The neighbour's cat
brought a mouse into our garden
four limbs twitching
And from that jaw, those claws
I performed a rescue
but it was all for naught
and I tucked that little life
on the compost stack
hoping it found a comfy spot
to shuffle off

Out walking that same afternoon
on the pavement, on the path
a squirrel who'd tried to fly
but kissed the curb
such a sad sight
as I stro...

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You say the world is beautiful
you say the world is sad
And all I have to add
is that it can be 
so much more than that
but you must let it in…

You won’t walk on the beach
you say the sand will soil your soles
The lapping waves
like slathering tongues
will only taste you
and you won’t let it in…

O, won’t you come and see
the seasons with me
Won’t you come and see
this world of s...

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You’re a study to me
content in your calmness
not derailed by desire
nor rotten with bitterness

You cry when you need to
outspoken but reasonable
never screaming, no ill meaning
at your core, only gentleness

An easiness in each movement
you wave everyone in
make integrity and kindness
look utterly effortless

Disarming and charming
you got strong
from lifting others up
as if it...

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Through the bitterness of winter 
life crawls, so lingering and lonely
and hauling your battered heart into 
the shelter of some place holy
Your mind swims with the terrible things 
those hands have groped toward
The grit of guilt and shame conspire 
to serve as your reward

Such troubled thoughts reverberate
as they echo up into the arches
Gathering their mass and falling back 
they’v...

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From the depths of a damp October
you called me daily
The auburn street outside
so unfamiliar
That new city
didn't yet feel like home

"I just called to hear your voice
and ask when you’ll come to visit?"
Muted tears falling
on the university payphone
And the scratch of coins loading
asking if I missed you

And every day, I do
of course, I do
Every dusk into that winter
our daily ...

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Playing in the garden
watching films together
as you nestle into my arm
learning each other's language
You trusted me, eventually
became part of my family

I loved to watch you
explore the world we shared
sunbathing on the rug
or endless pats in the living room
Your fur and the quiet purr
of little teeth grinding

What I've been dreading
now, it's happening
You’re still you
but yo...

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All my life
I’ve been enthralled
by the magic 
and the mystique
of morning people

Morning people
with their exercise 
and croissant
with their coffee cups
and yoga

Morning people
with their dew-kissed lawns
mythic sunrises
and shop shutters still rattling open
as they arrive to get a paper

Morning people
who wake, rise and stretch
without the solar flare of daylight
smashin...

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Slipping between 
the scattered diamonds
as turquoise waters part
and gently lisp against my throat
The heat beats down and the sunlit ocean 
claims me as its own

Swimming in the shallows
fish and rocks, bend and merge
the lapping lens obscures them all
weightless in the womb of possibility
The purest pleasure
of the planet against my pores

The dipping sun, a molten iron ingot
a n...

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So many warm afternoons
spent in my Grandad’s endless garden
Home to my first and only treehouse
when air-raid siren tests
still filled those Northern streets 

And most magical of all
the rough lumber shed he’d built
A place of wooden-handed tools
you had to carefully maintain with oil
tools that would have been his grandad’s

A place where big furry bees
chose to die with dignity
b...

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The air is warm tonight
the sea no longer ravenous
As the shawl slips from your shoulders
there’s a feeling that breeds in us
now, we are home
or close enough

A candle flickers at every table
the seafront cafes like crooked teeth
The harbour mouth is kissing us
with its swing bridge tongue and river beneath
We feel that we are home
or close enough

Tied by these rings
and the meani...

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We've had some fun 
but our story is complete
The moral knife still twisting deep
That improper thing must always be beat
So, you turn your back 
and off you creep

Promising me each memory
you’ll fondly keep
And with my battered trust 
and my itchy feet
how firmly you believe 
I’ll casually retreat
back into the dark
at the end of the street

We knew the rules, we knew the game
a...

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The wilting hours now begin to yawn
between our parting looks 
You’ll soon pose me in some gallery
or print me in your books
Strewn across the coffee tables
of all your literary friends
They gleefully rifle through the wreckage
as our love surely ends

It’s a responsibility you won’t accept
but there’s a cruelty inherent
owned by the one who wields a pen
the one who is the poet
I marv...

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Lady Generosity
suddenly, standing before me
Says my voice sets her at ease
and she’ll do anything I please

The night was a vicious dark
so, I wished for more moon
and with a flick of her hair
we’re climbing the stair to her room

She’s a lonesome soul and she tells me so
Loves the silence of being home alone
To hear her laughing loudly with me
a sound I remember so fondly

Though,...

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Take me to the hidden lake
let us wander through 
the valleys of your heart
Let us revel in the splendour
of all that rests within
Accumulations, it’s what we are
everything we’ve felt and seen

Let us swim in the hidden lake
in that secret world
deep at the core of you
Make it rain, bring forth the sun
We’ll watch the waters flow
across your canvas 
into the sea, into reality

Whe...

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Over by the river, a young family
painted by the sunshine
So comfortable in their skin
so happy
Little baby, beautiful mother
loving father
smiling

Pulling silly faces
the three of them 
laughing
He looks strong and clear minded
blessed 
by the truth of honest purpose

Life seems simple, warm
they wear their love 
like a tattoo
Working together
to overcome the daily challenges

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The bell clatters ‘Time’ on another quiet night
tucked off the shore front
In the precious warmth of a Sisimiut tavern
I take another jar, tilt it back and drain
but still there are no answers waiting
Slouching on the bar stool
and licked by shifting shadows
lulled to doze 
by the constant comb of a shuffling sea
An absent-minded shiver washes over
and, suddenly, so softly
your pale arm...

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I’m wearing blue, you’re dressed in red
lit by the dancing candle light
in the depths of some back table
at a late night poetry evening
Our only hope to stay safe tonight
is to keep this table between us

Some wily orator spills their guts
before the hallowed microphone
but all I care to know now
is do you smell as good as you look
Each of us wills the other to go too far
with a ‘what’...

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