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Hostilities suspended for a few hours:hostility ofself-against-self;of inner darkness versus inner light;of the Devil whispering in my ear‘What if?’ What if today, I just embrace the moment? What if just for today, I hold my children extra tight?What if I kiss their honey-hair and focus on the love of livingembracing every single star out shining in the... Continue Reading →
Quick coffee and thenclean the toiletquick coffee and then wash the clothes Quick coffee andkeep everybody happyquick coffee, doas every woman does: What of my dreamsand my desireswhich would read something like this? Quick coffee andwrite poetryquick coffee and thenread all morning long: Quick coffee, kiss the childrenquick coffee, wipe their faces cleanquick coffee, try to focus... Continue Reading →
The way you think it is is not the way it is at all:We see through a glass darkly; we barely see beyond the veil. The doors of our perception dimmedby dullness of the daily grindsometimes a chink in the armour of agesshows us the light within, behind. There are more things in heaven and earthand... Continue Reading →
A lifetime's quest, or thatof half a life at leastwas born the day I firstclimbed Hampsfell. Lookout point on the CartmelPeninsula, high above Grange-over-Sands/stretched out below meout to sea Behind were all the mountainsof my youth and visionsof the mountains still to climb. As I approached the templeon the hill, I read the legend Ῥοδοδάκτυλος... Continue Reading →
Oh black cat, little bandit sweet,who crosses my path every night, please do not run away from me,listen, I tell you, do not flee. I only wish to stroke your sleekdark fur, your silky neck. For I have also, so I'm tolda hand that's made to stroke, to hold. But no-one in the world knows... Continue Reading →
Not one, not two, but 3 poems for the price of one today, from Don Matthews of The Flippant, Comic, and Serious. Don writes his madcap poetry from his homeland Down Under, with his mate Skip on security detail. Don't mess with Skip. As you can see from the image above, he's no pushover... I... Continue Reading →
Today my Halloween poem, 'Jack-o-Lantern' is published at Spillwords Press. You may have already read it on this site, but I am very grateful to Spillwords for bringing my Halloween message to a larger audience: This Halloweenthe sky may well appearthe colour of the carved-out pumpkin’s eye;perhaps not time to celebratebut high time that we... Continue Reading →
Mwah-ha-ha-ha! I am bringing you this EIF Poetry Challenge early in order to be in time for Halloween. 'Tis the season to be spooky, so for this challenge, I simply want you to write a poem on the theme of Halloween. It can take any form or shape you wish, as long as it is... Continue Reading →
Like a salvo of predawn gunfire‘snap, crackle, pop’ – that’s what I think, and‘who could think of cereal at such a time?’Then my mind flips frantically through filesgrubbing to grasp an empirical explanationfor the snap, and the shot, and the rasp:A guerrilla band going gung-ho into battle, firing into empty space?No, can’t be…a fighter jet... Continue Reading →
With a kind of dim accuracy, dull estimation of anuncomfortable situation to the victim’s eyes, jealousy is not a green-ey’d monsterbut a super-subtle friend The victim continues with a smileof painted mirth;the mind gives birth to wild imaginingswhich may/may not be trueit hardly matters now:The matrix has you. Crossing canyons subsumed by solitudes, wish for spiritual songs to heal... Continue Reading →
Experiments in Fiction 