolved?

love is not an unyielding beam

but flects as weight of want

or force of need

offsets another's wishes.

Yet such scales can never measure

loss nor the loss of balance.

Words and foto Tommy Carroll

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Obama was mostly talk

aspirational vagueness

as a back-tracking clerk

in the supermarket of

capitalist bullshit

he bombed the hell

out of the middle east

his reforms were small

not joined-up and a

long time arriving

but

they were heralded

like the second coming;

opposed bitterly

by Republicans

and picked-over by

the British media

until my teeth bl...

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Q  And then there's nothing?

A  Then there's nothing.

Words and foto T Carroll 

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I smoke and watch her pack.

The taxi waits.

Then a memory of

her last departure-

the scent of her unwashed skin-

and the left-overs

of our arguments...

She's smiling as she leaves

me her echo.

She's planning a future

as we fail,

as we fail to finish

yet another argument

another space.

I pick through the remains

of her accusations

accusation...

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Hack:  " So Anthea - former beauty star -what exactly was it about the then forty eight year old, balding, big chinned millionaire Bruce that lead you to marry him?"

Anthea: "    "

Hack " So Wilnelia - former beauty star - what exactly was it about the then fifty eight year old, balding, big chinned multi-millionaire Bruce that lead you to marry him?"

Wilnelia: "  "

Words and foto...

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Vertices iv

Jan folded the letter
her finger formed an edge.

She looked up-
somebody was explaining functionality:

Platonic solids.

She stared:
the new argument was written
on the white board-

she returned to the letter-
another fold
another plain

pressing
opening,
rereading.

The diagrams explaining.
His words revealing

vertices missed;
he to the point.

Words r...

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Unless otherwise stated-
All photographs 
and images 
Are my own work.
Unless otherwise stated-
All wording and content
Are my own work.

The next time you look
over my shoulder and
read my work- you can

Keep your comments
inside your pants;

Keep your damp passages

for wetter days;

Keep your crisp-apple laugh
for fresher  salads.

I warn you Hermione
your mirrored looks
...

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No tethered wants
nor garnished voice
but a stroke of intent
another of choice.

words and foto Tommy Carroll 

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"All but a cross is
all that is wanted- 
to the polling stations
with your purpose clear
and with that mark 
banish May 
now that June
the 8th is here!"

words and foto Tommy Carroll 

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Was I now the only

one on the beach?

She had stood behind me

and I had waited

for a spoken conclusion.

But without words  

the  sound that

the soft tread of her

departure made

on the sand had

told me of her decision.

Sunsets care nothing for    

lengthening  shadows

nor waves

that they must lap and fill

the printed pools left by feet...

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The Labour Party's mantra:

"Austerity has to stop

at the A&E

and the police station"

it also has to stop

at the Job Centre

the school gates

and kitchen door.

words and foto Tommy Carroll

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Was I now the only

one on the beach?

She had stood behind me

and I had waited

for a spoken conclusion.

But without words  

the  sound that

the soft tread of her

departure made

on the sand had

told me of her decision.

Sunsets care nothing for    

lengthening  shadows

nor waves

that they must lap and fill

the printed pools left by feet.

How h...

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I leant against the wall 

with my eyes closed

each draw blew

smoke rings 

watching her pack 

I flicked the ash 

onto the bare floor 

unconcernedly

she avoided eye contact 

one arm across my chest

another upright

holding a cigarette 

as I leant against the wall 

and flicked the ash 

onto the bare floor. 

words and foto T Carroll 

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If Logic's the theory of proof 

And Inferences a process to truth 

Then it's impossible to state 

A premise, then negate 

The conclusion 

Unless it's a spoof. 

words and foto T Carroll 

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A light folding cloth

against her skin

white weave holding 

its pink warmth within

it moves with my eyes

tight white and thin

unconcerned by my

watching

her shadowed cleft

and sin.

Words and foto Tommy Carroll

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19 hrs · 

Note to revellers:

All the world's Irish pubs

are situated in the

Island of Eire (Ireland).

So the

Green Shamrock and Leprechaun

upon the Euston Road,

that used to be called

"The Grin & Bear Pit"

which used to be called

"Twisters"

and before that was called

"The Railway Arms"

ain't included.

So put down your shalaylee,

down your green Guinn...

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Can time shoulder the weighted ticks and tocks of sadness?  Realisation

as an unspoken sigh arrows its loss in measured wants and pulls,  Recovery

I let the fingered point of   My pen

these counted and now lost moments  Recollections 

scribe my sorry shrug.  Memoir

Feel free to discuss

words and foto  Tommy Carroll

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Can time shoulder

the weighted ticks

and tocks

of sadness?

as an unspoken sigh 

arrows  its loss

in measured

wants and pulls,

I let the fingered

point of these

counted and now

lost moments

scribe my sorry shrug.

words and foto Tommy Caroll

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Title: Unknown

Words: Lenny Bruce

Artwork: Tommy Carroll

tap for enlargement

Words and artwork Tommy Carroll

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Those who condemn a lie

pave the sodden ground-

Those who stand their ground

hold up the lowering sky.

words and foto Tommy carroll

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I often think about her

turning away and pointing

she points (always)

from a winning stance

she says

that she thinks about me

or so she says...

I think of her push

and shove laugh

and her fingered arguments-

I was wrong

she was (always) often correct

and as we crawled into

each other's wet laugh...

we waited...

and she waited longer.

words ...

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Scales

At what point is love

in balance? resolved?

love is not

an unyielding beam

but flects as weight

of want or force

of need

offsets another's wishes.

Yet

such scales can

never measure

loss

nor the loss

of balance.

Words and foto Tommy Carroll

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Before the after

I used to be bald

but now I'm shorn

like being dead

not being unborn

 I used to be young

but now I'm not old

like being informed

not being untold

 I used to be slight

but now I'm substantial

like being skint

then becoming financial. ........................

words and foto Tommy Carroll 

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                  How to tell a joke

              -Advice given to a Lady-

PREAMBLE- Know your audience Know your subject

PREPARATION: WRITE out your joke in full, read it aloud many times.

REMOVE all diversions, inconsequential and trivial.

CHECK for confused references.

ENSURE you have a command of the required terminology.

DO Laugh at other people's jokes before attem...

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Poetry has many inspections
each line, like thought, re-touched.
We frown at fingered collections
of nouns, and other, stuff.
There are troublesome inflections
and bleeding, wrung-out, verbs,
the wandering explications
of rhymes, the metre, serves.
There are stand alone conjunctions
in hope, that it, amazes,
where
in solitude it functions
in contrived, schematic, phrases.

Words...

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