Tollerton

Gotham Pastures

Tollerton Airport Apron (Revisited)

Verse 1

I am too big for the front room, see,
Afraid of The Mirror.
And methodically take off my head,
Placing it on the silver elliptic tray.
But it was only ‘ablenkung’*

Why,yesterday, Old Nick
Played a record of loneliness to me.
Then, just for one moment,
I see myself under the bridge,
Exactly between cities.

Then costumed, from Newtown, see.
‘abgelenkt’, you were,
Transparent bodies
In you, below the belt,
A poison 'gift',

‘A Life Change’

Verse 2

Now I am,
Stern on the wings of an angel,
Heading for the nearest church,
For Martyrdom, on the guest list.
The Bright way to Stations,

To triangles, symbols see,
Of birds, beliefs and Indians.
Above and below the belt,
Revelations, have become so many,
I can hardly keep up.

Verse 3

Like seeing Talacre and the last party.
Just now I stepped into heaven,
Flourished where soil was:
New crop,
All most ready.

Treading the paths,
Of a Doppelgänger.
A Doppelgänger,
In Alcohol Dreams.

Pace the earth cracked,
As a Fallen Shepherd, fall
Across the drain, to
Gaze on the Lone Pike.

Verse 4

Before television, see,
All they had was Rainbows,
A kind of tragic joke,
Now framing Bassingfield field.

In 3D,see,
Rain spots,
A black apron,
Run away.

Emerge then from The Pillbox,
Of windows and rifles,
Going Out to the Light:
Like something missing in a wallet.


26th December, 2005 (Revised, 20th, November, 2009,)

‘ablenkung’* deviance

Schlachtensee

Schlachtensee

The winter flight now over,
I am bound for the frozen see.
Figures of Ice, gliding,
In the persistent evening chill
Change tack towards the station.
The heat sinking,
Through No Man’s Land
Past heaped snow
In to East Berlin & out again.
On middle Sunday,
Then habitually alone,
Aware of the island now
Its flirting scale and diving parts
A natural slope
Designed on high.
This is holy to aliens
Ay!, and metaphysical
Where gravity riddles.
At obscure daytimes,
When souls are notched,
Persuing the falling sun.
Languishing as the day’s palours began.
The shadow-less black swan,
Glides in then out,
Musing on the certainty:
Of leaving.
The bathers
Slowed down to a repose,
As others worked,
The waves brush strokes,
Of a picture.
From gloomy Sonnenallee,
To sweet water,
Then glide over to Rehwiese,
To find the border and gypsies gone.
Now the Wansee train,
Cuts the forest,
Like a fire sword.
Then there was no summer to speak of.
In mediums of light and air,
In lines under, on - Above.
In the vertical Sacrow forest.
To winter swimming in the black night.

Rewritten 11th December 2008

Brighton

Brighton

One exit

No stations south,
No further southern counties,
On High white shelves,
Worn Out in Flats,
From Clean White Collapses.

I passed here years ago.
'In a world of wind and cloud',
These massive stairs,
The only exit.

Fields end spliced,
Like torn adverts.

The rhyming unheard of
Above the sea's seathing.

Edges slip uniformly,
Independent of clouds.

The White Bird passes.

The Isle of Wight then:
In miniature,
Overlooks the Mainland's
New edge.

On Solent apron,
Lapped by waves,
Two beached craft still:
Not to enjoy summer.

Seaside towns:
Emptiness links lagoons:
Close Nightly.

In Ventnor.
Enter in the hotel room.
When the radio mast gets hit:In Kodak.
'you took no notice'.

On Winchelsea Beach,
A woman, rushed me said she
near disappeared into quicksand.

I went on to admire
Sea defences at Dymechurch,
Where God and Nature
Created derelict perfection.

24th January 2009

Eltham Palace Woolwich Ferry

Woolwich

Down from the hill
Towards the bridge
The common Queen
Asks me to leave her ship
Repulse War Spite
And narrow dead ends

30th January 2002

View From Normanton Church Rutland Water

Bosworth Field

Fell field
I, a child
Made your death my own
To fall,
To save you, from you
Hell man,
I've seen perfect fields
Past your dream of hills
Rope and lovely bridges
Flat canals, shored up
Fed crimson from Bosworth Field
Past the gym clothed
Milky white thighs
And land girls
Trip me with their narrow thoughts
Pause, at St. Marys Church
Among child graves
And rain sheds
Stride
Like a praying mother
Smaller Empires
Left throne
Breeze in
Like a missile
Unable to give one jot
Metronome offspring
Run through
Networks of hell under us
Awake!
Will your stomach stand
Your final day?
Out of nowhere,
In the marble afternoon

24 August 2005(Re-written 10th December 2006)

Wellow

Wellow

Little Seas
Seeth within,
A suggestive landscape
Of hopeful alignment.
On Winkle Street
Knowing no one knew,

I was balancing there.
'I lived inside myself',
Like in a sea shell,
Affronted!
And,
Leaving for the mainland.

May 1st 2006

Castle Rising

Castle Rising

I caught you when you fell at Sans Souci
Only eight - You felt it for real
I notice the big estates - the Follies
On Roman lines
The castles steep defense mute No time!
Only distance to the Kings place
Along the Ways.
What will become of them?
I, off to Kings Cross
And when I end the world will end too.

6th August 2001

Tynemouth

Tynemouth

I do this sometimes.
Rapt, thoughtless sit,
As a ship leaves port,
At lea, cove or cliff.

The year the arch fell in

Tour Bus Ladies Ride,
Pictures of Health
Are Petrified.

There's prettiness yet.

To Blyth on Mustard Paths
Long Sands on Velvet Beds,
Through Deep Cuts.
Via Colourcoats or Souter Head.

In the year of the Mosquito

By flooded bandstand,
I stood: In sea lashed Amble
Knowing I would, turn back.

Now: In Primrose
Under a Silver Sky
The Neon's out,
The stairwell still.
To Cleadon Flats.
The night Marsden arch fell in.

Kentish Town

Kentish Town

Clean washed street.
I know these people, but where from?
Flat puddle and no-one in the pool
And neon Hope
Illuminating the chapel
A stranger passes in the mirror
Going to meet who chose him.

18th June 2000

Parliament Hill Fields

Kite Hill

Not alone, and one of four
In line, and well, half a face missing
Weathered for a hundred years
Soot black veins
Streaming as well from clear Sunday rain
His face is average
The sculpter not committed to a certain likeness,
Priestly looking, he has no body.
But that’s the last thing you notice.

18th June, 2000

The City

St. James' Church Yard

At quarter to in the City.
On a Clerkenwell lawn.
The priestly hand moves:

My heart beats,
And briefly, white gold
glints in the The Sun.

In this interlude,
The Roman girl is Worshipping,
And now and then its five to.

The Dark Suited Ones,
Wrought by something,
Are drawn off to the Exit.

3rd July 2000 (Rewritten 18th February 2006)

Kovalam

Kovalam

Stephen looks far out.
From the one-sided lashed town.
And me?

I sway in the seas violence,
My feet,
Now stumps in the Orange Coals.

On the Beach jackals gather,
The lighthouse beam fixed,
Like a postcard,

Already in the draw.
And In blue,
Clouds flash like lanterns,

Devine load shedding,
Replacing the stream:
Cut off by the monsoon.

11th April 2003

Gneisenaustrasse

Gneisenaustrasse

The was nothing to land to
Very tall clouds and blue
Flying over my father
And the river mouth.

This is the interlude
But also the destination
So keen to get on
Especially with all this luxury

3rd August 2000

Leipzig

Leipzig

White
White
A kind of theme for this
The Airbus landing
The old tram
Some building in the innenstadt
The way the little old tram slew
Dips and corners on a narrow gauge
Past dark lawns
The stuccoed
And then
Kilometres of white boxes
The bleached girl
At the end
The zeil of nobody
And a lone swim

28th July 2000

Berlin Schlachtensee

Schlachtensee

The winter flight now over,
I am bound for the frozen see.
Figures of Ice, gliding,
In the persistent evening chill
Change tack towards the station.
The heat sinking,
Through No Man’s Land
Past heaped snow
In to East Berlin & out again.
On middle Sunday,
Then habitually alone,
Aware of the island now
Its flirting scale and diving parts
A natural slope
Designed on high.
This is holy to aliens
Ay!, and metaphysical
Where gravity riddles.
At obscure daytimes,
When souls are notched,
Persuing the falling sun.
Languishing as the day’s palours began.
The shadow-less black swan,
Glides in then out,
Musing on the certainty:
Of leaving.
The bathers
Slowed down to a repose,
As others worked,
The waves brush strokes,
Of a picture.
From gloomy Sonnenallee,
To sweet water,
Then glide over to Rehweisse,
To find the border and gypsies gone.
Now the Wansee train,
Cuts the forest,
Like a fire sword.
Then there was no summer to speak of.
In mediums of light and air,
In lines under, on - Above.
In the vertical Sacrow forest.
To winter swimming in the black night.

Rewritten 11th December 2008

Pen-y-Ghent

Pen-y-Ghent

The glacier will reveal something
Like a shoulder or metal parts
A far away-ness, a going to.
White out
And views away from us
Of things we don't quite know
What they are
Or what they did
Cold, and
What we lack
We go searching for
In these places
A circus
No shape
Staring down at where I'd been
And who I'd left

19th October 2004 (Re-written 2006)

Gotham Pastures

Tollerton (Revisited)

1.
I am too big for the front room, see
Afraid of its mirror
And methodically take off my head
Placing it on the silver elliptic tray.
But it was only ablenkung
Why yesterday, Old Nick
Played a record of loneliness to me
The devil my friend then,
So methinks, my God,
Is this my final day?
Then just for one moment
I see myself under the bridge
Exactly between cities.
Then costumed
From Newtown, see.
Verbluffend, you said
Penetration
Of transperant bodies
Being in you,
Literally
And below the belt
A gift is poison,
Ein Lebensaenderung!

2.
Now I am,
Stern on the wings of an angel
Heading for the nearest church
For Martyrdom, on the guest list.
The Bright way to Stations,
To triangles, symbols see, of birds, beliefs and Indians.
Above and below the belt
Revelations
Have become so many,
I can hardly keep up.

3.
Like seeing Talacre and the last party.
Just now I stepped in to heaven
Flourished where soil was
New crop
All most ready
Treading the paths
Of a Doppelgnger
Of a Doppelgnger
In dreams of alcohol
Pace the earth cracked
As a fallen shepherd fall
Across the drain,
Gaze on the lone Pike.

4.
Before television, see
All they had was rainbows
A kind of tragic joke
Now framing Bassingfield field
In 3D
Changing like a painting, still like words.
Rain spots
There, there, hang fire,
A black apron, see
Run away.
Stand on it like a pulpit
A door a circle
My divine uncertain footing
Of windows and rifles
Then go out in to the light
Like something missing in a wallet.


December 26th 2005

Tollerton

Tollerton

(The Devils Elbow arm of the Grantham Canal near Nottinghamshire Airstrip at Tollerton)

The Nottingham landowner,
Mourns the demise with an Avenue
Of Ypres trees.
Pitted against the skyline with the tack of craters.
An unmistakable glacial sea hollow
25 miles wide
Slowed down to a different pace.
Aside the narrowing rifling holes.
Luxury friends,
Insects fluttering in silk.
Rocks have rained unnaturally indoors.
Here you are unmistakably flat,
But collapsed too.
Its a useless sculpture,
Never used for a purpose.
So uniformly English.
The Funeral,
Romanticized,
Getting away with murder.
The Daddy long legs arrived and gone,
Within in a day.
Simple creations never used.

3rd June 2005

Sunnyside

In Newcastle Central Station

The girl at eight,
On the moving stairs,
Glides in to an abyss.

Grows Vision,
Insight,
As she declines.

Descendants Flying,
Fly,
To Stations to the Cross,

It was only a moment for you,
You took no notice.

Among shafts,
To stay, to linger
In flaming Sequoia spring,

Then leave free,
Nether on to nonsense,
In Evening Land.


15th May 2005

Westoe Colliery

Westoe Colliery

Petrified
Cold drafts under doors
Are just so
Schemes are afoot to block it
A systematic from garden to street
The poss
From the yew tree
Drips gravitation
Under the boiler lid
From the skirting board @ 4 a.m.
To banister slips
The field outside - where is that?

6th September 2004

Velvet Beds

Velvet Beds

We three graces: Rock,
Sea and Afternoon,
Grass, tethered feigns free.
Yet it is a breeze,
That ruffles these.

The once raging rock,
Fakes heave, sea calms,
Sea rages, end sought,
Via this cliff.
And now, I am this daytime.

The Council Workers leave,
The Flowers un-pressed.
Retinted, Velvet Beds,
Glass traces sparkle,
The Lees wild again.

Priories, castles fade.
Ships passed, diminish,
Drop in compare,
To swaying of grass,
Sky,
I am this day time.

6th September 2004

Jarrow

Jarrow

The Neon is out yet it is Three?
The bent metal spares him.*
Speeding down the Sixties.
Only tablets of flagstones,
Left of the Routemaster Street.

But what if the Sukhoi did land?

In the rafters
I touch a butterfly
And it turns to dust.

11th April 2003 (Revised 21st January 2009)

*A man left The Neon Social Club in Primrose,
Jarrow, a sunny Sunday in 1963. Over the Limit,
Speeding down Perth Avenue, he had not
realised the A19 had been built since his last
visit to The Neon. Narrowly avoidind decapitation,
He then quietly disappeard, to avoid being arrested.

llfracombe

llfracombe

I am in the rafters of a caste iron station,
Trapped by the moon.
A long glide from the Cross
Salt
Juvenile
30 years on a smooth black road.
Down down to Illfracombe


1st September 2002

Kensal Rise

Kensal Rise

Its not true,
But I let myself,
Be transported by four stone angels
To the landing stage
To the canal steg
An arm to Slough
An Outer Space
And parallel
To Heathrows
Star of David
The canal is a vivisection.
Water, miraculously sealed, seeps.
Back then
On Whyndams stone tablet.
(Hell Entrance to the Underworld)
I return arison, pass what is: me
Vast Concrete, Stern and Unforgiving

31st July 2002

Chidham Point (Revisited)

Chidham Point
(Revisited)

An upside down split
Landscape Like Skin
Even an indecent crack plausible and cutting
Abrasive at the entrance
Apparently Welcoming
But not saying what lay beyond
And After all, A private contract with me and her
The Sea wall mane split by a substantial track
Guarded
Meanwhile a magical sailing meadow
Or a place to watch them on the hot decks
Other holes
But offset and well not the real thing
Growing menacing offspring and strangers
Clever Sweet Salty Water
Steep Falls to Danger and Loss
And no promises of the Paradise
Just around the corner

6th August 2001

Totland

Totland

The silver headland thins,
To test rockets,
And a narrow view.

White Heat Needles
The Viewing Platform
In barbed wire.

So The Public can see,
From their pulpits.

I love the dead chalk,
Sparkling in Shear White.

I turn back,
Away,from this Chatty Fairground.

3rd August 2000 (Re-written 25th October 2009)

Chidham Point

From Chidham Point,
I look back at her,
In Zwischenlicht.

It is cooling,
After the fire.
The headland paths are old:

As if I'd been abandoned.
The shore gatherers
Leave, empty.

The tide receded,
After the days,
Sudden, collapse.

18 September 2000 (Revised 26th. December, 2006)

Hove

West Pier Hove

Early morning,
An angel appears,
Among the living.
The West Pier:

A star's dressing room
And,
Out of Bounds.
Lashed collapses,

Bodiless, float through windows,
Off Hove,
A broad promenade,

Overlooked by Angels.

11th February 2001 (Revised 26th December, 2006 & 21st January 2009)

Folkestone

Folkestone

Volk,
Town.
Romans dressing up,
Like soldiers,
In the hill
Fort.
In the day,
A ten-meter dish
On The Roughs.

To steal a March,
To hear Them.
To Fortell
Of those already here.
Now they're all over us,
Triumphant almost,
Like their truncated armor.

On Dover Hill,
Concrete Radar,
Still and Sounds.


27 March 2001

Mimmis Bay

Reculver

Sylvia and Paul
Are enormous and near each other
But kind of as bits of landscape
In a deep Roman afternoon marble sleep
Yet underfoot
His ramp inclines robot hands
Salty and fringed with clean green moss
And Sylvias passive open eye
is a blue elliptical pool
On whose rim three underage girls
Pierce with dead give-away bamboo rods
But out at the mean low tide mark
A posed man figure
Is burying the old people in this Perspex cafe
They think hes an overgrown schoolboy
Digging the ramparts of a giant sandcastle

15th June 2000

Bosworth Field

Bosworth Field

Fell field
I, a child
Made your death my own
To fall,
To save you, from you
Hell man, Ive seen perfect fields
Past your dream of hills
Rope and lovely bridges
Flat canals, shored up
Fed crimson from Bosworth Field
Past the gym clothed
White thighs
And groups of land girls
Trip me with their narrow thoughts
Pause, at
St. Marys Church
Among the child graves
And rain sheds
Stride
Like a praying mother.
Smaller Empires
Left throne
Breeze in
Like a missile
Unable to give one jot
Metronome offspring
Run through
Networks of hell under us
Awake!
Will your stomach stand
Your final day?
Out of nowhere,
In the marble afternoon

24 August 2005
(Re-written 10th December 2006)

Cliffe

Gravesend

Staged Uniform Damage
The Fake Town
In the Flat World
Only the dark pools are convincing, and a
Rough Pinto scarpers with his knowing walleye,
A Mad Clue
A trick silence
In this map world
The giant ship paces up and down,
He can see us from the bridge
Cold water blocks my way
Causing me to pause a while
Reflect even, in the gloomy reed pool
So I cant reach the vast peninsula
And, with no point in going there
Turn back
And view the dire bunker

22nd November 2001