A day without a cramp or twinge; A day without a slip; A day without a papercut; Or a burst pen on my lip. A day with a song stuck in my head; A day with its own theme tune; A day with impromptu hums and taps, And the occasional furtive croon. A day spent [...]
Though I claimed to want the break, Fresh air, I said, a change of scene; Though I pinned up pictures bright, And ringed my grey space with promises of warming non-existent beaches and vastening vistas of Tuscan green; Though I sighed, wistful and yearning, Looked out the window, Rapunzel-like, Doodled daydreams at my desk And [...]
The day’s final cadence Is never as clear as the first. Wearier now, and off-key; But I suspect such progressions Which lead us to dusk’s coda Need not be too classically precise. By day’s dimming, My songs grow quiet — Fewer notes, less complex keys – Until all I have is the simple melody, The [...]
I sought poetry in halls and courts, In prescribed epics of tedious grandeur; In the predictable swish of ermine in the palaces; I sought it in the 70′s-lined corridors Where post-[structuralism/feminism/modernism] Were having eyes rolled at and essays written on; And were being reinvented; I sought poetry in the mountains and the trees, Hunting it [...]
I dreamt of being the glittering one The one you would discover in the gutter And seize upon with delight unbound. And I dreamt of being the sparkling one Who would make the city glow Who would make the night a diamond trove. And I dreamt of being the sharpened one, Whose razor edge could [...]
I sing of the body suburban; the pristine hedge, the fence, the vine, the four-by-four, the dog pure-bred: (I could be said to hum this hymn) (I could be said to groan); I try to celebrate what I see beyond the Tasteful Fence of Privacy. Control the verdancy and growth that bursts and buds in [...]
I mocked and derided those who bowed before the shriekbox and let it guide their evening, their peace, their mindless rest; I satirised, with disgust, seeking comfort from a bean, however flavoursome, as though it came from God’s palm; I rolled my eyes at the traders, consumers, wanderers bartering cash and time for brief comfort [...]
I count the day in oranges, or try to. Scraps of orange peel Coil dryly into desktop twists Mixed into papers misarranged And stained with juicy thumbprints; I have lost track of the fruits whose flesh Fuelled the day, the work, The turn of morning into sunset. I pause and to try to reconstruct How [...]
By the Thames; (the lies I told! How noble to look upon the grimy waters that so long ago inspired, disgusted, many greater minds than I!) the present too vivid, exciting and real to leave room for Dickens in my thoughts despite Shakespeare’s prodding. I told myself: I am walking the same pavements well not [...]
Fruit of the vine, bulbous and plump, Hang full juicy fat clusters of tiny bellies; Call the bees through some silent summer-hush hum; Call the drones to drinking, Call the slow and easy wasp to juices, Call the dragonflies; Call them all to share the sticky abundance, Call them all — they come. The vines [...]
