"thatching" poems
It's within the grown out roots
where the Garden Owl still hoots
Sings the melancholy song
Of how the blue eyed girl was wrong.
It's within the thatching of the dwelling
And a failed attempt at fortune telling.
Beyond the garden of the bugs
Beyond the magpies and the slugs
A moon was folded into quarters
Grind it with pestle and mortar
Strip it down to crater powder
Feel it till the song sounds louder
The Garden Owl sings his song
Of how the blue eyed girl was wrong
And under the brown thatched roof
The girl detests her blue eyed youth
Dec 4, 2014
Dec 4, 2014 at 5:43 PM UTC
I've begun to spot patterns
more clearly,
the brick homes that
set around this suburbia
have begun to resemble
the lovely spots of a
giraffe perhaps
because I have
become so used to ogling
their grace, I couldn't be sure,
but I've begun to spot patterns on me,
bold, odd, rectangular blocks
honey-ed to my thin skin:
People. They are all around me.
Yet all I see are those blocks
thatching to me,
I think they're in search of a
shorter neck.
Apr 11, 2014
Apr 11, 2014 at 10:58 PM UTC
Harsh wind screaming
moaning
with the crisp bite of Autumn night
Dark shadows dancing
tossing
with the branches of bare grey Elms
The lanes are winding
uncurling
in the pale orange glow of headlights
Sudden hedgerows
green
edging the limits of the night
Power-cut darkness all around
silhouettes
strange in the headlight beam
No farm lights distant on the Tor
guiding
beacons of open field and place
Cottages shuddering their thatching
thrilled
chimneys smoking message-morse
Pub signs banging wildly
flapping
in a crazy dance
inside candles flickering
distorted
patterns in tiny panes of rounded glass
Old stone steeple steady
dull toned bell
catching
a ride on the wind to the copse
And still the lanes thread out
beam-born
a ribbon of pebbles and stone
stretching into the night
until they melt
into the flat black tarmac
of the motorway.
Nov 15, 2016
Nov 15, 2016 at 5:35 AM UTC
They were different times
The only thing I know about old man Venn
He used to tie two cats' tails together
Hang them over the washing line
To watch them fight
Cruel old man Venn
There was a man in the village
He killed dead pigs
If a farmer had a pig die
He'd cart it home then squeal and shriek
Like a dying pig
Then pass off the meat as fresh
Everyone knew about it
A couple in the village were always arguing
One night the man said he was going to drown himself
In the pond
She said do you go an' do it in someone else's pond
I ha' got to drink that water
Jim said there'll be a fire in the village afore long
Russell said how d'you know that then?
Down at Hall Farm I see him stripping the paint off his window
With a blow torch
Right near the thatch
He knows better 'an that
Sure enough the old farmhouse burnt to the ground
He built a bungalow with the insurance money
Old Jim was right again
Russell met his wife to be during the war
He had a few days leave but not long enough to go home
So he stayed with his mate in Lancashire
Ended up marrying his mate's sister
She came down to Suffolk
One of the local women said to her
Where do you come from?
Lancashire she said
I didn't think you was English she said
A farmer said to Jim
That wholly made me sweat to write out your cheque
For thatching this year
Med me sweat fust said Jim
For hurdle making they would cut ash pole in the wood
Using hand axes
When they finished the women from nearby cottages
Would come and pick up the chips to start their fires
Jul 20, 2013
Jul 20, 2013 at 4:36 PM UTC
Back in the old days before combine harvesters came in, harvest time was much more labour intensive. All the crops were loaded by hand on to horse-drawn carts and taken to the stack yard, where an array of often beautifully crafted stacks would be built, and thatched.
It was a very busy time of the year for the thatchers, who would work from six in the morning till nine at night for several weeks until all the stacks were safely protected from the rain. After the last stack was finished, my old boss was paid the overtime due to him. He remembered that one year it was just enough to buy himself a new pair of work boots!
One year, before handing over payment for thatching his stacks, a farmer named Mr Cutting said to Jim; "That made me sweat to write your cheque this year." Jim quickly replied; "Med me sweat fust!"
Dec 12, 2016
Dec 12, 2016 at 5:22 AM UTC
Ok, first the basics
If you turn on the tap, just a dribble
And hold a straw, just off vertical underneath
The water will flow to the end of the straw
And drip off
Imagine many straws, densely packed
Just the tips showing
All sloping at an angle
And fixed to a steep roof
Water (rain) will be shed
And the roof will remain dry
The steeper the roof
The quicker the rain will shed
But the steeper the roof
The more material is used
Then there's the thickness
The thicker the better surely?
Well, the thicker the layer of straws
The flatter the angle at which they lay
And so the less efficient they are at shedding water
Thatching
Like life
Is a compromise
Mar 23, 2015
Mar 23, 2015 at 4:02 PM UTC
Magic tears, any time,
anytime an old man can share, some
subtle sense that the kids are alright,
life makes sense, over a span,
of three generations, over lapping,
-mindtimespace pre-excavated
bubbles of happy old men
center the evolving sequence
sheltering open minds and soft hearts
being there, inbetween what's coming down
stirring quantum foam
into active magic surficant
applied with sticky gnosisnot
as hot tar on a roof, or thatching,
all in steady ready peace,
occurrence-easy, expanding
at will, becoming as aha at once
as all zeitgeist guests do,
pop
a grand parent bubble, winking
at each,
defined as one of a kind,
no two alike, and, as a matter of fact,
making your heaven
on earth like mine
would cost you the hell I paid, and
there's no need, things, we agree,
you, dear reader, and I, a we, of some
notion once given thought to float on,
after taking a famous great notion,
to jump in the ocean and drown, done
and proceeding to drown, down, down
I lived
to tell, I decided
climbing out from
depths of angst, actual wrong thinking,
twisted proverbs, and jokes with no story.
Nuns or skunks… what's black and
white, and black and white, and
black, and white…. rolling down a hill,
or it could be cop suvs, too.
Right,
Or a yen yank thang. right.
- the route from the bus stop
- blind milk horse, what did you say?
I was paying no attention,
then smallest, though not youngest,
granddaughter finishes,
Magic tears, are when you see
another person cry, and you cry, too.
Grandpa said, yeah, that's a gift,
like a subtle super power.
She said, yes, she knows.
Mar 24, 2023
Mar 24, 2023 at 8:55 PM UTC
However softly do the heavens surrender to the soft thatching,
Through which a delicate silver scratches the path.
The brittle night kisses the skin
And leaves subtle rosy lipstick
The man is full this summers night
He can almost be seen, waving
Saluting the crystal sky as if to say
A word or two of keen wisdom
Alas, he cannot be heard, the distance too great
Scream into a pillow and lay to sleep
But a night owl he must be
For the night light’s still on.
With no more reserve than a drunkard
She and I part the broken mirror with puerile strokes.
The splendors of a woodland romance
Offering more than can be had in this world.
More swimming than waltzing,
Through the pool of molten silver
The moon has left us to play in
We place each step correctly
Out here only the elders bear witness to passing, She and I,
And adrift in the Garden,
senseless of the path,
The shadows offer a place to hide.
A niche in the woods is found by I
And anxiously taken up by she
A seat is made away from the world
And begin to float in the warmth of it, she and I.
Drowning in bitter yearning,
That, a liquid chilled by the spring night,
My hand finds its way to hers,
And we together. Us.
Dec 26, 2011
Dec 26, 2011 at 1:36 AM UTC
The light dims and the dead raise their glasses
To the wine of wasted, blood-streaked tears
That permeate my mind. I lift my hand and reach
For them, but I am left with dripping dark
As the spirits of my dead emotions seek release.
As freelance feelings take their leave, am I human?
The thought of thatching shattered glasses
Brings back the dead, their forming tears
Mysteriously absent. And so they reach
The clammy, clotted, ****** hands through dark
Eyes; I scream that they might release.
But will the cold hands pity, and me release?
The light has fled the black irises: inhuman
Fusion of animation and empty glasses
In their eyes, like mine. Dry, lacking tears
That life gives. She bustles in the kitchen, reaches
For the saffron. But their souls remain dark.
And my sorrowing saffron soul is poisoned dark.
Let me go! I sigh release.
I am not human.
I am broken glass.
A fading fear of tears,
A soul outside my reach.
I am no fool; I do not claim to reach
Outside the world of dreaded dark
In which I live without release.
The creeping hands of Death are human,
As I am. Cast aside my riveting rose glasses
That rivers may run swift in my trailing tears.
Finally, the tears.
My own icy hand does reach
And wipes away the shifting dark.
The dead, as always, seek the just release,
But they are not human.
They do not wear my eyes, my glasses.
So raise the glass to my trying tears,
I reach and find no dark.
My feeling now released, I say that I am human.
May 19, 2012
May 19, 2012 at 3:41 AM UTC
My fusion-felt
Atmosphere,
Is heavy handed
But I'm just-
Pedestrian salt,
And licorice findings.
This symbiosis of--
Nylon webs tweak
Reactor cord,
Which I see--
Sewing segments to
My face.
I-as-stygian
Thatching; drown
Synthetic wastrels.
Jan 12, 2015
Jan 12, 2015 at 3:31 PM UTC
Synchronic simple step
be
yonder, yo, go, no
go, si, go
on and on and on
… so yust so
yust to be we once went
we split, full moiety,
each
ac-
act-
act-ion -jello-timed- lobes
blobs plasmoieted mind
parabolic, by yah,
Arching fly call it, I got it,
call his name, yah who done
did done GOT
caught
the funny parts. Read the books.
Now. At this point, cognitive native
child formed in my mortal moment
per-ifery-wasery rules
secret se- per seance
sacred made knowledge,
state of knowing entered, left
ab-rupturously, grief, lief
left easy, re lief, sigh
good
grief. We were all
we- are Charlie Brown, forever
interrupted, as if once, however long ago,
we knew we were one thing,
then we knew we were merely
words between things you knew
and did not do.
and you know you imagined this is that.
The novel experience, this side.
Post-done and paid off.
Precautionary. Click.
Why not,
who is asking, hangs, as pregnant pause
über Þe olde excessive easing hook,
who are we, and what are we doing,
we who were to survive receiving
asked knowledge, the easy-does-it tree,
shows us the easy way, this way dis-eased.
The lie and the profundus is merely piercing.
Flatten the spikes, be atop the bed of nails.
Wait. Funda-mental, bottom mind, first
id-ego otherwise mind,
frame a being, be a
one, and not the other,
here, there, there, it's okeh, eh, ok?
E-see easing easy living, being been done,
doing all that old trees do, after all,
we wait to feel the fire beetles,
land and lay their eggs among our ash,
and swollen-cracked nuts,
fire calls them into heat, in season.
Such things we learned
from the ant people who saved us in reeds,
thatching from roofs floating, maybe,
really, lifeboats, but
think a tsunami through,
rush
incursive and excursive.
Lay down a layer of plausibility, evoke applause
clap each hand once.
Curtain.
Apr 28, 2023
Apr 28, 2023 at 2:01 AM UTC
I was twenty years old when I started this lark
I'm older now but just as daft
Cos up and down all day I still go
In the wind and rain and sun and snow
Earning a dollar, earning a dime
On them old thatched roofs where I spend all my time.
I must have done hundreds in that time
Each one a challenge, a mountain to climb
Keeping the water out, leaving my mark
Making the cottages pretty and smart
Earning a penny, earning a pound
On them old thatched roofs where I can be found.
The work is hard, no easy days
No room here for lazy ways
I'm not quite as keen as I used to be
Those mountains get steeper it seems to me
I'm looking forward to an easier time
When I leave those old thatched rooves behind.
Dec 9, 2011
Dec 9, 2011 at 2:40 PM UTC
Ever present
percolating through the words
squeezing between minutes
wisping back and fro
awe struck and delighted
by our emanating glow
it flows
in friction absent motion
herding to a circle
appraising
assessing
until, curious and slow
it reaches
at times to pluck
and decorate the ear
at times to rake
a handful to the pockets
retreating as we scuttle
to fill the lingering void
gazing at the shrinking puncture
thatching it with open palms
huddling in human warmth
shining
more than ever
Aug 1, 2018
Aug 1, 2018 at 10:21 AM UTC
in a haze of morning hours, scrambling for paper, amidst regular intervals of tingling:
days splintered by loveliness, sharp aches,
clustering thoughts of blue snares. summer's
decline. your eyes. tumult.
but, what can or can't be done? seemingly
everything. i just hide. second nature.
paradise by weekend, far reaches
before long. isolation held in
firm grip. substitutions for the
lonely: mud, rock, leaf, water.
simplicity.
and then, as clear as sunlight,
another visage of your eyes,
grand blue snares;
a warm, glowing scar,
i am full of glimmer and
a recurrent dull ache. can't
help it. don't stop.
affections ran deep like
trenches, swift like gutters,
rained upon, forever.
nameless breath sent to or from
this greater scheme,
the mechanics of my inner chest,
sorrow poured out over the stars.
all seemingly as distant.
i miss you always.
but, you, wild& capable,
carrying everything with a grin,
give no reason for lament.
you, out there, behind doors
or in thickets, thatching all
skies with rivets of joy.
and, i, under slow-beating sun,
ain't seen to smile so much in
forever. but all flying creatures fly.
as misery did migrate, so too
do fear and consistency, heartache
and certainty. such is the path the
world will always spin over.
so, i write out new and old songs
on rust-laden heartstrings. lay
lips on nothing, typically. keep on
breathing, singing, laughing and
spinning, as the world does, knowing
all the while that in the recesses of
my chest you'll be somewhere, spinning
all the same, and i'll just be here,
poring over paper, trying to
figure the right pattern, to
speak words language won't.
i'll miss you, always.
Feb 26, 2015
Feb 26, 2015 at 4:08 PM UTC
I shouldn't face the wrath
Should I apologise,
For null offence
Whom am I
Should I beg for pardon
Am not a human by ***
Captives of our own identity
By the rules of land we abide
And cling to the terms
We slither in servitude
Yet we hail our master
By the book we're hooked
We try to stampede for a coup for deliverance
But still I need an assurance
To revive our significance
By hook or crook
Its a wild mammoth thought
Moaning,thatching,fetching, ranching,soothing is our role
Still we'll still like steel on steel
Jul 22, 2017
Jul 22, 2017 at 1:47 PM UTC
Lower, lower, a little more to the right, right,
so I work my way down ahead of the rain,
laboring under the gaze of a robin overseer
relaying your wanton desire in bossy birdsong.
She keeps an eye out for worms while I mind
the angle of the rake, ride grassy undulations,
tines biting into your arching back.
May 1, 2017
May 1, 2017 at 8:26 AM UTC