in reply to a poem that compared a shed to a train
the same fly in the window
of a shared train of thought
the same peripatetic spider
hiding higher riding hither
and thither me timbers jim lad
they have pirated my posts
and become their own hosts
on the runaway media
of these slithering rhymes
the one
oh to be a standing stone
alone when the wind blows
and the rain flows
shining on a morning
or under a high moon
when the frost tickles
and the standing stone
cannot stand it
a laugh embedded deep
in the histrionics of it all
poet me not
today
a true poet
thinks that the poem
written yesterday
which was the best poem ever
is actually crap
for a true poet
there is always tomorrow
even if that poem will be their obituary
the artists and poets of wars
borne witness
a weight not born unto
but in servitude to
they carried it for us
the looking and the seeing
beyond the pain
beyond the smoked pane
obscured by the bloods of war
they went
they told
and they died
falling falling
sometimes
after they have written and
recited just a few words
our eyes blear and we are
falling falling
into the distance of the past
falling falling
their words a backdrop
to the stage of a replay
of the euphemisms of memory
and like kids around the maypole
we jingle
just be caws
the raven looks
down on the rooks
who look down
on the jackdaws in town
who jostle the crows
but none of them knows
where the wren goes
when it snows and snows
on the frozen brooks
when the sun goes down
be caws be caws
well just because
vagaries of the sea
into the sea
deeper and deeper
until the sandbank
or the deep pool
starts you to stop
by the rock that
the sea has sculpted
for your careful consideration
to swim the meridian
on the flank of a stallion
that rules the white horses
is to court the wild side of life
and all is well
if one is well aware
down sargasso way
upon the rising waters of time
we are riding the raft of poetry
bailing out our tears of joy and of sorrow
yesterday we named this boat tomorrow
the sun has dried the pitch
the corking is as tight as pride
you have your oars
yes
so follow the sundown way
across yon starlight bay
row the horizons away
and away away
global warring
they do not see
what the ragged-toothed saw
on the global warming graphs
that will cut no ice
for the stokers of the furnace
are paid by their tonnage
sweat clouds their eyes
bleary from the roars of demand
that has turned their heads
towards reward
for
instantly
not presciently
is the watchword
of their day
digital age
take this digit
not the digital representation of this digit
but this actual digit
the one that does age
and insert said digit into any sphincter
that you prefer sir to
turn your digitalis purpurea
and may your manicurist
file all the online help possible
that heaven yelp can proscribe
after march april before may
sunshine
then some rain is forecast
then some sunshine
and so it goes
april you are such an old fool
do you think we do not know you
after all these years
summer comes for you
sooner than you would have us think
and yes the month of may maybe
or maybe not but
at least march had a twinkle in her eye
a race of lamb’s wool clouds
across a wide blue sky
now april you have had your say
make way make way
there’s a good cat
that’s my chair
newts and sticklebacks
ahh
the three-spined stickleback
in the jam jar of my childhood
the newts under the muddied stones
in memory’s quarry
we walked and talked didn’t we
we collected spotted memories
it was great fun
i recall it all
like the soil
under the fingernails
of this poem
written just in time
the sky is as blue as the gorse is yellow
the yellowest yellowest blue
the bluest bluest yellow
and the butter of the sun paths
to the sea to the sea
kimberley wrote a line
first it settled here
then it settled there
her butterfly words
touched all the flowers
in the gardens of my mind
closure of the gulf
the waters broke
and then closed over
after the meteor fell
the scar was deep and raw
they will find it one day
embedded in a gasp
so that was it they will say
in the winter of a soul
one sunbeam talks dust
and that has settled it
once and for all
