numa

“Haumia”

where fantails

had saltimbiqued

the day before

above a nameless creek

a spade was left standing

in the bush today

an orange and black spade

trade-marked ” Atlas”

planks lay

across the streams to it

without any boot-treads

in the mud

no digging or planting

where it had lodged

with one clean cut

while

in another gully

ferns blew around

in a constant downdraught

left was

the spade’s advent

the spade itself planted

and kept

Te Awamutu

3 July 2015

Haumia is the Maori god of uncultivated plants, edible fern-roots etc.

Kihikihi

a grave

by the highway

where two foes

should be buried

and down the road

to Orakau

where the hill is cut

in half

choose your side

2 July 2015

Te Awamutu

I would rather risk being Delphic than laden the poem with a history lesson. I want it to remain like an epitaph. But Sir George Grey and Rewi Maniapoto agreed to be buried together in 1884, and only Rewi lies at Kihikihi. Down the road is his “last stand” which took place at the siege of the pa at Orakau in 1864. The road bisects it. The visitors teeters on banks between the road and farm fences from which the ground falls away on all sides.

Te Awamutu

for Su Cullen

this is the land

of big night

where black fields

of stars go on

and sun

is totally

burnt out

the world

is small

and concealed

gales

leave the sky

clear

there Venus

and Jupiter couple

there the moon

lights only itself

this night

will never be broken

Te Awamutu NZ

1 July 2015

Venus and Jupiter are indeed just 2 degrees apart, forming a halo. I refer to the gale-swept previous nights of late June, as those planets drew closer.

“Consolamentum”

           - for O.Ch.

 

the town locks itself in

the town locks in the houses

the houses lock in the secret

the secret locks in the people

 

your bed is a treasure -

the secret unlocks the song

the song unlocks the bed

 

the woman locks up

her bed again

the young man bolts his song

 

for the street is watched

the town is watched

and only strangers

watch the town

 

the Jews are locked up

the Muslims are locked up

yes go lock up the Bible

 

I will give you the keys -

look out

for the sky of Spain

 

you are one thing

on the street

casting shadow -

someone else at home

 

you’ll be torched

the moment you’re caught

inside my orchard

 

seraph

you will burn

in the tree of fire

 

blind man in much light

poor man of Lyons

be perfect

you are perfected

 

25 August 2014

Oxford

 

“Cordes sur Ciel :- Albert Camus”

 

for O.Ch.

colon

here’s your colony

 

give up

the other land

 

leave it

to its people -

 

go trace

the mystic streets

 

embed

the gates forever

 

raise

the hidden houses

 

devise them

narrow ways

 

set it in the sky

 

and wrap it round

a mountain

 

coil it

dragon walls

 

that scala santa

will bring you

to your knees

- men of Albi

 

plant the secret

in the open

 

let mystery

have its market

 

new people

come by chance

 

then take your place

upon the ladder

 

endure

the consolation

 

the citadel

of the just

will have its

rue of Paradise

 

12 June 2015

Oxford

“Conques”

for Simon Upton

 

easter vigil -

 

the church downstairs

fastens its

doors of last days

 

entrance is by the apse

through a cold compress of tombs

 

the candles are small

in the huge dark

 

the moon roars

in the river

 

next day -

the eleventh century

all empty and clear

 

a light aircraft

hums in the dome

 

24 August 2014 and 12 June 2015

Oxford

 

“Jerry Collins” :- in memoriam

 

rugby and the tears

at Cannons Creek

 

when you were brought

from the long bridge

at Beziers -

 

you never got to

the long bridge

at Beziers

 

it never ended

our long bridge

of people

 

it went on -

the cheering

and the weeping

of Cannons Creek

 

the winter sky clear

the horizons opened

 

the rugby like the wind

going on

14 June 2015

Oxford

“Irish”

when the Irish

go to heaven

they will all speak

Gaelic again

and kick-dance

for the hell of it

when the Irish are sent

to Co Purgatory

they talk quietly

in penitential Latin

climbing the clouds

in their bare feet

when the Irish

go to hell

they speak English

all over again

hunting each other down

the wet dark streets

in trainers

a word unknown

in either Gaelic or Latin

Osney, Oxford  26 October 2013

Osney, Oxford  July 2006

“Cowper 2000″

in that night
I thought I saw
across a field

the great figure
of a man
sitting inside
a pylon

and he was
watching me

Oxford 26 October 2013
from South Hinksey August 2008

On William Cowper’s Mirror, at Olney

the epoux
is through-

the cave
looked back at me
just a mirror

showing me in her place
looking back
at my loss
in its mask of horror

yet I was certain
we’d been together
all that time

did my turning round
put me where
she had been

or reveal the truth
she was never there
all along

King’s Arms
Oxford 3 October 2013

Death is the road

the snow falls through

snow falls through me

as well

Wilmington, East Sussex

27 November 2010

“Exceat”

 

 

dusk pencils in

the gradual dusk

 

a light shines

from Exceat

Exceat isn’t there

 

hasn’t been

the past 600 years

 

unbarqued the river

that has to be swum

and not just looked at

where everyone drowns

 

found floating close

by its mouth

 

the lamp is raised-

shipwreck is due

-supposed to be soul

Oxford

29 September 2010

The extinct village of Exceat, East Sussex, in the Cuckmere Valley, survives as a farmhouse and grange and as a persistent toponym. The Black Death and French raids in the Hundred Years War destroyed it.

what did Death incubate

in our younger son that -

born dead but still dumb-thumbed

the blank socket blacker

than if eyed his bow-boned

flesh a cold porphyry

- the mere chook of a babe

transubstantiated

into the gravity well

of a No we can’t escape

from someone who had been

pluperfected boy

I am not the mother

unforgetting her child

the angry two year old

shown dead obscenity

yet the sucked thumb

in the soft maw

of your demise

always stings my eyes

Blackwells

Oxford 13 July 2010.