Now emerged, set off at a tremendous pace
at the crest of a ridge, surprised
we knelt more in fear
than love
and water helped to ask
"is this all it is this this sun of ours?"
Boom.
There goes another experiment
to shelter us.
Caught our breath, it did, to observe
each tree and root in light,
reminded of the cool beneath,
sunk to our knees
we no longer could tell the difference
between the dead and
the warm stones of the living –
no compass but something dark and quiet
a
canopy over all
and over earth guided us to nil.
Was it enough to lie there?
To pick the new horizon above?
To walk on and up, to reveal
from this point on, in nice commercials,
electric storms ahead, rain, floods,
The re-organisation of cities –
all that we had
with categories of a hundred atom bombs
delivering
an empty, glorious sunset.
A hollow boom preceded by air raid warning
did not know enough.
Now around you, voyager, the oil-greased joints
of planet-pumping hearts
into a space between dark, mirror images
telling but unable to speak.
His words are still in a voyage of nothing,
communicated across
both past and present
as a future distance,
mere pulse in the round hole of infinity
of which he cannot know the starting point or finish.
Neil, did you lie to us?
Did you conquer the planets from your sitting room?
The enterprise of great words –
Forward, alert, troubled, wretched diesel smelling
Remembered voices squabbling amongst
the waves of mothers
Wishing their daughters happy goodbyes
Glanced at windows and wanderings
In step to the sleepy rhythms
Awarded others now quiet in motion –
The going into journey of miles deep in sentence,
Every sense a sound of something.
Dear dream in the breeze a blood rich earth,
A running away, the silence,
Troubled sounds are only nerve-endings,
A come back, a surprise you gave yourself.
Then in light awkward – the conscience of my sleep,
Burst my head to greet a riding horse,
The fiercest blast, a kick, a stubborn shake,
A tail twisted, the smell of sweat perhaps.
Before leaving as calmly as it had come,
No clue but the quiet earth – dust sound
Scattered in the shade of an unreconciled sleep,
Those hooves now distant were a dream untamed.
Never speaking
With your eyes
You have
A thousand times
Made me
Alert. A longed for
Something
As I enter:
Offering a drink,
As I watch myself
Inspired. It’s said:
You smile, turning
The two-ing and frow-ing –
as the girl on the street
a-winking as I walk all hidden
old friend/reliable/brief
not to the road wise-winking
but the walking away thing.
Smashed right through she did
as I looked at her shoes
to sink-sinking
on the road to friend/friendly
thinking I was the King of Kings
On the occasion of the‘occasional’
Wink or flirt here in good old Chelsea.