| SPITTING
PIPS
|
|
1.
SUMMER
__(tree)
|
The
hazel is for dividing —
bows that bend,
a wand to point
|
2. SUMMER
__(city)
|
__crane
tops meet grey
__no
magic here
|
3.
SUMMER
__(hill
walk)
|
after
the climb
we flop and gape at clouds
dreaming Cockaigne
|
4.
NO SEASON
__(middle
age)
|
__a
few lines of a book
__these
days
|
5.
MOON
|
moon
symbols —
each journal becomes
a list of things to do in time
|
6.
AUTUMN
__(age) |
__my
reflective muse
__rejects
decline
|
7.
AUTUMN
__(age)
|
downhill
racers' club,
got my sere and yellow pass
let's go gentles!
|
8.
AUTUMN
__(insects)
|
__come
September
__the
tiny golden flies are back
|
9.
NO SEASON
__(river)
|
float
in the eddies
get to know
the pools and bends
|
10.
LOVE
___(body)
|
__she’s
skinny-dipped and covered
__in
drips on her bumps
|
11.
HUMAN LIFE
___(birthday)
|
loud
gaps — gone
family dispersed
to dusk flight
|
12.
HUMAN LIFE
___(loss)
|
__I
shout I'm alone and wake
__to
the tickle of your lips
|
13.
HUMAN LIFE
___(phenomena)
|
at
dinner
we wait for someone
but who?
|
14.
WINTER
___(food)
|
__melted
ice stains the cloth
__with
isles and lakes
|
15.
WINTER
___(sound)
|
the
rich liquid trickle
of the water fountain
in audiology
|
16.
WINTER
___(garden)
|
__amid
dead spiders I watch
__drumming
rain souse my bonfire
|
17.
WINTER
___(walk)
|
to
warm ourselves
we talk whisky and fruit cake
for five sodden miles
|
18.
TRAVEL
___(Japan)
|
__all
the best malts lined
__up
above a bar in Kyoto
|
19.
TRAVEL
___(bicycle)
|
as
if cycling homeward
pedalled legs go round
the bike grunges uphill
|
20.
TRAVEL
___(rail)
|
__the
vixen on the bank
__stares
unfazed at our train
|
21.
MOON
___(journey)
|
Dad
can't explain why
however fast we go
the moon stays with us
|
22.
HUMAN LIFE
___(self)
|
__there
in the window
__the
beard has gone
|
23.
LOVE
___(self)
|
chanced
mirror to face
large roundedness,
vanished skinny bones
|
24.
LOVE
___(marriage)
|
__is
it me or has this bed
__got
smaller since we bought it?
|
25.
LOVE
___(loss)
|
the
harder I scrub
this grease mark off the wall
the more I remember
|
26.
NO SEASON
___
|
__a
postcard for Ludwig
__signed,
‘love Pinsent’
|
27.
NO SEASON
___(city)
|
I
hold my breath
unrested metal arm sweeps —
narrowly misses
|
28.
NO SEASON
___(sport)
|
__a
better bat, he'd've said,
__would've
snicked it t't' keeper
|
29.
NO SEASON
___(friendship)
|
friends
from the past call
we catch up awkwardly —
end up spitting pips
|
30.
CITY
___(past)
|
__an
inflatable pig
__flew
over Battersea
|
31.
CITY
___(divination)
|
Chung
Fu, Inner Truth
and the difficulty of influence,
fishes that circle in a bowl
|
32.
CITY
___(mind,
body split)
|
__the
snags life changes bring, hands
__trawl
about a tube of steroid
|
33.
SPRING
___(garden)
|
you're
taking chances:
left yer dahlias in the ground
all bloomin' winter?
|
34.
SPRING
___(burial)
|
__you
curse dry sticks, hard earth,
__I say
they'll look different in May
|
35.
SPRING
___(flower,
blossom)
|
rub
it in your palms
then split the milky fibre,
blow the broken rush
|
36.
SPRING
___
|
__drifted
in on the breeze
__a waterless
landscape. |
