Back Wynd of the Mind and Other Poems

 

Cherry

Skronk

An odd word describing sounds sputtering then squalling then blasting from the bell of a bass clarinet that tight drum sound that sounds like someone...

Birth of a Rebel Poet

I started verse in '85, and thought I was the thing, Drink it was my influence, the wild soak's rambling, Inspired by the lowlife image of Tom Waits...
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Cherry

Noise

the music, the noise and the heartbeat of time the clinking of glasses, filled up with wine the rumble of traffic , a distant roll call, the roar of...

In the Year of the Virus

We stayed indoors and watched box sets We all stayed in with family pets Twenty twenty, we won’t forget The year of the Virus. We wore our masks out...
Cherry

The Pace of Life (2010)

Where predatory consumers Live for shopping seven days a week Spend-spend-spending Until the plastic runs out Union Street ,manners have gone from...

The Pace of Life -2020

The Pace of Life-2020 The pace is slowing down, stopping dead And most folk shop online instead Spend-spend-spending as much as they can Forgetting...
Cherry

The One String Woman

East European woman strums one string guitar repeated discordant droning atonal hoping to improvise jam with the street noise maybe not. Avant garde...

1999

A symbol tells us that we should party as this is the year it is Lou tells us that this day is 'perfect' and that he's glad that he's spent it with...

After Hours

deserted office terminal screens stationery flaps at flies flying figure eight formations lazy fans blow coolness pens fall from desks missing...
Cherry

The Voice of the People ( After Jack Micheline)

I walk west from the Castlegate I am the voice of the people Walking west I am the poet of the streets. Walking slow I am the voice of the City...

Hunters and Collectors

Peacock proud and dressed to thrill Strut the night streets , bold as brass. Trip through light on heels fantastic, tiredly queueing -all clubbed out...

When I was a poet (After David Meltzer)

When I was a poet I thought I was accepted But ended up rejected. When I was a poet I thought I had it all But discovered I had nothing. When I was a...

Memory's Playground

The rusted swings hang chained up, still, The playground gleams with broken glass A wilderness of weeds- the path Where once I walked to go to school...
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Madeleine Peyroux

Not Ella nor Sarah Maybe like Billie Your voice caresses Lyrical phrases Swings with Dylan Waltzes with Cohen As you sit in the alley Lost and Alone
Cherry

Cassandra Wilson

Her dark voice like velvet curling round cornet phrases unfurling in sepia-washed places miles away.
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Resolution

In the well trod landscape of the mind Of Hogmanays of days gone by I find my thoughts alight upon Dimmed recallings of Back Wynd Decades back , when...
Cherry

Back Wynd of the Mind

Chip papers jostle for attention on a windy wynd And taxicabs are few and farther between. We watch the gravestones in St Nicholas Floodlit angels in...

Shameless Plug

Penderecki, Pere Ubu Yo La Tengo Husker Du Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Dr John and Georgie Fame Captain Beefheart Philip Glass John Foxx singing...

Sunbed City

Walnut skinned in Sunbed City career consumers all fake tan Z-list celebs- famed for shopping, spend-spend-spending all they can. Shopping malling...
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Cherry

Transients

Dead-eyed , drifting, homeless, rolling, streetwise kids , and bedroll beggars, Buckfast couraged, words declaiming, Shopdoor slurring , slumped and...
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Bowie / Nelson / Walker

Bowie /Nelson/ Walker Vinyl plays in a flat like yours Cheap racked hi-fi sounding poor David Bowie’s cavernous croon Reverberates around the room...

Gran's House

Cold cracked windowsill Plastic flowers stand waterless In swimming swan vase.

Training Ground?

Make believe you're superhuman, Jump downstairs in wild abandon, Fearing nothing's really something, Ignorance a different thing. Jackets used as...

Friend Reunited?

Early morning halflight I look for clues scour halfread books listen for whispers in favourite music tangible riffs tangled in memory. I look for clues hints of mindset

The Plagiarist

I plucked a fern from Dylan's hill, cut the 'H' from Ginsberg's 'Howl', nicked some lines from R McGough, regurgitated them wholesale. I robbed a phrase from Mr Hughes,

1978

In the washed out pre-shrunk days of seventy eight Just after punk before we got drunk and learned to smoke On the cusp our teenage minds not yet corrupt Floyd full volume

At the Open Mic

At the Open Mic I felt like Leonard Cohen, An old guy at the feast An old and ancient rhymer, A preacher and a priest. These are the new bohemians...

Saplings ( Westburn Park, Aberdeen 1976)

Saplings (Westburn Park -1976) Stretching skyward Stick thin saplings Chickenwire covered Spiky as punk. Used as goalposts Makeshift coat hooks As we...
Cherry

Remembrance

Remembrance Poppies pinned onto our cassocks we choirboys stood in solemn silence for two long minutes , recall the fallen who died back when our...
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Gold cherry

Spirit Flickers

Spirit Flickers Spirit flickers behind blurry eyes skin slack, features sharp you gesture with arthritic hands blessing the air , a saint long gone...

Following Suit

Following Suit Angry old man Edges blunted No longer the hunter Now the hunted Middle aged spread Has gone to his head Hair falling out Teeth follow...

Road Movie

Road Movie Night dark with clichés Clouded with ashes Soundscapes with headlights Guided by voices Poetry distorted Past recognition Cats eyeing...

Tenement

Tenement Silence Then Incessant peep Broken smoke alarm Relentless ring Unanswered phone Soft thud Morning mail Settling dust When You Are Out.
Cherry

Westburn Road (1974)

Winter sprays its frosty swirls, Twists and turns on single glazing. Icy kingdom: our back garden, Downy flakes on dying roses. Created and creative...
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Cherry

Shopping to Excess

Sunday , almost Advent urban urchins, Doric divas, Rudolph idlers, Facebook fiends, from tenements and tower blocks all descend on the city: - to...

The Race of Life (1968)

Holding hands with some reluctance You and I aged four or five Going shopping with our mothers Hand in hand on Union Street Infant faces forcing...

Apple Skin

Appleskin bitten back pulp exposed discoloured browning Skin smells fresh green tastes sour on tongue and teeth

Vitreous Humourless

Vitreous Humourless Watching the telly When from my eye’s jelly Small specks obscure my view For a second or two. Vitreous Humour It is rumoured...

Dad's Advice

Twelve years old, not worldly wise, Warmed by black seam’s smoky prize Gazing inside flickering golds Blazing flaming, fiery reds, Hearing the...

Personal

Occasional poet seeks kind words to rhyme and metre regularly- good sense of rhythm required to set motion into poetry.

It Seems

It seems like only yesterday I acted up in our school play. The audience applause was wild, I wish that I was still a child. Things were simpler for...
Cherry

Old Men ( In Darkened Rooms)

We are old men in darkened rooms Of the mind The shutters down The light shut out The life shut out Silent as a tomb An empty barren womb Lonely old...

Upperkirkgate, Sunday

Evidently drunk on Life, the bottled kind, a streetcorner Pavarotti remixes arias, Oblivious to the masses, shopping blind, hands held high, his Ave...

Stress

The demon called stress skulks in the darkness of our minds behind the backlogs and bulk of unfinished work left and unsigned 'til the following day...
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The Last Room

Don't take room 217, they told me But that was the last one left 'First right, then wrong ', said the receptionist. 'Don't you mean left?' , I said...

The Old Guy

When did I become the old guy? When ambition has long gone And getting through the day my only goal No more the thrusting young buck of old, I’m...

Karmacoma

Walking home, Zappa on my I-Pod As I’m thinking, Dad, that Frank shared a birthday and a cancer with you . Chilling with Massive Attack The heartbeat...
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Nae Idea Nadir

I’ve nae idea I’ve nae idea fit I’ve nae idea fit tae I’ve nae idea fit tae write I’ve nae idea fit tae write onymair! ( This was an attempt to write...
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Struggling

In the Seventies I walked with you Down to school Struggling to keep up As I was small. In your Seventies I walked without you Up to the hospice...
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Exercising Ghosts

I. The city skyline spiked by spires The silence ripped by siren choirs Riding the Marches,walking the Mat Walking forward , walking back II...
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Musical Choice

After your wake I sought silent solace Home alone. Recalling Cwm Rhondda Sinatra or Doris Day Lead Us Heavenly Father Sung in your inimitable way. (...

Images from The Venue

Stiff black suede From alkie spillage Crepe soles stick On beer soaked floor. Black clad denizens Obsessed by darkness Dance to the death To the...
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Etymology and the Meaning of Hamlet

Once the stone is thrown The ideas come like ripples Hamlet via Joyce via Shakespeare through Irish , Icelandic , Norse and Gaelic Musing on the...
Cherry

Cutting It

(Based on Adrian Mitchell’s ‘To Whom it May Concern’) I woke up in my head today It wasn’t the nicest place to play So fill my mouth with lager Tell...

Aberdeen Beach 1971

Aberdeen Beach 1971 Kids on The Beach They play away Scattering sand Building castles Buckets Spades Adults buried Up to their necks Beachballs...
Cherry

All Those Years Ago

We sang the song of days gone by We didn't even have to try Our voices pure and clear and high All those years ago. When rockets flew up to the moon...
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A Time To Skive

Retirement beckons, a time to skive, Or to be honest , for coming alive The end of the endless daily grind, Time to sit back and relax your mind. A...
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Morning Glory

birds chatter idly gossiping on rooftops filmic vistas backlit by sun. time's hammers sculpt the silence shafts of light through curtain gaps. silver...

Snapshot

His snapshot:update Chandler shot through with sadness, an outsider's take on big city madness, sitting there with time to kill, it's a solipsistic...
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Cherry

The Afterthought

I am the poem at the back of the book hidden discreetly, where no one will look. The rejected fragment that somehow got in. the dull afterthought...
Cherry

Internal Jukebox

Stalking shadowed cranial corridors searing sounds from sonic youthdays revenants from times forgotten dislodged songs swim sleepstarved mind...

Funrunning (1986)

Blindly running, vacant minds Oblivious to those running behind. Oblivious to cheering, jeering spectators. Sweaty, red-faced with Dire Straits...