ME AND MY BODY

My collection
Of aging adolescent
Cells haphazardly

Flashes red, warns me
My bodies given up -
Temporarily out of service
Just-wont-wrap-me-up

But though it
Doesn't comfort me today,
And Im cranky and
Rough round the edges

I havn't yet found
A true alternative...

SHORT POEM

70,000 miles from Debenhams
I employ my gift voucher,
Give it to the Viet Kong.

I dont believe in nastiness
And war. Which is why
This poem is so short

ARCTIC SCRAP

Fjord flood girl
Im touched
By your baby blues

It all melts

Catch
Of the day -
Silver eyes upon silver

STATUES AND JELLYFISH

This moment is
Perfect as a statue is
Chipped...

The love of a woman
The warmth of a woman

Her shivering heart

I know love
Is a great big tent...
And it can sting...

LUCKY

Pause
No eyes no place
To experience light
Or see purple, green

Pause again
No sound

Yunnow
Im so lucky
To have been born
With all my senses

A GAME

Life is a celebration
A wedding cake
With dead animals;
Missing teeth

They smile up at you
They smile

Life is
A football
A kickabout
With a leather casey

Thankyou cow for being
Such a great banjo

BLUE

Down here
Among the clouds
And the changable
Waves

Down here
Where the bills
Are paid

There is no sun
And yet

When you smile
Skies are blue

FASTA PASTA WESTERNS

Face like a hound dog
Rolling in liquor
I love Spanish songs
Sing of great loss
Because I no no english

The americanos pay well
Their armoured morals
Pretty holy, their graves
Creak full of treasure
Ho Ho (sound of gunshot)
Bam

FIREBIRD

I was watching the snow
In reduced visibility
When a firebird
Flew in to land at my table

I fed its sharp claw crusts
And it sang for me
In six different keys a
Lay about Princess Leia

And how camped in a valley below K2
Everything would melt.

FOUR ELEMENTS

I bathe your
Image in tears

My hearts on fire

Tormented at night
I can’t my bury thoughts

I need to put
The breath back
Into my
Still lungs

THE SNAKE CHARMER

A cobra rears up;
Someone having
Trod on its tail
How we ran away!

Yet a man with a bowler
Calmly intervenes,
Reading out the Mirror's
Stocks and Shares section;

This was followed by a quick flash
From a builder's Page Three
Phwooar!

...Thats it, were in the bag

SPOKESPERSON FOR THE WIZARD OF OZ

A great goodness has come to Earth
Hallilujah - Don't be sceptical
Something with a brain power far greater than
R2D2. This world is free!!

A great goodness has made the Earth
Fill up with endless sensation -
Sex, seasons, the power to create.

Humans sit at the top of the tree
Swallow or dismember everything;
There are one or two imperfections

His exaltedness gives you one example;

Without examining your role in
Creating war, famine and disease, he
Notes your soil is contaminated with
Frosties cornflakes, carrier bags
And an abundance of baked bean tins

GOD I LOVE THE SIXTIES

Magic mushrooms
Strange appliances,
Brave new worlds
With rockets
Twenty story high;
The demolition of terraces
The erection of
Beautiful tower blocks

Drugs to make you high
Drugs to make you low
Given by the professionals
In white coats

The assassination of
President Kennedy,
Cuban heels and missiles
Charlie Manson
Sex Gurus

And of course
Peace and Love

ANGELS

Attention
Angels

Its getting
Hot here

Some places
Are like hell

Ideology at
Boiling point

Some folk
Exploding
With Anger

Other peoples
Have no point

At all to
Save them

Except
Consumption

-----------

Unfold your
Wings

Fan us
With love
And mercy

Fan our minds

From
Bad sex
Aggression
Real hatred

Show us up
To the sphere
Of God

To the place of
Roundness

CASABLANCA
ON THE THAMES

Full of sexual powers
Im in Casablanca
Swaggering for a pound
In a city of cardboard

Sat at in some bar
I watch the expensive
Frontage of German cars;

Hungry clients get out
Aggressive thoughts, smoky.
Windows lock out the rabble.
I drown the finer points
Of our conversation with beer

---

Sweat everywhere - three channels
There is a moderately fine
Script selection for us
But still our ways are
Too fast,too balls to the wall

The war is over so
We prepare for peace
As we return to the city of
Gucci and expensive cardboard

CITIZEN’S ADVICE

Boy were so bloody lucky
Champagne, stardust
And Mars Bars co-exist
In a universe where
One or two major planets

Become squashed every day;
Put down your newspaper
And your bontempi organ
Girls, listen to the Boy
From the East End.

Tower blocks are no fun
But you can boogie
All the way to the top floor
(if the lift don’t work)

See the stars
Above the cars and
The scars of dead masts
The amazing broadcasts
From humans who leave this world
With packets of love called songs

So lets hear it for The Who
Bach, The Flaming Lips. Brian Wilson
Lets hope it all gets broadcast
To another musical race

LISTEN TO…

Last night I listened
To the components
Of my garden -
Free at last
From the cloying
Messages on TV;

And I heard
Most beautiful
Of all (Im rather
Embarrassed here)

A daffodil growing
In its bulging bulb
Roots
Radiating like
The flares of the sun
Sucking - alien -

One day it will emerge
Triumphant, shout out to you
In a big loud voice
Amplified
By its golden halo

"Hello"

AN ENDANGERED MINER'S
BIG BRAIN ADVERT

The classics;
Ginsters and Old Spice

Ooh I love
Advert music
It turns my
Living room
Into a dirty movie

Unscripted
Endangered
Great bear tears drip
Down my dress yip

Tears are trailers
Trailers are tears

Your thought
Is a reel
Running down my dress
Even though
Im your disposable
Kleenex man
You give me hope

But isn't it terrible
Dear, bouncing
With a canary
On your head?

HOLIDAY CHALET

Remember the splinter -
Something worth saying
Is not easy to say.

The uneasy melody
Of a lift's musak
Going up in the Black Forest
To a terrible chalet of peace

PEEL IT BACK

If I could peel back
To the original me
Before the suit
The tie the Corporate
Smile the shares
The breakfast cereal
Free gift, our
Holiday in Ibiza
With three good
Friends

To the cliff-top track
Where the wind
Pinned you against
Our 4 x 4 door and
You screamed
‘I love you Archie’

…And half an hour later
I caught your arm
Took you to the grove
Where I suffocated you
Darling...

So I grieved for a bit,
Watched the sea,
Went back to Scunthorpe,
And after taking three months
Compassionate leave
I resumed my career
At Kwik-Fit fitting exhausts

For the company benefits
And reasonable pay.

APPRECIATION

The impossible unlikelihood
Of loving
In a world where
Everyone talks about
Their rubbish
And forgets about
Insanity

Or sees a sunset
And forgets it
Takes an age
To get the planets right

THE CAMERA

the camera stops time
no wrinkles
No lines.

We present
To the world
Our sunniest face

Safe forever
In our portfolio

CRACKING UP

There’s a crack in my windscreen
I look through it

Look through it

At
The trees bent with their long lives
With the graceful willow
Sweeping the floor

My house is
Beautiful and long

My house is like me - closed

There’s a crack in my windscreen
I look through it

NO COMPETITION

I make the adequate comment
You the brilliant.
I love the overlooked;

I believe

Theres only a hair breadth
Between the two

DO AS I SAY

Make sunshine while
Theres hay, oh boy
What a command

I have no field
and i have no sickle
No breast
On which to suckle.

Sometimes i think
the Lord is fickle...

And yet
I forget

Im sure he made me
A whinging get

HARD

Woodlouse armoured
Woodlouse hard?

Im afraid for you
My slippered foot
Feels heavy as lard

FORGETTING YOUR FISH

I left my fish in a bag
And it went up and down
The line

I got it back
From a British Rail man
As promised, at 6.45
....Soggy

NAÏVE POEM?

We’ve been through the great
Age of invention; fridges, cars,
Flights to Mars. All very good -
Such restlessness put
Roofs over our heads
Pictures on TV

Now we need an age
That mixes in more heart -
Where nature is more than
A gene-bank, a slave to
Dissect with no respect
For her immense beauty
Her health holding patterns
Her immortality.

“If you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful.”

Sophia Loren quote

“Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.”
- S.L.

“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”
- S.L.

“A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”
- S.L.

“Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.”
- S.L.

"Sex is like washing your face - just something you do because you have to. Sex without love is absolutely ridiculous. Sex follows love, it never precedes it.”
- S.L.

“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.”
- S.L.

“Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.”
- S.L.

LOOK

A Kestrel in the sky
An eye in the sky
A knife dangled from string

It picks its point
Carefully between roads
Whoosh it
Skydives, drops between
Weather fronts, a fist falls
In a confusion of rain
To pin its jewelled eyes.

So natural
It hardly tries

So natural
A killer it casually
Opens bodies
To consume its wildlife

WORSE

There are slugs on the door
And worse in the hall

Theres one dull
Window in here -

I shut it like a dead man's
Silvery eye

THE JOGGER

I ate a bagle this morning yum
I absorb the glow of its halo
The benediction of hot flour

Yes I’ve got a pregnant belly
Im the symbol of prehistoric man
The 'main man'?

Once a month I go to work. When
I arrive, I want to bounce off walls
But my secret is Macdonalds.

At night I pound
My fifteen poised kilos
Into a country lane - bliss
Redistributes over cobbles -
Sights and sounds assail.
Car horns, radio, tricky heavy metal

And yes I’m so tired of it all
The neat rotting branches -
The Sony beat box in the hedge
the hard wink of next doors
House alarm which is wired up
Like a Cheshire cat.

SHIP WRECK AT XMAS

Sun kissed cargo
Skuffed knees
Tangerine crop
Riding a sea breeze

Chapped cheeks
Of a weary crew
Seagulls trail behind.
The rimed optic of
A lighthouse sees

Far into the dark swell -
Men wince, a rock slides
And tears into the side
The hole is a wound

Into which water gushes quick
So that in fifteen minutes
A captain an engineer
And the bosun are drowned

Several
Miles from land
The xmas trees glow -
Merry Xmas!

And the tangerines were found -
And happy children
Combing the bay took them home.

MORNING HAS BROKEN

Hardboiled cop
Doesn't see kindness
In his neighbourhood;
Unofficially his law is gun

There is brief sanctuary
And fraternity
In the station in the morning

By the coffee machine
The light streams in

Away from the charts
And pictures of suspects
His shirt is polished like a funeral

SACRAMENT

The lord is my shepherd
I shall not want while
I clutch credit cards and
Count old till receipts.

Late at night
I enjoy the sacrament of kisses
From the images of strangers

The sacrament of playstation
The sacrament of widescreen
The great symbols
Lost in this dust, a digital
Lindisfarne landscape

And I want to write better
I want to reach out to you
But I get so twitchy
I get so distracted

WORDS

Inertia always treats me
Like a long lost friend,
Sits in the hairy arm chair, blank-faced,
Staring at me for hours at end…
And I can never rouse my drooping eyes
From the gilded mirror he provides.

Occasionally, I complain heatedly
At his familiarity, but Inertia
Is such a good conversationalist,
Such a beau…

So I succumb again and again
To his talk, his effect of drifting plains
Hidden amongst wavy grasses, surrounded with water -
A world of perfect harmony.

And I almost believe in his great cadences the theme
Of course, an honourable culture for us all
But somehow I always feel the rift
Open up around that chair, the walls of leather
Cave in so that I leap imaginatively
To where friends and lovers
Cry and shake their heads
In their cracked chasms where no voice sounds

No distraction of shaky words there
A sentiment hanging by a single
Thread, a throat so
Tiny - I try to listen to
Sound if the sea and the terrified vowels

"I speak two languages, Body and English.”
- Mae West quotes (American Actress and sex symbol, 1892-1980)

-------------------------------

“I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.”

-------------------------------

“A hard man is good to find.”

-------------------------------

“Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.”

-------------------------------

“A man's kiss is his signature.”

-------------------------------

“The curve is more powerful than the sword.”

-------------------------------

“Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.”

-------------------------------

“Sex is an emotion in motion”

-------------------------------

“My advice to those who think they have to take off their clothes to be a star is, once you're boned, what's left to create the illusion? Let 'em wonder. I never believed in givin' them too much of me.”

-------------------------------

“An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away”

-------------------------------

“People make jokes about my bosoms, why don't they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It's obvious I've got big ones and if people want to assume they're not mine, then let them.”

- Dolly Parton (Popular American country Singer and Actress, b.1946)

“Scientists now believe that the primary biological function of breasts is to make males stupid.”

- Dave Barry quote (b.1947)

“I think the quality of sexiness comes from within. It is something that is in you or it isn't and it really doesn't have much to do with breasts or thighs or the pout of your lips.”
Sophia Loren quotes (Italian film Actress, b.1934)

“B is for Breasts Of which ladies have two; Once prized for the function, Now for the view”

- Robert Paul Smith quote

“Plastic surgery and breast implants are fine for people who want that, if it makes them feel better about who they are. But, it makes these people, actors especially, fantasy figures for a fantasy world. Acting is about being real being honest.”

- Kate Winslet quotes (British Actress. b.1975

“Paradise can be found on the back of horses, in books and between the breasts of women.”

- Arab Proverb quote

“Pamela Anderson Lee released a statement confirming that she has had her breast implants removed. Doctors say that Pamela is doing fine and that her old implants are now dating Charlie Sheen.”

- Conan O'Brien quote (Late Night American Television talk show host and Writer, b.1963

“I don't like my nipples showing. They look like targets.”

- Sienna Guillory quote (British Actress, b.1975 Fulham UK)

“If in the future, there is a Third World War, let it not be a war between countries, but rather a war against our common enemy poverty.
In today´s world, people experience two types of poverty: the poverty caused by lack of food, clothing and shelter; and the poverty caused by lack of love and compassion.

Of these two, the second type needs to be considered first - because, if we have love and compassion in our hearts, then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food, clothing and shelter.”

Amma - 2004 - "May Peace & Happiness Prevail"
Parliament of the World's Religions, Barcelona, Spain.

------------------------------------------------------------

“The essence of motherhood is not restricted to women who have given birth; it is inherent in both men and women. It is an attidude of the mind. It is love, and love is the very breath of life.

Today, when competition and animosity are the norm everywhere, it is feminine qualities – the patience and tolerance of women – that create whatever harmony there is in the world. Just as a complete electrical circuit depends on the presence of both positive and negative poles, life flowing in all it’s fullness depends on the presence and contribution of women as well as men.”

"Awakening Universal Motherhood "
Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious &
Spiritual Leaders at the UN, Geneva.

Copyright © 2006 Friends of Amma

from http://www.amma.org.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

- Thomas Jefferson (3rd president of the United States)

One chance is all you need

- Jesse Owens (Olympic champion 1936)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Amma says, "The real purpose of life is to experience what is beyond this physical existence. However, each one looks at life differently. Most human beings see life as a constant struggle for survival. Such people believe in the theory, "The fittest will survive". They are satisfied with the normal way of living- for example, getting a house, a job, a car, a wife, a husband, children and enough money to live. Yes, these are important things, and we need to focus on our day-to-day lives and to take care of our responsibilities and obligations, small and big.

But there is more to life, a higher purpose, which is to know and realize who we are. By knowing who we are, we gain everything. A feeling of complete fullness, with absolutely nothing else to gain in life. That realization makes life perfect. Regardless of all we have accumulated or are striving to acquire, for most people life still feels incomplete - like the letter "C". This gap, or lack, will always be there. Only spiritual knowledge and realization of Self can fill the gap and unite the two ends, which will make it like the letter, "O". The knowledge of "That" alone will help us feel well-grounded in the real center of life.

Spirituality is not blind faith; it is the ideal that eliminates darkness. It is the principle that teaches us to face any adverse circumstance or obstacle with a smile. Spirituality is the teaching for the mind."

Someone asked Amma, "Why should one follow the spiritual path?"

Amma replied, "This is like the seed asking, "Why should I go beneath the soil, sprout and grow upward?"

Excerpted from the book "From Amma's Heart"

-------------------------------------------------

If we love something, we will always see freshness and newness in it. If our love fades, so too will this perspective. In the same way, what makes us experience life as fresh and new is our love for others. The pace of the world has increased so much that today we hardly have any time for others people. Loneliness and alienation have become so widespread in the world. One of our New Year resolutions should be to every day spend some time for the benefit of others in whatever way possible. Even small acts of compassion and selflessness can bring happiness to so many.

This time of year, many people hang lights on their house. These lights are a joyful sight for the eyes. At the same time, at night when there is no one around to see them, they continue to shed their light. Such should be our attitude when it comes to serving others. Similarly, whether our efforts are recognized or not, we should continue to try to help others.

God has given each of us a face. Whether it expresses love or anger is completely up to us. If we smile all the time, it will make others smile too. If we have love and peace within, it will create such feelings in others as well. The whole environment will be filled with happiness. In this manner, may we be able to make our family, country and world blossom more fully in this year than in the previous one.

Amma's 2006 New Year Message
Midnight, 1 January 2006

Copyright © 2006 Friends of Amma

LOVE IS...

Love is an imploding
Star - at its centre
A wormhole, taking us
On to new dimensions

Love is a flame -
At its centre you see
A dirty piece of coal
Or green sap

Love is a summer beach
In unbearable heat
And also in winter,
An inch thick pond

Where its safe to play
At the centre

But not at the edge

I SEE WHAT U MEAN

It just hit me today
I must clean my
Windows

My outlook is
Obscured

I am a guy
With a whacking great plank
In his eye -
Why didn't I see that?

Things will go better
When I can see

THE INVISIBLE ARMY

Here come
The winds

These troups
Both invigorate
And cause
Dissention

Fisting our lungs
Causing tears to start
As we run for cover

Lock your doors
And shut your barns

For here come
The Winds

GREEN

Big talk
Tonight, but
I want to get

It

Right

There are
Amazing
Reasons

That Amazonian
Seasons

Bleed -

Does it mean
Anything to me

Who
Connects
Via burgers and
Trainers?

BEAUTY

In the sunset
Love is helium balloons.
Let it go gently, but
Beauty is also helium filled

I release one big as a airship; I watch it
Float over your
Belly button, a James Bond crater
Stock full of rubies and
Fluff

(I also admire your workmanship
The carpentry of your bra)

Ouch bloody hell that’s a nail
In my foot and it
Brings me low

I get misty eyed
And as you leave the shower
I snatch your postage stamp towel the
Size of a postage stamp

Nothing is quite
As beautiful as this.

THE PRIZE

Too long here
In the chicken shed
Feathers and eggs have
Gone quite to my head

Yes
The fence needs
A mendin'
The cheque
Is a pendin'
Love is for sending...

While I am struggling
With comprehendin'
My 'free' prize…

A busman’s holiday
For two to a cereal farm in
Timbuktu -

But whats the bloody use
Of that,
Without you?

DOCUMENTING TEARS

Water of grace
For the human race -
Precious cleansing pools
Rub into my dark scratch -

The eye can’t close

On its hopes and fears.
I fill up - so many
Days and years to

Document,
As a teardrop
Breaks on golden skin;

Since the day they
Cut the God-man down -
Wrapped him in a shroud
There have been too many.

A drop will melt a man
Until he is bare

(Indeed
A woman’s tear can point
In like a spear)

BONEMAN

Its hard to make my
Lovely bones walk spiritually
My thighs so long so pure
Walk on their own

I rub my wishbone -
See life through a
Romantic skull - ecstatic
Tongues leach into soil

The belly was a paper bag.
All the sweets I enjoyed
Have gone forever

Wasted;
Unless the juice got in the bones.

CHARITY IN THE HEAD

Am I stable enough
To rule the world?

My head spins round
In a maelstreom

(Do you know my
Bathroom has room for two
Sweaty feet...but I don't share)

And all I want is me me me
Not all we can eat

I CAN NOT GET TO SLEEP

I see a spider like Ford-Lennox-Junior
Walking on forceps-shadows.
I see a boxer take a man apart
Effeciently on TV. Its 3am. Cute!

There is no reason for this,
But I can't sleep. Indeed
I can't reach anyrthing at all
'Till all the Rolls-Royces
Are put back in their crepe boxes -
My magnificent obsession

Creativity is not really
Sleep deprivation, it is not
Innocent like a kaliedoscope
Shaping in a child's hand -
Or an army forcing it's way

Its rather like a mine, like TV - a floodlit
Place which has the ceiling flooded
With jewels.

SECURITY IS OFF THE MENU

The honeymoon has soured
The paperclips plastic not steel
Business lunches reveal live sharks
In the tank. Sincerity is off and

Because I use a keyboard
As if its an instrument
Akin to a glider or pen or a girder
(Or maybe a joist or a tie-pin).

Your dignified face has
Crumpled up like a possum.

ASLEEP

Her head an egg-timer
Lap, a dance of colours
Lashes extend out
Like Blackpool pier
Catch goodies
In a steel claw -
You're a unique body, a
Baby Iris, a fortress of stars

And I dream of your house
The castle of a Welsh legend
Especially that concentric dot
Where the Lady
Of the Lake sleeps
With my next door neighbour
Stan Ogridge (undertaker)
Till' six o clock

RAIN

They gave me
The precise time
For dawn and dusk
The sun popping
Up from a toaster
And the bus
Crawling around
The scalped hill

But the rain
On my
Prescription face
Leaves streaks
Of happiness

Sometimes I forget the bill.

A POEM AINT A POWERDRILL
OR EVEN A WINDMILL...

A greenhouse perhaps
Where the plants go wild
In a place of another era -

Its the voicing of love
An inventing of things
Found in the cloud-heart

A poet labels the seeds and
Husks scattered inside
Hopes a lover will take a
New line, a paragraph, a stanza

Cross it with a new strain,
Make it flower

RETURN

Pine cones drop in the sand
Feathery diamonds encrust
Blue. Birds visit.

This is the moment
When Winter turns.
Silt sits tight in its shell-suit,
A wound begins to grow.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

God never answers
My small questions -
Really he's a gentleman
Of the old school.

I know he doesn't seek the
Limelight, give the nod
The wink to the chosen few
Who beseech his name.

No matter if we sing carols
Or wear white on sundays
He is a quiet 'coach' who sits
In a cattle shed stand
To watch the second division.

But if he did let me in on
A few cosmic conundrums,
Could I really keep quiet?
Not sure Id not ring
The Sun, The Mirror -

To know whats at the end
Of the Universe, over the rainbow,
Would be fun... even
The next World cup winner

But its not for me....
It would make me even more
Lazy and conceited.

BEAM ME UP

Space is not the final frontier -
It is old age...

Those with dementia
Transmit dash-groans,
A morse sequence
That baffles our best scientists -

Their food is frequently pulped up
By astro-carers (doing overtime)
Lamb and two veg, becomes
A spectacular green,
Most suitable for zero-gravity.

Their faces are scarred planets.
Their space shoes, designed bright red or blue,
Have quick release velcro
And when they're in the state of suspension
Ready for inter-stellar travel
Drips convey vital fluids
To their hearts.

But the strangest thing is, when they go
We have to unclutter window-sills
Of framed pictures of blank-eyed
Far seeing relatives -
Who look exactly like ourselves.

ONE FOR SORROW

The young aim of course to shock
But the whole tribe is like that
Into blips whirs and wierd creaks

They dig oscilators, radars
Sound generators,
Things I can't use or say

They're truant in great numbers
In the municipal parks,
Or sometimes in farmer's fields -
In cities they flood in,
Practice moves that darken sky

The older (marginally more
Mature) are adept at surviving
Long drawn out reprisals
For corn pecking and what not,
From hell-raisin' delinquent magpies.

INHUMANITIES

Man's inhumanity to man - check

Woman's inhumanity to man - check

Man's inhumanity to lamb - check

And Mr Siddall's inhumanity to ham
...check

TELL YOUR KITH & KIN

This is only a temporary place
A shining smile
A warm atol, an embrace.
My friends and family
Are islands I have swum to
Or as a teenager, away from the shore

When young my parents seemed
Permanent mountain ranges
With good advice -
Now they’re fragile like
You and me - love is not
A mass produced sentiment
A Christmas card motto.

It only snows forever
When the lines are cut;
The worst weather comes when your dead

ALLWAYS A FAN

The money men
Have come to NUFC
Oh boy

Now we are a PLC
With bling merchandise,
Sushi bars, hairdressers,
Perhaps a pooch trainer
Or three

All that is completely
Beside the point

When the bottom falls away
And were relugated by the
Mackems, when the distraut
Rip up their season tickets
And split

My heart will still be
Black and white

SNAILS

Kiss ooh
As long as it takes

Fumble in
The dank cloakroom

Worship with the tongue
No place to hide

As two lose the shell
Of adolescence;

I watch the trails of silver
And other substances

To the empty dancehall

That shows how two
Obsessives
First crossed paths

SUPERMODEL

Lightning
Face flares into a
Brilliant red smile -
For insurance purposes
Her legs are described as
“long goofy, unique”
And for some its superb
But for Heidi Goldstein its

A hairtrigger comedy - a trip…
She hop-a-longs down a catwalk
With no fence, borders, safety net

She remembers
What her chaperone taught her,
A German man of business;
...She sucks in consolation at night
From a lemon scene

***

Back home in Denmark
Her family are boring to excess
The sun is factory farmed
Bacon bacon more bacon

The bleeding and wise
See her dribbling in bars.
In this chicken shed of galaxies
Everyone matches, moves the same
No-one special
Flashbulbs are comets

They can’t clap long enough
For all the wanabee village girls
Walking in silk, for the girls flashing
Meaningful eyes for twenty years

They all want to 'make it'
Despite tottering down the valley
Of a publication called Death

WEBCAM (LIBERTY) GIRL

Webcam girl
Losing layer
Upon layer
I get your point

Your blurred
Pixelated form
Refreshes my screen

Your as naked
As the statue of liberty;
You light my torch

SEVENTIES ROMANTIC (YAHOO VERS)

The best of Mr Burt Bacharach
Loaned on C90 - music for walking
Collar up, feeding pigeons
From a dirty tupperware lid

She's left you
For that ugly bloke next door Rodriguez
Enjoying his shore leave.

Alone on the settee you dim lights...
Reciting your favourite poem
By Neruda, you imagine Deidre
Lost in his hairy chest
Admiring his 'Merchant' epaulettes

Holding a well-thumbed polaroid
Above a half finished Mastermind game
You bless the Ikea dinner set,
Embroidered cushion cover

And that poloroid
The two of us at Llandudno fairground...

You wearing a House of Fraser creation
And me my 'Stringfellow' hair, bronze medallion,
Paisley shirt, and enough confidence
To try for every stitched Gorilla
Swinging in the wind-shivered rain.

SEVENTIES ROMANTIC

The best of Mr Burt Bacharach
Loaned on C90 - music for walking
In the rain with your
Collar up, feeding pigeons
From a dirty tupperware lid

She's left you
For that ugly bloke next door Rodriguez
Enjoying his shore leave.

Alone on the settee you dim lights...
Begin reciting your favourite pome
By Neruda - you imagine Deidre
Lost in his hairy chest in X-reg jag,
Admiring his 'Merchant' epaulettes

Reeling with Gordon's,
Knocking the stylus
'West Side' starts up - no side there,
Despite my frenetic dancing;

Holding a well-thumbed polaroid
Above a half finished Mastermind game
You bless the Ikea dinner set,
Embroidered cushion cover

And that poloroid
The two of us at Llandudno fairground...

You wearing a House of Fraser creation
And me my 'Stringfellow' hair, bronze medallion,
Paisley shirt, and enough confidence
To try for every stitched Gorilla
Swinging in the wind-shivered rain.

THE SENSE OF IT

Slow down my dear,
As light does
In glinting honey

As light gives full value
To the Burgandy in its glass -
To the drop of white wine
In its bottle,
And time itself
Contained in the leaf, after a rainfall

Then close your eyes
Lick your lips
Spell it out with a kiss.

HOT AIR

Trees whither in
Isolation, so do we

Our lungs are little
Branches, a copse
That breathes in either
Pollution or H2O

We reach out
Breathless and
Ambitious, to grab a part
Of the sky - we turn
Our words into steam

We have
No reason to say anything....
We are not moderate citizens

But occassionally
In drab cities,
Our branches
Flower into
Beautiful words.

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

Rainbows and tickertape tinfoil...
We come from an indescribable place
A lovely Wembley stadium of light

The humble govenor (someone like
Mr Bobbie Moore - talented person)
Has placed me in a great match

This extraordinary game -
Left me deep in a dark place
Of desire, with inclinations in my heart

To create loud fires of hate or
Stand closer on the terraces
With bobble-hatted mates

I know
He gave us pure light, ready
Sympathy, human bliss

I also believe he knows
We were destined to create Satanic mills,
Abattoirs, fast food joints
Which we must eventually destroy...

THE HEADMISTRESS REPORTS ON -
CINDERS POETRY

Are you on your hands and knees yet?
Get scrubbing .... Well I was fairly pleased
With your efforts today, the bit about 'heavin'
breasts...rather good; One could hear in your
Stanzas the delicate wilfering of the breeze,
The Curlew's cry, the sound of elasticated socks
Gently scuffing.

The structure was masterful, taut
A thematic unity, a virtuoso skit
(when you've done in ere, theres the loo
To clean and them tiles - don't forget). I see
I could have competition. A risin' star?
Hmmm I hear them all now - " she's the new
Poetry queen under pink Jane Austen scarf"

Anyways go out, fetch coal
Cook supper, and use the bellows
Before the vicar comes for his private lesson

CINDERS TRUE IDENTITY

After Cinderella picks flowers
Michael, the man with the dirty nick
From a safety pin in his finger,
Brings her back to his barge

They take off their clothes
(Apart from undergarments)
And takes out an atlas.

He points to an old map of Moldavia -
“The poorest country in Europe”
On her knees in the half-light
Cinderella puts his wounded finger
Into her mouth.

Outside they eat hearty
Peasant dishes and sing old
Folk songs round a camp fire -

Michael the bargeman is not fooled
As soon as she crosses his palm
With silver, he knows she’s a rich kid.

PROMENADING LEGAL FEES AND
THE SHEER BEAUTY OF TWO SISTERS

Silver canals cleanse -
Scenic showers ripple; two
Trout pout sisters
Walk through ruts
To the market, their faces plastered
With too much Parisian makeup.

The lawyer vomits
After dinner with a client

The wood has hands that
Grope the pantomime teats
Of saggy slender Friesans

The lawyer hopes to later
Milk the two ugly sisters,
For all they're worth.

CINDERS FINDS LOVE

The scandal -
They're talking all over the village...

Cinders is having long conversations
At night in the old moorland hovel
With the crippled gamekeeper Studley.
The two sisters and I bet for weeks
With blacksmith Algernon that

It was the post office clerk, the fish man,
Or a stable boy. Actually it turns out that
The dark creeper is master Studley....Incorrigable.
Cinders could have any dish (though
Admitedly that lads one).