One night
before I went to bed
while dusting my books
One by one
counting the ones
I had read
I came across
a book from you
I had it all along
I wish I knew

Chapters I never gleamed
Pages I’d never seen
About places
I’d never been
Experiences I never had
Things I never heard
and to add to that
a bookmark
with your name
and a blue bird

And out slipped
a photo of me
As I flipped
the cover to see
The title
And there was you
You fell out
from the book too

Two photos torn
separated by scorn
placed in pages of a book
Between the worn covers
were torn lovers
and It never dawned
for me to ever look

I’m gonna jingle a single in my singlet
Juggle Bintang bubbles in my jocks
Run wild and free in the city
No trickery tickity tock
Just flippity flip in my flip flops
See me rickety rock off your socks
Dangle the bangle and I haggle
Cha-ching cha-ching on the rocks
One dolla two dolla or three
Join us for a beer at a party in Bali
By the bay with a babe by the sea
With Marley and Ali and me

I don’t know about you
but words won’t let me sleep
They slip and steep
into my covers
before I do

I don’t know about you
but rows of prose
run through my head
I’m hugging thoughts
close to me in bed

I don’t know about you
but my dreams
are filled with them too
it’s all I think I do
I need rest from this mind
waking with words all the time

I don’t know much about you
but what if I was to
really get to know you?
Maybe you’d save me
from being lonely, poetry
and another rhyme

I am currently experiencing
a severe case
of creative block
I’m bleeding from my ears
blood from my eyes
dripping down my chin and brow
blood on these lines
stored ****** thoughts
reserved in my head
leaking down my nose
Dam I’m bleeding read

I walk a lonely alley off a quiet dead end street
at the gushing blow of where the wind and I meet
I clench my coat across my chest, turn my collar for warmth
my hat is flung off my head by the coming storms
my tie has flown and ***** like the tail of a kite
stripped right off my back, my coat puts up a fight
I tug back my shirt, but it’s bye byes across the sky
Like a black bird bleating I wish myself to fly
I extend my arms, running, like a plane off the ground
The winds undress me, more clothes dropping down
Soaring over cities, buildings and their blue seas
releasing the fabrics of my life now escaping me
I’m naked, but warmed by the layers of rays from the sun
nothing now matters than this feeling of having won
against the wind, an open sky, beyond the cast shadows below
I freely fly, with nothing on, but the air and where the wind may blow

It’s a fork you don’t want to walk
It’s a mind you don’t want to find
It’s a fall you don’t want to crawl
It’s a rage you don’t want to cage
It’s a trap you don’t want to snap
It’s a sin you don’t want in

A poet has but a few
favourite things
they are much too busy
writing
dreaming
the day away
not wasting
a thought caught
on a day of play

A poet has a few favourite books
yet their imagination
is as good as any
read in their head
are heroes, hurts and hopes
flipping pages in their mind
a librium of poetry and notes

If asked, about their favourite hue
they have no colour but words
squeezing line
mixing rhyme
with feelings
close enough
paintings plainly heard
through strokes
spoken
without brush

A poets favourite things
are made up of life
and what life sings
pain, suffering, simple joys
a poets favourite toys
are madness
and the many things
they employ,
that brings birth
breath and wings
into the poetry we all enjoy

I found myself a seat at the table
among greens and violated vegetable
and I’m wondering if I am able
to stay calm and sit there stable
while staring into a Buddha bowl
searching for some peas in my soul

I’m looking down so hungry
the side dish appearing so angry
like that smashed green avocado
near the pile of mashed potato
and the cut and diced main dish
beside the chopped chives
and sliced spinach Quiche

These vegetarians are not so nice
beating the egg and whipping the rice
and this fruit punch I’m drinking
by dessert, has me thinking
they’re as aggressive, and more
violent and cruel, as a carnivore

Sitting in the library
among dusty books
You, behind a novel
throwing me ***** looks
peering over pages
finding your stare
back to your book
I take it you don’t care
I pull my tongue out
you roll your eyes
Is that a smile?
I wave…like I’m shooing flies
you turn away
I feel the red in me rise
I look at my watch…”oh my”
…how time flies
leaving this engagement
I tuck in my chair
locking eyes, we do a dance
…one last stare
If only you weren’t as pretty
and played so hard to forget
I would have made a move
and maybe we’d have met
We could have been love at first sight
…okay…sure, love at a glance
Oh well…Good bye
pleased to make your acquaintance

My hearts always been in the right place
till it slipped down to my knee
and trapped in my knee caps
now my hearts bending on me

My hearts always been in the right place
now I trip, slipping slow
I pick it up from off my feet
but funnily, stuck in the elbow

My hearts always been in the right place
but now, I really just don’t know
If it’s safer caged in my chest
or bent to which every way I go

I’m hanging off a building
that I’d decided not to jump
now I’m wishing I was thinner
not so heavy or as plump
for the weight in my belly
is now heavier than in my head
yet it’s hard to hold on, I know
for a man whose well fed
this change of heart in me
has me cursing on the edge
a change of mind, I fear
is too late on the ledge
sure, the worlds a little heavy
now thinking of all the food
all the meals and the delicacy
I wish I’d never chewed
If a little had I to nibble
I’d be much lighter now
yes, I’d have cheated death
and still hold on somehow
but now these greasy fat fingers
which held once a burger or two
are hardly hanging on
and now are slipping through
oh the life I’d give to live
a chance to change my mind
to find some strength, to weave
to push up and to climb
with only one hope now
in sweets, thats kept me alive
just to hang in there or let go
maybe bounce back and survive

I lost some words
till someone said
go back to where you last saw them

never saw, just heard
in someone’s head
stuck in the throat like stored phlegm

spitting it out
no doubt they shout
louder than I ever did

But they didn’t get rid
of the guck that was hid
swallowing it
deep down

Into the depth of the heart
among buried blart
and that’s where my words
were found

Returning nests to their trees
Raking the wind for the leaves
You’re too busy to miss me

Creating shadows behind a screen
Stitching seasons at their seams
You’re too busy to miss me

Gathering the stars and their gleam
Scattering fears and their screams
You’re too busy to miss me

Washing winter in it’s stream
Painting the world a brighter green
You’re too busy to miss me

Missing me would mean
taking away your dream
…so please, don’t miss me

I’ve stolen your heart beat
snatched straight from your chest
I placed it inside me
to give my own heart a rest
but it’s a step and tap out of time
to the rattle of rock and roll
I didnt want to skip a beat
to the rhythm in my soul
I pulsate to your heart rate
threw me off the beaten track
not knowing if it’s a heart break
or I’m having your own heart attack

I want to write poetry
like a confession that I’m bleeding
like blood that I’m crying
like a heart’s cry that I’m singing
like it’s a love song that I’m feeling
like it’s a feeling that I’m fighting
like it’s a fight I’m welcoming
like it’s a welcome I’m inviting
like it’s an invite I’m opening
like I’m open and amazing
I want to write amazing poetry
like I’m reading some famous poet
and that poet in me

You never told me your name
yet your smile said it all
you signed me your number
gestured a phone for me to call
I look around for pen and paper
I find neither anywhere
locked in memory, loud and clear
in my head I stored you there
But by the time I made it home
my sharpness wasn’t as it were
within the charging of my phone
the numbers began to blur
I rang the wrong number
and dialled a different voice
just another unfamiliar stranger
I hung up, I had no choice
I tried so hard to remember
combining captures of what you said
piecing a puzzle for a clue
picturing it all in my head
how the stars had failed me
how in love I am cursed
the more I tried to remember
the more I made it worse
and now you’re probably wondering
why I never did call
you have no idea how I’m dying
my memory, your smile and all

I’m selling my heart
for what price do you think?
what money cannot buy
just over a drink
nor gold can even try
take me drunk while I blink
cash for a promise of a lie
with a smile and a wink
but a trade of hearts
and you may have deal
you can’t beat a better bargain
so let’s shake, It’s a steal

Tonight
I will not be sleeping
till I write the words
that are keeping
me awake

Tonight
I’ll make the most
of a late night evening
and by the morning
waiting
for you to wake

Tonight
Who’d have thought
I’ll be weeping
while you’re dreaming
words too late

Tonight
while gone
I keep writing
alone and grieving
words I wish I wrote
and now reaping
your fate

Frankie said, “Jane’s okay”
and Jane,…well
she never really liked
Frankie’s way,
Yet his charm and that tattoo
of ‘Mom’ on his arm
made him seem like a nice boy

You see…
he never won her heart
just stole her mind
“In just a matter of time”
he’d brag, “She’ll be mine”
no sooner she was won
with a ring fit for her thumb
Frankie found himself a new toy

I slept on the bed
of a poet, Gibran
and there fell a poem
into my head
like a song…

“One day you will ask me
which is more important?
My life or yours?
I will say mine
and you will walk away
not knowing
that you are my life.”

I slept on the bed
of a poet, Gibran
and my dreams were filled
in my heart was a song
a longing so sweet
a desire too strong
till the museum guard came
and moved me along

A poem is not a place
to belong
It’s hard and rough
treacherous and long
words are wounded
bled and blended
the rhymes are lies
stiff short and ended
lines are cut
and dissected
meanings fray
if not mended
a poem is no place
too small
to find your space
without a wall
or ground to pace
no not at all
no support or hold
for a poor poet
not to fall

Today I will fall inlove
because tomorrow may never come
I’ll pick daisies in the form of your name
I’ll plant the scent of invisible roses in our minds
like eternal gardens created for us before time  
I’ll place a cup of coffee beside our first greeting of ‘hello’

Today I will fall in love
because poetry cannot satisfy
I’ll carry the books of poets you devour
hold them close in the library called my heart
I’ll write the letters you’d never read,
because if you read them you’d fall in love
with my tears not my eyes
Today, I’ll place them beneath your smile
for you to discover

Today I want to fall in love
because you can always refurbish
an old fire place and ashes can be removed
but not the hour nor a day like today
Today I will fall inlove
because I still can and I will
for love never dies, but life may,
before love finds its own place
to exist every day like you and I

You tell me how much you love me
with the softest of subtle eyes
your words can convince my soul of anything
I’d believe even your sweetest lies
you’re fair and your face so beautiful
so sweetly your smile grows
still, I could fall so madly in love with you
even with something dangling down your nose

softly speaking words you  ‘woo’ me
satisfying the secrets  in my soul
you drown and delight my deepest parts
so deep you’d leave a hole
amazingly, you amaze me
a gift without ribbons or bows
you’d unwrap me with the slightest wink
even with something dangling down your nose

All you need to do, is touch me
my heart hides up in my throat
I’m so ‘lovesick’ it feels like seasick
you know how to rock my boat
blow my mind and wipe my memory
I offer you a beautiful soft rose
hold it close, to sniff and smell
and leave the thing dangling down your nose

Heaven has a street called ‘Hope’
It leads from earth and is thin like rope
It’s a tight walk across earth to sky
Those who walk may fall but learn to fly

Heaven has a street called ‘Love’
It starts from here through to clouds above
It’s thinner than Hope but is stronger still
Those who walk may lose their way but not the will

Heaven has a street called ‘Faith’
This path is unknown but one can trace
both Hope and Love and where they intersect
They that walk may lose their life but not the respect

A Lily never lies
unlike a neighbouring plant
where shrub and grub
are given a rub
like lavender to enchant
A Lily never lies
like your eyes
even if you tried
you can’t recant
you send a scent
and as soon as it’s sent
like lavender you replant

I’m not one
to speak for death
for death
could speak for itself
I speak only for life
for life and wealth
is the breadth of breath
and the well
of heart and health