after Philip Larkin

Never again such crowds

shouldering such exultation,

no more the sea lion choir

hauled up on the stands.

The stadia and arenas

silent like grief,

the sun quenched in remembrance 

of a million flowering hands.

And shutters on the High Street

tight against the abyss,

the weekend staff furloughed,

the checkout bleepers schtum.

The h...

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Liverpool won the cup…

In an empty stadium

And stadiums of souls around the world

Ascended into heaven

It was the best of years

It was the worst of years

Vaccines were produced at break neck speed

And lies disseminated to stop people taking what they need

Heath workers went the extra mile

Risking life and limb

Applauded by million with a loud din

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Image courtesy of Marilylle Soveran and Flickr; Creative Commons.

Hard to believe that it's December and we're coming to the end of a year that has presented many challenges. In the Christian tradition, candles are lit for Advent, representing hope, love, joy, peace, and the light of the world. This year we're waiting for vaccines, an end to lockdowns and tiers and I've tried to ...

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The gulls above me, wild and free
my song begins to echo theirs
squawks of tuneless noise
as I try to make some sense
or to release something

Watching the breaking waves
from a distance and then up close
I’ve been nowhere
but up and down the stairs
of this hollow and lonely year

It’s hard to remember the good I do
keeping other ships at a safe distance
as I patiently await the prom...

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During the lockdown, I didn't do much writing and wasn't inspired like some to write about Covid or the lockdown in general, as I figured there would be enough people doing this already.  The poem below is a new and first draft.  It is meant to be messed up like the whole crisis and covers things I have heard said from a whole host of people and media.  Comments please and anything I could add to ...

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A shimmering of microbes

I see that we're beyond

the plughole tearing down

into pits of dead heroes.

Newspapers eight-thick

secure the walls. Dot one

is made, dot two a frantic

beaming of rectangle

rotoscoped in wax sealed.

I've hidden hard nails

in your sock drawer

then I'll clamber out

of the underground, planting

my boot on a manifesto;

but first you mu...

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When it rains can we be the blackout again

the one-hundred-and-forty-four gun salute

while stepping through waves of molten glue

and gauze skies siphon ink in this pen

Turquoise and amber lights, and lightning

I run inside Clive's carmine scrapbook

bent like a cigarette, a screamed kaleidoscope

oh merrie band were they; the fighting

1.6 million, at the turn of the...

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You laughed at my

pointless remark

and showed me the setting

on the new, new dot machine,

like a 'ghost filter', black,

grey, chrome and you're

hardly there;

the leaves of

some exotic plant

filling the solid plates

of silver face, torso.

I said such things are

pointless art.

You said that the only thing

that's certain

is that nothing

is certain,

t...

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I - Trains

I pass the Sunday gardens,

keeping vigil by narrow factory aisle,

summoning auburn sky and smoke-salt;

then trace the river to its end

to wait, empty-handed on pebbled beach.

The blue sky rips, wallpaper,

with trumpets and cymbals, and bodies

bullet-sped 'cross countless arches.

There I am with you,

the outside world a postbox slit, as

we brace the walls

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I  commenced battle

and ended it swiftly

complicit in love's long game.

Rows of cups and saucers

and chipped face of cheese-board

dropped-heavy; the sink a salad bowl

of porcelain bones crunched

crazed; fuzz-hard green wires

absorbing like a forest roof.

I've hollowed out this morning

with a pen knife, stuck a wad

of shut-eye and shame

inside with the smell...

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Sixteen years ago this week the Boscastle flood occurred. The two villages of Boscastle and Crackington Haven in Cornwall suffered extensive damage after flash floods caused by an exceptional amount of rain that fell over eight hours on the afternoon of Monday 16 August 2004.The flood in Boscastle was filmed and extensively reported but the floods in Crackington Haven and Rocky Valley were not men...

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I've seen my fair share of cynical "makes no sense" and it's made no sense.. 

Rivers of tears afraid to test a current/affairs between men and women, unhappy that it turned out exactly like they said it would/you or wouldn't you? 

I would. 

But that's only because I like bloody knuckles and bent knees.. I'm a pray for you/and yours. Traded. For them and theirs/where you end...

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something could have been done last year, now all is morally blear. go about with your day, just stay.

stay in that house with those people you can’t remember, merely a year ago. 

i’m fine, sunshine, and i will tell you forever

it’s not me, it’s the world. once we change, she goes forth.

the universe moves without us now.

she will not halt, not tonight, nor wednesday. for ...

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Hey you!
Yeah you with the MAGA hat
You’re like the filth of a rat
You’ve got the brain of a gnat

You pledge allegiance to a swine—
—that’s 45
You fall in line

I think you’ve been misled
by that inbred chucklehead

So let’s go overdrive
Swap that hat for a hive

I think you need some stings
I think you need to hurt

All the states that were swings are going to leave you in the ...

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Out of the land came beauty
and a beautiful headache
School of madness, replete with cat
Love from within me
Dancing within yourself 
Several days later 
Transient to your ways of love 
in this hidden place, 
the darkness you thought would protect you, 
but the light remains in my mine
Dance it out in post-Covid Strasbourg 
with Nietzsche and Jung
We return to the streets, 
everything...

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Sorry

that you didn't get

to see me,

hidden in my outzise

paper-board ink

tree

and dripping entrails

on your dress

Maybe the melody

we sought to wove

was always supposed

to end in knots

and I'd go crawling over

the checkerboards

lifting and putting down

the bricks you threw

each engraved

with its own symbol,

'FAO', for the suit outside

...

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He did not know there was no chicken pie left
Listen, hear and act
This would make an interesting composite poem.

New perspectives on Andy M
token messages carried across the breeze by a kite 
we are all somebody, 
an infinite possibility of celestial irony
along the pavement to the pinned snake
scattered pebbles of poetic mystery

Hope Andy M hasn't been whisked away on a kite!!!

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Refinement in destruction
  the world in ashes
Comfort in darkness
  the past hidden
Warmth in mortality
  the future precious

There is an eligance in the demise of who you once were
  a satisfaction in the ascension of the person that now walks in your shoes

The death of expectations
The birth of hope

Do not imprission yourself behind stubborness, embrace your fear
Release your h...

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Wake up to the glory of a legendary Nigel we do not know
Nigel was gone when we rioted that night time 
Nigel was gone when we ran out of chicken pie
It was the day they told us to learn again in insanity 
Nigel was first of course
Taking to unplug with Nigel
We are taunted or haunted by memories of the future
The inkwell was full of pulsating excitement 
hitting the right notes in music a...

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There’s a rumour going round that street

Pushing past their little destinies

Caught short Shakespear relieved himself against the corn sheaves

The fox startled bit the leg of the harvest jigger

The painting has little time to dry, as poets' pens begin.

To take down a street of music, blended to new worlds of rhyme.

Underneath the moon

The rabbit did not sto...

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Oh lord god in the hearts of men and women plant a seed 
Let it grow to take away every bad thought and bad deed 
War is something to forget, firmly leave in the past 
All our Soldiers in war situations get them out fast 

Were all born to die so why do it with Bloody War 
Families should grieve for battle fell loved ones no-more 
Set your heart god to cleaning the hearts of all men 
in pe...

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But I'm better...

But I'm so much better...

It's been eons since those devilish little whispers were anything more than passing spirits ...or has it been but a moment

Today they are screaming

Today they are deafening

Today I feel them vibrate through my entire being

...I am scared....

I am terrified that once again the monsters within me shall chase away the light I have found

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