City (Remove filter)
Beneath the skin
Beneath the skin of the city
its vital organs function:
not the ones you think I mean,
the staff whose manual actions
keep human beings hearty -
supplying power and food,
sweeping roads and pavements clean,
arresting fire or flood -
no, not those, I speak
of parks and lawns and leaves,
of blossom flossed on trees like frost
that licence us to breathe:
...Thursday 8th June 2023 10:10 pm
fingers on the paper (here, a long poem will die)
Saturday 15th April 2023 11:06 pm
Directions
Often used as a fake New York city from 1920 but Manchester, you ain't fooling
nobody.
The mucky Neo Roman columns built on hurt and hierarchy are testemant to lives,
lived in poverty.
Lowry could see, he correlated the city funnels with, human misery.
Here I sit, here I stare, at the weathered wealth of my city,
Old buildings are barely standing,
Outflanked by looming apartments,
But I'm ...
Saturday 30th January 2021 1:08 pm
Rooftop Reverie
The sweetest memories hang
like negatives
in the dark room of my mind
I develop them occasionally
picturing again
more exciting times
Yellows and browns begin to wash
across the leaves outside my window
I haven’t seen you in the flesh
since those shoots were new
it feels so long ago
We ran through those streets
as if we owned them
spinning endlessly from bar to bar
from joke to ...
Thursday 1st October 2020 5:06 pm
City Lights
City lights,
Fireflies,
Half-hearted smiles
And ugly cries.
Bustling roads,
Narrow and broad;
Abundant with shops and bars,
And people- their bodies, minds and souls scarred.
Edifices tall and sturdy.
Trapped in it are people content and happy;
And those walking on thorns, barbed and merciless;
And those breathing but lifeless.
The city is a plac...
Monday 13th July 2020 9:44 am
Crooked Café
I used to hate this part of town
After London
it felt like stepping back in time
as if all our momentum to the capital
had been lost
these shops with their hand-painted signs
I didn’t recognise the names
they’re not triplicated on every high street
And now I sit
in the Crooked Café
the waitress always tries to remember my ‘usual’
but I love that she never quite gets it right
gives u...
Friday 15th November 2019 11:38 am
First person, singular, London n. 1
London
means Abandon
No inibition
No frustration
No coalition
You wake up one day and without any sense
you're not sure if you love it or you're tense
Could be addiction
to the city's emission
if you're lucky, tuition
but oveall a sort of contrition
You want to be in that rollercoaster because it is actually a damn ride
but after that you won't be able to hide.
...Friday 18th October 2019 4:54 pm
At Dream's End
At dream’s end
we let the water flow
accepting
resolved
At dream’s end
loosening our grip
hold the best bits
release the scenes that never came
I imagined endless parties
some intangible heart that I could puncture
I imagined so much more
turns out it’s just another place
moving at a heightened pace
Now I sit quietly
by the chequered flag
grateful to have run
chest heaving
...
Monday 6th May 2019 11:45 am
Letter From The Lake
Dear friend
a sigh is leaving me
I can concentrate now, finally
a statue standing on the jetty
the lake’s slow wash below the boards
hypnotising me
I feel freer now than ever
more than I did back there
I don’t know how you toil on
those boiling days below the city
tinned-life crammed searching for air
You wrote of the love you found
that you always dreamed was waiting
head cocked ...
Monday 4th March 2019 7:47 am
THIS CITY
THIS CITY
This life, this people, this city.
All living in a certain geographical area – here, this city.
Dying eventually, one day which only God knows.
Today under a tram or of old age.
This city with many names, is it like your city?
I know you were a cold war target, so were we.
People make love, fight, laugh, cry
in your city just like in my city.
You have been...
Thursday 5th April 2018 8:15 am
That city
I had a dream in that city again. Inside the nebula of chaos. It is night. The bookshelves of lights on the streetscape throb; red, yellow, cyan, red. It feels like Amsterdam dipped in oil. A black bridge leaps across an equally blackened street. A subway entry to the bottom right. The towers lurking at the back lean effortlessly over the road. The buildings are mere shadows, blacker than the nigh...
Wednesday 14th December 2016 5:54 pm
A Little Place I Know...
We all hate the government
but what can you do
just drink in the evening sun
talking with old friends
A little place I know
when our graft is done
we go…
Cobbled streets, thin passageways
snaking pipes embrace the buildings
in the shadow cast by evening sun
standing with good friends
A little place I know
let’s grab a bus
and go…
Who voted 'leave', not one man here
I'll sta...
Saturday 20th August 2016 12:18 am
Sound Travels
I leave by front door. Climb up, north,
beyond cardboard houses lining the route
away from the roaring city.
But, no lie, sound travels; on bridges of air,
rivers of dust, canyons delved by word and cry.
The swarming bustle echoes down centuries;
building, toil, murder, love, revolution, dying birdsong;
hate, war; the engines of humanity, channelled, set.
I walk away,...
Saturday 2nd January 2016 3:19 am
Untitled
A silent, night sky is loud with the city’s glow.
Reflections upon the water; lead thoughts below.
the humming is fuel to the fire,
for the electric, funeral pyre.
Colors show who you really are around here,
there is no time for fear.
Or is there? - where’s little sister?
If you see her, say I miss her.
Wait.
Rain beating down like laughter on my ears;
...
Monday 4th May 2015 7:51 am
ODESSA - MY PRINCIPESSA
ODESSA - MY PRINCIPESSA
About many famous cities we can talk:
London, Paris, Naples or New York,
But when you walk along Odessa
You will love our principessa
If you are wise enough and not a bore.
The fact is such,
The fact is such:
There’s no city in the world
I love so much.
You will smile to the famous Duke,
From the second ...
Monday 3rd September 2012 12:14 am
Can You Hear The People Sing?
They dwell in strange rooms
the murky recesses of affordability
barely buildings, bedrooms with sinks
chair pushed up against the door
flakes of lives flung everywhere
A curtain, a quilt - who can really say?
A bare bulb hangs in an open window
no shade inside from day or night
Still lives go on; the rudimentary,
ramshackle, clutching at homeliness
the need for shelter unites us all
...
Wednesday 22nd February 2012 3:25 pm
Metropolis
Somewhere, the 9 till 5 office worker stops me with a deadpan stare,
Fixes me with the times of timetables passed, the graph paper squares
Of tomorrow’s schedule. The high-rise offices never bother to look down.
I never liked the city.
Never really cared
for the city’s callousness, its daily suicide,
the shadow at the top of each building that watches with certainty.
C...
Tuesday 31st January 2012 9:14 am
CITY UNDER THE SEA
CITY UNDER THE SEA
Thousands of years ago there stood a huge prosperous city on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Sea level was lower then and the ocean was smaller and less deep. Over the years the sea level rose, covering and drowning this magnificent place.
Many people tried to stay to ride out the storm but the flood of water became deeper and deeper until it was ...
Tuesday 24th January 2012 6:33 pm
An Acorns Throw
Oh to be once more in the depths of green
Escape from the bustle of the present mainstream
Soak up the magic of natures verdant glory
Linger there a while and pen the story
For refuge what can ever surpass this haven
An acorns throw away from the commercially enslaven...
©Rhumour
August 10th 2009
Friday 4th September 2009 10:18 pm
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