Category: poetry

The Church Visit

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What of a church, captures my breath
Returns it to me full of life and of death?
Wood underfoot and stone walls recall
The millions of tales of time gone by
 
To chatter and swirl in the space between
The land and the sky. Above and below –
Why should they bring all into focus though?
What has and what will and what now?
Moves made, tears cried,
Sat at once so sad and satisfied…
 
The solace of the empty full or
Theatre moving a mortal mind?
As I am swept and I am blind
And all is clear.
 
Leaving changed
Holding the gift
Of knowing a life, as yet, un-lived.

The Commute

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Notes floated down
The tunnel around
The heads of those
Gone home.
“…And a knick knack baddie whack
Give a dog a bone…”
The sound made heads
Look up from phones
And they pushed to find
The words to go
With the song they first
Heard long ago, and so
Out of place
As shoes clipped stairs
Whiplash wrenched
From daily affairs
To shuttle and chute
Through the tune in the air
To touch one another
And this time not care.
Recalling a time
Quite long ago
Making organs flip
And groan.
When they saw more worlds
Than their own
And the rectangle light
Of their phone.

The Wave

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She turned to wave
As she tumble-skipped by
The sweep of her hand
May have rippled life
A million miles away.

A gesture to swallow
The hate of the world
Only a nightmare
Cheese before bed
As her mother pulled
Her along.

She missed, though may
Have launched the love
That coursed through
In a channel of lava
But had she retained
Her own?

What woman lay
With constant shoes
A thing of fear
As she sat there alone –
How had life changed
The view?

She missed the wave
But heat was not
Lost too.

The fourth one
Has many more
To do.

LOL

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“Lol” took the space
Where a laugh used to be
Throaty and loud and true,
A reaction to life, not a split second gone,
And setting more snap-laughs too.

A sound that alarms
For it’s rarer these days
And could it be mocking me?
What could be making her laugh that way?
Why is she happy?

Used to the bullies
Used to the “lols”
That forced their brash way through,
And stamped on raw emotion there
Internet over last childhood leftover…

Raucous and affecting,
So that more and more aware,
When something amuses
It goes through five filters
Then is published, stripped and bare.

Meaning is automatic, yet lost
As it’s all on how “I roll”,
Further from real life fun, from love,
I’d laugh if it wasn’t for “lol”.

Folkestone

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On the street where the soles of my shoes touch down
I wonder where you paced,
Did you look out upon the waves
And long for your grandmother’s face?
Was the world so different, then to now,
That we would not understand
The other’s view, the other’s soul,
Her journey through this land?
Did you feel the thrill of life and love,
As the boats at sunrise moored,
Before you set sail to somewhere new
With a hand so newly yours?
Did you wonder what would come,
That five from two could be?
Then many more hearts in time
To pace long after me.

Like Today

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On a day like today,
When a mariachi band will rip and whirl through a carriage dense with tears unwept,
The wild joy and mad shift
Makes one smile, makes one laugh.

On a day which hurls rain,
The shock it won’t stop moves to disbelief when it does,
By a lift of light so sharp, so steep
It takes one’s breath, stops the heart.

On a day when it’s just
The meaning of life as the rest has fallen away,
It’s a moment in time
Of peace, of love
And one to hold, always.

The Ride

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On a long train ride
Across a big dark town
A woman looked up
As another looked down
And the smile she gave
Was full, and brave
So the other’s was bright
Though from a mother, a lover
 
And when she sat down
Those strangers in town
Looked forward to see
Those across could be
Just as open and young
As in their dreams tightly spun
Of hopes borne when small
Before news, before all
 
Could be bleak
Could be low
When there was a beauty in “slow”
When tiny steps were great…
When the world was a land
Of adventures to find
And no concept of fear or hate
 
His arm on the rest
Touched the other’s beside
And ashamed the man looked down
But the hand beside him
Took hold of his
As the train rode through the town
 
And a head rested
Upon his shoulder
As they passed so many lives by
And the world became the land that it was
Under the starlit sky.

A Sky That’s Blue

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Under a sky that’s blue

A mystery comes with every pace

To rival wonder too

To flood the mind and drown the thoughts

That note the bluest blue.

 

Under a sun that shines

Notions strike along the way

To block the path rays find

So steps are loads that legs can’t take

And eyes are good as blind.

 

But then,

 

The world, a shock of light and dark

With arcs of colour through

Swoops low to pick you off your feet

To lift the heart, and you.

 

For chests of thoughts once pulled by chains

Leave ankles free to move

A twist that shifts the mind so that

The soul may push on through…

 

And the breeze will blow

And the sun will shine

Under a sky that’s blue.

 

 

Light On

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Found an old simple poem! Maybe better spoken…

Sleeping with the light on
And I’m no child.
My night’s been wilder
Than the deepest jungle
At midnight and I’m riled
For it’s silly to be
Sleeping with the light on
When I’m no child.
Hiding under blankets
And I’m no child.
My dream was rockier
Than the steepest mountain
Walk at midnight
When friends are snakes
That come for a squeeze
So I’m ill at ease
Without my blankets tonight.
Tears on my pillow
And I’m no child,
I’m big and tall
But rolled in a ball
For I’ve joined the strangest circus in town
And if I’m no child
Then I’m the star clown:
Clutching at blankets and needing the lights
To get me through these pitch-black nights.