Free Spirit

I'm a free spirit, so I'm told

born in a body, caged for a living
free to get shackled to some body's striving
free to fulfill the old body's needs
free to react to other bodies' deeds
free to embody whatever's within reach
free to follow what incarnate idiots preach

I'm a free spirit, it's allegedly dharma
born as a soul in…

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Writer’s Shock

His work was discovered after he died

books sold in millions once he was dead 
and all of the agents who never replied 
along with the publishers shrugged and said 
He was only discovered after he died...
  
If only we’d known! the literary world cried
He could have been fed, might still be alive 
big name, great brand,…

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There Will Be This Day

when one of us wakes up in the morning

and the other is no longer there
it may well happen with little warning

it'll be a strange day, merely dawning 
an unsettling future into which we stare 
when only one of us wakes up that morning

will there be ominous clues storming 
when grief and loneliness hang in the air? 
it…

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Lover’s Relief

I am in love with what’s

out of reach
the shadow of a cloud 
the man in the moon
my unlived lives
the fantasy of peace
life passes by like a slippery dream 
searching for stillness in my heart
wondering how to not say 
what I shouldn’t say too soon 
shall I stretch my comfort zone 
or is the zone stretching me?
I live a…

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Happy families are all alike

unhappy families are each 
unhappy in their own way
Tolstoy famously claimed 
and followed up with a novel 
to proffer his bold scheme

the final words on this claim 
– fact or fiction – are written
in the bones of every kin and soul
in the blood of their own ménage
a truth I can read in my…

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Pilgrim’s Blessing

May your cascade of failures reach the sky
May you ask for grace to eat humble pie
May sunshine return after the darkest night
And moons lift your moods on a tide of light

May the bread you eat fulfill your dreams
And wild fires burn away what has never been
Let the water of life wash you down and up
May well-springs flow…

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A Love Poem

This is a love poem minus the words
it is meant to be read by your heart
I trust your answer be true and straight
but please don't shatter my hopes

as I'm edging to the fringes of comfort
heartened by will and stilled by your beauty
the compass is turning towards what is true
it shivers me down to my bones

take or leave whatever…

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The dream-collector rode into town 
with a faithful old horse and a rickety cart 
“Any old dreams you no longer want… 
declutter your lives, it will make a good start”

And people came running to give him their dreams 
dug out from attics from cupboards and boxes 
“here’s my dear dream…” with tears in their eyes 
they…

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Lucky to Come Out Alive

all humans have a soul,
I trust, though some souls 
seem to go missing, somehow

some humans are more soulful than others
which means that
other humans are more soulempty than some

recognising a soulful human — or identifying a soulempty one —
is straight forward, if you know what to look for
the soulful ones are —…

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An Old Trick

When after many years of loyal

support and acceptance of her
quirks and oddities and foibles
jumping through all the hoops
responding to every vagary and whim
squeezing myself into the straightjacket
she'd forged assuming she owned  
me — like someone might own a 
dog they’ve trained as a puppy 
and expect it to remain loyal…

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A Long Story

It started with a small event

I traced it back around the bend 
of that knotted thread of feeling
exhausted by trauma strain and pain 
announcing their presence 
screaming without sound 
one glance at the unnerving 
selfie imprinted in my heart 
and decades later on this day 
I feel my childhood torn apart

the journey to…

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Natural Misfit

I was born the wrong gender

a girl was expected 
in line with familiar tradition
a natural misfit right from the start
the groove seemed so logical

boys don’t cry, I was trained
against my true nature
in line with cultural tradition
a natural misfit at the first hurdle
the track was just typical

men rule the roost, so I was…

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Your Children are Always Your Children (part 2)

(continued from part 1)
...
your children may turn out not to feel like your children
you may not relate to each other as kindred spirits 
they may not honour you as their elder
they may not respect you as a father
they may seem more like aliens
they may manipulate you
they may humiliate you
they…

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Your Children are Always Your Children (Part 1)

Your children are not your children

wrote the great Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran
and I might agree wholeheartedly 
had my heart not been broken by fatherhood

while thinking of having children 
you might expect that they will 
love you as a kindred spirit
cherish you as their father
honour you as…

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Just Give Me a Minute

I'm living with something that isn't there

a most mysterious nothing
a construct of my earthbound mind,
unique in the Milky Way

although it is neither here nor there
nor does it exist at all,
it's giving me the hardest time
demanding my life and my money

it latches onto my mind each day
makes my waking hours go…

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When I Die

When I die,

I will be quite 
happy to leave 
behind the weight 
of gravity and I hope 
to regain the clear blue 
eyes I had as a child, lost 
into dullness some-
where around 
the age of 
seven

The Sacred Gift of Life

For years and decades as long and far 
as my distant memory will stretch
I've survived under the thumb of an odd belief 
ruled by a crooked conviction 
— felt so true to me at the time —
like a holy motto picked 
from the pockets of the fates
a personal mantra played on repeat 
of a prophecy I was forced to fulfill 
a…

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At Risk of Trespass

There are parts of me that remain untrespassed
and I wonder whether to invite you there
or check them out alone
one more time
before I dare ask you to accompany me
along the ridge path
that drops away to both sides
a fine view to the left
the air clear and bright
and to the right the fog of despair
which is also part of…

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Before the Supperbell Rings

Wait not until the wild

tiger takes you over
but let yourself run free
before the supperbell rings
drift no more through the fog
of wondrous plots tangled
in their contrivances
hold on to the pitch of your story
so the rubber bullets cannot reach you
nor the ones you love
the starwheels of fortune 
may bless and…

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In a Corner of Apparent Insignificance

Somewhere, in a corner of

apparent insignificance
I found a piece of honey comb
stuck at the bottom of an old jar

reminded me of the generosity
often hidden in small events
popping into life unexpected
with secret serendipity

signals of a whole other universe
just a hair's breadth away 

I imagine…

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Gift in the Gap

A popular way to beat myself up

hides in the apparently harmless 
concept of an 'unlived life'
◊ plenty of roads-not-taken
◊ decisions-not-made
◊ opportunities missed
◊ potential-not-achieved
all in a bitter nutshell 
which holds more than 
enough to make me feel 
◊ inept
◊ stupid
◊ awkward
◊◊◊ a failed human specimen ◊◊◊

yet…

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Recipe for a Real Source

A pinch of awareness
a dollop of humility
three table-spoons of courage
and half a pint of perseverance
mix all four ingredients 
until readily assimilated
and heat until hot 
enough to touch briefly 
without getting burnt

the source is now ready 
— which begs the question —
what does it mean to be ready?

Some people…

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Rise to the Challenge 


As we walked through the door
long since glimpsed as open
waiting for so many years
we knew it had been 
a training for just 
this moment

All of a sudden the cards reshuffle themselves
the decades spent in training make total 
sense where the stakes had been 
ramped up and up and up 
and surrender finally 
is the only…

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The Common Journey

Piecing together the mystery 
of one's own life can take 
an awful long time 
sometimes

Sometimes I mistake the dots 
that were meant to be joined up
for the perforations 
on the piece of paper
lined up on the left-hand side

Sometimes I dabble 
without thought or care
then my life lurches one way 
or in too…

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The Call To Adventure

Was it the sea or the smell of the air

a sense of truth or a sacred sigh

a combination of multiple things
that tipped a balance the time was nigh?

was it the cat, how it looked at me
the traffic lights that were always green
the poems I read that spoke to me
or the salad leaf that curled up free?

maybe the way the sun… Read more

The Ordinary Word

Every morning

the ordinary world awakens
under the magenta vault of the extraordinary sky

every morning
old beliefs re-awaken
blind to the presence of infinite possibilities

if you get up on the edge of time
you catch a glimpse of a lingering dream
waiting to be lived

then the old sky closes in
confident in its habit
to…

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Appreciate

Listen to the war raging within

and then ask yourself
"who's the enemy?"

When you find the answer 
and make amends
you'll appreciate the suggestion
of making enemies friends.

making enemies friends.

Hope, Faith, Love



In the Beginning there was
more than we could hope for
so hope was not needed, in
the beginning

In the Beginning we sat together
face to face
so faith was not needed either, in
the beginning

In the Beginning
... there was Love.