1) Eden - explores the passing world of childhood into adolescence and adulthood
2) The Fall - narrates experiences of adulthood and disillusionment with routine and growing awareness of mortality
3) Nemesis - a struggle with a difficult goddess (Venus) who refuses to live up to the unrealistic projections and expectations of her lover in an emotional Underworld
Neverland Before the Rain
We go somewhere and carry it away
with us
A sepia album, locked deep inside
We can open the book any time we
like
Leaf through its pages, soak
ourselves in memories
Transport ourselves to happy days
Rose tinted, images of times and
places
We think we’d rather be…..
The World
I gave birth to the world
A molten ball gathering in
my throat
I shouted it out, into
darkness.
It cooled, my skin cracked
Becoming the crust of the
earth
Mountains erupted from my
chest
Clouds gathered over my
forehead.
It rained, lightly at first,
becoming a torrent
Water collected in my navel
becoming a lake
It continued to pour and the
oceans formed
My hair became trees, my
memory a forest.
A wise owl took to the wing
and settled on my shoulder
“You should have known this
would happen”, she said,
“You should have known”.
Release
I’m scooping a fluttering
memory
From recollection’s sweeping
net
Discordant thoughts
Traced like veins on wings
Feelings are ephemeral
Memories don’t stay fresh
They lie strangely preserved
On ice like supermarket fish
Life in words and cryptic
clues
Lightly salted for the
future
The Mourning After
I remember unrivaled beauty and quaint affection
Always administered from a safe distance
Sparingly dripped onto my lips as if you were a pipette.
I swore I’d touch your heart as you’d touched mine
Then withhold myself, let you taste the frustration
Of one way romance which makes a fool blind.
I remember a summertime that briefly brought me near
Embarrassment my enemy, commitment my only fear
Visit me at dreamtime, your soft lips can silence me
Watch my comet disappear and wish that you’d said “Yes”.
I remember unrivaled beauty and quaint affection
Always administered from a safe distance
Sparingly dripped onto my lips as if you were a pipette.
I swore I’d touch your heart as you’d touched mine
Then withhold myself, let you taste the frustration
Of one way romance which makes a fool blind.
I remember a summertime that briefly brought me near
Embarrassment my enemy, commitment my only fear
Visit me at dreamtime, your soft lips can silence me
Watch my comet disappear and wish that you’d said “Yes”.
Thunderbirds
Clouds laden with thunder
growl and bark
Shake themselves like wet
dogs
Drenching the plains with
life giving water
Differing shapes and forms
The ground trembles when
they snarl
Flashes of anger arc from
dog to dog
Bunching as a pack, arguing
over the kill
They seed the ground with
falling bones
Which dance upon the earth
Like the thunderbirds of
old.
Lanes
There was a summertime, when
I could run,
On beautiful golden evenings
Filled with lengthening
shadows
Reflected in satisfying
stride patterns.
Lanes twisted and turned as
they unfolded before me
And I ran into them,
swearing I’d never stop
Or even consider slowing
down
I thought I’d keep running
forever.
Deluge - The passing of Hubris
I’d thought of you back home, an
umbilical unbroken
And realised it was merely an
extension lead
I’d run like a dog, felt wild and
free
Filled my nose with red earth smells
My ears with exotic birds, the calls
of Africa
And now the storm had come to
stay…..
Crisis Of Faith
One day I decided I’d stop
asking God for things
It occurred to me he has
better things to do
It seemed a simple principle
and if you take time out
To weigh the world you may
sympathise
So I propose a philosophy
Tailored to avoid
disappointment
Although it doesn’t have to
be for you.
I should entreat on bended
knee
For him to fix my wounded
heart
Stand and fight in spiritual
realm
Instead of turning tail to
flee
But to grow a spine
Would run against the grain
of years
Simply put it isn’t me
I’d rather control what
trivia I can
Than trust almighty hands
upon the helm.
Compare the minutiae of
things I feel
Against the hurt of others
lives
Plain for all to see, pain
far too real
Where the struggle day on
day is finding food
(I know because I saw it on
T.V.)
I can’t accept there’s time
for me
And so I shall no longer
lodge appeal.
I must confess the fear I
feel
No foundation stone just
shifting sand
There’s nothing there to
break my fall
No safety net or helping
hands
Better employed for other
things
Than cosseting this
ungrateful introvert
So resigned, I admit I’m
through.
I’d be cross with him anyway
Because in summary I feel
He’s got better things to
do.
Sudwala
The strangest thing happened to me the
other day.
My heart was beating, pounding, trying
to escape
And I decided to give it a helping
hand.
I reached inside my chest with thoughts
sharp as an obsidian blade.
And in a second it was there, in my
palm.
Throwing it into the air, it sprouted
sickle wings
Then it was flying, over land and sea,
Covering thousands of miles in an
instant
To join screaming palm swifts, swirling
at Sudwala.
But mine was not a homing heart
I knew it would not return.
Empty, swivelling, I melted into a dull
screen and dreamed
Whilst grey September raged,
unabated outside.
On Silent Wings
An owl is undeterred by
falling rain
Hunting he whisks the air on
silent wings
His sharp calls split the
darkness
Whilst others talk of other
lives
And I curl into a foetal
ball
Heavy rain has fallen for
hours now
It’s like God is crying in
the dark
I have my thoughts for
company
And add to the moisture
laden air
My own spectral exhalation
A thousand kaleidoscopic
thoughts
Return to you on silent
wings
I’m on the outside looking
in
Kissing your eyelids as you
sleep
Praying perchance you’ll
dream of me
Love Bite
Sometimes I feel
particularly miniscule, think I must be like a gnat, whining in your ear
Or a midge possessed of a
weak and tentative proboscis, formed of timid texts
Rarely I’ll feel brave
enough to alight by the phone and risk taking a call
Only then I wobble through
the air as soon as the receiver’s down
Like a panicking daddy
long-legs analysing every word.
I’m sensitive, too easily or
carelessly squashed aside
If I were to try and give
you a heartfelt love bite
I feel I’d only leave a pink
and nagging bump
On the sweet curve of your
breast.
Your furrowed brow
I can picture it now
Whilst you scratch
And curse
A pest
Singularity
I was happily dreaming, when
you interrupted me, shooting words into my ear
You pulled me to the event
horizon, where everything, even time slowed
I looked over a shoulder and
saw life bustling in the cosmos
I looked before me and
remembered your smile
I watched your mouth
rhythmically opening
As you engulfed me, crushing
me
Into a dense cube of matter
Reducing me to a
Singularity
Gone
I’m skating on blades again, sharp steel blades, gliding over ice
Like glass, a window pane, a droplet like a tear, shed when friendship dies
Running slowly down the liquid in suspension, fired mind and crystal
Walking on blades of grass, a green baize called lawn, it’s raining hard
This late summer’s day, the droplets cold, run down my cheeks
The back of my neck, I’m shivering now, I think of you, as if you were here
Hugging your black cardigan, damp, it clinging to your fragile frame
Your soft pink toes, sinking in the grass, mown cuttings on your soles.
I nuzzle the scene, imagine your taste, your smell, the tang of salt
Is just rain mixing with my tears, near silence, the swifts have gone.
Mark Harris has asserted his right under
Section 77 f the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
To be identified as the author of this work
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