a woman in love

a woman in love
can sing a song
and be heard
for miles around

joyous cadence
swooping over hills
through valleys
between trees
over rivers
into caves
and out again

her melody flies
up in the clouds
with the birds
through the sky
the silver linings
reverberate with her song
the rains fall

and

like a film
she is drenched
but she is happy
and she sings on:

"
i am in love
i am in love
i am in love
my darling i love you
like the animals
and nature
and god's loving touch
my love for you
is eternal

oh my love
my darling
sweetheart
atop the mountains
we sing
in the deserts
we sing
on a boat, at sea
in the rain
in the snow
we sing
the sun shines
the moon is bright
we sing

i am in love
i am in love
i am in love
your love
has freed me
i feel so free now
come to me
and sing
unchained

oh my love
my darling
i've hungered
for your touch
a long lonely time
and time goes by
so slowly
and time can do
so much
are you still mine?
i need your love
i need your love
god speed your love
to me

doors are open
windows are open
rooftops shake
with our song
our voices raised
in unison
and in love
like a flame flickers
my heart shines
it is warm
for you
my darling
sweetheart
"

and she dances away
into the distance
her song is over
her song is sung
but her love
remains

back

dream holiday

passport passed around
the sound
of laughter lifting up
describes the flush
the blush
on your face, you redden
hold out your hand, demand
the book
take it back, no turning back
through the door, you're sure
the plane
is waiting for you, but then you see
the runway's empty, run away
the dream
your dream holiday, just that
a dream, and nothing more it seems
the laughs
were because you had nowhere to go.

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birth, part 2

                                        and so on it goes,
the process begins anew; and she wakes.
behind her she sees the only way out
but it's closed off, now, it's gone,
it's never coming back, not ever again.
the carriage will hold her, protect her,
comfort her, clean her, ensure she is well;
but never again will it carry her home,
back to the world she had started to love,
even in those opening moments, and soon -
too soon - the memories fade: they're gone.

back

The Loneliness of Dead Trains

empty carriages rattle past,
shaking,
showing window after window
with no faces behind them
no eager eyes looking out
no children on the way to the beach
to grandma's, to school
no tired businessmen
no tired mothers
no elderly holidaymakers
no commuters, no drunks
no adulterers, no punks

they run the service
for the customers
the passengers
but the customers don't want it
they don't need it
they don't like the rattling,
shaking.

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loose change

our summer has finally ended
and winter has begun
old damages finally mended
old bindings fall, undone.

a page is turned and it's empty
the chapter needs to begin.

the sun has set now at last
the night will prove to be long
today is consigned to the past
gone, the chance to right wrongs.

the book has never been written
and it never will begin.

you close your eyes to sleep
and dream of what has been done
the two of us fell in deep
in comfort, now, we have won.

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Come Sisters

Come sisters; for all our brothers -
Do not let them fall into tombs;
The mistakes made by forefathers
Whose plans all have died in our wombs.

Come for our sons, who die today,
Fighting men for a cause unjust;
Lies revered as the only way,
In the name of a warlike lust.

For all your service in the war
Is fought and persevered in vain;
When all is caught in hist'ry's maw,
Remember none, nary a name:

Mere numbers if you win or lose,
The generals are whose names we learn -
Yet still the recruits wait in queues;
Deep within they feel fires burn.

For he who dies has lost his world,
No matter what the wars he fought;
The armies are like forests felled -
The rulers, still, remain untaught:

The last war that they fought was lost,
To bloody fogs of erelong time;
It, so we're told, was at no cost,
Excluding lives of brothers mine.

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football verse and reminiscent rhyming uselessness

Do you remember that fateful day
When City scored a goal?
Oh how we told them they could play,
And how they played with soul.

Do you remember, oh, years ago
When the referee was feared?
But now he's there just for show,
Which strikes me as rather weird.

Do you remember just yesterday
When the pitch had a big flood?
There was no game, they couldn't play;
The ball got stuck in the mud.

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Crumple zone

If you're worried,
if you're panicking,
when you're going down and there seems no hope,
spare a thought for those in the crumple zone:
The nearer you are to the tail, the safer you are -
and you wonder why you can't use a mobile phone?

Imagine the calls,
imagine the panic,
if someone could phone from their seat at the front:
"Well darling I might be late for dinner tonight,
and when I get there I might be in a box or two,
if they find all of me" - just imagine the fright!

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Final entry

Well, a girl called Sheryl Lee
Just handed in her life to me
And with a cursory glance or three
I know that I am blessed to see
That everything in her life could be
Much better than it was, but she
Says if given the opportunity
She wouldn't change or want to be
Anything she never was, and I agree
With her final words; she made a plea:
Live your life and keep your diary free.

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Do you talk?

Do you talk?
Do you speak a thousand words,
Like a painting on canvas,
Or are your words unsaid,
And unsayable,
Like a picture unpainted,
A blank canvas,
A palimpsest of nothing,
Nothing upon nothing,
Deep beneath the surface,
The empty surface,
Nothing,
Nothing,

nothing.

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