18 English Poems 2017

18.English Poems,2017 1.Baby Boomer Blues My teeth fall out like Autumn apples I have a dormouse need for sleep My hair is greying, veins are gnarling The smallest slope is Eiger steep Where once I ran, I jumped, I grumbled Now I shuffle, ache and creak 2.Butterfly in Autumn A closed book on a wall Butterfly opens her paper thin wings Calvinist cover becoming a golden bestiary 3.Not Climbing Beinn An-t-Sidhean The legend says To spend the summer solstice on its peak You climb down either mad, or else a bard Not climbing Beinn An-t-Sidhean I am both 4. Interrogating a Tree What do you think of, here in the valley? Storms and seasons, squirrels, constant rain Do you grow weary, tethered and rooted? Acceptance brings wisdom. No address. No name How do you endure it, alone through the decades? Wind strokes my branches. Sunlight makes me shine Each moment's different- a leaf fall or a shimmer How could I despise this little place that's mine 5. Dear Body Dear Body, Please shrink Put simply I'd like less of you Lately, you've begun to resemble a space hopper Your surplus skin's like Norah Battie's tights Gums stop receding now My mouth's become a piano arpeggios Ears, you've diminished my powers Of eavesdropping on buses Aborting many a juicy scandal tale Eyes without spec-aid from Boots Sight would be looking through candyfloss into fog Colon…thank you for growing a polyp the sixe of a cherry The surgeon was so proud…he held it up like a ruby Bowel. Now that you're hoisted up Stitched up by the NHS Everything else lurched forward like a crash The abdominal hernia's a belly globe of skin Did I mention you, nails? All ridged like a furrowed field Hair, for the cost of my electrolysis I could have enjoyed six world cruises I keep away from mirrors on the whole No woman wants to go bearded like a goat Moustachioed like a Venezuelan drug lord Body…don't get me started on the soul 6. Meditation no 7 Splitting the cloud, I raise my eyes to stare At sunlight pouring down its golden gift Here silence is as comforting as prayer Here thoughts dissolve and worries start to lift Speed is best suited to impulsive youth Emotions thunder forward like a train With time comes patience, the pursuit of truth The yin and yang of pleasure split with pain Beyond the shrine room a sleek blackbird calls Torn twigs embody suffering and loss But meditation buffers sudden squalls And slowly thoughts slip down like sinking dross Here's Autumn….the white turning of the hare When field and sky and wood are stripped buff bare 7. Padma's Haiku Here's Padma the cat Four bouncing paws of lightness Tail, a pirate's flag 8. Monday in the Glen Larch hangs her emerald fringes down Sudded with cones and drops of dew The bird's tiny blades of leaf Have windows where the sun peeps through The mist is steaming up the ben The loch glints silver, mirror calm The air is still in its cloud den The wren's small tweet's a woodland psalm And this is Autumn at its best Kenspeckled in her piebald best 9. This Morning: 4 Haikus To the loch's surprise Transforming into a crane I soared to the clouds I imagine frogs When it is drizzling With green dripping legs What I want to say Is let life pass in whispers Like a breeze though grass Dark figures on a dark day Sheep huddle like stones Druidic and still 10.Ten Haiku on a Rain Walk Smoker alert… here Wet cigarette ends lying Dropped core of apple An oak tree green and groaning Ferns guarding a gate Sheep watch sheepishly Felled log, its age in circles Squirrels evicted No limbs left to sway A shrine room up in the mountain Blue, green, yellow, red Frayed prayer flags flutter Rain makes the burn run bolder Leaves fall one by one Like parachutists No guests to care for Bird table's a spirit house Even the cat's gone Somewhere a drain is gurgling Temple bell…6 drips Hang like elephant's tears From the compost box No buzz of ravenous flies Rain soaked they're grounded The path's become a river Ferrying lealets Origami boats Day…but where's the birds? The sky misses them Their song, their graceful movements 11.Hedgehog (3) My vision is blurry My girth is roly-poly I think I have hedgehog genes I am prickly to prove it Try not to draw too close You'll feel me scratch Like Robert the Bruce's schiltrons Prickles in all directions 12.When the Unexpected Happens My heart turns to ice. I freeze the moment I like to unwrap the unexpected, later, like a spider I prefer the unexpected to make an appointment It is as welcome as a descending chainsaw Death is the one exception My funeral's pre-paid. my passport's stamped 13.Winter Solstice Strychnine, Hemlock, Digitalis Winter Solstice, raucous crow Ricin, Poppy, Deadly Nightshade Blood red skies, the time of snow Laburnum, Laurel, Belladonna Druids bless the mistletoe Hellebore, Henbane, Angel's Trumpet Pagan's fires crackle, glow Light the yule log, light the candle Cheer the Season of the Crone Spring will soon bring in the Maiden Growing flesh upon bare bone 14.Once Upon a Time (2) Once upon a time I believed in everything I thought I was cock of the midden Walked hand-in-hand with happiness Life dropped its usual bombshells I was collateral damage Hope performed the Indian rope trick Shinnied into the clouds and disappeared My jewels were paste, delight was counterfeit With each new pregnancy, my hips widened I was a tree dropping apples Bruised by unforgiving ground Violet stains on their hearts Love was water, cupped in the hand Trickling away like sand 15. The Merkin Did Charles the Second wear a merkin? Nell Gwyn and others could be certain An intimate adornment that Was hairy as a pussycat Worn like a sporran, under tartan Or serviette to mask a guerkin A merkin helps, (loose women hark) , To hide the pox that leaves its mark 16.Am Fear Liath Mòr (The Big Grey Man) Near to the cairn on the summit Through swirling mist The crunch of eerie footsteps Follow the terrified walker Down to the Rothiemurchus Forest. Respectable walkers, climbers Many have felt that fear on Ben Macdui At times of crusty snow, the dogged footsteps Raising the neck's hackles Gamekeepers and stalkers will not speak of him This creature of the mist, the snow, the ice Witnesses describe him: ten feet tall Long legged long armed, matted in thick grey fur Menacing stalker of the paranormal Guardian of the gateway to the strange 17.Eas a' Chual Aluinn (Highland Waterfall) Strum on the clarsach! The sun's in the skies She shines on the linn of descending commotion, All those who love grandeur, come lift up your eyes, Tramp over the bog, that's a heathery ocean. A ribbon of water- the brightest, the lightest, Those beautiful waves, tumble down to be heard Like the whirring of wings on the air as she rises The tremulous flight of the peregrine bird Come, seek out the beauty, so shy and so rare, That drops like a virgin's hair combed to the heath Her tresses like fireflies dance through the air, So wild, so shimmering above and beneath! 18. The Birth o Atholl Brose The mighty giant of Atholl, Was gluttonous and fleet, He robbed the Highland farmers Of cattle, oats, and wheat. Along the starving farmlands A coronach they'd cry The poor and suffering crofters: Who watched each other die The mighty giant of Atholl Lived in a hidden cave, And a hunter stalked that giant Swore it would be his grave, For when each evening darkened The giant would pour out A dram of huge proportions Poured from a monstrous spout The ogre lay a-sleeping The hunter quickly stole His whisky, oats and honey, And mixed them in a bowl And when the giant wakened He guzzled down the drink: Thus Atholl Brose was born, And then, quick as a wink. The hunter slew the Ogre The land from fear was freed The chinks in the giant's armour Were cruelty and greed O look on your neighbours, people, Bring solace to their pain You walk this world a moment And do not come again The mighty giant of Atholl His wickedness is gone; A sword cut off his villany, And thus time rumbles on.