The shopper spins webs as he stumbles by the glass
A mind of fraught ideas seen from an overpass
"This neon doesn't know me, it wastes its time and energy"
He hums and dreams of an escape, and moral victory

But that which he wanted was gone, their greed had bought it all
Following the voices, to the lit up cubicle

All the rage it built in his spine, as it boiled away unsaid
Hypotheses are often, clearer in our heads

The owl fluttered on swiftly,
As she saw the grass shiver,
A dive like that of an athlete,
The wind the only one with her

Miles away the bells clanged,
As the peasants woke up for their shifts,
Grabbing their hoes and shovels,
To head across the ditch

In the valley the piper bounds,
As he jumps from rock to rock,
Whistling tunes into the air,
To the ticking of a clock,

And there's a rumble from the hills,
As the gravel tumbles down,
And starts crashing over the mountain,
In the shape of a frown

Hundreds of years later,
A city there now stands,
Thousands of weary people,
Longing for the sand

What once was there has gone,
What is there now was not,
The endless spin and rhyme of time,
Bonfires on rooftops.

Today my dream shattered before my eyes:

They didn't listen,
I wasn't fun,
Who is this robotic person
I've become.

We all know the darkness,
We've all felt the light,
We all want some peace at night

We're all born into different situations,
But feel the same things

Liquid sparkles clear,
Drops skip off our paddles,
The island's in the distance,
I hear your breath.

I stood out on the beach listening to Runaway and I have never felt so lost.
So utterly, gloriously lost.
The waves splashed before me in the dark, though I could barely make them out.
The lights flashed reassuringly in the distance.
The mountains invited me, I was a speck of dust in the glorious universe.
A pin-***** of matter in an explosion of stars.
A thing without meaning.
A physical entity with no home.

I try to listen to my feet now,
Hear the crunch before it begins,
The lime green of the leaves,
Sings on as my hair thins

Will someone come to save us,
Has the extractor lost its legs
I woke up in this hell hole,
And everyone had lost their heads,

And I just wish that the sun,
Would evaporate all I've won,
It all ascends invisibly,
Like life before a gun

One fine day,
I'll be out of this haze,
Yeah I'll be up in a tree,
And they'll all be staring at me.

Head out to the west,
I've seen it,
My second guess,
I knew one day you'd be mine,
Dependable as sunshine

There's a lit up crucifix,
Above a house made up of sticks,
We're all lost to skies and time,
Dependable as sunshine

Everyone's a barking dog,
When they finish what they say they're gone,
These lenses help me see the rhymes,
Dependable as sunshine

Scrawling marker on a pizza box,
As a record scratches on above,
Listening only to see the design,
Dependable as sunshine

A woman holds down a red balloon,
A thousand eyes distracted from the moon,
We've sold off our love and wine,
Dependable as sunshine

Pictures move above the crowd,
They listen as she sings out loud,
It's a shame we never read the signs,
Dependable a sunshine

Hi all, as I've already said, this isn't a poem, however I think some of my lovely followers might be interested that I released my debut album 'Above the Trees' over the weekend. It features many of the poems I've written on here in its lyrics so I think it counts as postable! I'm rather proud of it. Anyway, if you're interested here's how you can listen:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0MKy9TNQ6shPe86V4GLshH
Bandcamp: theidleowl.bandcamp.com
Others: It's everywhere, just search for 'The Idle Owl' on any streaming service etc and look for the 9 song album 'Above the Trees'.

As I'm no longer busy recording and mixing etc I'll be back on the poetry train. Yay. I'm excited.

Cheers,

The Idle Owl :)

How could you ever leave a place like Earth?
The whistling trees, the singing birds,

I know,
It's true,
But it was hard to keep my mind off you,

How could you ever leave a place like Earth?
The roaring seas, the desert burn

I know,
It's true,
But it was hard to keep my mind off you,

How could you ever leave a place like Earth?
The place you live, your place of birth,

I know,
I've seen it now,
You rarely come to mind anymore somehow

I look up above the trees,
and it might be because I'm high,
but the stars sparkle like a million possibilities,
exploding across the sky.

Why do people like sparklers so much?
Do they just look pretty, or is it deeper than that?
Is it because for a few minutes we feel we're not
just human beings,
inconsequential in the cosmos,
a piece of dust on an old chair in the attic,
a simple verb that someone said 100 years a go,
a planet long gone, unobserved into history,
a droplet of rain during a desert downpour,
and we actually feel special?
Like we're useful,
Like we're needed,
Like we're
Something

I saw you on the wooden bridge,
Staring at the sky,
The small fish below jumping in and out,
As if your tears had made them fly,

I walked a little closer,
Heard the birds up in the trees,
What worries do you have I thought,
Your lives are such a breeze,

I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused,
I'd like to rebuild what I've destroyed,

I stopped suddenly,
Worried I was close enough to be heard,
I wasn't ready to talk about it,
My thoughts were still with the birds,

I'll come back in a week or so,
I hope that you'll be here.
Perhaps I'll be ready to say these things,
To finally make it clear,

I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused,
I'd like to rebuild what I've destroyed,

A fair while later,
I finally built up the courage to speak,
I walked up to the bridge again,
Same time, same day of the week,

But stood there was a different person,
I was sure it wasn't you,
She threw bread in for the ducks,
She had bright red shoes,

I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused,
I'd like to rebuild what I've destroyed

The lights are fading into black,
As they try to flicker on the stacks,
But death will find us all one day,
Sleeping in some cosmic sway,

A tickle of presumption in the air,
The lifts that happened won't seem fair,
As peaks and eloquence fade away,
A truth that lead us all astray,

All I wanted was effortlessly afloat,
Above the hearted sunken boats,
Dropping towards those glinting eyes,
There was no doing in the way you tried.

The beers are flowing I'm winning all the bets,
The barman's sat on the frame throwing out cassettes,
A couple of Yakuts come to me smoking a joint,
It was so poorly rolled I had to press down on the point,

Excitement buzzes around about this rave in the jungle,
When in walks a man with tattoos all over his knuckles,
He hollers "Hurry up guys the taxi's coming in an hour"
The DJ adjusts his aviators and turns the music up louder,

I look up above the trees,
And it might be because I'm high,
But the stars sparkle like a million possibilities,
Exploding across the sky,

We're rattling in a Mondeo, no light but those from the front,
Khmer music drowned out by the creaking of the rust,
The driver hits the breaks we arrive in a serenade of sand,
Our English too fast for him to even try to understand,

We're here in the jungle and there's a ferris wheel,
And a stage made up of abandoned automobiles,
A carousel that'll set you back a couple of Riel,
The whole thing just feels so ******* surreal,

I look up above the trees,
And it might be because I'm high,
But the stars sparkle like a million possibilities,
Exploding across the sky,

The sky is full of stars but there's no sign of the moon,
We head to the back by the glistening lagoon,
Share the powder and lace it into our beer,
Clink cans and smile, down with a cheer,

I bounce from chat to chat,
All smiles and hope,
My spirit is soaring as everything,
Spills from my envelope,

As I look up to the black above the trees,
And it might be because I'm high,
But the stars sparkle like a million possibilities,
Exploding across the sky.

Sign up for this,
Sign up for that,
No questions please,
Fund plutocrats.

I've wandered days and days for you,
To find the satin of your shoe,
And now I've left the fields and corn,
To float above and feel reborn

I've headed out to greener dreams,
And found more people here it seems,
That seem content to look at me,
As I row out daily to the sea,

They give me grass in chains like crowns,
As birds make luminescent sounds,
As children play and sing their rhymes,
Of memories of better times.

The messenger sprinted softly,
His toes barely touching the ground,
His shoulder bag floating behind him,
As he reached the castle without a sound,

He opened the door with his shoulder,
Looked in and saw a silhouette,
Wisps of smoke swirling to the ceiling,
As they puffed on a cigarette,

He dropped the bag and ran as told,
But it thudded on the marble floor,
He'd never live to find what it contained,
As a gunshot started the next world war.

Birthed by Helvetia,
But raised by the dragon,
I've changed my life so many times,
I'm scattered on every bandwagon,

My list of goals,
Has been sat there for years,
The ones I wrote then,
Now bring me to tears,

I've moved on,
I've changed,
New things I want to do,
That list's no longer me,
So I've left it with you,

I've been fortunate enough,
To see the world,
To dance and live my life,
In an incessant swirl

Been finding myself,
And all that ****,
I found my dying body,
At the bottom of a ditch,

Roped him out,
Cleared off those who'd thrown him in,
He regained his energy,
To the tune of a mandolin,

Now I can't stop the ****,
Bouncing around,
As he sings his lungs out,
Skipping uptown,

I asked him what's changed mate,
You seem high all the time,
He replied 'I've finally discovered,
Life's a nursery rhyme'

The pain is gone,
The pain is gone,
I've finally found a friend,
I can count on.

The dust floats in my head,
And becomes time out of mind,
Something to sweep and observe,
Something to leave behind

Although he's been tied down for some time,
The eagle he now flies

With our bodies entwined,
We don't need the time,
We sit as one shape all aligned,
I stare right into your eyes

Although he's been flying now for some time,
The eagle he now soars

The forks they clattered,
As he dropped them on the floor,
Down in the corner,
By the fresh pine door,

A rush of nostalgia,
The warmth of something real,
A thought of his lost mother,
Preparing a meal

Red and black go well,
They complement each other,
Much like you and me,
A floating leaf,
A drifting feather

An epiphany awaits,
The fencer and his sword,
As he strides through the hall,
Looking for his word

I walk on in my canvas shoes heel to toe,
The pavement taps in time to the beat,
Behind me it's crumbling I'm oblivious to that,
I'm thinking about something I need to work at

The pavement is cracking, the rubble begins to fall,
But I'm too busy with music to hear it at all
Then my foot steps into the black,
I'm falling now, I'm looking back

- Why when I keep trying, won't this haze recede?
Why can't I see, I've got everything I need? -

The rubble falls, I look around,
I try to grab on to the falling ground
I reach out, scream, can't comprehend,
Too much to choose from, I see the end

Black and grey and black and grey,
I want to hold on but I've lost my way

- Why when I keep trying, won't this haze recede?
Why can't I see, I've got everything I need? -

Forwards, backwards, left and right,
I'm out of control, I'm in flight
I give in to gravity and submit to surprise,
Let go of it all, forever unsatisfied,

Forwards, backwards, left and right,
I'm out of control, I'm in flight
This isn't at all what was advertised,
What did I think? Why am I surprised?

- Why when I keep trying, won't this haze recede?
Why can't I see, I've got everything I need? -

The sound of voices strokes my soul,
The ups the downs,
The enunciation,
The rumble fuels my love of life,
Their stories excite me about mine,
There's something magical about a mind,
That's thought, that's pained, that's pondered time,
Expressing a ladder,
For me to climb.

He threw a hammer through the window,
And followed it though the glass,
The shards cutting his skin,
Before he landed on the grass.

The peacock fluttered heavily.
Charging towards the sun,
As it dropped and dropped so slowly,
Before the dark had finally won,

The town it hummed with emptiness,
As he stumbled over the stones,
Put there a thousand years ago,
By families and bones

The steadfast suit it chased him,
Through the alleys and the fountains,
Glassed blood it flowed across him,
As he scrambled up the mountain

The summit was bitter cold,
Though he couldn't feel his limbs,
He threw himself down the north face
And pretended he had wings.

Have you seen the depth I fell?
Do you know the truth I held?
As it vanished into the distance,
And landed with a death knell.

The jester walks the garden path,
Carrying the gullible in his boots,
The jester walks the garden path,
He makes them late as he commutes

He star jumps gleefully into the road,
The traffic comes he sees a chance,
He star jumps gleefully into the road,
For everyone to witness his deadly dance,

But they laugh and laugh and say he's them,
But he's not them for he is him,
He knows only a culture of owning,
A culture of convenience above knowing,
A world of gold and broken seams,
One where laughs distract from extremes,
He knows not empathy, or love or service,
Only a selfish desire to hold office

He knows not the energy he steals,
From those who pass it to him through laughs,
Those who have everything pulled from their heels,
While the jester stands and points at the giraffes.

The clouds hum in soft white,
As the sky sings electric blue,
With the strings played by sunlight,
And percussion by the meadow rue,

If I stare into the distance long enough,
Will these thoughts pass on to you?

There's a hurdler in the distance,
Approaching from afar,
Nothing struck him in this instance,
Though the setting was bizarre

He somersaults each in a flurry,
As the clouds threaten to rain,
The flowers flutter with worry,
As they sight the old warplane

He runs straight out the exit,
Takes a right onto an avenue,
Where streetlights line the docks,
And pebbles question you

Waves crackle over the pier,
As he flies across the decking,
He throws his hands up and volunteers,
To the cold hiss of forgetting

Some time later he awakes,
On a beach of pebbles and shells,
Hasty escape perhaps a mistake,
A fall from carousels

A tower commands the sea around,
Windowless, aged concrete,
He laughs and spins at what he's found,
Alive but incomplete

With this metal nonsense the case is lost,
The answers were held in the diplomat's loft,
And as he pulled the ladder down,
He was killed at the order of the counsel to the crown,

A flare thrown up, the crackling began,
It all collapsed as truth escaped in a van,
Glowing charcoal, stained metal and ash,
Are all that's left of the enlightener's cache

I'm sat here,
Wasting my time,
Thinking up,
Memories that rhyme,

The flag hangs,
There's no life,
A homeless man,
Silently declines,

The black on the bricks,
Historic pollution,
Endless talks,
But no solution,

Empty balconies,
A silent square,
The wind fills out,
A questionnaire

All kinds of things float above us,
There's a hurdle in the grave,
An apostle in the knave,
We've lost all molecular sense,
The postman cracks his whip and dances
The swimmer lost his flippers chancing,

All kinds of things float below us,
The saltwater trickles into the pan,
Hustlers tell us because they can,
Our ears take in everything
But our brains only some,
We don't pick what goes where,
We only know the depth of the dare,
We're lost before we've even begun.

All kinds of things float with us,
The man sits with his head in his hands,
Next to the grass plant,
As dust sparkles in the air,
And glides to the floor,
That's all of us,
And nothing more.

If I stare at myself
long enough
in the mirror.

Will I leave this body?

It's not being dishonest,
It's just hiding the truth,
My eyes aren't a gateway,
They're a wall blocking you,
For if you could see,
The storms and winds,
That echo round my brain,
You'd blame yourself,
You'd be crushed by the pain

The dust is piling up,
Forgotten not weightless,
Filtering me through its rage,
This is the the man that I hate,
But if I cough,
And splutter it out,
It'll be blown back at me,
I'll be wearing it's mask,
Like an accessory

I've lived like this now,
Pressing my veins to stop,
Guiding the words,
Out from the library on top,
But atop the stairs,
They flow out free,
As months and months of wane,
Led to this moment,
To me lost in the rain.

Laughs bounce off the walls,
Sometimes our glances meet,
We pass a phone back & forth,
Reading tongue twisters to the beat

I feel there's something more to this,
And I hope you feel the same,
But for now I'm rather liking,
This unpredictable game

I wonder what tonight will bring,
My first time at your house,
I'm sat here pondering the scene,
Oh will this fire be doused,
Perhaps I need to be the optimist,
And believe everything will go,
Just how I've dreamed for two days now,
Dancing toe to toe

Anticipation, expectations,
Inspire this dictation,
I’m hanging by a thread,
It’s tight but it won’t snap,
I should find me some foundations,
Stretch a net across to the station,
Eat a spoonful of ambivalence,
It’ll catch me should I forget my cap

People look at it from all angles,
But decisions, options strangle,
All can see the carpenter’s dead,
But there’s no footprints to and fro,
The longer that he lays there,
The less the sense remains here,
He fell into the fetal position,
And yet retained his chapeau

The affair began by the streetlights,
Like snow she was dressed in all white,
They sauntered through the cobbled streets,
Excusing it as living in the now,
But now it changes to then,
And then fails us time and again,
The stars in this globe won’t hold,
When the clock turns it over like a plough

The sky electric blue behind wisps of ash,
Over the road by the hammock lies the whispering grass,
The traveller lays there imagining Charles Monet,
In the bay to the right above the sprinkled bouquet,
There’s a scatter of conversation by the wicker chairs,
Discarded pasts float on up through the air

In the city at night the road is painted in gradient,
There’s a smattering of lanterns in a crescent they radiate,
A hubbub of excitement hums on the rooftop bar,
To the eyes at the top life below is bizarre,
Lessons thrown around like invisible flares,
Discarded pasts float on up through the air

Trains to new destinations and thumbs up by the road,
From island to island old habits corrode,
Aircrafts pepper the sky restraining adventures for now,
From the temples of Peru to the Cathedral of Bilbao,
When you only know one thing how can you compare?
Discarded pasts float on up through the air

The coffee it helps,
Quench this dull headache,
I’ve had now for numerous days.
Too many late nights,
Ales and tablets,
I’ve burnt up my turn of phrase.

You ruthlessly call me,
And tell me quite firmly,
That this time it really is it.
I press the red button,
Dig my head in the pillow,
As the message it slowly transmits.

In this strange room,
I don’t at all recognise,
All this clutter surrounding the bed.
It makes no more sense,
Than the apathy circling,
In the nest at the front of my head.

I’ll lay here all day,
Until this numb goes away,
And motivation returns to my bones.
The air here is stagnant,
It’s so hard to drift off,
When dragged back by one's slatternly clothes.

Four instant coffees down,
My synapses are hazed,
I cut my way through the hedge,
A shortcut in this maze

I hear a humming in the distance,
Probably the grate of tinnitus,
I don’t have enough enemies,
And too many that I trust

Feel like I’m floating,
On feathers above the ground,
Life doesn’t feel real anymore,
The past has been rewound

The crows are busy squawking,
And I hear nothing but songs,
I swear everywhere I walk,
There’s a clatter of applause

I must have escaped the cave,
And now my surroundings all seem light,
Everything moves out the way,
Nothing puts up a fight,

The trees lining the road wave,
To the souls that they’ve brushed,
I’m just living in the moment,
And struggling to adjust

We walk to the car,
Your arm linked with mine,
We walk to the car,
Your arm linked with mine,
Our steps are synchronised with each other,
The wet tarmac shines

I can’t read your mind,
But I can study your eyes,
I can’t read your mind,
But I can study your eyes,
I think there’s something more here,
Than what your words comprise

I’ve always wondered where my soul was,
Thought it was in my head,
I’ve always wondered where my soul was,
Thought it was in my head,
But I know it’s above my heart now,
I feel it flutter as we tread

I wish you shared your feelings,
Laid them out more regularly,
I wish you shared your feelings,
Laid them out more regularly,
But then few things are more exciting,
Than unsolved mysteries

There’s a muttering drizzle,
From the silent sky,
There’s a muttering drizzle,
From the silent sky,
My feathers may be wet,
But I can’t help but fly

I can’t remember the last time
I saw a white cloud
Used to lie in the grass and make designs
While their delicate lines I browsed

But now all that’s left are these grey skies
The ashes float like leaves
I’m not sure what they disguise
Perhaps someone’s memories

The gunshots I heard the other day
The only signs of life
I can’t stop thinking of the dichotomy
They likely came as someone died

Wise white trees in the light breeze crack
Like staccato existential cries
The branches they fall to the dried tracks
As if leading me to a surprise

I walk the country I’ve not seen a soul
For thousands of hours now
All I have for company is the sound as I stroll
And these songs that have come to me somehow

The birdsong has long since gone
Now I just wake to the wind
It used to whistle its way through the corn
Now it just howls in sin

I stumble on and look for food
But it’s harder and harder to find
To my death these houses now allude
Abandoned and for everything mined

There’s a metal silo in the distance
It clangs and it creaks
The optimist hears offers of assistance
Though I know the outlook is bleak

I walk around, someone’s already been
Piles of empty tins of beans
I kick them at a figurine,
What the hell do my actions mean?

I walk the country I’ve not seen a soul
For thousands of hours now
All I have for company is the sound as I stroll
And these songs that have come to me somehow

We’ve walked the island late at night
Around diffuse liquids of light
My soul it’s been buzzing a tune

From bar to bar we went and laughed
Our words they followed the downdraft
Kicked out into the shadow of the moon


The pebbles crunched beneath our feet
Our words accompanied the bleats
I leapt to show the power in my legs

The wind it shivered through my teeth
The sun it scattered on the heath
Playful touches separated by our threads


Sat on a rock by Stanage Edge
Rustic colours to the distance stretch
Something inside me sparks, almost ignites

I kicked the lettuce to the crack
We held hands and turned back
Your eyes like glowing bracken in twilight


The lime green and the muted browns
Spark thoughts and visions and raised brows
You shuffle up and rest upon my dreams

You ask me as if it is tradition
What would I do with my three wishes
I’d throw up time and tear it at the seams


The first night that you came and stayed
I remember every word you said
The whispers joyfully bounced around my brain

We woke up in the morning light
Our eyes they met my mood was bright
You put on your coat and kissed me in the rain

You danced on the parquet floor,
In my head after dinner,
In reality you just sat,
And talked until the slowing of the spinner

You were close enough for me to feel,
Your aura bouncing between our skin,
But not close enough to feel,
The feelings contained therein

The stars, have their shine,
Overshadowed by the streetlights,
The lorries and forklift trucks,
Have stopped their engines in the twilight,

The reverse signal blares into the morning,
It's going the reverse of time and this is our forewarning,
And I think about how last night,
Didn’t end how I imagined when I read the invite,

Because sure I had a good time,
But it all ended so abruptly when the bell chimed

And I’ve tied, up my shoes,
And I’m walking to the bus stop
Another day of work,
And my life is still a junk shop

And I sit here writing words,
In between calls about trees,
As the answer to my questions,
Floats somewhere outside in the breeze

There's something beautiful,
About the tawny dust marks,
On my black denim shorts.

I feel like I've lived,
I feel like a friend of the Earth,
A searcher of truth,
A spreader of joy,
An adventurer,
A lost soul,
An open book,
An ending yet to be written,
The sparkle of a million possibilities,
Exploding across the night sky.

I'm on the decks,
They float up off the sand,
Past the chuckling palms,
Over the buildings pointing like fingers,
Into the contemplating clouds,
And into the black,
Then they throw me back,
"Figure it out" they shout,
As I catch up to the the tears,
Falling like raindrops through the sky,
Those I'd shed,
As I rose.

Sure I liked the lanterns,
Sure the river looked pretty,
But what I'll remember most is the people,
That lit corners of my heart
I'd forgotten existed.