DARKNESS
tried to push back
torn between
resist and accept
if only
I knew I might
expect to see you
out there somewhere
driven
by equal desire
to swim that
dark ocean
desperate to find me
DARKNESS
tried to push back
torn between
resist and accept
if only
I knew I might
expect to see you
out there somewhere
driven
by equal desire
to swim that
dark ocean
desperate to find me
OR DO NOT SMILE
came to see you
found you in mood
assertive yet contemplative
strolling along the beach
inner peace broodingly tempered
by some dark cloud momemts
only adding to my sense of your
backbone, resilience, tensile strength
or perhaps you were
as I had half expected
sultry, inviting,
familiar
simply sitting on the beige sand
taking in everything
perhaps waiting
for he who is indeed legendary
beyond compare,
or perhaps
just isn’t, will dupe you
in a masterclass of
male manipulation
and then we saw each other
which was a delightful
surprise or
might equally not have been
it’s all about probability
what
the Universe at
its smallest is
determined to
decide for us
lifting up mountains in
a million year
blink, alternatively
grinding down
and there we have it
all that is
and was and will
forever be
openly there between us
and openly
not between us
nothing in the cosmos
we know of
to bend
in opposite direction
the rigid arrow
of time
unless as we see
here
not just bending but
completely melting
and
seeing all that was fixed
and figured
helplessly dissolving
we see each other smile, are
sunshine
or do not see, or
do not smile at all
UNLESS THEY DID
you wake up
it’s all
a dream
all the usual
clear lines of differentiation
unless
scriptwriter killed you off
at home
she, they
still waiting for you
one of those inept
final episodes
wrecking what
had been a great show,
truly memorable series
or maybe
they forgot you, overlooked you,
left you in subplot limbo
no hope of resolution
twist to
the tale they decided
not to run with knowing
it was all
about to be
cancelled
narrative development no
one cared about
cares about
unless they do
unless they did
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE
sadly I have
forgotten you already
though a little bird
keeps reminding me
how razor smart you
were
and how beautiful
something I have to tell you
before this poem
goes off
the boil
it’s Christmas day after the day
after the day after tomorrow
I would wish
you every joy
but we cannot risk climbing
out of our trenches
onbewapendt
exposing our shared
humanity
risking all
that vulnerability
I can whistle the tune of
every tracks on those
albums
you gave me for
Xmas
God knows how many years ago
and soon but not
together obviously we are
going to
wake up dead finding
ourselves one
hundred
percent spiritual
able to laugh
(not earthbound resounding
seismic belly laugh
more celestial titter)
at all
those
misunderstood signs, wrong
words, mistakes,
as far as
eye can see landscape
of obstacle and
barbed
wire
here where time is meaningless
and
spanner in the works and
as a
consequence jammed
clockwork
but I did send
a dove with a message
if it reaches you if you
read it
deep as I have tried to be
it is all neither here nor there
TAKES YOU BACK
tell me
about simplicity
three chord song
garage band
haiku where
every breathing syllables
cut with
a scalpel
but there again complexity
structures with
levels nested
within
levels
incredible
architecture
you followed all
the arrows and
then were
surprised
to find yourself
facing
you humming
a simple tune
you either never
heard before
or
takes you back
TAKES YOU BACK
tell me
about simplicity
three chord song
garage band
haiku where
every breathing syllables
cut with
a scalpel
but there again complexity
structures with
levels nested
within
levels
incredible
architecture
you followed all
the arrows and
then were
surprised
to find yourself
facing
you humming
a simple tune
you either never
heard before
or
takes you back
POEM IS WAITING FOR ME
poem
is waiting for me
but I am not there
pen and
paper crying out
but no words, no letters,
nothing there
on the page
to remain
unread
to add nothing,
exactly nothing
maybe
I should tell the poem
to switch itself
to go
automatic pilot
where I
feel that
there is nothing
to say,
no place to
start
poem can write itself
fill the page with
brilliance or
nonsense
whatever it feels
on the whim
of the moment
whatever it
absolutely has
to say
express from
its core, its heart,
plunder from the depths
find
a truth to explore
simply
fill the page with
add
its piece
to all that has
been written, revered
and so much talked about
HOMELESS
homeless
a liability
writing
dark, empty,
self-pitying poems
not
my usual style
not my
best voice at all
and yet
still I think I commandeer
a huge expanse
own a slice
of this planet, a
piece of everything
was forged in the unbelievable
heat of a star
too precious
to fail so abysmally
TALKING ABOUT
disappear me
unwrite my poetry
erase every
shred of evidence
that I was ever around
the world needs to know
how better off
it is now
every
moment
without me
not that
when it gets told
it will have
any
idea
what you were talking about
unless I am
much mistaken
unless this poem
these poems
thrive in
my absence
kind of find
themselves
lingering around
SAVED
all those books burning
in that same library.
where before
things got messed
we used to chat
and I caught sight
of you once
strutting your stuff
in a giant white stetson
all those books
we both used
to read
much oneupmanship
between us
for some sad reason
and we exchanging words
at a distance about this tragedy
but there
I am before I ever met you
outside such a storm
creeping across the mountain
the rain slashing down
across
the entire peninsula
me immersed in the Upanishads
reading the great text
on the return
of the soul to the one
like drop into ocean
we
all one
and you my
forever one
though nothing close
to union
ever between us
somehow
that fire in my heart
always burning
consuming
never going out