I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
I--The Tragedy
She sits in the tawny vapour
That the City lanes have uprolled,
Behind whose webby fold on fold
Like a waning taper
The street-lamp glimmers cold.
A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
Flashed news is in her hand
......
Verse, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying,
Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee -
Both were mine! Life went a-maying
With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,
When I was young!
When I was young? -Ah, woeful When!
Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!
This breathing house not built with hands,
This body that does me grievous wrong,
O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands
......
A chieftain, to the Highlands bound,
Cries, ''Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry!''--
''Now, who be ye, would cross Lochgyle,
This dark and stormy weather?''
''O, I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
And this, Lord Ullin's daughter.--
......
Without you every morning would feel like going back to work after a holiday,
Without you I couldn't stand the smell of the East Lancs Road,
Without you ghost ferries would cross the Mersey manned by skeleton crews,
Without you I'd probably feel happy and have more money and time and nothing to do with it,
Without you I'd have to leave my stillborn poems on other people's doorsteps, wrapped in brown paper,
Without you there'd never be sauce to put on sausage butties,
Without you plastic flowers in shop windows would just be plastic flowers in shop windows,
Without you I'd spend my summers picking morosley over the remains of train crashes,
Without you white birds would wrench themselves free from my paintings and fly off dripping blood into the night,
Without you green apples wouldn't taste greener,
......
I always thought storm chasers
were a little crazy
these men with cameras
and beater cars
driving into the middle of nowhere
to chase an impending disaster.
Their faces would be split with a smile
almost drunk with pleasure
as they maneuvered their car across fields
and roads
......
I was an illustrious, nuclear physicist, and I was studying the strong force,
Holding together building blocks of all atoms, as stars hold to their course.
That force joins roaming quarks, which neutrons and photons are made of;
And it also holds together photons and neutrons, like subatomic true love.
This produces the atomic nucleus, allowing for all element producing ability.
I loved studying these dynamics, which create matter's underlying stability.
Fashionable friends and I were like birds of a feather, on fancy Friday eves,
......
frosty stars are out
pink moon wanders into night
with its fragrancies
summer's chasing fall
in its ripe, lonely old age
they'll dance at the ball
both dressed up in hues
blending the old with the new
......
The wind is blowing harshly against my window pane.
Its sound is rough and daunting,
as it whistles through the lane.
The old oak tree outside is swaying to and fro.
The leaves are swirling past,
not really knowing where to go.
The little blackbird finds shelter under the bush.
The majestic swan is gliding,
not even in a rush.
......
sailing on fresh breeze
my hat is off for a ride
alluring blue skies
fragrant flowers cringe
until gold moment all's clear
windsongs at windows
a determined quest
from orange clouds to the ground
......