I saw the cat today in the lane

its back towards me

but aware that I was there.

A hedge absorbed it

the lane alone again

and another feline plan unthwarted.

The puddles saw the plan pass on by

pass away

and the dance again of soft pads

foraging whiskers

leaving me behind

blundering on my upright way.

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looking down

then looking up

      at stained glass skies

      penitence  humility  breaching the distance

sodomy airbrushed out

the fucking forgiven

       neutered dreams on a cushion of bliss

      because of all this

and underneath the spirit screams with mere respect.

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Christmas has gone like a flatulent fart

      silent night is just a mattress

the hosannas that rang no longer ring true

      three ships sailed over the bright horizon

while the sales are flexing and long overdue.

Family groups have dispersed once again

      the elders tucked safely away

an alcoholic haze drifts by

      on the back of the special day.

Poin...

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Alan no longer exists,

has disappeared

gone up the reverse spiral

off the ladder of no more rungs

his respects paid

seeded in pockets of low resistance.

       In case you didn't know him too well

       there is the skip outside his house

       sodden with the forced tears

       of a sort of purgatory

       awaiting pulp and peace

but help yourself be...

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NO MORE

DEEP COAL

FROM A DEEP HOLE

NO DEED POLL

DECISIONS TAKEN

AT A HIGHER LEVEL

CHEFS OF ENTERPRISE

CUTTING BACK

NO SURPRISE

KNEW IT WAS COMING

WORKERS THUMBING

A LIFT TO OBLIVION

BLACK GOLD

DISPLAYED IN A CASE

SO THAT AT COAL'S DISGRACE

THE YOUNG CAN STARE

DEEP DESPAIR

WILL ANYONE CARE?

BURY THE WELSH IN MEMORIES

THE YORKSHIREMEN TOO

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At the end of another day

the Antarctic fields tell no story

the researchers move slowly

conserving heat in the blistering cold

with their late flaring mirages of haloed breath

as the air peels away.

      The ice maiden has wandered

      far from her glassy hide

      leaving an impression behind

      where a freezing moon scythe

      divides the ti...

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I stare out at the gathering mist

as on the radio tubular bells are peeling,

an insistent beat of persistent encouragement.

children's voices stripped of guile

Christmas will soon be here .

      A red carpet unfolds

      while the lurching crowds obey

      a ritual newer than recorded time.

Pin spots reveal the message

in the caves of temptation.

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What's done for free

risks anonymity

we live in hope

     of money for old rope

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In the mirror he checks his wig

the sideburns dark glasses

with the silver sides

checks the white suit

it's all in place

his heart lies heavy in Grace

land.

Though Elvis lies in a mausoleum

this English equivalent

works hard to survive -

 daily he works with carpets and flooring and

refreshes his throat with gargling fluid

to keep those dreams of the King a...

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dirty and dark

hard to breathe

confused about time

feeling my way

suddenly a light        the mother lode      revealed at last      crystals of truth      I clawed them

My own discovery

the truth blinding

age behind me

the light stayed on.

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Here comes religion - again

with its huge pillow for your bed

creature comforts.

To go with it you may include

      television, sofa, slippers, car

      etcetera  etcetera. 

      For the ladies a kitchen that's blessed

      in the latest hue

 creature comforts

and a hint of sky to cover you by.

For the race

      a human embrace when it's over

      (gl...

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"This was the family dining room,"

      the lady stands in simple tweeds

      her feet astride the dark oak floor

reflecting history with all its deeds

sombre still with shadowed time

      the tumbling drapes discreetly back

      and panelling fading into black.

An open doorway suddenly reveals

an ancient visitor visibly thrilled

      whose wife peruses the outline ...

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I wrote this poem

whilst having a crap.

I sprayed the air

the task complete.

Not sure which was the greater pleasure

probably in equal measure

I look forward to a wise assessment

of my small but insignificant investment.

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I parked the volvo at two am

cut the engine on the old 760

the November night closed in.

Outside, the air at Borley was fresh

a light wind stirred by the blunted church

only hedges and drives, bungalows

where the rectory had been

and the still extant lodge. 

The Victorian pile razed by fire  before the war

i'd read the stories

of a ghostly nun, mysterious li...

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Father Christmas flies high,  so high

where the air is thin

and the children believe

as they have been told.

Father Christmas drops his men down

presents on tiny wings so fragile.

to keep them safe

      they can't believe in bombs

      and bullets as they tear down

      simple dreams.

though good men may come

with promises wrapped up

Fathe...

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he held on to his views as tightly

      as a bullet in a breach

hammered them home

      in the compression of a moment

his opinions unleashed

      with deadly aim and

nought but a duel

      could suppress them.

I met with him on the bleak moor

      and with luck and aim

blew out his brains

      scattering his thoughts and views

and the world was a bet...

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I felt it could happen at any time

that I would know when

then on the cliff looking out to sea I knew it

the drop enough

enough of a drop

to deal the blow

on the undertow

and though

      the waves were flecked and bright

     the time had come

     for everlasting night.

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In the final scene a man waits

in the reception area of a hotel,

a spectator in a moving montage

seated alone,

in a cosy juxtaposition of service and flow.

No one notices him and his watching:

      the discreet frontage of the lifts

      and their smoothly quiet ascents and descents

      to reveal the occupants

      stepping from their padded confines

      some b...

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What would we do if the poems ran out

our energy supplies cut off?

How would we explain that away

without the words and what they convey?

Like the blind we'd have to evolve

with only the touchrod of insight to solve

those infinite days and their challenging ways

to stumble over imponderable matters

and stare at statues

or bleakly at sunsets

devoid ...

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In red jackets they had assembled

instruments to hand, smiling.

My eye took them in

close enough to touch,

the living

and some I knew had passed over

Long hours we had spent together

glued into years

in pursuit of music,

I made them what I remembered,

reached round the back of memory

propped them up again smiling

and the dream was good.

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November struggles to help itself up

but ignored by the cataract sky

with its rotting damask

drowns slowly like a rat

downtrodden

sodden

while the days cry out for sleep

cast their leaden verdict

bedding down on pillows

of hedge    bank    ruts

ifs and buts.

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for simple pleasures of conquest

we played marbles, for marbles

with marbles  again and again

and bagged them

safe and drawstring tight

a natural balance of loss and gain.

Like glass eyes they spun in our palm sockets

leapt and sparkled

in gutters or playgrounds

from three finger cradles

whirling swirling in small tracks

clickety clacks

macho skirmishes

the m...

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Small assassinations are drilling

making their points felt

deep into the bedrock

      as mountains of trust give way

      sink beneath other leviathans

hopes dashed

fevers tempered by death

while the black hooded wait their turn.

Small assassinations take their toll

take comfort from power

feed on and off it from back rooms

      an enemy must be found

  ...

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when margaret met ronald

a dream came true

a meeting of minds

an acting coups.

a child was born

to feed on dreams

a credit rush for me and you.

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In Shepherd's Bush W.12

we tenderly kissed

I with suspension of disbelief

him with deep and tragic relief.

      He said that straights were highly prized

my gorge was rising

but nothing else.

I felt no fear nor any desire

like an actor whose skill is ever for hire.

With his wig back on he looked much better

bra in place,  rouged up face

transvestite...

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Lord Nelson and me

on a summer's ride

in the crook of his arm

through the countryside

I stood while he huffed

and stood while he puffed

in his green shiny coat

he shovelled the miles

and hot he ran with his iron will

and we rode like the Lord

and we're riding still.

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The clothes hang in their wardrobe

asleep in drawers

shoes sit to attention

all ready for the needs of a day

      seasonal assortments.

      Their owners pass away

next of kin left with what's next to skin

they're leaving home.

Wardrobe empties

drawers a blank

      shoes with their black holes of respect

and for what the next world forsakes

the ...

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Check your fluid levels

as they flow into your brain,

      emotion's filter needs a clean

      to make it very plain.

Words like SHIT and PISS and FUCK

describing the body's functions

      turn up like uninvited guests

      with their slippery injunctions.

So service with a smile please

reach down to flush them out

      use vitriol to clear the air

      in ca...

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he smoked roll - ups

drank copious amounts

watched girls of a certain age

      his mind afire with hopeless dreams

      he played tricks with words on a page

      had a healthy disrespect

for sanctimonious smiles

cursed his way through every day

lived life upon the tiles.

      When he finally passed away

      he left a wretched smell and

      a song of sadnes...

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rockabye lullaby

Southern Electric

in the dark

the sanctioning spark

Waterloo sunset

left behind

briefly forgotten

the daily grind

no man's land

of fretul speed

lives suspended

 commercial creed

rockabye lullaby

unholy ghost

dead man's handle

 the milepost.

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I could have been in a trench

looking up at tanks passing

their underbellies squatting

so it was the day the clouds came

tumbling fusing in great clumps of air

boisterous blustering

towards a thin horizon

      with a hatred of the light.

I pleaded with them,     finally

they promised not to come back

      that night.

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Just like Lord Byron I sit tonight

pen in hand by candlelight

I walked abroad, the wind was high

galloping trees disturbed my eye.

Beetling roofs betrayed the light

that flickered in windows in dwindling sight

when of a sudden the power went down

a breath of God blown all around.

Within the blackness a chasm yawned

beneath my darkened feet it formed

 my...

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Forget about Gods

in their various forms of madness

or alternatively the single God

in his uniqueness.

Instead

respect the big cats

pumas tigers lions and their kind.

      look into those eyes

      place your respect and fear

      pay your dues

know that true life lurks there

in blood

instinct

raw sex

kindredship

love of a kind

      and finally a...

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Take Big Ben     as it stands

rebuild it in the desert sands

see if time makes any sense

with its monstrous grandeur

under ancient stars

by the way, what's the time on Mars?

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the great heave of recent war

lay back swallowed by the cold channel floor

beach out of bounds

with its lullabies of mines and barbed wire

marram grass saluted a past

like a bereavement

as we climbed from the train at Harwich

en route by Bedford coach to a week of levity

the boiler of the locomotive hissed in the rain

platform alight with puddles

e...

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Full set of golf clubs for sale I saw

with trolley thrown in

on a garage door.

Apply within it said( well really )

can't give 'em away  though sometimes nearly!

They crop up in the charity shops

as regular as when clockwork stops

Nobody wants yesterday's flash

on wheels

you need the new version

not a used and sullied perversion

like golf shoes with rather...

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Golf - the mystery of holes in the ground

smoothed to within an inch of its life

soft dreams

tiny ball hard hit

      that's about it

oh! I nearly forgot

the nineteenth hole

      scene of many a deal

done with sweaty hands

and in oak - lined rooms

where men can be men

 old sorties are relived

oh! and I nearly forgot

the fees,  a fine

for not sta...

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We arrived early by coach

instruments were ferreted into shabby backstage rooms

yesterday's polystyrene cups unwashed

lay near their current newspaper

gutted somewhere near page three

another ballroom another town

      Brighouse

      the jewel in the crown

abdicating from the future

locked in a blistered past.

      our presence with music was part of ...

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Woke up this morning      another day dawning

but I know deep down      there's trouble in town

moving real slow               my turn to go

I shuffle those dice            take your advice

I know you monopoly men       know when to say when

i'm in jail next                     totally vexed

can't pass go                     too damn slow

my notes are bleeding       kids need ...

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The man who shines your shoes

brushes your coat polishes your ego

      he knows his place

      in the human race.

As you go to your urgent meetings

      remember those hearts of darkness

     in the shadowlands

there may be an answer there

not on your agenda no doubt

      waiting with sad patience

      to be drawn out.

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In a funny sort of way I came to like him

      and then

in that funny sort of way

      I came to like others too who

I didn't much like before

      as if my liking was a fondness

for initial dislike itself

      an attachment to overcome

and once won a constant challenge

      equalled

then I seemed to rise up

      not caring so much whether

people suit...

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look at me in my shiny car!

      ever so near

      ever so far

nothing can stop this love affair

my hands are gripping

my feet are flexing

      the dashboard grinning

      my thoughts have fled

I am easily pleasantly

easily led.

When I'm not in my shiny car

      it waits, it awaits

      hushed and cold

for my powerful body

to bring it to li...

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The celebrations were just

      a thin skin over a wound

deep in the pysche

      death

crisply crackled on sullied ground

      desolation a breath away

shoulders hunched against

      the monolithic memory

buildings shored up.

      Dogs beseeching

cats disappearing around corners

      devoid of direction

Shops cobbled together trade

      holding up a ra...

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so Vinny comes into the club one time

I say what's new

he says it's good

a deal going down

on the other side of town

you really ought to

hear this.

I says you gotta tell me more

Vinny's calling the guy at the bar

comes over with scotches and rye

a celebration to match the mood

he draws a plan

on a serviette

a liquor store supplying

we don't know how m...

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Let's fuck up the planet

while we've still got time.

   We'll charge to stare in the abyss

    people would pay their dime.

So let's fuck up the planet

how long is anybody's guess,

    so let's big up the problem

    and never quite confess.

Poverty can go to the back of the queue

along with love and such things

    so let's fuck up the planet

    there might ...

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One forty five Acacia Drive

      had a gate with a rising sun

            with a spring in its hinge for everyone

 Metroland expressive.

Returning to its original slot

      with little delay as like as not

            protecting its inward Camelot

Metroland impressive.

One forty five Acacia Drive

      was bombed in nineteen forty five

          ...

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The minute the fog laid its eyes on me

I knew I was lost

with its cold creeping seduction

and whispered breath

            all guidance confused

and only the suspended tops

            of what was grounded

could I see

confounded in a season of mystery.

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I love my brother

I love my sister

I love my mummy

I love my daddy

I love my dog

and I love my cat.

I love my granny and granddad

but they've gone on ahead

that's what mummy and daddy reckon

so I have to love them even more

'cause granny and granddad are dead.

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On the northern line last night

    I chanced upon the strangest sight

as I took my usual seat

    in the clammy noisy heat.

A man sat opposite a little along

    just staring at an absent throng

for the carriage was empty apart from myself

    and he was perfectly still.

His coat was heavy and dark as night

    with his feet together as if held tight,

and as we ...

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what happened to my dreams of flying?

there's no denying they were real enough.

In that sleeping realm

I passed the elm

and valley bound on wingless flight

my silence buoyed me up

to look down on the buttercup,

and as I willed it

landed with a maiden sigh

as levitating

the world passed by.

Of late my dreams go plodding on

no more magic to thrill my soul -

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Take a spot of wisdom

add it to your view,

widen out your vision

good luck will come to you.

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With their glassy eyes

and swirling tattoes

these are the awkwardly aggressive youths

dancing attendance to a swirling cause

as yet unexplored

a menopause

of puberty

of discontent

in a forest of time misspent.

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he shadowed her with his wafer frame

like a tug with the Queen of the Seas

she ingloriously passing by

the waters discreetly parting.

Coasting in and docking together

in the supermarket setting

she with an air of bluster

a lack of grace

him aiding and abetting

supermarketing.

With his chest cadaverous

from the struggling of smoke

the sporty stripe a st...

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It's hard to find love when you're all alone

when the last train has left.

Like the walking dead

you wait for love

with no end in sight.

It's hard to be loved when you're lonely too

'cause everyone knows you missed that train

though it wasn't your fault

and the time's never right

when that last train has left

and the night lies ahead

when you're waiting f...

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where I live      lanes converge

and gravel bottomed

like dried up streams are unadopted

with their tiny plots laid at random

backs to sides cobbled up

slates with tiles, scowling porches.

all a - sloping with their underground springs

slipshod and tacky

homely and sought after

now that envious eyes are cast

and the boards go up, staked through

the heart of where I...

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O Cafe Rouge you were quite a beaux

with your heat and chat, your meet and greet

you might have guessed with your mock french faux

your raison d'etre had to go.

      Gone the poisson in various guises

      the poulet oft immersed,

      those garish posters of the Moulin Rouge,

      the waiters' comments well rehearsed.

and what of the coffee?  never french

...

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I picked up a cold of late

but never displayed it.

Picked up an ocarina

and never played it.

Picked up a few ideas,

they never quite made it.

Picked up a woman once,

but that's another story.

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Old Seth had been an engineman

worked on the Chesapeake

from Richmond to Ohio

and back two times a week

then lately in a twilight home

in Wannesboro it seems

just keeping to himself most times

and living on his dreams.

The doctors reckoned he'd lost his mind

just sat there looking out;

some days his eyes would screw right up

other times he'd shout

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As I stood there on that lazy summer day

the world tilted with the sun

hawthorn privet

plantain, wild orchids

all a palette of play

on the raggedy downs.

I clambered down the bank

into the pit of chalk where gobbets lay

strewn,

puddled after recent rain.

Looking up I could see the perimeter fringed

the plunge down where the sculpture of effort

had scal...

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A miner walked from Wheal Kitty

to Trevellas at the end of a day,

and the path he took was atop the cliff

for that was his easiest way.

The moon rode high oe'r the breakers

and the path did twist and turn,

and the Gods of the deep were lurking there

with nothing new to learn.

Fourteen hours at fifty fathoms

had taken the breath from him

and the night was qui...

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trees don't ask to be born

something just happens

it seems like a good idea

and a shame humankind

didn't think of it first.

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snotful, brimming with adventure

ragamuffin

got down in the ditch

burrowed, knees scratched

contemptible

ignoring social resonsibilities

      dining correctly

      shaking hands

      being precise

instead

grovelling under a footpath

where rain had been like a friend

real, natural

breath dank with small echoes.

Looked back i...

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I faced the judges

the line of their strength

read my poem

as best I could

my finest up 'til now I thought

the duration being of acceptable length.

      Silence ensued

      a row of stares.

I rose to leave

the room at once

my dreams and my art

in hopeless tatters.

"Shall I close the door?" I said

"Yes if you will," said one of the -----

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I respect your cage of disbelief -

look over here - one that believes

in a different cage.

variations on a theme

frameworks.

It seems we must have these restrictions

for without them we would have little to call our own,

no institutions

no constitutions

no sense of freedom.

Once you accept these bars

you barely notice them

variations on ...

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I fell through my sofa last night,

found a dark place

where the dead collect

with old coins, crumbs

reminders,  nail clippings,

the memories of lost souls.

It was a place of horror

and I fought back

to enter my sofa once more.

You might say it was imagined

just a dream

but who knows?

who cares?

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They came in their big black cars silently

on a wave of expectation

stationed themselves

like a game of chess

result anticipated

      released their Messiah

      proclaiming COMPASSION

       promising NEW LEGISLATION

       prognosis by CROWD HYPNOSIS

waving goodbye to poverty

lauding free speech

using it against the truth

with self congratulation b...

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They laugh in all the wrong places

turn life into a joke

often the joke is on you

but the laugh is paramount

the humour is gone

but the malady lingers on..

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be mine fair lady

I will drag you down

down to dreamless sleep

be mine fair lady

your sweat shall be my sweat

your wet       my wet

be mine fair lady

as you twist and turn

cry out as I surround your soul.

From where do I come?

it matters not,

the curtains have parted

so

lie still fair lady

pray for your mind if you must

but leave you...

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The compact disc glinted in the sunlight

pinned upon the workshop door

I promised to scatter the silence

from its cage for evermore.

No final wish was granted

as it showed its circular face

so I hefted the 22 rifle

in a close embrace

levelled a calm dispassionate eye

as the breech caressed my cheek

felt the kick of pelleted flight

the release of held...

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Llechwydd you Welsh maiden

your nickname      slag

with your dark secrets

with your cloak of black

tall in the valley saddle

silver corsage to the sun

living with pressure known only

to the deeper Gods.

           The celts took your virginity

            burrowed in as you turned for solace to the sky

            shook your mane of rain

            runni...

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The world is giving up its tiny dead -

hair  carapaces   dust   come out of hiding

with the white flag of air,

drift slowly     surrender.

Lamentations to soften the scratch of feet.

In a bleak sun a broom signs the treaty

dust is on the march.

The arc begins,    mass grave swept

through forests of bristle

the sweeper content in the cheating of gravity.

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Mississipi mud pie

thou art bigger than my eye.

I worship you for selfish reasons

thou my sugars may go sky high.

Mississipi mud pie

on my stomach you will lie

like Jonah in my inner swamp

dissolving with the merest sigh.

Mississipi mud pie

i'll love and eat you 'til I die

but until then as my spoon goes in

i'll simply say goodbye.

...

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she waits for her lover on the millpond bridge

in the autumn sun on Michaelmas day

the waterwheel forever turning

caressing the river in its turbulent play.

      In a Tavistock tavern her lover lies

      in the arms of a drunken brazen whore.

      The golden sun engulfs the room

      their clothes lie strewn on the riven floor.

Lust explodes as his seed is spe...

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One man's in, another drinking

sharing a recent story

thousandth hand across the land

such is the speed of news we share

 another molecule of bonding

the drinking opening up the scene

into the time they have to spare

give us this day our daily bread

before the rising yeast goes slack

another way to move the human spirit on.

Just out of si...

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I should have rung him

shared his decline

knowing he was dying

but I had problems too

don't we all?

we went back years

he liked a smoke, a drink

so natural at the bar

but we lost touch and he moved on

don't we all?

            I should have rung him

but it's too late I guess

now that he's passed away

but nobody's perfect after all.

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on the open plain

I looked in the rear view mirror

at the spread of late summer disappearing

checked my speed

no hurry.

ahead an unknown season

with promises dawning

horizons sensed

too real for a dream

        she would be waiting

        off the greyhound

at Galveston

with sculpted hips

small hands

a feast of inward delights

my speed increased

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the listless ones gaze through

the downward surge of memory

in a postponement of death made decent

by caring.

hands are pressed like autumn leaves

into the never never book that

will be offered up with a soft cry

why all this, why?

in a bedroom a once favourite picture hangs

sheets are turned down

and while there is life

still life

lights will dim

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Gregory Maitland came to Moorgate

when the gate was there.

He carved his name with a miniature pick

in a hospital for the sick

for syphillus had laid him low

took his mind beyond repair

He'd gone with a doxy lustily dressed

as many did with their spirits depressed

and paid the price for paradise

and the sick they went on dying.

The crowds were...

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ask a dog the meaning of life

as it looks into your eyes.

It's crying time for the thirsty soul

and he doesn't realize

but he sees that earnest look you give

and he reaches for the skies

to find an answer to give you hope

in the realm of the worldly wise.

And when the thought has run its course

he knows you're in the clear,

for all that clamours in the restl...

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The life of caves is caught in the traps

static, blind

save when raindrops combine in driven whispers

to flush out secrets

on the way to sweet Elysium.

The toothless mouths and scoured gullets

slip into themselves

reflective, deceptive

indifferent to curious life in the traps.

They are their own refuge

hemmed in with cold shoulders, their

armadillo roofs ...

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fIrst the trees rise up, then are lopped

into logs, a family

taken at birth to serve a purpose

to rise again in smoke

giving solace to us who huddle

against the almighty sky as it draws

the hot breath, rubbing its hands

when we are finished with it

and the children dance into the night

wrapped in flame like a will collapsing

            a coloration of the h...

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The barometer tumbles

the rise of an ocean

an exodus of air

the barrage of thick lipped breath

implies vespers

            over the shrinking day.

            A drover spots the booming wind

sheep ripple as the moan takes hold.

Stones press hard into the advance

the shuddering horizon hears the call,

shrugs its pewter shoulders in a heave

and rain begins to fa...

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contemplating horizons of infirmity

I see

that walk - in baths

stair lifts

and the cornucopia of aids that do spring

from the possibility of lesser mobility

are pleasantly presented

and am surprised that such ladies as do disport

themselves in the role of advertising them

are of the decidedly firm kind

not representative in general terms

of the age groups who ...

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The peace police are coming to town

their smiles are soft like fleecy down.

They've swapped their kevlar for polyweave

and their hearts are worn upon their sleeve.

They drift in pairs, go hand in hand

in solidarity's promised land.

Stop and search they offer you,

if you're alright they will be too.

They may protest at society's ills

to form a line wit...

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the mermaid bobs with the rising tide

her hair gaining weight with tempted water

flotsam in a silver sun

her movements fluid in retrospect

scales      of injustice    riffled undone.

the ambulance throbs with pulsating light

a beacon on the scattered beach

and a stretcher is gently lowered,

the mermaids' dream just out of reach..

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in my view from solitary hill

I watch people waving,

the solitary thrill of invisible ecstasy

stays with me still

in a silence of waterfalls

an absence of will.

No restriction on solitary mound

an absence of streets

that eat up the ground, with a silence of storms

and the howl of dissent

of the sullen sodden human round.

In my dreams of solitary souls

...

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hunting for sport is a noble art

much adopted by the nobility of whose lives

it has always been a significant part

perfected for their pleasure

suited to their leisure.

Out of the corner of their eye

inescapably lesser humans were also fair game

hunted for what little they possessed

while those of the nobler breed

had enough already

toasting excellent sport ...

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"No compliments allowed."

buy your badges now

all insults removed

someway somehow.

but don't stop there

let's tackle the ads,

just sticking to products

showing mums and dads.

Passport shots available here

(the threat of pornography always near).

The scary fellas are the quiet ones

who never say boo to a goose(sorry)

just in case, we'll destroy all the seven...

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I am in the shower

hosing down the treasured carcase.

The water dances, gives itself

in a minor moment.

Pillars and steps, entrances to this older generation

are once more given respect, yet why?

for soon in full view of the

rolling conundrum of time and space

this carcase will die back

but while it holds a name

an intention

a history

the feeling is ac...

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On that day I found a tree to sit beneath,

the grass in sloping folds of summer

would not leave me

'til I made a choice.

Closing my eyes and opening my mind

was like a photograph of destiny

as yet designed.

      For old times' sake looking back

      at how time had ploughed that chosen track

      with its ruts well trodden

      I have passed by a lake of simi...

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The two tone tram came to a stop

at Sheffield Lane Top

in a bright smoky haze

on one of those extraordinary days

that we take for granted

when nothing much is expected to happen

except for moments of history.

Jack Braithwaite leaves his tram's controller

to reverse the rows of slatted seats

and sees a passenger against the glass

head crooked forward where the fra...

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The ample rump of Donald Trump

is an interesting area.

Like margarine it spreads quite well

and exhudes a slightly oily smell.

The centrepiece describes the man

and worthy of a mention,

for with its daily repertoire

it's just his brain's extension.

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in the canal they found her

iphone 5 in the undergrowth

      drowned in the night

      found in the morning

Her parents abroad flying home in the sun

both distraught, the truth just dawning.

      Investigations under way

      her phone was checked for content

      suicide by text found

      with a little dinky pinging sound.

An online profile...

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our bodies talk in chemical clauses silently

constructing

 a life for us,  constellations

unseen even through closed eyes

though we sense the windmills and

the air at the heart.

Aliens within lose face or take charge

commandeer

our inner sanctums under who knows what control?

Then  the invaders muster their forces

for our corruption

wherefore

the hospital l...

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Two doors down from me lived Alan

old school type, mason, drove a Jaguar

very proud he was, well turned out

visited his wife in hospital

incarcerated

uncomprehending.

I was asked in for a drink and a chat

      a really good sport, very sharp

liked a smoke and a scotch

     he poured two out in crystal glasses

from the lighted corner shrine.

      We shared so...

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"there's good news and bad news

which do you want first?" 

                 "I'll have the bad news."

                Thus        Murdoch became rich on human weakness

sad but true that this philosophy is cheap to run

like an old friend clapped out expecting little.

GOOD NEWS COMES AT A PREMIUM!

(well it wouldn't be cheap 'cause it's special)

with bad news you can...

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one by one they came in their thousands

fresh from the deepest sleep of all

newly minted

with a dream of memory spawned in hellfire

precipices of water,  the drift of continents

then as the sun turned a blinded eye to nature

on the scythe of molten time

a kind of peace                           forests came

a forever fusion of death before life

building blocks

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Ferguson, thirty years old

in his first floor room

pulls back the grey lace at the window.

Out there the railway yards

metal sinews etched in slag and rain

morose with burden

fretting in the disorderly queues of

 puffing and clanking engines.

He replaces the lace across the evenings' unwelcoming face.

On a good day he can watch cattle trucks

vegetables in cr...

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they've been to the pictures in Pontypridd

Yul Brynner, they're not sure which film

they can't concentrate what with the

scent and the lust in suspension.

Commercial traveller takes time out

over in the valleys.              Her home

quite forlorn on the steep industrial street.

All this is in his mind

as they ascend the stair

the revelatory behind

close enough f...

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if you stand quite still

you see the bleakness of someone dying

as the sun goes down

on a life bonded to your own

and you feel the fragile support

like an anchor wrenching as the ship of souls

breaks free of its moorings on the slender earth

and you watch

as your own downtrodden hope leaves you

like the spirit of unformed breath.

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Ku Klux Klan says

          "Brotherhood of Man"

as long as you're white

          it's alright.

Brothers in arms

          with crosses to bear

burn in hell

          for all we care.

barbecued brothers

          black as night.

Ironic that

          but it's alright.

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In the fustian gloom of the tower

something moves to give room to spiders.

the lips of hell part with a smile

pleased with its progeny and its guile

          and the sun slinks away

          from its slit in the wall

          where archers of old

          felled the pressing horde.

Nothing has ever left these chambers

and fear congeals with rotting straw

strewn ac...

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Who is worth most in the society we have spawned

high rise victim prowling the streets of the damned

or the pampered poodle on a silken pavement?

Do not expect the rich to shake that forgotten hand

though they may gladly pick up shit and take that home.

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my tottering tower of cassette tapes were denied a play

they remained erect, sullenly silent

an insult to modern technology.

One day they flew from their stack

from their eyrie on the wall

opened their muted beaks and sprayed

the floor in a spectacular moment.

like a slap in the face to my nostalgic fixative

the contents of the swivel casings spilled

and downcast in a gl...

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Let's hear it for Blackpool

trams lit up at night

gliding on like Fairyland

whether dull or bright.

A welcome like a cleavage

a smile for everyone

entertainment wherever you look

and the tower a wonderful sight.

Food prepared by the bucket

nothing much wrong with that

If you get indigestion

there's always the funny hat.

Try to be there in the Autumn

when the ...

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the eyelids of the horizon widened

in the embers of the flaming dusk

and I sat quite still.

The moving print of birds

wrote their goodbyes to the dying of the day.

A distant thread of water glimmered

as it showed off its nocturnal sheen.

The lungs of heaven all but closed

in their painless silence,

my eyes strained to the balance of spirit.

Then I saw t...

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This is a poem about nothing

nothing coming to mind

never mind it might get interesting

although I doubt it

I have no reason to elaborate

'cause multiples of nothing

don't amount to much

and as such

reveal little except

a blank concept

from which you can draw any conclusion

that avoids confusion.

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i've climbed the highest mountains

for you

swum the mighty oceans

too

but now we're married and

our love is proved

the goalposts seem to have

suddenly moved.

Though i've mastered the mountains

and oceans in turn

making a bed

doing the washing

cleaning the bath

reading (not laughing)

guessing your mind

with romance receding and hard to find

...

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Mary can't make it Thursday

but Elsie thinks she can.

Mary can make it Friday

but Elsie is minding Dan.

Maisie is going away all week

but after that she could come

but Mary and Elsie won't be around

and next week i'll be having Mum.

Hettie is available twenty four seven

a meet up would do her good,

but Mary and Hettie don't hit it off

though Elsie thinks they shoul...

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The babies keep coming

coming

into the world

petals opening disgorging

disgorging.

Mouths to feed

feeding feeding

milk flowing.

They pile up

statistics

scream and kick

another matter of pride

to show off.

Tick one more box

box ticked move on

over the horizon the

petals are pulsing

and absorbing

disgorging.

The world blinks and is missed

w...

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I tried to reach an audience       dreamed

of soaking them up      squeezing them dry

of all they could give me.

a parasite in love with need.

In the end I found my own,

surprisingly hollow like a drum with no sound

but a crying of thin hope

that flowed through my aching blood

and scared off all but the willing

of which there were few.

I tried to contain the audi...

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I could not listen to them

pay attention where needed

but watched in fascination for sound

for that loud tie

that leather cuff

facial ticks

blackboard tricks

all done under scratched deplored hair.

Then     doors set me free

to live my own life with the frightful

scamperings of the herd

unfathomed uncaring

a primal scream

an urban dream.

FURTHER EDUCA...

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Home from home  motorhome

Eric has cashed in his assets

greedy for tea rooms    vistas

dawns and sunsets in shorts

(we're bloody good sports)

stick like glue in our pod on the move

in the groove

going north west south east

as we please it's like a disease!

no sooner a sneeze than we make the decision.

Home from home        motorhome

motorway strip searche...

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Fresh faced, alluring,

digitally re - mastered she posed in the photo

at the platform of her trolleybus.

Grey summer uniform - clippie.

"Hold on very tight," she seemed to say.

Would that I could, but sixty years have gone their way.

I would have been a boy then,

and on a journey together

she could have taken me to paradise

for a minimal price.

A rack of tic...

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There is no God !

there is no hope

only the jerk at the end of a rope

that started as an umbilical chord

suspended from a bridge of sighs

that can't be crossed for wheres and whys.

No reason for punishment of sin or guilt

no need for churches to be built

the immaculate only a common conception

part of the overall deception.

The idea of a Holy Trinity

disappear...

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I rolled back the stone metaphorically

went through the door

was not offended just curious

into the cave bright and cheery.

Alien, pressed packing under pin spots

an indrawn breath of dismay

at how versatile sex can be.

Orgasm ecstasy fantasy upside down

the pouting grin of a latex clown

and in perfect silence

like a cold church with colour.

A sense of di...

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We are the surrogates, when mother's milk ends

we take over, weaning on objects of desire

when liquid turns to gold.

Mummy and Daddy consume and so

it will be with the little ones

small models of a greater future

we'll start them with

soft toys then as their awareness grows

dress them up in more grown up clothes

show them heroes

the American Dream

sweet dreams...

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We are the surrogates, when mother's milk ends

we take over, weaning on objects of desire

when liquid turns to gold.

Mummy and Daddy consume and so

it will be with the little ones

small models of a greater future

we'll start them with

soft toys then as their awareness grows

dress them up in more grown up clothes

show them heroes

the American Dream

sweet dreams...

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We are the surrogates, when mother's milk ends

we take over, weaning on objects of desire

when liquid turns to gold.

Mummy and Daddy consume and so

it will be with the little ones

small models of a greater future

we'll start them with

soft toys then as their awareness grows

dress them up in more grown up clothes

show them heroes

the American Dream

sweet dreams...

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The bankers on their lecterns of gold

preach to the indebted as if to say:

"in a small way we support you."

As upright pillars of the community

we balance their world on our backs

while they walk all over us.

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There's a smile on my face for the whole human race

it's almost like being in love

with the UNIVERSE

and its quintillions of stars and the chance to study Mars

the pull of the planets and its simply too much to take in but I

try with inconceivable unbelievable being two of the terms I

would tend to use to describe the infinite dream

It's the dream that I choose to spend m...

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He left the kitchens every night

by scooter back to bedsit

many stairs to the top of the house

his only rise in life.

rear view mirror Park Lane

headlights

dreams of

cyprus.

Enraged, he pressed in the light, ascended the stairs

past doors for other lonely folk

sickly glow a ray of hope for

career advance.

All around his life a threat of Akrotiri,

love losing ...

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I dreamed of Kim Kardashian

just the other day.

I dreamed that she had cellulite

and her hair was going grey.

I thought : she's just the one for me

we seemed to click and we talked

about the weather in Sowerby

and the cost of running a cat.

I escorted her to a burger van

we had a roll and coffee.

I thought she would have expected more

like champagne and banoff...

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strange fact         that the restless throng

are mostly going somewhere or

coming from it on the way to wherever

they don't belong

just because they can      and is that crazy?

we suppose it ain't

but don't let's think too much about it      otherwise

a minute's silence or a modicum of self - restraint

might ensue

to replace the lunacy of something pointless to do.

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When I started freelance piano

London pubs were my salvation

I cut my teeth on lonely bars

in decrepit streets or bland estates.

Those hesitant efforts of mine rang out

to frame the lager and the stout

with familiar figures in leatherette chairs.

cardigans and flares with afro hairs.

Sleeves rolled up and braced for action

the working man and his satisfaction.

The sti...

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Her eyes would glaze over,

a slurring of speech

some hazardous moments

an unnatural breech.

Soon she declined

deprived of sound mind, and who knows

what images lay there behind.

Within some months she was carried off

peremptorily by unseen forces.

In the darkness the answer lay

the divine intervention of counterplay.

Now the daughters have taken over, the hous...

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Trapped by foolish love I followed

every curve,    a funnel that poured into you

and took me with it.       Old enough

responsible enough

foolish enough for the luring.

As iron filings make sense of a magnet

you drew a pattern in my heart

a new arrangement         and I in my foolish love

chose your design           your being

your smell                        your taint

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The railway carriage, a lurching labyrinth

of doors corridors people crabbed in passing

had stopped with its locomotive up front

fuming with rage

held back by down signal  on our cage

of viaduct leaning into a curve.

The day boiled, the rails hissed in waiting.

I looked at the street below active

and unaware of us.

Up close the racks and maps, smiling hills in paste...

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my father travelled thousands of miles to waterloo and back

from a satellite town where I was born in suits of brown or black.

my mother waited patiently 'til the journey at last ran out

retiring on little to end their days, so what was it all about?

they had three kids and so i'm here to make this observation

that waterloo was his regular stop not his final destination.

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when the lake first greets you

it is unsure

no ripples of re - assurance from surface to floor.

but       finally

you are accepted

and in the fall of time especially drawn out

there can be no doubt

being one of nature's blessed

you know that you have passed the test.

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sleeping rough          your spirit weeps

for comfort lost

on the urban breast.

God is not available here

where no - one worships        with the bitter tear.

Where is that womb you thought was safe

with beating hearts                 in double time

where is the hope in city streets

when the spirit weeps            for this pantomime.

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The adrenalin rush has passed me by

while waiting for a bus

I never sought it out

tight - lipped on skis

a push - bike sensibly ridden

puts me more at ease.

Fairground rides too bracing

with the bird's eye views

and the playful gravity,

I like to feel my head in place

not airborne depravity.

Trains at speed are a good way to travel

but anything more exposed

a...

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The lady sells tobacco

twist, plug, ready rubbed

light or heavy, aromatic

never smoked herself but knows the ropes

what customers want

which pleasant addiction

keeps their hopes         up

pipe cleaners papers stainless steel boxes

matches pipes cigarettes

pipes in a rack

the lady sells tabak.

Tobacco in jars with different fragrance

tampers filters keeps a...

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We are in the dust bowl alone yet together

deaf with power surge and rotivation

samurai with swords.

Above what supports us, below

fear or relief.

We have seen stone       sand      chasms     strips

grappled with matted treelines

and we will be ready,  it's all the same to us

to shake hands with death uninvited

with one man up front united.

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We can sneer at the old ways now:

"over - engineered, wasted materials

too much man power used"

and we can worship the economist

who went on to prove a theory behind perfect glass

and helped to eradicate the working class.

a very worthy aim no doubt in the free for all

we now enjoy and call a sort of freedom.

and we can look up to the politician

manipulator of ...

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with its rotivation of air

this big thing hangs, a violation

threatening the eye of a storm

in its punctuation .

Hearts beat rotorwise.

It takes blood stock and uniform, pride

to places no decent man should go

and always, yet never alone in the immediate place.

The drum explodes, nothing is expected

that can be tasted nor heard

but a song of the vanquished, the refrai...

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Straight as a plumber's line was

the coast road to Caister on Sea

unrolling itself like a prescription for

the well - to - be.

First the headline bungalows

like the freshening teeth of entertainers fixed

in the jawline, pristine territory.

Everything cream, a procession of vanilla

in the squat facades and barricades

that spelled the rise of business rents

sq...

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Pigeon toes, pigeon brain

pigeon eyes and pigeon stain

nobody loves you with your pigeon breast

you feed off fertility

you leave me depressed.

With my 22 pellet gun I could size you up,

put an end to a gathering trend

but the hand of fate bades me be still

to deny me the seismic thrill.

Let someone else put an end to you

if that is what they want to do.

Who knows w...

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Knock three times

        let my beat be yours

and in the urgency of heat be mine.

      let love endure baby

knock knock knock again

      just to be sure.

That's what the beat is for.

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I caught you with your pants down

frost white from medieval winds

crackling underfoot, ice - glass reflecting

and from knobbled ponds face up

the calm unblinking sky.

Photographed at a distance

small lockets of cold.

Your infinitesimally small response

a desperate winter's cry.

Dogs were sniffing at your face

perplexed by your scentless shell,

with stunted trees yo...

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Stick insects cranked over old wood

bows drawing a foreplay of sound

music suddenly sprung from the polish of age.

A skittering of beeswax and arpeggios.

Schubert leaps from his grave

bewitching the victim audience

draws cerebral blood aside in the cranial race

and suddenly withdraws from the insect chase.

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old skin makes fun of lust

in its dying throes

it holds that ravaged instinct down

and clothes it with a rust.

Other avenues of life survive

inside that coat

where faded glory flourishes

and gently lifts the spirit.

"Do not stray" the skin will say

to feel a youthful pulse,

and if you do then clothe me well

lest you do repulse.

If you must unveil that rogue

t...

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She       is the ocean

I             am an island

She       surrounds me with reason

I            stand proud.

She       caresses the winds

I             defy them

She        laps at my heels

I              am unabated.

When she is still I become aware of her

understated. .

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The Essex Boys went straight to hell

in a range rover shotgun blasted

 out of their vicious lives

in a cataclysm of shattered glass.

They'd been set up by the sniff of drugs

which turned in on itself

like a fairy tale from Grimm

on that cold frosty field in December.

A date to remember in itself.

The post mortem gallery, puppet parody

masterclass of destruction -

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on the great hem of Heathrow in summertime

we set off from Ashford to Stanwell

Sunday sure - footed,

my parents ahead,

my brother and me behind.

"Daddy, daddy, what's that for"  I asked -

no answer came, his mind a trick of the light

a prism of serious concerns.

The reservoir confronted us and then

in slow procession the prefabs.

"Daddy, daddy, where does that go...

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The corporate corpse lies bloating

the worms of corruption burrowed deep

into tissue ripe with hope and trust,

not blind but with eyes revolving

on the rim of a bloating sun

that shines on the righteous and the worms alike;

then like a virus leave their festering claims in place

move on when all is taken in

vacating the tenderized flaking skin.

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They crouched at my door like beggars

weighed down by resolute faith

an awkward insertion of flyer

proclaiming the purpose of our Lord.

at some grotesque stadium.

When I made no reply to the timid knock

they disappeared like will o'the wisps

too many miles on the clock

him and her

resigned to glory

in some misty future wonderland

of biblical proportions written in ...

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gogglebox gogglebox

mindboggling bogglebox

every time we sit and watch

is a dance to the death of life

as we knew it in the days before.

TV reality, reality TV

reverse polarity, reverse reality.

Forming opinions constantly

absorbing opinions monstrously

Pavlov's dogs were trained to react

we are already beyond that

thou shalt accept the fact

all good things will...

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at first I thought they were wrestling or colliding

two snails - the painfully slow integration.

A confluence of unguent, lost shape except for the shells

which proclaimed their formation.

Cock o'hoop and the helter-skelter stripes

unchanged for millennia

embracing like rocks in a stone wall.

Nothing seemed to be happening

except for a slowly spreading patch glistening

c...

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The toshers prowl their ground heads bowed

strangely lit like Jack O'Lanterns in their bowl of filth

plodding against the flow, haunted by rats bigger than is decent

dredging where the eddies form, hedging their bets

in canvas draped, like wading birds plunging to find booty

tosheroon or gold and silver welded by acid's torch

and then  junction, a change of sound a moan perhaps

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In a large field encompassed by the backs

of an estate of houses was the Queen's coronation celebrated

sixty years ago,  I was there.

I was where that field was

my brain in the same head

watched the spilling crowds in that

cattle pen aimlessly cavorting

violently aware of a brush stroke of history

them and us, the alien invitation

descending into the real world

and

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Music as a commodity is antiseptic

like water applied it has benefit

that cannot be denied.

Available in rolls for wiping and disposal

it flows along the gutters of spent force

and offers no proposal.

The memory of it is catastrophically short

and seeks to thrill like a dangerous sport.

At its best it's largely misunderstood,

with its blind eye turned

in  selfish mast...

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While dreams' intentions lie asleep

life's dusty paths will cease to creep

and in that twilight of a life

we live upon the restless deep

where phantoms take us by the hand

as if they need us

through the sifting grains of sand

into a febrile hinterland

ever entrancing

the dreams are dancing

on that sad old wonderland

resurrecting life's rare chances

where miracle...

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The food fairy brings you all good things

in fairy tale packets on fairy tale wings,

enticements temptations

palatial sensations

and everything flavored with fairy tale stings.

Right here in the fairy tale castle we make 'em

we know that whatever we make people take ' em

when dawn has arisen our fantasy starts

with special surprises in blueberry tarts

and tropical t...

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The ceremony of the crossing of keys

begins in earnest with the payment of fees.

donations in a velvet box

of juniper wood and sinister locks.

The master elect is exactly correct

in long tails, head intently erect.

A serious ritual is about to ensue

with a well - honed speech

and a well - honed view.

Aprons donned and regalia shewn,

it's all in the game,  consider a l...

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It's funny how religion arrives

invited in to fractured lives

like blessed rolls of elastoplast

to make us stick to religion fast.

and in that web of fabrication

there is no room for the other nation.

Seems to me the formula's wrong

but religion keeps on taking the strain

until the doubts begin again.

so all you hierophants and priests

gather up your mouldering feasts

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Can poetry lift the spirit, can it bear

the cross of the mere mundane

to elevate the heart

with so little to gain?

Can poetry inform the unwilling mind

or must it slink unannounced

out of sight of the spiritually blind?

With its subtlety of flavour

will it ever find universal favour,

or will it only ever survive in fiery claims

of national pride in a blunted way

wi...

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My blade kisses the petulant wood,

separates, 

with a sigh a shape forms

a marriage of intent and sculpture

turned like a palm on a maiden's thigh

ivory in ecstasy.

Pressing home this message

a creation unfurls

baby milked in sweet air and

a kiss curl begins.

A smile of joy, is it a girl or a boy?

Spinning like the earth itself

under the impetuous headstock

h...

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The world is tilting

view compressed

stomach turns under

a lycra vest.

The brain is ready

all systems steady

for instant glory

and the coming test.

Birds fly

I envy them

in my earth down - trodden form

As I feel the tyres grip

and the frowning threat of storm.

The force that keeps the world in place

is central to the human race

and now here comes the in...

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LIttle Johnny blows his horn

plays his heart out quite forlorn

teacher impassive with fingers tapping

his next appointment is overlapping.

Brand new sax supplied with hope

his parents now can hardly cope

their other son is playing tennis

the costs of dreams a rising menace.

Soon there will be girls in tow

and these efforts will ebb and flow

just like the rivers of emp...

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Lives engraved

lives saved

for glory in austerity

in posterity, saviours

as paviours, engravers.

fossils hewn to names

shells of purpose shattered.

enshrined, vertically inclined

look up with respect, alphabetical.

Lives enslaved, lives saved

for posterity and austerity.

God spares some and God receives others

grieving mothers.

squarely formed,...

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A skeleton sat in its carriage and never spoke

as the purple horizon went up in a puff of smoke.

Draperies hung heavy where ancient diners are often seen

as the moat buoyed up an empty boat

where the mistress should have been.

Tales were told of a knight who fought oe'r her and master both

now rats do scurry in musty vaults overtaken by undergrowth.

The carriage glided slowly ...

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On the life train to depression central

he got off at an early stop -

sadness junction     where choices are made

which track to take      never knowing nor

quite believing in any destination.

The signal wavered as if in sympathy..

And then sadness became his friend,

"welcome to sadness junction," it said.

with this shadow companion he felt at home,

no illusions, no expe...

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One of the things I learnt quickly at school

was the spreading of fear from the master .

This happened as teachers had left the army

where fear was instilled , sub conscious

and sub ordinate , the results were disaster.

To poison the growth of a plant would be similar

in terms of the mind of a bully like Himmler

who had a grand plan but let's bloody face it

it wasn't to edu...

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God moves on mysterious motorways

and on the tarmac he reigns

and on that strip we take our chance

so much faith with such little grace.

The leaderless army advances on

pressing on, pressing down,

obilterating the recent past with

tension and the four - letter frown.

Petrol sprays from a thousand tubes

like a demon baby suckling drains

from the bowels of rock pools up...

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You are a lady contortionist, it's your God - given right,

you had me in contortions just the other night.

I knew where I was coming from

and gave the cat a fright.

But all in all I had a ball,

as high as any kite.

I'm very glad I met you

when the circus was in town,

I could see that things were looking up

when I saw you looking down.

Something clicked, you had me lic...

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"For the blessings of the trumpet we thank you"    though

one poor soul I know

paid a heavy price for a shabby paradise.

Centuries of breath laced with the fairy brew

downed in stinking and unholy bars

gave him the spine,  and when

the baton demanded a steady eye

and ear he could supply the goods.

Punctuating the racing dots

on the changing sky of manuscript

shooting ...

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Betjeman was right about Surrey about

that board game of boardroom, MGs, safe

secure in its tomb of much green,

but that romance left long since then on the seven - fifteen

to the skyscapes of Mammon.

Let us not dwell on nor examine but

resonate with the studied simplicity of

Joan or Felicity, good Surrey monicas

as we know.

and concentrate now on garden centres

for g...

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"I had a kitchen had a new kitchen

had it fitted,     kitchen fitted by a kitchen fitter

could have been quicker frankly

frankly he could have been quicker

but being a kitchen fitter had other jobs going

at the same time fitting other kitchens all the time and

not enought hours in the day            he said

he said that fitting kitchens was a twenty four hour game

twenty fo...

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This is my prayer

that you make me strong and make me care enough

to change the world and all its wrongs;

but in the meantime more urgently

please protect my cat

and those who will not pray

for horrible ungodly things to go away.

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lie with me - let me cover you with my age.

Think not of the disturbances of time

as my long shadow passes over your perfect form.

Forgive this greed for last chances;

but as the sun goes down

more beauty is revealed than can be tasted

at the edge of the feasting lake.

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In six days God made the Heaven and the Earth

and on the seventh day he rested

and on that day power tools were invented.

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I caught her on a soft turn such that

the sun was moved to laughter,

and all that had life lightened

with the look I gave

and the beat that I felt.

Smooth was the flow of her hip

and fluid as a rhyme.

A flock of birds escorted her in a livening breeze.

No one will ever be safe from such moments

and the grace that I thought was lost.

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On the other side there is no lion

no witch,  no wardrobe

though it is very dark and there's no going back

no need for clothes nor childhood;

no sense of up and down

no anything for this time at least

and then a light appears in the east,

quite small but getting larger it seems

and then there are a trillion souls

carried on a solar wind

or so it seems

like one of t...

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Your humour turns flowers to weeds

that started life as simple seeds

cut down by comment and a jaded tongue

so ugly to see in one so young.

You strip the skin from its living form

whatever you say is never the norm.

but in your search for petty glory

you write the end to a flaying story.

Never submit to an honest wit

Identify the source and spread your shit.

For in yo...

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It's no small thing to sit above a crowd

to be a part of a thing that's very loud

that makes that crowd begin to move

involuntary spasms muscular

and the rising of pressure corpuscular.

The women entranced and the men outdanced

and the urgent throb of rectangular sounds

pushed out to the importunate hounds

baying for more and thronging the floor.

Almost more than the sou...

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an instrument designed by sadists

to be mastered by masochists.

For example any of Liszts'

piano works illustrate the point

and unless in the hands of a maniac

cannot fail to disappoint.

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Waiting for a bus on the winding lane he stood

as if in a spotlight, moth man

attracted to his own time and space.

Neat sculpted zip - up top,

black jeans tight in the leg.

Converse trainers a flash of red on white

to separate the down - trodden pavement from his feet.

In his hand the black monolith of phone,

symbol of elevation and unearned knowledge

instant and expecte...

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belief is the key to grief or glory

each commitment tells a story,

and inherited views are a war we must lose

so be wise with each step before you choose.

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music in its outpourings comes from the tap root

on off simple as that good bad or indifferent

it flexes, has reflexes and sacrifices

all its exponents with its tittle and tat.

Tempts the performer turns him inside out

with rally cries and desperate doubt.

it's an affair of the heart through fingers and breath

unto death that haunts and taunts with

dedication bending the ea...

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Some lives are notable for posterity

engraved and embalmed,

ascending to a leather-bound future

on volumes of stepped books

layers of notability, with curators

and seekers ferretting over them

revealing to students this or that general

or discoverer,  politician, oligarch

explorer, I.T.giant most recently.

The big boys of finance holed up, faceless

'til death brings i...

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Life is strange

with so much to learn;

        my wife's parents funereally arrived

in an urn,

Their remains in ashes

their ashes remain.

        Quite at home, they're here to stay

in a slighty macabre

waiting game

as the

relatives can't agree where to scatter 'em

it seems the only

sensible      stratagem.

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Say buddy, we're in town for the night, can you bed us down?

Tomorrow the sun'll move us on into the bleached beyond

and that damned horizon just goes right ahead

but right now

we need a bed       for the night.

Dry Gulch is around here someplace I know that for sure. and

it's about as dry as a dying whore.

In the meantime just for jollies

is there a place we...

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In the mirrored black void of the mountain he goes his way,

clumps of suckling reed bruising the granite

where his boots dare not stay.

Clouds, like the myths of giants press down their claims

in the valleys and bind him to promises

of instinct on some broken way.

The tilt of fell and stream are wedded in a dream

known to panic sheep - whose forms are a desecration

a sacrif...

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I feel you beside me on the wind

the wind that plays through the poplars.

You said to me then "just listen,"

and now i'm listening again.

I was beside you then

and here you come back on that old tired cloud

of memory,

floating through my mind and seeking the peace

that lasts forever.     Take me with you

beyond the grave, just as when

you and I stood in the tiny

cu...

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She loved that cardigan, really took to it

good quality it was. Had it from new she did

think it was made for her probably.

Not a strong colour but useful

warm and cosy especially when it was warm

outside especially. Never saw her without it

I expect she wore it to bed possibly

Her policy it was never to be cold,

now the story is told.

Oh one other thing I nearly forgot

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It would be really nice

by the time I'm ready for paradise

to get to know who the fuck I am

and if this life was just a sham,

a mere experiment in passing time

or something indescribably sublime.

Should someone out there find the answer soon

answers on a postcard please

set to the music of another loony tune.

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In the merry month of May

damsels trip the night away,

but bouncers always man the doors

we have to face the pavement laws.

In those maypole clubs we see

dresses worn above the knee.

Mead doth flow and pulses race

in time to alcohol's disgrace.

Guarding the dawn of townscape sky

the high viz presence

where she lies.

skirt and thighs a waxy separation

then t...

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"That's where the ghosts are,"

said the woman.

Just a field it was, when

came of a sudden a breeze

 to make a sad song of the oaks and elms

and gave us pause.

"We respect them," she said

not wanting to upset their cause

"and most times stay away."

Shivering I turned and made for the house

as clouds bore down making dense the cloak of trees

near the end of that autu...

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It was such a pretty thing that

I HAD TO BUY IT so

buy it i did and

enjoyed it

               for a while

although I took it back

bored with it

rhythm of life disturbed

in the glass

retail aspiration

I fell in love again.

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The Ashford Middlesex English Dictionary

was begin in nineteen forty three.

They did the A's

and managed the B's

were all at C

but finished at D

then built a large conservatory

in which to discuss from E to Z

but stopped at prefabs

and went to bed

and were bombed to hell

instead of finishing so that's why

demand for this dictionary

is rapidly diminishing...

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I am in the beechwood.

A low sun skims the russet robe of fallen leaves

denied access save in pools,

pools where movements betray the shrew

and the question mark of squirrel

pulling the threads of the robe then they are gone.

The muscles of roots stretch out the trunks

fungus clamped.

Jays descend to leave their signatures

graffit in the enveloping shroud.

Cracks are ...

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Stinking refuges of gas

blinding the sun with your metal sheets

round and round you go intact to

supply the tiny pipes and holes

where flames can perform their hot air act.

Men on bikes passed by your flanks

for their gasworks jobs they gave you thanks

and once with every rise and fall

you were the biggest of them all.

But now your lungs are solid seized

and the sun s...

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I was there for the suffering of a clown,

watched too closely at the hosing down.

Never saw the tears washed away

but the laughter was there

just like today.

With my threadbare bag of tricks

clutched a little too tight

I like to amuse, I need to do it

on many a lonely night.

I queued for normality many a time

but never quite reached that open door,

so just like Cha...

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Down by the single track railway

into bracken, through barbed wire forced down,

thistles and long grass we went

to where those rusting tanks lay choked with hawthorn

and the refused offering of nettles -

supplicants face to face tops gone,

yellow tracery of arthritic controls welded by weather.

Wedged in where rodents made a home, dumped

in the sunset of world - weary time.

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Paint me pink and love me

love me 'neath the moon.

paint my eyes with silver

love will be here soon.

I shall never wander whilst i'm painted pink;

i shall be so pretty

I think,  I think,   I think.

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The curtain comes down

the lights go out

how hollow seems the applause and the shout.

Dressing rooms behind closed doors

what went on and what gets out?

The empty seat, headphones discarded

the cocky jockey highly regarded.

A lectern stands, the message spent

now who will listen, and who will repent.?

Celebrity squares behind prison walls

will trap the stars

in the...

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They sat in the fish shop, two big men

one leaning in, the other back

as on haunches

wolves quite lean snuffling the air

taking up the unwelcome slack

of silence, talking of this and that.

Neither aware of my casual glances that

caught them on the prowl

cheek to jowl, back from the scuttling plains of

rubbish bins, back yards of other lives

unsuspecting wives.

"She...

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Where did honesty go

when we made our pleading hopeful plans

and met those men with suits and ties that breezed into our lives

and helped us through those difficult unrealistic half - imagined schemes

that paid their wages so.

Where did honestly go

as we signed our hopeful lives away to sweat and toil

and see our futures disappear in unrealistic number pits

as those me...

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Where did honesty go

when we made our pleading hopeful plans

and met that man with suit and tie that breezed into our lives

and helped us through those difficult unrealistic half - imagined schemes

that paid their wages so.

Where did honesty go

as we signed our hopeful lives away to sweat and toil

and see our future disappear in unrealistic number pits

as those men in ...

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In an open cage of potted freedom

four square face to the wall

they play out their games, Dad and the little ones

mastering a ball.

It flies wherever it may mastering gravity

in its own iimitable way.

Little limbs like sticks of hope adversarial

trying not to fall.

tiny scarecrow tops red and white

betray their allegiance.

Around the square, bedraggled shrubs

bow t...

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Funny business that Jack the Ripper lark,

like a will o' the wisp

makes you feel afraid of the dark.

Even though

it were a hundred or more year ago

he still remains, a ghost perhaps -

but living in your dreams.

'Cause he was never bang to rights,

is he down the drains?

or does his spirit dwell where fear still weaves a spell?

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I threw a ball once, it doesn't matter where,

a small enough freedom that many enjoy

if only in a  moment's kiss in a chosen picture frame.

Now I have another freedom

of simple will that I have landed in the process of advancing age.

The arriving there

was quite a different game.

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bedouins at large on silent wheels

gliding heavily motoring steadily

aloft with mysterious power!

docking mocking their disability

sailing on with quiet utility

gaining ground and gaining respect

with slightly threatening immediate effect.

Reversing rehearsing their cumbersome moves

for ever more 'til time runs out

aloft with battery power!

They carry their history

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We walk together in the shadow of her pain,

me going slowly, she as fast as she can

and where we exist

is a place of rest where we learn

to respect that special test.

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Sweet valentine sweet

sickly supermarket love of mine

I will

toast you in roses red

with their vampire's lips and

this card, small mercy

of invitation - welcome to my world

of the consummate dressing of mantelpiece.

I promise nothing and yet

my love for you holds no regret,

nor indrawn breath

with spiritual cigarette.

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