I have a body
Full of fat battery cells
Leaking out pain and sulphur
My ballast should be empty
But it has filled up
Pain grows like lime scale in a kettle
Memories
Are charged with anxiety
Like dried flowers
Tag: life
The party cake
The party cake
Was left crumbling
On the old wooden table
By the time I got to taste it
It was full of weevils
Whose cake was this?
It was yours, child
Whose life was this?
It was yours
The hour of eternity
The clouds rain down
On the root
Ending their journey
Along the rainbow road
People are getting ready
To leave
Unpacking their raincoats
From their pockets
Suddenly, zo suddenly
The sun is shining
In every pool
Wild flowers
Open up to the sky
This is the hour
Of eternity
this started With a what if idea about the the cloud/rain cycle
His Cold air
His air spreads out
Fast like in an explosion
Then you hear the sound
His spirit explodes in anger
And you can feel the blast
Of cold air rush past you
So strong is his outburst
That it shocks the air
And it feels cold like a ghost
And you know
That a second later
The chill will touch your very heart
sometimes I feel I can sense when someone is going to be angry
A poet writes
A poet writes
His mature poetry
After the world has imposed
Its rules on him
the rules are the academic rules
Elegy to climate change
1
The new army
The new model army
Each soldier
Is desired by women
Each soldier is put to use
Each soldier pushes back the boundaries
Frees the women from slavery
Frees the women from early old age
Coming in the great vans of the manufacturers
Coming to their doors
2
Just this strange wind
Just this strange rain
Of ocean currents losing their way
Of greenwoods burning
Of the gloomy clouds in the sky
Of clouds looking lost and frightened
Of sunlight lost in a storm
Of moonlight in cloudy prisons
Just this strange this heavy rainfall
Just this thunder, this beast hurt by battle
This clashing of sword against shield
This clashing of lightning against roof
This athlete who does not wait
This constellation that spins out of control
3
Oh carbon
Oh, black carbon
Where do you go?
With your disturbed sleep of ages
With your spoilt dreams
Oh carbon
Shadow
Beneath the grass sleeping
Inside the ice dreaming
Oh carbon peat mummy
Spread out like the dust of angry toads
Oh carbon dust pile
Blocking the lungs of trees
Oh carbon
Out you come
You have a score to settle
Your work has begun
Your judgement is upon us
Should God be told of it
He would be sad
Should God wish to see
He would be angry
And governments would fall
Like red and green monopoly houses
Into a bin
4
Is that a sea of water in space?
No, it is a spirit
It moves from one edge to the other
Without putting out the stars
It rests in peaceful coexistence
With galaxies
That cover it like a hand-sown eiderdown
Where are its eyes
Where are its mouths
How can it hear the sound
Of cars on the freeway
Of wars in the jungle
Satellites pass right through it
As if it were not there
It’s a great sea of life
That you cannot see
A great sea of love
That you can love
We are, daily faced with this horror of climate change arn’t we and the future looks uncertain doesn’t it?
Beast of burden
The beast of burden
The working class slave
Saddled and shod
Sinks into the grave
While the eye cannot see
Nor the telescope find
Words in heaven
Spiritual signs
The beast of burden
Sits on a drain
His teeth are a grate
He’s lost his brain
While the eye cannot see
Nor the telescope find
Words in heaven
Or the spiritual sign
The beast of burden
Grows from the soil
Dirty fingernails
Mud on his soul
His feet are like horseshoes
As he drags the stone
His eyes are fettered
His heart is alone
While the eye cannot see
Nor the telescope find
Words in heaven
Or a spiritual sign
We live in the world of air
We live in the world of air
We live in the world of light
We have not needed business
We have not needed bureaucracy
The air and the light
Take care of these things
that are outweighed
With the weight of eternity
They walk with us by day
They allow us time to sleep
Life goes on without business
Life goes on without Bureaucracy
Mountains form
Birds find new friends
Born from the rock
Clouds start to remember
The repetition of times and places
It is all in the nature of love
It is all in love
Hey, say something
Hey, say something
Do not leave it empty
I know
To you
I matter not
It was just a job
Part of a day’s work
You do not have to say a thing
Hey, say something
I implore you
Do not leave it all unmarked
Or one day
Retracing your steps
You discover that your life
Is a graveyard
Of silence
Why do you not feel these things?
Why do you not feel these things?
Why life in a bunker
Why has life not infested you?
With love, hunger
Why when the Americans came
All those years ago
To fight a war
Did you enjoy their gifts?
Of film stars, nylons and dollars
Why do you not feel these things
Like a bird feels when it flies
Like a lamb feels when it is born
The feeling of life as it clogs up the heart
With fire
Why do back to back houses
in the grave of the land
Matter more
Than the call of the wild
The call of love for each other
The hand drums of North Africa
The hand drums of North Africa
Once I heard them playing
I was in the vineyard
When I heard them far away
A unified beating heart on the horizon
A swarm of buzzing hands
A call to come and join in
To understand
The hand drums of North Africa
The drumming swarming sound on the horizon
Across the sea
An evening flows in and a day flows out
A people I could not see
A collective with the wings of sound
Things my dad wouldn’t let me watch on t.v.
The spike Milligan show
The old grey whistle test
The Apartment with jack lemon
