years
-~y~-
1961
a tramline – petrol steel –
set in sandstone
by a few cobbles
curving straight, straight along
-~y~-
1961 – Marilyn
slanting rain
against the single palm
against the patio door
on the sandstone flags
by the grey grey pool
-~y~-
1963
later I learnt to express ‘was the moon in the river or the
river in the moon?’ but then they were a strange
composite an other beauty
-~y~-
1963
an evening-green tree but a too blue sky
-~y~-
1964
splannng - it’s been a Hard Day’s Night
-~y~-
1964
there were ways
through the borders
of the white carpet
between the tendrils
and flowers onto
the black tar boards
-~y~-
1964
I think I preferred to swing on a star – the chance of pure clean emotion – and have the company of a mule and a pig to join the cow that jumped, the cat, the fiddle, the crooked old lady and anything else recognisable but incongruous
-~y~-
1964 – open window
so foggy and
wet that there were
water runs down
the windscreen
driving along by
the sea – a firm
grey cushion
-~y~-
1965
yellow
whoosh marks from Batman’s cape
in the red red sky
-~y~-
1965
different grey roads, pavements, buildings, windows
but above them all a mauve sky
-~y~-
1967
in the 17th floor
apartment the
mauve wall the
white up-turned
bowl and the
not-yet-dressed
Christmas tree
standing over
the city
morning
lights
-~y~-
1967
clothes were squeezed
between two rollers –
don’t put them through
too bunched up –
and the still-soapy water poured
back into the drum while
through the window
London clanked and
greyed either side of
the Thames
-~y~-
1967
deep vermillion streaked
with lemon purple between
the dull olive silhouette
of rooftops wires and cornices
-~y~-
1967
dark-stained floorboards
and white-wood crates
-~y~-
1967
new-style tube-framed dark-brown chairs
and through the window the deep-green
fir-trees in the evening
-~y~-
1967
stepped out
behind the lead-lined
pediment three floors up wearing
the yellow Man from UNCLE badge
-~y~-
1968
seamlessly
grey sky
brown
treetops
and the
single
black
lamp post
…walk on by
-~y~-
1968
even with the
stone-bright
plastic raincoats
there were still
car lights and
office lights
-~y~-
1968
in the cities
the walls of shadows
receded from the page
inward
the bay was foggy
the bridge lights
hung – from overhead to
the other shore -
there were solitary
hills with a small tree that
reached over the
boroughs and districts
the ceiling was bottle green
the light was a triangle
and Batman paused
under his cowl
-~y~-
1969
chrome and
plastic control
turned
waiting for the
picture to warm up
the snow lay
dirty now
by the roadside
and the tree
-~y~-
1969
slippy ruts
sky puddles
but mud-spatter
up to the thighs
-~y~-
1969
her face like a plate
her smile like a smirk
her voice said “table”
over my shoulder
smelled of wet mouth
I kissed the mouth of
Emma Peel breathing
her heady scalp
-~y~-
1970
to my uncle
shifting on
hardplastic seat
of darkwood chair
– crack –
elbow-lean on
relief carvings on
table-edge
– creak –
to execute a
perfect tree
on the horizon
with just two strokes
one brown
one green
I knew then
to put down
my compass plans
for every detail
but I am only
just now
realising it
-~y~-
1971
at night
a black jacket
with deep purple
lapels
-~y~-
1972
walking across the high park ground of the city in the
evening with a new roll-neck jumper and the acoustic twelve-
string response to the band’s la-la-la la
-~y~-
1972
steps up to the
deep raised garden
muddy and grassless
to the level of the first floor
early morning April
Indian dress and green
Wellington boots
-~y~-
1972
rain-sprinkled tarmac
evening shop lights petrol rainbow
in the gutter
-~y~-
1973
under a bottle-
green shade lamp
on a string doily
a lacquered black
piano and notes
which echo in a
dark hangar
and
polish
-~y~-
1973
late in the evening
trees shifted in the breeze outside
while peoples’ lives were touched on the tv
-~y~-
1974 – Greens
End Woolwich
grey skies
above Wellington Street
and bright bowls of white light
atop stripey poles at the crossings
grey squares
of the department store corner facade
plastic headscarf against the
drizzle scattered all about the tarmac
red 122A
flat-face bus pauses before
the neon interior of the
carpet store crowdsofpeople
-~y~-
1975
and at length
we arrived at the
street corner looking
down at the mauve
pavement the mauve
gutter and the mauve
trouser-legs and shoes
standing around
under the mauve
and purple sky
-~y~-
1976
watching the moonlight work across the shag carpet for the first time
-~y~-
1976
night
green
sloping
pathways
and an orange streetlight
-~y~-
1976
seeing apricot sunlight
on the back wall from
through the leaves
by the housing estate
in the later evening
for the first time
-~y~-
1976
I sat in the dark
and wrote a poem
about the moon
across the floor
in secret I had
found the point
I went to bed
late and en-nerved
and slept secure
-~y~-
1977
rain falling so heavy it made circular ripples in the sheet of water already across the road. In the morning the paper said the King is Dead
-~y~-
in ’61 we had to make way for a new baby I guess – someone else in my world
in ’71 I started the journeys to school where the world was brown and leafy
in ’81 I got married and dedicated my world to another
in ’91 I don’t really know what had happened to the world
in ’01 I offered my markbook to make my mark in the world
in ’11 I finally gave up offering but not sure if I am discovering – bracken-wet and new
vista – a brave new world?
-~y~-
1970s
swinging ‘round
on the top deck
of the bus to meet
the advert on the
corner side
of the building
-~y~-
