Tuesday 29 May 2007

SINGING FOR WHALES

Arrival

We berthed in Madelena on her feast day -
She who'd washed Jesus' feet with tears
And dried them long hair that had been touched
By countless men, she who'd been delivered of seven devils

The waves were high and mist hid the volcano
While the shearwaters hugged the foam white topes
She'd been first to see, after crucifixion, Him -
A gardener risen from the earth

Will you allow us in now Magdalena
Can we find new life in you again?
As we pollute the seas can you heal
Our disease - if not, what on earth shall we do?



Levels

Beneath the sky
The peak
Beneath the peak
The volcano
Beneath the volcano
The spring

Inside the spring
The cloud
Inside the cloud
The peak
Inside the peak
The volcano





Atlantis Dream

Atlas shrugged
And rose, the summit of the gods
With sometime help from Hercules

Here arose Atlantis
Where cobbled squares were paved
With wisdom until inundated

She sank,
in prophetic catastrophe
The dolphins forsook squares

For sea,
And only a volcanic
Reminder remains


Rainbow journey

A rainbow's end at dawn
Glittered here, high on this cliff top
Ready for take off
Gold leaf shimmering at our feet
A crocus bloomed
Silver sparkled on the ocean
Azure sky beckoning us to leap
Onto this bridge of fractured light
Into the future




Another resurrection

It was a place
Where bees and bats
Were blown out to sea off course
Accidentally seeking out
The sweetest, not the sour

One bat, more than half-drowned
Was found and,
Being brought back to land
Was hospitalled in a towel
In a bucket in a bedroom
And fed all night on sugared milk.

Next day
As the other bats flew at noon
And I took down a breakfast dead fly,
She showed me the captive creature
And as it tired to feed, it climbed
Blind as if in panic, out
Of the towel, onto her hand,

Then suddenly
It took to the air in flight
Full and whole again like the Magdalene's
Brother, but bolder, high and further

Spiralling up and out of sight in the bright noonday
Seeking to be lost again.


Dolphin swimming

The deep blue,
Bluer than blue,
Azure cathedral
With stained glass
Light spiraling up
From the abyss

Bringing with you
Dolphins, dolphin
Upon dolphin
Cascading as many
As you could see
That filled the eye

As many as you
Could hear, that filled
The ear with songs
And clicked in
Mackerel balls,
Sonaring us, seeing

Through us, and beyond
And then, were gone



Blue Void

When You go
Only the blue void remains
Filling it with our imagination
We grow afraid
With infinite dread



Mystic whale

I saw You in the
Whale's eye

In the dolphin's leap
In the fish's flight

Moth-like over
The glittering, limpid waves

I lost You
In the whale's dive

As her twenty tons
Slipped gently beneath

Our boat, no ripple
Or splash, phluke fluming

Her silent farewell
I knew You in the whale's goodbye.


Distant visitor

Turtle
Touched ten
Thousand miles

Sharp beak
Here, shore to shore

You dived in
Reckless, unlike, but
Like

Yourself:
Following unto
The ends of earth


Seeing sirens

Diving,
Diving
I could not follow
Though you
Impelled me

Each time
Coming as close
As you, or perhaps
I dared

Then going on,
Looking back
At my clumsy
Trials to

Go deep, stay
Deep, until, seeing
New clouds in the
Blue skies too far
Beneath the waters

I sensed
That in going on
There would be no going back

And so I turned
And returned
To my world
Refusing you, wondering
What might have been
Perhaps not yet ready
For the final void.



Plankton

One day the sea
Was filled with plankton
A thick green soup
Rich in food for whales
But no whales came; instead

A turtle, upturned coracle or grail
We dived in, evacuating the safety of the boat
Forsaking Maria's beauty
Thirsting for an oracle
That would never speak.



Octopus

Drifting by the shore
Swimming together
In the shoaling mass of fish
Fleeing the dolphins' lure

He saw her, found her
Guiding me there
I could barely see

His youth, my eyes
His freedom, my
Accoutrements

Confusing in blurred
Underwater vision
The path to freedom




Lajes

The little town
Once home to whaling fleets
Boats of ten men guided by the flags of the Virgin
Wrestling 70 ton of whale
With wooden spears

Giving way in time to factory ships and exploding harpoons
That, across the world, gave no quarter
To Job's Leviathan
Until in conscience, and fear of extinction,
The whaling stopped
Or pretended to be stopped
Whilst Japan, Norway and Iceland carried on,

Little Pico abided by the rule
And slaughter turned to tourism
So that those of us mesmerised
By the haunting beauty
Of the biggest mammals ever to have lived

Can watch in wonder
And seek to understand
As the once wealthy town slumbers in poverty
Beneath rumbling Pico
Warm and uncertain
Waiting for Atlantis

MISCELLANIES

CRUCIFIX

See the hill at evening - see the sky.
Feel the stars slip silently over
your lips in the night.
See the hill at evening - feel the wood.
Nails in a plank of twilight,
taste the blood.

See the city of shivering
light; children softly
dispensing hearts, while we
shift unseeing by. Be ready
for death in the morning, be
ready for the child will be
our executioner.

See the hill at eveing, see the sky;
feel the earth's pain spinning
towards a glimmer at dawn.
Feel our bodies lying here
like seeds upon the floor; but
what life will our love be making,
will the cross be on the wind ?

See the hill at evening -see the sky;
feel the stars slip silently over
the earth's pain in your eyes;
see the hill at evening,
red the wood. Nails
in a cross of twilight
taste our blood.


WAYLAND

In his circle of trees on the Ridgeway
he shod his white horse and went away

Fire in his breath, hammer in hand:
dark master of iron from the womb of the land.

his laugh is windswept, vague is his hue;
but the earth rejoices at his craft ever new.

Now as the corn grows or cracks in the sun
or the gold in the leaves tells of autumn begun:

as the green springs in the lengthened daylight
or white lady moon lights the winter snows bright

Old Wayland goes riding or making alone
on his white horse of power by his blood and his bone.

Now as the land's crushed beneath concrete and cars
or forests are felled for the supermarket wars

or as the springs bleed and drain without tears
or new homes are needed and the river disappears

Is Wayland on his horse, guarding his fire
or running on empty, burnt out of desire ?



THE BALLAD OF STARION FAIRCHILD

She was born on a planet a long way from here
where the nightime was as long as a year

She was tiny and golden beautiful and wild
her name it waas simply Starion Fairchild

She was carried away one day by a dream
and when she looked back her world was a-gleam

She landed in a place of deep green and dew
it was a world which had been made new

She dreamed again her dream took her far
by galaxies cloud gases by nova and star

To a world that was dying which needed her bliss
she shared it and passed by, leaving with a kiss

By the Great Spiral Nebula by hunter and belt
she moved in her wonder whither as she felt

To Omega and Alpha Centauri she came
and any who saw her were warmed by her flame

By Pluto, Uranus by the Mounts of the Moon
you know she is coming she might be here soon

( chorus: Starion, Starion, Starion Fairchild - beautiful woman, innocent child )






MIDWINTER POEM

No sleep
5 am

A battalion of angels
In the corner of my eye
Not for me, surely?!
Crying, somewhere in the house

6 am
Searching, screeching outside
Cats? Or a murdered woman?

My scorched hand
A wormhole in time to you,
Bound, and through you

As ever
To Eternity and Heaven
As in darkness

I wrestle with no-thing
And shadows
Daring not to disturb

The universe
By calling upon angels

POND POEMS

POND POEMS

High summer

In summer we become hermits
Semi-nocturnal, coming to water
At dawn or dusk, whenever
The sun-seekers have dispersed
Or cannot see us

Only as glimpsed shadows
Flickering amongst the glades
Disappearing, almost before
We have begun

Autumn swim

We were grasping
For the last gasps of summer’s
Leavings. Bits of leaf,
Sticks, a wonder-full

Lily-leaf, huge and
Juiced, with all the
Season’s stock.
Not many of us left

Now. Dribs and drabs
Daring the coming cold,
Foretelling of life’s loss
As wind and light dooms us all

Late Autumn

Entering, the cold chill
Pricks the skin
Penetrates
Into my bones
Lungs gasp for oxygen wealth.
Light, green, brown
Silver glimmerings
Tease my eyes
Death lurks
The deep shadows.


Kingfisher

Usually skittish, elusive
Dropping slivers of gold,
Silver, turquoise

Like a Native American jewel
Skimming across the pond

But today, a standing stone,
A totem dolmen
Upon the willow
You allow me to drift
Silently in prayer beneath

On Missing A Swim

The golden field, green, red,
Watered by the sun
Turned every shade of light
You might imagine

There, lurks no shadow
Only promise; no regrets
Only potential. Life is more
Than poetry tell, or music score

Green Cave

Switch off
Shut down
What cannot be
Obtained, does not
Exist. If I shut
My eyes, you don’t
Exist. Go away.

Shut out
Shut in
The world
A million miles away
This universe is soundless
The water closes in




No second chance

We waited, sitting in the car
In the rain. Too wet
To get out. No umbrellas

The plum grey skies
Made it clear that
Exit was impossible

The Heath, too muddy
for your delicate feet
Barred the way today

Daily hangover

No voice
Only what You speak

No ears
Only what You hear

No sight
Only what You see

No touch
Only Yours

No smell
Only Your scent

No I
Only You


The Prisoner

Be seeing you
Down by the old straight track
Follow that star to the ley-line
Meet you again
By Boudicca’s grave
Save me a seat
At the back.