Day 14 ~ The Sea and the Surf

The sound of the sea pulls me deeper and deeper into the deepest sleep,

drawing me down into deeper dreams.

Slowly.

Drowning.

Back and forth all night, the sea sighs and mists my windows

and turns with the drag of the tide.

I rise with the surf and the light.

Day 13 ~ Horizon in Arcadia

There’s poetry on the horizon

on a far away beautiful island

surrounded by golden light.

Peninsulas, oceans and islands

blending in shades of soft clouds

fading away out of sight.

Ocean meets air and turns with the tides

and reality hides behind dreams.

Day 12 ~ The Legend Septimus Whimsy

Septiums Francis Whimsy, Professor of Celtic Mythology,

Esteemed as an Arthurian authority of some renown,

Made a profoundly important discovery whilst poking around

In an unpronounceable small town in Wales.

He had wandered about in a wood calculating the path of a comet.

While collecting Nitrous Bonnet

(mistaking it for its more fanciful fairy cousin)

He unearthed the Holy Grail.

THE GRAIL!!!

He sat down and wrote a sonnet

In praise of the ancient cup.

But an angel came down from on high

And wafted the old Prof (and the precious cup) up and very far off.

Day 11 ~ Arcadia

I am cheating a little today but I don’t feel too guilty about it because this song made me remember what I felt like when I finished writing my unpublished novel and missed the characters I left behind in Arcadia.

Day 10 ~ Vive la revolution.

Audacious, ericatious,

delicious and ambitious

faudulent, ebullient,

turbulent, transparent.

Words spoken at random

devoid of any meaning.

Running rampant, freedom and ruination.

Vive la revolution.

Ravishment, ready, replete.

Day 9 ~ Shoreline and Shallows

The foghorn off the coast of Trevone

Warns of shoreline and shallows.

It’s a sound that could always lure me back home.

Night or day, its sense of loss swings round the bay

Echoing distance and sorrow.

When my life ends I will hear it again,

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Day 8 ~ No ghazals this season

I don’t want to write a ghazal.

You wouldn’t either with a brain as messed up as mine.

I have forgotten how I wrote them before

And now I can’t fathom instructions.

I’ll tie Celtic knots with Italian spaghetti.

with no sign of Persian delights

or patterns of beauty and promise.

Love is all a repetition of form and illusion.

We fly or we fall as we scribble old thoughts on our walls.

Day 7 ~ Poised for Flight

My tutor made a cast of my foot sealed all the way up to my ankle

It was a demonstration of how it should be done

My foot became uncomfortably hot under enveloping plaster

And my arch was slightly flattened under the pressure.

When he cut the mould away it was a relief.

Fifty years later I wonder if my youthful foot still exists

Locked away in the dark of an art college cupboard

Hidden with still life props.

I wish he had posed me on tiptoe like Hermes in the Louvre

Or Peter Pan in the park always ready for flight.

Day 6 ~ Coriander

I dont need some fancy foreign name.

Call me a drip ~

To me it’s Coriander!

It doesn’t smell very gentle. It’s strong, persistent, invasive.

It’s the scent of a Magreb backstreet

When it’s mixed with olive and cedar.

It’s worth more than saffron and pearls

To me in my soupy kitchen.

Day 5 ~ Death Metal

A power chord ascends to a screech

Ripping through darkness

And crashing through bones

Spreading electrical sparks.

Death metal in tempo di murder

Curls in the lap of the gods

Staking a claim to the gothic throne

In the home of Odin and Thor.