That year caterpillars ate
The Cabbages-

No soup but
A flighty crop

Of White-Winged
Butterflies

what shall ye be
old man, dying man?

a dog perhaps, driven
by passion, guarding
the house of master
or maiden

a tree perhaps, stolid
by a river, rooting shooting
flowering and fruiting

a snake old man
slithering and hissing
and tempting the ******

a louse dying man
itching and *******
raising curses all around

what shall ye be
a pebble in a stream
methinks, grinding
sand in the clear
cool water

I went into the darkness

I did

Where sensible people leave
Alone

And felt the ultimate blackness

I did

It was so cold so sure so

Strong.

Black yang

Not bad

White yin

Not good

No emotion

Good bad
Indifferent

No notion who am
Within

Lone daisy
Defies frost-

Thaw folds

Poem of extinction

Pigeon roadkill

Crows kaw
With
Delight

Crawling across the earth
one of many creatures
crawling through the garden

Where is your dominion
termite mounds built high

Too many bonfires!
Too many bonfires!

Recalling now
Your smiling
Lips
And smileless
Eyes

Don't remember me.

Dust in your eyes

Phphew

Swirl and gone

So lustrous
Jenny and
her long curled
black hair

Oiled,
beautiful in
spring sun.

I cannot love you
but I love you,
Jenny girl

How did I spend the vigour of my youth,
on chasing fame
and riches
and chimera of power?
No.

And somewhat proud I say
of that.

So what lay waste
the flower of my time?

Travelling to stars
outside the
planetarium of skull?
No.

No seeker of novel worlds
and strange practice
beyond sitting on the ***.

With this body encased
in mind did I explore
my globe

In walking and sitting
and standing and lying
in running and swimming
in energy pared
in eating and ******* and sleeping
in sexing and drinking
and library reading.

So tell me old man
of this misspent time
of the hurts you made
and the lazy days

And tell me of the
hells you created
of the good intentions
fallen to dust

And do not omit
the belly laughter
and small kindness
and hospitality to strangers
and open heart
and spirit soaring.

And tell me now
how will the fruit
of time be thrown
into the small basket
of remaining days?

Why what to expect
of a maverick reprobate,
but more sweet lady,
a little more of the same

Chrysanthemum fuschia marigold lobelia begonia hibiscus frangipani poppy

                                Some unnamed wildflower
By the side of a mountain path
In the rain

Smelt once
Never forgotten

And wild garlic plucked in
Fevered hunger

O god

I need your
Earthly connection with
Color and narcissistic
Flour-

Manna from heaven

Strange how suns burn out
Tired of the light

If I concentrate
Once more

There wil be

Nothing!

Three golden headed
dandelion
open to sun

Unseen dandy lions
people scurrying by.

One day on
closed face
turning to seed

Full
The moon

Full to aurora
Bursting

The small i
Dormant this
Decade and
More

Leaf in order
I

Shall flower
And fruit
In order

Spreading
Benificence

At last

Across the land

Sand heap

Eroding

Roots in crevice

Half way up-

Down-

A cliff edge
Clinging tree

Isolate-

Some seed spilt bird
Dropped me here.

One day-
Perhaps-

A wandering poet
Slips-

Falls and grabs
Windblown trunk.

Now-
You
Poet-

Learn to

Climb

"Without trace,
Leaving only ash

Good-night rice-paper
Person.

Little damage done
To earth-

To infinite space...

No trace, like
Flying geese
Through time.

(Love)"

So hungry

Young women

So old!

So old!

This language

Already archaic

Sits ageing on

The page-

A youth-like this
Once was-

Stares vacant
Into space

Goodbye
sweet raft.

I climbed the
grassy bank
and watched

Until the rapids
took and dashed
you on jagged rock.

(some nights still
a sliver of  bamboo
pierces my slumber)

For so long
Wanted death

(From the womb
Hated life)

Now death nearby
Fear loathing terror

And prospective
Oblivion

How cruel
And sad

And unyielding

This solid slab
Of time

Intoxication of the bee

Dancing lavender
In the hive

In complete freedom
I sing to you

But no
Cross-words

Words and notes
Have no owners

They waft through
Souls picking up
Flavors

Surf on minds
Developing
Patina

Slither along cultures
Taking on
Color

Glide with history
Collecting
Tone

Events

Anarchy
Violence and blood

Revolution in the air
And angry
(Raging)
Men on the rampage

Look out
Look out
All the years of niceness
Fundamentally

Falling

Apart

Our wedding day
My husband
(My husband!)

Walked the cable
On the suspension
Bridge

And so did I!

Before bedding I
Wet the family scroll

But no-one now
Can read it.

So we just lay
Together

Watching the moon
Rise

Between
Electron and
Nucleus

Boson dancing
A jig-

Pan pipes a
Neutron aboard

This floating world-

Limitless space
Within the
Solid

We are Twinned-
Sub-atomic nucleii

What a Quark

One at the centre of
Creation

One Photon-stretched-
Expanding at pace

Far Away
Twins

Leaping Dolphins

Swimming in
Space

What a plight

To circle a planet.

New moon

Sand heap

Eroding

Talk of Tomorrow
As if it were a
Thing

A clay malleable,
Made to some Will o'
The Wish

No tomorrow is
Nor can be,

Tomorrow, Yesterday
Cannot exist.

Just This
Now
Synapse
Arm
Pen

I tread lightly
Upon the earth,
Frosted or
Moist.

And when I
Die,

Just a little
Ash

Swimming
No

Treading
Yes

Above
Tornadoed

Deep dark hole

Unusually
Below

Wine-Dark-Sea

Turbulent
Blackcurrant

Cur­rent-which way

To
Go-

Kick or slow?

Embarrassed
in the sky
how can you hang

Bombarded by comets
your pitted face

Pitied face

Blue sky morning
who are you, moon,

Who am I

To tell truth today

Impossible?

Flower explosion

What can we do

When it goes into
the dark?

Yes
Fond remembrances,
As of war.

It was love,
It was,

And yet,
On reflection,

Goodbye to you
All

Goodbye
And fare thee
Well.

High mountain

Body
Transparent

Shimmering
Leaf-like

Veined-

Dancin­g thru
Ether-

Windblown ice,

Beyond heat
And cold

Dancing thru
Ethereal
Soul

Floating above
A silken sea-

Gielgud reciting
Poems-

A universe my
Little concertina

Sitting on
leaf litter
at the river bank

Spirits of those
once known
half forgotten

Drift by.

People stones animals
plants and objects
drifting by

Whisper hallo
wave goodbye

My ears
Get

Frayed

Took the charcoal
of a burned out star

and scratched a parchment
of atrophied skin

making something new
from redundancy

It is your
Absence

That

Foolishly

Leads our
Yearning for

Your Presence

Octopus tentacles
Fully engaged-
Alive

who has these before
a name became the thing,

before your name
came to my ears

who had a way
with you?

not you
nor neither me
not him nor her
nor it.

before a name fell upon
from mother sky,
mother thigh

who, where off this earth
was I?

Anointed
In oil

Bee
Flicking
Glows
Pollen
Laden
Falls

Cupped hands
two pair

Two hearts
beating

Your heart
my hands

My heart
in yours

Red, wilted pink
hands
hearts

Hold them
gently
safely

Four hands
two hearts
one love

Oh how
The classifying mind

Reclaims-

Renames

The unruliness of being-

Loosens worm with
Incisive *****

For black-bird
To swoop

How did the wild wheat
Survive the sheep
Shorn grass

The wild rice
Survive the
Buffalo graze?

And how did this small boy
Survive the
Dysfuntional family,
Calamitous friendship

And the obligations
Of love?