Oceanzest Poetry (270)

caught in the moment
reflection in a window
who covets their time

It's a sad sad song
beyond all hope of appeal
holding your photo


stealing from Dylan:

Along the watchtower
all the women came and went
princes kept the view

The riverboat eased downstream Wallace resting
on sacks of fruit, he cursed his boots as his feet swelled.
Two laconic barefoot fishermen squinting in the evening light
ran lines into the opaque waters.
He could observe the jungle expanse from his post,
verdant and vined, primitive noises and life, it seemed neither friend nor foe.
At least he had met Atkins, who he trusted with jungle lore, and despite his
apparent predilection for opium, he knew Atkins had sway with the village elders, and could muster men to a cause. Tomorrow they would set out across the flats towards the hills, with rifles, supplies, water and quinine.

She came down running
from the frosted virgin snow
stood on the roadside
in the evening winter glow
as the northerlies did blow

I once saw Bigfoot in the woods
He was carrying a tennis racket

I idly moved the curtain
and through the screen
I watched
Wallace's rigid frame
retreating stoically
midship
along the village road.
Making haste for the water
he glanced disdainfully
at the unkempt girl
corralling chickens
while the clove drawing
cigarette man
eyed him suspiciously
from a hut doorway
above the river.
Is it not God's will
he murmured to himself
that I should bring
a civilizing influence
to this damned outpost
of heat and destitution.
All three before him
had yielded to the mission
all missing in action
yet the company still
believed in rubber
believed in Wallace
and the empire
upon which the sun
never sets.

In the shadow of the Raj
the afternoon delight
smoking opium
reclined in the hills
with Wallace
from the company
who through the haze
winked at me
as the Thai girl
brought in the tea

Wallace knew rubber
as I knew the jungle
we had fashioned
an alliance of sorts
as men do
in arduous conditions
"My good man"
as he was wont to declare
bristling with Etonian accent
downplayed his intentions
a disingenuous disguise
his virtues being few
"there is much to be done,
the world awaits Sir"

I took the hot tea
and considered the prospect
of rubber, men and machetes

bottle black
like Miles
sketching Spain
somewhere
back in the files
I dwell some

Kind of Blue
came on true
listless days
JazzFM plays
London fun
England 1991

I bought Tutu
'86 when he blew
sounds of the street
tapping them feet
not quite the same
'60 was top of his game

To all poets we call
your name's on the wall
may you never fall
on Valentine's Day

To the home all alone
forget what was sewn
get on the phone
on Valentine's Day

To the injured and ill
write on with will
can be a helluva skill
to get through Valentines Day

Crow black above the green;
________along the fence they wait
________as forty feathered legions

wait as snipers wait;
_____________in the farthest fields
_____________lie in want of spoils

for as the farmer tills;
______________so the miller mills
______________so the hunter kills

Crow black above the green;
____________thus beneath the sun
____________nature's work is done

For again the night is moving slow
and many a poet is cursed to know
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo

In tenement buildings and boarding rooms
lie men who dreamt of being grooms
Have known evenings, mornings, afternoons,
measured out their lives with coffee spoons

But onwards as we surely try
to flower and bloom before we die
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky

A bear walked into a bar and said can I have a cola and a…..........whisky
The bar tender says "What's with the big paws?"

A man walks into a bar and sees a bear serving drinks… Sits down looking astonished. The bear says “What’s the matter, you never saw a bear serving drinks? “ The man says “It’s not that, I just never thought the moose would sell the place.”

I wandered by the babbling stony brook
with fishing pole and bait and shiny hook
and there I found a lake
with fish there for the take
and one, then two, then three is what I took

And there I met a strolling country girl
whose hair was formed from golden natural curls
she said lets take a chance
on old time sweet romance
I said my dear lets give this thing a whirl

Her father was a man of decent means
the farm was sewn with peas and corn and beans
then somewhere in the night
I awoke without delight
to find it all had been just pleasant dreams