THE BAD SEED
Below you'll find the first few lines of a selection of poetry from my first collection, The Bad Seed', click on the various links to read the whole poem. 'The Bad Seed' was published in the UK by Stride in 1998. Technically, it is now sold out, and no longer available from bookshops, although I did recently see one being sold on Amazon for twice the retail price, so someone out there must think it's a collector's item. I still have about 20 copies left, and these are for sale at the regular price. All copies purchased directly from me will be signed too, so you may well end up with a collector's piece on your hands. Click here if you want to purchase a copy.
The Bad Seed (title sequence)
This one is sunset red, rich as womb blood,
Thick as flesh:
It tastes of fire and sex...
A Diet Of Worms
Twists pretty face fine featured,
Walks on fragrant heels,
Bubbles wine & laughter...
Motorway Ghost
Monosynthesis, this raw jazz in sherbet fizzed arteries
Of motorway madness and inarticulated, sublimated rage,
This flesh pulped in God's hands, the saviour surgeon
Who makes and unmakes us in his own image...
From The Wondrous Burgh Of Eden Another Angel Falls
Ether sky on Cramond Promenade/ sun sinking into cold darkness/ oil black firth/
carious mouth/ its halitous breath stinging the eyes...
Ma Durga's Lament
All my children are drowning:
Time is a river
And the television is violent...
Red Dreams And Razorblades
Imagine.
I see the hero-figure/ hear the wind on the window/
Feel it cold on my feet/ I'm frightened/ on my own...
Songs Are Like Tattoos
tHIS night/ i am strung up as two CATs on heat/ up the
wALLs & halfway cross the ceiling/ REELING/ three in tHE
fucked up MORNING/ screaming (silently, in the silent...
Not Stillbirth, Not Rebirth
Untouchable night. Rainbows riven & forged
in rusted iron. Sweet Christ! To be born
into this! The light mutates into splintering...
She Holds Herself So Tight The Skin Turns White
she holds herself so tight the skin turns white/
the skin so tight, she curls/ an embryo form/
a curve of laughter behind mirrors/ she agonises...
Alone And In Tatters
The moon curls in upon itself,
Enfolding the light,
Tight into her barren belly...
Harbour Of Still Waters
If in this doll's house ever I scream out
I am gagged with marshmallow clouds
And made to smile...
The Sylkie Boy
Whispering. Wishing. With the water washing over.
Swish swish. I wish, I wish. And him limp, listless. Lying lumpen
and leaden; deadened, decaying...
In A House Of Fire
Away from the scorched sky
In the entrails of this cave
Even the darkness is red...
Valium Sunset
Rainbows & spindrift. The clouds roll in.
Headshroud. I roll another decadent cigarette
And head for the doorstep of wheeling whirling
chaffinches. Press siren bells into my skull...
Lotus
Kissing two in the morning
With some foreign urgency
In my blood...
Dream Eclipses Reality
Yesterday I painted
Great big happy faces
On all the skyscrapers In the Gorbals...
Tindersticks
Sometimes we touch in the deepest place:
It is not that blue and red make purple...
Closing The Door
Opening the coffin lid, Candy
Your marbled clotted face
Appalled me...
The Bad Seed (title sequence)
This one is sunset red, rich as womb blood,
Thick as flesh:
It tastes of fire and sex...
A Diet Of Worms
Twists pretty face fine featured,
Walks on fragrant heels,
Bubbles wine & laughter...
Motorway Ghost
Monosynthesis, this raw jazz in sherbet fizzed arteries
Of motorway madness and inarticulated, sublimated rage,
This flesh pulped in God's hands, the saviour surgeon
Who makes and unmakes us in his own image...
From The Wondrous Burgh Of Eden Another Angel Falls
Ether sky on Cramond Promenade/ sun sinking into cold darkness/ oil black firth/
carious mouth/ its halitous breath stinging the eyes...
Ma Durga's Lament
All my children are drowning:
Time is a river
And the television is violent...
Red Dreams And Razorblades
Imagine.
I see the hero-figure/ hear the wind on the window/
Feel it cold on my feet/ I'm frightened/ on my own...
Songs Are Like Tattoos
tHIS night/ i am strung up as two CATs on heat/ up the
wALLs & halfway cross the ceiling/ REELING/ three in tHE
fucked up MORNING/ screaming (silently, in the silent...
Not Stillbirth, Not Rebirth
Untouchable night. Rainbows riven & forged
in rusted iron. Sweet Christ! To be born
into this! The light mutates into splintering...
She Holds Herself So Tight The Skin Turns White
she holds herself so tight the skin turns white/
the skin so tight, she curls/ an embryo form/
a curve of laughter behind mirrors/ she agonises...
Alone And In Tatters
The moon curls in upon itself,
Enfolding the light,
Tight into her barren belly...
Harbour Of Still Waters
If in this doll's house ever I scream out
I am gagged with marshmallow clouds
And made to smile...
The Sylkie Boy
Whispering. Wishing. With the water washing over.
Swish swish. I wish, I wish. And him limp, listless. Lying lumpen
and leaden; deadened, decaying...
In A House Of Fire
Away from the scorched sky
In the entrails of this cave
Even the darkness is red...
Valium Sunset
Rainbows & spindrift. The clouds roll in.
Headshroud. I roll another decadent cigarette
And head for the doorstep of wheeling whirling
chaffinches. Press siren bells into my skull...
Lotus
Kissing two in the morning
With some foreign urgency
In my blood...
Dream Eclipses Reality
Yesterday I painted
Great big happy faces
On all the skyscrapers In the Gorbals...
Tindersticks
Sometimes we touch in the deepest place:
It is not that blue and red make purple...
Closing The Door
Opening the coffin lid, Candy
Your marbled clotted face
Appalled me...