Spirits

The first

Showed me how it had been

The laughter and the tears

Sliced turkey

Rich juices flowing

Lights and tinsel

Greens and reds and silvers

The smell of pine

Needles on the carpet

Arguments and recriminations

Old wounds opened

New wounds pierced

This was how it was

The second

Showed me how it is

Lonely day holy night

The only ...

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Elegy For Days Lost

Another day has come and passed

Left pain and sadness in its wake

The seconds, minutes, hours amassed

The sun will give the moon will take

The distant friends the loved ones lost

Amid the times of dread disease

Each family will count the cost

And curse the name of days like these

And yet the sky was clearest blue

I wrote a poem, sang a so...

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Some Words

I had been her son all my life

                But not all of hers

When she started calling me

                By her brother’s name

                Not my dad’s

                Her bother’s

Dead for these past 10 years

A stroke will do that to you

                Make you forget what you were saying

                Struggling to find the rig...

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Bedlam

The greying morning

Barked like a dog

Trapped in a well

A sound so hollow

It shattered glass

In the cabinet where

She kept her memories

Tied in knots

The braying moon

Shone silver needles

Into the face

Of the weeping child

Screwing its hooks

Into soft flesh

Making the lanterns

Quiver with rage

In the ragged garden

Tendrils...

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Above The Light Of The Morning Star

Pity the dark eyed man who chases sleep.

Yet, pity more, the man who finds that realm

and dances with his friends, long gone,

then wakes to find such loneliness in his heart.

A father’s hand laid gently on his shoulder

or a mothers kiss to say farewell on leaving.

These are the magic lanterns

of the ghosts that are their ghosts.

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A Wound That Never Heals

It hurts me

when a you shaped hole

appears in the cosmos,

where there is

an absence of colour,

where the sound

scrapes along,

where the light

is masked by

dense grey mist.

That’s where

I miss you

the most.

When it rains

a greasy rain,

when the cracked bell

clangs,

when the planets

are misaligned.

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Back To The Park

It’s mid July,

a summer’s day.

School is just

a memory away.

We lay on grass

and watch the sky

and count the clouds

as they pass by.

We talk of bands

we’d like to see -

Led Zeppelin, Quo,

Sabbath and Free.

Insects buzz,

a distant bark,

children playing

In the park.

You turn to me

and kiss my lips

and move in close,

h...

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Elbow Yard

In Elbow Yard the walls are thin

between this world and the next.

We communicate through clairvoyants

because we couldn’t  handle text.

But that’s all right mate,

that’s pretty cool,

you didn’t like clowns

and I’m the fool.

In Elbow Yard the darkness reigns

and death dances out of sight

ready to drag us to his ballroom,

illuminated in pale g...

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Sacred Path

we walked the ancient path together

where ancestors had worn the land

into a waypoint to the barrow

carefully observing rituals and customs

under azure skies we stumbled on our way

across this land of Albion

the hops the wheat the barley

bowing heads in solemn recognition

of the passing of souls

as we walked we talked of many things

...

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Unknowing

ghost brother

ghost sister

twins

two years before

unable to fight anymore

they gave up their tiny breath

to history

she never spoke of them

in anything but love and memory

of what could have

should have been

never tripping

over regrets

at what came after

me

my brother

our family

they had names for th...

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The Dark & The Light

This cruel winter

claims its marionettes

in a heartbeat.

The dark man

raised from the black rock.

Turning

as the glittering light

cascades over the road,

casting long shadows.

He sees a face

and then another

and then another,

a rainbow chameleon

changing with the wind,

never setting

always fluid.

Rebirth.

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Drowse

When there are no mirrors
I am young again
Sitting in the warming glow
of distant years
The aches and pains
will all be gone tomorrow
The days are long
and never seem to grey.
Parents are in another room
just out of hearing
The T.V has three channels
all black and white
Three meals a day
are sitting on the table
The bonfire smoke
creates the evening dusk.

Another time I...

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Blood Moon

“Sweet Katarina, dance for me”,
said the man with the black balloon,
whose face looked rather like a wolf
if glanced in the back of a spoon -
and for each dance she did for him
he would pass her another string
with a midnight helium ball
tied on to its end with a ring.

She danced until her little hands
were full of the magical twine
and the villagers all agreed
they’d ne...

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Home By Christmas

I fear I let my feelings rule my head,
that you would have no trouble getting leave.
You would be home by Christmas as they said.

All through the Autumn, sleeping cold in bed,
I dreamt of all our marriage would achieve.
I fear I let my feelings rule my head.

Not since the day that both of us were wed
had we missed carols, sung that holy eve.
You would be home by Ch...

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Noticed

I lived my life, most often, like a ghost,

ethereal, drifting from room to room,

a chill chasing me from pillar to post.

Rippling across the senses of those whom,

in solitude, sought meaning in their life

before they passed beyond it to the tomb.

I was not noticed by them, or my wife

who gladly let me rest in silent shade

whilst stab...

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