tag cloud poem IX – haiku is awkward / the more that is left in / like uncombed hair

Tags

2015, bay window, Crowborough, economics, emptiness, eyes, haiku, hair, hands, Have, hedge, Herbert Road, hills, Hillside, history, horizon, hotel, house, humanity, life, London, rooftops, Shooters Hill, sight, society, tag cloud poem, terrace, Thames, time

                                                     haiku   is awkward

   the more that is left in

     like uncombed  hair

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                            the hands that Have   are

 
                                                    small and gnarly that hedge a                
                                                        fund and close their eyes;

 
                                                my sight formed along
                                          rooflines of Herbert Road edged
                                                           above the distant hills

 
                                beyond the river
from terraced steppes along the
     declining line of

 
                                                      Shooters Hill; but then

                  my sights folded inwards at

                                                                   Hillside, pages of

 
                                                              turned history that had

                                lost its own horizon, from

                                                                                                            hotel to house in

 
                              the bay windows of
                              London where humanity
                                                                              is stuck in all time

 

‘aitches’ touch on quite a few boat-ties to my past: ‘Herbert Road’ was the local shopping high street where I lived in London until I was 19; it is in Plumstead which spreads south over the crest of ‘Shooters Hill’ and merges into Woolwich down to the river Thames; ‘Hillside’ is one of a little cluster of houses where I settled to raise a family and grow a career in Crowborough in the late 1980s – that same 80s that, mean-and-all-the-while, Thatcher was creaking open that casket (‘can’t read the label – “–ora’s Box”?’) which left me alien to my own background and lost in my own riverbank mist, save for the miraculous peek of haiku and the deadened gaze of bay window …

`haven’t published a tag cloud poem in a while: they’re made up of the larger tags of my work built up over the years – this one emerged into a series of haiku[esque] pieces of work – almost inevitably; this one was particularly difficult to form, the tag-words didn’t run off each other smoothly – I must admit I left a few words out; the green links are to those respective tags, the different sized fonts determined by the number of ‘topics’ that pertain to that tab … nerk!

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Crowborough wormhole: portrait: / two pigeons
economics wormhole: 1959
emptiness wormhole: need
eyes wormhole: bavardage
haiku[esque] wormhole: ‘green plum jam on rye …’
hair wormhole: impressionism
hands & humanity wormhole: Doctor Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
Have wormhole: Nostalgia for Samsara – poewieview #16
hedge wormhole: where the goblins leered – poewieview #14
Herbert Road wormhole: bottom of Herbert Road to the / foot of Eglinton Hill dream
hills wormhole: life [‘n’ death] / legerdemain – poewieview #15
Hillside wormhole: Charlotte
history & horizon wormhole: a theremin note – poewieview #21
hotel wormhole: Hotel Room, 1931
house wormhole: first Spring storm
life & society wormhole: no one – poewieview #24
London & rooftops & Thames wormhole: up on the hill
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem VIII – growth
time wormhole: 1968

 

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tag cloud poem VIII – growth

Tags

2015, 6*, Allen Ginsberg, childhood, doors, dream, earth, Eglinton Hill, emergence, emptiness, finding, floorboards, garden, Genesta Road, ghosts, girl, giving, glass, gold, grass, green, grey, groundlessness, growth, living room, looking, mist, moon, morning, night, open, space, tag cloud poem, time, windows, writing

 

 

 

                                it was in the garden where it all started
                                it is always in the garden where it all

                                starts (… save the living room at night
                                tracking the movement of the moon,

                                of course); the brick and clay of
                                Genesta Road*, earth to the ghosts

                                of Eglinton Hill*: the floorboards echo
                                with open doors where Ginsberg once

                                visited in a dream to exorcise the
                                emptiness, with all due and sober

                                consideration, clearing the morning
                                mist better to glimpse the girl who

                                suggests the secret (following the line
                                of her unknowing stare) giving the

                                clues to the green space found between
                                cracks in the glass (still holding plane

                                with no attendant shatter) where it
                                is rumoured the gold is to be found

                                between the edges of the blades of
                                grass that once were grey from the

                                groundlessness out from which
                                they had sought their growth

 

* Genesta Road, Eglinton Hill – childhood houses

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

[Allen] Ginsberg & emptiness & time & writing wormhole: living mystery / murder theatre
childhood wormhole: Christmas
doors wormhole: Dr Strange IV – ellipses
dream wormhole: ‘anyway / is it all just / a dream?’
Eglinton Hill & garden wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich – Plumstead 290508 – / the breath of London
emergence & night wormhole: dawn
Genesta Road & looking wormhole: glass
ghosts wormhole: Plumstead – Woolwich 121114
girl wormhole: knees
giving wormhole: career came to naught …
glass & green & grey wormhole: new year’s eve 2014; train up to London to / walk the bridges across the Thames, and / listen to the voices say it is, and was, like, / but get back home before the fireworks / obliterate it all in the emptying twilight
gold wormhole: Kirby’s landscapes
grass wormhole: bass and piano
groundlessness wormhole: 1963
living room wormhole: great underbelly to the rooftops
mist wormhole: born again
moon wormhole: moon
morning wormhole: lobby
open wormhole: 1967
space wormhole: Batman#175
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem VII – form new freedom:
windows wormhole: Buddha Amitabha

 

tag cloud poem VII – form new freedom:

Tags

2014, 4*, faces, faith, fall, family, fate, fence, field, film, flagpole, floodlights, floorboards, flow, flowers, flying, fog, Folkestone, footsteps, forest, form, freedom, friendship, frustration, funding, furniture, future, life, tag cloud poem, trees

 

 

 

faces of all faith
                           fall like a family

                           the fate of a father in fear
                           feeling the fence around the field

                           the film, finding fir, lingers over treetops
                           the fire takes the flagpole; the floodlights take the floorboards;

                           flow often  flowers when flying through fog
                           while Folkestone listens to footsteps of distant forest

                                                      form new freedom:

                                                                                 friendship out from frustration
                                                                                 funding all the furniture of future life

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

faces wormhole: I could step / more open
family wormhole: Tulips by Sylvia Plath – How Far To Step Before You Raise The Other Foot
father wormhole: Sylvia
film wormhole: the fingers
fir wormhole: the straight line of stones marking the geometry / of death / settle all their own levels over time to make / a new rhythm
flow wormhole: no quota too empty / no fate to fulfil
fog wormhole: 0.42
life wormhole: breathe it all / in
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem VI – anyone’s eyes
trees wormhole: sunny morning

 

tag cloud poem VI – anyone’s eyes

Tags

1960s, 2014, 7*, air, Allen Ginsberg, anxiety, beach, cafe, cars, earrings, earth, east, Eastbourne, eating, echo, economics, Eda, education, educational behaviourism, Edward Hopper, eggs, Eglinton Hill, Eiffel Tower, elastic bands, electric, elipse, elm, Eltham, emergence, Emma Peel, employment, emptiness, empty, endeavour, engine, Enlightenment, ennui, Eternity, Europe, evaluation, evening, evidence, exchange, existence, expectation, experience, exploitation, expression, eyebrow, eyes, faces, growth, Have, identity, journey, landscape, life, looking, pointlessness, school, society, sound, tag cloud poem, teaching, time, war

 

 

 

while earrings twinkle
the earth turns inexorably
east

in all the cafés along Eastbourne front
eating happens with clak but no
echo

economics doesn’t explain it
all said Eda* but I didn’t understand her then or now
despite my education

despite the educational behaviourism
I teach in schools of tomorrow’s children creating
life as treacled as an Edward Hopper

look what happened to Ginsberg’s eggs!
the journey from Eglinton Hill
to the Eiffel Tower took ten years

by elastic band and is still incomplete
because the electric was not current,
but elipse, and no one factored that in

well, just look at the elm which
grows into the ground and
only in Eltham is the emergence apparent

and Emma Peel with a face like a plate
in permanent employment modelling different styles of emptiness
but stuck and empty herself within that very decade

I don’t know: the endeavour should never be
the engine because where would you get off
for the Enlightenment?

ennui the constant air of Eternity
drifting across landscape of Europe despite
scar and plenty

the evaluation has still not been made
no matter how late into evening you wait
the evidence will always peel and flake

the exchange will already look to the next
the existence will writhe on the Utah beaches
to tailor expectation like Emperor’s New Clothes

experience is common but not the denominator
exploitation works best when dressed as expression
with only a wisp of anxiety betrayed by an eyebrow

just look deep into anyone’s eyes

 

*Eda was someone I fell soppily in fatuation with during the first year of university, but I was so naïve I didn’t know what it was and didn’t know what to do with it; I still don’t now

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

air & looking wormhole: on sitting / in front of / a hedge
anxiety & teaching wormhole: what I am about to say is true / what I just said was a lie
beach wormhole: gazing at the night / as my eyes passed the jagged hole / my head disappeared
cars wormhole: cold wind
Eastbourne & Dionne Warwick wormhole: promenade
echo wormhole: 1963
economics wormhole: 20th century
education wormhole: just saying, is all – III
Edward Hopper wormhole: Dr Strange #6-13
Eglinton Hill & evening wormhole: ‘“ruddy crows!” / said my Dad …’
Eiffel Tower wormhole: parc du Champ-de-Mars
emergence wormhole: vagued
emptiness & time wormhole: posture
evaluation wormhole: the View: from Here to the Learning Objective to the Learning Horizon
eyes wormhole: the Buddha head in an antique shop
faces wormhole: titanic
Ginsberg wormhole: multifarious: the Dark Knight Returns (1986)
Have & war wormhole: plethora: the Dark Knight Strikes Again (2002)
identity & life wormhole: letters to Mum I – a walk / and talk
pointlessness wormhole: first a mishap then clear vision
society wormhole: introducing / the stranger
sound wormhole: open window
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem V – draft-ness

tag cloud poem V – draft-ness

Tags

1960s, 1970s, 2*, 2014, abandonment, America, being, Dad, dancing, Daredevil, dark, daughter, dawn, death, dedication, defeat, democracy, depression, desert, dialectic, discipline, disempowerment, distraction, divorce, dog, doing, doors, doubt, dream, dress, drips, dust, dwelling, identity, individualism, love, politics, poverty, tag cloud poem, wind, world

 

 

 

                                                                                                                Dad dancing daredevil
                                                                                                dark daughter dawn
                                                                                                                           DC death dedication

 

                                                                                 defeat democracy depression
                                                                                 desert dialectic discipline
                           disempowerment distraction divorce

 

dog doing        doors
                                                                              doubt dream dress
                                                                                              drips dust dwelling

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

abandonment & Dad wormhole: the sounds the difficulty and the long long strands of liquorice
being & identity & wind wormhole: the en-gentled / end of a wan / writing retreat
dancing wormhole: Do Nothing Usually / Take Everything Regularly / Consider It All Clearly / And Step Aside It Waltzingly
Daredvil wormhole: Daredevil: Born Again (1987)
daughter wormhole: t w e n t y f i r s t c e n t u r y l i f e
dawn wormhole: the library, / you know …
dedication wormhole: let
depression wormhole: really
disempowerment wormhole: I don’t think I could do it anymore
distraction wormhole: may the supreme and precious jewel bodhichitta … // … take birth where it has not yet done so … // … where it has taken birth may it not decrease … // … but may it increase infinitely
divorce wormhole: what to do
dog wormhole: … still waving!
doing wormhole: ‘til death do us part
doors wormhole: multifarious: the Dark Knight Returns (1986)
doubt wormhole: transition
dream wormhole: the edges of my reach
love & politics wormhole: just saying, is all – III
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem IV – C
world wormhole: my life is not your market

 

tag cloud poem IV – C

Tags

2014, being, birds, blue, career, Carol, cars, Castleton, cat, child, childhood, city, clouds, coffee shop, combe end, comics, communication, compassion, compromise, conservatory, crane, Crowborough, curtains, doing, evening, Germany, hills, house, hyperbole, Jon, life, mauve, olive, purple, sound, Spring, stone, streets, summer, sun, tag cloud poem, time, town, traffic

 

 

 

C is gridlocked in a
career of her own driving
stuck like so many cars winding their way through small hill-town high streets
            (Castleton in the summer where
             everybody wants their Blue John stone
             to remember that they have seen the hills)

                                                      … but a cat
            is always a pet and will search for the warmest spot in a house
and a pet is always a child searching for the evidence that they exist
                           and a child can only belong to a childhood
                                          already passed

                                          the city
            stays where it is – high and low – the
            clouds pass behind – fast and slow – the
            coffee shop ‘chinks’ and clutters all day
the curtains are drawn all up combe end in the evening in the suburbs

                           even in the city of comics
            the streets are mauve and purple (where the traffic makes the facades dirty oliveblue)
            where communication is declarative and desperate and
            compassion is hyperbolic and demonstrable
but the compromise must ever be invisible and unnoticed otherwise
            everything grinds to the self-conscious stop
                                          that ‘we built this city …’ to escape

            here in the conservatory
she lays in her favourite place and looks for a message from the son that moved to Germany
            the first of the Spring sun brings the reply like a silent crane
                           birds busily network all over Crowborough
                                         we have no curtains to draw here

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

being wormhole: no quota too empty / no fate to fulfil
birds wormhole: tag cloud poem III – the journey to BEING and back again
blue & childhood & life & time wormhole: time
C wormhole: dream 040198 / Eglinton Hill
career wormhole: that’s me / in the corner that’s me in the spot light / losing my religion*
cars wormhole: 1963
Castleton wormhole: let
cat wormhole: existence
child wormhole: Beresford Square: // it’s alright it’s alright
city wormhole: Knapps
clouds wormhole: red net curtains / with appliqué blooms
coffee shop wormhole: tired
combe end & evening & house wormhole: star / through the kitchen / window
comics & sound wormhole: the sounds the difficulty and the long long strands of liquorice
communication wormhole: the Lamp
compassion wormhole: tag cloud poem II – acceptance
compromise wormhole: The Future of Teaching: performance or capability (‘oh, not ‘teaching’ then?’)
conservatory wormhole: across the room / through the patio doors / through the conservatory windows / at the bottom of the garden / the still bifurcated trunk of / the oak / before the let-grown hair and fringes / of the fir tree / blown every lifetime in a while by the winter sun // actually
crane wormhole: 1996 dream
Crowborough wormhole: the sun / in a clean / industrial / sky
curtains wormhole: rear attic / bedroom
doing & hills & streets wormhole: the edges of my reach
Jon wormhole: losing the anxiety
mauve wormhole: mlewisredford introductory complete life audit confessional
olive wormhole: still there?
purple wormhole: the strange mauve relief of / this burgundy-gritty encounter
Spring wormhole: coffee shop
stone wormhole: all the while / the flagpole rope / occasionally flaps / the breeze
sun wormhole: 25% scaffolding & rope
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem III – the journey to BEING and back again

 

tag cloud poem III – the journey to BEING and back again

Tags

2014, 4*, Batman, bedroom, being, bird, birds, birdsong, black, black bat, blue, books, branches, breakdown, breathing, breeze, Brighton, brown, buildings, bus, discernment, identity, path, possibility, reading, tag cloud poem, talking to myself

 

 

 

                between the Batman and the bedroom

                                   are all the possibility of

 

                                                                                 being

 

                                   much like all the discernment between the bird and birds
                                              without getting lost in the song

                                   but beware the long and windy path between black
                                                              the black bat
and blue

 

                                   always remember to read between the books –
                there is many a fall between branches and the open space of breakdown –

                                   and always ground yourself breathing with the breeze

                … especially when insensate in Brighton lost amid the brown brown facades of buildings

 

and never ever forget the moving bus
                                   especially from around the corners

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

Batman wormhole: wha’
bedroom & brown wormhole: … still waving!
being & talking to myself wormhole: the Big Stage
bird wormhole: looking
birds wormhole: the pleasant land / of counterpane
birdsong wormhole: rhetorical inevitability inexorable in both immanent dissipation & implicit effulgence
black & buildings wormhole: still there?
black bat wormhole: LET’S GO!
blue & books & breeze & reading wormhole: transition
branches wormhole: let
breakdown wormhole: I don’t know what to do …
breathing wormhole: again
Brighton wormhole: new life
bus wormhole: ‘spilled out of the nurses’ / quarters …’
identity wormhole: shared anxiety
path wormhole; all the while / the flagpole rope / occasionally flaps / the breeze
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem II – acceptance

 

tag cloud poem II – acceptance

Tags

2014, 4*, acceptance, afternoon, air, allowing, anxiety, attention, awareness, compassion, growing, shamatha-vipashyana, tag cloud poem

 

 

 

                                    acceptance

 
                                                          of all the afternoon air
                                                          allowing all the attendant anxiety coupled
                                    with precise  attention and
awareness wide as the sky

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

acceptance wormhole: again
afternoon wormhole: … still waving!
air wormhole: good / enough
allowing wormhole: stop
anxiety wormhole: breathe, be / and sit still
attention wormhole: rhetorical inevitability inexorable in both immanent dissipation & implicit effulgence
awareness wormhole: let
compassion wormhole: only
shamatha-vipashyana wormhole: not that close
tag cloud poem wormhole: tag cloud poem I – numbers

 

tag cloud poem I – numbers

Tags

'scape, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 2*, 2014, 20th century, emergence, growth, life, settling, tag cloud poem, years

PREEE-senting: poetry to recite; the bigger the font the louder and more wisely you recite, the smaller the font the more naïvely and compassionately you recite (much like the Prince Regent, George IV, in ‘Blackadder’ when he was being tutored to orate in ‘Sense and Senility’:
‘Ooohhhrraaaghhhh)

 

 

 

 

‘scape                                                                                 

 

 

                                   20th century
                                                      1964 1967 1968
                                                      1971 1973 1976
                                                      1978 1979 1980
                                   1981 1982 1985 1987 1988 1989 1993
                                   1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2004 2007
                                                      2008 2009            2010

 

 

2011

 

 

 

 

                                                      2012

 

 

                                                      2013

 

 

 

^{————w}(O)rmholes_________________________________|—–

1964 wormhole: Batman 168
1967 wormhole: mlewis diptych
1968 wormhole: 1968
1971 wormhole: new garden
1973 wormhole: August / Adventure
1976 wormhole: 1976
20^th century wormhole: the early morning of the sixties
emergence wormhole: Woodbrooke labyrinth / affirmations
life wormhole: Have what, now?
settling wormhole: Child of Illusion
years wormhole: 1965