Sometimes we need to stumble
across permission
confirmation
for our proclivities, like

When you said you'd just like to
'walk around looking at things'
in your retirement

And there you are seeing
little brown sparrows
in the rippling flat top hedge

Dressed for the rain
walking in the zone

Comparing avenues of tree trunks
to cathedrals

Admiring the prehistoric
Highland fold

Water and tinnitus
the soundtrack to our days

Speaking of
liquid light as
a medium of the holy
and living in a
three-dimensional theology

A blaze of light
floods the valley

Yes, we need
silence and retreat
yes, we need
contemplation

We need to look
a bit more closely
and shut up
a lot more

I will
cultivate the exquisite
portion of my own remarkable
consciousness

I shall
remain untroubled
strew petals and
relish the long,
long solitary days

Decorate my
tortoise with jewels
perhaps

And society, I remain in a
perpetual state of undeclared
war with you
and I owe you nothing

Sometimes we'd arrive at work at the same time
and I'd always be plugged in to my white
headphones, fresh from an mp3 trawl

That morning he caught up with me as
we entered the packed lift 'Hey Lee
what are you listening to today?'

I thought about making something up
but just answered 'Psychedelic Horseshit'

    2nd floor
        3rd floor
            4th floor

and he never asked me again

I wore a beret to the office today, and people had **** to say
I wore a baseball cap pulled down over my injured eyebrows
I wore a sombrero on an Edwardian picnic

I wore a beanie to bed every night and I think it helped a lot
I wore a balaclava that was frozen to my mouth
I wore a bucket hat because it fits my face
I wore a fedora before it was cool Reuben
I wore a kippah and family pearls
I wore a trucker hat that said
    BRIDE
while my wife wore a button down that read
    QUEEN

I wore a trilby then, and of course one smoked
even if one didn't enjoy it

I wore a kufi and a Public Enemy T-shirt
I wore a Santa hat and each child took my picture
I wore a homburg hat, carried a bumbershoot umbrella
I wore a panama hat to a polo match on a cloudless day
I wore a mortarboard and robe, looking tall and clear-eyed
I wore a tam o'shanter, and had Brave **** written on my back
I wore a pillbox hat to my wedding and still get compliments to this day

I wore a visor and brought a sarong with me every single day
I wore a top hat, a ripped up suit, and dead flowers in the pocket
I wore a deerstalker most of the day Saturday, and I never do that
I wore a stetson with crossed sabers, yellow cord and sgt stripes
I wore a dunce cap and was summoned to the corner for the rest of the day

I wore a boater in summer and a beret in winter.
I did not look as good as this girl

I wore a pith helmet, a veil, a bee proof space suit,
leather gloves up to my elbows

I wore a Phrygian cap of doeskin lined with otter

I wore a turban then. In a flash we were
in each other's arms in an unrelenting hug

At breakfast on our second morning
I noticed she'd taken the same items as before
from the vast and sumptuous buffet and
perhaps foolishly asked if
she didn't want to try different things

'they've got smoked salmon, and eight types of bread,
honey from their own bees
and there's an egg station!'

she said: 'once I've made my choice I stick with it
it just keeps things simpler'

jokingly: 'I guess the same goes for your men too'

stupid, stupid boy

ladies and gentlemen, that
was my ex-wife

"Do you remember there used to be a couple
who they played those dragon games with.
Heather and Ray. They came down
from North Wales and stayed in a B&B.
His hair was even longer than Geoff's but he was very polite.
She didn't say a thing all weekend.

Anyway, they'd just gone to bed in their room
when there was a knock on the door. They
thought it was the landlady but it turned out
to be the chap who'd had the room before them.

He'd come back for his drugs. He said they were
hidden behind the toilet. Well, they didn't
want to upset him so they let him in
and he got his drugs and that was the end of that."

Some days are for consolidation
some days are for transformation

You cannot hide your vestigial tail
your belly is ***
your jelly is hot
stumped cut off salamander trail

I am the secretary of my sensations
my magic is my weakness
you must invite me across your threshold

It's pretty uh *******
only four miles from your house
say it's semi mediaeval, but
great stuff for the launch pad, and
something about the bleakness, the
overbearing concrete structures

Some of the evenings may require consolation
some of those nights end in devastation

Lies are exotic, and the truth
the truth is pretty basic