I can still see
The liquid lust
Of your breath
I can tell
The heaving must
Of your breast
I can hear
The panting pangs
Of another
When you’re near
I need only
To recover

Give me your
Granted silence
Of some truth
Give me your
Dew eyes
Bitten tooth
We are now
So apart
And so near
How I wish
How I wish
You were here

Now the death
Now the death of ourselves
Now each other
Is a never she sells
We are dying
As my memory dies
Keep my crying
He who still sees
You still cries.

It's sad watching
Songs sing prices
Or artwork paint products
Beauty with two meanings.

I don't hate money,
I don't hate greed,
I do hate the things that I see
Being sold to me.

Magic wants to tell you
About the wonderful prices
At your supermarket.
Not that I care.

Magic to me
Was something to remind me
That life would never be dead to me
That life is not about buying.

But still, it's the best way to live,
So sell on.

Grey whistles spoke shrilly
Of wishes never seen
As I sought a hobby that ne'er
Grovelled to'r machine
I saw those moor harpies asleep in their crow
There was a sentence lying dormant in me

Without much more than history lessons
To go forth was a hefty sentence
Making conversation pieces
Of the rocks I met along the way
And I hoped that one day I might
Be there for the rise
And fall of 10p states

To sentence them to mutiny
Silly, shrilly and ne'er hopeful
But at least not airborne, at least rooted
In hobbies gainst the machine
What a terrible lot, indeed
What a lot of terrible days

Ah, well
At the running track I feel
The sentence dormant in me
Bolt upright, turning the grey
On its head, as harpies fall
Into the earth and the stars come down for me

She walks on shellbone sandals
Her back *****, like reeds that stretch to the sun
And her hair
Golden frolicks of olympus wheat hafts
Graces down, down, down
To meet it

She watches like mirrors do
Shining what we hope to see
With a pointed nose, bright
Like mirrors can be
If I smile, smile, smile
Like she makes me want to
Into her face

She moves like trees shiver
As she tosses pebbles to their roots
With a skip and a hop
She shoots amongst the flowers
And drinks the day, day, day
Like flowers do.

She leaves like evening reddens
And tires like starlings fly
But the moon, the moon
Lies silver on her summer body
While we wait, together, together, together
Till the morrow comes

I walked among fire
And felt the heat,
The hearth the life,
The world a barren canvas

I took those steps
And found white light my pure feeling
Shared smiling lips amongst ourselves and took on lovers
In feelings we took for each other, bundled
Like reeds so thin

We walked together, arm in arm
Pebbles scattered at our feet in the red dirt,
And thought blood, blood
blood can be our cry from now

We took those days in hand
And led them on
Dried their succulence in the sun
Tasted never
Not for their promise.

And that promise wilted, like so many flowers
Those white lights grew dimmer
As we walked towards them through rushes, our fingers
Spider-like on the veil of what we wanted.

We got there, and saw the light was out
The candle never burned, the feeling never lived
Our eyes for what could be
Wetted with what was
And we lived on in the world of short, long days.

I don't know if I want children
I don't know if I want to give light to
Another smoke-filled soul of lost purpose,
Another one who has to face what I did.

What if my child were a man?
Then he would know that
The whole world is his challenge and chance
Tells he must be found lacking.

What if my child were a woman?
Then she would be afraid of street corners.
Betrayed by her own body's secrets,
Dragging its conflict for her whole life.

What if my child were intelligent?
Then I would know within them an
Explosion of terrible realisation awaited.
They would wonder why I watch them cautiously.

What if my child were not?
Then they would have the bliss of not
Having to know a better world is far away,
But they would never be asked for their say in it.

What if my child were like me?
Then I would weep, and they would wail.
Lament our cursed flesh and
I would apologise, God I would.

Some people need children to have meaning.
Some people need children to know love.
I hope I don't ever need, because
They scare me more than sickness and health.

Beautiful woman,
Write yourself in the orchid air
With your flowering hair
And your well matched strides in white trainers.

One-of-a-way woman,
Take your time in the daisy weeds
Or the yellow breeds
You pluck with thumb and four fingers.

Sighing woman,
What did you see in the sycamore creek?
Did the gurgling mold froth pinch your cheek
You stirred with kashmir hand?

Beauteous day, crossed the sky with silver trails
In freckled knots of rebirthed trees
And Summer shown in baréd knees
Of beautiful women in swaying silk dresses.

I forgot when I
Felt success warm my pallet, tickle my spine,
Familiar lover, I
Forgot your touch, and now
Charged with desire for you, you are absent
Like so many flames in winter, or
Hoary kisses on sweltering skin, what contrasts, my prayers
Repeating murmurs I heard lost birds bring
Of far off summers
And tingles on my spine came back
As only the tang of needles
Gritty blood, gritty residue,
Defeat, vengeance, my new Summer and Winter,
Tears my new spring rain,
Despair what was a growing pain
Has now set roots, and I
Forgot success' name

My poem's salt comes from the sea
Awash with flailing kelp
And absorbed light, hidden and sweet
Like me.

It rakes the gravel with its fingers
Cooly rushing over its skin
Absorbed and intended back again
When the sun blushes ruby red.

Little seals dot the waves
Mirroring the clouds
Chuckling through their whiskers, beckoning
At the dogs on shore, faithful cousins
To these rotund sprites.

The dried up fields are far away
They gasp for the rain that's closing in
With the prettiest grey clouds
Crickets jump from the Terra Cotta
And spill the Summer air, little breaths.

While ores seep into the mass of blue
Rather than be claimed, and turn the bottom muddy
In pinks and oranges dulled by the jealous green.
The fish enriched begin to talk
And their blessings pip pop upwards.

I think it's beautiful that air goes down down deep
and finds the things that need to breathe.
If only I could follow it
And be consumed by some crease
And become the ocean too.

I hiss steam,
My kettle ringing desire
I guess we're
Worth what froths beneath...

Beneath inky depths that stain the skin
My yellow parchment, my dish and dash
Turn me, bury my roots for me
And I'll bear you grateful fruit.

Silence, patience
I can't wait for you to speak
I have to go
And paint a dread poem on my skin

Oh, trade me
In your caravan
With turbanned thoughts in spiced tongues,
Trade me onwards to that land,

The take-away place
The land of shivering darkness
Where silver laces flowers
And mercury runs through veins.

Take me there,
On clouds of cold space
To where silence reigns like kings would dream
Over long nights in winter castles.

Sighs take his pillow
And lashes tickle lover's necks
I can dream like him,
On my silver snowy mountain

Leave me be
To shine down too
And watch you from above,
To warm the sky a little with my blessing.

Cross eyes in the moment and shackle the breath
Sleep is a cousin to death
Fall through the warm ice and float to the deep
Death is a cousin to sleep

Live moons in your promise and hope not to be woken
Eyes stuck with stories are eyes shut wide open
Crawl through the chasms, look up the fire fog
And grow through your mind, drink in deep of your grog

Don’t listen to voices that part with their weep
Death is a cousin to sleep
Their freeness will split you and make words of your breath
Sleep is a cousin to death

That's not who I am
I'm built of burning wood
And hacked off pieces of granite deemed
Too coarse for cobble stones

That's not who I am
I'm nobody's child
I built myself through a muddled
Community of moth wings

We never tasted sugar, never felt the rosy clothes'
Crushing flesh, blushing chosen lyrics
******* swallows and cheating sucklers
Cold, sunken, green with no choice

That's who I am - my own monster
Stitched from what I liked, stuck with our greasy wick
I blended myself, found my backbone
In the granite sifted and spat away

You can't name me, I get that right
To bore myself in your thick skull
You gave me over to the frost the day I forgot what
Stupid people said I should love

What's a ferrous person
Doing here, they asked, those bars of gold
Clutching iron filings as if seeking to squeeze some life into them
Some heat
I clenched my teeth,
Furious

Snobbish, looking down on baser metals,
Mixing only with the company of diamonds
I pulled no punches, held my fists
Red while they jeered
The cracks of ore in my coat
Furious

I bandied through their
Glittering parting like oil and water,
Sliding off me like I wished their wit might,
White hot and flaming, cracking brittle,
Fragile filings
Melting furious

Uncontrollably smelted
Hammered by their eyes
Clenched by their sneers
And burned, scalded, reshaped, reheated
Abused
Scarlet-whipped and chamber fitted

A drill, to reform to a drill,
Aimed at
Softer metals, I
Turn on them, they
Shy away, anxious not to mix
With baser metals, throwing
Iron filings to the floor,
To the earth
Where gold wishes it could be

My jewelry

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day
Or something less written and more expressed
To something less expressed and more instinct
To what the hopeful oil feels as it burns bright?
What atom makes you? What worker formed you?
What factory sent bone chalk, called it art
Without mentioning it is mere carbon
Tints and inks of filthy purpose, broken shells?
No, I won't compare thee to the words used
To call pomp, genius, hope and meaning
I can't use symbols, smudges have more thought
In what you are, in what nature hopes of you
Only the woven mist can explain clouds
As only the pencil can explain you

He had hair like leaping horses,
Golden brown of treasures took by skies
And he smiled
Like he knew

He had eyes like ruby fingers,
Fiery bright and reaching for me
Long and sharp of meticulous greed and
Hungry.

He had lips like hurricanes spoke of
Natural, free, loose or wild
His words sprung from him as they yearned to be free
Yearned to write poems.

He knew not, but he had totems
Crafted in the world for him
One called future, one called lessons
One called battle, the call-all of hope

He told me one day I had eyes of redbirds
I laughed and said the same
For in this poem we speak to each other
In this poem he shares my name.

'She ain't much of a muse.'

What can I say for you that
Has not already been lied?
Your eyes do not sparkle,
Your smile has long since died.
Your eyebrows are
Painted to be quizzical.
Nice try, but,
I don't think you're listening.

I'll give you a joke, but
You're twice as sarcastic
Your wooden skin covers
A brain made of plastic
I come along to watch and
You come along to see.
Nice try, but
I don't think your eyes make the effort.

I ask you what New Year's means
To you and your future.
You shrug and say,
'I'm sure it will be boring.'

You ain't much of a muse.

'She ain't much of an explorer.'

Wide eyed, stares go blind when poorly aimed
And you have had much practice,
But still, you miss and shoot wildly,
Afraid of your own fogged visions.

And how, how do you think of
All those wild horizons
Where your hero rides into the sun, but
You're too afraid to follow?

I tell you I'm leaving, you ask me, why?
I tell you I've left.
You call me brave, but I'm not.
You're just too much of you.

You ain't much of an explorer.

Give me a
Thump, thump-thump
As the day goes by
And I'll know we'll be alright.

Take me somewhere
Slow to breathe
The poppy seed
And I know we'll manage well.

Carry me,
Wind, carry me
On gusts of nectar green
I know we'll live together

When the trees
When the trees
Whisper to our flying locks
I know we'll fall in love

As songbirds.

Let's grow together
You and I, sorry flower
Let's take our time, too

As the weight
Of what began to be
Became concrete
About my feet,

As the know
Of what it is to be the other
Buzzed in my under-stood
Head,

As the grit
Teeth and spine
Stuck in my throat, I knew
All this is for you

Tell me
Frog stories
Hop along
Boring saviour.

I worship
Something less than your greed
**** a life of envy
Leave me to my hole
Low enemies of the conscious state.

Hop hop
I'm a wall to you, but
Can walls be leapt around when
Detached stakes build higher?

Drunk wishes form promises
Stamp letters,
But shuffle, laughing diplomat,
Let me be all you daren't to.

I want home
I want living
In a female goal
But studies tie my hands

Tell me I deserve  this.

I walked to the desert sun
And found my days were not ill spent
For
On its halo words were writ'
A script of firm hand on the fire itself

"I have the strength of iron,
The shine of steel,
I am the flint in the cliffs and the venom on the tongue.
No man shall fear me more than I
No man shall shiver like the cold set in me."

I looked about for the author,
But saw only mischevous stars twinkle
And the pen in my hand.

There was a man of pilgrim's might
Whose feet would hound with real respite
His head hung low, but thoughts gave flight
To smiles he flashed out through the night

And on he came to seeped well
And burned with petal thirsting smell
He cupped his hand to pool to tell
Of washed brows in walking hell

And then he saw a girl with hair
Of yellowest sunlight's bounty share
And told his heart its meal is there
The meadow grasseed blew nowhere

She cooled his brow with gentle hand
She ushered back the gourd's demand
And though the dirt gave way to land
No borders had her goodness banned

He woke beneath the willow tree
In cradle of arms' ecstasy
And she joined him to join the free
With daffodils afore their glee

Yet still they walk, but tell me this,
What is the road, but wartime bliss?
What is the sea without the hiss
Of beauty's scent and midnight's kiss?

What can be harder than metal or bone?'
She asked, ivory champing on the bit
And she spoke with iron, stoking,
Poking the fire.
'Fire.'

My hearth stuttered in protest, but
By blackened, guttered tongues
I could not speak
And her belief was left untouched.

There's charcoal in my breath
My lungs clutch fiery coals
She knew, she told me so
And iron only felt the touch of my chest

She stoked the flames
And from between my cagèd ribs I coughed
She held out her hand
And the yellow licked her palm, bristling

She laughed.
'What's harder than metal or bone?' she mused
And poked my chest some more.
'Fire.'

A bird flies
Nature throws itself to the wind
And all enchanted bodies
Sleep not tonight

Roaring tides of sea took clouds
As chariots deep and light as terror
Or awe at what could be the last
Wink of lightning on chains of evening

I rooted myself to this bushel
And bore the berry, nature told me thus
For life may be as fruit near fallen
Or rotten-putrid, alcoholic mess.

Driftwood sees me early
And I wake when the storm is over
Not me I told, not shaven me
I am wild now, I have seen the cold.

So woe, those days may live again,
But I will take the razor once more
And live as apes may call themselves human
And live as comfortably as I may after all.
Away from the storm,
But not gone.

The green man
Sheds light on my safety
I look at him balefuly and walk through Bleary daytime headlights

Taking the leap together
We don't hold hands, but hopes
And cast hooked wishes into the paths of cars
Catching what we can

Shouts of petty promises
Rain from window panes
I pull in the folds of my jacket from their
Goodnight kisses

Left facing worries
Scratched on metal punchlines
Are no more
Like blinks facing a light long gone out

I don't find what I'm looking for
Or something close to it
But I'm hungry so
I think I'll let the search live

Truly blessed am I for so
Might people think of me and so
I am, walking April days on springsteps
With pockets of passion sewn about

What heather bears thine poppy seed
What bee might chance into your scent
Aligned with lights that beckon away
Swallowed poles of north or south

Tunnels gape and gnash stalactites
And eyes bear the brunt of the dark
But I feel not with sight, not where I reap real bounty
With twig and hair I feel my way

And paint what promise I need to survive

I heard about
A man who saw
Holes in wings
Fluttered raw

He looked and said
"More armour needed
But not on the wings
For they succeeded."

"Protect yourselves,
the skies are grey,
but your wings are ready
for come what may."

"But think of 'stead
those storm-caught lovers
whose wings were strong
but the sky smothers..."

"A place inside
those free to be
armour's needed
where you can't see."

"Make strong your mind
your crystal walls,
it's the unseen holes
for which elation falls."

I thought of him
Of the man who knew
That the unseen daggers
Need deflection too

Survivorship bias
The way to know
Those who were hurt
But didn't show

The happy ones
Who live still, while
Those who don't
Aren't shown in their smile

How many fell
To the unseen holes?
How many fly
While the thunder rolls?

I lay back on the sofa pack
And heard my heart abeating
Beating
Beating
Beating
Boom Boom Boom

I sat on my legs and finished the dregs
Of the tea that I was drinking
Drinking
Drinking
Drinking
Down Down Down

I breathed in a sigh and ****** my head high
In the silence I was living
Living
Living
Living
On On On

I watched my bones melt as I poured out and felt
The eternity I'm still waiting
Waiting
Waiting
Waiting
More More More

Tick Tock Little Clock
Let's make this our pact
You'll take me to the time I want
And I swear to you we'll act.

It must have been hard
To have waited by the phone for so long that
You forgot what its ring sounded like
You forgot whom you were awaiting
You forgot what it was to have a conversation

You just watched the plastic
And slowly grew older
Unplugging yourself from the wall
And dying with the phone.
Your call of pain and being alone
Nothing like the one you anticipated,
But how would you have known?

What a lucky man I am
For once I saw a group
Of prophets of the godly song
Before them in my stoop.

The man he played a string or two
And everybody shook
I saw him sing and dance along
With the crowds caught in his look

I watched a young girl, dark of hair
Rise and dance, her years were few
Like all those women, good of heart
I'd seen dance while they greatly grew.

Fascinating, the song's effect on
Two lovely young women too
Old as I, yet perhaps more drunk
They danced, I fell, it's true

The adults watched, sadly tired
And I too, though I'm young
Because nothing I could do could make
Me rise and beat the drum

The dance of ages brought about
By the song of years gone by
Organic music, grown from soil
Rich with thought and sly.

And now I play the strings as well
Desperate to see it again
That primal dance in beauty and me
Perhaps I'll know it when

I go back there, that thoughtful square
Where I saw those girls adance
I'll tell them then, I'll tell them there
They broke me from life's ghostly trance.

And we dipped in the pool
Slowly, rolling, wholly,
The frozen heat fell like icicles
Smoke hugging our bodies

And we shivered
Jagged, razor, haggared,
But the cold went
And my mouth, open, pulled

The pain may have gone
Or not, maybe, matters not
But we froze together
Feeling space and liberation

Our bodies shook
Our minds, spoke, unwind,
Knowing beyond the cold
There was only mystery.

I chanced upon a crow
Abandoned in a hedge
He did not move before me, lo
Left aside by roadway dredge

I knelt before his plume
And saw his eyes were took
I asked him, Crow, what is our doom?
He told me with a look

It is the sky and so the sea
To the spirits of the deep
It is the pillow to the free
Eyes weary for their sleep

It is the moment when the herd
Won't notice that you're gone
For I may be a dying bird
But it's the world that's wrong.

I took his pain off with a knife
And he said with his free breath
Grateful I am for my life
But I live much more with death

The midnight prowl, tides of you and me
Too putrid and thick to be seen as the sea
I don’t want to gamble, to lose what may be
You hammered the bars, but I am still free

Now listen, don’t turn, don’t ignore what you feel
I hate you as well, your opinions of steel
When we sleep together, sharing a mind
I’m ready to die, to swallow you blind

Your thoughts rattle when I shake my head
You seem to squirm when you’re easily led
As we’re shaken by fears, racked with despair
Lashings of heat burn out what is fair

So leave me, please, I no longer need fall
I grew out of my huddle, my corner is small
I ****** my thumb to keep our disguise.
But you've tightened the  vacant space behind my eyes

It’s sick and grey when my body is eating
Thoughts of the others, my defence is a beating
So much of you is put into a greeting
But my friends got me through with every meeting.

The broken clouds and cluttered mounds
Of the castle dark and grim
The straying woes of bootstruck hounds
Flew fast from deep within
And though the trees shed leaves and weep
While winter takes its grip
Still the grounds will never sleep
On those sullen earthly strips.

When came a knocking hard and fast
Urgency and haste
A figure tolling on the door
Tall and wooden, chaste
The simple portal opened to
A simple hallway bare
But of paintings, deep and clean
'Is your master there?'

Within the shadows of the night
The man spoke to the dark,
But saw no person, now he might
Perplexion left its mark
Peering through and searching in
The figure broke his tact
He took himself out from the wind
Door closing in the act

He called out soft and gently
Silent came the reply
The man looked in and then he
Searched down and up and by and by
The hallway stared in harder
The lounge looked on and dealt
A whisper to the larder
His footsteps on the boards were felt

The man, nonplussed, but guaranteed
His pay upon the meeting
Of the lord of the castle's deed
But he was paid no greeting
Not a soul to meet him there,
Though he searched the room
Of men he found no hide nor hair
Save the marks of a duster broom

And the spot of ***** pots in the kitchen
The soot at the foot of the chimney
The sound of hounds from about the grounds
And a meal to steal out on the table

The man looked from the window
And saw to his surprise
Some beast awalk without its tow
Of a master's watchful eyes
The wind blew strangely heavy
On a door that swung ajar
The man went down there, ready
To greet the host, but from afar

He saw the empty darkness fell
And heard the moan of the floor
He smelt the musk of rain as well
Pass by him from the door
The dining room mumbled to the hall
And it passed its message down
The cellar murmured through its wall
Creaks and groans from all around

The lamps behind him all were lit
The house was bathed in light
The fire took life within its pit
The man grew cold with fright
He shut the door and heard the roar
Of the wind break 'gainst the knocker
Thump, thump it spoke up more
Keys firmly in the locker

The stairs creaked under the feet
Which ne'er were seen to move
The man still followed achance to meet
The house's master so to prove
His duty done, his quest relieved
He followed up the stair
But a shout he passed, you'll soon reprieve,
For what he glanced on there

The doors aswing to beds and baths
With moanings and low crashes
The house alive with joyous laughs
At this venturer who passes
He looked in after shrieking
And saw a bedroom bare
But for the snores of the man he's seeking
His body lying there

The man asked not of his health
As he saw the stiffened white
Of the skin of the face apart from self
Aghast and dead from fright
The venturer looked 'round
And heard the cellar speak
It's booming sound from underground
Bade him leave below his shriek

The man abed had moved and walked
His taught face moved not, still
His teeth slid and their rotting talked
Breathed gas as his breath came shrill
Our frozen friend did not contend
With his meeting of the master
The castle changed him by the end
He fled there all the faster

He was not found till late that fall
By boys who played in the grounds
They'd crossed a wall and found him all
Near pawprints of the hounds
They saw his hand clasp round a sheet
Of paper, the castle's deed
On the page he'd told his meet
Of the lord of the castle and he'd agreed

By his signed name on the dotted line
To give to all who claimed it
'This castle which I have called mine
For a thousand years.' for he saw fit
To give to the man who spent a night
The castle they'd keep company
But for the men who died of fright
The castle is still empty.

He kicked off his trainers in defiance
It's warm in here, I will stay.
His home danced its subtle dance
Seducing him with fluttered window panes.

No, darling, mummy said
You will go out there
And face the harsh winds
And the hungry frosts.

Why? You did, mummy
And you have the scars on your beautiful face
Why should I, a handsome boy
Offer my face to the elements?

She sat him down and smiled
Yes, I am weary, the world
Took it's toll, but
The warmth of comfort soon becomes fire

You will stare down the frost and
Let it gnaw all it wants
For that's how dreams are made, my boy
That's how wishes come true

This one, she said, finger on a scar
Was from those summer months
When the grass became the bed
To clumsy, tragic love and I

This one is from your grandmother
When she left me all alone
This one, from my career,
See, it is the deepest.

All of them, all I would have again
For canvas I may be to brutal paint,
But happy I am
That I was painted.

The boy looked up and said
I am a scar on you
She buried him in her eager arms and said
No my dear, you're too soft to leave a scar.

The trainers went on
The boy went outside
And shivered as
His mother watched.

Like waves on the grey ocean
We crash into the green shores
Concrete breakers frozen in
A clash of nature's wars.

The trees look on aside us
Anxious to see the rising tide
The moon looks down above us
Afraid to let the sun decide,

For we are spreading quickly
But the trees take far more care
They tiptoe through this rooted world
While we scramble like the hare

They watch us from the greener shores
But some have gone on free
Patches of grass amongst the paving
Stones of a concrete sea.

Let's hope we mix and mix again
Until our world is grey and green
For if the land or sea invades
Our world will lose its sheen.

It's done, not well, but now at least
the journey is all over.
The world has suddenly become
The bright white cliffs of Dover.
The sails have ceased to billow
And I have to disembark.
The animals have all taken
Their due leave of the ark.

Now the warmth of feeling
Is not sweat on my brow
It's the education stealing
My ignorance of now.
They let me taste the honey
And now my tooth is sweet
But today at least the heather
Is growing in the street.

Grateful? I suppose.
But it just set the mark
Where my animals would leave me
And I would leave the ark.

He grows on me
His branch and tree
A stretched out mist
Pet villainy

My rosy friend
My sweet defend
You’re not my mind
It cannot end

How touched we are
To outshine a star
Beneath the stream
The Venom tar

Dance along
My dance, my song
A body weave
Of threads so long

Now check my grip
Now blush my lip
We’re friends so now
Well water sip