tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40166450672786486292024-02-20T03:45:37.066-08:00FrogshadowsJames Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.comBlogger158125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-56237139220456548172014-11-30T04:35:00.002-08:002014-11-30T04:35:43.029-08:00The Feast of Saint Andrew lit my candle in the chapel of <br /> St.Andrew. Gusto muted in my breast. <br /> A Golden Christ from darkened stone was hung.<br /> The first integrity of things. The soul. <br /> With friendly strife, and fearfulness, I stand,<br /> Guitar and muttered scripture. Blood red hot,<br /> The city lights affright electric, burn<br /> The sackcloth skies. The raven's wing engulfs<br /> The water's frosted muddied glow. A bloom<br /> Of soddened leafs from flooded trees has fell,<br /> Their branches rot, by sandstone winds are dried. <br /> A settled gloaming wood-fire smoke and haze,<br /> Thin, buttered clouds are soaked in curves of light,<br /> Horizons lined with monoliths of ice<br /> That jut like blades of heat, that cut<br /> The belly of blue heaven. <br /> Wet wood-land dark, damp blackening skies, and with<br /> musk-throated breath and moonlight scented lungs<br /> I track daemonic, tracing demon thought. <br /> From Godless concrete's face of hubris flat<br /> With rust and floodlit glass, to spirit quickened winds<br /> That menace red brick lanes and buckled garden squares<br /> Where cracked skeletal ladies skirt the paths. <br /> The clocktower money'd mundane rush of crowds<br /> The steam-packed flocks, the loveless stranger's touch,<br /> Hypnotic boredom's pretty made up face<br /> That pouts sarcastic. Wintered eyes of stone. <br /> Yes eyes, of turquoise, cheeks November red<br /> Her skin of leather, plaidie patterned scarf,<br /> With tweed and silk, and pointed boots of suede. <br /> Her lips of apple flesh, black awkward hips,<br /> Her shoulders naked, tanned and turning rouge.<br /> Low-lidded eyes, the Virgin on the rocks,<br /> Like mountain thicket, hair of bracken curls.<br /> Hot beauty's hate and love's aggressive need, <br /> Compassion, lust, empathic bolts of rage,<br /> Gun-powder senses, bombs of rebel hell,<br /> Unleavened flesh, the cocktail blood of God,<br /> The devil's wine, the saints, alone, and drunk.<br /> One woman's lashes flash to scourge conceit. <br /> Cold mother, black madonna, Scotia,<br /> The womb, the grave, and torment in between,<br /> Red-golden lips, and eyeballs white as sharks,<br /> Her gurly tempered living waters boil,<br /> And sleeting words that prick my melting skull.<br /> Contorted organs, clenching heart and stuck,<br /> A fortress ribcage bleeding longing's powers. <br /> The biting kiss of sin and sex and rape<br /> And mind-fuck, psychic tricks of cruelty's bitch. <br /> Self-centered sickness, giving in to fear,<br /> Addicted anger, righteous narcissist,<br /> Too quick to weep, a weak, insipid fake. <br /> Reduce the gain. And cup the spitting flame. <br /> Now Advent chills the ego's staggered shocks,<br /> The migraine fits of victim, blame and hurt,<br /> Self-medicating selfish bouts of huff.<br /> Enough. Cool off. Hibernal walks alone. <br /> The city smells of rose and toxic steel. <br /> A sparkling shroud, a cycloramic fog<br /> Blankets the private garden shrines of law,<br /> Grand colonnades to make Delilah shudder.<br /> Rain moistened spikes of measured cloisters. Quads<br /> Like wombs of quiet mind, peaked church-like rooms<br /> Of stained glass crystal guard from traffic's blast. <br /> The library lanterns glow like embered hearths.<br /> The crunching folds of autumn's sacrifice<br /> Degrade to mold. The rippled lap of breeze<br /> Becomes the wave of wind. Dank blemished roots<br /> And blunted grass are stripped to carcass bone, <br /> As scents of fruit-green hedges sweet in rain.<br /> Not death, but ritual. Washed. A moment's rest.James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-78128018535580348052014-02-18T03:06:00.001-08:002014-02-18T03:06:41.126-08:00You're the misogynist, not me<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;">You see gentleness, and think it's weak.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;">You see creativity, and think I'm soft. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;">You see tenderness and think I'm green.</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.940000534057617px;"><br />You see vulnerability, and think its fear,<br />You see sensuality, call me gay,<br />You see empathy and think it's need.<br />You see expressiveness and think it's vain.<br />You see bravado, and call it fake.<br />You see introversion, and think I hide,<br />You see passion and condemn my rage.<br />You see sincerity, and think it's trite.<br /><br />You see my tears and call me spoilt.<br />You see me experiment, and think I've failed.<br />You see me dance, and think I'm mad.<br />You see my intimacy, and call it camp.<br />You see my quietude, and call it slack<br />You see me passive and think I'm stuck.<br />You see me stumble and call me blind.<br />You hear my anger and you call it a huff.<br />You see me choose peace, and call me coward,<br />You see my compassion, and think I'm a soft touch.<br /><br />When I am insecure, you think I'm a wimp.<br />When I open up, you call me a child.<br />When I show you my wounds, you think I'm to blame,<br />When I cannot perform, you think it's a slight,<br />When I cannot be naked, you think I'm too proud.<br />When I question myself, you call me a flake,<br />When I'm nervous around you, you call me a joke,<br />You see my sexuality and you call it cheap<br />When I make a move, you brand me a threat,<br />When I write you a poem, you think that I beg.<br /><br />When you see my femininity, you react with disgust.<br />What does that say about you? Misogynist much?</span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-51193416560137364812014-02-16T07:15:00.002-08:002014-02-16T07:16:39.016-08:00I was baptised young in the faery's fire<br />
You missed a trick, you missed a beat<br />
You see right through my cliche dreams.<br />
You paint a picture, broad and thick<br />
Your landscape's big, but incomplete.<br />
Some will bow, and some will tire<br />
Some are poor, and guns for hire.<br />
But I've got blades that cut to quick,<br />
I was baptised young in the faery's fire.<br />
<br />
I'll make it sing, and keep it simple.<br />
Screw it up, I'll disappoint,<br />
I can hold it fast and never crumble,<br />
Spite my face with broken joints.<br />
Husband silence, quieten choirs,<br />
Poker-faced among the liars.<br />
Fall in failure, rough and tumble,<br />
I was baptised young in the faery's fires.<br />
<br />
The willow's witch, she speaks to me<br />
Cools the blood that burns my veins.<br />
Across my spine her spirits reach,<br />
As withered leaves ride the rains.<br />
In pain and panic, try to flee her,<br />
Chase distractions, charged with fears.<br />
Her wordless tongues have much to teach<br />
Those baptised young in the faery's fires.<br />
<br />
By candle-light, and nightly songs<br />
I nurse my nerves on drunken bones.<br />
Stories, struggle, the rights and wrongs,<br />
By whisky parched, to dream alone.<br />
By turmoiled seas, and railway wires<br />
The country splits, the outlook dire<br />
But the roebuck's glen's where we belong,<br />
We were baptised young in the faery's fire. James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-60950912672234455662014-02-10T02:12:00.001-08:002014-02-13T13:04:00.753-08:00The armies of loveEach beat of each human heart<br />
Is an act of rebellion.<br />
An act of resistance.<br />
Don't believe me? Ask a Buddhist.<br />
Each pulse in each branching vein,<br />
Convulses with non-acceptance.<br />
Each cell, swells and swims<br />
In defiance. Your life<br />
Is an act of attrition,<br />
Against chance, meaninglessness,<br />
And infinite accident.<br />
Each breath fills your bones and muscles<br />
With grass roots troops,<br />
Militants,<br />
Life's politics of rage in their pocket-books.<br />
The valleys of your breast<br />
Are lined with the armies of love.<br />
Their enemy: inevitability.James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-62534553984800342262014-01-15T04:13:00.000-08:002014-01-15T04:13:03.347-08:00Spiritual <br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We share here our eucharist.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our minds our churches. </span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Our souls the light</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>our fingers scorches. </span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We come to warm wintered skins,</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Made raw by winter’s flaw. </span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We drink the earth’s own juices</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">To toast the broken Christ</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And mutter together melodies</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">of crisp seditions,</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And reheat rebellions</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">By wood-fire pulses.</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">We gospel and graffiti,</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Make hieroglyphics with fingerpaints</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Scarring our names</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">On the still wet walls</span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Of Psyche’s cave. </span></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-71234875754226641092014-01-01T06:18:00.000-08:002014-01-01T06:22:26.735-08:00Poem written on Vauxhall BridgeSteel ramparts cup the riverside line<br />
Jigsaw light from the window puddles<br />
Melts from the banks in square-faced<br />
Streaks, moonlike on the shallowing dance.<br />
<br />
Reinforced fake sandstone towers<br />
Corporate turrets and barbed wire greens<br />
A christ-like crown by buttress pressed<br />
And lined with concreted thorns. <br />
<br />
The Millbank sands stand exposed<br />
As the Thames recedes depleted. <br />
New-minted facades in the peaking light<br />
Parked fast like anchored ships.<br />
<br />
Damaged silver, brick and glass<br />
Built half-castle, half man of war.<br />
Cranes cranked and bent towards the clouds<br />
Leafed with gold by the watering sun. <br />
<br />
St. George's lithium cathedral spire<br />
Defies the gods, the voltaged sky's<br />
Tectonic clash. War in heaven,<br />
By angels won,<br />
London burns, born once again.<br />
<br />
This is London, born again and again,<br />
Liberty, blood, penny and pound. <br />
A teething world from the river's gums.<br />
This is London - now. James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-50160226161931304562013-10-31T08:30:00.000-07:002013-10-31T08:30:28.240-07:00An outburst for Patti Smith <span lang="">She comes loaded with double-barrelled genius. <br />
Vicious, with an evil beauty, sowing graceful seed. <br />
Her mastered crafts are spoken generously, <br />
Violent giving, incantations of terrifying pureness. <br />
Krishna reborn as Christian witch. <br />
She has the eyes that Blake espied. <br />
Black defined diamond bulbs<br />
That burn the souls of men. <br />
And yet, she breeds mothering loyalty. <br />
She is weathered but not smothered <br />
In the tides of grief.<br />
She is steady in her wildness. <br />
The wrath of Jehova does not scare her.<br />
She scatters, but does not chase, <br />
The rabbit souls of her words in the city's concrete thicket. <br />
She makes sublime the body's weary destiny, <br />
By fixating the spirit's aperture on the truth, <br />
As sunlight burns the blades of grass through glass. <br />
But her rebel's soul is joy, the anger of a child in freefall dances. <br />
She is an intimate rage. <br />
She builds courage by catastrophe. <br />
Death, loss, heartbreak, toil and sadness <br />
Are the shapes by which she stencils beauty. </span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-17464512068226545122013-10-28T19:09:00.002-07:002013-10-28T19:09:39.793-07:00Haiku for Lou Reed<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The black rain's spoken.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">All I've got's a guitar pick</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Carved from wet willow.</span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-32528023974636841222013-10-20T03:20:00.001-07:002013-10-20T03:20:26.005-07:00Saffron's graduation poem<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know what you know</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That which can’t be written down</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That which confounds </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The pierced eyes of the lyric-bound</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That which slips past</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Religious fingertips</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That which compels</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Aggressive scholarship</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Which shuts the fuck up</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The noisy expertise</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And the one-penny tricks</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That make all love </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Turn to helplessness.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know what you know. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That passion is intelligence</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That hard work </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is not the same as persistence</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And that dreaming</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is what makes us human.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that art</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is not a question</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Of statistical chance</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And that the empty page</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Carries in it the </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Trapped beauty of the poet. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that it is the insane</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That will save us.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That all murder, all evil</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is just wounded courage,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That anger is what</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our first sacred breath </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Looks like. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that redemption</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Cannot be captured in</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Petty argument,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That healing is no theory,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Only that which happens</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">To the lonely – when they are sick</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Of their own punishments. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that for every </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Heartbreak, death and scarring,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There exists ten thousand</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Lavish dawns</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That hope, romance, and life at source,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Are one.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">More than you can stop to express</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That wisdom is a movement</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That knowledge is musical</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And that a day’s work</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Should make you windswept</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But not winded or spent. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that those that cuss</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">At love, are just those that</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Are cursed with longing</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That they too have</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Needed some light in their doorways</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Some stories and silk-like voices</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">To stroke their brows to rest. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that they too</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Are children</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Petrified of their own innocence</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So much so that they will</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Force the world to answer their assessments</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">While they themselves are always failing. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know that no one can mark the heart</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That no red pen can correct a song,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And that to do anything right</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We must enjoy doing it – wrong!</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You know more than these cloaked brotherhoods</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Who congratulate you on your genius,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Who do so only for their own smug politics. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Your waking thoughts outrank </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Their long, elastic logics,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Their pencilled experiments.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">You graduated at birth,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">With a raw knowing</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">With a first class awareness</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Drawn from lifetimes like libraries</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Stocked with philosophical dances.</span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-66630624689322555472013-09-29T21:43:00.001-07:002013-09-29T21:44:37.068-07:00Sonnet after accusations of being 'pretentious' <div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
florid crime, the quirks of Calliope's whims,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Distil
the drool, satiric treacle's pride,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
glottal joke, the aspic spittal's phlegm,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">To
sweetened truths and honeysuckled lines.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
nervous creeps the sorry heart rebels</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With
relished winces, spices numb the lips.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
rapture's yodelled song is quelled,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Preferring
obmutescence - or a quip.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
things you call pretentious burn the blood.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
pierce and pant, the flush that swells the lungs.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Split-second
strokes that cannot cool to words,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Caloric
gases rise to rack the tongue.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Feel
free to dress your abstinence with spite.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If
beauty's truth, it's safer to be right. </span>
</div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-32619809597202223942013-09-27T07:33:00.001-07:002013-09-27T08:06:27.644-07:00And now you've shown those fucks<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
shit they say will hurt for sure.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">They
mean it. Bastards work that way;</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">No
girl's a saint, no human heart is pure,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But
those with skill go out their way.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">They
make their mark and make it last.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Act
innocent as you fight back.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Distract
themselves with blunted jousts,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Defend
attacks, complain of being attacked.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just
fools fight those at war with their own hearts,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like healing those, who live by staying sick,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By cannon fire, alive but spirits cursed.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Such
losing battles strip the soul of grit.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But
war means time and readiness for luck.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You
stood your ground. And now you've shown those fucks.
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-83277242122841555522013-09-27T07:20:00.000-07:002013-10-03T05:43:03.330-07:00She hides tonight<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides tonight in the frosted mist,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the half-shaped curves of ice and light.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides in the damp-petaled leaves</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
swoon from sun-bitten trees.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the sky's drenched-cotton folds</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
in the crispness of the grasses.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides tonight in halogen hallways</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
rose-light behind dirtied curtains.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the crack and beat of guilt-quick footsteps.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides in the breeze upon the spine,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the dying sound of lovers' hate</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
the stomach's ulcerous heat.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides in the rain-pearled webs</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the rotted squeak of wood-worm planks.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides in the bottle-necked, pineal rush,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the mucus spice upon your lips.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She
hides in the spider's liquid womb,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
her black-silk spawn about to burst. </span>
</div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-11486143762440880622013-09-27T07:00:00.002-07:002013-09-27T07:01:06.967-07:00Where are all the bohemian girls?<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are all the bohemian girls?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Disheveled
and distracted in their crafts?
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are all the wine-soaked girls?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Black-fingered
women, curves like Raphael sketches?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are all the bohemian girls,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
cough and spit, unshaven women?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are all the blood-lipped women,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
bite and screams like Sahara storms?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are the chivalrous women,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
midnight girls, and battle-tested?
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
are the iron buckled prophetesses,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rapier-skilled,
and hearts like holy water?</span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-81411481266168746202013-09-01T09:26:00.000-07:002013-09-01T09:28:47.905-07:00Synchresis - Caesar weeps before a statue of Alexander <div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before
you conquered worlds, defeated memory's ranks,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Deployed
the rains of hell to fight your fight;</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before
you battled ice and heat, left gods outflanked,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Left
terrified the terrors of the night,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You
must have sliced your soul, let spirit bleed,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pierced
innocence, cut horse-skin for your heart.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
needs of war require the death of need,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
loss of loss, and grief for grief, to start.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My
trauma leaves me little skill, but lust</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
shameless scorn for those who've shut me down.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pathetic
tears can't fashion life from dust;</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What
lesson now can sun draw out from stone?</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though
by my age you'd played the thief to God,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Time
waits. I'll purple history with my blood. </span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-6954554085943838532013-08-13T02:17:00.002-07:002013-08-13T02:26:56.091-07:00Breathe and let the heavens sing <span lang="">Breathe and let the heavens sing.<br />
Be like the supple leaves, <br />
Sheathes of velvet friction,<br />
The harmonies of angels' whispers.<br />
Breathe and let the heavens sing. <br />
<br />
Be like the loyal sun,<br />
Whose darkness is but a shift in light,<br />
Whose stubborn beauty imbues <br />
The vast and voiceless night. <br />
Be like the loyal sun. <br />
<br />
Loosen up with the wind. <br />
Unlock your lungs, allowing heat<br />
To laugh through your heart,<br />
Swallowing the insolence of God.<br />
Loosen up with the wind. <br />
<br />
Do not thirst but sip.<br />
Each wilting taste must sting<br />
And tarr the toungue with burnt earth spices,<br />
Cooled, cask sweet, wood-stained in souls.<br />
Do not thirst but sip. <br />
<br />
In a word, relax.<br />
Let the tapestry of spirit<br />
Flutter carelessly in your breast.<br />
Transcribe its beat, and muffled song.<br />
But in a word, relax. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"> </span></span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-41099897970156477852013-07-25T10:04:00.002-07:002013-07-25T10:09:57.343-07:00Blues for Miss So-and-so<span lang="">Junk food shops and midnight men's clubs<br />
Skunk dealers shudder in the doorways.<br />
Bleach scarred brickwork under floodlights.<br />
Couples laugh over street-cafe kebabs,<br />
Fat-Turks at fruit stalls argue the toss. <br />
Police cars flash epileptic in heavy heat.<br />
Boys with tanned gypsy skin in denim shorts<br />
And Russian tough guys in pink T-shirts strut. <br />
African ladies gossip at the bus shelter,<br />
Shoulders shining in the summer night. <br />
<br />
You talked so much, so well, about art.<br />
You could discipline the wind with jabs<br />
From your polished lense's shutter snap.<br />
You could conquer the light of angels<br />
Grip refractions between your fingertips<br />
As the clouds parted on city gravel. <br />
Headlights on the metal, sun on street-signs,<br />
Rain in the beer glass, the smooth turn <br />
Of the subway tunnels in a dying rush. <br />
You talked so much, so well, about art. <br />
<br />
On the canal surface absinthe spooks are cast,<br />
The night-thick waters are met with the moon.<br />
Stars strain through the wine-soaked clouds<br />
Breaking like softening ice caps burn.<br />
The frictions of morning trains pierce the quiet,<br />
The sound of freight cars on metal evoking hope. <br />
Strange air in the city summer. Stifled breath,<br />
Passing through your teeth dead like poison.<br />
Street lamps flower across the red stones<br />
Bright pockets of furncace cinders in the dark. <br />
<br />
You thought you had me settled, my soul<br />
Just paintwork on your perfect canvass smeared,<br />
Another blend of flash refraction, <br />
Peering needy in your fisheye prism.<br />
Like all men, another Brechtian mouthpiece,<br />
Imprisoned, blocked, in egotistic noise. <br />
My words you scripted in their ready poise<br />
Finishing my brushstrokes before my paintbrush moved. <br />
You thought you had me settled. You were wrong. <br />
<br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"> </span></span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-72279778609671296312013-07-17T14:47:00.002-07:002013-07-17T14:47:59.881-07:00Sonnet written while travelling through Argyll<span lang=""><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sun-brightened blues infuse the summer shores;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Refining winds meet blood embellished earth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Green juices flower into dark wooded forts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">On bedded fields regaled in toughened cloth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Relentless forests line the crowning crags;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Round kingly hills, the kingdom's riches reach</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Steadfast with memories carved in stately cracks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where history's current sings as rivers preach.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Each grief's a birth maturing truth from loss.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Deserted thirsts by death replenish need,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like tideless sands enjoy the curse of floods</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reviving luscious leaves from dust and heat. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We're not the root but leaf. Not wave, but stone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The planet's fuel. Just trimmings of the sun.</span> <br />
</span><br />James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-55194562818750585672013-05-25T07:02:00.000-07:002013-05-26T12:47:56.926-07:00A sonnet for all the motherfuckers. <div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm
here to tell you that evil will not triumph.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
the crippled hearts that cripple others</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cannot
douse the blossomed flames of life,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
we are born from the death of stars,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
your terror is what will always save you;</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
it is not the devil, but the solar dust,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
struggles to burst and push through</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">From
the blood hot sun inside your breast.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm
here to tell you that the eyes of stone will rot</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the poetry of history, the Pharaoh’s winds.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
blunted hearts grow blunter still with thoughts,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But
do not die with dying's shedded skins.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm
here to tell you that you have already lost.
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fear
is now my friend, my strength my curse. </span>James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-65727126189344018412013-04-30T20:34:00.002-07:002013-05-05T20:46:22.904-07:00In her mutinous retreatPerfected unimpressed<br />
Her skin is white heat<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With apple fresh
perfume</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She's in mutinous
retreat.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He doesn't get the chicks</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And always looks like shit</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But his fingers are like bullets</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In arpeggios and licks.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joy it fell like rain</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On the St. Martin's
steps</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And the camera like a
gun</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Caught the traffic and
the stress.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now the slabs echo in
their glamour</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With halogen
silhouettes</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
and the river's like a
cinema</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the floodlights
pirouette.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now the wind it carries
laughter.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The sting, the spice of
tears.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A resonant nostalgia</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of when hours felt like
years.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Each rhythm builds up harder</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Each pierces and each rusts,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The furious tuneless player</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Busking for love's trust. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And the sick are painted lovely</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The lovely lose their bloom,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While the poet's headless poetry</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is the panic of the doomed. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He plays on despite it</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He plays as if at war</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
She is out there in the onslaught</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cursing as before. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And he still can't get the chicks</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And he still feels incomplete. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While she is sicker than the sick</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In her mutinous retreat. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-31374284044134709762013-04-22T16:02:00.000-07:002013-04-22T16:02:42.624-07:00Two opposing suns<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let's face it, holding
it together's hard.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You have to cook the
books to make it work.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Swallow a paradox of
battling facts,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Mix metaphors, confuse
your death with birth.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A woman's belly's built
to hold the moon;</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Make light from stone.
Life's chemicals unwon,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Between the heart and
rituals of her womb.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Priestesses born from
Psyche's war with form.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A man's the child of
two opposing suns.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Two hot infinities that
burn as strong,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But can't outscorch the
other. From them come</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Live shots of flame
between the hips and lungs.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From jugular to
coccyx's spinal roots,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Two buds of heat make
life from lightning's fruit.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-63968591662112419492013-04-12T21:36:00.000-07:002013-04-12T21:37:44.382-07:00'Hit back': a sonnet for AndreasA pink conflicted skin
of storm,<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gentle, pent thick,
with melting dyes;</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Refracting daylight's
soft fragmenting warmth,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Breaks up night's
blooming, petalled, half-disguise.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
London. The dizzy,
drizzled Soho lights,</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Spread wet, chaotic
child-like over streets</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Vinigared black. The
city's pressure bites</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You - pincered by the
flash and shrieks.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your battle plan
begins from where you stand.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bare-fisted, young,
transfixed by midnight sun.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Appraised of facts,
like sand between your hands.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Apologies get banished
on the run.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The city's polystyrene tongue attacks.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With language made to
scar and crack. Hit back.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-47601832889748743612013-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:002013-04-13T22:19:24.799-07:00Ode to Spring<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">October's flourishes are dried to must,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
ice comes carried sharp by wind. The sun,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Strikes
ground refreshed and brisk with dust,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before
maturing grasses from the mud.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Broken
capricious watercolour clouds</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let
evening's palette-melted warmth unfold,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Turning
the fingertips of branches brown,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bruising the naked sky with blue and gold.</span><br />
<br />
The time-cut trunks
round shadowed churches crack ,<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And moss and holly
strangle bricks and creep</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Around Victorian cobwebbed, sugar-glass.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cement and polythene
entrap the weeds.</div>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You
ask me what a man is – I say he's heat.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
you know it. And his heart billows like</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Powdered cirrus, or wind weaved through the wheat</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Drowning
the sensual afternoons of light.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ask
me what a man is – I say he's earth.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dense
generations hot in buried dirt,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where
darkness moistens roots in fertile filth</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before </span>awakened<span style="font-family: inherit;"> shoots are born and burnt. </span>
</div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-91305884800104059082013-04-07T20:51:00.000-07:002013-04-07T20:51:54.533-07:00Saffron's Sonnet <br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
language of apologies is cheap</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And
quick convenient in its rhetoric.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Actions
toil and we must close our lips,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love
is not love but troubled doublespeak.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That
said, dreamed dreams can choke the day-to-day,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As
hearts shift justice through the oil and heat,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Driving
fast lanes between the cash and play,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With
fragile metals you cannot cheat for speed.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes
its all we have – our words, our dreams,
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
body's petrol powered ambitions dry.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Inspiration
like premium gasoline,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A
hope-black engine in your chassis cries.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Concrete
and rubber meet and trouble burns,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Keep
steady, tight ahead, and take the turns.</span></div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-2352179434892131292013-02-21T05:26:00.000-08:002013-02-21T05:26:02.824-08:00In defence of self-pity<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sun
on the cloud like a cut blood orange,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
pupils pinch, and the retina cringed.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's
the life of a boondocked soul.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wine
two for a tenner, you're on a roll.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bloody
minded, playing the fool,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Caffeine enraged, too cruel to be cool.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Unwashed
sheets, a jealous stench.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Knee
bones, neck jealous clenched.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Light
stale, flea-ridden lunch,</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mind
on its back and sucker punched.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">City
traffic, city hypnosis.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sweat,
bad breath, and histrionics.
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pink
wet sky above a Picadilly poet</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fingers
a cliché in his fraudulent pocket. </span>
</div>
James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4016645067278648629.post-5853686583319337752013-02-16T13:55:00.001-08:002013-02-16T13:55:50.519-08:00For a pay-day treatNo touch, no kiss, hands off the hair<br />
It's 200, or two-fifty the hour.<br />
Girl brunette, pubescent eyes,<br />
Her doggystyle moans are pitch-perfect lies.<br />
Two bottles of wine, it's got a mind of its own,<br />
Need something back just to go on.<br />
White walls, white sheets, a humourless room<br />
The opposite problem of ending too soon.<br />
No lips, no breath, a shadowless sex,<br />
For a pay-day treat what d'you expect?James Blackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06322454239018385134noreply@blogger.com0