Tornado Tuesday

I liked the round lady

At the bus stop

Anoraked in blue

Her wheelie shopper

All proofed up

Cars and lorries

Splashing at her feet

And the rain in buckets.

Behind her the field

Full of sheep

Too tupped in blue

And the grey road

Stone wet

The clouds scudding

That's the word

Scud

Rooftop high

Like a missile

Skimming chimneys

Flying trees

Into debris.

JL Nov 30  09:34

On the North West News

Under Siege

Drowned

By flying bricks

And dust

Bits of drills

And plaster

Crust

Sparky's

RCDs

And switches

Roofers

Ragged knees

And breeches

Eleven o' clock

On the hour

I am off

To get a shower.

At a distance.

 JL Nov 29 10:23

New bathroom and solar panels going up

In Retrospect

A wild and windy  weekend

               

 A wild wind

To dash against my fence

To make free with my door

All trees  asunder

Tortured into

Tattered leaves.

Ladies skirts gathered

From flying high,

Men folk tugging

At their coats,

Children whirling

Wailing squeals

Above our heads.

All autumn

Come to judgement

In a band of hail.

I dare not go

A looking out to sea

Riding white horses,

Another ship wreck

On the smashing tide.

 I gather fortune,

 Huddle by the fire

Begone fiends

Douse your ire

Leave me in peace.

Can a wave be crest fallen ?

A wave of farewell

28 Nov 2011  12:08

Summer 1950

Usually the day started early, as soon after milking as possible. He stood at the gate by the grey pillars and waited for the rattle and bang of the cart. It was painted plain red or worn red to pink and had gates that laid flat on the way down to the bog.

A tooth jarring ride it was  rattling on the white unmade road, a lane really, and always a moments stop at a low sycamore to peer in to a goldfinches nest as he was held from the plank at the front of the cart.

And then to gather and bring in the turf from the stacked drying piles  like little houses  in the heather  the heather seemed grow around and between. The turf gathered two by two and two on top and thrown into the cart to be fitted in. The gates raised on four sides to take the gathered turf sods. A bird of prey perched upon a post, up and slowly flapped away.

Then slowly back again with the full load, walking and him on top, a return to soda bread and a stout-glass of milk.

A day out on lynam's  bog with the ass and cart.

JL 27 Nov 10:35

Slippered Pantaloon

I saw you walking in the square

Hand in hand encapsulated pair.

You turned to kiss and then to hold

Impervious to the wind and cold.

Wind whirling round your waist and thigh

Gathering the dust into your eyes.

Deftly did you brush away the tears

Not so deftly my old jaundiced fears.

Seen so many couplings come and go

In scalding tears and groans of woe.

And in my aged dotage keep this truth

Against my hopeful envy of your youth.

JL 26 Nov  12:03

By gum it wor windy yesterday.

Catch as Catch Can

Because I love you

There is a mystery

Between your heart and mine

If heart might be

Where love I find

Yet I feel it deep

Within the wholeness

Of this thing that’s me

A central sensation

From throat to knee

 When you are most close

Then you are gone

Sand through fingers

Motes in sunbeams shone

Not able now to see your face

Yet mysteriously

Still in your embrace.

I could say more

But

It's all been said before

And better.

JL Nov 24

Nov 25 11:44

Asleep or Wake

A flame flickers

In the sanctuary

Sitting before the flame

Caught within the light

Enter into darkness

Slip upwards into

That immense unknown.

A weight lifts

The soaring self

Infinitely deep

Without words.

Here is the place

Where I am known

Knowing  myself to be.

Part of that universality

Where the whole self

Shall become a prayer,

A meditation

In the solitude of silence

Within a single flame

A kind of Shekinah.

JL Nov 23 2011 

24 Nov 10:50