Mourning Wood

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,

He scans the bereaved for available gashes,

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,

Grief itself inflames his lust,

Black is such a slimming colour –

How’s your father? (And your mother?)

Tears lend such a delicate hue,

(Come now, this day’s about you)

‘She’s laid on the wake and made me a sandwich,

Surely that’s licence to make her my bitch?’

The pain on her face lends a peculiar grace,

Silent permission to give an embrace.

Was he very close to the deceased?

Not at all – just there to get her on her knees.

(Come, now – don’t play hard to get,

He knows a way that’ll make you forget)

Oh, it’s sad that you’ve lost your spouse

But honestly speaking, aren’t you a little aroused?

He’s there to fill the hole that’s been left,

To observe the ritual and her breasts –

They’ve laid her husband to rest in his plot, Now he’s straining to rest in that slot.

Death becomes her, it has to be said, He’s not resting ’til he gets her to bed,

He’s intoxicated by the scent of death in the air,

As he gently strokes her face and her hair,

(There, now – doesn’t that feel nice?)

He’s determined to please her once if not twice,

‘Don’t worry about what they may say,

Your husband has gone and is in his grave’

She leans in to him and it feels so good

As he leans into her

With his mourning wood.

 

Words and images (c) of the original artist 2015 and may not be reproduced without permission

Done

No delicate brush

Met my palette of poetry

Fingers dug

And flung

Straight at the canvas

Creativity ravenous

To be done and hung

With a plaque reading ‘Raw’

Perhaps somewhere near the door

Where my family

And others too poor

To pay the entry

And mingle with the gentry

Could see.

Words and images (c) of the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission 2015

Words Like Strings

His fingers play words like strings

And when his scribing sings

It’s like a siren on the rocks,

And every comma shocks

Me to the core –

The perfection inspires awe,

The constructions are a pure

Testament to his genius

He is the nemesis of Aesclepius

The feelings inflicted can never heal,

And each syllable is so real –

Like black magic cast on a page –

A page, a sage, a gauge,

Letters to shape an age,

Subtlety that needs no cage

Already executing perfect restraint

In a divine refrain

That leaves echoes of sensations on your soul –

Fragments that plant themselves and grow,

Images that fall and tickle your existence like snow –

Belief is frozen

Suspended and broken,

Taken somewhere else

As you crave shelf after shelf –

The untapped mine

Of a golden mind –

Sublime, divine, eternal prime.

‘Does it make it ghastly to read?’ he asked:

How could I even word the unsurpassed

Class

Of what I had read?

The pinnacle of lyrical pleasure inside my head?

And he plays words like strings with his fingers,

And the echo of fascination lingers and lingers.

All words and images (c) of original artist and may not be reproduced without permission 2015.

Becoming

In a quiet corner

Of my existence

You bring order

Without persistence –

You’re a hoarder of resistance

And

It’s not a story of holding hands

But of holding our breath

As you implore me

To become my best.

This is how you show you adore me –

I’m blessed.

All words and images (c) of the original artist 2015

Now You, Then Me

NOW YOU, THEN ME

So now you know how it really feels,

To be given permission to go off and be free,

To never hear the words ‘God, please don’t leave me.’

Because being possessive and clingy just isn’t PC,

Because to admit this thing and commit to this fling

Just wouldn’t be hip,

Your fangirls and boys wouldn’t tag it as rad

Or comment ‘I dig’

And the reality of our freaky bond

Would no longer be hid.

And if you ever actually did

Let them know

Or even dared to show

Me then it really would defy convention,

And strip away pretensions.

You’d be the hipster outside the box

The One with the really neat fox,

But you don’t believe in it that much,

To go round admitting it and such,

So go ahead and be free,

Chase your own tail and dreams,

And if you ever need me

I’ll be back here in reality.

If you love someone let them go

But what if they don’t though –

Love you?

Does it work then too? Will it work for you?

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,

So now I’ll make my own propaganda,

And make believe I really am the star,

That you clearly already think that you are.

I must have missed you getting famous

So I must apologise,

I must have missed everyone judging us,

Before my very eyes.

I had forgotten that they mattered, you see,

I had thought that it was just about you and me,

So when you’re alone out there among the masses and life is hard

By all means send me a postcard,

But don’t scribble ‘Wish you were here’s

Because I would have been

If not for your fear

Of chipping your polished veneer

And letting someone real get near

My dear.

(c) Words and images belong to the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission.

 

A Day Out

A Day Out

An escape from the unceasing pressure,

To enjoy a whole day at leisure,

To savour the mouthful you didn’t cook,

Sit on a train and read a book,

To watch a weird and wonderful world go by,

So very many things to fantasize

About

On a nice day out:

What would it be like to put down roots here?

How would it feel if that man called you ‘dear’?

What became of the last person who didn’t mind the gap

Between the train and the platform’s edge?

What’s hiding behind that hedge?

And then there is so much to explore,

Brand new things to like,loathe or adore,

A vigorous workout for the senses,

A mini-break from all of life’s messes,

The thrill of being ever so slightly lost,

And the temptation to call your boss

And apologise but you’re not coming back,

You’ve started a new life 17 stops down the track,

But when the sun starts to fade,

All those dreamy plans you’ve made

Start wagging their fingers like a cross Aunt

Telling you reasons you shouldn’t and can’t,

So you pick up a trinket or two

To remind you of a very different you,

That you got to know for only a day,

And hope the memory will linger and stay

Because you much preferred her that way –

The me that you met for that day.

(c) All words and images belong to the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission

Things

Things

She takes a cigarette from the elegant case

And inhales a bygone era and not just the taste,

The feather boa hanging over her bed,

Beckons Hollywood glamour into her head,

The faux fur jacket slung over one shoulder

Is the only thing around to hold her,

The individually hand-painted glass

Holds the liquid dreams of her past,

The fashionable boots on her tired feet

Help to make her feel a little more complete,

And her shiny new phone

Is her only link to an abandoned home.

(c) Words and images belong to the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission.

Rootless

Wallflowers see everything but are rarely seen…It doesn’t make them any less splendid or bright just because nobody notices them though. In the same way that firework that goes off too late still creates the same magic and beauty as the ones in the display, wallflowers do too.

Rootless

I’m the tumbleweed

That blows through your village on Halloween,

I’m the firework that went off too late to be seen,

The magic that works behind the scenes,

The one that sells ice-creams in the intervals of your dreams.

I am the book nobody reads to the end,

I am the ‘not in need’ friend,

I am the anthem from someone else’s headphones,

The one you would have called on but didn’t think would be at home…

And I wasn’t but I was indoors on my own.

Nobody will notice but the sea,

When I blow away with the breeze

And take my notes back from the melody,

That nobody hears until I’ve gone –

A tuneless song.

Who was she?

That strange, quiet one?

(c) All words and images belong to the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission

Brazen Waves

My first offering – a poem I wrote some time ago about something that plays a hugely significant role in my life – the ocean. As a teenager, I always dreamed of living somewhere where I had the ocean right on my doorstep – one of my dreams that I eventually did make a reality.

Brazen Waves

I love it when it’s stormy

And the sea vomits on the shore,

Touting all its treasures

Like a kleptomaniac whore:

A mermaid’s purse,

A gentleman’s shoe,

The crumbs of a ship

And splinters of the crew.

A life rinsed away,

A heartbreak on a wave,

An ocean so brazen,

One to brave and never save.

(c) All words and images belong to the original artist and may not be reproduced without permission

Getting Braver

So, I’ve just sent out the invites to my next Share Out Loud event which I am going to hold at my humble abode and feeling like I’m really gaining confidence in my writing. I’ve wondered for a long time whether to use this forum to share some of my poetry and I’ve decided to brave it and see. I think it can offer a different aspect to what sharing out loud can – a different audience, a different medium. As well as a writer I’m also a keen photographer and I think by publishing some of my poetry here I can also find a nice way to pair up some of the hundreds of images I have stashed away too. So, I’ll be sharing lots of my work here over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy reading it.