Poems
Approaching midsummer's eve
We are drawn towards these hours
it's like the tides
irresistable
this rise towards the midnight sun
Soon we will begin our return
but for now
let us rehearse
our rude nocturnal dance.
Tonight
we will prepare
to ask the stars
for blessing.
=========
This morning, when dressing,
he caught sight of himself in the mirror,
and realised he was no longer young.
=======
Please don’t send me flowers when I’m dead.
Please don’t send me flowers when I’m dead.
Please don’t say
Then the things you wished you’d said,
Those things that at the time
Would have been far more kind
Than what you chose to say.
When you lay me in my final bed
Remember me for what I had hoped to be
And not for what you made of me.
=======
Sisyphus at rest
I saw today a mad old woman
pushing a pram
stuffed full of rubbish.
She seemed oblivious
to the people passing by
some of whom made way for her
others obstructed her.
She paused once
to shake a stone
from her shoe.
She reminded me
of one of those dung beetles
in a story
by Doris Lessing.
Not for the fact of her load
but for
the achievement of it.
She had no doubt
and nor had I
that if she ever stopped
she would die.
==============
Reverie Outside the Hope and Anchor
They’ll not look at you,
wish as you might
old man
as you sit alone outside the pub
with your pint in your hand
watching the lovely people passing by.
They’ll not see you
as you raise your glass
to fortune all theirs.
Blood runs warm
and strong
in their veins :
in yours water
wind and piss combine.
But wait:
Surely there once was a time
when your step and chatter
was as bold as theirs?
It may be gone from sight now,
but it burns in the memory
like a star.
=================
Edgar Allen Poe
Wrote poems that go to show
What others hold
To be unlikely
Is all too probable
Once the imponderable
And the incredible
Are given to be
Inevitable.
============
Sisyphus
Knowing her as I do,
The vast blue sea behind her,
And she naked on a divan,
Between red portals,
I can see there is nothing between us.
Her eyes stare at me
As I paint,
Pastels caressing flesh
Shadows raised to illuminate
Bare patches of light
This model,
For now my muse,
Who offers herself up
To the most minute
Examination
Commands, exalts
But ultimately condemns
My unworthy gaze
To the task of
Knowing her as I do.
===========
6 Haiku
I’ll place a white hibiscus in your hair
tomorrow we will watch the sun go down
over Chiang Mai
***
The window open
the rain falls -
steamy Singapore.
***
The rain softens
wonderful
wanted sound.
***
These words I write
tiny sparks
light torches and fires
***
Light in a glass of water
energy so far
removed from its source.
***
Church bells eddy
in a winter squall
crows take to the air.
***