tit for tat

EXPRESSIONS CATCH - 1

There is a tap-root pushing in the
Dark -White, ironic and insistent;
There is a splendid melodic line at
High altitude (I think it is
A splash of jazz - a lark)

There is fallen Viennese souffle,
Diplomacy, war - the bravery
Of writing for a blog in a war.

There is volcanic rain, scoured plains
Gnarled North-Rennaissance fingers
Sketching heroic burned marble.
Fleshy fireworks ignite the stolen
Herculaneum kiss....

EXPRESSIONS CATCH - 2

There is love - and the strange
Double beat of new harmony at night.
There is intelligence, the round of stars,
A galloping horse in it's
Narrow field, unseen - alone.

We are more than the Sun-heart tethered
In our petty kingdoms. Men desire the World
And are imprisoned inside rainbows.

SERMON 1

Mummified computers and senses
Fall away - People need a safer place.
A permanent store of perfection
For good and evil, for invention
(For the heart of God is very old
And very strange).

TREE OF POETRY

This poetry will be empty;
A sphere of possibilities
A receptive negative, before

The click of realisation.
The lightning tearing down
A human tree of nerves

THE POETRY EMPORIUM

At my store there's nothing
Visual, all is a-b-c-d-e, things
For the mind, a pulsing fork,
A super highway of words.

You must add instincts
Colour, 4 elements, a few clouds
To set your preferred scene - then
Just sit back, relax and dream.

SHE SEES CLAIRVOYENTLY...

To where waves in his muscles
Store the peaks and troughs of
Seven crashed relationships,
Employee shouting matches, the
Sensitive arabesques and curlycues
Of lumbar regional sex
(which almost hit the spot)

And reaches out to provide the
Sure and knowing grip of the Amazonian
Goddess, guessing the tense history in
Each shoulder knot, tracing solemn
Bumps in a rotund torso -

To reach his deeper archaeology of pain ....
Factory redundancy, stolen kisses, evil
Saturday night suppers, and a 2nd division
1970's blizzard wrecked football match.

THE PERFUMER

Distilling pearly vials of red
Into a bucket, spitting daffs
Out of his mouth, he tastes
Meat and two veg in mashed petals

Then turns up the bunsen
To max, to hear fields sing;

His aim is an apococalypse of needs
In pippette, a captured feeling of
Procreation, reducing a world
Of thought, willpower, emotion
To patented smell.

RED PERFUME

The rose is a whirlpool
That opens layer by layer
To give out fragrance even

Though it's beauty will die
And the fate of loveliness
Is to be crucified

STANDING TALL

March by, clench fists
Reveal patriotism -
Heavy duty thoughts

Salute this chimney, busted
Door - A ghost of a warehouse
With leather-clad workers...

The whole ensemble stood
Proudly intact through
Two World Wars.

DEMOLITION v.2

Raised slowly in 1904
Given a date-stone, and a team
Of skilled men and labourers
It will all be over in a day.

The machine is round the back
Playing hide and seek, packing muscle
It's elongated limb and pincer extracting
Dirty wood from the second story -

The front is still open for business,
but it's being eaten up inside. Soon there
Is a shower of wood and slate and brick;
I'm in Normandy circa 1944 – I retreat

From a great cloud of dust as
Another piece of industry and commerce
Falls away - and I think about
Bradford Town, Time, Ecclesiastes.

MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE SEA

I want to live still beside
The manic ocean, unburden
These fazed emotions and
In that broil and tumble
Join arms around the world.

BEAUTIFUL CLICK

Your wonderful camera
Has a poet's eye
You point it up
It drinks the sky.

LOST

Every falling flake
From a wildflower

Each swirling snowstorm
In which men are lost

The twist of
Scewered lover's hands
Each thing reveals the cost.

LAST NIGHT IN THE BAR

My nerve is dying -
Can't seem to hold
This fractured glass

My friends are flames...

Blood is dyed
Whiskey, there's a smoky
Idealism on my breath

And I love you sweet
Like a chess player
Needs an exciting game,
Like a mouth needs a kiss.

SAILING AWAY

(A Tribute To Cole Porter)

To define myself
By a whole bunch of words
How ridiculous, my tongue
Wet and rigid as a tombstone.

Oh I can talk and emote -
I can smile and erode the
Distinctions we smudged
So easily in conversations

But I can sail away in a
Broad white cotton shirt
And land on your doorstep -
To drink your smile...

***

Charm is my singular name
My tongue covered in caviar
Wit on my tongue -
We dance in bathrobes
Newly monogrammed stars

So will you take me in -
Take me to your room and
Tie me to your breath -
To keep me completely free?

THE SECRET TRUNK

Mum and dad
Never explained creation -
The fission at the centre

So I learnt it from a tree trunk
Hollow with criminals,
Venus eyes, and fantasy

A BODY WITH NO SCARS

Childhood is a bucket of fun,
A place to get real dirty
Then wash if off white bodies
In memories with no scars.

SPLIT OPEN

Were all beautiful
In our innards

In the yards
Of place we know;
Like the open countryside
That calls to our heart
With love and tranquility

We ache inside
When truly split open -
In those moments
Some people overflow

POEM CHAPEL

Cliche as it sounds and
Contrary to expectation,
This poem is a chapel
Where criminals may beat
On the door - seeking sanctuary

WRITING IN THE DARK

Writing to friends
In the dark hoping
The slopes of my letters
Join up good and that when
I wake up it's not

Just some comedy loop the loop.
I don't know any of you -
Is that why were close?

Yes don't know you folks...

Yet I believe a stranger
Will never kill,
Hurt, or cancel out
These bright hopes.

DREAM

Dream til the sunrise
Fills your eyes with
Things beyond
Manipulation.

THE TAPE DECK

Are you concentrating?
Time to speak Mr Smith
On love childhood your
Obsessions
Did you breathe
Use the contraption
We put in your chest

Did u enjoy
Your life what a life
We gave you a life... (click)

Tape (rewind) tape
Too fast...(szeez-banga)
On nothing mu..(click) as we
Press unravel your
Silver tongue

SAVIOUR

With devious thread
You sew up my eyes
Beat me blue then

Snip those eyes open
So you can be seen
To be my saviour

SCRAWLING...IN LOVE

Love is a silky
Molten nib of ink

HOW TO PROVE
YOUR IDIOT CREDENTIALS

Open the throat
Gulp in moist air
Form dozens of vowels mixed
With liberal consonants

Dress up as Boris Johnston
Hire a marquee and crates
Of Beaujolais and wonder -
Is your 2nd novel any good?

AT THE CIRCUS

Roll up roll up for
The fun-of-the-fair!

See the
Sweet talking
Wire walking
Chance taking
Lip stick wearing
Obesity sharing
Bear hugging
Testosterone making
Freak 'O' nature...bloke

RED BLOODIED ANGEL

The notches on my spine
Are hung with rainbows

My arms are made of wavy materials
My breath is the stuff of wings

I put down my tools
My X-Box, my roll up

I want good things now.

TREE-ANGELS

Every tree is an angel
That sky-dived into the earth
And spread it's fingers
Into the moist ground.

SEARCHING FOR THE CENTRE

I'm an exciting advert for
Blonde auburn mousy straight curly
Hair - obese svelte pear shaped
Maverick kid-mogul - an opinionated
Shy tongue tied pathalogical
Liar - called Poet

***

ME ME ME

I grew from an embryo
Learnt to swim
With eyes closed

They put something
Fluttering in my chest
(It gives me no end
Of silly trouble)

I rode the red chute
To greet light,
To greet breath

Felt from day one
The overpowering need
To press the flesh.

***

I - SINGULAR

I am the dot
In the centre of the pupil

The real smile behind the
Canvas hide of Mona Lisa

I am myself
(Do you hear this
Who is doing the publicity here?)

I Am I

All external - all history -
Almost - lets face it - Dead.

NO CONTEST

In a no holes contest
Between fur and flesh,
I know I'd come off second best.

BEARS IN THE WOODS

I'm a lonely human
Prone in my log cabin
With a primed imagination
Rows of tins and jars

And the wood outside full of
Jelly noses and two hundred
Pounds of starkly curious
Fur claw and muscle

FISH AND FLYTRAP

I bait my trap with fish
Heads, wait for the
Desperate bears...

But they're
Caught inside the
Wonder of Winter
Sucking on the roots
Of their trees

DREAMINGS OF THE REEF

Someday I will have more
Energy, from a larger than
Expected crop of shellfish -

Someday I will dive down
To the boat where I was
Lost to civilisation

And struggle back with good things
In brass and paper to read, a
Playboy t-shirt, the temptation
Of crated corned beef

And for the first time in over
A decade, lying under my tree,
I will be able to write that
Carved delicacy called poetry.

THE CAVE

My deluxe home
Rooted in strata
Covered in slime and
Violently baked all year,

Somehow leaks when I
Remember my childhood

WHITE MAN DEVIL

Tracks of ships
Tracks of vertical clouds
Minefields
Hidden in the bush.
This white man burns...

ISLAND JUICE

A mackaw flies
I feel the juice
Running over my
Roughened tongue -

Smell the fragrance
As you crush a perfect
Grape, representing
This island
Were marooned on

My feet plant
Crisp indentations
Under an scalpel moon

The sea sucks the beach
And nothing here
Can arouse us
From our deaths

RED IMAGINATION

Love a link
From wing to beak
Break the shell

*

Tears in an inferno
Of handwritten notes

*

Cracks in the soil of
The tongue, signs of life?

ASHES

No man can
Live long on cold ashes -

Yesterday the fire came
In war, then hot smoke.
Everything was destroyed

Now my body is charred -
I look at my heart
Cold as a stone -

Nothing gold red or green
Can live there anymore.

THE PARTING

Tears are daggers
Falling from
A glass ceiling
Into my heart

Words are spikes
To impale the moon
And sun on -

How am I going
To make it right,
When our Milky Way
Is off it's hinge

And the whole world
Erupts with 1000
Unresolved emotions.

BRIDGES

Were all culpable
Of some crime

All I want is sunshine
From your face to mine

WAX LYRICAL

A woman
Finds a friend on a train
And her face comes alive
Softens like wax

ADAMS APPLE ALLERGY

My apple allergy
Makes my lips swell

Then I look like Eve
And feel like hell.

THE SUCCUBOUS

Bathed in white light
Delicious as icecream
She slides into your head
You lick light fondue
Textured wings...

But notice as in a dream,
As your passion takes control
(and you bite a piece out of
Her sugar coated halo)
Theres the hint of a red
Reptilian tail, swaying
Between Pretty Polly legs.

THE BUILDER

Anything real we have was built.
Most objects and thoughts given
To others were good...

But one day our life will be taken away
And all those ideas and walls will sway.

RANGE TRUE

Freedom to roam
To follow seasons

Freedom to sow -
To place my face
Against a sunset

Mountains
Are tall -
Unattainable

And after
Much ranging
So much heartache -
Only I know

MODERN COWBOY

Bushwacked
Ransacked,
Unattached in

Unattractive
Cellar crack house

Morals hanging
Loose as
Floorboards -
i got your name
Engraved boy

On spit on
Engraved sawdust

And after I kill you
Your tongue will serve
As leather - to
Hang my soul on.

FIELD NOTES FROM A MEMBER OF
THE CLOUD APPRECIATION SOCIETY

Some stay static as cows
Drowsing all day in a meadow
Of white fluffed grass

One or two range at speed -
Magical clouds that have sailed
From places like Newcastle,
Birmingham, Reykjavik

After many years
We succeeded in placing them
Into three broad categories:-

White and fluffy confectionary
(To contain the curves of sex symbols)
Or effective high altitude fridges
Containing light rain, hail, or snow.

Our last category though, (rarely used)
Is when they become the throbbing home
Of a god who stirs it up, until we see
Him face to face in judgement
In a Category One super hurricane
Or tornado.

POSSIBILITIES

Do flowers put down
Their roots in clouds
Or are they trapped
Again in earth?

Are singers able to
Scale the full range
Of possibilities - to
Flaunt their rainbow hems?

RUBBER HEART

My heart
Is a big red
Rubber ball

People like to stroke
Or lean against it
Or (if really tall)
Bounce it hard
Against a kerb

However, as my
Grip improves
I'll cram it
Back into it's
Little cage to
Keep it warm.

MID-WAY

I'd build our love
A mile high with
My own philosophy;
Enjoy a state so pure
We couldn't breathe

Or build a love
So dirty so cold,
The blasted roots
Of trees would
Never grow there;

Instead I'll hold
You mid-way, betwixt
Heaven and Earth and
Invite you into these
Utensil scarred arms.