I’ll love you when I be

Who
‘Twas but a reptile passing by.
It flew across the deep blue sky
Why do reptiles fly so high?
I’ll love you till I die
“Twas but a cat under the moon.
Did you have a silver spoon?
Why can’t cats all waul in tune?
I’ll love you very soon
‘Twas but a wooden legged man,
Carrying a large brass saucepan.
Why can’t men do what women can?
I’ll love you better than.
Why are adverbs?
What are nouns?
why do circuses have clowns?
I’ll love you lying down.
Where do dreams go in the day?
What game can we adults play?
Can you or can you not say?
I’ll love you,in my way.
‘Twas but a verse that seemed so free.
It floated over my oak tree.
I have eyes but cannot see.
I’ll love you when I be

Behind the looking glass

 

Two whole worlds.
One small cut.

One little chink.
Hard to find.
Very,very hard.
One small place
Where a very little cat
Could slip right through
The geometrician ‘s cut.
Cat could slip right through.
Just,slip straight through.
Joining it’s own reflection
On the opposite side.
The mirror’s other side.

And if I caught that tail,
If I caught her little tail,
She could pull me through,
She could pull me through,
So she and I too
We’d be on the other side,
The wrong way round,
On the opposite side.

So when you looked in,
If you looked in,
You would see me there,
Looking out at you,
From the opposite side.
From the opposite side.
And the cat beside
Looking very small,
Very,very small;
But very,very real.
How do you think you’d feel,
If I was looking out,
Staring at you
From the opposite side?

I can’t get back.
I can’t find Riemann’s cat
and without that pussy cat
I can’t find Riemann’s cut.
I think I’m in a trap.
I cannot find that cat.
So she can’t find the cut
To get me back,
She can’t bring me back
To where I was before.

Oh,how queer,
To have two of me in here.
I hope I’ll get on well
With my other self,
Behind the looking glass.
No one looking in,
But two are staring out.
From that other world.

I am looking out,
I’m looking out
To see if you are there.
One of you’s with me
That makes the total three.
Oh,dear me,
I should not have grabbed
Little pussy’s tail.
I didn’t really know
Where she meant to go.

“Wherever have you been?
Where do you think you’ve been
To get so filthy black,
And where’s your pussy cat?”
She never came back.
Never came back
From the opposite side.
Mother thought I’d lied.
I don’t tell lies,
But I can see my cat
Staring out at me.
Staring out at me
From the other side.
From the opposite side
Of my looking glass.
My lovely looking glass
Has trapped my tiny cat
On the opposite side.
On the opposite side
On the other side

 

Your reflection now

photo1049_001

Their eyes drew me,
And their eyes draw me again
Into a pool of winter light
Golden from the low sun.
I swim in it
Like a hawk flows on the wind
Over the depths,
Of life.
Contained by a white china cup,
I’m your reflection now
Drowning in the slanting sunlight
Like a stone in a lake.
Falling deeper until I find
the creative mud
with which I mingle
no longer a stone
but a soft flowing stream of sensations
which meets with joy
the earth’s depths and presence.
And something new will grow

Limericks…. must they always be humorous?

Jamuary 2014 :wisteroa by gate

I am studying poetic form.I am describing a few ideas of my interest in the next paragraph.
By choosing a limerick form I am being playful because normally I’d not choose a limerick to refer to anxiety and such emotions.And the playing itself can be therapeutic.It indicates I am like an actor on a stage having a joke with the audience.And the placement of “sure” in the last limerick is an acknowledgement that I have Celtic blood.I have kissed the Blarney stone.The Irish speak lovely English.

Do we pick a form first or the content first?

http://www.criticalreading.com/poetry.html

In general the limerick is a humorous form.That i s,both historically and by the shape and brevity.Yet I am trying to write some miserable limericks.I am finding it harder than I expected.The first one certainly has come out with more than a hint of fun

AS BROAD AS IT’S WIDE

I once had therapeutic depression

The counsellor wept through my session

So I gave my advice

As broad as it’s wise.

Depression sure beats going fishin’

OR depressed deadbeats sure love fishing

[sure here is USA]

ANXIOUS

I feel very anxious today

Would I do better to worry or to pray?

I’ll trust in the dark

in the big bush by the park.

Till a man comes along feeling gay.

I see the very nature of the form almost makes it compulsory to be funny.It’s lines 4 and 5 I think
This limerick is very naughty as “trust the darkness” is a mystical/spiritual expression… it is not related to hiding in the dark to watch for a man to come by.Even if the agent in the poem is feeling blue,the author is joking thereby.

NEW FRIEND

I hate my new friend already

I thought he would make me more steady

But I feel giddy and wild

When he charms with such guile.

Sure,doesn’t love make one feel somewhat heady

To find a home for love without.

When first I saw your soulful face,
Then wished I most to you embrace.
I wished as well to clothe you in
The sacred images within.

To find a home for love without;
To fold my dreams all round about
Your loving body and your face
Were covered in such joy and grace.

But now my dreams are cast aside
The world of meaning denied life.
What seemed most precious now is fled…
And I lie sleepless in my bed.

What is the world when unadorned
With all that in my heart I’ve formed?
There is no meaning I can trace.
As in a mother’s empty face.

On these grey rocks my path is hard.
From paradise, my self is barred.
To struggle or to grief succumb
When this dark day of mourning’s done?

Into His dazzling darkness dart
My dreams and love like dying sparks.
Into His Mystery so fair
I’ll cast both hope and my despair.

Thus my dreams will be transformed
To show themselves in other forms.
What feels a loss may foretell growth.
On my hope,I’ll take an oath

That nothing in my life is waste,
That I have not for phantasms chased.
And you are human,as am I.
Let’s live again until we die

To find a home for love without.

When first I saw your soulful face,
Then wished I most to you embrace.
I wished as well to clothe you in
The sacred images within.

To find a home for love without;
To fold my dreams all round about
Your loving body and your face
Were covered in such joy and grace.

But now my dreams are cast aside
The world of meaning denied life.
What seemed most precious now is fled…
And I lie sleepless in my bed.

What is the world when unadorned
With all that in my heart I’ve formed?
There is no meaning I can trace.
As in a mother’s empty face.

On these grey rocks my path is hard.
From paradise, my self is barred.
To struggle or to grief succumb
When this dark day of mourning’s done?

Into His dazzling darkness dart
My dreams and love like dying sparks.
Into His Mystery so fair
I’ll cast both hope and my despair.

Thus my dreams will be transformed
To show themselves in other forms.
What feels a loss may foretell growth.
On my hope,I’ll take an oath

That nothing in my life is waste,
That I have not for phantasms chased.
And you are human,as am I.
Let’s live again until we die

If I go

If I go I won’t tell you.
I’ll just disappear one day.
Like when a cigarette ,which seemed so long,
suddenly has become smaller
and you never noticed it
because you were talking
about the meaning of life
while life was somewhere else
blown away with your smoke
into the sky
and then dispersed
never quite visible again
but still floating on the breeze
hoping to be caught
in a butterfly net
but unable to communicate
except by flying.
If I go it will not be today
but it will be an ordinary day
no one will realise
that it’s that day
that the bird flies
from her nest
to go to a new place
only seeing the deserted nest
he realises,
my bird has flown

Face to face

I found the message on your door,
You don’t love me any more.
Once you said “Oh,je t’adore”
Confusin’ ,musin’ losin’.
Why leave your message on display?
It’s been pinned up there all day.
I feel it’s such a cruel way.
Posin’,.musin’,.choosin’.
Can’t you tell me face to face,
Are you so short of human grace?
A brief letter would show more taste.
Deludin,broodin,floosin’.
Let me learn a lesson here.
I will not live my life in fear.
I’ll just shift into high gear
Illusion,fusion,musin’.
Once I thought that you loved me.
You announced it on the BBC.
Was it just publicity?
Amazin’,fazin’,crazin’.
Everybody has one life,
Sometimes filled with woe and strife.
Your loss went through me like a knife.
But,thank God I’m not your wife!
Musin’,choosin”,loosin,boozin’.

Love alone

Apples hang low near the ground.
robins chirrup all around.
sun on glowing maple leaves
gives a red glow that deceives.

Autumn air is flowing near,
though it’s still bright summer here.
wind dismays the flowering rose
as with arrogance it blows.

Leave me one flower for my eyes.
Leave me roses as I sigh.
Leave me not, my dearest one.
Soon enough we shall be gone.

What remains is love alone.
If your heart is not of stone,
Fear not sorrow,fear not woe.
Into this earth all must go.

Then we shall be mixed as one;
all distinctiveness soon gone.
Whether foreign or home grown
None of us shall be alone

Worms don’t see our passport stamps;
Beetles know naught as they tramp…
We will be but food for free…
As we rest beneath the tree.

Oh,play your poignant music for me with your meditative art.

Photo2109

 

You play on your clarinet;


 

I play on my cello.

Your music is poignant;

My music is mellow.

I can’t read your music;

You can’t play from mine.

Our music must be transposed,

But will not be the same.

I have longer fingers.

You have bigger hands.

You play some from memories

which I don’t understand.

I play from my own history,

You compose your own.

You have tragic feelings,

which I have never known.

Would you play my music?

Then it must be transposed;

but we can’t transpose our feelings,

Unless we are shown

how to draw out symbols

From the dark Unknown.

I love the music that you play

and I know you do love mine.

But can we play together

with a meaningful design?

Transposing keys and feelings

Is an arduous,lengthy task;

Much easier to play falsely

and never,never ask.

I can’t share your lifetime hurts

and you cannot share mine.

Is it easier to share happiness

and in love to entwine?

Oh,play your poignant music for me

with your meditative art.

I shall listen with my ears

and listen with my heart.

And then I shall respond to you.

My instrument is here.

I am playing quite new music.

I feel you drawing near.

Suddenly we are moved to play

A completely new design.

I seem to feel your feelings

And I can hear that you feel mine.

Together we seem to make a work

Of torment and release.

This music is so tragic,

Yet its design has brought me peace.

Play on,play on,for now I know

I begin to understand,

without more words or gestures

than those from your curved hands

A lamb dies; call him Abel

I am able I am assembled
I aim able.To kill Abel.
I blame Abel,I.
Am I emblematic
Of blame?
Abel,am I to blame?
At home,I am
Unable to tell.
A lamb is an emblem.
I am unable to help Abel.
Help me ,Abel,are you able?
My name is unable to be,
I mean I am unnameable.
I am Abel,I am an object
Of fraternal hate.
Love was unable
to be,to embrace. Enmity and time
Beat me.Killed me.
Dead.
They aim to disable,
A lamb dies.Call him
Abel.
I am bereft, for hate
Was able
To destroy amiability.

I aimed hate at my brother,Abel.
Hate will be unable in the
End to win.

I miss you, Abel.
My brother.
I miserable,Abel.
I am unable ,Abel,
To live,to love.
Abel,I bad.
No balm,no love,
I unable.
I un…
Un,undone.
Oh, Abel.
I bereaved myself,
Unable,
blind.
I lost,ability,
Love.
I live not.Yet
Not able
To die.
Unable.
Undone.
Done for.
Cain.
No brother.
No cousin.
Noone left but me
Who am not Abel.
Disabled

Trust the dark

Photo0205

 

Trust the unknown force that grew you,
From the  union of two cells.
An act of love  and total giving,
Which has produced whom you call self

 

Trust the dark,the unseen aspects
Of the life we all do live.
Trust that there is wisdom elsewhere,
To your emptiness to give.

 

Wait in patience for the time
When inspiration comes at last
Trust in darkness,silence,lowness.
Opposition forms the cross.

 

Pain is bearable in lowness,
Like the worm in earth I dwell.
When I look I see the sunrise

 And I trust all shall be well.

 

 

The Promised Land

I have loved you and I’ve held you.
Many years,you have been mine;
If the time has come for parting
Let us embrace for one last time.

You know you have to leave me,
Though you desire a longer stay.
Let me hold you in my arms now
For just tonight and perhaps one day

Then I’ll watch you travel on,love,
We take this last step all alone.
I’ll be here beside you watching.
I shall feel when you are gone.

May you accept,may you surrender.
May you reach the promised land.
Into  earth my tears will fall, sweet,
As I recall your tender hands.

Suffering humanity


I am not a traditional Christian nor do I believe  going to church makes you a  real Christian which I discover was written about by Kiergegaard.Yet I believe there is a poetic truth in much of what it’s all about including Jesus as a symbol of suffering humanity.

After I had written the poem it reminded me of a song by George Harrison,My Sweet Lord.

I frightened my husband once when I was ill as I declared,I want to see Jesus…I didn’t want to die.. just thought it’s be interesting to meet him after all these years of hearing his name!

Are nature and nurture at war?
Is Reason a queen or a whore?
Such questions waste time for
It’s not Either/Or
Let balance be what we  adore.

Will this state or that one make peace?
Can such bare hostility cease?
We all must decide
Before more deaths arrive
Is it God’s palm or Satan’s we grease

Since atom bombs now rule us all
We live under their eternal pall.
Is this our direction
Or a human predilection
For banging our heads on brick walls?

We now hold a power so fierce
That all human hearts must be pierced.
Should we keep shopping
without ever stopping,
While our sweet Lord  dies again  in our wars.

Summer of love

lighter tree

Shimmering light
The lily pond
The music of your eye
The touch of your arm
Your always honey smell.
I love.

Rustling trees in a row,
A wide green lawn;
People stoop to see small flowers.

A snail on the path.
The perfection of the shell.
I believe

Unusually tall dandelions
at the edge of this wood
Wave in the warm west wind.
We smile.

Sitting pen in hand
I wonder what I would have written
In all the letters I’ve not sent you.

Far away on the Ridgeway,
Cars, like ants,
Rush towards the motorway.
They make us laugh.
How green the meadows
How fresh the old trees.

I gaze at you.
I find I am.
It’s mutual.
We are.

It’s here.

True love’s vision

A rose
True love is not a feeling but a path
Discovered by a new perception of our life.
Our vision is less skewed by pain and wrath,
We see in true proportion and true size.
True love desires just vision of the good..
And asks for nothing but the eyes to see.
The violence in our bones and in our blood
Is less and with creation we agree.</p>
<p?But risking the abyss of love brings fear.
Just hope of satisfaction tempts us to progress.
To God or to a loved one we draw near.
And as we walk we find anxieties grow less .
Yet human life is always full of doubt.
Acceptance is a way to make this naught

Continue reading “True love’s vision”

Postmodernism preys

Postmodernism’s the fashion ne’er manque.
We must study Foucault and his scribes.
Get reason trapped and do not court  delay.
You need to find your intellectual tribe.

Where is the goose which laid the golden egg..
Invented meta-talk and fairy tales?
Which narrative is balanced on a peg?
Which philosopher gets re-homed by a whale?

Where is the whole truth and the nothing but?
Whose ‘ the eye which sees reality?
Who ‘s the judge who makes the final cut?
Where is the God to whom we owed fealty?

Now nothing is what anyone can say.
I understand it’s meaningless to pray

Spiritual verses

  • Gravity
    Oh, cradle my soul in your light
  • As I am in darkness tonight.
  • Fill me with your love
  • On earth,not above.
  • Your touch is both gentle and bright.
  • Seeing and feeling are one.
  • As senses conjoin yet are none.
  • I know it is so
  • The darkness shall glow
  • You are both god and person.
  • It seems like the heavens are weeping
  • Rain and snow fall while we’re sleeping
  • The clouds are grey black
  • As Northward they trek.
  • As for records, are they all we are keeping?
  • We dwell in a body of flesh
  • With others we love to enmesh.
  • Let’s get up and dance now
  • Love shows us how…
  • We dance to the tunes that refresh
  • We humans need meaning to create
  • The meaningless can agitate.
  • But stories abound.
  • Pick the best you have fo found
  • Get in there and start to narrate
  • In nature time goes round and round
  • Life’s a spiral, the wise man has found.
  • Each time I pass you
  • I see you anew
  • Until gently we are laid in the ground.
  • The end is the beginning,they say.
  • So say what is important today.
  • For time flows like a stream;
  •  What is ,soon has been.
  • So we are foolish to encourage delay

Like startled flowers

The hailstones pounded the window
as violently,as if they had minds
bent on killing;soldiers in rows and ranks rushing onwards;
as each fell another and another took its place.
Cold and mathematical they had a simple precise force and geometry.
Into this warlike scene,floated two white butterflies
Crossing and recrossing the spaces between the hail
they followed a random path;now together.now apart
Their unplanned,loving dance leads to mating, procreation and a future
while the hailstones can only die.
Seems sometimes fragile freedom is more productive
than the fierce mechanical modern world can imagine.
I see the butterflies now like startled flowers
hunting for the sun


	

Come back,beggar man

I saw you on the pavement
with your old brown dog
You were shabby,poor,ragged,
Sat on your tartan rug.
You had water for the dog,
You hugged him and you sang,
But the people walked on by,
And no-one looked at you.
No-one looked at you.

But you still sang your song.
And you sent me so much love
It crossed from eye to eye.
I felt it coming in.
I heard that you had died,
Though you were only thirty three.
Only thirty three.

I wonder,where’s your dog?

I felt our souls had touched,
You gave to me so much
As I wandered in my grief
Through the roads and round the streets.
In your glance, you touched my heart.
I felt love swimming through,
From you right into me.

Will you come again?
I see all these dim, grey men
Who cut your benefits
To give more wealth to few;
So that the needle’s eye,
which is waiting when we die,
is forgotten, for they want
protection for their wealth.

I wish that beggar man
would come back here again.
I liked to hear his songs
But I can’t recall the tunes;
Maybe I’ll write songs myself,
That’s the highest sort of wealth
Our creativity
Is a path to dignity.

Come back every one!
I wish you had not gone.
come back in my dreams
and give me some new themes.
I’m singing like you sung.
it’s this world that’s so wrong.
come back beggar man,
I knew you were the one.

Love knows what to do

Love knows what to do

Mind the gap...
Mind the gap… (Photo credit: asparagus_hunter)

Some folk are made of rubber

Some folk are made of glass

And when the stormy winds blow

Rubber lets it pass.

i

Some folk have eyes like water

Some folk have eyes like ice.

And when we’re introduced

We do not look there twice.

 

 

Some folk have learned to use us

Some folk give us respect.

With those who cannot see us

We cannot  connect.

 

 

Some folk where born  to sunshine

Some folk were born to storm

And fears imagined in the mind

Can cause such dreadful harm

 

 

Oh,hold me to your bosom

Oh.hold me close to you

Some folk were made to hate and fear

But love knows what to do

 

Oh,let me feel your body

let me cherish you

Some folk  have been neglected,

But love knows what to do

For life’s but a true story we invent

No words of mine can potently display
the anguish and the joy that touch our lives;
yet all our ghostly forebears went this way
where words may pierce our hearts like sharpened knives.

No sentient being willingly at first
Accepts the pain that true perception brings.
Yet we must not take hearts to be a curse;
we need not flee from knowledge,though it stings.

Each day demands our thoughtfulness and love
from which all better actions rightly come.
Each day the grace we have is just enough,
Continue reading “For life’s but a true story we invent”

As honeysuckle on the walls, In joy’s sweet arbours does grow tall.

 

They lay down in awe and fear,
Of what their love was bringing near.
They gazed into each other’s eyes
And so did rhapsodise.

They lay down to gaze into
the eyes and soul and heart so true.
They gazed until,when overcome,
They were united into one.

Their souls and bodies were conjoined,
And thus their hearts were well entwined;
As honeysuckle on the walls,
In joy’s sweet arbours does grow tall.

Their loving lips and eyes and hands
Gave pause to time’s soft flowing sands;
And while they touched and gazed so long,
The birds sang out in glorious songs.

The eyes are mirrors to the soul,
and love will make us grow more whole.
Gaze lovingly on humankind..
And hold care in your mind.

Parting,a sonnet

  •  

    P1000280
    I wear my heart displayed upon my face.
    Attentive readers find their meaning there,
    Where feelings thought too deep to be embraced
    Can shine demurely where they do not scare.

    As Freud observed we’re never quite disguised
    Betrayal is our body’s real motif
    The message comes conspicuous from the eyes..
    Bright sparkles or our tears of blackest grief.

    The answer to a question seemly leaps
    So Yes or No is visibly revealed.
    The blush that spreads so fast across the cheeks,
    Both bold and shy, unable to conceal.

    Your face tells me you lied when “Love” you wrote.
    Yet let us part with song as we are poets.

Trust in darkness

“Trust the unknown”. Autumn 2013 008All shall be well,and all manner of things shall be well” St Julian of Norwich Trust the unknown force that grew you, From the joining of two cells. Act of love, of self giving, Thus to grow a newer self. Trust the dark,the unseen aspects Of the life we all do live. Trust that there is wisdom elsewhere, To your emptiness to give. Wait in patience for the time When inspiration comes at last Trust in darkness,silence,lowness. Opposition forms the cross. Pain is bearable in lowness, Like the worm in earth I dwell. When I look I see the sunrise And I trust all shall be well.

A pool of light

photo1049_001

Their eyes drew me,
And their eyes draw me again
Into a pool of winter light
Golden from the low sun.
I swim in it
Like a hawk flows on the wind
Over the depths,
Of life.
Contained by a white china cup,
I’m your reflection now
Drowning in the slanting sunlight
Like a stone in a lake.
Falling deeper until I find
the creative mud
with which I mingle
no longer a stone
but a soft flowing stream of sensations
which meets with joy
the earth’s depths and presence.
And something new will grow

‘ow Ah used te speek

A modern reenactment of a Viking battle
A modern reenactment of a Viking battle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo0920  frozen 1When ah were in’t town
Ah met sum folk from up our road.
She sed,you’ve got a verry educated accent
and moreover you luk just like wa daughter in law,
She’s Danish.Am sure you must be related to her.
Ah,sed,the Vikings did get to Ireland..
I expect am descended from them.
Actually i wasn’t talking like that at first
But when they said,you have no accent I suddenly found
If Ah shut mi nostrils and kept my mouth barely open
Ah cud talk just like I used to..
But mi face is configured differently.
When I got home,I wer tellin’ mi husband
but he finds it distressin’ like;
Cud be it reminds ‘im of his dad and mam
And all the uther folk he knew when eh wer growin’ up
Bit it hurts now he’s not got them any more.
Am I putting on an act?
Which is real,what I once was,
or what I became.
Well,luv,ah’ve got numor to say now…Ta ta.
Ooh,it’s rainin’ again and the sheets are out in the backstreet.
Oh,bugger.

The very notion of God

One of the insides of the many churches on Sicily
One of the insides of the many churches on Sicily (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Alan Durst carving "Absolution&q...
English: Alan Durst carving “Absolution” on the Woodchurch Rood Screen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

photo1049_001

If God felt like getting absolution
that’s one drawback to his position
that the priest would not know how to cope
with the very notion

Hello,I’m God,Father.
Oh,you’re with the Mafia,then
I am with everyone
That’s noble.Any sins
I made a grave error.
You don’t have to worry.We all do it.
But I’m God!
If you say so.
I made a man from earth.Then I made a woman.
That’s very wise under the Equal Opportunites Legislation
Then they bred.
Well,surely no one blames you?
I do.
Are you unwell?Shall I call an ambulance?
What for?
To take you to the Asylum.
So you think I’m an asylum seeker?
Well,you don’t look British!
It’s enough to drive me mad.
You are mad.
How come?
You think you are God
I am God.
Do you have any identity card?
That’s rich!who’d give me one?The Pope?
Well,they say,see Rome and die.
I never die.I’m immortal
Well,I absolve you and your penance is to forget yourself
Wham,shudder,bang,bump
Everything is on fire
Lord have mercy.
I’m thinking about it.
Be English!
English… what a joke!I am black.
So am I!
Black And British.. or Black and Foreign
Is God a Foreigner?
Definitely!