Scorpion

The last ragged wasp of summer

Sting worn away in unvarying service
Now a blunt instrument of threat only
She looked into my eyes as she passed
Then flew into the misty, midday sun
Farewell vespine scorpion of hedgerow
Unknown Soldier of the forgotten hive
The last of the combatant phalanx
Of yellowed-black warrior Amazons
Battered now by unending warfare
Take the last of the slowing nectar flow
Then fall asleep when the first frost comes

Waiting

Light fails and day becomes naught

Cygnets pale and move to white
They glide in new chitted flocks
The colour of snow; purity of coldness
Upon soft flowing rivers and canals
Yet autumn will not come out
It sits hidden upon fading days
We see its penumbra of gilded promise
Yet it clings still to summer's embrace

Fools Gold

There is no gold better than a fools

Nothing so lustrous; or held so bright
It gilts all the sights as yet unseen
A fool sees the world as it was made
Phased within waves of contentment
Being is never what we take in anger
It can never be about what we may give
Life asks no deals; no currency or fee
It wishes only for us to pass by untouched
Wander as eternal children at all its marvels
So if I am lost in a wonderland; let me be
For all questions high and swift peel away
Fall aside in inconsequentiality to just one
Will I return one day to this fair, fair world
And answer comes back that I have never left
For a fool and the world are never parted

Quinta

High upon volcanic cliff

I dream of greenest Quinta
It sits just below the clouds
Drenched by temperate breath
I see the glint of a far off sea
From a balcony of bougainvillea
If I were a bird I would perch
Upon the white balustrade
Look where my heart might fly
And if I were a mortal man
I would like to live and die here
Among the honey coloured rocks
That nurtures the vines and olives

Triptych

 

A Triptych* (three panelled painting) of Pampas Grass (ok not a triptych in the strict sense of the word but similar) ok , ok not a triptych at all then

 

 

 

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych

* A triptych is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works. The middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels. The highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction was $142.4 million for a 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, by Francis Bacon. The form can also be used for pendant jewellery.

The triptych form arises from early Christian art, and was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Its geographical range was from the eastern Byzantine churches to the Celtic churches in the west. Renaissance painters such as Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch used the form. Sculptors also used it. Triptych forms also allow ease of transport.

From the Gothic period onward, both in Europe and elsewhere, altarpieces in churches and cathedrals were often in triptych form. One such cathedral with an altarpiece triptych is Llandaff Cathedral. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two examples by Rubens, and Notre Dame de Paris is another example of the use of triptych in architecture. One can also see the form echoed by the structure of many ecclesiastical stained glass windows. Although strongly identified as an altarpiece form, triptychs outside that context have been created, some of the best-known examples being works by Hieronymus Bosch, Max Beckmann, and Francis Bacon.

 

Here's a real one

 

 

 

Master of Frankfurt, (Maestro de Francfort), Triptych: Sagrada Familia con ángel músico, Santa Catalina de Alejandría, Santa Bárbara, 1510-1520, Museo del Prado, Madrid

 

 

Succession

In a vicious checkmate from subordinates

The honey queen’s realm must always end
Bested by mortality she submits her fecundity
Sacrifices all her latent power for greater peace
The virgins emerge renewing the hive to calm
And she sits atop the last autumn honeycomb
Before the new mated  ruler ascends her throne

The Robe

On autumns creeping robe

Flecks of gold are laid out
They settle on yellowing dales
Colour the fading purple moors
The spent bunting of summer falls
Cast down by fleeting storm

Bridge

But what may cross this bridge?

Surely vanity would glide
Mist evaporating under levelling sun
Pride would swim
Thrashing water churning haste
But I may cross this bridge
For I built its back
And it will bear me now
For I lighten with age

Garden 2014

Facts and Figures

Unemployment is once again going down
But not so you'd notice in this old town
Probably politically incorrect to speculate
But I think the figures don’t quite calculate
Is it the numbers on which we should focus?
Sums that have been subject to hocus pocus
Full employment is maybe not so great a goal
In a modern world we should save the soul
Sure we can all work for ten pennies a day
But not just so prosperous can all day; play!
The world is dividing into its base elements
The poor laid down as worthless sediments
It's is now time to share; to make things better
But I fear the cold, damp, poor will only get wetter

ReBirth

When the tide retreats

Gulls cry on naked shores
Released of its foamy clutch
Pulled by the moons touch
It slips back into its birthing pool
You could have done no more
Do not look behind
Do not wait for me
Follow it across the sea

Pond life

Pond life clings fast to matted weed

Waiting for winter is next year's seed
And I wish to clear away the green
But fear other sights may be unseen
So I shall stay this mad chaotic passion
Forgo this obsessive order to fashion
For the libretto of life is hiding tight
I cannot risk them to winters might

Yellowing

Under the yellowing canopies

Soon the cold will hold sway
Summer is fast fading away
But naught will hinder me
No October wind or rain
Leaves fall with the grace
Of first stolen, secret kisses
Long ago spent but unreturned
So now I lie upon a leafy slope
And stare helpless to the heavens
To dream, to ask that there is hope
And the wilting canopy parts
And suddenly I see the bluest sky

Awakening Time

For I awoke on the causal plane

Condensed from sentience
Into the embrace of time itself
But nothing may awaken me here
For what builds me preceded time
And as the last stars fall to dark
It will be here still; even as time ends
To leach along the reeds of instance
To be cleaned and remade
And start all over again
In a new arena of times errant logic

Rainbow

Let's take a long rainbow walk

Chat about weather or just talk
Sit beneath the silver limmed leaves
Nobody died just yet so nobody grieves
I'll be honest I can't afford to lie
Not now a lifetime has nearly gone by
You rich and famed silver screen giant
Me not at all; but hope I am more defiant
But you know what I really find so weird
Is why you really need to have that beard?
I can live life without an alter ego clown
So in one way I can win this hands down
No need to ever marry to safeguard self
Call me a fairy, but I think I am an elf
I get to be who I want without stealth
Shame is only for those who have wealth

Hide

I hide in all the secret ways

That you and I shared
The empty spaces where no birds sing
For I am the smoke across the water
When the chill of dawn cools feet
Laughter that comes from nowhere
The breath of warmth on winter day
When joy is with you I am there
I will always be there
Till you are with me again

The Fly

Fly thy doth try my patience

What manner of thing are you?
Smaller than a babies fingernail
Yet thou task me to distraction
I will pass your test this night
The moon will rise and fall
And when your time is done
Remember it was the spider
That pinned you on the wall
Not I

May I sit?

Your testament of civilization

Altruism shaped and smoothed
Into the greenest layers of calm
May I sit within your garden?
Take my ease within your labours
Among the flowers of summer
That cascade like torrents of bliss
You do not know me; but I know you
For I have looked upon your garden
And in its passion seen your soul

Hearth

 

Like inevitable decay
Upon unfuelled hearth
The last embers wink out
All is spent and cold comes
Flames of youth faded
And the poker of reverie
Stirs fortune's ashes
That cannot be rekindled
Till all is sifted to ash
And we are at last
Whales of summer
Beaching shingled shore

Romans

 

Lying under layers of bitumous icing
Still run the cobbles scratched by clog
Where the Romans came marching by
On roads built of stone on peaty crests
Under Lancashire miasmic vistas of fog

Dance

 

Cast out to summer's closing days
Sisterhood bonds shattered apart
The honourable summer bees
This poor ragged workforce
Orphans now of noble houses
Know it not, that this is October
Warm days and balmy nights
Sustain late flowers; fuel flights
Now the principal treasure is safe
And progeny sleeps, fertile and hale
The nursemaids may dance with fate
Join fraternal males on failing sunbeams
Upon autumn's soft and golden days
Till the frost arrives and lays them to rest
For now labour ends and winter comes

Sleep

Sleep come swift to mine eyes

Lay to rest incessant thoughts
And close these impossible lids
That peek and pry and wonder
And will not close on nights command
Slow all my thought to calm
Banish the imaginings in the dark
And let me have peace
If only for just one night

Grapes and Walks