Journey of Words

Tag: Poetry

  • 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 →

  • Prayer

    Oh perpetually pugnacious people of this planetPrepare to make the supposedly impossible possiblePurge all pandering to past prejudicesPurge all previously held political positionsSimply place your person in the predicament of your purported opponentPrepare for peace~n.b. To dream the impossible might just make it possible. This poem is prompted by NaPoWriMo 2025 Day 15 CLP 15/04/2025 →

  • Music of The Christmas Tree Monoculture

    There is no birdsong hereThe only light comesIn the precious minutesAt dawn and again at duskWhen the planet’s rotationBrings the Sun to the horizonAnd its beams splay outBeneath the dense conifer spreadWhere the wind orchestratesAn arrhythmic swish and hissOf Norwegian Spruce needlesBroken only by swathes of silenceThis mournful brushingIs relentless as the wavesOn the eastern →

  • 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 Ukraine

    Palm Sunday, SumyHoly Week preparationThe Devil rides in~n.b. Moscow moves from supposed ‘military operation’ to full-blown terrorism. Churchgoers and a full public bus, guilty of getting in the way of a double missile strike on an ordinary street in Sumy, this very morning. CLP 13/04/2025 →

  • Metallic Blue

    My eyes search desperately for the rainI’ll dance in April’s showers if they should ever come againI know to you, it might sound strangeUnbroken blue fills our celestial spanMechanical streams flow to seaside sandsMy eyes search desperately for the rainDaffodils bloom, shrivel and are goneBluebells hang silent in suffocating sunI know to you, it might →

  • 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 →