The sky is stark, the air is cool and still
The black cat’s run, the birds unfold all day
I sit down here and with my totty pray
Ye cast o’ foolish thoughts, you raped my will
We’ve each enraged the bureaucratic mill.
Oh frigid purse, I never meant to pay!
The sky ‘s a-spark, the air is warm and shrill
The saturnine demoted knelled their way
With this feathered pounce, my sample quill,
I cite the cheque and date it for next May.
Oh, tit for cat, the tiger’s bed ‘s astray.
Yer life is settled by a harlot’s will
The sky ‘s a shark, the air is sharper still.

I knew the nearby pavement as if it were a face
The lines and cracks and puddles where holes sucked in the rain
The gutter where the marbles rolled,the grids like iron lace
I knew the nearby pavement as if it were a face
As if it had a consciousness,a heart to be embraced
It must have had some kind of mind,though never had a brain
I knew the nearby pavement as if it were my face
The lines and cracks and puddles where holes were filled with rain

Mock soup with real dumplings
Flayed duck with burnt orange
Ginger mould and green algae

Avocado tumbled in Welsh dressing
Chicken legs on horseback and spinach
Mousse and a dream come true

Melon roasted in olive oil with mice
Roast thief and mash with tarot
Chinese Yoghurt with Lemon Frieze

We walked in rhythm  as if life were our dance
Holding hands, we smiled   whilst on our way
Exchanging too  a soft and loving glance
We walked in rhythm  as if  love were a dance 
Showing both the strength and  the nuance
I wish my love were still with me  at play
We walked in rhythm, our life  a home made dance
Holding hands, we smiled whilst on our wa

When we’re feeling sad we need to dance
Every place once had its form and tune
In Ireland self taught fiddlers could entrance
As merry people danced under the moon

Now we watch the dancing on TV
We’re still as statues tossed onto settees
But watching others dance can never be
A way to change our mood as rolls the sea

Infantile and placid with our lot
We have cables,aerials and Sky
Could the supernatural begat
Creative hearts in those who careless lie?

Just the music of the dance uplifts
The hearts that beat with love tranquil yet swift

A sightless man on the cliff could smell the scents
As his daughter spoke the flowers names
He seemed happy, more than just content
A blind man in the garden sniffed the scents
We drank our tea with joy at careful chant
The sea was dancing, in and out it came
A sightless man near the cliff enjoyed the scents
His daughter told to all the flowers names

Without you, I feel the emptiness
The future seems a gaping void
Without you,I feel the loneliness
Without you, I feel the emptiness
My heart still feel essential homelessness
I ache for my lost life destroyed
Without you, I feel the emptiness
The future seems an endless void

1.Wear a dull beige or grey knitted hat and shapeless beige padded jacket
2 Carry a plastic handbag or briefcase.
3 Knit your eyebrows
4.Mutter inaudibly as you walk
5 Sing Joan of Arc and wave your arms like Jennifer Warnes when queuing in Tesco’s.Maybe that’s more insane than boring
6 Ask people at the bus stop if they like Pritti Patel.
7.Keep mentioning Boris Johnson in a puzzled manner as id
8.Tell everyone how ill you feel and ask them what they think of bunion operations.
9.Ask them if someone moves their gadgets round at night while they are asleep
10.If asked to meet for coffee,say you don’t drink if wondering who he is
11 Tell your lover all about Wittgenstein while he is caressing your supine body.
12.Ask your lover to define postmodernism after they kiss you
13.Use cliches like , at this moment in time, getting down to the nitty gritty, whenever possible
14.Don’t keep up to date in which spectacles are in fashion.Say, what ‘s wrong with these.especially if they resemble Dame Edna Everage’s. Or  if you have mended them with Elastoplast or elephant tape
15 Always talk more than anyone you are with or
16  Never talk
17.Ask women why they wear trousers.
18 Ask people how often they wash their jeans
19 Try to convert people to your religion as often as you can
20.Say  you never eat foreign  food while you eat a Chinese take away
21  Cry  when someone else eats the last cream puff
22 Say you never watch sport as you believe wearing shorts is a mortal sin.
23 Ask people if you can borrow  their vibrator as your  hand held blender is broken and you want to make sponge cake
24 Never read a paper or hear the News
25 Ask someone why Moses has descendants while Plato has none.
26 Ask an orthodox Jew why God hates pork.
27,Ask a Catholic if  they are on the pill.
28 Never flirt or even look at people
29 Never  make jokes
30 Never read lists nor funny books

I remember turquoise sea and sky
Burning stubble in the fields longside
Coming down the Saxon cliffs at Hythe

Joy had straightened all that was awry
By the shore we saw the tide was high
Only I remember turquoise sky

Colour makes me glad to be alive
The flowers were open with a spirit blithe
Atop the newer cliffs, a cafe hides

Joy is never found when willpower strives
Just as love’s destroyed when lovers lie
I remember sea turned teal, blue sky

Freed fom our hard work we felt alive
The sea triumphant inward seemed to glide
We came down the Saxon cliffs at Hythe

In my heart these memories survive
Colour,shore, the images abide
I remember turquoise sea surprised
Coming down the Saxon cliffs at Hythe

We are in this boat together
Sailing across the bay.
Some have an easy voyage,
The wind is blowing their way
I wish I could always be sailing
Across an ocean with you
And never reach the other side
though it may be in view.
I want to see the sunrise
Across the dappled sea.
The ripples of the water
Reveal a new world to me.
One day this boat will reach the shore
Unless destroyed by storm
And I shall have to leave your arms
Where I have been so warm.
So just before we get there
I wanted you to know
That I shall always love you
Wherever you may go.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=18706

February 1930

• Interior: The SuburbsBY HORACE GREGORY

I’ve spent so long listening to Leonard Cohen when I’ve been sad,I now have a semi- Canadian accent.

One day I was at the bus stop and noone was around so
I sang “Joan of Arc” which takes 7 minutes
The nest time I met a friend, she said,I didn’t know you could
sing.She was behind her hedge!
I used to listen to the same songs over and over again

https://youtu.be/2zjLBWnZGTU

Like psychotic infants huge with rage
The human race grew rich on war not peace
Until at last the whole world was engaged
World Wars the great Plays on this our stage
Like psychotic infants hot with rage
Their burning breath took books,rich page by page
All imagined horror they increased
Like psychotic infants wild with rage
The human race fooled into War for Peace

I wanted to go the bathroom
But the Council has closed them all down
What shall we do
When we can’t find a loo
Anywhere in the whole town?

Some people cut back on water
But that makes your urine too strong
Drink diet lemonade
Over which nuns have prayed
Otherwise you may be shunned

The city has no fields and hedges
Where peasants could find some relief
Our bodies and bladders ruled
By this old ship of fools
Unbuild all the cities with streets

I washed my own hair in the kitchen
We had no bathroom,you see
We had out own lavatory
In the back yardery
No light in the dark after tea

I am glad that I have my own bathroom
It’s much better when I menstruate
I can see my own blood
Sometimes in flood
I wish I’d sent that to the Tate

Bless me ,Father, I have sinned again
Needlessly I caused my lover pain
If he asks for whipping, use a cane
I cannot strike the one I love, be plain
My sin is in my tongue,I call him names
I feel you need to show a bit more shame
Do no others try their love to tame?
Don’t fool with me,I guess you are insane.
If I am, it’s God that is to blame
Don’t you know to say that is a crime?
You mix your legal and your moral zones.
I’ve had enough of this,I’m going home
Will your lover come across to Rome?
No,we live in sin, please change your tone
I am sad for I live all alone
I can only recommend you find a crone
I’d prefer a witch, is this the time?
Any time is right if there’s a line
You mean I have to phone them,I can try
It’s up to you, quit moaning, you’ll be fine
I’d better wash my hands and have a cry
Let it out and sin with no more sighs
Thanks for that,I think you’re very wise
Moreover I do like your gorgeous eyes
This is about the end,I know you spy
I’d love you, if you told me truly why.
Now we are absolved we need a fry
Get the eggs, the bacon’s turning grey
I prefer it green, so go away

 I can’t write poems about   the Fall
Plastic window,  curtain calls
Coloured  clothes pegs and the iron
Men with names like Kid and Lion

I can’t write poems  about  my school
Nor   algebraic  rings of fools
I hate to eat from plates at dinner
Am I   on the spectrum, not a sinner?

I cannot write about the Christ
Evoking grief at  sacrifice.
Paedophilia   hid by men
Men whose lies  might come again

Oh, what is left this world, its might?
Seek the grace to see and  fight

Bless me,Father, for I have twins.

Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievious fault

No,I won’t recover from your loss
People tell me I should not be sad
Everyone must carry their own Cross
So,I won’t recover from your loss
I will pay whatever it will cost
This is partly choice, to love the lost
From my grandad to my husband via my dad
No,I won’t recover from your loss
Oh,people let me sing that I am sad

0nly a damp darkness
shows us winter’s here
only that darkness knowst
the shadows of fear
only the pale low sunlight,
cloudy sky
only the daylight comes
where dead leaves lie
only an invisible life
harbinger of spring
so much good hidden
yet time will bring
only the winter sky
only as clouds go by
dead leaves
keep creatures warm
in the winter storm
March will bring new buds,
As small birds will sing

Get your label, do not go unmarked
Star of David, tattoos on the arm
Would that Jesus sprang out from the dark
With his eyes compassionate yet stark
Get your label, do not go unmarked
Let some demon burn you in the dark
See the angels haunted ,wanting balm
Get your label, do not go unmarked
Star of David, tattoos on the arm

Hair like golden silk and eyes of blue
Valkyrie do your task without alarm
Noone needs to put a mark on you
Even with your penance overdue
Hair like golden silk and eyes of blue
Can one’s present virtue be assumed?
Making contact, eyes that more than charm
Hair like golden silk and eyes of blue
Valkyrie do your task with wasting charm

I am a bit unwell but I tested negative for Covid
Just resting more than usual right now

“Returning these routes to their former glory, and progressing work to reopen even more lines and stations, shows our commitment to levelling up journeys across the country as we build back better from the pandemic.” (Grant Shapps)

Resting in the love of all my friends
I’m soothed like infants in their padded cots
This love is live and rarely does it end
When people really meet the gods descend
Resting in the love of all my friends
Imagining that sunshine will ills mend
Make us grateful for the good we’ve got
Resting in the love of all our friends
We’re soothed when reading words we had forgot