Part 1
A cat playing
with tinsel in the cold
- My socks got wet.
Mowed grass
turning yellow
With the sunset.
I’m drunk again,
you pretend to care
But now I’m more fun.
Late November –
cheap whisky fills the tumbler
While I wax greener.
There’s no end.
Flies punctuate the summer,
The porch light buzzes.
On the road
nobody is sleeping,
Except the dog.
Rainy night,
pitter-pattering is loud
- Stop pretending.
You look blue
in the hue of moonlight,
The winter ends.
Throwing rocks off the cliff,
humbly keeping my distance
From the edge.
Gleaming white masts
on Lake Windermere,
The air is clear.
Rain fills my guitar,
six strings are now only three,
Rattling in the air.
I can’t ever
make you laugh when
I’m sober.
She’s in a bad mood
Florida lightning scythes
In her wild storm.
More leaves fell today
in my dark little garden,
Orange paper planes.
The rain is freezing
and the drainpipe overflows
- My cat is asleep.
When the trees
lose their leaves you can see
The little birds.
Yearly winter shed,
bright autumn leaves floundering,
Dancing out of spite.
That egret looked at me,
stood atop the water-swept rock,
Then she flew away.
Diving, falling,
clear air, orange carpet below,
Autumn canopy.
Mouse on the ice,
nothing evil stirs tonight,
Nature’s solace.
Kingfisher perching,
dawn transpiring solemnly,
Fishes beware.
Stars obscured by fog,
gargoyle swans swim still,
Statue birds in the dark.
Closing the car door,
snow slides to the frozen ground,
Breath sticks to my beard.
No drinks tonight,
I cried before I slept
regardless.
Running to stay warm,
can’t remember the way home,
Guess I’ll run some more.
That badger is a
pile of old guts and bones
On the roadside.
How big is that tree?
skeletal without its flags,
Bare branches in wind.
Buzzards ride the air,
here they circle something dead
- That body’s frozen.
She speaks my language,
freedom instilled in wordplay,
Her voice sings clarity.
Purple horizon,
mist wrapping giant
trees.
Sunlight through fenceposts,
I have a headache
now.
Playing guitar
by the river,
the dog splashed me.
Wallpaper
stained red.
I spilled my wine.
Indoors,
thinking about
The smell of rain.
A kestrel
hovering
Above a pasture.
After the shower
a cormorant drying
His wings.
No snow this year,
more rain
- All is God.
Reading Seneca
not on the porch,
It’s too cold.
Smoking a joint,
not in love
With you.
Oh the size,
the open sky
At dawn.
That rabbit
doesn’t care
About music.
No more hopelessness,
the rain is quaint,
The dog snores.
In Florida,
no one sings
My name.
I heard the lake
praying,
Her voice was wind.
Solemn river
carrying travellers,
What else?
The sound of
my beer fizzing
Obscured by arguments.
Rainfall,
the orchestra
Of Autumn.
A soft spoken
blue tit
On an awning.
Nervous deer
more nervous now
That something stirs.
Mischief
in his eyes,
My cat is awake.
A maelstrom
of vows and curses,
Lovers fighting.
Sitting alone indoors
- I’ve never seen
A bluebird.
On open
water –
I prefer the river.
Sacrificial trees,
firewood for my
Selfish wants.
Selfshone sunspit
falling onto my lap
Then the grass.
Grew the fuck up
and found
More kids.
Opening an old book
in the pines, loud paper
crinkle startled a fox.
Eating figs on the
camping chair –
Wolf-wind barking.
The coals still glisten,
someone playing tunes on the
Pink guitar.
Fireball setting
o’er the buttcrack hills,
Frost sets now too.
All is verdant
hither and yon!
Everything fine, fine.
Noisy street at night,
argument about gaslighting,
Who gaslit who?
Open the door,
the cat is awaiting
His friend’s company.
Wallowing like a pig
is less fun when it’s in
Sadness and not mud.
On alma road
one’s alma doesn’t rest
At night.
Zebra patrolling his
domain, from
Window to wall.
Rolling joints for the weekend,
how many will I smoke
alone?
The candle factory burned down,
all that’s left is wax and cake.
Surprise!
4pm sunset,
the cold hug of time
lost.
Twinkling sky,
mostly planes and satellites,
I guess they’re cool too.
Tiny voices sing their delight,
I threw seeds
Around the birdbath.
Playing golf
it’s easy to cheat –
“I hit an 18!”
What’s the point in writing
when all that’s real
is stupid.
I showed her where
it hurts,
She wasn’t looking.
My gratitude dies
the moment you say
His name.
I wrote a new song
for the trees and such.
Bah, they won’t listen.
Flowers rejoice!
Here comes the plucky
Bumblebee.
Girl walking in
December rain -
What does she know?
Clock moving to strike
midnight, another year,
another something-or-other.
Kerouac, Shmerouac,
There’s no end or even
beginning.
Grass with all your blades,
what mighty war
are you waging?
Log in the waves,
tumbling current beneath
Blood-orange sky.
Water lily, not strong
enough to keep the frog
afloat.
Parakeet! Both our
necks ringed in
This November rain.
Everyone sees it,
the moon smiles,
A moment.
Grass has frozen
on your grave,
Misty, fine morning.
Our little house is
just snow and rubble
- Winter air.
Listening to Bill Evans,
a fog or a mist hides
All but you.
I am my cat’s radiator,
he’s purring louder
Than the TV.
Shut eyes,
let the world pass
In peace.
I hear her breathing,
it doesn’t bother me -
What’s love?
It might as well be
raining, I’m blue as
The sky.
Where the water meets
the sky, there’s the mountain.
I can see Hanshan.
Singing silent night
while looking for goldfinches
In the brush.
Trying to reach a branch,
still too high,
Maybe next time.
Cairngorm clouds
- I see an open
Gate.
Didn’t notice
the chameleon,
But I guess that’s the point.
Still air, Midlands winter
- I never learned
How to cry.
Gabe sits proud as he writes,
nothing is as profound
As he thinks it is.
Gabe sits proud as he writes,
nothing is more profound
Than he thinks it is.
Stop thinking –
the sun rising early,
The fragrant summer air.
Thinking about Bogotá,
my ears wandered
For a moment.
Hungover amongst the
rowan shrubs -
Fallen apart.
Rue the void,
carve a moment
Out of the forest’s edge.
The mountains bite back,
a cold anger requited
- The snowy pines.
Shrouded in pine needles,
my love sits, then rises,
Warm air on the lake.
Squirrel in the tree
above the river, high up
Branch-bridge crossing.
Kingfisher darts away
along the bare riverbank
- I left my flash on!
Away from the hubbub,
the silentest birds,
The most beautiful.
Se quema mi vida,
open flame in
An unbridled pasture.
We all pray
sometimes
- There’s no peace.
The shores of the sky
unmeeting until
A dream undreamed.
Endless sea
the future rolls
Waves of blood and flames.
Listening to Phil,
a moth on the window
Amidst the raindrops.
Memory confounds,
my experiences revolve
and revolve.
Stars in the river
leaping as I feel
My size.
What water flows
frenzied in this here drainpipe?
What writhing torrent?
Stars write to me
saying
Take everything.
Magpie bullying wagtails
for oak branch supremacy -
All will burn.
On the tyre swing
I perch
Imagining nothing.
Lofi means no excuses,
the sky asks no
Forgiveness for the rain.
Wishing under the moon,
my hands pursed,
The sky opens.
Cutting myself up,
the leaves are returning,
My wind isn’t.
I’m not painting for you,
even when I paint you,
Stars and all.
Winter evening,
sorrows are stolen
When it snows.
Freezing air inbetween
each feather of
The crow.
Steering with his knee
the blurry-eyed taxi driver
Speeding in a thirty.
Rock crag shaped,
that is my shape,
The living earth.
Blue crow watching
me as I wonder,
What do cats think?
