Saturday 29 February 2020

#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













Friday 28 February 2020

#60 - grim death


29.2.2020
60 
grim death

idea of a window
picture the door
track with mist gone

take these few simple stepsdeath’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 

Thursday 27 February 2020

#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










Wednesday 26 February 2020

#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






Monday 24 February 2020

#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  

Sunday 23 February 2020

#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