Saturday 12 December 2009

Care Home Garden

They fall slowly, old folks,

on cold days

when holding-on hurts,

hurts their limbs too much.


One is fat, another boney,

all have mottled skin


and some wave as they go

ta-ra, flopping their

bumps on the ground

soon to be buried or burned.


All familiar. All follow

cyclical earth, gravity’s law,

heading for stones.


Some drop in sunlight,

some nighttime

and some fall gracefully; never

in rampage,

anger fear or sadness

because they release,


float,

and leave behind potential;

in

buds.


Thursday 10 December 2009

Hope

In the conservatory, watch plum jam slide

onto breakfast toast as we chatter

private thoughts, take-in rainy woods.

We talk of painting. How sometimes water and paint

run haphazardly and produce a miracle

– call it an image randomly created.


“It’s the Tao.” you say and grab a red

mouthful “Not human. Not water,

More than human and water together:

a form of magic we can’t understand.”

I chew bread and look out into a tangle

of trees that gesture, drip. I turn to you.


Something and nothing wells, wets, softens,

melts our eyes


and runs.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

Chess War

Deprived of passion we play chess

intertwining black and white men

not fearing death, the ancient bond,

when wooden statues feel no pain.


Forgetting, when I take a piece,

that hearts are battling, human blood

is pounding for connection here

but, miss the move, misunderstood.


A king falls and our hands embrace

across this board where chessmen stood;

we look each other in the eyes

of childhood, boyhood, brotherhood.

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Victor Frankl

Life – joy - suffering:
what’s it mean? Uniquely you!
Uncover your fate.

Monday 7 December 2009

Star

Inside my brain - planets circle round a star

- words I never said;

caged by electricity

lacking courage, sleeping in a bed.


No leverage, no spluttering

associations in my head;

lonely, aging, damned, archaic;

dormant, Yellowstone, dead.


Detail, detail! Yes, but sound matters

and words are never sterile, hungry, sleepy or unfed:

defy gravity, unlock a feeling force because

at least these lines, I say, are fully said.