You know something, James? You broke my heart.

The horrible thing about this situation, my friend, is that I know that I'll never get an explanation. I know that I'll never get an apology. I know that you think you've done nothing wrong. It has never been more true than with you - be one hundred percent behind someone, before you stab them in the back.

I can honestly say though, that...

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Innocence

 

When you were small,

A child at play, you’d make a world all of your own

Where you were “King” sat on the throne,

And in your world there was no suffering or pain

Just happy little children, of every race and name.

 

Everyone was happy, no one was alone

Everyone was cared for, food and drink for all

There everyone had innocence, the greatest g...

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Slowly, ever so slowly, inching on our way;

Destination Whitby, vivid Autumn day.

Scenery magnificent, weather matching too,

Clouds of alto cirrus, sky of powder blue.

 

Picking up momentum now, further down the line,

Engine snorting like a mare in steady 4/4 time.

Leaning from a window, moorland coasting by,

Nigel Gresley out in front, cinder in your eye.

 

...

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I delayed leaving for work, caught a glimpse

Of a surprising sight - the Inquiry

Into Iraq, and Blair’s live appearance

How is he looking? Boyish? Furtively?

How is he acting? Innocent? Guilty?

And how is he answering? Well? Or ill?

Chilcot has got him there, true, but will he

Get him, or set him free? Well, time will tell

But now I had to leave, for duty called

...

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I am not me, I am no-one.
I am but the husk,
all that remains after the birds have had their fill.
Lost and hurting,
I misplaced myself amongst the wreckage
and for me there is no 'black box'.
I do not remove the veil,
I am filled with loathing by what lies beneath,
and so, my veneer is smooth.
I hope you do not see the fissures below
because i am scared to look beyond the d...

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It begins with the singular

Then complicates.

An embryo's worst nightmare

To multiply too many

And discard a familiar friend

So one dies

 

Love be the perfect poison

For the imperfect

Only the ugly suffer true love.

 

The world is an atlas

Of invisible physics,

Equations tame confusion

For soldiers of academia

And the poor parachute

...

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(Valentines poem 2010)

A saying someone told to me,

these days when even love is tough,

“if you love somebody, set them free...” –

give them a false sense of security

then when they come back to you,

tie them up and ,

like,

do stuff.

You know, like...

stuff.

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Walking the tracks again
With my face to the rain
Every step I take in fear
Of that ever-nearing train

I cheated death
I cheated truth
And now there is no proof
More than what my accusers say
But they increase in number
With every single day

So they shout 'He stole'
Well, I admit
I may have borrowed some
And I may have lied
When they looked me in the eye
And ...

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1. THICKER THAN WATER

 

The Grenadines, Saltwhistle Bay.

I think of Robert Righteous

& de Youths Rasta Restaurant

while drinking a glass of Carrib Beer

on the shores of Saltwhistle Bay.

 

Lunchtime and I'm sitting under

a Rasta flag with Robert Righteous

who's an angel spreading stories,

plates of seafood, dreads and smiles

wider than Saltw...

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HAVOC

The A20 Havocs scream over Holland at fifty feet

looking for trouble in their game of death,

they attack the canal network, a flight of six planes.

Turning tightly they start their runs,

shooting tracer shells that rip open the flimsy barges.

In a huge blast the ammo load goes up, taking a plane with it,

falling debris and bits of fire, nothing more.

Y...

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Each day they come. We see them on the shore,

come rain or shine.

They climb aboard the boats, some with excitement,

some with trepidation.

Some look really sad.

Poor things!

 

The boat speeds out to where my friends and I

are frisking in the waves.

We wait for them - it’s our job, it’s what we do.

Now.

 

With help, they timidly descend into our r...

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It is 1975 on Antons Road

in Halewood, a new town old when built,

old with tired people thrown here by fate

and urban renewal, overrun with children

and here comes Emma, part of the flotsam

and she is crying

 

“What's wrong, Emma”

“They say am men'ally handicapt,

and they took Ginny away and said

ah carn marry Alan, and

ah carn have no more babies

...

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Mr. Skoulikaris' earthly expertize

like  dolphins, ballet beneath the seas'.

A synchronized swimmer of the soil,

his elongated torso coils, curves,

graceful and fluid through tuberous roots

and seedlings. Aerating, preparing the soil

for delicate tendrils to permeate

on their journey. Photosynthesis,

ultimate metamorphosis to saturate earth

that we might feas...

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if you want i will do....

 

if you do i will want...

 

but its down to you....

 

to make it for two!....

(c)jeff.w

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A&E

I kinda get it ‘cause the snow ain’t been that bad in thirty years

And every other bed were took up with old dears

But I just slept, I weren’t shouting out like the rest

I didn’t need no help with washing or getting myself dressed

I weren’t pissing me bed and blaming the nurse

Who interspersed skin piercing, heart monitoring care

With telling me off and making it...

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                                  To Fellow Poets

 

if my mind worked

like your mind

where is the joy in that

because your ideas

broaden my ideas

you thrill me

perhaps I would not say it

exactly so

but enough so

to understand your thrust and pull

to glory in your view of things

all things

...

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Martin

 

We were a strange eutectic mix that summer

Clattering our bikes and rods down farmer’s tracks

In search of perfect swims and privacy.

 

I had, by nodding agreement,

the best collection of floats, spinners and spoons

arranged by size and colour, in the best box.

You were the only boy I ever lent one.

 

Approaching, in Apache crouch, our favour...

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After laughter

ribbing over The Golden Rivet

and who was Blossom giving it to tonight?

A sudden screech

and thirty sunbrowned arms

shielding Pale Northern Eyes

from the burning sun.

And sommat's comin'

Sommat's comin'

kicking the fanny over

sluice with soapy bubble of

rum and oil and water.

And man the fuckin' gun Tom.

Man the fuckin' gun.

...

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Baby Bobbies

 

I’ve seen a baby bobby                       

On his baby bobby beat,                      

Only maybe 5 foot tall              

In baby stocking feet.                           

 

He’d got a tiny truncheon,                    

And a little pair of ‘cuffs.                      

I bet he finds it hard to run                   

With all his b...

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                                                Many Gods But One

 

 

 

            I want to write an epic,

An epic of proportions where

Each and every opposite, pulls

Gravitation past its orbit, to spiral

Out of minds control,

            A countenance

Of disapproving states

Like sea-saws movement bouncing

Bigger – up and down,

A balancing o...

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My appetite flaunts and my hair tangles, my bare feet flip my final fantasy, and lolling, with desperate icy doors down into my throat, god couldn't prevent this running beast from heaven if heaven didn't exist, existing in sharp cold moulds, biting delicious, I don't meet anyone, I have not known, but I bruise my eyes on window panes looking for that magic eye to take me home. The beauty...

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flying over a country makes you feel nostalgic if you've done it before
just knowing you're there above all the greens and all the blues
all the people you've once met but will never see again
whilst they gaze at the morning sun

you have pierced the clouds;
which appear like the peelable skin
on the top of a warm glass of milk

awaiting the turbulence and turmoil
and to rej...

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The dream of lying naked with that perfect woman,

amongst the sweet smell of summer meadow,

beneath azure canopy.

The freshness of a sprinkling light shower,

kissing your soft delicate skin,

baked by noon day sun.

The afterglow of our love on our island green,

drenched by beads,  

lost amongst furnace toasted dunes.

Like birds of prey this imagery...

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Was it  sweet

alienation?

awkward shyness?

or being failed

in-love

dreaming of olive

boughs

romance

and greasy kisses

at the chippy

maybe suburban

gloom

or was God involved?

the blister of

adolesence?

my nervous disposition?

or spending

too much

time in my

bedroom cacoon

on

the estate

locked in thought

o...

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Submissions saught to cartyweb@hotmail.com for the February edition of Cartys Poetry Journal.

Read the January edition below...

Carty's Poetry Journal : FREE PDF DOWNLOAD

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On your knees before me

Head bowed, filled with shame

My presence is absorbing

As I softly speak your name

 

Gentle, but with firm command

My voice so resonates

You attend to every breath I take

Your heart pounds as it waits

 

So enclosed and so aware

Confined within this time

I’m wrapped around you totally

You feel so much, you’re mine

 

...

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THE HYPERTENSIVE SPARROW

 

It struck me as odd whilst adjusting my tax

How sparrows never drop dead or suffer heart attacks

 

So I turned from my tax form feeling quite tense

Trying to justify my thoughts and make sense

 

After all, what pressures intrude the nest?

The birdies can’t be too stressed or depressed

 

Why should the birdies be blesse...

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The flowers unfold

as I pick the rose

walking in the park

way after dark

with my boyfriend.

 

I lift the rose

as i climb the fence

wondering what the passer-by thinks

of me and my boyfriend.

 

he lends me a hand

as he stands on the pavement

smiling with his eyes

this handsome man,

my boyfriend.

 

the passer-by stops

as i be...

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Carry On Tuesday #36

Written for and posted to carry on tuesday
 

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The cut of your dress
As it clings to your curves
Slices my vision
Like a blade across my heart
 
With each nervous step
I move closer to you
The weight of the moment
Makes my feet feel like lead
 
Your look turns heads
All around the bar
And that green eyed
Old friend of mine
Growls

But then I'm with you
And the world flows on
Just you and I
the sounds ...

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After Fern Hill

 

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Today

 

The Palace and the tax office are rent asunder

And the dogs and swine lord it over the corpses

And the officials are queuing for the first flight out

And the Palace and the Tax Office are rent asunder

Yeah verily the Palace and the Tax Office are rent asunder

 

And Papa Doc smiles from the beyond

And the undead rise and their places filled by the newl...

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They hoot that horn: “Hello!” “Goodbye”

No matter I am strolling by

And show the world the pig they are

While firing my amygdala.

 

My ancient ape gets in a bate

My hemispheres know mutual hate

And primal homicide thoughts blossom

Abetted by Corpus Callosum. 

 

They having passed, I then walk on

My endocrine excess - not gone.

I’m left to impotent...

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Through the years, Ive sort of lost my faith in people, Watch the news everyday, So much hate in people, Never treat each other equal, Always looking down at each other, Theres always one thats got more than another, Follow fashions.......riddicule the ones that dont, They follow suit...., And persecute the ones that wont, A vicious cycle..... If you're individual they bite you, And ev...

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Hussain is dead and Bush and Blair are alive and kicking. Damn. No matter what comes out of this inquiry, which some labour politicians (and others) wrongly dismiss as 'irrelevant,' it's a great shame there will be no legal implications to it. Not unlike the invasion of Iraq.

So, hey ho, SHOCK AND AWE!

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Winter has sucked the landscape

back to black and white

but in the glass house

the world is plump and curved,

full of juice and spectrums.

 

We sit on the edge

of the savage garden

where tropical flowers

shred the light with their teeth.

The steamy scent

of sap and green life

soaks through our coats

and makes us sweat.

 

In her...

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January 2010.I. Anybody.

In Africa the football hits the grass

Like a big, congealed blood clot

And bright young men fall over injured,

 Or blanch and die.

The African cup helicopters are in HD on my TV,

 But I am outside shovelling snow.

 

The airline bomber sets his underpants on fire

And a man is stabbed in a London street.

 Fanatics daily bomb Pakista...

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Fuck you! (you middle-class twat)
Up your arse (with a bamboo bat),
Stolen from my table
Like a sex craved rat
Fuck you on your reclaimed mat
Up your sphincter 
With a painful splat.

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Fear soaked, I drag myself upright -

unsteady but true at last,

ready to speak

to the  patient crowd,

whose forebearance lasted out.

Now willing to use my voice-

though weary and torn

by shattered hopes

and shards of spite

swallowed for

far

too

long.

So though trepidation

and much hesitation

threaten to engulf me,

it is no longer e...

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There is calmness

Like a Buddhist prayer

On the road

When it snows

And cars are afraid

To come down it.

 

There is softness

In the trees rustling

When the wind

Shakes it off

Which reminded me

Of my father

When he used

To shake off his boots

Before he stepped back inside

After gritting

The front path.

 

And as it gets so...

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Crisp and crunchy underfoot

Like golden snowflakes,

Early autumn leaves

Cover the pavements

And pathways.

 

Deep and golden,

Covering the grass,

Covering the paths,

Sleeping memories

Of summer.

 

Soft, neat piles

Of autumnal casualties

Lie gently in corners.

 

And then along comes a four year old

And kicks them all over the pla...

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What do you wear Claire in the morning?

What do you wear Claire last thing at night?

What do you wear Claire?

And

Would you dare Claire?

In your underwear Claire

 

Or

Doesn’t that feel right?

Would you do it just for spite

Like you did to me last night

 

You know just the right things to say Claire

Yeah, you certainly have a way Claire

About you

Don’t wanna be without you

Never gon...

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Their lips drip with salvia
The hounds of love are out to get me
But I am a survivor
But how can I survive
When I know I am going to get caught by the bees of love
with your honey on my lips
but I just can’t let your honey go to waste
it drives me wild just for a taste
I am like ravenous beast
And on you I would feast
For hours and hours I would rise and expand on you like yeast
I have...

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The Chinese girl

Always fell asleep if she drank beer.

So in the evening we sat

In the cafe beside her campus,

Talking over coffee.

The door kept blowing open

With a parade of red face students,

All thin and puckered up from the cold.

We discussed our parents,

Our respective states,

Our histories and mythology.

What was difficult for her

Was not th...

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'On Being A White Square'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3rzNtHWKRI

'Love Poem For My Disco Glitter Ball'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiIrZUTTdLA&feature=related

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December was a great month for poetry on WOL ��" very many voters confirming my thoughts and finding it difficult to choose just one poem.  Nonetheless, one winner/ one poet did shine through ��" with two of her poems Rejection and Little Clock receiving 3 votes each.  That winner is Rachel McGladdery, a very welcome and talented new addition to the WOL ranks.   I was surprised that men didn’t als...

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Gather them all together
pack those verses tight
place them in the boxes
make sure they're labelled right

For poetry in motion
can have meanings more than one
we've lived here seven years and more
but soon we'll be moving on

So many things to sort through
the trappings of our lives
odd tools there in that drawer
including pocket knives

All of them have meanings
that others cannot see
and may yet find them...

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What happens if

I marry the man

That I met

On the art gallery

Steps

What happens if

I don’t

What happens if

I marry myself

What happens if

Marriage ceases

To exist

What happens if

I get married

All at once

To everybody

What happens if

I marry you

What happens if

You marry me

What happens if

He proposes to me

On the doorstep

Chunky diamond cluster

In a box

What happens if

...

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I am watching the dancing winds

turn the tumbling diamonds

of snow.

Crystals of down

float to the earth.

Crystals turn to tears as they fall

onto panes of longing glass.

Glass that saps the warmth

from my outstretched palms.

The East winds breathe snowstorms

turning shadows of trees to ghosts

and I wonder where you are.

I canno...

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Soft Mick phoned Mr Putin

In Yalta on his holidays

“I’ll give you twenty quid

For your obsolete technology”

Vlad said “Now listen, sunshine,

I don’t want any trouble

So if you can provide the van

We’ll call it fifty roubles.”

Mick drove to Nizhny-Novgorod

And filled a Lada’s boot

With mangled scraps of Mir

And moth-eaten spacesuits.

He had noth...

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It’d been seven years
Seven fucking years
And between when you left and came back
There’d been flirtations with meeting up
Quick snatched chats on MSN
But I thought, nah, this is the end
Another friendship gone
Time to move on
Because anything rooted in rootless nostalgia
Is doomed from the start
All sugar and violins
With no muscle or heart
And I remember the afternoon of your depart
...

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You write for royal occassions, dear,
Tell rich folk what they want to hear;
That our soldiers do not die
For oil or US apple pie,
Uranium or Caspian gas;
That come what may, you'll kiss their arse;
That soldier boys and girls don't kill,
So that the rich can have more still.

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Here’s what the stats are telling us happened last year:

    * 3,369 registered members

    * 19.4 million hits

    * 26,232 log-ins to the site

    *  965 new events put on gig guide (10 months)

    * 620 events updated on gig guide (10 months)

    * 241 poets added their profiles to the Poets' Showcase

    * 647 Poets on the Showcase

    * 2,969 poets' profiles where updated on the showcase (10 months)

 ...

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