Land and women
land and women

Fertile land
fertile women

Stop

Fighting for
land and women
and status
and land
and women
and

Stop

Telling me
to grow up

You grow up

Pulled from earth,
clothed,
unable to connect.

vicious people

waiting

slimy silken cord
of family
finally sliced away.

has it really
come to this?

Every syllable a shock

reminder of genes
chimpanzeeed in error.

aberration of speech
worm-holing space,

frog-splashing time,

Homer not gone,
****** calls to battle

and the siren song.

anyhow
that was the day I gave up everything

one thousand hotel mirrors
well travelled.

train Milan, cheek-kissed Maria.

cognac. A man. Unconsumed.

Guylove dance, marketplace Castries.
Lord Jackson, Victor
Calypso kinging.

Anyhow
that was the day I gave up dancing

Jack lighthouse, broken glass,
spilled Guinness never forgiven.
Named my son for him.

Anyhow
that was the day I gave up talking

crew cut Poughkeepsie, émigré fashion
boarding cockle boat, Dunkirking
Queen Mary.
Nero sunsetting on piddling empire
wallmap fading red to wilted pink

scouring the bottom of titanic bucket,
glorious lido summer, dear Liza,
got a hole in it(torn piece of rubber
mnemonic for a mother)

anyhow
that was the day I gave up ***

now come the restoration of the king.

London shall rise again,
borne on tide of flying,
infinite darkness,
osmosis of light.

whisper saint Paulus,
de-clocked, unthroning,
myriad swimmers swarm
canal cut channel,
(furry animals cluster, cuddle
in unlikely couplings).

quavering timbers
blowing and swaying,
queen lay dying, long live the king.

anyhow
that was the day I gave up my mind

Small cave in the
western cliff

Monk cell in the
western cliff

Waiting
waiting
patiently

Small cave
high himalayas
boyhood dream

No puff puff choo choo
whistling steam
no red as fire engine

Small cave high mountain
tiger company
deer company

No ***** *****
boys a' marchin'
no kick kick win goal

Small cave
Small cave
chill air
and smiling

Gipsy take me

Away away

Far from bethnal green

Ten years old
wanted away away

Near sixty lord
let me go

In a dark house
a dank cellar
I dreamt my death

Ten years old
and dead already

Near fifty years on
oh lord let me birth

Cobbles wet
air thick
unviewable.

Feeling the weeping
victorian brick of
railway arch

Warm fug of
pigeon feathers
ammonia droppings
and the playground
of houses ruined
by bombs in the
reign of hate.

Elsewhere london
swings-

A small boy lost in pea soup

(in the grate
banks of coal
glow and flicker
pictures, movies
of the soul)

trod lightly to avoid
disturbing leaves fallen
and feeding filamental roots
of fungus.

these puffing spores,
teasing the nose to sneeze
a spawning mushroom love.

wherewithal to breed,
hypothecary of suspension
neither dead nor alive, hung
in the balance, forests outweighed.

you soaked my love in your hand
kerchief, adjusted outdoor lipstick
in the mirror forever ready in the sacred
pouch of bag.

you like to love in the woods, on the beach,
in that castle and on the bus
carrying us from Paris.

thrilling the thought of capture,
a sudden lens, natural rapture,
fecundity of trees spilling carefree nuts,

of hairy bee legs moving the future,
whole species in a shuddering buzz.
hairs in my nasal passage protrude,

never have money, the
necromancer said, reading this face,
portraiture of fortune.

but in this new forest
on bedded lichen and moss
scratching and soothing, intermittent
I saw you, naked as morning joy.

1
give me your overcoat
Samuel Beckett
to wear over grandfather jacket

to keep out the wind that
furrowed your old face
to landscape

that took grandpas leg from
running, the trenches too much
for a sensitive man.

2
you gave your movie star jacket
and I cherish it.
your name escaped you in grief

and from losing everything at once
I barely pitied your bereavement.

that is why?
this lovely jacket
and the harsh winds that cull.

how little the care for paltry suffering,
the boy in the doorway, the cowering dog
and the end of today
revealing only tomorrow

Search and search
where time went
taking joy and sorrow,
those unstable twins.

Gone gone
and vanished

But comes again
and again the
teasing time

Four chambers
four accidents
broken pump

Careful now

Five may prove fatal

Vivid as fire

If your house burns,
etching flame

Let it

Walk on

Neck deep in estuarine mud
freedom curtailed
curtained, twitched,
every move seen,

unsanctioned the
wild days of sure
autonomy undone,
frozen again in
the slavedom of social.

My country undone,
citizens come to be
clients of the state

Cut the mesh of england

Let dolphin swim
salt-free and leap

Escape the net, the
mud of cockled estuary

Recent rain
and the gentle spots
conjoin

(how about us)?

Black ravens
attack black dog-

Squirrels chase,
spiralling trees.

Holy days in the park

Canal towpath
everyday worn by
man boots-
the dray horse long gone
the timber barge drowned.

Protruding roots
buttocks nest
spine strait
against the grain

Tears by the lake
abandoned turtles
grown huge
bask on sodden logs

Accretion of memories

Accumulation of things

Take the canoe
and clean

Lest the hull cease
to glide through
your waters

Goodbye
sweet raft.

I climbed the
grassy bank
and watched

Until the rapids
took and dashed
you on jagged rock.

(some nights still
a sliver of  bamboo
pierces my slumber)

soft yearnings and
brooding mistakes.

drop that sack of coal
and burn it in
the warm hearth
of your new home

if only
lonely today
a lady full mantled
walk my way

if only if not
a shaggy dog
peace sleeping
upon my lap

I slept
deep into the rock
of Wales

dead I was to
thought-
to walkers by who

sent prayers skywards
for my aching soul-
for he is dead

but I slept on-
knew not of
mourning love
nor fear

oh on slept I
deep down into
Welsh granite
hard slept I

for he is dead and gone

Of the master mason

Knowing the dead

Hewing head stone

From our crust.

Master mason
knowledge of lives
won and lost and one.

The grave yard serious
of misery and suffering-
alongside the happy chance
of love

The happy chance
of love

My sweet girl
arm in arm
walking southern bank
thames turgid under sun

Reading a sonnet
on the stage of the globe

Your ring
diamond glittering
in the circle

Whispering tenderness
In westminster abbey
and watching the stone
masoned to hold
long dead poets

Stitching together
disparate words
to bring home
the truth.

Let go
of truth
of words

Disparate
or stitched

And reside
in perfect
freedom

When you walk
do your peach halves
smooth together moistly?

You are a beautiful girl
but you don't walk too well,
tripping over men
time and time and time again,
and when you stumbled over me
and when you came agin
again

Was it not just
the joy of a peach
returned to sun?

And I will hold you in
this fractured heart
until the stars,
tired of light,
fizzle and scatter
ash to time and space
eternal

kissed every shrine
violated vestals
we were everywhere
venerated.

went to the government office

to the rich man

every time
horse *******
on my shoulder.

out of control
galaxies spinning
light sound
no centre

this cannot hold
why here in the middle
of nowhere?

those elegant people
sipping vicious cocktails

warm brandy lifted
capilleries.

I spat on the righteous

Old carp
frozen pond

Frog jumps in
splat

Old pond
fish-eye up
frog
splash

Mirror carp
mirror pond
frog splash
ah

Mud slop
lotus up
frog jump
plop

Carp mouth
surface pop
startled frog
jumps

Mirror top

Plop
other side
(Under side)

I see you in the morning,
sleep-bagged eyes
ring tired resignation

Snailed backpack
containing all you hold
in frost-nipped dawn.

Your terrible freedom
appeals, appals
in simple ferocity.

Come rest in my cave
on the western cliff
until the globe revolves
to warmer evenings.

A man you are
king of the lousy road.

My heart yearns
for that earnest seeking

What progress
pilgrim
what bathing wife
what parfit
gentile knichte

What progress
on this lonely path
you chose-
lunacy of free choice

With cynical shield and
fiery sword of faith
walking walking
walking and waiting

London grey.
leaden sky
molten river

foggy building
termite works
big city

lights dim in
neon struggle
from the moon

ink splodge
some nightmare
psyche gone awry

They spring up red
poppies from the dead,
flowered manhood
lost.

gas, gas boys quick
an ecstacy of fumbling
for gas mask boys
not clumsy bra.

till I knew I must die
never guessed I was
Born.

Cradle to grave, iron
ricebowl, half-life
of ease.

these poppies shall bloom
from my flesh too
(too soon, all too soon),
milky white ooze
of *****.

dishonour boys, or death,
how to choose
when too much choice
is ours.

too much boys, too much
luck,

we missed our war boys,
thank whatever gods
you may remember,
and gather your

honour boys, cup it in
both hands
and honour the warriors
who made us
these lands

Where does the cherry blossom go?

Why with the maple leaf
and the fruit missed by
bird and hand-

Back to earth
to soil new
generation

The long dead poppy up-
form beautiful youth

Hexagonal basalt
volcanic calm
footprints to Ireland

A beached whale
estranged love

And running giants
cudgel

Caked in glutinous sediment

Autocthonous man
rises slow, stands giant

On the shore
barnacles fleeing
the resurrection

Moon tideless
mud ***** at
rubber booted cocklers.

Crackle of *******
crustacean lifted
by ***** slipshod

Raising fractal shells
in practice old as man.

Listless boats loll
sealess, same little
boats, fishers of men
dunkirk.

Migrant birds ebb
and flow from africa,
struggle for land.

Yes, Elizabeth
You were my first,
Perhaps my only
Truelove

And yes, as you said
I liked the image-
Ancient typewriter
And a bottle of *****

And no, lizard Liz
My head buried
Between your thighs
I never amounted
To anything

Thank god you left.
Your myriad children
Around your feet
Your errant husband

Pedro the donkey,
You liked your men
Well hung.

I liked guinness
And port, and champagne
(if you are buying),
And pretty girls
And laughter.

You knew me my darling girl
And I knew you too

The man who
can barbecue some
poor dumb animal

Fix your car
put up a shelf
for the romantic books
piled on your floor.

I am not that man.

I am not that man
to carry you over
thresholds garnered
in new gold and tiled
from byzantine shores.

I am not that man
you dream of
dripping money and
diamonds
flashbulbs popping
your every red woven
glide coiffed and coutoured

I am not that man

I am real

Above the salt pans
royal prerogative reigns

But tarnish the jewel

And the meat is eaten
unseasoned

Click-click
we speak
click-click
and feed with lions

Regalia of a
crooked king
becrowned
enthroned by tide

Click-click
we walk
far out of africa

And the relationship
of men to stones
the purity of gold
stained, eaten
by lion-hearted
monarch
At the ley-lined end
of genocidal desserts

Migratory waves
denied
enmeshed

And walls crash
to dancing music
amid final insult
to the mass

Click-clicking
and walking

Singing and dancing
the mountains a
handful of dust

Sea only salt
and river bed dry
and dammed
to hell

Sparkling with ruby
glowing emerald
green as the plain
after monsoon
rains down fresh we
live through drought
sail the flood and
in the end
bloodied in futile battle

Click-click and die

Can I have a love
even forlorn,
undeserved for sure

Yet still
may I have
just one more love

If, one sweet night
I held you in my arms
and whispered to your
pillowed ear

Then would you feel
the nuanced fear,
our tender hearts
tender, sincere.

Today 10,000 leagues
apart, let me hold your
body with only mind

I will not search
some spider web for you,
watch you sticky caught
in unprivate worlds.

No need for such invasive ploy,
I see you naked in your soul.

Your essence nostrils pervade
intimate flavour residing
on my tongue

unpromising,
this ****** clay
scooped from the thames.

old, used scoured
****** of old father
thames, river of home,
of shame and escape.

mould me, make this
wet lump pliant,
knead it into man-shape
paint it green, blue or
gold, red white and blue,

not with harsh horse-
hair brush, but soft
with tender finger-tips.

fashion mouth ears eyes
and that piece some
women prize.

breathe life into this
teeming, fleshing thing

mouth to mouth, eve,
make me man with
kind words and passion.

take a rib and press it
to your *****

Not drowning
in michigan waters

But waving,
and in fair hand
emerging

That flaming sword
destroyer of delusion.

Polar wind ruffling
your surface,
goose bumping emotion-
then, fading as
passing illusion.

Reflected cloud,
the clear blue sky uniform,
deep cool waters of
mind gently
overflowing

Victoria park was countryside
city boy

Conkers fall
wild squirrel
true totem

Wild and free
park leaping
iron railings

Sleeping dark winter away
nut stored
wild and seeming free

Forty day fasting
saw the bear

One true totem
country man
sitting dark winter away

Free to roam
wildly grasping
leaping salmon

In rapids
wet and wild
freely eating

Totem salmon
offering freely
to feed

Lather me.
Shower and hose
this ***** man

Clean
baptismal would I come to you.

Took a jig-saw to emotion,
boxed, buried in coffin,
frustration locked in
cruel denial.

Earth shudders krakatoan,
darkness and fire combine
water covers land and
smoke obliterates sky-

Swept by salt-water
practiced, alive by de-fault

Are we now to be to be
the mystic melt,
creation or depletion,
to stallion or to geld

To St. Pauls
deranged wrong-
sided traffic

Tiny frail hand
slipped into mine
doe-eyed fear
and trust

Lightning charge
of chaste ******
responsibility

Whispers round the dome
like sacramental marriage