trod lightly to avoid
disturbing leaves fallen
and feeding filamental roots
of fungus.

these puffing spores,
teasing the nose to sneeze
a spawning mushroom love.

wherewithal to breed,
hypothecary of suspension
neither dead nor alive, hung
in the balance, forests outweighed.

you soaked my love in your hand
kerchief, adjusted outdoor lipstick
in the mirror forever ready in the sacred
pouch of bag.

you like to love in the woods, on the beach,
in that castle and on the bus
carrying us from Paris.

thrilling the thought of capture,
a sudden lens, natural rapture,
fecundity of trees spilling carefree nuts,

of hairy bee legs moving the future,
whole species in a shuddering buzz.
hairs in my nasal passage protrude,

never have money, the
necromancer said, reading this face,
portraiture of fortune.

but in this new forest
on bedded lichen and moss
scratching and soothing, intermittent
I saw you, naked as morning joy.

Grubbing up shrubs
Make a safe path-

This one who
Crosses ravines
On invisible tightropes

And falls
Cartoon
To puffs of dust
And then
Resumes

Now that life has
Scattered

To the ten
Directions

Blown by winds
Of change
Of chance

How

Where shall
We once more

Coalesce?

Itch
Scratch

A rash calf-

It took years for
The bark to spread-
Leg-trunk-head

Til roots sank from
Foot soles to
Molten core of iron-

For limbs to sprout from
Eyes-ears-mouth to
Foliate-

For boy to man
To grow-

Begin rustling

To speak or
Scream into the
Howling wind

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
?

Heaved aboard-
lay flat on your back
on swabbed and
polished deckboards
and watch the white
sails fill

As we sail into dawn,
red and yellow banners
counter intuitive,
streaming ahead of our
godspeed.

Unwrecked,
rescued,
lifted from fossil sea

Powered by wind
to cut wine-dark waters
homeward
bound roped and rigged

And freedomed

Experiment was I?

Expectations,
See if he like
The girl
Of daddy friend

See if he like
Auntie

See if he like
Daddy big man

Se if he survive
Family

A dis-ease of classification

Category of categories,

And each morning tiny flowers
Open their heads
To sample the breeze

Above the salt pans
royal prerogative reigns

But tarnish the jewel

And the meat is eaten
unseasoned

Click-click
we speak
click-click
and feed with lions

Regalia of a
crooked king
becrowned
enthroned by tide

Click-click
we walk
far out of africa

And the relationship
of men to stones
the purity of gold
stained, eaten
by lion-hearted
monarch
At the ley-lined end
of genocidal desserts

Migratory waves
denied
enmeshed

And walls crash
to dancing music
amid final insult
to the mass

Click-clicking
and walking

Singing and dancing
the mountains a
handful of dust

Sea only salt
and river bed dry
and dammed
to hell

Sparkling with ruby
glowing emerald
green as the plain
after monsoon
rains down fresh we
live through drought
sail the flood and
in the end
bloodied in futile battle

Click-click and die

"Be in the present
in the here and now"

In arrogant black still
sure
very still

Equanimity, equilibrium
yes

But Godwin please your
be here now
ruinous to stillness
to meditation
rupturing the pre-dawn silence and
self-reflected perfection

What it is like
now you are dead

To realise-
pupil sometimes equals
fool

After the third
Solar system

I began to wonder
If a one-way ticket
Was wise.

You see one star
Close
You see them all-

Set foot on distant
Planets

And not a hot girl
In sight.

"Computer, turn around"

Does not compute is the
Reply.

And so
On we go

To infinity

Full moon
Again

Darling moon in
Such a hurry

Through the years

They said I would die
Before forty
My friends and
Their bets

Thought I would die
2014
When my world stopped

So glad I failed
To die as so much
I failed before

So glad to read you
And you and you

Dreaming of oriental
opulence and power

Time to set fair
for the east

Luxuriate in foliage
screeching parrot
clawing blood
from shoulders
sore from labour.

Some day soon
the silk robe shall adorn
this shabby body
and a vast turban
studded with gems
will stiffen the neck
and tighten sinews
sagging from
riding bed
sick and imbibing
cheap wine.

Bring me the winged stallion

I must
must must
fly

Living curled
In the bole
Hole of a mighty
English oak

Jolly jack tar
Dreams of his
Wooden ship sailed
Braving gales

On strange
Southern seas,

Of pet albatross

And the urge to
Float as he please
In unending ease

Trust current and swell
Of seven known seas

And land of fruit
And flower

Of bold girls under
Waterfalls and a
Parrot and an
Eye-patch and unlimited
Gold dubloons,

And when he unfurls
Cramped frame and
Sticks his head
Outside

Still the rains fall

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

Go into space-

Where are

The

Boundaries?

Home again
Home at last
The picture hangs

The man cut down

Rub soreness
From the neck

(Baby
Umbilus strangled
Slips the
Noose,
Scream slimy relief)

And born
Yet again
To express

With my love
Walk your life

Away from me
With him

Or whomever
Wherever
You go.

Know I love
And that
Warm envelope

Goes with you

Go-
With my love-
Walk

Permanent present
In
Present impermanence

O

With no immediate
Memory
Yet all
Events
Recall in perfect
Clarity

O

Here
Now
And now
Gone

O

Life without
Relation
To
Unrelated

Object

Nor subject
Relates to
None

O

Moon set
sunrise

How I love
to be alone

Moon rise
sun set

This spinning ball

How I love
to be alone

"It is not quite finished"

"Well
Neither am I"

Aesthetics of woman
roundness warmth
loquacious fecundity

Desire overcome
all that remains-

Beauty

Smallness of flowers
In grass

Butter
Cup
Daisy

Tears

O tree
In your
Small curls

Fly rings
Of history

Sqirrel dug
1958
Buried a nut

Forgot

Today sit
Tree canopy
Shelter

Forgive

That lazy foraging

water boatman oaring
surface tension

lotus floating
tadpole below
snail mudsliding

koi refracting

frog jumps in

SPLASH!

Caked in glutinous sediment

Autocthonous man
rises slow, stands giant

On the shore
barnacles fleeing
the resurrection

This rock
Handled
Pulsing
Alive?

My little
Alien
Friends

This small
Quartzite
Pule is
Universal

Love

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.

Every syllable a shock

reminder of genes
chimpanzeeed in error.

aberration of speech
worm-holing space,

frog-splashing time,

Homer not gone,
****** calls to battle

and the siren song.

A plant pushed
A new leaf
Today-

Love despair
And love
And despair

Ancient wood
Gone

Sailed to every
Genocidal continent.

Armada splintered
Divinely winded

Only new forest
Squared and rowed
Bridle-pathed and
Signed for city

Fat henry hunted
Stag and wife

New camera click
Surprise the deer
The pony

And I

And in this cell
Of eye
Of blood marrow
And brain encased
In cell of skull bone

Must I brood and
Wait on sacred flood

Each cell hums
Each muscle tense
And calling

Each and every part
Imploring

Freedom

3
Slight bulging of scales,
Ache then piercing and
Calcified nails emerge imperial.

Even from pre-beginning,
Post universal end-

A yearning for mountain,
For cave,
For cooling pool of crystal stream-

Soothe sore red skin
And quench a fiery thirst.

Buried her between the root
thighs of an ancient olive.

pressed the oil into blood-
flesh into food.

our picnic finished a
garland laid in lieu of stone.

one thousand years of gnarled trunk
she blisters in the summer haze
the dip-stream running on.

Age grew a hat,
Youth wore none,

Sun touched
Madness.

Snow peaked roof
Now rain snow sun

My age
Grew a hat

Stormy petrel albatross curlew skylark martin swift swallow robin sparrow raven crow falcon heron stork eagle vulture budgie parrot gull penguin puffin hawk
                                     Birds
And poets
Flutter
And trill

If, one sweet night
I held you in my arms
and whispered to your
pillowed ear

Then would you feel
the nuanced fear,
our tender hearts
tender, sincere.

Today 10,000 leagues
apart, let me hold your
body with only mind

Seagull you can
Soar and dive and
Squawk,
Multi-tasking.

You may squabble in the

Air

Or sit serene on

Water

Or waddle on land

Take food from trash
Or fish the sea.

O seagull how you are

So unlike me

Land and women
land and women

Fertile land
fertile women

Stop

Fighting for
land and women
and status
and land
and women
and

Stop

Telling me
to grow up

You grow up

I see you in the morning,
sleep-bagged eyes
ring tired resignation

Snailed backpack
containing all you hold
in frost-nipped dawn.

Your terrible freedom
appeals, appals
in simple ferocity.

Come rest in my cave
on the western cliff
until the globe revolves
to warmer evenings.

A man you are
king of the lousy road.

My heart yearns
for that earnest seeking

Leaf pushes,
Bursts
Through
Fingertip-

Sun
Bending close
Whispers
Spring

As bee bumbles
Into shell-like
Ear,
Petalled.

Rooted to the
Spot
Awe-sruck

Once again
The fearful
Tremulous
Hum

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

Crows
Pruning
Sleeping lime

Take dead stalks
Only

To build
Home

Cartons

Bottles

And
Happy

Loneliness

Atop some towering
ivory lighthouse

Engulfed in
storm surge

Watching a spinning
light bravely surf
the waves.

At lands end with
three thousand miles
of water and air

Nothing solid
the very granite
morphs to sponge

You are the moth
In the fabric
Of my being

Full of holes

I cover
Inadequate
Naked soul

How lonely am I

As lonely as that

Seagull in a blue
And empty sky

Wither, whether
Bye bye and bye

How lonely how lonely
How lonely am I