Summer solstice

There's a downside to everything
    not necessarily bad
our way of watching the clock
    ticking off the seasons
the years like a handy roll of film in a camera
    pictured spooling off or on
click click looksee looksee
    that's how the present gets shaped
first closeup then distant
    as we look over our shoulder
turning the yet-to-be into the once-was
    forgetting what comes next is now

    distinctions like Spring -Summer
are threaded by our feelings, our wishes thoughts
    into daisy-chains to play with in fancy
this Spring that is now waxing into Summer
    foretells a waning of the sunlit hours
turning Summer on its head
    and with the downside we expect
travel fun holidays delights at the table meetings
    but life is all one picture
unembraceable as that one picture
    and the glimpses we get
startle us into recognizing
    all seasons have their fling

Summer solstice, mmvii

In the beginning

               In the beginning
there was no beginning
nobody turned up nobody cared
no sorcerer waving hey presto
with magic wand
sun shone with warmth and vigour
sea supplied habitat
land lent its elemental fabric
out of these came provision for proficiency
no guessing how
earthiness found promethean artifice
clothing anima
with skills and self-growth

early one room school
simple sums taken to heart
child's play
cleave and multiply
self-taught by feeling
and uncanny sense of order

no proud parents
attended graduation
fostered by sun sea and land
in lieu of father and mother

let's wish them belated greetings
they're our remotest antecedents
who've earned our respect
be humble at least once today
and no cards please!


mmx

Ize abidin

Ize abidin me presence other presences abidin
near t mindin goinz on abidin wherezever
soz awoken scarce dozin   cummin in on o morn
cummin on o dawn   cummin on wotz sartin
wid dis unsartinty dwellin
n damped darn frum up awellin
cos ize marrit t wurry
cos ize orl fun unsartin
how wot be about in me wurld awillin
might n might wid eventful dun
might nut
cum arushin cum acrushin yrz untruly unwishin
dozy darn path o morn agrumblin
hurry like unto whirlwind
unto whirlwind arumblin
wurldwind in me path hurled
whilez wot i wot not
cumz about aint nuthin aint so
whoz worthy t be abornin
tis good they be glad
spite n trubblez away unto sky blowen
    clouds dottin light frum sunz gotten
ariz be uz don az wurld twirlin by
     may twentieth abornin    two thousan n leven

Dawn overslept

Dawn overslept

rubs eyes

opens curtains of night

no apologies for london plane trees

naked leaves with foliage down

 rumpled at feet

as if stepping from cold morning ablutions

 late november's mist and drizzle

i with camera coaxed out of doors

 breaking hush in dim twilight

senses at point

 scan shrubbery for opportune takes

there! amongst ruddy lance-shaped leaves

 pearly droplet clinging to branch

pulsing with urge to let go

.....click! did i or did i not .....

 like heartbeat of quivering life

recorded in digital image

 i may hold original finitely in electronic stasis

as it was and never will be again

 aware how gods or no gods

we may enter and be touched by beyond

 beyond what commonly seems to exist

and quench our longing in uncommon splendour

December mmxi

Of love

   
     Of  love
               so quick to tongue
     be wary
               tis for young to learn
     we fail by falling
               in and out
     qualified to earn
               how happy     how sorry

     subject to poet's metaphor
               this esteemed estate
     where selves subsumed
               fall under sway consummate
     beyond fancy or expectation
               synthesis
     opening out
               what we share commonly
     and how different
               to meet     to hear     to explore
     this fair intimacy
               arriving through hardihood and puissance
     at matched experience
               cherished in contemplation
     and enjoyed as it unfolds
               so to let be let be
     let become what becomes


mmix

of origin ...

... being of itself utmost bounty
calls originality into being
   
In the beginning
          was the thing most and only alike itself
most alike what it was
          and the beginning
being original arose out of its own spontaneity
          so the beginning was
and always is the beginning
          which we are wont to call right and good
not being able to dance upon the point of π
          harmonious proportion
being itself as itself in every way

you and i     sue     are of that seed and flowering
          being ever alike and not alike
and endowed with a sense of proportion
          in order to declare thisisthis and thatisthat
we shape into particular things     single or many
          each a novel identity even in likeness
droplets of the infinite flux and endless flow
          which are never lost or estranged
except incidentally or to themselves hapless
          for the fulness of being known
is itself being itself in every way
          through spontaneity dancing upon the point of π
or finding own selfhood when seeming most lost


mmx

Tich, on guilt

From Tich Backhouse`s Confessions

Whan i feelz a spazm o`guilt comin`on, i sez to mesen, Tich, me lad, that horsewhip aint yore owen, tiz relick ob your forefaderz who knew no better, treated thissenz like wild beasts.
So i takes me orf t Blaxmitz Armz fer a pint o wallop ter show i iz kind t dumb animulez.

LEA

Hey luv

    Hey luv     let us go a-jaunting    o
        when the red-cheeked sun
in her walking-out attire
        rises laughing over the horizon

scooting by watchful hawk and eagle
        down to the jaunty seagull's hangout
rocky shore    sandy beach    weedy marge
        where tireless tide's urge to push and pull
from bygone sagacity rules
        poseidon's fishy realm and aphrodite's foamy origin
where awareness begat sentiency

yes    our home too: briny and ozone
        whose thriving presence invigorates
while we alert and observant    pole and peer
        thrilled    and often chilled    never want for wonder
for this is a force beholden to no-one
        and like love    provides and demands
generous and severe

L.E.A., mmix

Solipsis

Take the eye of mind
the longing "i"
the knowing "i"
explore its subtle self
as in a scrying glass
lit by the lantern of the psyche


enter the cavern of the cranium
at the threshold of awareness
where shapeless musings
beckon at the ports of insight


i have explored the passages of self
braved the introspective dark
undistracted by spectral fantasies
in antiquated dress
which spell-bind with doomsay and revelation
those who peep
then look askance


i learned to step ahead
with ear attuned to resonances
echoic as in a void
and slept inside the tomb of yesterday


where sunlight creeps into the eastern hall
there i awake to life
and mingle with that throng
of feelings thoughts appearances
that market-place
my personality
where i belong
my self-meant territory


early 60s, rev. mmxi

body aint what it were

  He didn't ask
  what state
  how low
    he felt
  not himself
    snake-bitten
  no escape
    his body's travail
  wasted
    on mundane labour
  slumps in chair
    sees hand
  between thumb and forefinger
    map like vellum
  translucent
    where veins and skin
  in perspective
    recognize
  terrain of age
    state he fell in
  poor sod
    his body
  distressed by pain
    demands recognition
  and yes
    briefly mended
  he'll disregard
    again
  and suffer
    humiliation
  known as
    old duffer


mmxi