Refugees

Refugees from the exterior world

Who cannot be stopped or dissuaded
They come in trepidous footsteps
Undulating, geometric waves
And I will let them be
See them into welcoming light
Before they retreat to shadow
For they are not dragons
Or monstrous giants
Fear has no name here
They are only spiders my dear

Shatter

Of love and deadly war

That shatters and burns
Ennobles and enfeebles
Freezes hope unto ruin
Or for the love of war
The gift that keeps giving
In crimson wrapper
With its harrowed ribbon
The days weary and dim
For the regret comes swift
That we must choose sides
From this grisly box of fate
That is the greatest horror of all
When all we want is peace

Grey

Issuing gladness out moaning throats

Bovine ghosts walk in vapour laden trails
Herded indoors lest they be overwhelmed
Dragons of spent fire waiting for spring
The soft kiss of the first October frost
Moonlight over the calming night sea
It now creeps over a once vibrant life
Grey subsumes colour to monochrome
And the fields are now empty till spring

Trees

On our land procured in toil

The trees we placed decades ago
In such chaotic patterns of concern
Will reach always to the sky
Make green arks for animals
Hold the soil tighter than I
Like infants they shall be
To rise and wane in seasons to come
Even if we do not live to see it
In the calculation of times intent
The trees will count the ages
And we shall be content

Gardening

What we create we love

Thought it tears aging backs
Makes hands stiffen into earth
Depletes rainy day war chests
In grand designs of caprice
And yet we carry on
Even if in the end of things
Wilderness cannot be restrained
Nature shall again, love it more
It is an innate state of all we tame
To always turn order back to chaos
No human endeavour lasts forever
But remember this
What we create we love
And that which we love is creation

Count

 

Count no more the flowers fading under September skies
They will return again on all the ways we have walked
Rather count the days we sat within this fair, fair land
And wondered could anywhere have been better than this

Jewels

Summers tongues pickled and tamed

The artisan awaits now winter's will
His jewels adrift within a briny pool
Sit now atop the sunny windowsill

Engines

We are star made

But you and I
Are from different stars
In an orbit of destiny
We attract and repel
In equal measure
Because time wills it
It is not the stars
Engines of the universe
That ride across time
They are creation
And we are their children

Garden September 2014

Fly agaric (poisonous hallucinogenic) - no mushroom risotto with this please

Long Tailed Tit
 

 

Thinking why can't I fly?

 

Grapes nearly ready

 

Book

When words fail

Imagination serves
But it cannot be shared
I cannot describe it
Nor how it is seen
But I continue to try
That is the essence
Of why we write
But I will not succeed
Though ever I improve
For time writes too
And her words are final
I see them upon my face
The best thing I never wrote
Is read within my eyes

Sunset

Melting wax below candle flame

That has used its entire wick
Sunset now slips away
Guttering in the breeze of dusk
And I am here in the cusp of days
The intersection of thought and space
A shallow time of gothic wonder
Before the night takes my thoughts
Lays me asleep; to dream of another day

Aurora Borealis

There is coldness in the night air

Just two weeks ago it wasn't there
I now sit shivering in the dark
For Aurora Borealis to make its mark
But nothing is seen in a crimson sky
Too far south is the explanation why
Perhaps one day when my travels are done
I will have seen the sight made by the sun
In plume and burst and particles spawn
I will take a night and sit unto dawn
For the solar wind to blast the earth
See a magnetic sight and count its worth

Frederic Edwin Church's 1865 painting "Aurora Borealis" from Wikipedia

 

 

Centre

There is not one tall cloud left

Rising up in the permanent sky
There is no centre ground underfoot
To stand upon day after day
Watch the world slip gently by
All is now lateral polarisation
Into the nervous balance of chaos
It is the ancient rhythms of hate
That quenches evolution and hope
Hearts beat breasts in iniquitous time
Blood pumps in constricting veins
Waiting for the rush of the apocalypse
And of all the selfish thoughts that come
I wonder why it has to happen now
When life for us all could be so sweet

Garden September

 

2 Fine Lilies

 

 

Peacock on Cosmos

 

Coming in to Land

 

Honey Fungus

 

Halloween Toadstool

 

Perfect Dandelion Clock

Supermoon

The vaunted super moon was really not much bigger than usual but it was one of those rare clear nights for a picture

Plumbing

When the water flows the patience goes

It's not for the weak the sight of a leak
Some many differings of threaded fittings
Crazy washers he tuts and those tiny nuts
No more leaks I say until I pass away
A ballcock is just too much for this old crock
I saved 50 pounds so then I'll stand the rounds
But I'll be asking why if my house don't stay dry

September

Tis now September the month of closing

Of yellowing leaves and fungus nosing
Chill air settles promoting heavy dews
Harvests to gather will test our thews
Swallows leave and wasps now slumber
Day shorten and landscapes become umber
And I retire indoors and light the potbelly
Warm butter croissants with raspberry jelly
For now without all is running to winter
Autumn's appears and summer doth splinter

Joan Rivers (American Comedienne 1933-2014)

Comedy is rooted within our ignorance

A bittersweet fight against sensibility
We laugh at pain and stupidity not intellect
Sadness releases comic emotions like rain
But it takes sensation to make it work
And a sparkling wit to draw the crowd
Thanks for all the laughs you gave Joan
And if controversy is a kind of salvation
Consider yourself now fully redeemed

Joan Rivers (American Comedienne 1933-2014)

Sushi

I made some sushi - I was quite proud of my attempt

Tarn

High upon slate lined hills

Hidden from the world
Sits a lonely tarn
Unseen and unremarked
The scent of the evening
Pruned and shaped by day
Floats over the still water
And night falls and falls
And still the tarn is there
In the blackness of night
High upon slate lined hills
Hidden from the world

Flora

Suffolk Flora

Fauna

Suffolk Fauna ( obviously most from a zoo called Africa Alive and not wandering in the wilds of the county)

Somalian Ass

 

Mongoose

 

 

Chimapnzee

 

Otter

 

Meerkats

 

 

Goat

 

Buffalo

 

Kingfisher in the garden

 

Duck

Flamingos

 

 

Giraffe

 

Goose

Taste

I taste your fingers and drown
They have the tang of the sea
Salt upon ozone breezes at noon
I smell your hair and inhabit Eden
Jasmine and Orange blossom
In fragrant wind unto the earth end
I kiss your pillowed lips of softness
They are chocolate and honeyed figs
And this is no bittersweet embrace
For I feel your warmth on my skin
And it slides about me like a serpent
Coils gently crushing love into me
And I shall stay here sated forever