Saturday, 31 October 2026

social media ~ just a moment

 social media ~ just a moment


a moment is defined

by what went before

and by what may come after


but in that moment

there are no thoughts 

of before or after


it is a vacuole 

in the continuum 

of thought


that came to me this very moment 

before i read what you said

after what i said


well you all know 

where this moment of inertia

is pointing at

autumn web

 autumn web

all the baby words

glowing

rushing in every direction

until the husk of the poem is left

degaussed of attraction 


ten thousand new webs form

trapping ten thousand readers 

but you knew that didn’t you

you said we would say that

and so we do


a poem fattens upon its readers

and

flattered by a pregnant pause


it is springtime again

the glass cabinet

 the glass cabinet

infant school’s first lesson

there were drums in the music cabinet

they gave me the triangle 


to    ding ding ding      listen


the world is a shop window

and you have not the mental money


and yet ……… ding !

come back

 come back

oh come back to my past

and ride a three wheeler with me

i’ll call you by another name

and you can call me silly

but its not silly is it

please say it isn’t 

to peddle a dream

an old dream of a young love

but it wasn’t you

was it?

Friday, 30 October 2026

mirrorball

 mirrorball

turning in the fast music

turning in the slow music

always at the same pace

reflections come 

reflections go

with stuporific regularity 

images imagine images

imagine a mirror ball

sharing nothing at all

but everything in the dance hall

is spinning laughter’s daughter

and sunny boy sunny boy

maybe tonight maybe

Tuesday, 27 October 2026

it takes an age

 it takes an age

at 6 you want to be 7

at 10 you want to be a teenager

at 20 you just want to have fun

at 30 the car the house 

the family 

from then on etc becomes etc

then at a certain age

you no longer have an age

just thoughts 

about the past 

but mostly about your glasses

Saturday, 24 October 2026

the book of times

 the book of times

observe

how quiet the dust is

settling light


a prodigal thought demands

the vellum of the fatted calf 

to bind yon book of parables


leaves rolling upon stoney ground

or waiting upon these ebony shelves

bending reads in the winnowing of time


a long sigh at the end of a finger

pointing at the inner sanctums

that books hold dear


so quietly is a quietly finger

running down the faded golden spine

of a book of all our times


locked by a grasped clasp