tamco

Tamco Before space arrived Time was not in attendance Zero was nature Stillness carried no echo Until a soft breeze blew Brought space, time and colour Strange life forms appeared And so did mortality

Letdown So many chances so many near misses, like a promising spring suddenly turning wintery and killing budding plant life. Or a storm came and blew away all senses Turned it into a loathing where success dare not Intrude like spoiling a dream. Falling down an ice cavern unable to get up in time Not trying hard enough, so the dream can live on Failure is the ultimate goal it does not need to be Repeated

Letdown So many chances so many near misses, like a promising spring suddenly turning wintery and killing budding plant life. Or a storm came and blew away all senses Turned it into a loathing where success dare not Intrude like spoiling a dream. Falling down an ice cavern unable to get up in time Not trying hard enough, so the dream can live on Failure is the ultimate goal it does not need to be Repeated

poetry by numbers

Poetry by Numbers I got an email naming the best poets from poetry site ...As expected they were love stories, About loneliness and the mixed bags of The poet’s monotonous candyfloss of anguish. All poems looked worked- shopped, the same Phrases sometimes returned And they were all meticulous in show not tell Which is a mind-numbing mantra. For some, especially The academically inclined, making poetry Into a cross word puzzle I think all 100 poets had the same teacher who, As many poetry teachers do, lives in New Mexico

tanko

Tanka I had so many dreams They laughed the ones who had lost theirs Told me I was a fool But in their laughter I sensed their tears. Tanka There am two of me One goes to hospital a lot The other drives a bike Thinks he is going to live forever The sick knows better

big breakers

Big Breakers. Frothing, the colour of spring leaf, a mountain top of ocean intent on drowning you it is not like crossing a road and just have the time to jump clear of a car. No, you are totally helpless and your salvation is down to luck not maritime ability. The beast has gone mad something we said down in the mess-hall when playing card? Not to forget the good moment when the sea is flattening out flecked by light blue. Our promises of not drink and smoke and to be kind to our mothers vanes. There is something mesmerizing about it, will the ship be able to shudder and get up from the tons of water? Are we ghosts from a past that never was? I Kingston we drank rum & coke and never spoke about our inner thoughts, we had survived and lived in the moment. But what can you expect of a simple seaman when landlubbers can’t even remember last year’s war.

mountains

Mountains and Generals What scared me most as a child were tall mountains dark silent sometimes white topped and often wearing a crown of a murderous miasma of gloom. Once my ship docked in a constricted fjord, a smelting plant, a few houses and a restaurant surrounded by Somme like nakedness. I tried to close the curtains but they wouldn’t let me insisted on keeping what they called summer evening light as long as possible. I had reindeer steak down in the cellar served with moss and boiled potatoes and brown gravy – in Norway you get thick dark gravy with everything- Going back onboard I felt the mountains naked, life hating presence like crazy generals ordering men to attack over open terrain killing a million young men in the process. Fortified with aquavit I just made it back onboard, the sea was flat and calm. And I heard General Haig’s raised, voice “let us do this once more this time it may just work “Should I ever come across his statue, I’m sure there is one in a town, the great man sitting on a horse looking heroic, I will without delay piss on his statue. and get free from my fear of tall mountains.