'


uneasy presence 
of someone 
once known 
even loved - 

the space 
however 
gaping wide: 
cloying, 

suffocating; 
treacle bath 
easily sealing 
claustrophobic 
asphyxiation



_ _ ✒
○●
°

severed horizon,
when will we see you again
there's much in the way*




●○
°

somewhere
in the sky
on a moist day
you may spy
a rainbow
hanging high

let that always
remind you
one shining
moment true
friendship's
promise renew

so little is reliant on
a brewing *** of morning
or wafting wisps of grain

whose warmth presses lips,
pulses patter 'neath veins
and butter dribbles freely

as a grapefruit réveille
parades playfully above
an eye-rubbing horizon

tousling tree-top buds,
changing hues in the wind
while dreams of night evaporate*



●○
°

how many farewells
will it take to matter
less than this burning
shall warm wherever
tomorrow may takes us

there was a vacancy in a place
where an abyss engulfed chastity
a concept strange and quite suspect
in a world were we value prospect;
a rarity to sanely slumber at night

and receive sagely uttered sentiment
whose aid in these moonlit promises
birth occupancy in vacillating crises
perhaps a constancy redeems piety;
another word that reveals this malady*



●○
°

My quest for the 'extended metaphor' is flowing 
into the daily beat of my typical day. 

Something of my day is breathing out meaning and song - 
expressing and teaching me with whispers that can blare so loudly 
that their silence flashes blindingly with a brilliance that shadows 
the darkness and illumines the gentle curves of Truth. 

My quest takes me on a journey where I can no longer lay back and watch the rising and setting of the sun, the moon, and yes, even the stars that crown a head filled with dreams and thoughts in that sable field that is beyond and within us.... 

Something of this day shall imprint itself in my soul and yell out invectives.... grabbing my shoulders and throttling my awareness. 

My quest requires that I take on my gear and trek the unknown twists and turns, of unchartered horizons, and risk the possible heartache.... 
it compels me to be the sun, the moon, and yes, even the stars - traversing the vast expanse of universal experience.... 

Something in this day shall filter into my nights nagging and wailing, crooning and serenading - lifting my spirits with its rise and ebb.... and as I float on midnight blues and obsidian hues, I sense one thought forming: 

My quest is yours, and the universality of human experience shall meld our separate yet mirrored conditions into a unified expression of what we vainly and clumsily perceive and call 'love'.


__✒
○●
°

A barely audible creak greeted him
as he entered a still unfamiliar home.
Then a figure approached, step by step;
aged and wizened, unsteady at a walker.

Where it not for his gait and slouch,
he could have been any other.
Now, so much smaller, and frail;
not the monstrous terror of long ago.

There standing, a deer in the spotlight,
shaking off a child's phantom fright;
in the haze of ill-served remembrance;
realising that he loved his dad, all along.*



●○
°

red letter month
written on the cloud
an end to an end
now our sorrow send
death be not proud
red littered month

there is always
that one photo
that floats around the house,

that when you pick it up,  
picks up with it
a storm of memories

and jumbled feelings.

Still it floats
in random spaces,
lying in wait,

like a lioness
ready to pounce,
awaiting its prey*





___✒
●○
Cross reference: same poem (or at least same feeling; different words and different time-place)

I still can't look at your photograph
without choking up or getting ill
could I ever seriously consider
giving up my affections for you
why have you gone, so abruptly ahead?

Gazing upon your visage, on print
all knotted up and confused still
my emotions, rambling wild river
gaining us words no longer true
why am I left here with heart unfed?





___✒
○●

Many dreams,
like bubbles
in a child's playtime,
drift away and pop.

turn your gaze to power
of life and death:
they lie dormant,
seeded potentialities;

a flowers' expectantcy
in each quiescent tongue
and those who love either
will surely sup of their fruit*




●○
•

please be kind and wait
the bus is only slightly late,

catch your self as it timely calls
for thoughts do fly off far and wide;

allow your always drifting soul
to embrace its returning sun

your pen is my oracular divining
rod, for this parched throat

and in your breath an
impassioned plea escapes

in your sighs, release all
of life's dormant pleasantries.*




_ _ __ ✏
●○
°

This is your ultimate admonition
To set perspective in proportion
Of an age old curse, set in motion
It's time to take out the tanning lotion!

sometimes, indecisiveness
is just the wrongest decision
for anyone to ever make

sometimes we just have
to dive in and go with our gut
embracing whatever may result;

sometimes, apologies are enough
when things don't go your way
because it's time to do it ours

sometimes, getting first time right
is not what your life has shown
so, it's okay for me to have another go

it's only taken forty years for you
to realise you love me and be proud
perhaps another forty'll make you really care

your boomer ways are so busted
they don't work here and now
perhaps we need to find our own way

it won't break your ego to be supportive
respect is not earned but extended
perhaps you only need to trust & believe;

every time a child's heart breaks
a memory jolts this scathing parody
perhaps this curse can be broken still:

it doesn't take much to make it right*




_ _ __ ✒
●○
°

You have a right
To bruised knees
And broken dreams
Disappointments
And promises kept,
To casts, itchy & graffitied
On either arm or leg
and tears on reddened cheeks;
Elation and defeat,
Snotty nose and blistered feet.
Yes, to these you have a right, and more,
Life's every essence, outside your door.

Into a new dark age
we go, marching,
careening headlong

[of soapbox poetry
there is no want
for many voices
loudly rail and rant]

the terrain of our
condition and that
of our experience
has changed over
year upon year of
progress that brings
us closer to the edge
of a generation that
lives on the horizon

itself

peering further on

yonder

to challenges invisible
to our yet untrained minds

so a new era begins
pioneering unexplored
vastnesses and
before unrecognised
darknesses

while on the remotest reaches
bright lights we yet have
to define and harness

they beckon
to our whetted appetite
for tomorrows.

[Into itself, beyond vast darkness,
a remote beacon
shall illumine our destiny.]





____✒

an end blended
and send word
with meaning bended

our escape now
a band of sand
on an island bound

tomorrow's bond
lifts these eyes
ever upward*




°

'

No longer looked up to 
at least not as much as before 
no longer consulted 
or given the usual care 

No longer do cogs congregate 
not even to syncopate 
Time keeps ticking away 
although this clock's hands stay 

Where has the cuckoo flown to? 
Where shall it alight? 
Somewhere the sand has rested, 
glinting like stars in the night. 





_ _ __ ✒
○●
°

You have the right
NOT to remain silent
Everything you say and do
Has been and will be
Used against you
Time and time again,
In the court of corruption.
So say and do it anyway,
like it was truth and
life and death to you.
You have a right
To an audience
If you can't afford an audience
Hello Poetry has been appointed to you!
Do you understand these rights!?
Word up and speak out
Even when your not spoken to!
Let out that primal scream of the soul.
Only the speechless rescind their rights.

Love is in the horizon, 
it sits upon the sand; 
the whispers in the hallway, 
revealing secrets grand. 

It's dancing in the rain 
and in the blazing sun; 
the mighty flowing river, 
the voice of a long lost son. 

Love is in the desert, 
in the oasis' leafy fronds; 
the racing tiny tadpoles 
in lazy summer ponds. 

It's teary airport farewells 
and walks on a moonlit night; 
the gentle flowing breezes 
that stills the frightened heart.*



●○
°

'

*Data storage now keeps forgotten memories; 
images and words from jubilant revelries. 

The clock is a blur of digits these days 
and nothing is clear but tomorrow's maze. 

So off we go to bury unwitnessed sunsets; 
replacing our garden beds with plastic regrets. *




____✒
○●
°

Rough is the wind that flattens
a tree from its anchored moor,

a destiny not too quick to ruin
presents a whispered word to me:

on we traverse without respite
that weary road we take,

what imprint is left behind
that sweeps relentlessly against these walls--

a spectre of bygone landscapes
whose blustering gusts are raptured calls

There is a dull,
unidentifiable fondness
that sometimes surfaces
as a phantom itch
that when scratched
returns into the depths.

A barely audible creak greeted me
As I entered a still unfamiliar home.
Then his figure approached, step by step;
Aged and wizened, unsteady at a walker.

Where it not for his gait and slouch,
He could have been any other.
Now he seemed so much smaller,
Not the monstrous terror of long ago.

There I stood, a deer in the spotlight,
Shaking off a child's phantom fright;
In the haze of ill-served remembrance
Realising that I loved him all along.

arms close in
to entwine, as
two faces fade
one into the other
washing away

all care; on fire
two voices meld
one into the other
valiant crier
all truth rings pure

clear, in the dark
of night's embrace
no longer wrong
no longer right
erases day's fright*




_ _ __ ✏
●○
°

could represent an attempt
at presenting a lack of stimulus,  
either way, or at least
that's what can be surmised;

l i k e    s t r e  t c h i n g    o u t

an already blank existence,  
wall upon wall upon wall,
exacerbating this ocean swell
of emptiness that's bursting inside.*


●○
°

what have you done:
given voice to silence,
wings to unspoken thoughts,
face to emotions deeply masked;
solid darkness now made bright
when words, unutterable, take flight,
making them no longer alone*


●○
°

she dances in fluid time
each step a perfect rhyme
to the drumbeat of my chest
in her embrace well blest

soft music fills the air
fragrance adorns her hair
when she leans in, near
dispels all my former fear

upon that chime of midnight
footsteps fade in dimming light
not a glass slipper left behind
perhaps ‘twas done to be kind*


●○
°

when we walk together
and in the one shadow
twin coffees and plates
purchases and invites
rec leave and tickets too;
bite sized chunks of life for two

whatever our persuasion may be
still at Christmas,
thoughts of kindness 
and eyes filled with wonder
seek for a connection
some one, somewhere, some part
fond greetings and warm gestures
from the depths of our hearts*



●○
°

Here, hear,
to the part of you
that no longer feels
that secret place
where a rainbow peels
each colour fading out
then glowing in
a time and place
where time stands still
See'r, sear,
her bright and varied flecks
imagination
is the eye of your soul!

here witness, arising
among us, divining
with brazen words
dividing

cloven footed
wandering
self-confessed Judas

blood-money filling
vending machines
keep this world
ever spinning*



●○
°

Farewell, days of summer
your sweat stains remain;
and those fading tan lines

blend into a chalk-like frame.
Let's point to autumn leaves
to hide paleness, underneath

folds of warm, cloistering sleeves.
Maybe our winter's hibernation
shall blossom into sparkly spring.*



_ _ __✒
●○
°

Once, so many years ago,
in a distant place and clime;
our thoughts and life we shared,
each move, in perfect time.

Words in unison, hearts pulsed,
so intimate, each gesture;
each expression, fears repulsed,
companions of great measure.

Now it seems we're worlds apart;
nothing more in common share.
The last desired thing to start,
to fray bonds beyond repair.

Tomorrow bears no sunrise
with correspondent promise;
about oneself, do realise,
quite a monstrous fate remiss.

This callow heart has not learnt
to let bygones be bygone;
from past flames this quill has burnt;
perhaps hope returns at dawn.

Beat upon this chest with song,
this erring mind do chasten;
free the earth you've held so long,
remind these feet to hasten.






____✒
.

Gone underground.
You have turned and walked away.
It's not that there's now
Two meals on this tray.

So that is the score;
Don't come back,
Begging for more.
What's left is emptiness.

Go on and don't look back.
You've ravaged me to the core.
In view of which,
I can't say much more.

mind and thought are not the least bit important, once free,
they only find meaning and usefulness when they are taken in and received
by those of whom these words have brought pain and joy and fear;
as a parched land holds less water:
moist terrains host more aqueous bodies

Of late you've taken
to staring past 
fork-strewn dinner plates; 

tines pinging like tuning forks, 
precise and crystalline: 

from scratches on writing pads, 
to clacking on fading keyboard tiles, 
to taps on smudged touch screens -- 

thoughts and feelings exiled, martyred 
for existence beyond skull and ribs. 

Of late your chin
bobs involuntarily
to strains of melodies; 

countering the blare of radio beats, and
no one sees this march to your own drums.

Curiosity killed no cat, but martyrs, by
betrayal, our most private thoughts
and feelings are divulged.*



_ _ _ ✏
●○
°

simply put:
freudulent
slips of(f) the thong



●○
°

(wedge tailed banality)

brioche mornings
bright, sunny
fluffy moorings

cast away

off sun kissed
horizon, ne'er set
dreams astray



●○
•

painting the net
with effrontery
crude, insolent
•••brazenness•••
and to what effect?

marionette making
puppets on a string
unshelled hermits
***** all riled up
quite entertaining--

so's the jerking knee
set your reflex free;
someone's therapy
should never, ever be
your online misery*




●○
°

when reasons
have changed, 
transformed along

with circumstances 
defined by those we
have allowed into our

             life 

shaping us 
charging us
releasing us

and giving new days
their tints and shades;
now to open up jugular 

and allow hatchets to fall 
or celestial hosts in array,
rouses breath-bound to sing.*




_ _ __ ✒
●○
°

Sing, through the flowing tears,
And laugh though it aches,
ask again for love in rejection's face
into the sun's first brilliant rays

Peer into that song and hear its heart
take along these raindrops' prisms
let them glow in the dark of night
its tune your comfort and companion

Hold your friend deep within your soul,
journey into the promise tomorrow holds,
fear fades with the passing of the storms,
the clouds disperse in the breath of hope.

Sleep softly, gently sing your lullaby
Wipe those tears that no one spies.
For sure your smile glows bright gold
in the sun's fading glory at twilight's dawn.

Into the distant shimmering sea
let dreams sail into the misty dusk
fond thoughts and dewdrop wishes
cared for by the twinkle of starry nights.