THE TROTSKIEN MOUNTAINEER

At ten thousand feet
Avalanches are political

Opinions move down
The scree slope

Sticks and stones may
Break bones

But this aluminium pick-axe
Stuck in my head
Is quite another matter

MY DAMASCAN MOMENT IN
A WOODLAND PORTALOO

I wipe my arse crack
Then freeze, see the world
Burst with livid sunshine

Sat on my chemical
Throne, bolt upright
Sat on my wooden seat
I have an idea -
Everything could
Change... real neat

I jump up start
Writing on a roll,
Spilling my soul
Onto Andrex

Run out into
The garden show
My arse to the neighbours
Rip bark off a sycamore
And write on that

Giddy with the simplicity
Of what I hold
Testicles bouncing against
Each other I run off to
The railway station

To spread the holy word

WIRE WALKING TO GOD...

...Going steadily up
Above the clouds
Balanced with sword
With mail, see the cows
In the field and wispy
Smoke from chimney pots;

I can't see the end of
The wire but I
Believe my soul might
Not be too heavy

I hope
I can go all the way

Up to the big top the big house
Where the big cheese stands
On the true ground.

PUPPY DOG GIRLS

Girls are complex
Harmonies of alpine
Flute sound

Arranged around
The howl of
A dog's tongue

That wants to
Ebb and flood

Like a tissue
Around the golden
Heart-bone

SLOW DANCE

Slowly I twirl
Coo-ca-choo, two
Round the corner
Flat footed
Enthusiastic
Reaching on tip toe

Your dips, curves and dives
Blow my mind into a paper cup,
Your extreme Salza is
An X-rated affair

You change to Rhumba -
No time to slumber.
Blinded I feel my way
As the twirling ball
Lights up the hall

THE CONTEST

Male machismo
Versus vibrating
Gizmo, the machine
Lasts longer
(A singer
An itchy finger)

HER

You have mountains in your eyes
And sail boats in your hips

Avalanches in your
White smiles and a
Clipper in your lips

And all of it rigged
By your long finger

TV CLIQUES

They broadcast complex
Groups and cliques

Simultacneously as
Someone famous
Enters in, winks
And is worshipped -
Someone
Runs back out

But I always tune in.

Im just one of millions
Of the devout

PITY

If the Romans hadn't
Found Christians
What would they have thrown
To the lions?

A Libran-Piscean bleeding heart

STUCK

Im stuck on a mud-covered
Ball, patched up with roses;
I can't figure why Im here

My flesh falls away
And I gets shabbier; clothes
Lose their summer fashion.
Eventually I slip
Into the mud
Eyes go cold,
Stick together and close

Is this world misunderstood?

To me it is a much colder place and
No longer smiles..
Until someone loves

HEART

Hearts Hearts Hearts Hearts
Hearts Hearts Hearts Hearts
Heart - open it all up
Under the spotlight

Got to get inside my own heart
Pull its soft walls around me
Keep at body temperature
And try like hell not to die

I've got to really

SCHIZOPHRENIC MORALS

Don't take your bra off
For the neighbours -
Save that nudity for me

But don't be shy
In the frozen ailse
At Asda - drop the peas,
And have a childish streak

GAPS

1.

I switch
Off my heads
One by one

Burnt wires
From old style radios

I twiddle them
Childishly, why?

She said (he said)
He said (she said)
Aaaaah, Im
Eaves-dropping
While the world is in shadow
I need the gaps,
To listen more intently

To you...

2.

So beautiful
This morning
Gurgling antiseptic
Mouthwash in
Your transparent slip

...I need to clear out
The rubbish
That stops my brain

Accessing Heaven
Beethoven, Bach,
And the World's greatest band
The Flaming Lips

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

God God God God...
Blood blood blood
Love Love Love

Now the machine gun
Belt has run out

We begin to wander

ECZEMA WORLD

The world does not add up today
The skin is blistered
Riven with zig zags

You dig down for power
For more coal or gas reserves
Yet nothing adds up

SHOOT THE MESSENGER

I am a newscaster with
Something important to read;

Iraq, death, Johanesburg and oil
Then some humorous 'comedy piece'

SUGAR ROSE

The sweet red rose
Is dying, but edible
Which is slightly kinky

Until you reach out
Sincerely -

And swallow its thorn

INJECT REJECT

Love is not a fetish
Or a game of chance.

Love is the mystery
Singing in my veins
A synthesis of everything

Whether we inject
Or reject it
We all
Need that high

MECHANICS

When people fall apart
Who puts them
Together again?

An emotion is a very fine
Mechanism

Some hearts seize up solidly

If we reached out
And examined the mechanism
Before it jammed,
Then nurse-mechanics
Would not need to operate
So crudely...

anyway I ask...
Do people really value
A perfect walking machine?

TOUCH

The world is devoid of touch

With salt and vinegar crisps
And an old Radio Times
My world is a cool place

Through double glazed windows
I look for love...
The clouds are grey

From man to woman to cat
To gerbil, to
Laboratory rat to dog

There is this simple
Prehistoric
Truth -

We all need touch

DEEP SLEEP

Only sleep
Will improve us;
Make our tin lives
Worth living

Only sleep
Like gold foil
On eyelids

Put iron on the tongue
Steel in the throat
And sink

---

Don't drift

Nightmares
Are dungeons
Where we lose the keys
To the surface

Deep oceans
Where threads of
Oxygen get broken

---

Breathe slow
And all monsters
Will evaporate

Even bank managers
With the power
Of yes and no

When you breathe
Easy, they smile

Put their heads
On the right way

BRIGHTER

What use are
A thousand flames
If you can shield
And nurture
One bright flame
Brighter than
A thousand flames
Called Love.

WRITE NOW

I knew
The cracked gold

The gold that fades
From memory
Like a sweet tasted
In your old age

But the drink of the lord
Slakes my thirst

I have a second childhood now

TALENT (Sophia)

She -

A woman
With talent
In her big heart

She -

Thought
Leaking
Through
Her pores

She - her thought

Leaking
Through
Her skin

Mine in
Comparison was

Ugly & fractured -
With my feeling

CREATURES

I've got
Deaths Head
In my belfry

Centipedes
Around my
Bed-head

Crocodile gangsters
In my potting shed.

Woodlice on
My mobile home

I wish
They wished me well
Went out of their way
To acknowledge

My superiority

But they don't care
Or know

GOTTA DRIVE

I’ve gotta drive
but I don’t. Gotta
drive, but yunow
don‘t, yet - but
someday yunow
Will drive VERY
FAST - yunow

POEM

I get my culture
From The Simpsons

My nutrition from
Vimto and lemonade -
(Buuuuuuuuuuuuurp)

KALI KITTY

Radio silence

There’s no-one out there

The ticking clock
Is a cats paw
I stroke its fur

Out there in the
Dark wood
…It’s waiting for me

Crack
Something breaks
I grab the lamp
Jump over the wall

And see a huge tabby cat
With tentacles
At the end of each paw

COLUMBUS

Going full sail
To the edge of the world
Sails unfurled
Celebration and

Terror as we fall off the map

GARBO BEYOND THE GRAVE

Pushing up the daisies
Doing press-ups
On the tombstone

Baby, never seen
You look so good
Such definition
In your cheekbones

We love your cool
Scandinavian star looks
So pull yourself together

Theres one more movie
In your luminous mouth

THE ABYSS

I see the world revolve
Like a satellite

I see the world spin away
From my heart
And these fingers

---

Into the Abyss
We all eventually go

Falling
Falling

---

Full of holes
A derelict
Skull with thought

Everything held
And known
Will die one day

Your smile
Everything green
Falls away
Into the pit

Everything goes
Into the pit
Nowhere left to fall

---

Only the soothing heart
Its eternal flickering flame
With its idea
Of love remains

---

Only love remains
The mystery
At the centre of the dark

CRYPTIC LOVE

Our love blossomed in a crypt -
I was taking measurements for my thesis
Trying to memorise the dog-leg passage
When you looked at me bright.
Torch turned face into skull.

We discussed 'St Wilfrid's Needle',
Whether it was a fertility rite
And how unbearably popish that place was.

I sa runes in every battered
Flagstone above us,
But you explained, smiling, that it was Latin.
No mystery.

I always prefered the mystery -

Whatever I chewed on those days,
Had to be spun out later in letters, poems
(And you so matter of fact.
Down to earth).

And yet, after so many years
I'm so glad we turned that dark corner together
To separate lives.

Please take a scone and
This pot of tea -
Don't bomb yourself
And do have a seat

THE SCHOLAR

Its sad -
Sat in inflamable nightie
I burn my eyes
On the parade of lives
Passing the screen

I lock out the sun
And other phenomena
Like mosquitos, women
And competitive sports.

I will not be distracted
From following
My narrow way -

My cart rut to wisdom

ISLANDER

On an island
On my own with
A small fire
Eating out of
A tin can

Adrift in my feelings
Except the flotsam
From my past

They say that
They want
To build a bridge to me -
Save me from my sunsets....

Well meaning twins,
Little Lemonstick Larry
And Fruit-bomb Sue,
Gave a bag of goodies
To their local zoo;

Now the apes are quite mad
And Lemur's froth at the lips
Sloths jog round their cage
Tiger's acting like a dick

Im really quite scared cos
Porcupines are on the loose
Who will put scratch off
The paintwork from your cars
Unless feed them licorice
And king-size Mars

The Place

Place of spice
Place of woodlice
And the knots of nightime

Where wood
Is perfectly straight
And the landscape
The single breast of a woman

She leaks a stream or two
She leaks a transfusion of love

No bottles here
No landfill
But a spider floating in the air;
No chance to be superior

Mother Nature's place
Is open to all -
Who consume their bodies
And are consumed

SADNESS

I sing songs
Of immense sadness
Like a glass staircase
To a cellar of mirrors
But no light

No light switch;
No fuse;
No wire.

CHARM

Love is a comet
Catch it in a jar
Put the lid on
Cover it with tar
And silk

Then hide it in your heart

BLESSING FOR A CHILD

Sleep tight child on
This winter's night
There is a hearth alight
Secret thoughts of love

Whisper aloud as
Your friendly
Iron giant switches
On huge headlights.
Chug chug chug

I will guard you
(For as long as I can)
Listen close to you
Through the storm
Of syllables.

Child be blessed
With your future life -
Your lids are shutters and
Darkness will flutter
At your pane, blood will race -
Don't worry your
Adolescence will comes and go.

But tonight
Cotton wraps you now
In a father's love.

HUMAN GLUE

This is the human glue
The courtesy of
'Thank you very much'
And 'how do you do'.

Please take a scone and
Don't bomb yourself
To pieces mister, have a seat

Lines To God

Your through to the Vatican help-line
If you would like soul-guidance, press 1)
If you would like to talk to the Francisacans press 2)
If you want to speak direct to God
...Please Hold...

SCOTTISH FLOWER

Scottish flowers are punks
With spikes on their head
Lovely straight backs;
Their deep purple eyes
Reflect the heather
Ringing a loch.

ENGLISH FLOWER

His roots go deep into soil
He wants to cry and smile
But his stiff upper lip
Only curls up at night.

BRAZILIAN FLOWER

The colours blend
Then separate
Separate then blend
All shades and shapes

Brazilian flowers
Have sex with you
With their shining leaves

BLUE/YELLOW FLOWER

Yellow flower forced
With blue flower
Doesn't make a
Flower happy -

Only tortured

FLOWER FABLE?

The common dandelion
Lived in breeze

Purple Orchid
Was kept indoors
On a shelf
Held in high esteem
Sprayed and cosseted

The yellow dropped seed
Wildly, was persecuted
Spread everywhere

The last orchid was
Pressed into a book,

Its fragrance gone -
Its dry shadow caught
In the king’s library

A NEW COURSE...
(More refined less course?)

Ive sharpened my quill again
Hopefully my poems will now
Be interested in the 'human condition'
In this universe of infinite possibilities
And less about people's arses

THE LION THE WITCH AND THE
BLOGGER'S WARDROBE

This is the dirty place

Where I smudge my ink
And thinkaloud
With other mumbling people
In a dark place

On my left is an axe murderer
On my right a peace activist

This is our wailing wall

We never see our faces
But feel our breath
This close

NASTY DEVIL

You support Man Utd
Because the biggest team

You look like Al Pacino
Dressed as a pin-stripe lawyer

You always defend the guilty
Love to hear their scream
As you get them off for a large fee;

You have the respectability of
Being a member of the bar etc

And as a trainee accountant
In your law firm Im so scared of me.

NASTY ELF

Sexy lady left on the shelf
Playing tricks, below my belt.

Dear elfy, I'll not be shy
Just this once, if you
Take your time

NASTY SANTA

Nasty Santa -
Last year with a cackle
You bit into my face -
Turned me into the undead

Now with big hood
Huge beard HO HO HO,
I've taken your place -
Now I'm gonna eat your
Ugly face

DARK PLACES

Dark places
A burger bar
With a slick waiter
Looking like Bela Lugosi

I leave, leap a wall, and spend
A night in the wolf enclosure
At the zoo

I have a bloody raspberry icescream
And drip it on the wolves
(which is not too bad it seems)

And then in the morning,
I tongue an innocent panda
To death

CHE GUEVARA LOVES LORD LUCAN

No cliches would mean no news:

A vicar without a leapord skin pouch
An MP without a constitency
A trout without a pout
An England fan without a rout
And a tranny without a big surprise
In his underpants

So watch out

A COURSE IN MIRACLES

Im on a course
Of celestial madness

Im on the second tape now
From my mentor

I've passed the section
About the Virgin birth

And the healing of
Wayne Rooney's metatarsal

BETTER THAN ROAD DRILLING?

Believe in magic
With all your heart...

For me it starts with the eyes
Travels down to the chest
Across the muscles
Than up to the zip

A-b-r-a-c-a-d-a-b-r-a

What do you think -
Is magic better?
...Is Love better?

Don't know

These days both scenarios
Include anything...

Like drilling a road all day
Near the M1, shit pay,
With tanned 6-pack,
Gossamer waxed chest
And rippling Mr Universe back

VIRGINAL

White is the colour
Of an Eskimo virgin's pert
Backside softened up
With cool seal oil...

Of prime tripe and asbestos

Of a clutch of peeled eggs
In a jiggly smoothed jock strap

And my mouth wide open
As I draw my last breath
Shocked
Face bleached

As England lift up the World cup!

WAR SONG

Pack up your laptop
In your old kit bag
And smile smile smile

Though disillusioned
With this life, try
Again in a little while

No use in private poetry
It never was worthwhile

So pack up your laptop
In your duffle-bag
And smile smile smile

FAR FAR AWAY

There is a place
Far far away
Where clouds are white
And clouds are grey

And love, a single
Homeless bite,
Signals to all men

Goodnight

THE ALCHEMIST

Dowsing for heat
He finds my creative centre,
His rod turns me to gold
Stirs me

I’m full of molten love
The axis mundi of old
My centrifugal bliss increases
As bedposts whirl and turn,
I take off my jewellery, new
Sneakers

We speak ‘sex’, gibberish
Smile at our industry,
Sweat like pigs,
Fly like birds together -
Then fingers tense in
One last move; he arches over
To pour in a last drop of fire

Done - This baby will be perfect
A jem
An arrow in
A blemish free sky, and it’s cells
A virgin Yorkshire forest
Which already multiplies.

OLD MAN WILLOW

Old man Willow,
Why do you lean
And why also cry?

Why do you split
Your sides
And crack?

Oh man-boy
I weep
For the dead
Men of the river;

The drowned who
Couldn't straighten
Their backs

SMALL IMPROVEMENTS

You may be pleased to know
I am continuing to make
Small improvements

I dot my t's
And cross my i's
Do not feed cake
To the penguins

And most importantly
Of all shout
Basking Shark! Basking shark!
If I see one

FLOWER FABLE?

The common dandelion
Lived in breeze

Purple Orchid
Was kept indoors
On a shelf
Held in high esteem
Sprayed and cosseted

The yellow dropped seed
Wildly, was persecuted
Spread everywhere

The last orchid was
Pressed into a book,

Its fragrance gone -
Its dry shadow caught
In the king’s library

OLD TESTAMENT INTERNET

Most beautiful young women
Take their clothes off
I help out a bit

Well why not - Its biblical
I let the whole world
Focus from their feet

Its simply business -
I collect the shekels,
Give back five per cent,

So you can view Bathsheba
Suzanna of the elders
And even Candy from Gomnorrah
Taking their soapy baths

POEM FOR MARY MAGDELINE

Brown hair
Black hair
African hair
True Aryan hair

Run your fingers through,
Wash that history clean

Porno hair
Witches hair
Adulterer's hair

Cut it for your
Shrine's locket

All of it kissed
By you, passing through
Your passionate lips

LAST GLASS

Red red wine
Where’s the crime?

Only great civilisation
Could find

Such a beautiful way
To nullify the mind

POLITICS

Form an orderly cue
Behind his glorious arse
He talks, He looks good on TV!

Lick lick lick lick lick
Slick slick slick slick
Oh no - collatoral damage

Play the National Anthem
(Dead

Quick)

PETROLEUM DREAMS

Solzhenitsyn says
Theres wealth in the pen

The USA sticks the syringe
In the ground
Sucks out the burning heritage

As Ibn-l Arafi said
Imagination
Is made from the detritus
Of mankind's dreams

The great fire built
Up from green leaves
And the black sap of wood

(Once used on the backbones of ships)
Is now there to ensure we
Pour our desire into cars

Were more mobile than Genghis Khan -

Yet all upright or sitting men
Who deplore torture
And carry guns, rock CD's, hope
To live within the empire of machines

CHECKMATE

Love meets love
On the board
Someone makes
An aggressive move

Knight takes pawn
Then the cavalry
Arrive two forward one
To the side though
It seems the white bishop
Had a machinegun

SWEETNESS

My physical weakness
builds more sweetness
Whenever the world
Is a cloud of gas
I breath in again
And Im alive

MR PAXMAN

Late at night in bra and jockstrap
With Doritos, drunk on red wine
Jeremy Paxman ponders his vocation.

Such a serious man. He daily
Reads out headlines, cross examines
Hawks and doves (invariably gets
Angry, especially when their lying)

So, may I ask
On behalf of Great Britain
Could some buxomn girl come
On air and give Mr Paxman a hug.

ALL QUIET

Im in the quiet place
Where no words
Form, beyond labour
Beyond the storm
Of syllables

My mouth is a cheap book
With its clasp of lips shut.
I'll utter nothing
Here, but my breath

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILTY

A manager of a
Thrift store has to
Smile, be neat; wear
Clean cotton clothes
In company colours

Until at night I take off
My false teeth, eyelashes,
Chicken wings, hang up
The halo on my head

I kick my shoes and
Socks off, spend thirty
Minutes on my blog
Look at the rain
Pummelling the street

Say a prayer for the
Third World then begin
Playing with my vibrator
Buzzing at high speed

BAYONET PRACTICE

You look pretty in pink
Wearing bows on your uniform

In a uniform
Everything looks the same.
Thank god there is a pretty piece
Of cotton covering up the belly -
When we begin to stab

BORN AGAIN

I do hospital corners
Well on my bed, clean
VHS tape heads once
A month (as recommended)
Listen to muzak
In my work lift
See my Life as a gift

I avoid porn,
Scorn, travelling abroad
And truly believe that this
Form of Democracy
Is worth fighting for

GENUINE COWBOY HORSE
(HEALTH TIPS)

Chew your food
Don't spew
Chew fifty
Six times
Do what ya
Gotta do

Tommorrow
It will be
Sudden war
Disembowlment

But today
Get your head
Down chew
Your bag of food

COMPLICATED

Around the island of my bed
Spiders walk around softly
In dark territories

Thank God
I rarely see my neighbours
They keep themselves tucked
Away spinning yarn busy

Tending insect graveyards.
I know they fear us...have
A deep down ancestral memory
Of how complicated we are

People find spiders ugly
Yet I sit in the dark, switch
The lights on, watch screens
Flicker with radiant gunfire.

LOVE REGRESSION

Love comes
Like rainfall

A tree becomes
A sapling wraps
Up its spiky leaves

At dawn
It becomes
A shoot

Pulls
Up its nervous roots

Sits inside a hard shell
Dreams of the beginning