The Space Beyond The Sky

(By Gub, the 12th of December 2014)

The space beyond the sky,
(Our sky and moon)
Is blue and dark
And in deeper
Recess

Maybe glean
Some soft print
Of gossamer feet

A Sparkle instant.

Crisp and rough,
A match
Coughs across the strike-plate
Hisses into light.

So stars
Form
Burn
And go

Leave passages
Of afterlife
That exceed their
Term

Existence
Has an
Overbite.

The Shake-Up

(By Gub, the 26th of November, 2016)

That irreversible moment when the walls
closed

when the heart-beat
back flipped
and feet froze.

When nothing on earth can reverse the pain of knowing,
that coming also means going

and that life will end.

rants won't help,
and raves only hasten to expend
the breath that's left

the time unkept.

So prize what's past
and see the future as
work to be done,

for what's left for us is not a subtraction
of living
but only an opportunity to add to the present sum...

The Great War

(By Gub, the 26th of November, 2014)

Humanity's epiphany of itself;
A rose broken from the stem,
and bodies unfolded like petals,
untimely loose and so many, so many...
that hard ground still blows dust this way;
not just men, but men upon men upon men...

Where You Lay

(By Gub, 22nd of November, 2014)

Tree light and
Shadow sounds
Rustle with waking
Birds bringing to life
The soft slept ground
And empty the space
Where you lay...

Merry-Go-Round and Alarm and Delight

Merry-Go-Round
(the18th of November, 2015, Stroud)

A willow shimmies
aerial jellyfish
autumn froth
I frame a cup of black coffee
mushrooms on toast
filling a stomach
where I can't fill a heart
in some town called Nailsworth
and the wheels on your bus
go round and round
faraway drenched merry-go-round

Alarm and Delight
(by Gub, the 18th of November, 2015, Belfast)

Shards of autumn light 

chase 

the dark stalks of winter 

back into their trunks 

- the road mirrors the journey, 

here and there patches of untried memory 

mark the season's changes 

with mixed volumes 

of alarm 

and delight ....

Virgin Surfaces and Rainbow

Virgin Surfaces
(the 18th of October, 2015, Kennington Lane)
Primary colours

Industrial effort at seamlessness

Virgin set for our display of imperfection

No finely tuned machine will smooth our creases 

My fingers can appreciate the hard unyielding line of the granit

But fingers were made to touch skin and 

Eyes to look at eyes not neat circles on a Cath Kidston cup

I unwrap yet another pan 

And remember that your arm feels so much warmer than a steel handle

In a corner 

I gather cardboard and plastic - clean mess 

There's other waste 

this gleaming space 

not yet a home 

storehouse four our weekend crap

A multicoloured box for 

Pandora's stifled scream


A reflection on D H Lawrence;
Will and Anna Brangwen 's Church viewing
In THE RAINBOW
(By Gub, the 18th of October, 2015, Belfast)

They stand apart,
Seeing the stones rise up.
Will's heart is with the
craft of masonry, the beams aloft plough
Furrows of wood
Strong beneath the sailing
Rafters, holding erect foursquare against the storm..
Medieval works, commissioned, purposeful
Acted out with intent,
The materials of their day
Given shape, glorifying the
Heavens and all made large by good men and true.
Anna - viewed the beams the rising arches of the roof, her eyes lifted up, but travelling through the stone vault her heart soared to the clouds above the church, to the real heaven of this material home - the symbol of Will's worship --
She felt God's presence, and not merely his inscriptions.
Will yearned to abandon
This lair, but his world was defined by wood and stone and without index there would be no measurements.
So Anna relinquished body to soul whilst Will sought soul in the body and their lives were cleft from head to toe in an unholy helix --
For the gift of sex brings separateness, and no sanctity where love lies.

Metal on Wood

(By Gub, London, 2006)

steel bowl against
wood
passing food
master to dog
rituals - well
understood

door opens
unhook the lead
from a coat hook
excited pant;
unwritten creed

bounding park-life
chase the ball
impatient pee

on the daises
and half sniffed wall

eyes that are open
smell this world
bold and bare
a gift
that is love
already given
common yet
rare
unconditional
patting
lick-like

cheek
proximity of noses

complete

unseek
speed of car
metal on wood
world unchanged ;
strong life
passes
death
is so weak.