North Star

 Dreams, of course, - are something –

(but shadows)

compared to green grass or thorny roses,

froth of hawthorn in early spring,

summer’s lazy river bank

or cooling hedgerows brown in fall

when a nightingale rouses and carols;

(but, growing older)

not wiser,

I found a shining

- constant –

certainly you,

my love.

Easter

Some regard

life as hard –

but when a snowflake, catapulted

from  a  cracking storm, falls and

settles on an

open palm,

beneath

a cross;

it’s also soft.

Transformation

 Dear Andrew, Thank you

- all of you – the other evening,

for a pub of drinking men,

drunks and fat boys, teenagers:

all a father needs when out for a pint

with his wife and special son,

walking up cobbles and drinking down

lemonade, fosters, ice and a slice,

but it was dancing at the juke box

- retro rock – loud as a propeller

that got the locals up on the dance floor

- oh yes, and the Down’s boy

smiling like a sunrise

turning. With love. Sincerely yours,

Auntie in the nursing home

 Laughing Buddha, red as a baby;

laughing nurses waddle bottoms;

battering rainspots – let me in boys,

window patter, nurses patter,

‘have a drink, love’, ‘turn you over’,

fateful fingers, losing touch.

Romancifying Vincent

 There was a young Dutchman called Vincent

who painted the postman and peasant

living in hovels,

loving the brothels,

relationships always unpleasant.

In Etton, his father, a preacher,

his mother, a climber, a reacher:

starry, his passion,

conflict, a mission,

intensity always his teacher.

In ten years of painting, he shows

how to catch nature’s heaven, god knows!

Fighting his battle,

‘til a death rattle

arched him away with the crows.

That's a first

 says Fred, the train guard,

when Andrew hands him tickets

and smiles ‘I love you!’

Work

 My proposal was important

(had to be there tomorrow)

lots of kudos hanging off;

reputation, dollar, sweeter promise

and words poured out from fingertips

to keyboard-taps, heart of laptop,

blah, qwerty, blah,

until an old traveler

sat down, took off his hat

as a youth’s rucksack turned and caught

him on a grizzled head. I smiled

‘it’s all about awareness’ I suggested

‘yes, I never saw this train so crowded’

and off we go into hello;

hello my newborn friend,

before goodbye – we try – our best – and fly.