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

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

Moon set
sunrise

How I love
to be alone

Moon rise
sun set

This spinning ball

How I love
to be alone

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

Aesthetics of woman
roundness warmth
loquacious fecundity

Desire overcome
all that remains-

Beauty

We came
Out of africa

Now we are
Coming out
Of earth.

It is what
We do-

Migrate

Beneath the thatch
Cozy
Relaxed

Legs stretch out

The gap between
Fire dance
And log

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

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

Smallness of flowers
In grass

Butter
Cup
Daisy

Tears

Anchored tight

Anchorite

Walled in a cell

With
Windows

To the the
Loving
Livelong
World

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.

O tree
In your
Small curls

Fly rings
Of history

A plant pushed
A new leaf
Today-

Love despair
And love
And despair

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

soft yearnings and
brooding mistakes.

drop that sack of coal
and burn it in
the warm hearth
of your new home

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.

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

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

Vow fulfilled

Age grew a hat,
Youth wore none,

Sun touched
Madness.

Snow peaked roof
Now rain snow sun

My age
Grew a hat

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

Volcanoes
Oceans
Moons and women only they

Know how to flow

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

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

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.

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

You think air is air

You fool

Water is everywhere

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.

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...

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

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

How we plunder the young
For our wars
We old bald men

Frantic for a comb

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.

Perhaps a damp sponge
Will wipe night terrors-

Expunge trace of Moon
To slip beneath Sun

Erasing memory, making
Flat a sorry curvature

Of this rough-edged,
Rotating ball.

Trading a violence of
Sapiens

For the calm of
Shimmering Dawn

Why should not
A  man

Experience

Briney beauty

Of emotional
Release

And all I wanted was a kiss
Vast emptiness
nothing

Empty empty space
and all I wanted

Was you here

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

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

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

Crows
Pruning
Sleeping lime

Take dead stalks
Only

To build
Home

Tried to write
Wordless Poem

Perhaps succeeded

But could not share
So

What is the Use?

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

No movement-

Still

In a building;
Head shrinking,

Wrinkles out-
Lining

Small perspective.

Expansive dream of
Yesteryear

Distilled in a single

Tear

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

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

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

You are the moth
In the fabric
Of my being

Full of holes

I cover
Inadequate
Naked soul

Top hat
Tails

Military men

Have that
Bearing

Scarlet waistcoat

Long hours
On parade

London hotel doorman