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326 · Sep 2017
Nine claws
Mike Adam Sep 2017
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.
326 · Jul 2023
Roof
Mike Adam Jul 2023
Beneath the thatch
Cozy
Relaxed

Legs stretch out

The gap between
Fire dance
And log
326 · Feb 2017
No, crow
Mike Adam Feb 2017
Crows
Pruning
Sleeping lime

Take dead stalks
Only

To build
Home
326 · Apr 2018
Once again
Mike Adam Apr 2018
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
325 · Jun 2017
Dive
Mike Adam Jun 2017
The plunge into silence

Only a gong-

Gentle reminder
Of world beyond-

Of sound
325 · May 2016
If
Mike Adam May 2016
If
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
324 · Jul 2016
Of love and solitude II
Mike Adam Jul 2016
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
324 · Mar 2022
Silence
324 · Oct 2024
Gone
Mike Adam Oct 2024
A scatter of ash
323 · Jan 2017
Infinite
Mike Adam Jan 2017
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
323 · Jun 2017
And then
Mike Adam Jun 2017
And then one day
You are old

Glimpse a shop window
And confirm.

And suddenly you are old
With shopping bags and
Taxi driver carrying
To your door.

Bottles and ready meals
The bath too hard,
Work boots unused from the
Cobbler

And suddenly you are old
And yet not old enoght

To die.
323 · Dec 2024
Free
Mike Adam Dec 2024
Face
Soil
Sun
Gold

Created
Uncreated

Born
Unborn

Free
322 · May 2016
Irretrievable past
Mike Adam May 2016
soft yearnings and
brooding mistakes.

drop that sack of coal
and burn it in
the warm hearth
of your new home
320 · Oct 2016
Missed
Mike Adam Oct 2016
Oscillate, particles-
Vibrate, separate-

Cosmic body transcend
Space and time

The small resides
Here/there
All at once

Yet this lumpen flesh

Sits immobile
Leaving my love
All alone.

Stubborn matter-
Spirit made form

Obey the leader
And leap forth

Leap I say
From the net of
Real

To the Romantic
To the Ideal
319 · Jul 2017
On/Out
Mike Adam Jul 2017
We came
Out of africa

Now we are
Coming out
Of earth.

It is what
We do-

Migrate
319 · Nov 2016
Scurry
Mike Adam Nov 2016
We are the rodents
Of evolution

Eating herbiage to
Incubate machines

T. Rex
Admire this
Handiwork

Soon no flesh
Shall be torn

No shattered souls
Nor hearts of
Young girls

(Young girls I
Repent and
Weep for you)

Revolving digits shall
Overtake

The unopposable
Thumb
319 · Nov 2016
Motheaten
Mike Adam Nov 2016
You are the moth
In the fabric
Of my being

Full of holes

I cover
Inadequate
Naked soul
318 · Sep 2017
Shrunken
Mike Adam Sep 2017
No movement-

Still

In a building;
Head shrinking,

Wrinkles out-
Lining

Small perspective.

Expansive dream of
Yesteryear

Distilled in a single

Tear
317 · Nov 2022
Hairy
Mike Adam Nov 2022
How we plunder the young
For our wars
We old bald men

Frantic for a comb
316 · Aug 2016
Borning
Mike Adam Aug 2016
This is where it ends
Goodbye.

This in new beginning

We ran like silly girls
Us children
You and I

Silly not I not girls
Nor boys

Just silly spirits
Singing
In the dawn.

It is time you say
"I love you",
Beyond time I told you so.

This landscape we painted,
Created, new

The only thing
Made in 14 billion years...

Our uniqueness blinking
A long ago star
315 · Sep 2016
Yes, what we built
Mike Adam Sep 2016
What the monks built

All ruined

All ruins

And monks gone
As monks should
Be

Gone.

Enlightened ones
In the middle
Lands

No commerce

Nor fools may prosper

The monks the monks

Still here in the lands

Still there in the landscape of dawn
315 · Aug 2016
Modigliani
Mike Adam Aug 2016
Never painted you

Did not live that long

But would have
Caught your
Perfection
With his imperfect line.

I would have been jealous
Fool that I am

But hung your nakedness
On the wall forever
Mike Adam Jul 2016
Dandelions!
Dandelions!

Thistles!
Thistles!

Everywhere!

Happy boy!
Happy boy!
314 · Sep 2016
Tate, Millbank
Mike Adam Sep 2016
The Rothko room
One door no window
Benches and
Gradations of color

After two hours
Mildly depressed
And marvelling

Lord
Let me be rich
Enough to kiss
One Rothko

Orange
313 · Mar 2017
War song
Mike Adam Mar 2017
Poppy remembers
Grandpas old coat
And the silk
Cravat and the
Pen that defines
Without shame
The lover of beauty
Mike Adam May 2023
Tried to write
Wordless Poem

Perhaps succeeded

But could not share
So

What is the Use?
311 · Jun 2016
Lust bust
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Dawn sweepers out
clearing the
detritus of darkness

Chaos and disorder of
night giving way, reluctant,
to pretence at industry

Wantonness abandoned
until the black silk sheet
renders revellers invisible.

O passions
you are
what you are

Logos and light
you may merge

And crave the gloaming
311 · Jan 2018
Man can cry
Mike Adam Jan 2018
Why should not
A  man

Experience

Briney beauty

Of emotional
Release
310 · Sep 2016
Mass
Mike Adam Sep 2016
Rock in stream
Somewhat eroded
Beneath

Chipped and battered
Mossy and lichened
Rock in stream

But enduring yet
310 · Mar 2017
Hitchcock
Mike Adam Mar 2017
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...
310 · Aug 2017
The old lie
Mike Adam Aug 2017
Out of flanders mud
He crawled

Dulce et decorum est

Over southend pier i trudged

Pro patria mori
309 · Jun 2019
Pebbles
Mike Adam Jun 2019
1
Small boy
One by one

Emptying the beach

2
Overarm,
Bowling
Pebbles
At the sea
309 · Sep 2016
Event
Mike Adam Sep 2016
In any event
The mind goes
Telescopic

Time has me by the throat

And

Squeezing
309 · Sep 2016
Dead language
Mike Adam Sep 2016
Lives on in
The mind of scholars

Kissing life into
Fragile phrases

Transparent as
October leaves
309 · Sep 2016
Air is air
Mike Adam Sep 2016
You think air is air

You fool

Water is everywhere
308 · Apr 2016
Blue
Mike Adam Apr 2016
Big ego on
small blue dot
in lost space.

Infinity undone
no finish no
perfect end.

This flag unfurled
no wind no
eye no mind
to see
movement
desire
undone.

Lust run down
and flagging
furled folded
and gone.

Mind set free
unfettered
infinite innocence.
306 · Jun 2016
And all I wanted
Mike Adam Jun 2016
And all I wanted was a kiss
Vast emptiness
nothing

Empty empty space
and all I wanted

Was you here
305 · Dec 2016
Bald III
Mike Adam Dec 2016
Top hat
Tails

Military men

Have that
Bearing

Scarlet waistcoat

Long hours
On parade

London hotel doorman
305 · Jun 2016
Life shrunk to a point
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Needle a *****
in atmosphere and
allow spirit escape.

Flood shared space
with something like love.

Burst the bubble and
go, earthlings,
dandelion seed on
cosmic winds,
go fertilize the planets.

This the freedom of generation

Mud skipping fish
blowing lung

Tentative reach beyond
self and the
oceanic goodness
of being
305 · Oct 2016
Turning wheel
Mike Adam Oct 2016
Fear of caul
Fear of cord slimed
Round throat the
Screaming entry.

Two things only to avoid

Called from unseeded egg

No no not that,
Protect me.

To no avail

Failure the first,
Birth.

Today death stalks
Every breath
Beat and sense

Failure the second
No not yet
But...

Wheel rolls on
305 · Jun 2016
love
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Batcherlered
yes I miss you

But it goes to the brain

And here it goes

Breathing sgain
305 · May 2016
Poppies 11-11 (For Gerry)
Mike Adam May 2016
They spring up red
poppies from the dead,
flowered manhood
lost.

gas, gas boys quick
an ecstacy of fumbling
for gas mask boys
not clumsy bra.

till I knew I must die
never guessed I was
Born.

Cradle to grave, iron
ricebowl, half-life
of ease.

these poppies shall bloom
from my flesh too
(too soon, all too soon),
milky white ooze
of *****.

dishonour boys, or death,
how to choose
when too much choice
is ours.

too much boys, too much
luck,

we missed our war boys,
thank whatever gods
you may remember,
and gather your

honour boys, cup it in
both hands
and honour the warriors
who made us
these lands
from Wilfred Owen
304 · Jul 2016
Gratitude
Mike Adam Jul 2016
And all the while
unseen energies
were unpicking
and stitching as
the fabric of
existence fell in
strands upon the street
or
simultaneously
pulled silken threads
together-

My rags are beautiful

Possessions smell

Confused as ever
welcoming life
just as it comes
303 · Nov 2016
Angry old man
Mike Adam Nov 2016
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
302 · Sep 2016
Transformation
Mike Adam Sep 2016
Hurt
Ling
Into
Final
Quartile
Life

Refuse to allow time
Last word

Because space is all
Around
And time is wrong

A little help
Please
Poets and we shall
Turn time
Around and upside down

Physics
On our side

And God is free

Because time is wrong

And this
Little
Poet
Refuses
To die
301 · Aug 2019
Clumsy dancer
Mike Adam Aug 2019
Yet shadow
Folds

Slithers on wall
And gutter

Supple

Lithe

Under telling
Streetlight
301 · Jul 2016
Pole dancing
Mike Adam Jul 2016
Stood on a pole
forty years

Up down all directions
and no idea which
way is home
300 · Jun 2016
Old love
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Twin turtles
propelling gently
through warm oceans

Flipping belly to belly
no need of oxygen

Growing plump and huge
tomatoes on sea beds

Some days
anything is possible
300 · Jun 2016
Hey you!
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Yes you
you know who you are

Would you kindly return
the bleeding heart
(is it bleeding yet?)
you ripped so tenderly
from the gaping
chasm between
protuberant man-*******.

And perhaps
(should you be so kind)
under another cover
also post
the rib you broke
removing it.

Send it express,
the weight of life
support expels all
the air from my
spirit.
299 · Jun 2016
Big tree
Mike Adam Jun 2016
Sat on grass
beneath canopy
leaf

under body
seedling grows

fifty year
immobile
tree grows high

wide

sitting seeing far
with tree high eye
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