Friday, 3 September 2021

amazing is as amazing is

 amazing is as amazing is

amazing is as amazing is

for those who have not already 

trod the acorn on a winter’s path

and seen the green refuse to be

broken where squirrels invocate

that tomorrow gathers every tear

to water not the eye but tend 

upon the huge trees in their bud


for i dare not look underneath

these words that float so easily

dare not to see if there is or is there not

a meaning deeper that the superficial thought

that spins a line as catches many a fish

in gold or silver wriggling in death’s dish

a last held breath that may find here

such a profound ‘here you are’ to split the light

into a rainbow of every existential meme

or maybe not 

  or maybe not

and the web is just the false sun gleaming 

teasing before it is gone and nowhere

nowhere was there a profound thought

but just a silly old fart playing around

in an aged ancient playing ground

Wednesday, 1 September 2021

just in case

 just in case 


after fifty years

every thought is attenuated or 

augmented by your presence 

every neurological entanglement 

in real and conceptualised time

seems to be as permanent as existence 

itself a conceptual construct where

your presence is as perfunctory a

lattice over an unimaginable chasm 

where one’s unique oneness is straddled 

perhaps itself being as unimaginable 

as pre-birth is unpredictable as 

after death is entangled with an

imagined bereavement 

that dulls the knife 

that stays sheathed 

between us 

this agreed entanglement 

remains undisturbed as 

all these years have remained

uncounted and unrecorded

just in case it

tenby

 tenby 


tighter wound that little town

around the bandstand head 

past castle gulls uplifting

the sprits of the quaint side ways

and peopled smiles around

the north south bays

and caldey island asleep

most often scented around 

each corner shopped and handed

to children on the canon’s seat

while all the time and tide

the boat lanyards rise and fall

from tea rooms netted on sunny views 

and all and all we’ve seen it all

in tenby boy 

in tenby boy oh boy

"more poetry needed"

 "more poetry needed"


they stand there

those two

little did they know

they are poetry now

those two

as the car does slammed 

did they look up and think

yes more poetry needed

i am damned sure they didn’t 

know

those two

and yet there they are

forever

poetry hanging there

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

then

      then

one day summer

   then

one day autumn

                           never 

were such days

so similar in their 

indifference

to the passing of 

our time

   here 

take a look 

what do you see

coming and going

your way           then

try to stop it just

  there 



Monday, 30 August 2021

grammar school in the 1960s

 grammar school in the 1960s


dull cloth blazer

not the shiny sort

  me

calling our dining room the kitchen

during a french lesson

  me

crickets nets?

fives courts?

what is confidence?

why is everyone so tall? 

and religion in the hall

and readings in the chapel

sunday school

  me


the man under the gymnasium 

in the workshop

mending desks

with his white apron stained

fishy wood glue

desk lids inked with the past

boys 

why is there a girls entrance 

in a boys only school?


fights in the yard 

gowned chalk-smooth masters 

pulling ears into detention 

or the cane 

when the headmaster’s light turned green 

and in you went 

and out you came 

tight lipped in shame

like when you walked the rows of desks

after the slipper was applied

pride tight lipped 

beside the misted windows

hands gripping the thick radiator 

silvered by time’s boring brush 

  me


did we fit in?

with the other classes 

in the other form rooms

housemaster as foreign a concept

at the dark side of the moon

  me

in the stone-dumb edifice standing

room only for tradition is

the well-trodden paths

the glittering prizes

no surprises 

  me


getting by

and bye and bye

goodbye

another path running into the sand

the fanned breezes of childhood

closing back into a shellac stick

the promises that were displayed 

like a peacock

ill timed peradventure 

perhaps not

  me


the warm sun on the back

of a retreating blazer

school badge threadbare 

cap gone missing long ago

short trousers now as long as

the lonely walk of failure

it was as implicit as the golden boys

shining in their new dawns

the moonlight pale

  me

on my way

to nowhere in particular 

post particular 

grammatically incorrect 

my word

oh my word


  me?



Saturday, 28 August 2021

it is late

 it is late


way way back

before yesterday

tomorrow was glad to arrive

and another tomorrow 

arriving like busses

  now 

tomorrow is yesterday’s thought

waiting in a queue at the bus stop

for the last bus home

it is late