Friday, October 31, 2014

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

Thursday, October 30, 2014

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

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

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

Sunday, October 26, 2014

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

Friday, October 24, 2014

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
 
 

Thursday, October 23, 2014

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

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

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

Monday, October 20, 2014

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

Friday, October 17, 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

Thursday, October 16, 2014

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

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

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

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

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

Monday, October 13, 2014

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

Sunday, October 12, 2014

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

Saturday, October 11, 2014

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

Thursday, October 09, 2014

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

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

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

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

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

Sunday, October 05, 2014

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

Friday, October 03, 2014

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

Thursday, October 02, 2014

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

Sunday, September 28, 2014

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

Friday, September 26, 2014

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

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

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

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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

Monday, September 22, 2014

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

Sunday, September 21, 2014

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

Saturday, September 20, 2014

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



Thursday, September 18, 2014

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

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

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

 

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

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

Sunday, September 14, 2014

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

Saturday, September 13, 2014

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
 
 

Friday, September 12, 2014

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

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

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


Tuesday, September 09, 2014

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

Monday, September 08, 2014

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

Sunday, September 07, 2014

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)



Friday, September 05, 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