Take Root

standing in the rain
delicious drip drip
down our necks
this togetherness a
life feet planted
in dark earth
delicious drip drip
on your lips

Surrender

surrounded by words
hemmed in trapped
raise your hands
do what you're told
succumb to strange
temptation of fruit
touch taste and see

Surfaces

people slide apart
ice floes drift
frozen breath hangs
from silent trees
and deep inside
winter wastes away

Defragmentation

To be touched once
and never more
the same hands
trick the light

people fall apart
bit by bit
they defragment
and disappear

Stained Glass

A ruined church now stands
where once a young choir sang,
sheltering walls sink into the earth
tumble down the rock face.

Touch my ageing hand she might
say were she to come home,
but the grey cloud is winter
her heart turned to stone.

Sonnet X

How long can you avert the eyes?
For ever like blind man or fool?
It is possible to look not see
the arc of light over distant land
brilliance and irony of celebration.
It was rubble at the beginning
and so shall be at the end,
how do people live like that?

Some rough beast howls in the desert
creeps down in the fatal night
to take such risk the fear
of the shadow to quench thirst
to try to stay alive one more day
but oh listen to the tanks roll in.

Snail

these tender horns
shrink from the touch
wait for the crunch

that will obliterate
the ugly night's pain
this bombed-out end

Sonnet IX

and then you have to make
small house a room
turn it up
let the
twist of lemon ice
outside
soundless
so it seems
a ripple
in the new year
moving towards
the light of day
don't wait
for me

Without History

Under the unnamed trees
always alone
dead leaves underfoot
hardly ever
through the grass hardly
crushing out the life
gold sunlight red and brown

Sonnet VIII

there is a bitterness
stark rancid air
this dark short day
turn the lights on
relieve with a trick
sleight of hand
temporary ceasefire
a pleasant smile

feet planted in the soil
and the rain will come
first a sad droplet
then pouring down
fills your pockets
floods your shoes

Sonnet VII

temperatures rise but rain falls
startled tumult on the window pane
regular rhythm and even rhyme
life lived beneath the floodlights
an essence overcomes the shadows
a breeze blows from the sidelines
and so it goes lap by lap
sweat washed from the heated brow
steady speed barely takes the strain
keep counting down hold the focus
there is only this moment
savour each breath gasp of pain
the stars are out tonight
hot breath lifts towards them

Sonnet VI

daydreams of the waterfall sublime
a most magnificent Cascade
coming down as we come up
in the Vale of the Roaring Brook
turbulence provides an altered state
curious calm in the Thunder-shower
a savage roar in the ears
vast crowd of huge white Bears
clamber in over the rocks
move out of imperfect shelter
into the dark pool itself
falling in into icy water
and suddenly a new perspective
swims in below the surface

Cowboys & Indians

Some secret mystery awaits. Wisdom and knowledge. What is the difference? Wait for the word. Crowd around. The art of wonder. Idleness a pleasure before the cowboys roll in, slap their thighs, succumb to much hilarity.

Sonnet V

of course it all comes back
an offshore breeze rumples
the water ruffles the hair
pink boomerang in flight
rears up into grey matter
brief resistance to the elements
onwards and upwards a pause
and something hurtles back to earth
return to simple dialogue
the big questions dealt with
in occasional glances an easy
quiet beneath the knife
and fork click and clack
the unheard beating of the heart

Sonnet IV

and then there was some turbulence
a mighty storm blew in from the west
the days were very dark now
I held your hand quiet child
your eyes large beneath the water
raindrops pour into full floods
the long imaginary plain the way
home unrecognisable beneath
the sudden loss of day
and yet you change too
grow in stature when the wind
spits small ice in your face
some days you take it on the chin
some days you run and run and run

On the Wind's Wings

Borne aloft on the winds of the imagination children take to the skies. Multicoloured wings flash in the sunlight, reflections in the harbour water. Strange to see such freedom totter and fall as adult legs weave unsteadily in the next room. Downcast eyes fix firmly on the dull brown floorboards. The shade, the texture. All very interesting. Let's open the window now, let in some air.

Birds

Sonnet III

there are leaves
falling from the sky
crumpled messages
fill the many pockets
loose change gathers
a careless offering

and the metro station
fills with the air of a violin
classical elegance a concert
plays out to an unembarrassed hush
the audience flows on
ineffably towards the sea

and when the music is silent
what, after all, remains?

Sonnet II

the art of measurement
occurs in the everyday
submission to pain
in variable light
and occasional dark
ignorant of time
one more step ahead

it's not so bad really
there is a dryness
in the throat
the muscles strain
a furious dialogue
wonders how the agony
will end the pain will die

Marathon

Suddenly the wind is still. Temporary silence in the sky and then the rumble on the road. Breathe in, breathe out and this strange journey begins.