Last Liked Ballad Poems (501)

all was the same
on strawberry hill
the city looked up
at those walking down
and tethered boats
traced the breath of cloud

all was the same
on strawberry hill
shadows hid in the corners
of old masonry
at the stroke of 1
figures emerged
in search of bread
and milk

all was the same
on strawberry hill
the clock face
pointed out degrees
and starlings were
spilt iron filings
on the paper sky

all was the same
on strawberry hill
save bracken was cleared
from the boreen of thought
and you wore new
the ring
my labours bought

drank whisky
from a bellybutton
after hours in a bar
heard the sound
of my breathing
through the lungs
of your guitar

heard a seagull
sing the blues
from the deck
of a fishing boat
heard Mississippi
for the first time
thought that is all she wrote

heard tampa sing
"it hurts me too"
on a road to NYC
heard a lover say "I do" in church
then spent the night with me

and lightnings
just a broken string
on horizon's air guitar
cloudy lyrics
fall as rain
through the windscreen
of my car

there's always a new town
a new girl and you
you're trying hard
to unpick life
tangled up in blue

I sit transfixed as thought it flies
to see warmth twice inside her eyes
a carraige full of moving breath
some bound for life some bound for death

the train arrives and brakes do bite
and all else there is prop and light
a flicker of wind... a dash of rain
I see her breath on the window pane

she gets her things and does a check
a silk scarf hides a graceful neck
her lipstick stains my white starched shirt
to me a mark I had from birth

some hearts will always poets be
I taste her breath and know, not me

not me

I was níneteen years old
when I set foot
in Brooklyn
with a head full of money
and a heart full of dreams

irish as green
broadshouldered and happy
I had two million thoughts
and two million schemes

"Take your time" said my Da
your game but your restless
not everyone out there
thinks like you do

for some
they would shoot you
for the brogues on your feet
or the claddagh you got
from your mother

so take it easy and lightly
and think like your happy
and the world is your own
and the good things are free

at the time uncle Finbarr
was a cop in new Jersey
my father.. much younger
looked after his Ma

when an email from America
said "send the lad over"
and my da looked at me
and the both of us smiled

for i spent my life working
the nightclubs of Dublin
for a few college women
and a few pints of gold

"so maybe you can learn
the true cost of living
see some of life
and maybe help me"

so I landed in Kennedy
with my big Irish head
holding a smile
and humming a tune

when my breath it was taken
by a big yellow taxi
and a stunning young woman
whose eyes were like June

I..
once had a girl
or should I say
I once had three

blonde, brunette
and red
one crazy night
took me to bed

they told me
they worked
in the city
and started to laugh

I told them
that I was
quite willing
but had torn a calf

I..
bided my time
drinking their beer
then they drank mine

and when
I did awoke..
I ran out the door
back to the shore

she looks at me, mid pub, and asks
in a way, rhetorical
as if she knows something
I don't and will never

"why do you live on a boat?"

for the sounds of raindrops
above my sleeping head
for my conversation with dawn
always the same woman
uniquely dressed

for ebb for flow for light
light such as it is
it informs, comforts, and listens
for breeze, whiped

for a wild mirror
pitched at an angle
past me
to show truth

for the lone swan
whose visits mean more
to me than it

for the years that should have taken
yet didn't.

for the woman I'll know I'll meet
who speaks in the dialect
of unaware kindness
dresses in the clothes of realism
and sings in the key of smiling

for ropes for knots
bowline
single sheet bends
carrick bends
reef
anchor hitch

arteries around
this chamber of peace

I am sorry this is not a poem,
though, I could make it one, I suppose..
The thing is, since I lost my husband,
I've not really, felt able to compose.
What I would like to ask, if someone should happen to know,
Is how to go about getting a book of my poetry published here..
To leave for my kids, and grandkids, when my Good Lord calls me home?~

friends hear me now and hear my plea
I've wintered long in fields of sea
I've fought and fight against the wind
I've seen both poles and seen them twinned

yet all things to come and those before
are just footfalls outside the door
and though each heart has a promised land
the strongest castle is made of sand

I saw her first in a time of toil
when the path to peace fell away to soil
and her blue eyes did call me home
before I knew that word I used to roam

over half built streets of the mind and soul
when the blackest hearts did mine for coal
yet hear me now I must command
the tallest walls are made of sand

and so we move from port to port
finding love and trial and work and sport
and the grains that are part of the whole
are but a sprat amongst the shoal

so live with more than sums of part
and build a new and fearsome heart
yet be aware of where you stand
that every castle is made of sand

the air did move in silent sing
as linnets sung on warble wing
and truth did shine upon it's clock
as two moored souls depart the dock

time bent around the sides of trees
as grass made love to naked knees
and dappled light found darkened shade
as hearts defied what time obeyed

a blanket framed the dry formed soil
and used as seat the fruits of toil
and I saw magic in her stare
that told me truth resided there

rustic bread in champagne flute
stepping stones back to my youth
noise fell away in lieu of guile
I bivouac inside her smile

heaven knows
and heaven tries
unpick the wrongs you've done
unpick the lies

cos you don't know
how it feels
trudging through a day
in a sea of Atlantic keels

if I had an aeroplane
if I had things
Id fly to the Arctic
just to cool my wings

I'd go to your house
just for the day
and I build me hammock
in your hair and sway..

If I had an aeroplane


well heaven knows
and heaven lies
there's an undiscovered
shade of brown
in your Hazel eyes

but you don't know
how that goes
how the earth.. changes pitch
when it feels your toes

If I had an aeroplane
if I had wings
Id fly past every weaknesses
to a place of Kings

I'd fly down to Mexico
just to surf the truth
and my board would be the promises
that I made in youth

but my boat is older
and my dreams ain't new
so I dive in the bitter swell
and I dream of you