#61 - firsting a month

1.3.20

61

firsting a month

with up to old tricks

make modest aim

reading where I left off

and struck with likeness

now in the mirror

still lit

remembering monsters

I have created  

tending them too

in a new room

can be lost, confused

a blank page for illusion

let’s try respect again

hang from the rafters of it, bitten

a cursor moves across

is it with weather we begin?

pinch, punch, brittle surpassing

dust gathering goes on

in a what-to-do tizz

all at the same time

itch where bit

and chorus

which is the aiming

voice up

considered so together

so now colour could come

and try to get away with it

flowers that shut up shop

are trading again today

must bank on the cred

of all months before

I think there is still moon in this

although the stars are gone

all fresh with hope resolving

almost like a year to be

and we’ll be in it now

if you’ll just turn the page

#60 - grim death

29.2.2020

60 

grim death

idea of a window

picture the door

track with mist gone

take these few simple steps－death’s dance

settle down with a story

becomes who we were

indicating will be

and now

did you notice the moment now absent?

shape of things

no trial or jury but eternity

each equally condemned

often tortured till

could make a religion of the thing

all fears for an inevitable

hang on for it

still those who’ve never known me

may lie here among the pages

feats upon each other

forest blue up

a garden of all gone clouds

now more than naked practising

my posthumous titles

antics preparing

in through the doors of shoeworn day

always up for a climb

isn’t whether you win or lose

from all this breathlessness to be

so sad it’s this world shutting down

and when you get there － guarantee it

you won’t feel a thing 

#59 - word by word

59

28.2.20

word by word

build for a future

nod wink

breathless with the business

have that for beginning

castle of things

is a list you can call

kind of a kickoff promise

at least we have to have agreed

you call each presence for a name

and still sometimes unsung

something/one’s out there

unthought … will it think us?

also there’s verbatim

in among these ink deaths

(smears of self on screen)

sign by sign

sometimes hard to squeeze it out

always a jumpstart

till the tune  

and the tune was always there

hands have worn away the face

feet have smoothed the stone

my word

and often, can’t get one in

but broken into song sometimes

there was always deciding to be

and it went on like this

notice how we start

always before and after the law

in the middle of the book

for fantasy of who we were

please just say the word

is my bond and out of the box

cloud of unsure about

bury in the gene pool

wiring up the mind

here they come

nose to arse, chained

to do the difference

form selves into a poem story

maybe can’t be helped

sometimes only just

a colour in and on

my tongue and touch

plucked from air

as idea was

often lost for words

no one now remembers

follow along

with the bouncing ball

we will come to

the absence of all

#58 - ballet delicate

58

27.2.20

ballet delicate

I carry myself wherever I go

   this particular 

island swamp and continent

o what expanse I am

and thinner than air

these who vector by vector

attend

time is the insect after me

and as innumerable

in a dust mote float

in a sunbeam sing

come dance to me on air as if

gods have gifted for a trial

will dung smoke do?

unknowing mist

and yet they are

not competing

save to be

we’re rarely on the news

or have our picture taken

rise conically  

and here we breed

from puddle

this flighty architecture

as if asteroid landing

to mine the rich ore

drone remote so lonely

in all the rain here home to bring

and under fear they go

too little ever for it

still they are dreamt to be here too

tattoo the air with tribe

a savage art it is to rule

dinosaurs do

very many herbivorous

I will not name diseases

they are unknown to arcane lore

take more of my kind

than others do

I myself can make a cloud

and trick us out of doors

the brush off

the Australian wave

must be my inoculation

to clear the air –

they have no wish to feed on us

twilit  come

grey dusky

crepuscular

tautologous

which kingdom?

ours, of course

I carry myself wherever I go

time is the insect after me

in a dust mote float

in a sunbeam sing

come dance to me on air as if

gods have gifted

I will not name diseases 

#57 - what's the name of the world?

57

26.2.20

what’s the name of the world?

I am trying to remember

everywhere was never before

this world

the only one

do you round around it

feel that

?

take this window for a moment

and by the time you’ve seen in

what’s the difference when

?

raise skies all outside to search

and be my own adventure

look for the invisible lines

lost to who can know

as with the bare beginnings of day

where something is always lost

a painted object

and scratched down in

shiny like most thrown out things

you and the window

and time have gone

but here’s the stuck view seared

whenever we are

will be

#56 - prayer for our time

56

25.2.20

patriarchal plea

for instance to Hughie

who’ll send it down when he will

or

prayer for our times

for godsbother

Temptation is a a delivery service

it’s wicked and evil and grand

dad, who’s upstairs just now

(we call him dad)

he should be retiring soon

still full of wise saws

and hands out the chores

hither and yon

up hill down dale too

fills the fridge, the cupboard, the car

lets little indiscretions go

we turn a blind eye to his and some others

keep off the too-much-sauce and so forth

so’s to not set a bad example

cause he’s got the keys, the codes and the mortgage

goes on for a long time like this  

#55 and we could be (for a junior senior)

55

24.2.2020

and we could be… 

for a certain junior senior of my acquaintance  

Barcelona

off the Ramblas

chocolate so thick

you could dance on it

among the winter vines

and walking out to Nobby’s

to see the seal again

sprayed with all that ocean

and biggest pencils in the world

cycling through Imperial Palace grounds

by Nijo Castle, in the tofu steam

in the snow

take a day off for it, why not?

Bennett’s Beach, Hawks Nest

which way to go?

one day we’ll get to Broughton

up the hill on ropes

at Messen to krosfuru

to the little stream

a summer sun plays on

or further, Arctic, midnight with Heidi

in Shiraz of course

or in a puff of smoke

St Ives, along the pipeline

point is we could be anywhere

equally orphaned now

frequently in memory

they’re with us on a day like this

set off across the Botanical Gardens

(but which? and where?)

in certain aches

with an organ recital

middle of the night at home

and we’ve become astronauts

to come this far

squeezed into frail tin

Scotch please

watercolours with our ice

or ink it

swapping seasons as we go

all dressed up

in birthday suits

and casual at times

blow kisses

lost in the act

playground sometimes just of ourselves

and passionate with causes

with world bettering

take time and mustn’t room-to-room

some nights curl into a question

dream all selves away

high over Hong Kong

and hearing the city

tinnitus too

(what a loud building this is)

dreaming of home there as well 

walking tracks we’ve made by own hoof

driving

or riding

or swimming

in galleries, museums

like Marathon monks around Hieizan

fuelled by

okonomiyaki, egg plant mousaka

a spinach pie, our fish

pumpkin soup

the cauliflower

the mushroom

baba ganouch

(nobody really knows how to spell it)

or there was juice

(you see we’re not so kitchen hopeless

though all those cookbooks still accuse)

acres strewn spots to sit and most of them with seats

plan more! 

though everything’s in place now

we place ourselves

in study 

in studio

and off and on the circuit

to, name the stages of the tour  

dairy

hut

and studio

gallery

shedbrary

the tanks

the ponds

the dunny

tiny

and tinier

kitchens too

bathroom of dreams

take the tour if sleepless

anywhere in the world

mindful, lost to the sheeplessness

picturing just what’s to see

in all of our long history

to hold and listen

come to rest

here snuggle in, won’t you?

everywhere we call a home

but nowhere like we build it

it’s in the heart to heart

on-line

or texted

in out of pants pyjamas

in each other’s mother’s homes

treading the eggshells

heads full of one mother or other

some sibling or so

cunning colleagues who get in there too

endless discussion of what’s best to do

and where we’ve yet to go

trek in Nepal?

Grey Nomad business

the six foot track, the Milford

NY, Kerala

and Santa’s Finland soon

even at the end of a scoob

and off to make things great

a raspberry for you

and 1960 threepence ear-rings

teacher and artist and scholar

ping pong player

yoga devotee

beginner of strings

and now beside the tracks

requiring double glazing

floor to polish shortly

let’s argue over a rug

gallerina

studio-ista

away in the trees

charcoal paint and studio ponded

lots of landing

frond swallows of redbelly frogleg

watching them all

swampies jesus about

our adventure

but here we are in Hobart

as and but never before

with mummies

dark passages

vertiginous drops

sheeps back ferry

XR in the park

the bumpings-into

a beautiful day in the neighbourhood

and still a fish you won’t have to fry

exhale to cat

junior senior today

accompanied with little lady

even without the mat

play all these parts

when far when near

with everywhere we are

and fix the world where we can

with care

because we could be

here at home

and anyway

today it’s official

better log on

and register now