A peacock may be flashy and LSD bright
Her glow will turn your mind to wonderful sins
Soft feathers bouncing in an oversized gay
Flamboyant for all to envy
When I gaze at her it makes me sick
So far removed from efficiency and clarity
Natural selection has not found its truth
She has withstood the fair hand of nature
Our logic has mistakenly granted a wide birth
Why not a finch of delicate touch
That bird of subtly, carved in reality
Must I endure
Oh this selfish beast
Beauty is her trap and I her victim
No more I say
Your inefficiency is my deepest regret
A web spun from instinct
Decades of practise with nothing to show
But existence maintained
A blood line upheld
What has it taken to survive
Other than the courage
To sit and wait
As the hours fade
Waiting and waiting
For innocence to stumble
Into your web of lost time
Into your clutches of death
…
And it’s broken
That misty white thread
Meets its own demise
In the hands of a wading gardener
I did not recognise your strife
My innocence took your home
Now you rebuild
As you always have
May I sit with you
Get caught in your web of patience
Fall into your clutches
Ready for our next meal
I can feel them talking in their new world
In the clouds that echo above the sky
Silently, my mind floats up to call on them both
Silently, I watch
I don’t know why I feel close to the dead
To grandparents who left in years past
Maybe the anxiety and pressures of earth fade
Maybe we are unshackled from the forces here
Up there, time doesn’t move so fast
But it’s not slow or dull or dead
A peace that breeds our truest love
At peace with the deceased
I used to think
This soul of mine had an older nature
My gasping for air in youth
Found maturity early
It wasn’t real though
30 feels like 13
Souls wrapped in flesh work different
My warm cheeks age
And skin stretches
Yet my soul stays on
Like gliding to a never ending stop
One gear for the trip
My souls clock doesn’t tick
It started old
and will end young
On this day we notice how some pass undisturbed and still. To often, the hands of time hand us little, so our searching hearts stay hidden in shade. Love that remains elusive, not easily made.
Yet in an old city finding its way, two souls were woven by salt and sea. A land of dragons and old country gave life to a pairing beginning today and ready for tomorrow, come what may.
As the years roll by, they’ll remember this: This collision of love that holds them. That whispers and screams in equal measure. That never dims or fades. That through pain or pleasure, hears one another.
We, those who love you are richer for your gift to each other. The endless laughs and the endless fun will ring in our ears and in our memories. In our own tales and in our old stories.
Let us dance for what’s to come. As you leap from the shade into the warming light. As time sharpens your depth of heart. As you grow old together, year by year. As your love collides, as it did here.
Why do we seek the wildness
Disorder and irregularity
Why do we seek the truth
In the depths of self-willed land
Land that proceeds by its own laws
Listens to its own spirit
Protrudes confidence of place
A blunt force of reckoning
I want that for myself
Let me breathe this air a fresh
Oxygen of the sea that brushes in
To lungs longing for harvest
Early enough to avoid the wasps
Late enough to soak the sun
On the banks of the river
The summer has begun
Out of lockdown
Into the air
London streets heave
A free affair
Beers on mass
Like bees who won’t settle
A drink from each pub
Petal to petal
The sun finds it dusk
As the night draws near
Times of sorrow
We just want more beers
The river bends
Twisting between brick
Loaded by humans
Building their nests
City smoke settles
Yet water vanishes
Escapes through shoots
Down hidden holes
An unknown world
Quiet and secret
Never stops moving
Trickling and trickling
Welcome noble advisers
You’ve skated this lake before
Made the mistakes we are yet to make
Returned hands fresh from the fall
Your impact will be instant
Give us confidence
A new found protection
A sky high fortress
So long as accountability still drips it’s rain
So long as listening seeps down to our committed hearts
So long as experimenting continues unrelenting
So long as leading is not a second thought
Our success
Lies with us
Like yours
Gone before us
This frozen lake beckons
To skate it’s ridges
To fail or to fall
Will be our mission abridged
Your council we seek
To get us far
Spot the pitfalls
Raise our bar
Yet no two paths are exactly alike
Where structures align, details differ
Our route will not be dealt to us
But by us
The moment belongs to this team
Who dare to give their skin
We’ll lean on your council
Where the ice wears thin
This brisk walk might get me there
To city streets and London air
I make the train, seconds to spare
Find my seat and fix my hair
The bulking trees of Earlsfield clear
Brick top roofs of ‘Claham’ appear
My journeys south start from here
But I’m heading north, london is near
Vauxhall means trains and not much else
I’m here every day but come by myself
Men and women of pittance and wealth
Give it worth, but not in of itself
Our final stop at Waterloo
Sparkly buildings all shiny and new
A city to throw my all into
Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
