Halloween

Even if we cannot see them

In every place we walk
There is a film of discontent
A visitation of past prescience
Veneered atop our waking world
Ghosts are everywhere
Spectators of unfilled instance
And we can feel their touch
Long, slow breaths of longing
For they covet another creation
Away from their shadows
Where time captures all dismay
And makes it wander the earth

Heron

It's very inelegant is probably what you've heard

It is a heron; and some say it's quite an ugly bird
It stands within deep mud with only just one wish
To cruelly spear and eat; all the unsuspecting fish
It will raid our garden ponds when no one is about
But it fast takes to the air if you make a shout
And when it flies it opens up great, flapping wings
Looks half flamingo, half stork and it never sings
And don’t ever be deceived by its statuesque poise
Its beady eyes spot you; even if you don’t make a noise

Lake District

 

 

Soar

Rise up on an angry day

A strip of cloth on a breeze
That leaves the shadows
And rides the aether in ecstasy
To soar high like a bird
With casual care for propriety
I am released to wanton joy
And like rain soaking a desert
Hope revives the long dry dreams
Of all I was not allowed
To finally be me in the world
A place; a destiny; a chance
To become something better
If only for just one day

Human

But we are only human after all

Cranially adept animals
But animals nonetheless
And though we will evolve
Tis only to a better animal
And it will be in splendid isolation
When all else is expunged
And no complexity will be revealed
Save finely nuanced paths of solitude
And when this critical mass is made
Watch the world change
Faster than it may be saved
As all its stitches are undone
And man has completed
All the destruction he begun

Dissolve

We are redoubtable ghosts

Within the great machine
This clockwork green and blue orb
A rhythm of noise and growth
Of fleeting and ethereal wants
Holding beauty like a spectre
That dissolves at dawn
When our swift night is up

Kiss and Tell

Open wide I won't kiss and tell

Your teeth look like the gates of hell
I'll prod and pick, scrape and tap
Guide you in the dental guilt trap
I'll tut and frown and mention blood
Then ask for a fortune or it's all no good
But if I'm poor and cannot pay
Over the years teeth are taken away
And not a one is ever put back
Into this gaping, sagging crack
So I take it on the chin; that's my chance
But no one now will ask me to dance

Autumn is here

Linger

We are immersed in gold among falling gilt

This jewelled paper rain of drowsing trees
Autumn is close but cannot penetrate
Not until lingering summer gives way
Releases these fading days to change
But warmth remains within morning mists
It slowly dissipates across cooling waters
And only when senses heighten disconnection
When days run short under blue-grey skies
Will we know autumn has really arrived
And this gentle gilted rain shall become a torrent
As the world is layered thick in a new copper floor
And light shall pierce through undressed branches
To reflect and shimmer upon natures withering ingots
Laid low by the wind and rain to dress the ground

Imagine

 

We do not lack imagination

It goes beyond our world
Into a void populated with stars
Where class 'M' planets bloom
And aliens prowl with evil intent
There can never be harmony there
For we cannot imagine peace here
And so truly we are
Alone in the universe
No matter what we eventually find

Elsinore

Leaves fall across the entrance

To the burrow on the bank
The last wasps have left safely
They have summer to thank
Flying silently on empty days
The rattle of wings hushed
Nobility dissolves into autumn
They leave Elsinore ghosts
To feed quietly on late blooms
Timid lionesses powerless by need
And then to hide and sleep
Survive cold; preserve the seed
Ragged successors to noble houses
Flying upon an empty realm of dreams
Having known but a poor spring
This summer's crop of small queens

Wraith

We are photo-shopped wraiths

Manicured, groomed mannequins
Reality is become conceptual
We may even no longer be human
We make love in the dark by touch
Lest the light reveal us impostors
With unruly design and blemish
And how easily we are swayed
When after all; our imperfection
Is the only thing to make us unique

Ebb

Lost in no tasteful embrace

In the irrevocable night
So passes all our modesty
Where the beasts charge
To wound deep our pride
But never take away dignity
Hope is no splendid thing
No scaled butterfly wing
Of fluttering beats and hues
Colours of ochre and blue
It is the red remains of intent
It is green impotence of desire
And all decorum goes with it
At the unstitching of flesh
The silk falling soft off linen
The cloth now revealed
Plain, undyed and creased
And all water flows out to sea
And we are utterly undone
But what an ebb to this tide
We shall make under the moon

Usurper

And so this errant honour returns

This usurper of comfort and plenty
It lays a cold hand upon your face
Nips and shivers your aching fingers
Traces pictures on each breath exhaled
Fading dragons smoke on the cooling air
And these once bare feet of summer
Seek out a refuge in autumn's wool
And only when they are warm again
May the knight have his chilly way
For I shall acquiesce to it till spring
Because winter may not be stopped

Promethean

So Olympus is now no power

No full temple now stands
All ruins amid ruinous change
And where are these Gods
The mysteries; their furies
What libations now remain?
To water legends into breath
Light a new flame of truth
Athena sleeps into the ages
Though her work is undone
And Julian tried and failed
To rekindle the Promethean fire
That lies now in ashes of myth
Till a new temple is built

What you can do with wine corks, cardboard and old Jenga blocks. (A non-existent social life also helps.)

Dog Days

My dog writes all my poetry

He does it rather well
Now I let him write it all
Is he a new Wordsworth; who can tell?

Todmorden and Hebden Bridge

2 examples of fine old Yorkshire towns and also where the best fish and chips are found (Yorkshire)

Sip

We are summers gifts
Wrapped within sunbeams
A brief fire in the dark
And then we are gone
And take one last sip
Before I leave
Before night sends its vanguard
To invade the days
And place the world to sleep