New Bard

When the page is laid out
our magazine winks,
aiming to spin through a litany of
images, deeply distracting and rich.

10 step success, we’re branding for viral,
making it glossy, a number one hit;
catching the eyeballs, designing for impact,
chasing celebs for a niche.

Selling, competing dear;
luvvie, the storyboards,
adverts and partners, our vision.

Developing strategy,
SEO, CEO, workflow and cashflow,
strip teasing and fleecing - by spinning our yarns.

Voice

Something from Nothing
and a word reverberates
away to Nothing.

Evolution

There seems a point
when even balance gets into balance;
like a see-saw or a weigh-scale horizontal
or when my car’s milo went through
222222 miles;
all those little ducks in a row
and one day, every year,
all places on our planet
get almost exactly 12 hours of daylight.

Almost, that is, almost
in balance - almost those miles,
exactly diurnal? - but never,
not quite; a smidgen, a pulse
out of whack and somehow, god willing,
it seems better like that?

A Willow bends

It seems like only when
he thinks he’s got it right
that a surge of ancient strength
rises up his skeleton

but it’s only when her words
begin to proves him wrong
that he starts to understand
how bones can slowly melt;

made of humble jelly
bending through a brittle husk
and, in the heat of battle, really
nothing’s worth too much.

She tells him – til he gets it,
working out what strength is.

Supreme

…and I travel backwards on a train
knowing I’ll return tonight, back to the start
station - not in daylight - in the dark…

…but in this light, many clouds are hanging
united and disunited,
there – a seal; there – a lying man;
there – a dinosaur and there – a map of Sicily;
and there, and there and there… and there…

…but wait - now look - a shape unrealized
and, no matter how I try,
my mind refuses to conceive
one shape that hangs and moves
imperious on high;
a glory…

Flutter

A leaf like a slowly closing hand
drops off

a great mother of a
tree - letting go

(irresistibly
it lets go)

in a shutterdown
of winter’s paler light.

How wonderful like a butterfly
to flutter, tumble, still;

only caught by wind - not knowing
that the lattice bark has started on a spree

with sun and rain and waving snow,
of soundness and repair.

Witness

Imagine looking out
from way inside yourself
as a baby, or a boy with
Down’s:
without any crazy
constructs, rules.

This place would seem
unsafe – a dream!

And your strategy?
How would you get through
a moment, next few minutes, hours,
when you couldn’t hide,
or run, or surf the web a while?
I’ll tell you what – you’d smile!