Gently dancing in the sun, Wildflowers grow; they bloom, are gone. With no thoughts,they have no cares; And their lives are gentle prayers. May I walk in such a way That I am alive to this day. So I see with widening view, And joy and sorrows embrace too. Then my time will come like yours
And of us nothing shall endure. As to the earth our bodies go, All are one;it shall be so
Already sparrows dart between the shrubs
No asking where to go or what to do
Before the blossom and emerging bulbs
No outdoor flowers decorate my tubs
The waxy flowered cyclamens are few
Already sparrows dart between the shrubs
As I watch the sparrows my heart ‘s stilled
The politics, the corrections are subdued
Yet trees will blossom over crocus bulbs
The leaders seek to force a war by will
No reflection, certain what to do
Would I were a sparrow on the sill
Will the warships move their mighty hulls?
From bow to stern they ‘re filled with bombs for U
Yet trees will blossom over tiny bulbs
The branches in the breeze sway , cats miaow
Was evolution wise for chimpanzees?
Already sparrows dart between the shrubs
Our species cannibals , can we not love?
They gave me a small watch on Xmas Day
But with a watch a little child can’t play
I envied both my sisters with new dolls
As on the old settee the dolls were lulled
I stood there uncomprehending and alone
Had I reached unknowing a milestone?
Then my sister lent me one of hers
I broke that little head upon my chair
I was holding her with tenderness
Scarcely breathing in my velvet dress
So I sat down to rock my babe awhile
The horror of her cracking head was vile
Now I play with numbers and with words
And look back sadly at that little girl
Jesus is not in the Sacred Bread
Nothing stays the same ,much as we hope
He drowns with refugees, he crawls in mud
Life and God aren’t static.souls have fled
Do not deny the loss, nor its great scope
Jesus is not in the Sacred Bread
Europe cracked , a billion billion dead
Unacknowledged evil is the rope
He burned with Europe’s Jews ,we lust in bed
The War’s not gone, it lives inside the head
We do not need a thousand microscopes
Jesus is not in the Sacred Bread
The symbol’s done, the bread of heaven ‘s bad
We “Christians” were not there when Jesus spoke
Christ burned with gypsies, queers , was shot unclad
It’s over, people,what we never read.
We ruined the world , destroyed the ones who fled
Jesus is not in the Sacred Bread
He drowned and burned was shot,he’s truly dead
London is bewildered by its roads
The Circular, the North,the South, the Codes
The Morse and the Enigma Turing broke
So now we have new bicycles with spokes
Once we had the A to Z in hand
Turn it upside down and you’ll be grand
New technology has made great strides
Carrying us to Eden ,what a ride
The motorways are empty for tonight
God decided we had too much Light
He taught the bare cheeked Moon on Jesus’ mount
To turn the other side when love’s about
I liked to use a compass and a map
But now, my dear, most everything’s on tap
I crouch beneath my sister as she drives
In the dark on the M 25
But if it’s closed, we are completely foxed
We left the old Road Atlas in a box
Along with all my ex’s underpants
And naturally his principles of Kant
We may be in Watford or in Bucks
I often wonder what will rhyme with luck
We may be near St Alban’s, we can’t see
The car ran up the trunk of this oak tree
We rang 999 and they are here
A fire engine filled up with Kentish beer
A ladder for the ladies to climb down
Now they are just women on the town
London won’t exist ,destroyed by cars
Angry men who cannot find a bar
The empty canes of raspberries hang low
Red maple leaves are mashed up in the mud
Nature seems to hover by death’s door
Animals and humans drained as whores
No feeling ,no green sap,no flowing blood
The crackling canes of raspberries hang low
What can we say un-cliched, metaphored?
At dawn the sun will burn despite the Flood
Nature did not force us through death’s door
Can the death of God mean this and more,
Though love and hate are fractured, life is good?
The chuckling canes the berries sang below
Can a life with heart not be restored?
End retaliation, understand
Nature did not wave us through the door
At the edge of Europe are no hordes
Jesus is more small than any bud
The crackling canes stored laughter in their cores
The remnants of the foxgloves in the wood
Wave politely . even seem to nod
The raspberry canes, the honesty know more
Nature ,light and darkness, affect stored
The slanted beauty of the winter light
On people walking by , their shadows long
The day of beauty and the deep, dark night
The gift of gladness and of our own sight
Be your weakness, then you might be strong
The slanted beauty of the winter light
Do not let your mouth with sarcasm bite
Pause before you act or write or fling
On days of beauty and their still, dark nights
Free like colour runs when wet yet bright
Translucence of love’s eye can make one sing
Of slanted beauty in the winter light
This is just one day, and yet Good might
Be here and now, eternal in our songs
On days of beauty and their too dark nights
The one we love must speak in their own tongue
Truth will stand and with it we belong
Oh slanted beauty and your winter light
You make the day all heart, bring long sweet nights
How can I judge you when I do not know
The river of your heart, it’s undertow
Forgetting the wide looking that we need
Too attentive to the goals of speed
I may compare you to another friend
And in comparison, our love might end
I may not take you in as one true whole
How little do we look, ensnared by goals?
When attention lapses and we dream
We may see our soul and its true themes
Too sharp a focus makes our mind compress
Our narrowed eyes untrue to second guess
With my whole body I perceive the true
No purpose , no desire, nothing but you.
How do we know what topic will intrigue,
That draws the mind away from mundane tasks
What will be fertile like a bursting seed?
What kind of poetry do folk want to read ?
Must it tell or do they have to ask?
How do we know what subjects will intrigue?
Emotions run like water,with no heed
Floods of feeling overwhelm defence;
Destroy the berries and the bursting seeds
Strength is torment, Stalingrad besieged
Rare will we find love without these risks
We already know what sense intrigues
The walls break down, the colder water leads
Who foresaw the Flood and its dark past?
This drives all away both raw and seed
The hand of God, the might, the holy fist
Kneel before the the humble,give them rest
We must know while learning might intrigue
Without our love we give but our own weeds
I ran behind you but the hills were steep
I was frightened, left behind alone
Now you go ahead into your sleep
Can’t you ever wait, so we could meet
Without you teasing me with broken bones?
I ran behind you but the hills were steep
Not held back by fog or frost or sleet
Now you are a husk, where is your home?
Oh, must you go ahead into dark sleep?
You were King , the girls and boys all leaped
You would not let me use the gramophone
I tried to meet you,fear and love I keep.
The green sap rose, adventure was the key
Now we’re old so grave the undertones
Might I murmur while you sink to sleep?
Let your hands stretch backward as you go
Before you’re in the earth so bitter,cold
I passed you as I entered into speech
Yet still you go ahead my words can’t reach
The world is full of buds, all interact
Gently touching with our tender hands
Choosing,using, never going back
Without a choice, we would not know our lack
Would not know how colours feel and blend
The world is full of buds, we interact
No single answer can be called correct
Uncountable,continuous, are the sands?
Choosing,losing, never looking back
Where we stand determines what are facts
See the children and their wistful hands
The world is full of buds, these hands react
Perspective is a metaphor with tact
Less so for soldiers marching to their end
Choosing,losing, never coming back
When the birds cry out we must attend
They see more than we might understand
The world is full of buds of love,respect
Choosing,opening, sacredness unpacked
We sense the sacred in these peaceful walls
Yet men have died in places that appal
Women too and children then unborn
Fell into cold dark earth in lands forlorn
As our weapons grow, our hearts are hard
The people live in Gaza behind bars
The water all polluted as taps drip
Is this war or is it vengeance fit?
In Britain, it’s the poor who lose the war
As it was when Jesus Mary bore
Yet here are clerics blessing marching bands
A military show for all the land
The genocide in Europe of the Jews
The self destructive actions of the proud
The fields of France filled sick with blood and bone
Who are we to cast judgemental stones?
The War’s not over when the fighting stops
The soldiers and the tortured suffer shock
The widows and the parents all bereaved.
The unborn children hover in unease
We let the prisoners out from camps of death
But who would take them in or take their path?
The injuries will travel down the years
As still we fight and still we live in fear
It’s Europe’s grasp and greed which was the cause
Of death in Gaza, Syria, in long wars
Yet we judge we are more civilised
As we self defend with careful lies
Emotions can be difficult to bear
But maybe they bring something we should hear
A message or a wound we have ignored
Action’s needed or we are destroyed
Being happy always is unreal
Living in compartments now concealed
If you cannot bear your pain alone
Seek for conversations that will warm
Loving neighbours comes extremely hard
If from our own suffering we are barred
Imprisoned feelings make us tense as boards
Stiff like puppets,stiff like frozen hearts
As they say, the way out sends us through
The feelings that we did not know we knew
Do you think that you can’t write a verse
Free or formed, a villanellse or song
Do you fear the end , so feel accursed?
The first words are banana,gold and terse
Start from that new sentence on your tongue
Do you think that you can’t write a verse?
Bananas ,phallic symbols, unrehearsed
What you write is almost never wrong
Is you fear the end be not accursed
Golden is the joy when we’re immersed
In the company that knows our tongue
Do you think that you can’t write a verse?
My lover speaks but he is often terse
He prefers to use a gesture not a word
Is you fear the end you’re not the first
In the mind float symbols , gold, absurd
Metaphors that hunger to be heard
Do you think that you can’t write a verse?
If you fear the end , we’re here at worst
Living in a clockwork Universe
Before we knew the truth of random acts
Circles ignored squares , was that perverse?
Clockwork, logic Aristotle, terse
This what we thought to be the facts
Living in a clockwork Universe
Yet could ellipses, circles us desert
If all seems square then something has been blocked
Circles married squares , was that perverse?
Could time itself ,this dagger, be reversed
In stochastic nature, particles might flirt
There never was a clockwork Universe
Scientists have imaginations rash
Revolutions happen with a smirk
Circles marry squares , are you averse?
Alas no-one can read their latest tracts
The language is absurd like poets’ works
Living in a clockwork Universe~
Circles ignored squares , we thought that crass
The fishing nets have tangled round a little submarine
Can the sailors pull it up, or will their nets all break?
We wonder who might live in it, it can’t be the Queen
I looked once in the mirror and I see my face is green
Maybe I’ll eat soup again and not a giant rump steak
The fishing nets once tangled round a little submarine
We once had a Bishop but he just had a Dean
He told me once that saying Mass is just a piece of cake
We wonder who might like such food, it can’t be the Queen
I get washed with olive oil and in summer I feel clean
I wish that little wafer were a Cadbury’s chocolate flake
The fishing nets once wrangled and their maths was quite marine
If I see my boyfriend now,I might let out a scream
Feeling his proximity, my entire heart might break
We wonder who might enjoy that it can’t be the Queen
Life can be much better with a little pat and stroke
Wash your mate in olive oil, he’s such a lovely bloke
The fishing nets did tangle round a little submarine
We wonder who might live in it, God has not been seen
In a stable with no heat or light
Who will celebrate the birth of God
When we each deny our rage and spite
Psychosis swallows up the dark of night
The star that shepherds saw has filled with blood
Above a stable with no heat or light
We live with fear, we know who has the might
Can our minds contain both bad and good
When we each deny our rage and spite?
We fail to know how others suffer fright
That they are persons too , not understood
Christ came down as weak as candle light
We are each a world, there is no fate
I see the tears run down the face of God
When we each engage our rage and spite
Shall we lose in darkness or in flood?
Asked a man bereft of his true love
In a stable with no heat or light
Love is born, is frozen, is denied
Boris Johnson thrown out by his wife
Now he has a different tole in life
He has a girlfriend will he have more kids?
Lucian Freud was surely up for this
They say he might have had perhaps thirty two
With all that sperm what is a man to do?
He could take Precautions as they say
I prefer icecream but let’s go stray
Lucian Freud was not a man to rule
They say he once burned down his own Art School
He married once, he married twice but no
He would not be captured in Soho
Beautiful and strange he made his mark
Boris Johnson has a nuclear heart
Winter will come down upon us all
Europe we are sad, almost appalled
Sadness for the surgeon who cured me
The cancer grew like rampant lush ivy
He is Greek and no-one else was skilled
To leave me looking better than God willed
Will he go back to where his grandad came?
Say a little prayer for my dear face
I don’t want to suffer but all will
We’ll die sooner, sadly Boris kills
The NHS is going slowly to its grave
Watched by men who look without a face
Emotional claustrophobia is widespread
We fear our feelings,fear the sudden dread
We swing between attraction and dismay
Others have been seen to sink to prayer
Yet all alone at Xmas we are sad
Even our other choice was dread
People who can madden with crude noise
Feel some one else might love their voice
Silence is like music in its joy
No intrusion, no strong words to annoy
But if we flee intrusion at great speed
We may miss the very clues we need
Oh, to find a lover joyful in our space
When we long for touch, for wild embrace.
Between intrusion and abandonment
We hope to find a place of trust and care
A place where we can spend our loving wealth
Communion starts.our hearts enjoy love’s health
Here our bodies and our souls are bared
Between intrusion and abandonment
Walk as does the tiger with its stealth
Treat your loved one well as both prepare
A place where each can spend this loving wealth
And if you are alone, stay with yourself
Do not neglect that soul who’s always here
Without intrusion or abandonment
Quietly sings the soul for all is meant
We’re inspired by hope and not by fear
To clear a space , to learn the dove’s lament.
Take the tiller, love itself may steer
Our voyage through the unknown ocean’s near
Between intrusion and abandonment
We seek a space to share our loving wealth
My room is warm and comforting and light
This feels like kindness , brings my skin delight
I remember being held in loving arms
And soothed by songs as sweet as any balms
Let the lamplight run across the eyes
Let them soften to a wider gaze
Let the hair be free from wax and sprays
Let the skin enclose us, be our way
We can’t deny the skin is often pricked
Or beaten by a parent who’s too strict
More fragile than a leaf from any tree
This frail membrane is our boundary
Floating into sleep in reverie
I lose myself while God imagines me
Why do we love those who love us least
To prove we can obtain whom we desire?
He makes cruel comments at the wedding feast
Do not call this man a nasty beast
An animal is better than a liar
Why do we love those who love us least?
He shouts in rage because his shirt is creased
Throws your letters into the coal fire
He makes crude comments at our Xmas feast
I do not mind if you are dressed in fleece
Wear nylon shirts and shoes with laces wired
Why do we love most the late deceased?
Never borrow men who have no price
Never join conspiracies or choirs
If they make “remarks” don’t on them feast
The old cathedrals have the tallest spires
With older men the risks are sadly higher
Why do we love those who love us least
Who cannot be polite at wedding feasts?
In my coffin I will have no phone
At last I shall be free like new born babe
But how will people hear my mobile groans?
Who shall write my story on a stone?
I can’t ring Emergency for aid
In my coffin I will have no phone
I must have a linen sheet untorn
Be reminded I’ve already paid
How will people hear my mobile groans?
Out we go, as in we, came alone
Will someone sing for me , oh humming bird
In my coffin I will need no phone
We will die as we have lived, atoned
I hope a human person hears my words
Help us all,dear God, to forestall groans
Free from medications .free of nerves
Straight to Heaven atop our loved ones prayers
In my coffin I shan’t be alone
I want to go with all my garden gnomes
On my journey into sleep I hold
A little bag which holds a tiny phone
I hold a spray of GNT to bomb
My arteries as wide as a mother’s thumb
Yet I’d like to go in naked form
Trusting in the darkness as a balm
Before all, this I loved my naked flesh
That with my loved one I might be enmeshed
Now I seem in danger from myself
My own heart is severed from its wealth
Migraine of the heart can lead to death
Through my artery I express wrath
What other mysteries can my body know?
Thank God,I only signed for Pay and Go
O happy worm that of my flesh might eat
When after death I lie in deep in the earth
My bosom,hands and eyes become your meat
You have no sun as you enjoy your feast
And none is chosen as we were at birth
O happy worm that of my flesh might eat
All of us are equal in defeat
None are high or low , what are we worth?
My brain,my hands,my eyes become worms’ meat
In the soil, we rest in comfort sweet
Let us all be blessed,God make no curse
You made the happy worms who will us eat
O remember the deep ash from Auschwitz’ heat
The little children killed without Kaddish
Those hearts ,those hands, those eyes no worm could eat
,
Why should we be satisfied by wish
When people burn or starve beside our dish
O Godly worm that of my flesh might eat
Let my very self become your meat
At three o’clock, we ran across the park
Then up the Wigan Road, we children roamed
Past the houses and along the fields
Looking for our daddy coming home
Looking for our daddy coming home.
I was only two or three at most
We passed our church and saw the Pope in Rome
We climbed a fence and walked by fields of wheat
Looking for our daddy coming home
Looking for our daddy coming home.
From the distance came a tall thin man
A ladder on his shoulder, hair well combed
A bucket full of paints and all his tools
Look, Paul, is that daddy coming home?
Bernard, I think daddy’s coming home!
A look of shock, a smile, a cry, my loves!
He rushed towards us, happy and transformed
What about your mammy does she know?
Yes, yes, yes it’s daddy coming home
Yes, yes, yes, it’s daddy coming home.
Oh,Mammy had no idea of it at all
She thought we were just playing by the wall
Children were much bolder and more free
But Daddy went to Heaven after that
Mam was so depressed she killed the cat
Happy in the golden fields of joy
Happy with no money with few toys
Daddy never walked that road for long
I missed him so I cut off my own tongue
Once an Empire , once an admired place
Great Britain should now be in outer space
We lose connections, cut them with a sword
No-one seems to know where dwells the Word
We had a language rich and full of grace
Apostrophes and commas knew their place
The words were wise, the sentences allured
Shakespeare could quote music sung by birds
We were not wrecked by theories so base
Enjoyed by French professors , what disgrace
Sentences should ring out and be shared
The circles of our culture can’t squared
Where have gone our manners and our strength?
Where indeed has gone the National Health?
Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall
The words predicted death and so it came
The mightiest king is not preserved from falls
Is there wisdom in the deep that calls
True scholarship is hard , to name unnamed
Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall
Even blatant evil, none appals
We have no reverie, we have no time
The mightiest king ‘s no safer with his gold
Counted,weighed,divided, aren’t we all?
The words in Aramaic were no rhyme
Belshazzar saw the grave there on his wall
Once old ladies smiled knit infants shawls
They had joy though death came wandering by
The King of Babylon deserved his fall
Being alive seems near to a great crime
God may die yet love burns its small flame
Belshazzar learned the writing on the wall
The humbler people are, the less the fall
e
English idioms maze the minds of most
Every cloud is lined in silver cloth
I put my foot in it now I’m divorced
If I’m late the wife will have my guts
What on earth is meant by the Lord’s wrath?
English natives speak in words and grunts
Straight from the horses mouth, seems rather coarse
If you want to bid, you merely cough
I put my foot in it now I’m divorced
Ever seen old boots, well she is not
Ever been on Tubes, well mind the doors
English idioms bruise the minds of hosts
I put my foot in it ,now I’m divorced
The cyclamen, the lily and the earth
The potted plants ,green leaves , distil the air
The lily is for peace. the rose for worth
Let no human live in pain or cursed
Let the golden light enwrap them here
The cyclamen, the lily and the earth
The waxy flowers of cyclamen bring mirth
Bring gratitude in winter when all’s bare
The lily is for peace. the rose for worth
I feel my hands are reaching for a brush
The watercolour paints bring their allure
The cyclamen, the lily and the earth
Then I see a flower trod on and crushed
It seems to bleed like Jesus,tears my eye.
The lily is for peace. the rose for worth
Nature has its truth and so do I
Many times I weep, bewail and cry
The cyclamen, the lily and the earth
The lily is for peace. the rose for birth
Down the kitchen stairs they carried you
Two men were enough, the coffin crew
I wanted to take off the lid to see
If Daddy was asleep. had not left me
Mute and frozen I stood like a stone
In this the place we loved and made a home
We knelt down by the fire to say night prayers
The flames stood up like fingers in the air
The soot fell down, we had a little brush
To sweep the ash,remains of forests crushed.
Later grand-dad died , my brothers pale
Carried his dear coffin down the aisle
Imagined into being by the Mass
Jesus whispered when the storm had passed
How my heart speaks 