Thresh-hold (1980)

Light

And sound

and you

and I on the ground

beneath you, loving you with my eyes

Can we not find each other’s surprise?

For changes

conceal, the days

…we used to run through grass

The ways?

only time has passed; no strangers

to each other now

the same delight, the moonlight, the beach

we cannot reach…into..somehow…

And I on the wave

You in the sea, for me for me for me

And you, yes

my love       I’d do anything for you

you for me, save

the days now faded in time

For we have still to find our way

in ceaseless entwine       the days

ahead

the same delight a changed insight

and love, my Love, I’m only so new

for you.

Will you see us now, no longer me

and us on the tide of time just starting to be free?

1980

Awakening to Memory (1980)

(Note: refers to a time when, awaking from chaotic dreams of medieval chaos and ruin, I recalled a happy memory to calm me. I remembered a time at the lights in Newmarket with my lover, when she asked for her ‘drug’, and I kissed her, thinking impulsively she meant ‘me’. Two guys in a van behind us clapped – such romantic spirit? My lover explained after that it was a cigarette she meant. In the poem this memory is translated into medieval garb from the dream traces).

Carrouselled past Shavian

Flowersellers, to days of when

Medieval knights and damsels

Fled from evil sights to castles,

And past bombardment of quaking towers

The last enchantment, for waking now,

My dreams have gone, and I’ve lost the battle,

And streams of consciousness now grapple

With thoughts of sleep and safety’s shore

For fraught with deep pangs greatly more

Of love and loneliness, my mind

A dove on a lonely quest to find

A memory

Of when we

Were carefree

And laughing

Reminisced when, on trusty steed,

The damsel was kissed, when just such a deed

Was requested of the prince, who confused the words

In the message rather, since it amused the bards

In the minstrel troupe behind, who clapped for more

And the damsel looked blind to what the kiss was for.

Not a kiss was the request for the task, nor a hug,

But for Turkish cigarettes when she asked for her ‘drug’.

And awakening to memory, I welcome reality.

In taking you with me in my dreams, you are in me.

1980.

The Sun Trip: Suicide In Space (1980)

It was the flight of the Icon Tester.

I was taking it for her first run.

When I thought of how I missed her,

And flew into the sun.

The video hummed by my side,

The technician’s hands were wrung.

He said, ‘Look man, you can’t commit suicide,

We just can’t let it be done.

That Icon Tester’s brand new,

It’s worth a heavy sum.

And top-grade pilot’s are few,

We can’t afford to lose another one.

I said, ‘You try and stop me, for

I’m looking after number one,

And life’s not worth living anymore,

I’m making the final run.

My wife died two days ago,

And life’s no longer fun.

And now I’m going to join her, so

Say goodbye for me to everyone.

The pain I felt grew more and more,

But the instructions couldn’t be undone.

The last thing I saw was the white of the core,

As the ship and I melted into one.

5 -7- 80

23 Vows (1999)

To feed the little mouths,

To sexually arouse,

To be a good man around the house,

To keep my fury doused,

To stay with you til home come the cows.

To heal the bitter rows,

To fill the day with wows,

To keep wearing the trous’,

To convince you of my powers,

To be with you to wile away the hours.

To appreciate your vows,

To work on being good pals,

To be tidy as a mouse,

To forego the mood that sours,

To praise what’s inside your blouse.

To work to have what’s ours,

To remember to give you flowers,

To in your mind take a browse,

To make sure old skin sloughs,

To heal you of your ow!s

To in love-making nip your brows,

To show you now the hour is

To remake our mutual vows.

Hands Loosely Folded In Prayer

Hands loosely folded in prayer
Thumbs touch, resting like lover’s heads
He below, she leaning in, shared
Wonderment in the flowerbed’s
Soft pillow, the day above in blue
And should the night roll right around
Like a counterweight, the view
Of heaven’s host of lights be found.

Hands loosely folded in prayer
Lips want to kiss the cool thumbnails
Two half-moons under shiny veils
And nostrils rest and draw upon
The air and light from father, son,
One hand the parent to the other
The space they share, theirs discovered
A place for holy spirit there.

Hands loosely folded in prayer
Fingertips touch the mountainous knuckles
Like unborn children’s heads to knees.
Before the bosom, one’s childhood suckles
Upon itself in dreaming seas
And so the hands become a womb
Enfolded spirals like seashell rooms
Breath at the foot of the stairs.

Hands loosely folded in prayer
Fingers make furrows across a mound
A fertile world, two roots going down
To elbows anchored near the hips
The space between where eyes like ships
Approaching a bright new world explore
The fissures leading to the core
The fecund treasure there.

Hands loosely folded in prayer
The folded fingers a double roof
The heels of palms the floor, the hooves
Of goats that press on angled walls
Starlight streaming above the stalls
Thumbs move now from lips to forehead
Third eye the star that sees the bed
And the baby cradled there.

18 - 11- 2010

Keep

You keep house,
And I'll earn my keep.
While I work,
I need somewhere to sleep.

Silence

Fresias fade, withdraw their bloom
As though reversing time.
A smile she smiled at him now curls back
Toward herself in self-reflection, fades too.
She wants to crease the silence between them
Like a sheet of paper with no words.
Words get stuck in time.

Chocolate and Sex

Chocolate and sex.
Sweet dreams of warm woman’s steam,
Hot and wet and heating,
Love’s own sweet furnace beating.
With each deep breath she wants
To cool it down.


12 – 10 – 06

The Church Of the World (for Andy and Sonya's wedding)

She was called by her father on a summer's morning:
"Be ready, child, we leave now, the day is dawning."
And forthwith, they rode, from the land that she knew,
Further than she'd been, into a valley new.
And along the wooded trail, as they eased to a pace,
She asked of her father what he knew of this place.
"What you will know too," he said with a smile,
"For this land is your family's, stretching mile after mile.
But only the land to the left of this road,
Yet all, for generations, is where your kin tilled and sowed."
"But what of the land to the right?" she enquired.
"Oh, none live there that your forefather's sired.
But now," he continued, "I must tell you why we've come.
For your mother and I...understand you've met someone.
And there's a day - like today - in which we in our time,
Were taken down a road such as this, that comes now...
To daughter of mine."

And with that they turned into a large open glade,
Where dozens of their kinfolk on wooden benches were arrayed.
But only on the left, for to the right sat many others,
And as she took in the view, she tried to discover
Whether in the sea of new faces, she knew anyone,
When suddenly her eyes blinked, as if from rays of the sun.
For the face of her beloved was looking back at her.
And as he came over to embrace her, she heard her father's words:
"To the heart of this valley, your young lover took a ride,
This morning, before us, with his father by his side,
While your mothers and kinfolk prepared this ancient place
With flowers, food and wine, fit to receive God's grace,
For a marriage of true hearts. And for all of us here,
We are overjoyed and blessed, for now we can draw near.
For the land to the right is of your lover's forebears.
But now this land, beyond, is for all of us to share.
This green valley is your heart, this great world is a church.
Along aisles - or roads - in Love...
Do the two sides merge."

One Sentence (2005 poem for my mother)

For my mum, my mother, a grand (young) lady,
Is her son, no other, her grown-up baby,
Come, to discover, in this grove so shady,
With a poem, how I love her, and with writing maybe...

Uncover, with the necessity, of rhyme and rhythm,
A lover's propensity, to undermine in him,
Everything other, than underlying givens,
Nothing to cover the undenying fool's whim...

To declare, forthright, the plain and simple truth,
That whether, for nights, I was staying under her roof,
Or otherwise, in flight (having left the nest as a youth),
I have never, despite the dress of appearing aloof...

Ever, though ways seem to part,
Severed her from my heart.


2005

Love Note

small parchment tipped one folded diamond side down
blue ink bled encrusted edges over ridges
fading tidemarks staining tiny matted grey fibres
curling runes crafted fledglings cantilevered along line
pattern stamped cornered scrawled worn signature
hand pressed parachute rocket shot paper

missed the moon now marooned

at her feet in the space she vacated