Category: Art, Music and Poetry blog

The Adriatic sunflower

In the fields
Along the Adriatic
I saw thousands
Of sunflowers
A nation of sunflowers
Belonging together

In my little garden
At the back of my flat
Where the light is dim
Even in summer
There came a guest
A giant sunflower
It grew facing the sunrise
Taller than a man
In summer
I could hardly see
Its orange and yellow face
Then it was gone

It did not return next year
It was as if it had been a ghost
It was as if it had been on loan
From a nation of sunlight
And now its ghost
Had gone back to where it belonged

Born with a bite missing

Born with a bite missing
All the others are laughing
Fallen with a bite in your side
That spoilt you, made you sad

You fought hard against ridicule
You longed for healing
You covered your wound with a leaf
You faced evil head on

It is a life well lived
It is a courageous life

How strange that birds migrate

How strange that – birds migrate
That they leave England in winter
-And do we even miss them
Do we give them a permanent home?

I’m thinking of the empty spaces:
The empty sky, the empty river
The empty forest, the empty field
Oh, where have they gone?

Time advances

Time advances
Where is it going?
Sometimes I follow it
Sometimes I don’t

Time advances
With thoughts and feelings
It’s anatomy
Moving through perspective

There is another way
It is not the highway
It is a circle
That moves with you

There is another way
The parent’s way
They give you life
They give you love

Limehouse cut

The englizh zpring
Swipes the security lock

Now, I can remember
A dream of an opening door

There are no invaderz
To match uz to our gravez

The fear of authority
Helpz uz to looze our inheritance

I do not pocezz
The cootz or the herring gullz on the canal

I pazz them by
They – carry on

I did not awaken the sun

I did not awaken the sun
When I thought of you
But the clouds just seemed
To clear away

I did not make the full moon shine
When I thought of you
But I did awake from my cloud
To see its brilliant light

Some things are fixed and do not change
And only the clouds of forgetfulness
Hide them from a mind
Full of anxieties and cares

Here’s another bogus funeral

Here’s another bogus funeral
Slowly parading along the street
The military pace of the attendants
The black cloud of grief and relief
I’m glad it’s not me the living will say
As it disappears away, away

I buried a mouse in the garden with me
When I was a child, when I was free
What’s the difference between this and that?
A long black car and a black top hat

How much harm

How much harm
Do I cause the animal to feel?
The domestic animal
That will die forever
What does it learn
From my company?

It’s wild companions
Delirious with life
Have no thought of dying
They do not fear death
They fill the earth
Like rubies in the night

But the befriended animal
The adored animal
How much insight
Does it gain?
How much living
Does it loose?

This is the age of guilt

This is the age of guilt
That never goes away
Every road sign proclaims it
It’s apparent every day

Every face in every photograph
Every image from the past
I looking at the age of guilt
Is looking at the age of guilt

You can’t forget the wrongs you do
There is no forgiveness
It appears before you day after day
It sits growling on your chest

You flick a switch and guilt comes on
As rich as a priests golden gown
To remind each one of what they did wrong
On a screen in every town

Every ones guilt no matter how small
Is recorded and never taken down
Every ones guilt no matter how small
Is recorded and never taken down