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Some of
these have been used and re-used in the anthologized writings and most were
distributed on a CD titled ‘ALL THAT WAS, ALL THAT WILL BE’. These are
collected here in alphabetical order by first line, not in order of writing.
a boy
who grew up in a garden
met a boy who
grew up in a factory
build boats
and let the river carry you
into the deep deep sea
all your
strategems and plans
cannot give your children
sight
and then
men
with their clocks and watches
decided
to imprison time
bird of night
take me
to your moonlit dreams
take me
in your glowing eye
to where the pale moon
guard my sleep
as we stood on the edge of the precipice
a companion remarked how glorious it would be
to take a deep breath and dive into the abyss
my friend
even as you straighten out into the dive proper
already you are travelling at fantastic speed
believe me my friend
unless a greater hand than mine pluck you out
you will never come out of that dive
the pharisees
who had watched carefully gathered together
claiming that he was a false prophet
and began to plot his death
dont pray loudly
with impatience
and
my friend
there is
a certain austere beauty
in the cruelty
of eagles
you
may not suspect
that in the depths of your soul
you too
can see that beauty
the spell
of a curved beak
the hidden depths of
a jewel eye
can trap
even you
here is a bird that has travelled
three quarters round the world
each year of its life
it is black
dying on the sea-shore
in a town of tourists
fretted with biscuits by children
ignored by fishermen
it cannot tell
and you might as well not ask
in the eye
of a storm
I listen
(there is silence in screams)
I laugh
(angels can laugh too)
echoes of laughter
they agree
the definition of despair
is an angel
I clutch
my bottle of whiskey
close
against my chest
I dream of bootleggers
I dream of moonshine
I see
bottles bubbling
in the quiet, moonlight
I sleep
I dont know
if children
are the most beautiful
invention of god
or if god
was created
by children
I sit and think
but mainly sit
should I do more
is there greater virtue in thinking than in sitting?
I tell my dentist
that he is wasting his time
drilling holes in teeth
all he finds is corruption and decay
oh death
where is your sting?
in my head I hold a thousand bees
each with a mightier sting than thee
I thought I
saw a hawk
caught by the wind
falling with tangled wings
I suggested
that even if they lacked interest for him
from a literary point of view
he may find their subject
of professional interest
he said doctors
were more interested in life
than death
as if in my arms
I had long carried a dead child
through swamp and desert
forest and valley
till finally
after many years
following a winding river
and by now tired out with the burden
I reached a village by the sea
or perhaps more accurately
a tourist resort
if he has been
inside the pit
he will not have left
without a mark
if you
“look into an abyss
the abyss will look
back into you”
if you
“battle with monsters be careful
you yourself dont
become a monster”
and since
the prince of darkness
often wears a cloak of light
beware the preacher
who is familiar with demons
if you can imagine a death
that swoops on you out of a blue sky
like an eagle
and if
in that last and frantic instant
deafened by the beating of wings
blinded
by a rush of blood
you glimpse the perfection
of a curved beak
the clear purity of a jewel eye
so that in the moment of death
you are still
with the stillness at the core of beauty
then
perhaps you are ready
lord
you can give back my sight
and immediately he was cured
lord
thy will be done
and he remained blind
and so it was
in every city
in the music
of your wounded hand
I tremble
like a bird
it has been brought to my notice
by a student of nature
that the portuguese-man-of-war
more commonly known to beachcombers as
the blue stinger
and in my conceit
this has led me to consider that i too
may be a subject worthy of
scientific scrutiny
it is deep
deeper than the sea
it has known everything and forgotten
many times
its tears are rain
its agony the sun
the song
of the mute swan
it took a billion years
of drought and flood
earthquake cataclysm and strife
to form the intricate design
of the petrels skull and beak
found along the shore
and yet
for just an instant
in the history of his kind
the petrel
soared upon a shaft of air
to hold
entire kingdoms
in his eye
let me walk along
the restless shores
the stinging
octopus
gives birth to fragile ships
of gleaming white
when he dies
he would like to be processed if possible
into parchment
we his relatives
would file past sombre faced
and with old fashioned ink plumes in our hands
put our signatures
on his dried out form then one of us
would take that parchment and put it among
the old scrolls and books in the library
lock the door
and throw away the key
forever
when I die
I want to be burned
so that once more I return
to the ashes from which I was made
but then I also want
those ashes to be put in a hole in the ground
and over them a tree planted
as the tree grows
its roots will draw nourishment
from the cinders
I will see and hear the world
through the eyes and ears of a tree
so it is
some have the peace to seek death
others seek to be reborn
my wife
tells me that her cunt
is getting old
but as
my cock has only one eye
it hasnt noticed
the difference
my wife said
unless you take a good dose of sleeping pills tonight
you will kill yourself through
lack of sleep
I complained
that if I had taken my pills
on the previous night
I would not have written the four poems on death
which I did write
after all
we are all dying in our different ways
I havent decided yet
which way to go
now Im going to demonstrate
how to build a man
the aorta
digestive system
alimentary canal
are made from plastic reinforced with vegetable fibre
the colours
are purely for ease of identification
needless to say
the memory bank is perfect
fully photographic
stored on micro-file
we are night
perhaps life is a
decision
made by the elements of the earth
to dance
to dance
naked upon its parent earth
perhaps it is too pedantic
to discuss
too clumsy
the flowers dont grow
remembering that like wood
I am made mainly of carbon
when I die
process me into a piece of foolscap
and on it
write these words
by the way
the number is
460
the doctor
pulled out my wisdom tooth
and told me
I’d be none the less wise for it.
furthermore, he said
my children will have no wisdom teeth at all :
the environment of modern man
leaves jaws insufficiently developed for wisdom teeth.
nor will they be any less wise for the absence.
but I wonder
how carefully he looked inside my head;
perhaps there was nothing there
as wise as my wisdom tooth.
perhaps that’s what he meant.
I am further confused by the suspicion
that without my wisdom tooth
I lack the wisdom to understand the situation.
the other
shuffles his wings and nods his head
to die
or to enter another one
of his nine lives
perhaps
the curtain of night has
been rent
to admit him finally
when it is transferred
into the new building
instead of the perfection of circles
there will be glass rectangles
and
our most regular customers
from the derelicts home
who come here because there
is a touch of eternity
in this room
**
**
another reason
why they like
to come to this library
is because it is old
they have no
community of worship
in this world
and so if we do provide
them with a service
it is only
that we rescue
the past
from the present
**
in the mirror
on the dais at the centre
of the perfect circle
of this room
you can see
**
all others
must humbly wait
outside
**
**
the other day
I met
old father time himself
he tipped it
back and forwards
like jewels
in a vase
the plover calls at night
to tell us that the night is life
you
creatures of the light
listen
and be warned
the song of god is the
song of the mute swan
his body
is made of loneliness
his limbs
are made from pain
and yet
he has a human form
dressed in the rags of a beggar
he knocks on every door
blind and feeble
he holds out his hand for alms
on that paper
some good books were written
but they were anti-establishment
so Hitler had them burnt
it was
a-round-about way
of burning jews
however
the ashes were scattered in a fertile valley
and from them grew a great forest
which Hitler ordered to be chopped down
and made into paper-backs
the paper-backs
consisted of progaganda
so Hitler forced all the german libraries
to keep it on their shelves
the americans
bombed the libraries
turning them into heaps
of smoking rubble
they wait
to soak their withered hands
in salty water
once again
time waits for no man
and no man waits for time
Ntrlir - ... 2mni blz; 2mni suevnerz, 2mni pnoekioez; 2mni Via Cavourz, 2mni Przr Garibaldiz, 2mni
Porte Romane; 2mni jpsez bgn nchrch stps, 2mni indinz sln sunglrsz, 2mni blak mn sln h&bagz, 2mni
talin mn fingrn fliez. 2mni rnunsiaeshnz, asnshnz, kruesfkshnz, rzrkshnz.
But nvr 2mni FONTANE (spshli liek th vecchie fonane nSiena & San Gimignano & th groetsk fontane
n Prtsr Annunzirtr nFIRENZE) & nvr 2mni krnlz (but 2mni gondolerz & gondole).
Saluti da Venezia!
walking down a summer lane
you may not notice
the shadow of
the crow
flying overhead
what is the storm
which cast the soaring bird
down
to the dying earth
the devil
goes wandering around
desert places
for forty days
and then he comes back
with seven other
devils, each more powerful
than himself
and finding the house
clean, he says
let us enter here
on that day
make sure that
you keep the window
of your intellect shut
for it is through
this window
that the biggest devil of all
attempts to enter
when he saw that they had turned against him
and were practising every kind of perversion
he sent an angel to punish the people
this is my body
this is my blood
when I lay
on my wife
her stomach heaved
like an ocean
and I was
on the waves
knowing that life
came from the sea
when simple simon met the pieman
it was the pieman who was going to the fair
simple simon was on his way home
from a psychiatric institution
anyway
the pieman made a lot of money at the fair
and they both lived happily ever after
when the lord knocked on my door
I said
sorry
I havent got the time
it is exactly twelve
he said
the last hour
and I assure you
my watch is right
dont worry
he said
it doesnt matter
I have all the time in the world
jesus
who had sought refuge by the lake
saw the crowd in the distance
and said
when I leave
brother will fall out against brother
son will disown father
bread will become stone
even the marriage wine
will turn into vinegar
and yet
if they are to enter the kingdom of my father
the restless will not find peace
and the starving will not be fed
when youre dead and buried
and at last
you think youve
found some peace
I expect to get
a crewcut
a shave
a vasectomy
and a frontal lobotomy
writing an obituary
requires some talent
not everyone
has sufficient rapport with the dead
to be a professional
obituary writer
requires talent indeed
to be really good
you must be practically dead yourself
at night
the farmers dog will howl
in the city
the lunatic will dance