Journey of Words

Tag: Life

  • First Bus Out of St Louis

    I am the passengerAnd I cry and I cryI cry through the day’s black sideI see the last bars pour out at fiveYeah, when neon lights the skyYou know when nothing looks rightI am the passengerI’ve emptied my last glassI look into your soul, absence of lightI see the bars kick out at fiveI see →

  • rock, paper

    friendshipcan come from many placesa teacher’s seating plana workplacea regular bus queuea space on a football terraceit outlaststhe jobeducationthe commutethe matchthe seasonnothing will lastso longas friendshipdo not ever confuseyour friendshipwith other thingslike businessor lustor alcoholnothing will lastso wellas friendship~n.b. NaPoWriMo 2025 Day 17 prompt: friendship CLP 17/04/2025 →

  • blessing in disguise

    I dropped some books off at a charity shop, came out with two CDs, one being the Johnny Cash album American V, A Hundred Highways. Inside that CD case was also American IV, The Man Comes Around. Worth it for the first number alone. CLP 15/04/2025 →

  • Gernika: Wiederholungszeichen

    Somewhere a Palestinian Picasso daubs a canvasOr chisels stoneNeedles coloured thread through linenScribbles out a poemScratches notes onto stavesAs fragments of shells are pickedFrom the hands and feetThe crown and sideOf the freshly crucified~n.b. NaPoWriMo 2025 combining art and music in poetry. Gernika April 1937, twinned with Gaza, April 2025. CLP 13/04/2025 →

  • Symphony of Apasmara / Ignorance

    AllegroAll is newSparklesColours brightThe goldfinches’ chitteringFills my headI dance, runLeap like a lambLife’s a gambolOh! Joy of birthPerpetual SpringSuch happinessInnocenceBlissAndanteNow?No!I’m happyDo not want toGrowKeep that awayI’ll growlBarkHide in shadowsFrom your knowledgeWhy tie me downTo learning?When I can playUnencumberedBy understandingScherzoCome then, “Teacher”Yahboo!Sucks!Catch meIf you canI’ll miss the busTurn up late for classBunk from schoolListen to cricketOn →

  • on reconciliation

    to wipe the slate cleanopen your eyes to their painwash their wounds with your tears~n.b. Coventry cathedral, blitzed and rebuilt with this sculpture ‘Reconciliation’ (Reunion), by Josefinaq de Vasconcellos (1977). It imagines a couple embracing over a line of barbed wire. CLP 11/04/2024 →

  • Mud

    They found a pictureFrom before the callMe in football kitArms crossedA scowlI left that shirtSpotlessCleanAnd dryI’ll soon be backMy hollow lieI lovedMudOn my knees and handsIn earsHairWith bumpsA little bloodPromise of a scarColours wonIn sportNowI restUnder some foreign fieldMud’s filledMy throatLungsNose and eyesNaught was sportThat July dayAs my platoonReturnedTo clay~n.b. The simple detail of the →

  • Ghazal for Gaza

    Accursed gates forced open eighty years agoMy mother still a child, eighty years agoWhat happened there must not be forgottenEven fire could not cleanse the earth, eighty years agoListen to the gnashing and grinding of teethAt prising apart Hell’s jaws, eighty years agoOh Israel, how could a nation born from thisLet one man lead you →

  • Wild Garlic

    Shimmering sheets of ramsonsSpread through the woodRipple in the feckless breezeFootsteps fall softAs if in day old snowEvery gentle crunchEmits another pungent breathBetween harsh shadowsOf ash and sycamoreSquinting in steely sunlightShe stoops to gatherA small handful here another therePicking her way homeWith spring-stained fingers~ CLP 07/04/2025 →

  • Gabriel Visits The Chippy

    April, the cityfull of sunshinesky Mediterranean bluethe half moon has beenstrangely visible all dayit looks like the rock it isunder the sea aboveall its craters crayoned inby the same blueclots of touristschoking the footpathsfrom Tower Bridgesouth to Jamaica Wharfwandering thoughtlesslyinto the cycle pathmaking me weave my e-bikeen route to Johnny’s Fish Barthere’s been football todaypolice →