Gnomecore

 

Greet the day like a warrior

Elastic coated hard faced

Driving a truck that’s as tall as a skyscraper

Looking down navigating the roads

Genesis was there with some others

Pass the batons choke on smoke

Face caked in defiance plastered all over

Protesting our liberty

Coagulating crimson crust forms around the mouth

Puffing fury sputters

Lurching and leering 

Fabulous folly in an orchard of rotten fruit

Must we fixate on the distillation of hate

Can we not just forage for fun

Like we used to when

We were stupid and young

Full of idiot joy

Rolling in the hay of our uncertainty

Without a single care

In the roly-poly world

Now we must walk blindfolded through

Liveable lives as if on a tight rope

Which threatens to snap

Alligators snap at our heals

 

To sustain our dreams beyond the anxious

Garden path  we line our hearts with sun baked aquatic ornaments

Snails climb the back of a faded plastic mermaid

Who smiles demurely in a cheap elusive way

How many winter frosts have those forgiving breasts endured 

The tangled netting folds into the hollow of the pond

A naughty gnome flashes ignominiously

Worms wriggle effortlessly selflessly

Knowing their purpose is to wriggle

We dig in short of brain cells

Hard consciousness breathes against the time

This field craft of ours

Lies across the day

Backs on fire

Lost in the flex of bone and muscle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 POEM FOR PRYNNE

 

Tangled web of night

you forced me over star bright

menthol spears steered towards the mind gate

mimic the reflex image moored in more than motions aspect

rusting against an old iron fence leading into an empty field of meaning so small in increments like meagre savings

accumulating slowly in a wren’s heart brittle after morning’s frost

don't ask what does it mean, but how do I feel now ?

after all this life has happen without my will

thrown as we are

clowns all dancing on the edge of the sink

spend a lifetime carving out a cave of words

sitting in the chance equations of the library

sketching a world fit to live for

 dancing into outer space

a Bhodisattva riding the rails 

eye’s watering at the spectacle

of all it has been all it will be forever

what the words unlock is immobilising thought in favour of a vehement perplexity

you knew this and let it flower into thoughts braced by the sound of air

moving in and out of the lungs

breathing at last.

 

 

STEAMING

Another day to break the glass stand poems against the horror of forever poor but we should be grateful they say the ones that know the truth ? of inherited wealth but that’s unkind is it not reframe refreeze repackage reimagine the world every day to paint a better picture youth is steaming energy without revolutionary direction once again like the riots its ok they’re only teenagers but if they really knew what power they had that is what scares the higher ups shit could actually change smash down the walls lights go out as Paul Weller sang all those years ago when we were in the grip of another tyranny that does not seem so bad now so force the voice out and skim through a host of yet more ridiculous jobs that we will never get another slippery algorithm runs through our fingers drawing them up like a bunch of unspooled time running away unreal city over and over again keep going don’t look back explore the inner most but retain a hard shell and sell sell sell to come back home again and bask in sweet ennui wrapped around like a blanket against the tv’s glow and the grip of a small hot hand that does not yet know the cruelty of the world.

 

 

 6 x 6 x 6

 

ocean subtract cross currents rip tide 

hungry wanting open heart remnant surgery

please be ghost Lenten proxy antidote

auto-da-fe shift response battle tech breathing

onyx frisson grave hover withhold gamete 

triangle orange fusion pelt fusty snowman

 

lumpen onion mandible extortion gripe siren

obvious extend to this we each arrive

chip shop hip op sweet belong

down on the coast horror vibes

rental beast untangled flavour of south

you know you know you know 

 

on the floor host acumen bereft

super fresh gilded gagged and googled

went by up there no good

refreshed lactose beast wisdom grave bespoke

muscle now sea amulet begrimed star

look it’s coming we belong here 

 

 

 

discreet orange fur overgrown hover shadow

but we must offshore held together muddle

crisp opaque Sauron adapt figure mist

bring because you can if so

levelled attempt mustard seed aroma

you’re sure aren’t you they asked

 

tangent to sleep assaulted techno twist

peppermint rhino goes global at last

she saw a way through it

chanting cult recumbent foraging for filth

occult wanderer no need to refresh

window prism vacuity collapsed sentinel

 

remember you’re a Womble he shouted

drugged beat over-ground station access

tower hamlets frisson express meal deal

if it won’t happen it won’t

happen together insane river ploughed black

humble pavements sword forest arrive now.

 

 

 

 

 

 Time to feel good about what we know. You planted seeds now watch them grow. 

This wasn’t meant to rhyme 

so discord comes in to break

the line; while Coltrane blows his heavy horn 

people clap on this Sunday morning

dark thoughts bloom rapid without warning

is it the future

or the past

we're mourning?

 DEREK BAILEY

"The way we live now is no good, corrupted by social media, sold out to the highest bidder, psychotically entrapped to a life time of subscriptions we have to maintain or else we are binned. Condemned to a life of false luxury we fiercely protect our entitlement to."     R-Totale

Listen to the topography of the lungs masked faces dancing in a room were words have lost their meaning so we just become person 1 person 2 and so on

You are enjoying ] your self {

Don’t think just listen

Scratched record modifies improvisation impose new structure through interplay don’t stop to contextualise temperate utilitarian orthodoxies flowering in early spring Hackney back garden evokes spirit of optimism given legs by lungs and fingers and the finding of…

Work is boring and it doesn’t pay

So you might as well keep playing 

So anyway time to clean the toilet again

Time to watch the sun break through the grey inhale of bleach smell reaches

A roaring crescendo in time for a late lunch with out to lunch

Each resonant moment lasts for ever in its own space and time 

every second its own eco system ultimately forming a billion rays of trillion year old star light reaching our eyes at once.

 

 THE MODERN INDIVIDUAL AS ANCIENT MONOLITH

Sometimes it will be just a title turning a thought into memories

that gets the heart moving. What comes next depends on the wind

blowing cobwebs hung from fragile branches.

One day it could be radio waves or something else emerging 

from darkness at the back of the shelf. 

Ran up five flights opposite an old remembered house.

Woke confused from a morning nap with 

a head like a washing machine, heart racing to figure

out, how can we be monoliths inside this culture?

What grace can we claim back from the vultures tearing at our flesh?

Up and open to ashes, we slip away into vague horizons

that require neat replicas of our full on-line persistence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

QUIET DOMESTIC LIFE IS 

Waiting for life to happen

is it

happening

not all music is special

sometimes a sound is a song