Text Box: Newsletter Poems - June

 

 

 

 

One that might be going into my one man show…..

 

 

We have a cardboard box at home

Quite a big one

Might come in useful one day

So we keep it

Big green letters

Emblazon the khaki sides

Meisen Knodel

Fat Balls

Boules de Graisse

Not sure what

It was

Or what was in it

But realise

We all are gradually

Absorbing language

From each other

Till all the world

Is one big

Unified place

All speaking the same

 

 For my part

I’ve memorised

Meisen Knodel

Boules de Graisse

 

Last month I featured my ode to Germaine Greer and claimed it was the first poem I ever wrote but in performance recently as I made such an announcement another poem came into my head. Those who know me will recall that I can’t memorise my poems, the excuse being that I write so many, yet suddenly here was a poem coming back to me from when I was 15! I stood there and spoke it out word for word and here it is. (No that its brilliant or anything more a sort of novelty value)...

 

Telling a friend

The world will end

In 1981

Could go on

Says he doesn’t want

Mary Quant to grow old

No-tights-legs get cold

I wouldn’t mind

Being an old man

Wear groovy shirts

Do what I can

Telling the kids

What I did

When I was young

 

This next one is a group poem written as part of my residency at the archer Project in Sheffield…..

 

A Life With Nothing

 

Demons twitching

Drugs, booze

Shivers

Discontented, confused

Wanting more – Rattling!

Baffled – No dignity

Lost on your own

A life with nothing

Stressed – Mixed up

All this is

      Loneliness

Everything

     So difficult to do

Dreams don’t come true

Twisted anger – Hurt

At complete loss

This is madness

Nervousness at best

Weak

Lie down – Die

Go to sleep

Come on kids

Don’t do what we did

Don’t withdraw

Need protection

Don’t want more more more

 

An extract from Search for the Bluebell Pixie...

 

There is a spirit, living magic deep within all things

The rock the tree the flower and the stream

Steady simple is the being in the rock

Old old wisdom echoes steadily from the tree

And lucky those who see the flower fairy

Yet water changes constantly

The playful stream - The dewdrop’s dream

The hurried dash of waterfall

Dangerous Ocean - Floods foul motion

Just one spirit is them all

When she rises

We must calm her - Charm her

But first we play her - Be her

As she rises - Suddenly

Deep within the murky pond see rising green

Then whooshing up right over head and she is mean

Scream

Weave emerald arms as waterweed

Snarl – cackle - Say, “I am Jenny Greenteeth”

Icicles for fingernails

Bubbling fetid swamp for body

Hair as wild as storming gales

Boiling water for a voice

“I will eat thee”

“No not me”

Frightened children now retreat

As she lunges – us to eat

Fear her for she is the all that’s bad

Of water

But we’ve been good” - Tell her - Tell her

“I don’t believe”

 Tell her - A charming spell to weave

“What have you ever done?”

“That goodness smiles upon”

[Who can tell us something good they’ve done?]

Now we see her gently change

Her features rearrange

Up above us rises mer-maiden

Voluptuous and unarrobed

Hair flows golden

Sylkie – soft are words she’s spoken

“You are good children”

The spell is broken! - She is changing back to green

“Mean” now she’s Jenny Greenteeth

“You are Mean”

She changes back and forth

From good to mean

From silk to green

Good mean - Good – mean

What have we that can hold her-

In-between? - Reaching deep

We find the gift we keep,

That is for her - Sparkling - Glittering

Wave out, unfurl - Rainbow weaving:

Fish skin – Throw - Throw it in

She puts it on - All evil gone

See how I’m sylkie

Smiling down - All evil truly gone

I am the mer-woman

In awe the children - Happily calm

Just to be here with her - Feels so warm

“What brings you here?

Tell me so I may understand”

[We are stuck in fairyland]

Then you children - Who are so good

Who seek the Bluebell Pixie

Must travel through the wood

Listening - Smiling

Now may I gently warn

You must ask - The Leprechaun

But first I call upon

All the moisture within the land

Teardrops downpours fungal damp

The dew, spring rain the rising sap

To gather up above - As crystal beads of love

Looking up

We see iridescent droplets gather glistening

Sparkling in the light - Shining shimmering

And slowly lowering into sight

Dazzling beautiful just above the shoulder be

A minute miniature pretty pretty fairy

To each of you a gift

To travel with thee

You each now have a friendly fairy

Treat her kindly

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