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New Year at Hogmanay?
Two-faced, you hand me a manilla file °
of all last year, daring me to discard °
worn-out narratives, to frame bright scenes.
January 1
Two-faced, you hand me a manilla file °
of all last year, daring me to discard °
worn-out narratives, to frame bright scenes.
After the exhibition
I could have lingered longer, spun a stronger °
bond with fertile space which prints and paintings °
silently watched over, drunk far deeper …
‘I chalk poems on brick walls’
Sometimes I chalk poems on brick walls,
one-day wonders rain scrubs clean at night,
and shout to passers-by to come and hear.
A place to keep my shadow
I’m looking for a place to keep my shadow,
a hidden niche in urban countryside,
a place of tree and stream and muddy hollow
The Solemn Fool
Unlicensed fool! Thay claims thair pitch
outside the court. The king and priest
declare thum of all men the least
A nightmare in his head?
Could there have been a kidnapping? A murder?
I listened to his muddled account, uneasy.
‘The flame of outrage leaps…’
Today I will cycle on the Birmingham canal
on the surface of the water to the bird reserve.
Today I will cycle to the bird reserve
and build a cairn in the middle of the lake.
‘Let him be loved’
*Cure*
I asked the doctor what was wrong with me.
She held her stethoscope to my amygdala.
‘Earth called me faithless’
The city writes a city in its margins
And writes another city at its core.
The city writes the lives of other people –
Erases some, engraves some in its stone.
Place wild flowers on my coffin
Gather the tidy concepts. Light the fire.
Let it consume convenient explanation.