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Crumbs

And pathways 

Are funny old things
Twisting this way
And that 
Back and round
And forwards 
Inside themselves 
And out
It seems to me
One way 
Or another 
You get 
Where you're going
Whether 
You like it 
Or not
And maybe
Instead 
Of following 
Your feet
You should look
Some place 
Else
For most of
The time 
Your feet will
...

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murikami's wood

You could let
A lot of things
Bother you 
If you wanted to
The daylight 
Breaking your sleep
The darkness 
Of cold mornings
The noise 
Of life 
Dragging you
Along
Passing you by
Taking you in
And 
Under
The people
Asking too much
Or too little
The gaps 
Where things ought
To be
But aren't 
The traffic and 
The travel
When 
...

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Tiptoe

Let's walk a little

Shall we
Through the 
Shadows 
And the endless
Corridors 
Let's remember 
The dreams
The nightmares 
The hallucinations 
See the break
In the 
Light
The gaps
In the dark
Shatter the tiny 
Pieces
That once 
We thought
Were the glue
Of 
Our minds
There is no 
Purity
Only simplicity
Somewhere
Between 
...

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Shipwrecked

 

Words 
Waiting beneath 
The windows
Wingless
Yet desperate 
To fly
From the ghosts
Which drip through
Through the brickwork 
Out of the 
Shadows 
Into the puddles
Rippling with 
Whispers 
Of life
Opportunity
Hope
Helplessly
Trying 
To quick step
And hot foot
Out of and
Into 
The fading 
Dawn
This place 
Is one 
O...

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Barefoot

 

You swap
Your socks
For your shoes
You swap 
Your shoes 
For the pavement
You move 
Your heart
To your 
Sleeve
To the gutter
To the stars
You walk
On egg shells
Tiptoe
Through the 
Roses
Balance 
On the thorns
Pretend
The spikes
Are a 
Pivotal change
In your life
You do
What you
Have to do
And sometimes 
You mak...

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pictures of living

Angels of stone
Cut from 
The rock
Of humanity
Shaped in the 
Form 
Of the thing
We think
We should 
Be
We carve 
Wings 
On statues
Because 
We are safe
In the knowledge 
That stone 
Is solid
Reinforcing the fear
That
We can't fly
We hide 
In our dreams
To escape 
From the shadows
Shut our eyes
Tight
Because we 
Do...

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Listless

Lists
Words
In
A
Line
Lives
On a track
Things
To do
To not
Forget
Or at least
To put
Our minds
Into some
Kind of
System
Or routine
Though
For what
I'm never
Quite
Sure
Regulation
Sense
To stop
Us falling
Off
This planet


We love
Our lists
Maybe
They help
Us
Make sense
Of
This
Nonsense
Maybe
They provide
Control
Because
It seems
Above
All else
That's ...

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Road Kill

It came
From nowhere
A plastic bag
Tossed
Between the cars
Pirouetting
Cartwheeling
Turning
And tumbling
Until
It landed in front
Of me
And at the same
Moment
As I caught a glimpse
I felt this
Bag
With my tires
And it wasn't
A bag
At all
And though I still
Hoped
It was a rag doll
Or a broken
Discarded
Umbrella
It wasn't that
Either
And through
My rear view mirror
I f...

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All the little fishes

I waited
A long time
For them
To die
And when they
Did
I filled
Their space
With lots of little
Pieces
Of my
Imagination
Trawled the
Internal net
Of my
Own mind
Crafted where
They had been
With what was
To be
Lovingly
Obsessively
With clarity
And with vision
So please
If you will
Tell me
That with all
That time
And effort
That love
And loss
The acceptance
And the r...

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Silver light

 

Sometimes
We have to
Get it
Wrong
A bit
We have to
Lock horns
We have to
Fight 
The wrong battles
Make the wrong 
Choices
Do the wrong 
Things
Sometimes
We have to
Because 
If we don't
We can't ever
Know
When it's
Right
And when it's 
Right
We know 
We got there
And the curly 
Whirly
Pathway
Was the 
Only ...

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Poet-tree

 

A poet
And their 
Daemons
Need time
Though forced
Alone
For never quite
Comfortable
With the rattle
Inside 
Their heads
They crave
Company
To keep out
The silent 
Noise
The whispers
The alarums
The realities
Which play
Past present
And future
Inside their
Heads
Endlessly
And if they can
Manage that
And not 
Go p...

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Life tales

They took

A boy
And painted his
Skin
Each line 
Of trouble
Each time 
Of danger
Each and every
Lesson
And they thought
He was willing
And maybe 
He was 
Or maybe 
He'd been
Pre-programmed
To wear 
His life 
On his skin
With his heart
Full of secrets
And his mind 
Full
Of wonder
And surely
All those things
Are too mu...

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The Fall

 

You know
That precipice
You stand
On the end
You look down
Maybe you see
Traffic
Maybe you see
The sea
Maybe you see
Your whole life
Flash
Before 
Your eyes
Maybe you see
Everything
And maybe
You see 
Nothing
But you stand there
Again
All the same
With the absent wind
Blowing 
Somewhere 
Between your
Ears
And the...

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Silver and tin

 

And for you

Who don't see
The dark
Behind the
Curtain
I tip 
My hat 
It would be
A thing
To see
Sunlight
Behind the shadows
And not think
It a trick
Of the mind
We were
You see
Born
In darkness
And 
For a time
We were happy 
There
Yet now
We've been given
A glimpse
Of something 
Shiny
And though 
We have no...

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The sums of life

And fate
usually has her way
Working out the
Sums of life
On her crystal web abacus
Spinning futures
In ways
That to
The human eye
Appear unfathomable
Illogical
Non-sensical
But we can't see
Into the far distance
In the way that
She can
A tremor
Here
A flicker there
And everything turns
Inside out
Or upside down
Or that's how
It appears
To us
mere mortals
But the spiders
...

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Tricks of the mind

And you will

Fade to grey
As they all did
As they all do
I'm not so sure
Your light
Burnt any more
Brightly
Will burn any longer 
Than the rest
Of them
Heaped in a pile
Somewhere 
In that dusty part
Of my memory
Corpses 
Rotting their poison
Spewing venom 
Through
decayed jaws
Of 
If only 
And ifs and buts
And the truth
If t...

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Snow White

 
 
And it comes
To this point
And I ask
What am I
And I stare 
In the mirror
And though
It's not broken
Or even shattered
There are cracks
And amongst the 
Tiny broken 
Webs of glass
I see 
Different parts of 
Me
Staring back
Sometimes confused
Sometimes amazed
Mainly bewildered
And in the shadows
In the very 
Corners
The wo...

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Sometimes

Sometimes 

There are doors

And you can
Open and close
Them
Bar and bolt 
Them
Hide behind them
Or be trapped
 
Sometimes 
There are windows
And you can
See through them
They can shelter 
You from the rain
Or show you 
Places 
Far away
You'd rather 
Be
Sometimes
They are so dirty
You can't see
Anything 
At all
 
Some...

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Sheepless

Sometimes
You have to be
Aware
Of the world 
Which wraps itself
Around you
I don't mean
So much
The womb
Or the tomb
Or even 
The nuts and bolts
I mean 
The bits 
In-between
The pieces 
We're usually
Too busy 
To notice
Because often
They're the little 
Signs 
And symbols
The hidden robots
And secret assassins 
Which point ...

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mountains and mole hills

 

I have
A little thing
It's called
My life
I have a little thing
It's called 
My heart
And within
All of this
I have 
A little place 
It's called 
My world 
And though
I question it
Everyday
And it confuses me
Every while 
Still I wake
And sometimes
I sleep 
And I know
How small it is
And how big 
It feels 
Yet still
I...

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The shove

Everything 
Doesn't have to happen
Yesterday
And by tomorrow
Most of it
Will have changed 
Anyway
These people
These places
These names
These faces
Empty shadows
Endless corridors
Twisting into 
Madness 
Certainly uncertainty 
Poison and
The cure
Most of us
We have
Two feet
We have a spine
We have no
Particular 
Place to be
...

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sink, swim or make do

Moving water
Drowns the man
Who stands still
We are not
Here 
For mediocrity
We are not here
To make do
I don't pretend 
To know
What we are here
For
But pretence 
Of a life
Is a cardinal 
Sin
And doing what 
We do
Because 
Other people do
Because 
It's what other people
Have done
Because
Other people expect
Because 
The...

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Waiting in Line

I love waiting
In line
Whilst the one person
Serving
Peers over
Her glasses
I'm not sure
What it is
She's expecting to see
But a long line
Of impatient people
Doesn't make her move
Any quicker
And the person
At the front of the queue
Is clearly
Cut out of the
Same mould
All the time
In the world
No life to lead
Nothing better to do
Than answer
And ask
Inane question
After ...

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Forever

They looked
Under the floor
Searched the space
Behind the cupboard
And though
They found
Traces of snow
And a sprinkling of
Ash
There was little
In the way
Of what one
Might call
A clue
Yet disappear
He did
And vanishing
He had done
From a place
Where windows
Were for show
And behind doors
Was nothing
But brick walls
There was no
Tunnel of escape
No plan
Or plottings
Of...

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fragile

There was a hole

In the page 
Which
Unsurprisingly
I fell through
Paper thin cracks
And shards
Of dripped
Dipped 
And wasted ink
Flooded my pores
Painted 
And pained 
My flesh
As the lost ideas
Of women
And men
Wept their way
Down my spine 
And the world 
From below
The whole of the
Paper
Was a papier-mâché 
Mask
Of malcont...

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Simplicity

And the joke

Really 

Is on us
With our tin hats
Leaking
In the rain 
We all like
The poison 
Too much 
You see
We all like
The damage
And it fascinates us
An impossible knot
Tangled
And the more
We pull at it
The tighter 
It gets
Yet what we don't see
Is that we strangle
Ourselves
Admiring the tiger
Fearing the stripes
And the...

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Wonderland

 

I saw it
The mirror
And I thought
For once
Why not
So I stepped through
Took on
The glass
The reflections 
Of myself
The mercury warnings
The steps beyond
And as it 
Melted
So did i
Pleasant shards
Of pain
And understanding
Hope and dreams
And it washed me
Through
Into a place
Where I could
See myself 
And you
And them
...

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You know

I've been thinking
About this
About the capital
Letters
And the line
Breaks
And the short
Unpunctuated 
Sentences
And often 
People 
Ask me why
 
I guess 
This is how
I see the world
And life
It is not 
Smooth
It is not easy
And when it
Is
We do not 
Think
We do not
Learn
For these times
Are fragmented
...

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Telling

What the hell
Happened here
It would think
If it was capable
Of thought
As it wandered
Around in circles
Its head
Nodding in step
To its feet
Which was the way
It had always
Been
But something was different
And not just
The pain
In its head
And the blood
On its feathers
It had come
Out of nowhere
The vicious attack
For apparently no
Reason
Or none that it
Could remember
T...

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Tightrope

~~Accept
The shape of
This world
Is different
To everyone
With eyes
Who can
See
With their
Mind
It is shaped
By their experience
Positive and negative
It twists
Everyday
A mirage
Of information
Uploaded
Inputted
Rightly and wrongly
Translated
Sculpted
By an amateur
Hand
Shaking
With the pressure
Of everyday
Living
This is not
A failing
This is no
Malfunction
This is...

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Wake up and smell 'em

With our rings
Of gold 
And our hearts
Of silver
And our lead boots
Waiting
To trudge 
Out to sea 
We pour through
The gaps
Spill through 
The fissures
Spitting and
Snarling
And bleeding
We glare 
At the pirates
As we shuffle
Forwards
To collect 
Our pieces of 
Eight 
And we punch 
Our drunkeness 
Into the faulty 
Machine 
Mechanically logging in 
To the clockwork
We al...

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Gesundheit

Sometimes
I get to 
Thinking about
Ordinary silence
The space 
In between
When the black
Of your mind
Colours 
The places
Underneath words
When the pictures
And thoughts
Line up 
And the hum
Of the sound
That lies
Underneath
Drips through 
Your consciousness
Painting your thoughts
Into ideas
Until the circus
Inside your head
Spins and whirls
And the shadows
Become people
...

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Time Bomb

You want to know
About the spit
And the sawdust
Shit
You haven't
Even seen
The blood
On the floor
The stain
In your hands
You feel
Your heart 
Beating
And you blame
Everybody
Else
This rattle
Isn't a vibration
Of the earth
It starts
Deep within
It builds
Until
It comes from
A place
You think 
You don't know
And then
It explodes
And you don't  
Realise
You have
A gun
...

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Fancy Dress

Sometimes
I open
My mouth
And people
Look at me
Goggle eyed
Or bored
And they
Yawn
Or say
You're deep
You know
And I'm not
Deep
I'm not anything
I'm just tired
This thing
Isn't so difficult
It is
The way it is
And if i don't
Spend
A bit of my
Time
Looking at it
Thinking about it
Well
I guess
I might as well
Not bother
And then
I might as well
Walk
With the zombies
...

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From whence they came

They walk
With their eyes
Climbing the fences
Whilst staring 
At the 
Green green grass
Below
So close
And yet so utterly
Out of reach 
The spectre
Of their once-wings
Ruffle
Below their over starched
Shirts
And their fingers
Twitch 
With the ancient memory
Of freedom
They bend 
At the knees
And waist 
Like all good servants
And hiss and curse
Under their breath
But their ...

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The factory

Sometimes 
I feel 
Like there
Are things
I'm supposed
To do
Places I should
See
People
I should know
But 
You know
I feel
Like I'm trapped
In this cabin
Under the sea
Above the clouds
And though
There are no
Bars
I rattle them
Anyway
Along with 
My bones
My sanity
My madness
And my
Sadness
And I see the
Big wheels turning
And I see
The spaces
Where the magic
Should...

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The mechanics

And sometimes
It's a shame
When you don't
Understand
The heart
Of understanding
When the pistons
Fire
But they miss
When they 
Bump and grind
But they're
Left 
To their own
Tune
And though
It's all about timing
Sometimes
It's about
Misfiring
And however much
Oil and dirt
However many
Mechanics 
You throw 
At the problem
This machine
Is different
And to caress 
And touc...

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Naturally simple

I know 
How this world
Works
When I look
Through the
Fog
And the madness
I can see
The nuts 
And the bolts
And the loose 
Screws
Spiralling
Under the table
Nesting
In the dust
After all
That's where
We came from
That's what we
Are
And trying to fight
The invisible forces
Is ridiculous
Because 
They're not 
Really there
They're simply 
A product
Of a man made
Stamp
Wh...

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The Shadows of Clouds

Tiny eyes
Stare
Through magnified
Lenses
Blinking at a world
Hidden inside 
A fragile and 
Unknown  mind
Seeing nothing
That is real
Obsessed 
By ideas of other
People's lives 
And dreams and stories
Made from 
Candy floss
Blown by an 
Internal storm
Carrying them away
Some place
Where they can't 
See 
Where they can't stand
A spinning carousel
Fed by 
A haunted 
Feverous...

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Space Ape

I'm a step 
Out of time
me
Part spaceman
Part robot
Practically futuristic
Leaping from
This dusty world
That is past 
Before the future 
Has blinked
Floating through
This bubble life
Oblivious to all
That surrounds
After all
Once we learn to fly
We don't have to worry 
About the rats
Below
Whether they have
Tails or not
As long as they 
Don't have wings
They can't touch us
...

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The Poetry of People

Part the third of my experiment

please watch

http://youtu.be/BEefmiQbOUM

 

 

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The Circus of people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmXXjBAp_I

(Part 2 of the animated show i'm hoping to perform.  Please watch the clip- any comments are very much appreciated)

 

And the thing

About clowns

And their mystery within

All the like

And dislike

And the fear

And delight

The disguise and deception

The obsession and performance

Of the circus

That is people

When the...

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Bobbing for Apples

There has to be
So much more
Not this place 
Full of squalor
Not this hole
Of steaming piss
And alcohol
And long lost friends
From here 
There
And everywhere
And nowhere
I'm so tired
Of dirty holes
And laughter
Born of boredom
Of people
Barking
Everything
And nothing
Find me a ditch
Away from it all
Away from the dirt
And the drudge
Dredge my soul
I found my limits
And un...

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The Seamstress

She cut people
From the cloth
And dressed them
In paper
Scribbling expressions
Of life
In wild crayon
Across their skin
She stitched tightly- lipped
Mouths
So they would be careful
Of what they said
For want of splitting
Their faces
And odd buttons
For every eye
Sometimes one
Sometimes three
To excuse
The double-vision
Of all the others
Some shiny
Some dull
To stop anyone th...

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The Burden

And we pour 
Our souls
From shrunken lives 
Withering vessels
Pretending
To hold 
Heads high
And salute 
Whilst the hard earned
Salt
Drips from
Our skin
Our eyes
Until we turn it
Into silver and gold
And some of us
Moan
About working 
And some of us
Grumble about the 
Pressure
Of not working
And all of us 
Struggle
With getting
So many things
Wrong
Bleeding back
Into th...

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Shooting Angels

Most of us
We try
To scratch out
A living
With our broken bics
Blood and ink
Dripping meanly 
In a vague attempt 
To trace the idea 
Of a future
From somewhere 
Deep inside
And paint it 
Against the world
With its cruel way 
Of crumbling dreams 
Just before 
We reach them
Or wake up 
Or both


And we struggle so
To make sense 
Of this endless 
Nightmare 
Envying the wings
...

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Water and sand

Think about
This fountain
It is water
From the sand
It is the movement
Of the moon
It crashes 
In waves
It breaks
And it falls
And it moves
You
And within you
Whether
You like it
Or not
We are water
We are sand
And we can 
Build castles
And if 
You think of
One thing
Before you sleep
Remember 
The ever changing
Of the desert
And think 
On it 
A while
Those dunes
Have...

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Dust n bones

When the fire
Has burned
And the ice
Has melted
What sits 
In your soul
What makes the 
World go round 
Who are you giving
The chance
To work 
Their way back
These cogs
Need oil
These spokes
Need constant
Repair
The bitterness
That rests
Deep within 
Is only a mirror
Of your outlook
Honesty comes cheap
Happiness is a hat
You can wear 
Or crease 
These battles
Aren't batt...

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The Way

I think 
That's the beauty 
Of life 
Everyone
Is fluctuating
On harmonies
Sometimes
It's the right
Note
Sometimes
It's the right 
Key
And sometimes
It's not
And pleasure
Is pleasure
Not a chore
And though
We might screw
This up
And we might lose 
It now and then
It all comes back
And we nail it
Long or short
And that's just 
The way
It has to
Be

 

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The Horses Don't Run

And out of the 
Wind
Come the 
Waves 
And out of sight
Comes the mind
What I'm trying
To say is
These things
Happen
These things
Surround us
This world
Is full
Of life
And you can spend
All your money
On a horse
That didn't run
Or rain
That didn't 
Fall
Or you can 
Look
At everything
Around you
And walk
Steadily
Along the
Shaking
Earth
And as long 
As your feet
Don...

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The Truth

Some of us
We'll drink
Til the cows 
Come home
Some of us 
We'll crawl
Til we get home
Some of us
We'll bay to
The moon
Until the salt
Burns
Our cheeks 
And some of us
We'll look
At the stars
Waiting 
For them
To fall
But you know
The truth
Like I do
Some of us
Is all of us
And we might not
Know much
But we do it
The best way
We can
And those animals
These sheep
All ...

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Journey man

These human animals
They're dirty things
They chew the scraps
Fill their boots
Spill the beans
Minds elsewhere
Thoughts anywhere
But matching
Ignorant breeding 
Ignorance
Feeding the view
They have
They see
Of this place 
Governed
By a man
In the sky 
And excused
Because 
The desire 
To read the stars
Outweighs
The sense 
To see 
The stars
Without 
Making lizard like judg...

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The Witch

And she stood there
With her face 
Pointed to the wind
Nose twisted
Twitching
Ready
For the signals
She didn't even know
Were being
Sent
And her hunched shoulders
Were forced to face
The ground
Which she only ever
Saw as 
Dust and dread
And I wondered 
Where the witch
Was
Or had gone
Where the curse
Had come from
Where the withered life
Which had wrecked 
Her soul
Before s...

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Walking

He chewed on
The fat
Though in these
Lean times
There was little 
On his plate
But bones 
And he chewed 
On his thoughts
Though the nights 
Had been long and dry
So his ideas 
Were sparse 
He chewed on his jaw
And ground his
Boot into
The dirt
Looking hopelessly
At the sky
As though the clouds
Might make a picture
Of the answer
Even though
For most of the time
The question 
...

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The Bone Shaker

You want me
To search
My soul
Honey
I spent my life
So far 
Doing that
You want me
To know
Which way is up
All I learnt 
Is that kind of search
Brought me down
You think
I don't want 
To dance 
With you
Take those steps
Baby 
Those steps 
I learnt from the womb
But 
You know
That heartbeat
I've not found
Since I smelt
The air and
These roses
They don't smell
So fresh
...

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Empty plate

It's not going
To play 
This way
See
Take off
Your blinkers
These horses
They're good for
Running
Riding
Working
But they aren't 
The people
On this funny farm
And the cattle
They have 
Their eyes
Wide
And they look
Forwards 
Because only owls
Can look behind them
And I guess
There's a reason 
For that 
Forget about
The whispers
And the ticks
And the barflies
And the b...

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Retreat

 

You can take
A bit of my sky
You can hold
My thunder
Underneath
Your world
You can rattle
The bars
Of the machine
And plump
Your pillows
To feather 
The lies 
You walk upon
You can take
The lightening
From the lack
Of forgiveness 
In my eyes
And breathe life
Into the rats
That you frown 
Upon
With such 
Disdain
But to survive 
And remove yourself
From 
The pedestal
...

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Mother Hen

And tomorrow 
We shall crawl
Into the belly
Of the big
Metal
Bird
And she will have her
Way
Night will be day
And day will be night
And none of it will be 
True or false
Right or wrong
We will strap ourselves 
In
Whether we like it
Or not
Our heads will roll
And jerk
And nod 
Like the hundreds of 
Other shadows
Joining us
In front and
Behind
And we will 
Wrap ourselves 
...

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Bombay Train

There's a tv screen
On a train
Playing endless 
Black and white movies
No sound
The silent type
Of a man 
Or a woman
Or both
Running at slightly
The wrong speed
Sometimes colliding
Sometimes missing
Always carrying
A certain look 
Of lost helplessness
Occasionally
A sentence
Flickers 
On the screen
And I'm never sure
Whether the message
Is for me
Or for them
Or for the othe...

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Pieces of life

There is a clock
On your shoulder
And its tiny hands
And invisible pendulum
Beat the life
Out of you
Minute by minute
Hour by hour
The bugs and flies
Scatter 
Like dust 
In artificial breeze
Yet time limps
On
As eyelids flicker
To fight 
The inevitable 
There is no flight
From here
There is no-one 
With whom to form 
A flock
And as much as 
You'd like to
The pause button
I...

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Looking Glass

I mean
What did you
Expect from me
Huh
Let's both pretend
The answer 
Isn't 
Nothing 
A house in
The country
Two point four 
And a four by four
A nice life
And no
Questions
A patch in
The garden
To grow things
A place in the 
Sun
To wilt
I mean
Come on now
You're no better off
Than me
Your place is
No greater
Than mine 
Is this how
You saw yourself
Through
The sleepy...

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Bugs

They take their tablets
Everywhere
This crowd  
Of electronic 
Pill poppers
Naked without 
Their portable window
Swallowing nothing
Around them
And everything 
Brought to them
Through their digital screen
Locked in
Strung out
Hooked all the same
A demented generation
Connected by invisible 
Wires
Trawling towns and cities
Airports and motorways
Countryside and forest 
Robotica...

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Parents

You made a man
Though 
You knew 
And didn't know 
What you 
Were doing
And you 
Probably 
Got it right
For all the wrong 
And here I am
Standing
Breathing
A multitude 
Of all your lessons
You made
A shouter
A growler
A fighter
And you gave life
To
Another sensitive soul
And for all
I never said it
I'm eternally 
Grateful
Because 
You 
Gave me 
The words
And the heart
...

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Teacher man

You think 
You got it
Teacher man
With your pay cheque
In the holidays 
And the wine 
Running 
Through your veins
With mr government
On your back
Measuring your 
Achievement
Your success
Your sense of attainment
Those little boxes
You build 
Out of people
You build them
Better
You make them 
Brighter
Whilst society 
Claws at your eyes
No longer 
Hides their whispers 
Of di...

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Water and Air

What's the matter
She asks
Only the weight of
The world 
My love
The things 
We could be
And the things
We can
Never be
The lions
And the monkeys
The jungles 
And the cities
The places
And the people
The mountains
In the sky
The tramps 
And the vagabonds
The millionaires
And the paupers
The earth
And its axis
And can you 
Change that
Can you mend it
For me
Did you ever ...

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Orphans


We're all
Passengers 
Sleeping 
On the sliver 
Of the storm
The lunacy of 
This moon is
Wasted on
The insipid
Fallen generations
Forever trudging 
Sunset 
Dancing on ice
With grace and 
Duress
Bewitched by history
Unlearning lessons 
Muddying tracks 
With pieces of eight
And tears of 
Misfortune
Making the dogs
Howl 

Lady Dementia 
Spreads her icy fingers
Warning all o...

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Deity

And it wasn't 
Your wings
That made me
Wonder
Or the strange way
You held 
Your hands
It was your 
Eyes
Staring
At odd angles
Almost as if 
You didn't know
Which way 
To look
First
And I wonder
Whether
That was a slip
Of the artist's
Hand
Or whether 
It was something 
Else
After all
If you were 
Sent down
And if there
Was
An up 
Maybe that's 
The way 
You have to 
...

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Apeman

What happens 
When you become 
Too old to pretend 
That you are 
Tarzan 
And
When you look
Into the mirror
It is
Your father's face
Staring back 
Whilst your grandfathers 
Look over 
His shoulder 

 

We all know 
This world spins
Though we can't see it
We all know time moves
Though we can't
Always 
Feel it
And then 
Sometimes 
There is 
A jolt
And everything 
Is throw...

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A Prose Poem- the forgotten memory

So we were driving through. Flashes of countryside and monotony. And these little places pop up now and then as they do. Over the brow of a hill, from nothing there are suddenly colours and smells and sounds and life. 

And then they came in swarms. 
And he was sleeping in the back of our transporter, as was his want. And they stared and smiled and danced around the vehicle. They banged their d...

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Honestly Dishonest

Sometimes there are 
Things
You think but 
should not say
(Right?)
But it doesn't mean
You shouldn't 
Think them 
And yet 
That you think them
At all
Is a thought worth 
Studying 
Though I suppose
You can't control
The things
That pop 
Into your head
Whereas you can
Control 
The things that
Fall from your 
Mouth
And though this seems
Like a minor
Even petty 
Difference 
...

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The Visitation

There's nothing wrong
With me 
He said
I'm just enjoying 
The view
That man is
Swinging 
Not hanging 
He said
And I feel the pain 
And suffering 
Of the whole world
There is no bother
Here though
He said
No more than 
Any place else
And the more you 
Fight 
The more you lose
He said
Keep the beat
Or skip it
It's all the same 
To me
No one is going any place
Any sooner 
T...

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The pretend past

And people talk
Without thoughts
Remember with fondness
Things that 
Never
Happened 
Relationships that 
Never
Were
Draw pictures of their 
Past
Which never existed
Even though now
They believe they 
Did
And why
To make themselves
Feel better
To make themselves 
Feel real
To make sense
Of the things 
They can make no sense
Of
Maybe it makes
Their life 
Worthwhile
Maybe i...

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Waiting in line

I sit here 
Watching 
Old stars
On new screens
And I come to 
Wonder
What does it take
These days 
To shake the people
Out of 
Their rocking chairs
Their lazy boys
Because they all
Knew
Like I did
And they will know
Like we do
And still
They choose
A remote control
Life
With an electronic
Chair
And a TV
With all the 
Interaction
And no interaction
And they walk the stree...

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The search

You know
It's these times
I get thinking
About the sheep
And the shepherds 
And I can't tell
Who is more reliant
On whom
So they guide
And they're led
And if they don't guide
They die
And if they're not
Led
They die
And the little dogs
Yip yap
Their way
Through it all
Oblivious to anything
Other than
An intricate sense
Of what they have
To do
And a bowl of 
Food
At the en...

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The Fool

Today I feel
My age and not
My shoe size
My thermostat is broken
And my temperature
Is going through the roof
An angry man
Is beating his little drum
Constantly
Somewhere above my
Left eye
And the sweat
Will not stop
Betraying the last chance
Of any secrecy
I could hope to have
Of the night before
I haven't crashed
I'm not broken
But I'm as close as
I could be
Without falling ...

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Stolen from Radio

It's a morning of
Infinite possibilities 
And everything 
Might change
Showers heavy
Thunder likely
Time to cut away
This knee high rough
Heads are in the valley
Waiting to
Break the news
Afraid of losing
Their ground
Habits are shaped
Dependency and addiction
Form
And the lady of sunlight 
Crashes through
The clouds
Shaking her golden locks
And spilling them 
Across the sky
...

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Washing Line

This thing they call
The future
Happened 
Yesterday
This thing they call
The past
Will happen 
Tomorrow
There are so many
Names for things
And so many drawers
And cupboards
There are chalk lines
On the floor
Waiting to be
Drawn
Waiting to be washed
In the rain
Whilst the skeletons 
Dance in 
The thunder 
And the water babies
Drown in the puddles
This mirror 
Ripples
In the...

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This thing we do

Sometimes
It's nice 
To be nowhere
No rush 
In getting 
Anywhere
Walk the streets
Feel the 
Cobbles
Watch the world
Turning around you
Whilst no one
Knows
Maybe they care
Maybe they don't
And my feet
Move
My heart 
It beats
And thoughts
Drip only
As you 
See them 
Now 
Nothing to think
Of
Nowhere to 
Go
The dusk
And a dirty 
Bus
All falling
In front
And 
Behind
T...

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It is what it is

All in all
Things work out
It seems to me
That this is just
What they do
So you can
If you choose
Worry about
This way
And that path
This person
And that monster
You can lose sleep
Over tonight
Or tomorrow
Or today
Or the things
That have already
Happened
Or you can
Simply
Let them happen

An old man once
Said to me
Let be
Be
And though
I understood the words
I didn't ...

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Prelude

You want to know
A story
It begins
Once upon a time
And took place
A long time ago
And it was about
A little boy
And a little girl
Maybe they were brother
And sister
And this happened
And that happened
And there was probably
A witch
And a wise old man
And a step parent
Of one sort
Or another
And magic was
Present
Because that's how
Stories
Go
And the worms wriggled
And the...

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ink stains

I crumple the
Notes
Because
I think
That's the best
Thing
To do
With worthless
Paper
It measures
Nothing
But ink
That has no matter
And it comes
And it goes
And it always
Will
If you
Try hard enough

There's always
A bar
There's always
A beggar
And there's always
Me
and I'm
Never
Quite sure
What it is
That
I'm pleading
For

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Milk

I never 
Check my change
Because 
At the end of
The day
How much change
Is going to 
Happen
Without my
Knowledge
Without 
My control
Without it happening
Anyway 
Regardless 
The silver and gold
Left in
Your pocket
At the end
Of the day
At the end of the
Night
Will or won't 
Be there
At the end of
It all
Whatever is left
Is left
And there isn't 
Any point
In crying
Ab...

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The Meeting

Today 
I met my own 
mortality
For the first time 
And she didn't look
In the slightest bit
How I expected 
To be quite honest
She had no 
Distinguishing features
At all
Blended right in
With the motorway
And the traffic 
The road kill
And the crash barriers
On reflection 
It's possible she 
Wore a knowing look
The one that says
It happens to us all
What makes you think
You'r...

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Rage

Draw a map

Trace those lines

With care

And with caution

Shade them

With anger

Remember

You have been

Here

Before

You will be

Here

Again

You can scratch out

Crooked little cobwebs

Wherever you go

And when

You look

Back

If you are able

Or when you look

Forward

And pretend

You came from

Nothing

Then

You can choose

If you...

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The Circus of People

And the thing
About clowns
And their mystery within
All the like
And dislike
And the fear
And delight
The disguise and deception
The obsession and performance
Of the circus
That is people
When the curtain falls
And the make up's
Removed
The shadows peel back
To reveal
Us
Staring out
From our
Badly lit mirrors
With our watery smiles
And our hapless eyes
And our costumes
In pi...

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Knotted

Today I discovered
A heart
made from
An elastic band
Someone had tied
A knot in the top
And a knot in the bottom
And twisted it
If I toyed with it
Too much
It lost it's
Shape
It was stretchy
But I knew
If I stretched it
Too far
It would snap
I could feel the tension
Between my fingers
So
I stole that heart
And now it sits
On my desk
Staring
And I wonder
If it will be
Noti...

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The Awakening

And sometimes
Things transpire
They gather together
In secretive groups
And offer you a
Hand
In the shape of
A fist
From within their
Shadows
They punch you
Hard
And square
And fair
And shake your senses
Out of themselves
And back into
Reality
And for a moment
You see things
As they are
And you are both
Detached
And reattached
To this sham of
A life
It doesn't take long
...

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Circles

I've done this all

Before

You know

And I want

To pour out my words

But my words

Are just the

Same

The feelings

Are just the

Same

Nothing changes

As much

As everything

Seems different

And I suppose

It will be the same

The next time

And the next

But this time

More than any other

I tried everything

And it still

Wasn't enough

And ...

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Easy now

Find the calm
Filter the pressure
Take the pace 
Down a level
These things
They don't have
To run at 
A hundred miles
An hour
The world
Will still be there
Tomorrow
As will most
Of the people
Let your mind
Heal
Let your head
Rest
There are too many
Things
To worry about
Over which
You have 
No control
Whether this happens 
Or that
Today 
Or tomorrow
Is both in
Your han...

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The mechanical hen

I know
The mechanics
Of this world
And they are
Ruthless
Robotical
These things
We have learnt
To call 
Feelings
Go unnoticed
The machine 
Rumbles on
Always
Forever
There is always
A spanner 
Some oil
To make sure
That the cogs
Keep on turning
Because 
They always will
Wether you
Stand up
Fall down
Dream
Or don't 
This world ticks on
And always will
And the dead
They...

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Under

Let's undo the
Hinges
Let's see what lies
Deep inside
Unscrew the brackets
Open the cupboard
Punch holes 
In the side
Of our heads
Suffer the pain
That lies
On the other side
Of what we know
Tread in the place
Where the doors have
Been closed
For so long
Tread the dust
Tempt the mania
Scare ourselves 
A little
I do know
What's inside
I know 
The slugs 
And the cobwebs
I k...

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The Deal

Remember the man
Who turned to god
Because he sold drugs
Badly
Got beaten up
Badly
Got in
Over his head
And prayed
Sat in a car
Got taken
For a ride
Cried
And then
Another man
A bigger man
Maybe the big man
Personified
Stepped out of his
Own car
Leaned into the window
Said
I know
Your problems
I know your
Enemy
I know their enemy
And it's not
Your fault
And the smaller...

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The Sulk

And I suppose
What it comes
Down to
Is ordinary patience

With irrationality 
And impossibility
There is no fight
To be had
There is no 
Point
In impatience
For the argument is not 
Between two
But between 
One
And to heavily 
Coil the spring
Against impossibility
Is a waste
Of everyone's time
Especially your 
Own
So roll a cigarette 
Open a beer
Read a good book
Let the ...

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The escape

At night
She took out
Her eyes
Took out 
Her ears
Took out 
Her teeth
Regressed
Into that 
Alien 
Embryonic state 
And prepared to fill
Her tired tortured mind
With another state
Of dream and horror
And inner daemons
And miserable excuses
That justified
Her miserable life
She gasped and moaned
And sweated and turned
Turmoil within
And turmoil without
Until she shook herself
...

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The Tramp

It's too hot
To sleep
Yet we long
For these days
Of discomfort 
When all we want 
Is to wallow and bask
To sit in the sun
Let the day 
Drip slowly by
Smile at the sky
Listen to the birds
Watch the busy people
Buzzing about their 
Days
Trapped in their little boxes
Running their little 
Machines 
Sweating out
Their busy-ness
And their business
As though it were
The most import...

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Road Rage

The sun is shining
This day is
Going to be
Good
Put your sun glasses on
And calm
The fuck down
Don't chase the
Shadows
The angels and the devils
Will all come to you
However poorly
You manage
Your impatience
Smoke a little
Drink a little
Squat
Squint and smile
This pain is
Only temporary
However long
You try to prolong it
The caution
Signs are plain
To see
It’s that time o...

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The end is nigh

All your socks
Are on their own
And there's a party
On the 
Window sill
The sky has
Fallen down
Though the moon
And its light
Creeps through
And I hug myself
To sleep
To wake
Wondering
Always wondering
As I wander
Through the desert
Of broken
Empty bones
Calling the flies
Away from the 
Bar
Queuing endlessly
In a rush
To get where
I'm going
Before I've been 
Anywhere

...

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The Wavering

Some say

She left the tap

Running

Because she was

Hurtling

Head first

Into a tumble of

 Life

 

Some say she did it

To drown out the sound

Of all her ideas

As they spilled

From her pores

And dripped as tears

Forming puddles

Of what might be

 

Others say she did it

Because

Of the worry

And the strain

And very pain

Of a troubled

...

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This Gig

Sometimes
It's interesting
At these things
Watching the sweat
Pour from
The ceiling
Fill the floor
As sound floods
Your ears
Like every other
Pulsating vibrating sound
Produced in this
Artificial sauna and hot tub
Of supposed
Enjoyment
Some people
With no affinity
To me
On a stage
With no affinity
To them
Sweat in unison
Trapped in a sticky soup
Without our
Jungle
But amon...

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fracture

Once
I had a leaking bucket
In which I collected
My time
And I looked
Occasionally
At all the broken
Seconds
And fractured minutes
Wondered if there was
A glue
With which
I could piece it
All
Back together
Wondered if
It was worth it
I thought about
All the lost
Time
And why I'd bothered
To catch its
Fragments
In a piece of
Plastic
A man made object
For a man made thing
...

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