Down dreamlike fields all filled
with wondrous, passing things
Visions rise up
and bastards hold them down
Oh, to live in the green places
Lost to the time
Lost to the race
Lost to the tune
of hearts and souls suspended
I could win
or hang upon the wire
The hand that holds
the ghosts of guilt and gold
slowly closes in
Let the serpent's finger stroke my chin
Lure me with sin
And gaze where flattened greyness
fills the minds of men
December 31st 1987
Monday, 29 August 2011
First of the Fifth (Song of Isis)
Throughout the light and the trees
I'm only in the sparkle of time
Let me live, deliver me
And think no more of an end
but a big feel
Soft in hearts, no fear to disappear
Gasp! A hazy earth, clad in gauze so dear
Blowsy roses at her breast
Her hair's a mess, her heart
your Souvenier
The fifth month comes down haunting
like a troubadour
Sing what you feel,
Mean what you say,
And keep in touch, 'til sundown now
May 12th 1987
I'm only in the sparkle of time
Let me live, deliver me
And think no more of an end
but a big feel
Soft in hearts, no fear to disappear
Gasp! A hazy earth, clad in gauze so dear
Blowsy roses at her breast
Her hair's a mess, her heart
your Souvenier
The fifth month comes down haunting
like a troubadour
Sing what you feel,
Mean what you say,
And keep in touch, 'til sundown now
May 12th 1987
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Moon
Darkness frames the light
the moon your eyes
I need your eyes
I spy through leaves
wide, round, irascible
But always there
They wait like thieves
Deeper than the night you are
Fresh and ravishing, longing to be desired
pure and clean unclouded now
They stole my soul
Then sometimes your moon eyes change
Raw and churlish like a spiteful sky
Spitting venom on the bleak black earth
One moment a virgin
The next as worldly as Narcissus
Waiting to take the earth
like a summer storm
--------
July 7th 1981
the moon your eyes
I need your eyes
I spy through leaves
wide, round, irascible
But always there
They wait like thieves
Deeper than the night you are
Fresh and ravishing, longing to be desired
pure and clean unclouded now
They stole my soul
Then sometimes your moon eyes change
Raw and churlish like a spiteful sky
Spitting venom on the bleak black earth
One moment a virgin
The next as worldly as Narcissus
Waiting to take the earth
like a summer storm
--------
July 7th 1981
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
The Writing on the Wall
A rustic in darkish clothes passed me
Down by the delicatessen of all my spicey dreams
With hands full of stars
And eyes so familiar
I thought I'd never see life again
The delicate darlings may wait in the wings
And wait they will - it's too late
For there is a beauteous beacon of winter
Like dahlias in autumn
and breath on the pane
He's come, relentless, shattering the world
wiith a sadness supreme
A thing we cannot help but die for
It is not called love
Bath, Avon, September 10th 1986
Down by the delicatessen of all my spicey dreams
With hands full of stars
And eyes so familiar
I thought I'd never see life again
The delicate darlings may wait in the wings
And wait they will - it's too late
For there is a beauteous beacon of winter
Like dahlias in autumn
and breath on the pane
He's come, relentless, shattering the world
wiith a sadness supreme
A thing we cannot help but die for
It is not called love
Bath, Avon, September 10th 1986
The Hermit (the twin's lament)
Say it's doom, a choiceless path I'm on
Where to go, and wander off
In each direction
Hypnotised
Fall away, debate the great
Confusion
Any day we could be called
Our split mind finds an answer
And a question.
Cling and cling and cling
Another spark
Feel, the atmosphere's
a question mark
Bath, Avon, June 15th 1987
Where to go, and wander off
In each direction
Hypnotised
Fall away, debate the great
Confusion
Any day we could be called
Our split mind finds an answer
And a question.
Cling and cling and cling
Another spark
Feel, the atmosphere's
a question mark
Bath, Avon, June 15th 1987
The Plastic Rainbow
Plastic Rainbow in the Sky
The beautiful child delivered into a place called paradise
Why is it the powers that be
Think they can improve on this
God given flowers showers
An earth that supplies
Us with every prevention nutrition and cure
it's like a kiss
What God creates Satan counterfeits
and gives the power to the moneymaking scientist
What God creates Satan counterfeits
and gives the power to the moneymaking scientist
Why do they think they can improve on something so pure
From the great designer
There is nothing finer
Plastic food, plastic faces
Plastic buildings, plastic places
Plastic waste forms it’s own island in the sea
An ancient giant turtle
Was cut open recently
And the plastic in its stomach filled a
Six foot piece of plastic, completely
The world, natural
Organic and fractal
In the beginning beautiful
But they destroyed it and made it so
And if they could
They’d make a plastic rainbow
Under the Wire
On 12 December 1982, 30,000 women held hands around the 6 miles (9.7 km) perimeter of the Greenham Common Air Base, Newbury, Berkshire, in protest against the decision to site American cruise missiles there. I was there and wrote this poem afterwards. It was a momentous day, a show of what love, peace and solidarity can do - the base was closed some time later.
----------------------------------------------------
They moved the wisp, the frightened space
That hides behind the moon
And what they did, this shadow race
these pioneers of magic
was burst the colour
through the fence
the heavy metal chickenwire
without the aid of guns
The witches sit
they will consider
how to get the magic
over the fence
under the wire
how to keep their blackened eyes
and sprawling, ravaged
wisps of hair
away from cross-fire
The other side the cold hearts lie, uncomplicated
with never a wish the card won't provide
the soldiers hold their steely glances to the sky
For they don't see the moon
or dissenchanted birds migrating
No, they only see the space
where rockets fly.
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