magpie black, white
etched on blue grey steel
sky

tree bare,
buds in relief

over sloping roof.

now magpies,
fluttering to rest,
white and black,
mate.

never believed in
perspective,
history nor
evolution,

the game of birds
coupling,
pigeon dances
I had seen, yet
still
without belief.

on my man-couch,
reclining,

western cave in
the east,
facing south-

am I at last so
wrong? about
everything?

tomorrow I burst
like the bud

then we shall see
order or
chaos.

will this doubt become
flower
fruit
or leaf?

Rotting corpse
Chained around the neck

Has fallen
Finally from
Nostril zone.

Bad deeds
Undone

All is left

And come
To right

The sweetest

Smell

Of freedom

Spikes fix above the
Dance shop
Pink

With frills tutus and
Little girls shepherded
By disappointed mums.

North-west
A dark flock massed
Swooping at dusk

Coating the pink in white
Black-spotted
Guano.

Birds.

If they connect
Those tiny
Brains...

Moon keeps moving

Why not stay still?

Aha

Moving

Movement

Life

Crows
Pruning
Sleeping lime

Take dead stalks
Only

To build
Home

In the first frost before
Dawn
With the addled mind

Befuddled by last night
Late wine

There

I say there

In the parched
Throat

Grinning for
Eggs poached

There is I say there

In that muffled moment

Of awakening

Lies

(Half choked
Half laughing)

The truth.

I do not wish

To disguise

The tears-

They furrowed

Who I am

Drink all day

Do not

Be afraid

Of death

When knife

Slices

There is

Now

No-one

There

So full of emptiness

Each miniscule fibre

Vibrates with

Intensity of far off star-

What are orbs but eyes

Perceiving cold blankness

Of space

Hurtling ever out

Never to return?

What this mouth but

Screeching creation-

May hole be made

From black despair?

Rips in fabric

Reveal scarlet lining of

Life-

And way beyond all

Understanding a

Solidity of

Unremarkable

Faith-

What can possibly go

Wrong?

Why everything of

Course

And yet

Yet

Lies not with bacteria
Nor death
Nor the
Remorseless march
Of time.

The problem with decay
Is the whole cycle of
Seasons to
Decompose.

Impatient

Throw me on a fire-
A big one-
And hasten the
Lovely oblivion

To laughing life

Surely a sludge
Of knowledge
Lodged
Somewhere

In remnant brain

If not

The wall-stare
Did better
Than even
Master knew

In deepest shaft
Of coal-black
Consciousness
I lay

Dormant these millenia

Until in time existence flow

Unabstracted by thought

God blew life
Through nostril beard and mouth.

Shimmering in carbon
Granules I rose
To green sod and walked

Somehow creatured

Some way
Man

She came she went

She came she went

She came she went

Having no-mind
To make up

I simply witness
This event

Your mystery deepens

Diamond of a
Thousand facets

Irridescent you
Sparkle

My eye to blindness
Dazzled by
Loveliness.

When you walk
Your sway sinks
Ships in the south
China sea,
Far away

When you sit
Space rockets
Accelerate to
Galaxies unknown

And when you lie
Down...

Well

By your ***.

In moonlight your
Rhythms upset and
Entice in
Equal measure.

Mysterious goddess
Of earth
Of soul
Of soil

What to do with
Such fabulous
Witching power?

She moves like
A whisper

I feel her flush
My ear with a
Tickle brush
Of calligraphic pleasure.

You cannot exactly
See her

She moves like a
Breeze or
Jasmine scent

And then,
Gone,

Only the sweetened
Fragrance

Of a pure heart

In being

You cannot remake a day
Cannot remodel it
In clay

Goodbye
It is gone

Wake up
Still breath
Steams

Today

The only
The best day
Of your life

The inconvenience
Of death
Is suddenness.

Sun rose late

Mid-winter

Yet rose she did
And bloom into breath

Once again
Did we

O these
Cherry blossom
Words

Flutter from
The page

As shall I

Unthumbed by new
Generation
Language

Algorthymic

Who? What
Who? What
Am I?

Walked 10,000 miles

100 years

Who what
Carried canvas sack

Shed tears
Who what-

Now sit and ponder
Who? What
Who? What
Am I

Yes
I laid you
Egg words
Soft round
Full of paternal
Love
*****
Yolk

Yes
I scooped out
Sand and
Covered you
Turtles
On the beach

And now I roam
The sea
And your words
Shell your little
Webbed legs

Alone

So tired
So sleepy
And curled
Your *******
And my arms
All around.

Too tired for
Thought
And only the
Whisp of hair
Curled
Mirror whorl to
Ear

Match to fierce
Tornado
Passion

And so tired
So sleepy-
Disarmed

Only the moon
Defines our day
With orbit

Only sunshine
Allows our life

Only our ***
Creates our people

Only your love
Made me whole

New moon drifts away
3.87 cenimetres
Each year

The night shall stretch
And die

You left
All at once

Only I cry
I cry
I cry

2
Not one iota
Of support
From birth to
Gray day-

How does the impulse
Live on?

The wondrous joy
Of being
Of creating

With the great impediment
Of family
Friend
Discouragement.

If I look east
I Walk west

Down
Up
And
Around
All
Is

Perfect
Especially

Failure

1
London road lights
Blind intensity
And the loved oblivion

Of starless
Blackness is
Lost-

Lost souls
Seek succour
In neon

And the only
Sun
Lies sullen
And disengaged-

Moon too
Disinclined to
Shine

On the
Unbelieving.

The need for love
(What that may
Be)
Unremitting-

Lightness and
Absence
Unsure-

Heart flutters
Questing for pace-

Centenerian haul of long
Long

Overdue
Survival

Too many

The ways

Of this world

The next

Too much

To be known

In one mind

Or seed

To

Be

Sown

Top hat
Tails

Military men

Have that
Bearing

Scarlet waistcoat

Long hours
On parade

London hotel doorman

Age grew a hat,
Youth wore none,

Sun touched
Madness.

Snow peaked roof
Now rain snow sun

My age
Grew a hat

Away in the world,
So hard those years.

Back through gateless
Gate

Where waters meet

And fifty monks
All fallen in
The river

Laugh.

And some fool said
10,000 words a day

And this one
Reply
Is all-

What?

And take the
Plunging love
Of language

And turn it
Into job.

Nothing to say

Say it

Ok
Go dig coal

I await the
Diamond

Did you see
My portrait?

Tiny figure in a corner of
Mountains and lakes

This is who I am

Small

Not

Insignificant

Jade tree cuttings
In window sill tray

Pictures on walls

Panama hat
Hooked

Not a stick of
Furniture
To soften the bones

Home sweet home

Crescent moon
Through
Undraped window

Old silk gown
Neglected these
Many years.

How good to slip
Arms into wide sleeves

To pull the silken cord
Tight
Around
*** belly.

Black side in,
Dragon subdued

Green side outer,
Phoenix
And blossoms.

O to rise from
Ashen life
Lost

Anew

Renewed

(With tear on cheek
Writing love poems
To her)

And so
Fog

Descends.

Fields from train
Disappeared

And luxurious
Time

Lost,
Sacrificed

Which creator whistled
Lines
Mapping outback
Lands

Who sang the rings
Of saturn into being

Which one danced
The spinning orbital
Rocks

Yet forgot to paint
The blue
The green

Forgot to breathe life
Into these
Desolate stones

Cold as hell frozen
Over
Or
Bubbling
Hot
But
Rock
?

From your end of
Telescope

Thirty years scans
Infinity

From my end merest
Blink of eye.

When slightest wink
Of billion mile
Star

Outlasts every planet
In the sky

In the beginning
Was the poem

What god made
Better than this sad
Universe only
I and you can make
With words

Sullied by overuse-

I love this world this poem

This notion that only
I and you may
Understand

This darkest night

Where do seagulls
Sleep

On the swell swell
Swell
With undertow deep
Deep deep

In town on house or
Factory
Surely not branched
In birch

(Moving to cities
Huddled for warmth)

And when switch
Cuts
You stay with pain
The pain pain

Take the strain strain
Strain
When deep undertow

Holds you down down
Down

This may be where
Seagulls sleep

In the brain brain
Brain

Tiny bit of rock
Hung
Unsupported,
Caressed by
Morning star

Small light given free

O how i love the early pre-dawn

And you
Reading
Nothing else

How your reading has
Helped this two year
Bad dream
Pass.

You do not know
How you
Kept this old soul
Alive.

Thank you
And from this
Miraculous sliver
Of moon

Accept the silver spoon of love

I would sing
To you
My love

Could I sing

I would dance
With you

Could I dance

I would take
You fly
My love

Could I fly

But cannot

So
Please
My love

Accept this
Metronomic
Beating heart

In lieu

How to hold this rage,
To keep belly-fire
Burning

In righteous anger

As manifold wrongs
Surround.

How to keep this rage
When love balm
Overflows
To calm the furnace

From single cell
Floating

To diversity

Wild rice to
100 varieties
This mono-culture
Anti-nature

Reverse evolution
From multi-form to

Simpleton

Nary a rime
On the grass-

Barely a ****
In the trees

Hotter and
Wetter
Each passing
Winter-

When will this
Be Mars?

Scattered thoughts
Escape the pen
Of reason.

All along a
Sinuous trail
Is laid,
Snail slimed,

Easily followed
Yet utterly devoid
Of meaning.

One day
Focus
Shall gimlet point

To the core
Of snail shell,
Fractal,

Shall return
Wildcats to the
Source-

To the reason
For thinking-

For...

I sense your
Fragility
Unpainted lady

Wings frayed from
Flight through
Storms of static

Voice flutters
Digitised,
Fragmented

Subtle beauty noted

I acknowledge too
The strength of
Your journeys,
Of
One who migrates

Across continental drift
Through dark tunnels
Of despond

Yet with
Psychic power
And mothering love

Surmount all

I call too
If you may
Hear...

When vague
Unsatiated
Lusts
Float across
Flush pink eyelids
Closed
Against harsh
November sun

I open to note
A burnt orange leaf
Leaving its branch

In flight unknowing
Where
When
To land

Look how open
Rings of softwood
Fresh cut
From farmed forest.

Straight tree from
Straight row,
Inability to

Look
Feel thousand
Year oak, old
Gnarled wood
Useless

Weeping amber
Through thick
Bark look
And feel

As drought years
Tighten rings
And
Wet
Fast growth of
Sunshine,

Canopy galloping to light.

Build house marry ring to
Swollen finger

Construct seat
Table

Young wood and all
The paraphenalia of pretence

Live good
Happy life

But I shall nestle,
Look, feel
Half eaten oak and

Soak my soul
In history

I saw you
In new forest

Bhodidharma

In the folded bracken

All that
4 love

Important architecture
Of the soul

Forgot it

Only now

These words
Come from
No knowhere

Before unformed

After
Free

(To you
To you only)

This a silly
Unaware
Conduit

What i am

And in the fluid
Between
Your old skin

And the new

I float
Snake lady.

Will i be discarded
Or retained
To glory

In the shining
Diamond

New

You