Tag Archives: reading

Video

The unmonitored video tape

reveals what we can not escape.

The honeyed words we say

in the light of day

are swept away

at night

when our conscience doth delight

in stripping bare all pretence.

The fence

is down and nightmare

doth stare

Us full in the face.

The knowledge of disgrace

Causes the mind to race

In fear

As the truth stands near.

Even the fool

Knows the cassette will, one day, unspool

And lie tangled

Mmangled

Beyond repair

And the dark angel will be there.

 

Passing Through

Walking through the leaves

I perceive

the familiar churchyard.

It is writ large

on these weathered stones

“man is skin and bones.

All we are turns to dust.

Here men are beyond lust.

They sleep fast

And do not ask

Who does pass

By

With a doleful sigh”.

No more are men buried here.

The place is near

to my home.

I am but skin and bone.

I feel the carpet warm as I write.

The morning light

Will soon dispel the remains of night

For a time at least

then eternal peace.

 

(All Saints Church is close to my home. The graveyard is long since disused although the existing graves are maintained. http://www.allsaintsuppernorwood.co.uk/).

Modernity

Give me something real

Not this plastic I feel.

Give me books in cloth boards

That I may not be bored.

Give me a chime

To measure time.

Give me solid wood

To caress and love.

Give me objects that last

A link to the past.

The world moves fast

Vast

Nothingness beccons.

Enumerable seconds

engaged

In rage

Against the gleam

Of the machine

That haunts my dream.

 

 

I am

I am the one you pass without a second glance.

I am the one who can dance

my feet

moving to a forbidden beat.

I am the work that keeps him late

While at home you wait.

I am the scent that lingers

On fingers.

I am a smile

A guilty denial.

I am the bump that grows

Fingers and toes.

I am new life.

You are his wife.

 

England On The Eve Of World War I

Sun dappled lawns.

The vicar yawns

As Colonel Trickett

Defends his wicket.

The sound of bat on ball

mingles with a blackbird’s   call

that floats

amidst ancient oaks

and the Colonel’s son takes Lucy’s hand

as the sun sets on Angleland.

Wear High Heels

Were high heels for they make you tall

But be careful lest you fall.

Situations are slippery as eels.

The ground feels

firm

but the worm

may turn

and swallow

the hollow

you.

Were high heels for you are pretty

And the citty

Is full of witty

Men

Who employ their pen

To record every slip

And trip.

Watch the pavement as you walk

For people talk

And reputations are brittle as bones

That break on stones …

Raining

I awoke to the rain

drumming on my window pane.

Opening my lattice I let it in

the purifying water that washes away sin.

The hypnotic sound

of rain falling all around.

All my life I have listened to the rain.

The same drumming

of water coming

from the sky

falling on you and I.

The rain has no end

But you and I my friend

May listen for a while

Smile

then pass on by.