Bonus 7 Poems

Free Bonus 7-poem Pack!

EVERYDAY MASTERPIECE

enthroned

on their cool verandah

the old ones

connoisseurs

of light and shade

resolve

all problems

of proportion

each fragile gesture

a brush-stroke

in a self-portrait

nearing completion

LITTLE OXFORD ST.

old men sleep

in the back

of abandoned cars

warm in muscat

dreams under dirty

overcoats

plastic garbage bags

torn by dogs reveal

tin smiles, ash,

rotted fruit, letters

not worth keeping,

small bones

old men wake like Thomas

who had to touch to believe

A POET'S LIFE

(for Michael Dransfield)

not what you'd call

a life really

more a sequence of encounters

a collection of misunderstandings

which somehow don't add up

with luck the poems add up

singly, together, alive

with the intensity given

to each encounter, glowing

in each misunderstanding

this is how you live

well, it is your choice

if you must fill blank pages

nobody asked you to fill

if you seek

that heat for your kiln

to inject baked beauty

under the skin of a poem

what do you expect

if not a weary addicted art

then a weary addicted artist?

priceless fool

didn't they tell you?

nobody thanks a volunteer

SUGAR-CUBISM

in her orchestral

affections I hear

the flute

of a lie

embarrassed

hidden

behind dull

earnest drums

busy strings

weave easy doubt

to taut certainty

performance

for a shocked

audience of one

SURFACE TENSION

the lead weight

of the ordinary

is necessary fishing

chance's luminous pools

or we are flies

hovering sun-struck

all buzz, blind

to its promising bubbles

deaf to a brute breath

that waits under lilies

and welcomes splashing fools

NOT WORTH TALKING ABOUT

for two weeks

the fall and curl

of your hair as fragrant

comment, a hint

of lost enthusiasm

trying to grow

to me

now you tie

your hair back

in a bun

your eyebrows

are sad caterpillars

aimed at me

this is the beginning

of obsession

and you say

it's not

worth talking about

IN THE GARDENS

he sees all

the dull statue

splashed green

adored by the fountain

the young couple

eating chicken, the roaming

delighted licking dog

and the lonely man

with his loaf of bread

pigeons' claws on his wrist

like a woman's fingernails

himself a scavenger poisoned

by tossed crumbs of laughter

seeing all,

a passionate sparrow

crowns himself emperor