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this circling of her

new-born eyes

hidden narratives

of desire

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I've never looked at them.

They're in a cardboard box.

Very environmentally friendly -

you'd have approved of that!

 

I can't scatter them.

For that, I'd have to touch them,

feel their texture,

let them pass between my fingers.

And I can't do that.

 

I remember the first time I saw them

at your mother's flat

on a high shelf.

I didn't...

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Don't promise me a paradise!

 

Don't promise!

 

Don't tempt by crazy dreams!

 

Please, don't!

 

Don't tell me you will miss!

 

Just give a farewell kiss.

 

Forget about tomorrow!

 

It doesn't exist.

 

Forget about yesterday!

 

It's brought a sorrow.

 

You still persist?

 

We are guilty without a sin.

...

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The steel blue sky,

Hangs above,

All, all the same,

No favouritism granted,

Can such fairness,

Only come of such coldness,

And is it truly all that is wanted?

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Standing on the threshold,

I have to admit

Your home looks so inviting.

That bluesy guitar

Goes straight to my soul,

And the wind outside,

It is biting!

You dispose of my coat

And draw me inside,

You pour me a glass of wine,

And as you carefully

Pass it to me

Our fingers intertwine.

 

Your lighting is low and seductive,

Log flames crac...

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I am now on Jotspeak - a networking and promotions forum for poets, comedians, authors, musicians, playwrights - writers of every size and description. Check out my profile in the link below and check out the site if you want want to see more!

http://www.jotspeak.com/profile/AlainEnglish

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Before she knew or realised

His mark had then been made

Mesmerised and compromised

His words they danced, they swayed

Curious she felt herself

To question all before

She withdrew, she had to do

Her soul cried out for more

So should she steer this trepid course

And dare adventure’s scorn

Or now bestow a closing line

Forever thence to mourn?

To wond...

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Come sit by me my little one

Let me wipe the tears from your eyes

Your so dear to me my precious  son

Your tender life not long begun

 

The pain in your body I know it's bad

Supplies didn't arrive today

Your big brown eyes so pitifully sad

For the heat of the sun took your food away

 

We listen each day, we look to the skies

All of us with our pitiful...

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Kid in a Cart in Kosovo

A Poem by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
 

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Being the way I am

being a endomorph

I know I should not do it,

but who could resist

a bowl of Mothers Dumplings.

 

Nice and hot and spicy,

cayenne and peppers

potatoes and that lovely

red pickled cabbage,

who could resist

such a feast.

 

So you see, it's not my fault

it's plain to see

that Mother is to blame,

Her and Her Dumplings

...

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This Poem is about the high tech age we live in and the power of the internet.


Information super highway


I’ve got my laptop my printer and my new P.C.,
I listen to my music on Mp3,

I don’t have to visit the store,
To be told it’s sold,
I get all my music by way of download,

I don’t need to see my friends,
Or even go to work,
I have everything I need,
In my ...

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oooh   ahhh oooh   ahhh oooh   ahhh... aching buttocks aching thighs unseen crowds unseen skies between the shoulders lakes of fire stinging eyes on the spinning tyre calves and heart will explode grip the handles eat the road kilo meters  whirring chains from Revel to Ax 3 Domaines the body's racked the body begs pressing down on u...

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He struggles against the storm,
the waves high above his boat,
He prays for calm.
He seeks desperately for the coast.
 
What harbour would shelter him?
He, who in the midst of his thunder,
brings disaster to the port, on
the merciless waves of his maelstrom.
 
He cannot give his all to somebody
while the boat beneath him lists
and wildly dives between
the peaks and tro...

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The bluesy trills of a clarinet were still honeycombing through my mind as  I left the wet summer’s evening to Manchester’s Jazz Festival and climbed the stone steps into the nearby Theatre Royal/ Coliseum Club. The decision was easy for me to make either I accept the kind invitation to watch Mia Darlone’s latest production  ‘The Decision’ or stay put and listen to an endless night of Jazz bene...

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 First holiday in Ireland

I don’t remember if I am honest
much about my first holiday there
apart form all of the photographs.

I don’t recall which station it was
all the way down from
Dublin to Belfast
when the train broke down
and we were forced to stand
in a tiny box with
a half working coal fire
for four hours
before they finally

Eventually

Eventual...

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sex, skulls and voodoo dolls
stockings and suspenders and mad benders
I fell into her arms.
her hips moving like a snake
trapped my wandering an eye
too quick to avoid like an earthquake
making your heart shake and body quiver
deliver me the darkness
I deserve.
as my head swerves around you and your lips
and your whole body
did you see me in your crystal ball
walking tal...

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For every zone the climate shows

Either with cool or foolish zoom

At time we say that when we doze

We feel the breeze of climate home...

 

The climate there is not the same

As one we feel in jungle zone...

Sometimes it's cool and brings the fame -

At times it comes with tough and bone...

 

In past we felt the manless breeze

But now the tools have chan...

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So then, stick by stick
tonight we tear off strip after strip
the newest feathers first
then the older twigs and vines
with each one
my heart drops
until there's nothing left
and nowhere lower
just empty branches
where our sweet home once was

Inch by inch
we pack and divide the moss
all the soft things we've collected
years of careful, loving selection
pecking them away, each and e...

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the little leaf

clinging tenaciously to its twig

the dry yellow leaf

trembles and twists

a cruel St Vitus’ dance in the teasing wind

and refuses to let go -

afraid to fly

the shifty breeze reconnoiters

and strikes again

wheezing up the trunk

rifling the raggedy branches

into a twitching frenzy

but the little leaf holds on

...

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Someone whispered on a fiddle,

a siren blew a horn and stretched

out long notes that slung slow rope

around my baby's neck.

Man came with tape and a pencil,

cut him and coloured him in greys;

cast a net and like a marionette

out in the breeze he sways.

My man looks sorry,

now he's nobody

these melancholy days.

 

An accomplice of the devil,

a J...

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  whilst reading poetic verse

i stumbled upon a curse

that will haunt my dreams

and ruin my life or so it seems

 

as i shouted about the pains of love

and used metaphors based around a glove

all seemed to be going as planned

and the audience were eating out of my hand

 

but i didn't impress all

which accumulates my distinct fall

as there was one j...

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Now I know the happy teeth and smiling faces, The banana stained coat and tottering paces, The hand that grasps the latent breast, The head that snuggles upon my chest, The feet that curl around my waist, Her body softly leant against. Was there ever a child so good, I thank God for my motherhood.

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Never again!

I'm sure I have said that

many times before.

Put the TV on,

Wear a condom

do something other than

re-populate somemore.

 

Never again I said,

after the last time

I'd rather be dead.

The tears and the pain,

complete bodily drain.

The up and the down,

the rips and the crown,

which drive me insane.

 

Until the laughte...

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I'm losing my faith in Most Haunted.

It's a TV show

where a team undaunted

enter into locations purported

to host paranormal activity.

 

Considered with an adult, educated eye...

it gives me the willies.

 

But my cast-iron faith in psychics

began to rust

when Derek Acorah was busted

using made-up names for ghosts

about as real as

David Cam...

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 Like the child I used to be

In a timeframe, that hadn’t altered.

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Science fiction lies

that we can escape the cage.

Good films, though, great dreams

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I went to north wales with my kayak at the weekend and went out in dangerous conditions.  Here's the poetic account of that:

Ferocious winds shrieked shanties

as they battered on the wavetops

of the madly swelling waters

of the dragging ebbing tide.

 

They threw me in my fragile shell.

They threw me high and far,

as though a creature in its shell

thrown on th...

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He was the long awaited one

beloved of all his mothers

He came to fulfil the dreams of others

Handmaiden at his feet I fell

My palm caressed his head so well

With Pride and joy my heart did swell

His smile crumbled forlorn, bemused,

in the padded womb he was refused

not cherished but denied his due,

His bewildered longing grew and grew.

Son* and mo...

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These days aren't those,

Not even in the same league.

Nothing can compare to the good old days.

Trade in ten years of these,

For one more moment of those.

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Can white light be played like piano keys or plucked like inter stellar strings to harp out in time to the bass beat of black holes?

Do they pump black matter?

Does the sun send out shots of sound to those ears that can hear? Do the suns spin planets on their turntables, twisting sound through the circles?

Does the galaxy spin sound through its circles?

Do the atoms spin sound t...

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Part One – anticipation

She lives in no17 and Max factor
Takes a man
To be lovers lips
The sugared slipping of gloss leaps
And he must taste
Fresh lilacs second skin
Like Lycra fits hips unforgiving in allure
so curves open like a chord
The inner, the outer, the living
The puckered pout is pure
A suckered siren breathes out
gasping moment thanksgiving
Se...

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Orange Peel and Apple Pips There must be more to life than this: a winter wind and withered kiss upon these frozen, sun-parched lips; just orange peel and apple pips. We're living on remains of death with bottle caps, recycled breath, and feeble rays of advent light illuminate brash Beauty's blight. There's less to love than fragile Rose who blooms in seldom summer prose. We're ...

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Woman

 

The one who was created as a nurturer, as a leader.

She has metaphorical balls that are stronger than man's physical ones.

She thinks with her heart. Without her mankind would not continue.

She is a mother,a sister, a wife a daughter,a lover a friend.

She is stronger and prettier than diamonds and more dependable than a Volvo.Her inspiration is everlasting.

H...

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Written after i went to the doctor and was told I had high blood pressure and had to take tablets and give up everything i like. I haven't. I take tablets and cycle 50 miles a week. Everything else is as before..especailly BEER. 

TOO MUCH PRESSURE

 

This angry young man is still angry, but older

And now Father Time has just pissed on my shoulder.

‘You’ve got to grow up, John...

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Sun drifts on a Chardonnay haze,

reflects the bottle green

upon pale skin,

casts long shadows off breathless peaks

 

dews the valley.

 

Cooled air kisses flushed red lips,

licks droplets of grape,

and swallows the moment.

 

Flesh brushes....

 

tender flesh.

 

Peregrine fingers explore,

reaching inside

bringing forth soft...

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Start afresh, unleash from the mesh

Don’t be afraid to make that mess

Suggest to steer away from being a pest

We are continuously tested, stressed to be the best!

 

Unnecessary- just be truly out of the ordinary

Without being a fool say sorry

Instead of worrying about nothing

Rather than throwing punches

Stuffing our mouths with useless vocabulary!

...

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If you can wake up every morning groaning

And still raise your head above the pillow,

If you can hit the alarm without moaning,

And stoically accept an all time low,

If you can reach clean clothes each week day morning,

And feel your way to a cup of hot tea,

While finding handbag, phone and key ring,

but not give in to anxiety.

 

If you can take on a pounding...

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1

Down in the valley,

not far from the sea,

lives Brian Bumble,

a bashful bee.

2

He worked in a field,

for hours and hours,   

gathering the food,

from all the flowers.

3

Brian was hungry,

at the end of hi...

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 In the drab walled room in the attic

I peer from the spotted mirror

in the cavernous dressing table.

Ochre lit.

Out of the sooty window

the ice of muslin flapping wetly

the street  all oil cloth and patent roofs

I am corset bound and flesh-pinched

white and soft above and below

all singed curls and droppered earrings,

peeping coyly

hiding the disease...

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You wander aimlessly, trying to find Your way- Lights, beaming on you, Its time, you’re in your prime. Now its time, to find your path. It’s a new day, your friends are Distant- Your life seems to be happy resistant. When the dust settles on the battlefield, And all is said and done, You look back on your accomplishments- And finally realise, you have none.

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At the dawn of the morning

There’s a poem on your lips,

And before you lose it yawning,

I steal it with a kiss.

Now I hold it in my cheeks

And I swill the words around,

Tasting for a lyric,

Feeling for a sound.

I swim around the adverbs,

My tongue a sailing ship,

Defining jumbled letters;

Swirling nouns onto my lip.

 

Cheeks swelling with poss...

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By the shores of Lake Lambrini,

Near the foothills of Panini,

And the plains of Fegatini,

Through the valleys in betweeni,

Where the flowing Canneloni,

Meets the wandering Marscapone.

 

In amongst the Machiato,

Near the fading Tinto Rosso,

‘Neath the shading of Lambrusco,

South of Castle Osso Buccho.

 

Here a local pasta maker,

Bought out by a...

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Such tarring compliments greet me here;

the twisted sweet buds of too clean a word –

they nuzzle their knuckles into the very distant me,

a glue of ant legs for my body.

 Take away my fingers, take away my fist,

remove the bite underneath my lip,

 suck,

mother, a plagiarism,

something remembered, never born.

 

 Go...

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IRONIC.

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ITS NOT THAT I DONT

I DO BUT I WON'T

I DONT BUT I DO

WANT TO KISS YOU

 

ITS NOT THAT I DONT

I DO BUT I WON'T

I DONT BUT I DO

WANT TO SEE YOU

 

ITS NOT THAT I DONT

I DO BUT I WON'T

I DONT BUT I DO

WANT TO TEASE YOU

 

ITS NOT THAT I DONT

I DO BUT I WON'T

I DONT BUT I DO

WANT TO PLEASE YOU

 

ITS NOT THAT I DONT

I D...

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                                                            Rough Justice

 

 

            Poetry,

Was not his forte!

But it was something he was compelled to do,

And living was not his want

For the punishment was unwarranted,

And all the while he found himself

In need of explanations,

And his heart was sat in puzzlement,

At every deed they’d said.

...

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I met my old friends,

as new company.

Always two of them,

and only one of me.

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Seeds, sheets, plugs, paint; something of everything

if not much range. Pots, pencils, saucers, plates;

pocket-money treasures, find a present

for your gran. Towels, wrapping paper, pins.

Sometimes you came away with a bargain.

If only they didn’t keep moving the plants,

picture frames, toys, socks and sockets, sweets.

Times changed; you only called in now and ...

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We worship the Unholy Trinity,

Our Gods of War demand child sacrifice,

Fresh blood must flow for all eternity,

Wide eyed and shiny booted they’re enticed.

 

Before the altar of Church, State, Arms Trade,

The top-brass gleam in searing summer sun;

Smart ranks of little darlings on parade,

Think: ‘daddy’s war must have been so much fun’.

 

If they should di...

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Hot on her face, her cheeks flushed, excited

fireflames are burning  all around, 

firmly treading the wrought iron walkway,

corn dollies hang in the night sky.

Blood red almost blue velvet gown

drapes against the fertile  body

writhing and dancing with the rapture of birth.

Her  arms are wrapped around his strong neck

he supports her as she  breathes ...

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This is about those dodgy pubs you often get. The one's where you walk in and everyone drinking turns to look at you. The Jukebox cuts off and a curchbell tolls in the distance. You quickly get a drink and find a booth. You soon come to realise that some of the hardest men in town are in that pub. Maybe you can relate? It's a bit long but just bare with it and tell me what you think.........

...

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I volunteer in an Oxfam shop in Withington and this Sunday we are having a wonderful free event in the shop, details below:

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Here are the stats for June. Due to the change of ISP some of our stats are not available this month, in those cases we use last months stats. Other stats are slightly suspect but we give them anyway.

    * 3,727 registered members

    * 2 million hits (May)

    * 2,167 log-ins to the site

    * 114 new events put on gig guide

    * 53 events updated on gig guide

 ...

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