Alive at Sixteen 1981
I live on the border where the shadows run
Through the windows of my room
Where dark in the dungeon of these cellar walls
Hide the memories from the moon
Resolve 1988
Can we go back?
No, we cannot.
Will we go forward?
Yes, we must.
Does the world turn,
Spinning in the blackness?
Yes, we are out of control,
Dizzy in the Darkness.
Intruder 1990
We seek that warm elusive mouse
The whiskered peep that bothers sleep
A nagging noise that makes us dare
A foot upon the frozen floor
Listen to that demon scratch
A splintering that draws it in
What from winter's cover deep
Has crept beneath the broken sill
Into the hall: where is that squeak?
A stab would end this wretchedness
If I could drive it deep to die
Or raise its corpse on high to see
I love it though it bothers me
Winter Warm 1991
Now there is a puff of smoke
From the fire we sit beside
So we start
Thinking on the cracking hearth
Wrought of iron hot as heart
Now there is a dart of fire
That walks along the crumbling wood
A soot and glaze
To orange bricks and happy days
Bring all I want of ways
Water 1992
Whither do the waters run
My son
Away the gardens green and brown
To sink into the yellow sun
Free upon the stones to run
But home is where the waters play
And never stray
-----------------
Tell me father
Tell me son
Whither has the water gone
Out to sea
Beyond the sun
Whither has the water gone
Well from the sky its fallen down
Like sombre rain
Though rarer still
It patters not on window pane
Or window sill
If I recall
Its flooding to the water fall
Tell me father
Tell me son
Hither has the water come
Yet yesterday has flooded on
So whither has the water gone
Well from the forest hill it came
Though now its run
Collecting leaves from autumn trees
And so it strayed
To coves upon the sea
-----------------
Then tell my mother I have gone
To seek the ocean waves upon
Where all the streams have gathered so
To know the waters way
If by night I'm nowhere found
I'm seeking somewhere farther down
To places where the waters run
As oceans to the sun
If by dawn there is no news
Then I have found a way to choose
The world above the falling tide
The bright beyond the waters wide
Echo Valley 1992
So the autumn winds fly
The steeples dry on the county road
So the dog goes down to die
The coloured leaves cartwheel alone
This is about an abandoned churchyard
in Autumn; the sorrow is about how we
passed it so many times by car and never
stopped to look.
Octopus 1993
The lord of the water
Passed his hand beneath the deep
To make it clean again
But I was caught in the mouths of sharks and octopi
Until the water set me free
Cryptos 1995
I found a way to live
Just before I died;
I found a melody that played
Still perfectly without me
Bows and strings, scattered wide
On naked chairs on wooden floors;
A pleasing sound
When everything is fallen down
Could not contrive a single way
And so at last it played
Suddenly and silently
Indifferent of my days
Accordingly I took the time
To ring a song in empty words
Though nothing's known or heard of this
Just emptiness
Apple Moon 1996
Here I lay beneath the gloom
Alone beside the withered moon
My friends are calling cool to me
Come dance around the mother tree
Blue stars are falling from the sky
Like evening in the firefly
And low they kneel and softly sing
On moss upon the forest ring
The night is rising through the hill
Like flowers in the summer lane...
Though must I lay beneath the moon
To sleep within the summer gloom?
My friends are dancing slowly now
Asleep around the mother tree
Afraid the dawn might come too soon
To steal away the withered moon
P.S. 1997
I saw the white orchid
There
A slanty sunny sheen
That beat the peaty pool
The heavy mosses green
I saw the white orchid
But spare light the tree
That rode a willow warm
The air that is
A dancy downy dream
For Paul Sadgrove
Exposure 1997
The midnight slaps
A bare shirt sleeve
The winter air clear
The stars just there
Cracks the hard tree
A deeply frozen heart
I wondered what it would be like
to stand in the dooryard in -30C
weather without a jacket. The
sound of a tree splitting in the
windless cold echoed through the
valley...
The Guise of Morning 1997
What might the vaulted night
In spite have spoken to the sea
To sway this tender wakefulness
Intent to make us trembling ghosts
Thunder woke the walking hours
Herding heavy words with feet
And though we march like happiness
Beneath the guise is gleaming
A swirl of chaff like glowing air
It dancing through the water's hair
Faltered through a folding dream
Spouted certain signs of grace
A phantom host upon the sand
Called out to make us free
But spread across the trick of time
A bitter salt of stars and fears
To shed those parts that cling to us
The water weeds the laughing foam
They gave a shallow shore to warm
This secret soul's dismay
Now if the drowning deep is gone
So long to grieving songs and sighs
Yet echo all the voices wrong
Beneath the guise of morning
Baby Smith 1997
Am I last
To know her touch
But lost
The sun is set
Upon the heart as well
Though not in death
She has gone
And I am left
In ashes all my own
---------------
Beneath the moss
A shadow speaks
Of night at noon
Of standing stones
Of carven names
To not despair
Apple Moon - Reprise 1999
Again I strayed into the gloom
A breath before the winter moon
A shimmering for all, for glee
To glance upon the lonely tree
A hush was out upon the tide
Or evening in the fire beside
The moment only took my leave
For frosts upon the forest eve
The night grew deep into the hill
A glint into the windows filled...
And thrust my way beneath the moon
And staggered in the glowing gloom
The tree it made a lowly sigh
In sleep as winter to my eye
And everywhere a stillness bloomed
All shaken in the winter moon
I Drive A Standard 1999
It's not an automatic
That's wholly plain to see
I'm shifting everywhere I go
In moments one two three
I go in revs and intervals
Though never say a word
If once or twice I grind the gears
The fault is plainly heard
Because I drive a standard four
The days go one two three
And swerving out or cutting in
It's just my car and me
No don't go on distracting us
Improving on the pace
Or sadly after four I might
Mistake the R for Race
