my mersey spine
back and tail
to my wirral home,
breathing over welsh hills
with ebb n flow of dee,
ferry lights
liver city waterfront,
this place so green and urban
has a pull
that lingers
to those toiling at sea
or travelling afar,
landscape pulls you back,
thors stone
lighthouses on the shore,
sandstone peninsula
of ancient times,
from road or motorway
distinctive in it’s way
born from the hundred,
Wirral
it stands
this place
my home
Tag Archives: urban
puppets very bold
sidewalk city flesh
tattooed by footsteps, rain
and spat out gum,
the night seemed so small
it could be contained in a can,
as walking
with hands held as consideration
more than love,
beneath our feet
the city, this beast
harbored many grudges
that seeded into nature
love affairs
side alley muggings
and falling down drunk,
when we found a moment
of thought connecting,
we spoke,
our arrangement was one
created from physical neglect
and no love or lingering passion
would occur,
yet we parted with difficulty
returning to the oblique swathe
of our normal lives,
brought a fear
neither of us could confront
yet truth would not let us
concede to the other
new york at night – vivienne gucwa
Joseph Ceravolo – Street Wise Romantic
The streets are empty and still,
between the red time,
then start again.
Trucks bouncing by,
cars to work, work.
The farms are disappearing as I noticed
years ago along this old route.
Now the farms lie beneath
hotels, office complexes whose beauty
is beyond the senses
in some economic realm fortified
by the delusions of power and inequity.
But the farms are lying beneath
and large poisonous plants
fusing the electrical circuits beneath.
No there’s no death to evil,
it rises again, now in war, now in bucks
now in land, now in power,
it rises up forever until the end,
when the light may intercede and remain.
Seek refuge from the fantasy
into one other fantasy.
We see violence done on subways on streets
but we don’t see violence done
in a new class system or economic twist.
Does it murder just as well?
Nothing can be done.
It will go on and on
until the intercessions of the sun.
Everything else has failed, and will,
but the innocence of youth
and the momentum of dawn.
West Kirby Storm Surge 2013
5th December when out of the ordinary high tides and 70mph winds led to the sea tearing into West Kirby, also hit was New Brighton , Hoylake and Parkgate
an angel without eyes to god
she was an angel i did not expect
birth of thoughts induced
by booze and drugs,
looking at her gazing through glass
grimy fingerprinted silica,
overlooking a fire escape and alley,
those eyes almost burned
vibrant and echoing
i let her in,
in awe of beauty loins aching
hair pushed aside she smiled
obliged to kneel and bow
kissing feet so clean unspoiled
standing knocking over empty bottle
about to curse
she touched my lips,
unbuttoning the dress she wore
falling to the floor,
this was fantasy so amazing
full breasts broad hips,
flesh so tantalizing ,
without yearning felt cold pinpricks
in my neck associated with fear,
black wings extended from her back
dark feathered satin
part of her form
backing up slowly
as she began to sing so softly
a lullaby that evaporated my life
with every word
Magpie Tales
John Cage and Kenneth Patchen – The City Wears A Slouch Hat (1942)
boxcar funeral parlor
the prairie became an extension of the city
thanks to the railroad
so finding solitude was easy,
in the yard steaming hot
through haze cyclops diesels
rumbled threatening inert freight,
a man nimble over tracks
knew passage between the lines
many years spent here
living on the perimeter,
where boxcars became brittle and fell apart,
it was here he served god
and those others displaced,
god was an argument for cheap whiskey
and sorry nights,
the others came to him
as in his throat he had words and lyrics
written in his own hand,
his boxcar a place for the dead
those whose limbs had ceased in all exhaustion,
he spoke sermon gave a sense of rapture
then would take each body out
to that solitude for burial,
wind caught and burned faces
heaven a casual component,
the sky a vault
and mountain halls echoing nature,
love had evaded him for so long,
passion cast upon the train
making right for those about,
even in slumber he did not crave
the early life that was chest deep in darkness,
fellow man and a swirl of small favors
cleansed his sanity,
he labored as a persistent mouse
to save the dead from further disgrace,
and hoped his dust would find
the same
Christine Choy & Renee Tajima Pena & Charles Bukowski Best Hotel On Skid Row (1990)
in lovers eyes
buttoned down eyes
struggle to open,
sunbeams poured into the bowl
milk a cold half empty vessel,
we have drained each other,
scuffed table thread scratches
did we need electric lights
or the cigarettes not lit,
crackle of another star dying,
limbs bare
outside sirens call,
no matter what others think
there where wolves in the wood
warning voices raise to the moon,
yet as frail apes
we still smoked,
coffee forgotten got drunk
mornings so hard to translate,
she wished to the height of man
and i looked down,
clutter of the everyday pushed
aside as we made love again,
and know that nature will save
us
splendor and the urban glow
in it’s journey the air skins itself
from the day,
breathe free and roam
away from dark fragrances
that have the stench of destruction,
many colored flowers fear the sunshine
and bee’s in waxen cells wait,
assassin’s claim the holy star
as low shepherds no more as minstrels
play,
ample breasted ornament of the night
gives blessing suppliante aid,
zephyr brings the bleaching draft,
youths desire lanky and untold
held in his journals all that is confident
and private,
cold fires again made him bold,
but from the ground comes an ultimatum
don’t let sorrow bear down,
juicy flood and promised kiss,
half willing freeway traffic unfurls time
as it becomes trapped by clustered vine,
nourished from her bed
lust a luxurious blaze under saffron veils
adds more fever to a new day,
petals had spread from the laden stem,
but those minutes had left ravished eyes
and new reality subsided under overshadowing
wing,
with it’s horrid glare
the air has revealed all
velvetmedia 