autum

 autumn 

            leaves 

       falling 

~~~~~ into ~ the ~ estuary ~~~~~ 

tide

rising

a

on

oh joe joe

 oh joe   joe

old joe 

he polished the floor

with a bumper

for he was leaded

from too much exposure 

in his molten past

the floor of the lab shone

with his reminiscences 

oh boy he’d been a boy alright

in his time and all that

was in the past

leaded now and gasping

rasping at his fate 

but it sold 

the lead and the gold

on many sarcophagi halted

for it was a bumper crop

of lives expended

it never ended

and i predict it never will

but what a shine they put on it

farther

 farther

i named the stream father

for he floated my first leaf boat

built my potential with its journey

over the falls we went

singing foam

whistling up a rainbow

days that float in my mind’s eye

as we walked home 

for seventy years

the boat’s caulking has held

replying to a poet’s bleat

 replying to a poet’s bleat

spare me the despair

i have enough of my own

how full can emptiness be

tell me ~ go on tell me

what works eventually 

when all has been tried and failed

when the dam on time’s river is failing

for what word can plug despair 

before a deluge of death-bed poems

fills the piss pot

i’m listening now

alright 

come on

forever’s eve

 forever’s eve

… then in careful words 

a thought is laid down for ever 

and in my mind never no more isn’t 

so

wrap me in your autumn words 

and i will spring you a surprise 

just like i did in the olden days 

My poetry biography

 

 i wait

i don’t write

i wait until

it dictates

then i write 

until