Some days ripen
heavy with fruit

you can reach the lower branches
and fill your basket

you can eat the flesh
juice down your chin

and laughter can follow you
deep into the summer nights.

when you have worn the mantle of the scapegoat so many times
there comes a point where you banish yourself
- and disappear from all the familiar haunts under your own steam

****** deep in the crucible;
where the flames burn away the dross

its not the loss that pains you;
but the refusal to love

Fire drips from my teeth
I eat stars for breakfast
and **** on planets
like gobstoppers
You don't see me
I am far too big
But when I reach you
Planet Earth
Your time has come

Margins are interesting places
where the unique can often be found
A simpler freer life,
uncomplicated without any pretentions.

all poets are mad
as mad than
all the average

its rainy days I miss you most-
that shared hot drink-
that snuggled in-

who does not speak of what their heart is full of;
there is a certain Virginian
whose heart words lift you into joyous rapture

to keep on creating
this is the goal;
humbly single strokes
joined lovingly;
single raindrops making rain

Carved from rock and water
we learned to dance
like the stars we shine
flamed footsteps into the Earth
every bush is burning
each breath a furnace
every love a flame.

Carved from rock and water
we dance across the sky
and like stars we shine
flamed footsteps into the night
every bush is burning
each breath a furnace
every love a flame.

Butter-yellow-cups
shiny surfaced
Up out the Earths great womb-
orb of life's choosing
- home from home
Then back again-
carried around-
The yellowing Sun.

Riding a world of heartbreak
you need courage to say fare ye well
when all around are saying goodbye.

breathe your allocated breaths
gently into space
touch softly your surroundings
and expand peace

the plaintive song of the seagull

rises and falls echoing across the ocean

this bird sings for all

the silent and the searching

reaching deep fathomless waters

In nights middle, somewhere deep in black
I wake fighting off nameless foes
faces grim with determined violence
we grapple and punch each others shadow
my pillow taking my aimed blows
-someone behind me, out of sight
not quite there, not quite not.

half way up a hill
this was our spot

Grandfather on Mothers side
half way up a mountain

makes wonder
do genes go that far

the vibration of your voice is a unique manifestation
of sound
what will you do with that alchemy of lips and tongue
speak your mind
will your purpose be love?

a walk through personal history
the memories coming to mind
some and even many not perfection
in their remembrance and retelling
a great gulf can divide truth and fiction
the library walkers sifting reads
characters pop up one would erase
thus disabling the accusing crowd
gathered out the dust of past lives.

poetry put down and forgotten
life moves on...a river
never been here before
and its not so bad
you are better than you think
eternally lovable eternally loved.

poems for breadcrumbs
I danced into the forest
the deeper I ventured
the more poetry I scattered
the darkness lit up
a trail of tears and laughter
with words of homecoming

doors are locked and walls are concrete
the great machinery keeps churning out weapons
fighter planes and bombers precision strike indiscriminate
lead bullets and shrapnel children with adults
collateral unfortunate damage and striking accuracy
millions of dollars paid in taxes and back handers
lets go to war one last time set loose the nuclear deterrent
Press the button start over and this time listen to the peacemakers.

If your patience was never tested and found wanting
I would ask for your prayers
because you would have changed to pure light

the hidden self you protect
fools you more than anyone else

simply because we are easily fooled
by ourselves more than by anyone else.

I dwell in a land blown by the constant searching of the winters wind
- to find a hearth called home,
where all windows and doors are barred shut
and the winds are condemned to ever roam about
- like wailing Banshees cursing and casting spells
- while they throw around anything that's not tied down.

the Goldfinch sings of his find
perches next to the nuts
-I hang from his tree

I think he sings for his love
and I have asked Heaven
to send to him his mate

the Summer here is long
stretched sunshine
bird song fills the silence.

the cooing of a doves love dance
in mid-winter seems out of place
but who would argue with love

Leave ******* where it belongs
with the perpetrator and its believer;

And be free forever.

that friendship will get you killed
better than dying friendless
In the umbrella war of the gentle
CHINESE

What's the catch ?.
Shame.

heavy ache foggy
tiredness wears tight
around little thought
senseless seeming awake
too long asleep in waking dreamy

I swam the night
to reach the shore
and today with baited lines
I fish for half remembered dreams.

no one can breathe for two;
having been a frontline medic
I will try..... for awhile

I imagine a brass band gathered and playing
the conductor flailing his baton about my garden
and wonder how long it will take to be certified

A Badger
A Fox
A Frog
All on the A9 from Inverness to journeys end

Black Cat crossing your path is supposed to herald some doom approaching

I don't know what I have coming,
perhaps nothing

The Orca's down the road take seals
my neighbour dives for coal
the spillage from world war one shipwrecks
and burns it on his winter hearth.
Personally I think my neighbour mad.

words to rush-
around the universe
while standing on your head
start a conversation of outer-planets-
moons and far distant galaxies
the breath on your lips can go light-years

its futile to sing you the song I think you want
wisdom is to sing my song
and let it be heard where it will

The silence of the surrounding hills
sweeps down to our small hamlet
to the shore and out to sea.
We live and move here in deep beauty
eyes are filled with natures bounty
one look is all that's needed. A
confirmation of the life of the soul.

Some far distant phone operator
is cross.
We come from the same planet.
Of course if the government were employing
- outer-space monsters
In the telecommunication industry
would they tell us?

do roots of trees of my childhood know.... me?
grown way beyond my small stature
they out grew me. And I potter around
my parents garden, wondering, at things
of little consequence.... do the roots remember... me?

We have a sister
us brothers
our shared
Loved
Loving
Sisters.

you slipped it on each others finger
swept gaily out into your future
children blessed the union
man and woman
the wedding dress hangs in a closet
a reminder
the rings on the fingers still shining
witnesses to love the heroic couple
who daily live out their promises
so sorely needed in world of sceptics

the Elephants are gathering around the ivory towers
demanding their tusks be returned
and carrying buckets of concrete, the best man can do

Stepping forward in heavy chains
I trip and fall coming face to face
with the truth of myself

the weak of the weak
learning long to forgive
the choices that made me

who I am and was
in the furnace of today
I forgive and forgive again

and I walk this road
with renewed freed hope
so much lighter now.

One mans interpretation
down through history
has been the death of many.

I am glad your secret is shining
the smiling happy outside-
your soul free and dancing
on invisible music played-
playing ringing bluebells-
a wood full of songs here
now in the heartland of minds-
eye seeing inside the outside
the smiling happy souls shrine

action and words
should align