Ocular Bells, Festive Verses.
Poetry, once the preserve of ear
Now is parsed and appears
Neat on a page
So far from stage
Of Virgil or of Shakespeare.
Lines and stanzas
Deaf to ear
But crafted and craftily
It’s clear to art lovers
Far and near.
Let’s close our eyes
And listen to the crest that rises
Falling on ear
Reaching the heart
Touching the spirit.
Let’s listen, not read
With silence for commas
With space for the mind
To wander untethered
Untrammeled by lines.
The rhythm of verse
Should keep a beat with the heart
The sweetness of sound
Keep the senses apart.
Poems once spoken and decried
To families round the fireside
Not silently mouthed in towers
Mid academic bowers.
Bring back the sounds
And shield the pages
Guarding symbols;
For the ages
Hark, the spirit sings
It trings and rings Celestial bells, whispering things
That only spoken words can bring.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Luxury villa row
Luxury Villa Row
In the sleepy street
In the sunbaked silence
No children play
But cameras whirr
To guard the empty villas
Where high walls
Imprison the wealthy ones.
What prison do they fear?
What gaol do the walls foretell?
For money earned in darkened halls
And spun across the world to Tenerife?
Five thousand feet of polished marble
And beds where never laid a head
With pools untroubled for 12 months now
A listless silence undisturbed
Except by maids and cleaning staff
Preparing for the Christmas trip
That may happen or not at all.
And yet the window’s cleaned and grass is cut
With hedges trimmed
Tables polished, not yet turned
The wealthy ghosts have yet to come.
Perhaps a breathless week,
Spent mostly on friends’ yachts
Ordering cristal when ashore
But a hardly a glance
Hardly a look askance
At the villa
At the top of the road
A cul de sac
That leads to nowhere.
In the sleepy street
In the sunbaked silence
No children play
But cameras whirr
To guard the empty villas
Where high walls
Imprison the wealthy ones.
What prison do they fear?
What gaol do the walls foretell?
For money earned in darkened halls
And spun across the world to Tenerife?
Five thousand feet of polished marble
And beds where never laid a head
With pools untroubled for 12 months now
A listless silence undisturbed
Except by maids and cleaning staff
Preparing for the Christmas trip
That may happen or not at all.
And yet the window’s cleaned and grass is cut
With hedges trimmed
Tables polished, not yet turned
The wealthy ghosts have yet to come.
Perhaps a breathless week,
Spent mostly on friends’ yachts
Ordering cristal when ashore
But a hardly a glance
Hardly a look askance
At the villa
At the top of the road
A cul de sac
That leads to nowhere.
Three degreees warmer.
Three Degrees Warmer
It’s three o clock in the morning
It’s three degrees warmer at sea
What’s going to become of our world
In under a century?
Two degrees is a figment
There isn’t a chance in hell
That Paris or any Agreement
Will save us from climate Hell.
This makes three hells in one poem
Which doesn’t sound good at all
But then neither does three degrees
And that’s what we’re heading for.
There’s lots of numbers these days
It’s hard to remember them all,
Remember the number that matters
In eighty years time we’ll recall -
Its 3
It’s three o clock in the morning
It’s three degrees warmer at sea
What’s going to become of our world
In under a century?
Two degrees is a figment
There isn’t a chance in hell
That Paris or any Agreement
Will save us from climate Hell.
This makes three hells in one poem
Which doesn’t sound good at all
But then neither does three degrees
And that’s what we’re heading for.
There’s lots of numbers these days
It’s hard to remember them all,
Remember the number that matters
In eighty years time we’ll recall -
Its 3
I only have hope in my pocket
I only have hope in my pocket
I’m happy to hope
It’s the most delicious thing
That things will improve
At the new dawn birds will sing.
I only have hope in my pocket
I have come only to serve
There is no limit to service
For the people we love.
To always remember we can
Improve on what we began
We can’t be sadly submissive
Or leave hope in bed as we rise.
With every new child
There’s a hope
A hope that that God renews
One child can change the world
For every new child can do
Anything.
I’m happy to hope
It’s the most delicious thing
That things will improve
At the new dawn birds will sing.
I only have hope in my pocket
I have come only to serve
There is no limit to service
For the people we love.
To always remember we can
Improve on what we began
We can’t be sadly submissive
Or leave hope in bed as we rise.
With every new child
There’s a hope
A hope that that God renews
One child can change the world
For every new child can do
Anything.
In Memoriam RM 1993-2019
In Memoriam - RM 1993-2019
The January swell stole his young life
Til a February tide gave him back
To family and friends
Who searched to the end.
His light has been quenched
But his reflection still lingers
His voice had been drowned
But his echo is stronger.
His parents greet strangers
As Mary at the cross
But what can you say -
That makes sense of their loss?
His young life has ended
His legend lives on
In hearts and in minds
In hymn and in song.
The spring tide rising
Now burbles and flows
Neath the Galway cathedral
And into the Bay
That soft sheds a tear
For a young lad yet so fair
So generous of heart
His days cut so short.
A shadow is cast
That will linger and last
Beyond the cold sunset
When stars have long passed.
The January swell stole his young life
Til a February tide gave him back
To family and friends
Who searched to the end.
His light has been quenched
But his reflection still lingers
His voice had been drowned
But his echo is stronger.
His parents greet strangers
As Mary at the cross
But what can you say -
That makes sense of their loss?
His young life has ended
His legend lives on
In hearts and in minds
In hymn and in song.
The spring tide rising
Now burbles and flows
Neath the Galway cathedral
And into the Bay
That soft sheds a tear
For a young lad yet so fair
So generous of heart
His days cut so short.
A shadow is cast
That will linger and last
Beyond the cold sunset
When stars have long passed.
Lady Luck
Lady Luck
We stumbled, bumbled
Along the path of life
We mumbled answers
That turned out just right.
We claim we made our luck
But know that chance
Instructed all our steps
Along life’s crooked path.
We claim our looks and brains
Which came from luck anyway
Alone explained whatever
Goals we met and aims.
We stumbled, bumbled
Along the path of life
We mumbled answers
That turned out just right.
We claim we made our luck
But know that chance
Instructed all our steps
Along life’s crooked path.
We claim our looks and brains
Which came from luck anyway
Alone explained whatever
Goals we met and aims.
Chez Nous
Chez nous
Not another moment spent
In an airport lounge
Not another precious day
In a queue to fly
Into another country
To join another queue.
Queues to enter, queues to leave
What insanity has possessed us
To squander precious hours and days
Going from here to there?
What is wrong in staying here?
Is it a crime to stand and stare
To live and love
The ordinary, the habitual?
The nearer hills are greener
The local fields smell fresh
The age old legends resonate
In souls that never strayed.
There is some virtue staying
And keeping close to home
Saving shoe leather and air fares,
Sparing earth for another age.
Granting the planet a break
From incessant holidays.
Staying simple and stable
grounded and tethered.
Chez nous.
Not another moment spent
In an airport lounge
Not another precious day
In a queue to fly
Into another country
To join another queue.
Queues to enter, queues to leave
What insanity has possessed us
To squander precious hours and days
Going from here to there?
What is wrong in staying here?
Is it a crime to stand and stare
To live and love
The ordinary, the habitual?
The nearer hills are greener
The local fields smell fresh
The age old legends resonate
In souls that never strayed.
There is some virtue staying
And keeping close to home
Saving shoe leather and air fares,
Sparing earth for another age.
Granting the planet a break
From incessant holidays.
Staying simple and stable
grounded and tethered.
Chez nous.
Dying - Noli Timere
Dying - Noli timere
I died a thousand times before today,
A hundred aches and pains instructed me,
So well prepared am I to face eternity,
Whatever that may be.
Death, perhaps, is nothing more
Than drifting into space,
Into nothingness
Where everything and everyone we loved is lost
Without a trace.
Or else pure light and ecstasy
For those who hoped and loved
And created their own destiny
In music and in harmony.
For death will surely come to everyone
As we quite politely ignore and live a lie,
We grasp each day like a drowning man,
Desperately.
Good luck and wisdom make us smaller
Our shadow shortens in every way
Our meals grow lighter
And our limbs grow thinner
Our sight starts failing
And our hearing fools us
A prelude to the final act.
No longer money means a thing
No hoarding silver now or then.
All that matters is the love we give
And receive from others on the way.
‘Fear not’ I heard him say
In silent churches and on stormy beaches;
We set sail at last, our final voyage
Into the reddened western skies,
At quiet sunset.
I died a thousand times before today,
A hundred aches and pains instructed me,
So well prepared am I to face eternity,
Whatever that may be.
Death, perhaps, is nothing more
Than drifting into space,
Into nothingness
Where everything and everyone we loved is lost
Without a trace.
Or else pure light and ecstasy
For those who hoped and loved
And created their own destiny
In music and in harmony.
For death will surely come to everyone
As we quite politely ignore and live a lie,
We grasp each day like a drowning man,
Desperately.
Good luck and wisdom make us smaller
Our shadow shortens in every way
Our meals grow lighter
And our limbs grow thinner
Our sight starts failing
And our hearing fools us
A prelude to the final act.
No longer money means a thing
No hoarding silver now or then.
All that matters is the love we give
And receive from others on the way.
‘Fear not’ I heard him say
In silent churches and on stormy beaches;
We set sail at last, our final voyage
Into the reddened western skies,
At quiet sunset.
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