High with the tide

Only stand before this view
Look and look and look
Give your senses, all your self
Ride the tide
For beauty’s in full flood

There the mountains layering afloat
Right upon the edge
Surely chiffon?
Evening wear midnight smoky blue
Nearer the patches linen, drab
Coarse woven
Where the wheat is cut
Then here and here and here
Bright yellow dusters
Flamboyant magician flung
Fluttered to earth
Singing sunflower fields

Etch sketch pencil pen
Palette of paint
Watercolour oil gouache
Chalky in pastel blurring
Fine line, suggestion
Or strong, brasher, bold
Today, lovingly sewn, a patchwork
Hand-stitched
Embroidery, beading, silk thread

The artist responds, leaps up, it’s a must!
With a painting a poem a prayer
When the force the imperative sings
Of the beauty that’s rising
High with the tide, torrential
Quenching and soothing the soul

July 29th 2010, Hounoux

Hung in my head

After a day spent eye to eye
Intense in scrutiny, silent
In watch and learn, watch and learn
I lie down weary for sleep
And sudden my head is pulsing
Ripples that spread and grow
Nearest, the grey the blue the green
Stalk and leaf stalk and leaf
A mirage hung in the air
Closest the tall ones
Huge seed heads, curving in domes
Grope grope for the colour
The pattern the rise and the fall
Ochre sienna umber, pointillist dots
Swirling stippled and stripes
And as for the yellow, what is the yellow
Not lemon, sunshine or yolk
Petal and petal
Sprung from the base, curling and folding
Blown in the wind
Vibrant, glowing, surreal
Tripping exotic, essence of zing
They pulse and expand, ripples
Far as the mind can see
The thousands the millions, glorious
Hung in my head, for me

24th July 2010 Hounoux

Small storm at daybreak

Small storm at daybreak

So somebody cued the timpanist in
Up with the sticks now, ready to roll
Shake off the torpor, this be the hour
Time for a drum-roll, you at the back

With a clashing of symbols, bashety-bash
A chorus of raindrops, splashety-splash
Mahler, Tchaikovsky, we’re in full flood
Battles and dramas running with blood
Turn up the volume, let’s have a ball
Rattle the windows, the rafters, the walls

But hold now, be steady, ease it right down
Thank you for coming, for doing your bit
Enlivening us all with the best of your art
Back to the crossword, Sudoku, your book
Try not to slump or slacken the jaw
High summer we warned you, not much demand
The sun’s in ascendance, no cloud in the sky
Parching and baking, cracking the land
A promise of slaking rolled in your drums
Just pitter and patter, drops in the sand

21st July 2010, Hounoux

I stand before this view

I stand before this view

The only trips I ever take
No drug, no acid dropped
But let me stand before this view
Watch the light grow mellow
Kindness of evening tiptoeing over the fields
This patch sunflowers yellow yellow
Glowing as the spot lights
Fake modest, though they whisper
Loud in unison
Check us out, come on
Admit you’re stunned
We dazzle and outrage
Too gorgeous, queens
Preening, arrayed for carnival
Whilst others daily dress
Quakerly in buff, corn cut
Or dark cypress stood single
And sentinels in rows.
Sweep slowly sunlight highlight
Till colour’s all but gone
Then watch the moon
Just over half, a vodka lemon slice
Rise rise in lapis
Precious shining blue
Now feel my head take flight
The only trips I ever take
I stand before this view

20th July 2010, Hounoux

I think of peaches

I think of peaches

I think of peaches
Left too long, or pears
Gone thick and sleepy
Cotton wool, all density
And fuzziness, where
Once cool liquid shone
A cataract a milky caul
Has crept inside my head
And muddied clarity

But as with egg-box cress I grew
The small impatient me
I watch and listen now
And blessedly
A germ a seed of poetry
Will sprout and feel its tender way
Upwards to the sun
Spread and flourish, leaf and flower
A poem grown on cotton wool
That gropes for clarity

18th July 2010, Hounoux

Chicken wishbone, star or clover

Chicken wishbone, star or clover

It’s so simple
Love and marriage
Make the vows
And forward march
Through the archway
Roses strewn
Here the signposts
Step together
Arm in arm
No stumbling

It’s so complex
Labyrinthine
Maze with dragons
Hard as hell
Few surviving
Sad statistics
Clearly not a fairytale

If one only
Knew the secrets
Recipes and google maps
Troubles shared
And doubled joys
Make a wish
Chicken wishbone, star or clover
Close your eyes and
Take the plunge
This one this time
Love and marriage
Make the vows
And forward march

18th July 2010, Hounoux

Moon hung

Moon hung

Moon hung
Incandescent
Corner of the casement
Pagan siren silent calling
Glory

Glory
Blue black thick black
After midnight dazzle
Queen serene Diana splendid
Breathless

Breathless
Pulsing softly
Distant frog persistent
Summer crickets early birdsong
Moon hung

28th June 2010, Hounoux, full moon

Love in the long-haul

Love in the long- haul

I married a man named kindness
Not flash erratic or mean
Not given to moods, fickle, with sulks
Just funny and constant and good
I’d dabbled a bit with sultry and Welsh
A writer of verse a singer of songs
With him it was up, the joy and the bliss
But then it was down to the vale
A man of his landscape, brooding
No danger of daily or dull
Yes I’ve dabbled a bit in the days of my youth
Seduced by the romance
Signed up for the ride
Still sometimes it calls me
Glimpsed in a book
Played out in a weepy on film
A sweep of Rachmaninov
Piano and strings
But faced with the daily the dull
To be done, teeth to be gritted
Bills to be paid
Rows to be hoed, lawns to be mowed
The digging and weeding
The laundry the dealing
With tiresome buffoons, the grist and the grind
I’m glad for the man named kindness
My port after too many storms
For the gift to see love in the long-haul
In funny and constant and good

7th July 2010, Hounoux, for A with love

A million starbursts

A million starbursts

Take the darkest sky at midnight
Cast me off without a guide
I will paint a million starbursts
Then a billion trillion more
Scattered diamonds incandescent
Roman candles meteor shower
Falling random like a blessing
Silver raindrops on the dust
I will tip my brush in shimmer
Iridescence glorious glow
Till the heavens shine and dazzle
Dizzy dazzle spinning light
Lovely luminous the glitter
Where a pattern is emerging
Landing strip or lighthouse beam
And I’ll follow follow follow
When I’ve found love’s pathway home

2nd July 2010, Hounoux, inspired by Justin