Still You

 

You came back

All woman

I more divided

Still inhabiting

Both camps

Still waiting

Yet moved

Still captive

By thay faultless spell

I still know 

So well

Give Me That

 


How much longer

Before I can drop 

The pretence 

That hangs like a leaf

Long after summer is over 

And for which even autumn 

Has no use 

Bring me the bare cold 

The kind that strips trees 

In a single night 

Give me that 

The Night Shift

 


Your novel cry

More shriek

Calls the night closed

Your shift, probably

All talons and beak,

Black yet still

Eyes haunted

The factory floor

For any small part

Not paying attention

 

Felt

 

I felt flushed,

stabbed, bereft,

unguarded,

isolated, indolent,

effervescent and outstretched.

Undone, incapacitated,

unconsolable, unhurried,

hidden and poor. 

 

 

The Middle Distance

 

My eyes came to rest

As they usually do

On the middle distance

On the not quite anywhere

As one might casually

Bear witnesses (as one usually does)

With fascinated second sight

To the play of children

Or eyes cast out

To sea

In search of maybe yet a 

Ship to come in

From some less 

Slightly remembered visit

 

 

 

 

 

Lent

 

 

 She lent in to me

And it took me back

That gentle posture

That asked nothing

But gave so much

 

 

Hackles



I can feel their residue
Late hackles 

In the small hairs
Of a missed feeling

In the small discovered 
Islands of sweetness

In the lavender, left
Like a promise

In the silence, left
Waiting to be filled again





Cold Water



In. In! Disbelieving, to that 
Great grey furnace
Where our faces burned 
Iced ached hot heads
Raging against the slapping waves.

We marvelled at our ash grey then
Unblushing blue toes, 
The way our hands
Slowly closed, like scorching 
Wrinkled paper.

So we swam instead 
Sometimes with fists
Laughing as if we, 
Minuscule, could rage 
Against the icey bitter smoke 
In which we floated.




Half Light



What is it
About the half light
The dim yield
Of candle flame
That shows life as life.

The wrapped lamp, bound
To shield and not show
What is, but to leave us
Guessing at the edges.

Forever intriguing 
Counterfeit twilight 
The could be the
Beginning or end 
Of something new



The Heat



I imagine the heat

All silent remiss

Its authority creeping

Between houses

Muzzling the breeze 

A blanket search 

Arresting even the slightest 

Stirring curtain

No quarter given

To the restless

Thick in the air 

Making the skin stick 

Of even the slightest 

Lovers





Gathered Praise



I'm sorry for the
Gathered praise
That comes my way
For the impression
That I'm a success
When really I see me
For what I am
To you, and us
A total mess

People choir, adamant
In their song
That what we do
Is worthy of 
Their voice
When really I see me
For what I am
To you, and us
A total loss




Getting By



I get by on
Barely remembered sun cream
Occasional crayons
Sometimes hugs

Buttoned down
Laundry delivered wrinkled
Neat and tidy
Lies, served frozen
Ice cream half melted

Surface deep
Twice a day white
Stainless Smiles
No trace of
Cavities guilt deep

I imagine myself
Toy tiny
In her marble eyes
Forgettable




No Hurry



I wake to his
Bristling attention
All senses
The sound of lips
Ripping Yorkshire mist
No hurry
A distant yaffle
This could be home



Quiet Breakfast Reverie




I can hear you
Upstairs, happy
We each intertwined
In our ritual
Morning bliss

Secret worlds
Later shared 
With smiles
In quiet
Breakfast reverie


Gulls




The shrill incessant bawl
Forever perched on your lips
Makes your lazy swim 
Through the mist
Seem impossibly purposeful 
As if you couldn’t care less
That the vast body of home 
Retreats with each 
Casual swipe



Centre Stage




I blinked and
You came in
Centre stage
Smiled, with
That cat and
With your light
Did humbly brighten
The darkest corners
Of my despair



Rain



I heard you
When I woke
Drumming out
Your leaving note

From sleeps tomb
I crept awake
Only to see
I was too late

Maybe next time
You'll stay a while
Long enough 
To see me smile



Escape




I miss your steady rhythm
Your frequent visits 
The way you make 
My windows cry

The battle to keep out 
Even your most tender touch
Consumes most
From door to door

But my feet 
Damn me, when
I try to escape 
Your press upon me

So I wait
Surrendering to your
Gradual embrace






A Victors Wit




She drew her eyes
Heavy
Like charging ships
Those Greek eyes
Hooded
Yet sharp with a victors wit

At her temple
He knelt
As worship law dictates
Then with drawn sword
Like blood her wet hair
Made damp his bristling cheeks




BEAT




You beat me
With your last breath 
You defeat me 
Unseat me 
From my throne 
Take my legs out 
From beneath me 
Leave my arms waving 
No one left 
To complete me

Instead I’m left unstable 
The ground gone 
I’m completely unable 
To defend myself 
No seats left at the table 
The game over 
My hand turned 
A frayed but not yet 
Quite snapped cable

No hero at the end of this story 
Just another bum 
Lost without glory 
Just turned 40 
No wait I lied 
I can’t even write straight 
My lines all jaunty 
Casting dispersion amongst
My foes that saw me 
Slip when I left 
The stage 
Into black 
No page 
To turn back 
And free
Me


Pressed




At least I felt 
For a small moment 
Pressed 
All space and time 
Stretched out 
Only your weight
And it’s significant touch
Baring down on me 
All else, if only
Briefly, banished
So I could become
Whole again 




The Storm





Imagine that 
When the wind blew 
It blew not for everyone 
But Only for you 

Not gentle or weak 
This shapely breeze 
But a storm that which 
Your soul it did seize 

A raging 
Shaping 
Changing 
Typhoon 

That mingled 
With sunshine 
And rained a
Yellow monsoon 

Imagine then 
That the wind it did cease 
No more did you feel
It touch on your cheek 

How quiet  
The nights and days
Now that storm
Has subsided 

Left only 
With the trees 
Their leaves 
Unrequited 

Easy Recluse





I miss the easy recluse
You made me

Your carefully constructed lines
Swept aside

Under dim lights
I serently bathe

Awash with the wing beats
Those ravens made



.

Had me




She would have 
Had me dead 
Had I had 
A way 
To kill 

Instead of dead 
She had me
Make her mine 
And now she
Has me still 




Flight



I see now that
Before we'd even met
I'd left 

With the nod 
To consenting escape
I'd fled 

Our melding only 
A matter of arbitration 
Another guilty stab 
From which I 
Woke sweating 


 

Scattered Me




My throat closes in horror
When I think of you
My blood
Scattered to the four corners
Then, no less furher 
Out of reach, the fifth

Left only concerning
What my senses claim
Or serves to witness
My day to day


 

Embered Embrace





He tugged and squeezed
As if he meant to rinse
The very life out of her 
As if that part of himself 
Buried deep within her 
Was all that kept her alive 
And with each thrust 
The promise of new life 
Was bestowed upon him

A Swim


She waits
Ready to sound me out
A board to show me back
As I sink into her 
Give myself over 
So that I might see
Myself in her arms
Her embrace
The shape that I make
The ripples of our collision 
Yet as I remove myself
Returning entranced
I miss the depth
That I found
From floating 
On her surface

Fishing



How eerily those islands vanish
Beneath the quickening silver
Yet still they stand
In hopeful watch
Upon that glistening mirror

In sudden gust, most depart
To seek a higher pasture
Leaving the less timid
Souls, who brave
The rising water 

Until a solitary remains
A puzzle cross his beak
No friends remain
To mark his side
Or with him help him seek



 

Far Too Far



I should be out 
Living but instead
I feel out-lived 
My soul too old 
To be added too
Again and again 
And again and
Too much new and 
Not enough end 
Far too far from 
The start now 
To say when 



Remember Gently



Amidst the noise
the battles hue
where once encumbered 
thine enemies slew

I hastened from
my measured tomb
and sort a path
whom no one knew



Re-body



(And) in time, and after a time, 
they grew to remembering 
each others bodies. 
And their bodies remembered each other. 
And warmth grew and from it and 
fond memories were made 
for both bodies to cherish.

tbc


Would every evil 
that men befate
Draw fair breath 
Or from smoke 
Make shape 




Go Out


By thunders rumble 
Or good graces touch 
Of fates entwine 
Must of we have much 

For what we do 
Or go out and have 
Makes us that much more 
Than we'd be without 

Wolfie


My life 
T wit I have lived 
Without shoulds 
Of would'ves 

Has reached 
An impass 
A boarder with 
With could'ves

So I fair 
Unbound to untie
My house built 
Of twigs 

And instead
Only require 
An abode fair safe 
Fit for pigs 




Not Long After

 
Long after, or not 
I'm still deciding 
I had into the woods and laid 
By the stove I crouched 
Listening to its drawing in 
A seamless eternal inhale 

I decided still
Not long, after
I could have for hours 
This sweet embrace maintained 
Instead to made move off I did 
From an endless bliss I refrained 
 
 

A Band Of Glass

 
Like a band of glass
She ran right through me
Without incurring a grace
Or of favour thus
Instead with beaten brow
Did he mould a humility
As grass parts it's shape
For the serpent
Which for no less slender reason
Might pause and bow
 
 

My Hairs Bredth


I set off with a smile
That this might be my last 
Not given by mine to take 
But taken by others 
By my last hairs bredth 
Is this my dying wish