Spring

SPRING

Spring is a young girl who having helped
her mother with chores goes, still
with her pinny on, barefoot to where
the sheep graze on a hillside by a pond
There, throwing her straw bonnet aside,
she throws her body down beside her young sister
and picking a buttercup, examines it,
marvelling at the detail of nature,
seeing the sun's colour in its petals
Her sister stares into the water
and wonders what it is her elder knows

© Gerald England

Composed: Edinburgh, 1st July 1979

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1981 Britannic Magazine (UK)
1990 Maple Valley Vine (USA)
1992 Poesie India (India)
2002 EOTU (Internet)
2004 Iodine (USA)

Factor's Island

FACTOR'S ISLAND

O Factor of the Duke of Montrose,
tell me! When Rob Roy captured you,
stole the rents you had collected
and held you on the island for ransom,
were there then seagulls congregating
among tame trees and purple rhododendron?
When Glasgow took Katrine's water
and raised its level seventeen feet
they built a wall around it - made it nice
You would rather they'd let it be submerged!

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Stronaclachar, 25th June 1979

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1997 NASA (USA)

May Special

MAY SPECIAL

It was May and it was snowing
as we drove down that delightful lane
lined by saxifrage and beyond them trees
We did not stop at Rievaulx
but only surveyed it from the car
Further on a pheasant, or a partridge,
flew down from the trees
to land behind a fence
It wasn't any special day
But later, when the sun forced out its warmth,
for our son, running over the grass
of Mount Grace Priory dodging daffodils
and trying to get in on the photograph
a girl was taking of her boyfriend,
perhaps there was something special after all

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Oldham, 1st May 1979

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1988 Pennine Ink (UK)
1995 Current Accounts (UK)

On Watching The Birth Of My Son by Caesarian Section

ON WATCHING THE BIRTH OF MY SON BY CAESARIAN SECTION

Skin was slit like the opening of an envelope
A head with hair was revealed
Skilful hands worked with precision
Blood and water gushed, drenching sheets
And emerged a baby, alive and whole,
covered all over all green The cord cut
my baby son was carried to a table
Several seconds of intensive wait then
all in the theatre thrilled to the cry
of the earth's latest inhabitant
The pedeatrician pronounced him a fine seven-pounder
while the doctor finished his work and sewed the scar
They were wrong who feared I might faint
I was far too busy being overjoyed
at this wonder of creation to feel other
than the very best I have ever felt
A father proud of his son and his wife
praising his own maker and the doctors and nurses
who all played their part to produce
one more miracle

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Oldham, 22nd September 1977

Publications

1978 Pennine Platform (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)

Ballade of a Male Chauvenist Pig

BALLADE OF A MALE CHAUVINIST PIG

I took my wife to a Chinese restaurant to eat;
egg fou yung, sweet and sour, she declined;
said she fancied a nice fat piece of meat
like gammon ham with a juicy rind
A woman always has the right to change her mind
so I got her fish and chips and peas
and then we felt we'd truly dined
Why is a woman so difficult to please ?

Yesterday my wife complained about her feet,
how climbing stairs was such a bind
and how she couldn't stand the heat,
that this year's weather had not been kind
and how for a bit of sun she pined
I went and booked a holiday in Greece
but now she hasn't time I find
Why is a woman so difficult to please ?

Once my wife for a bit of a treat
went to the house of a man who was blind
to clean and make it tidy and neat
but when he stood up and slapped her behind
then found herself in his arms entwined
she said, "Excuse me, I want to sneeze!"
and left with her cheque still unsigned
Why is a woman so difficult to please ?

ENVOI

Prince, when I come home from the daily grind
if I bring her milk she asks for cheese
It's no wonder my face is wrinkled and lined
Why are women so difficult to please ?

© Gerald England

Composed: Oldham, 1st September 1977

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1998 Boggers All (UK)

On Finding An Anonymous Wreath

ON FINDING AN ANONYMOUS WREATH

Who are you?
Why did you leave a wreath
on our baby's grave?
You are not anyone we know
Did you have so many wreaths
that you spared one for a quiet grave?
or had you a baby that died
and have no grave of your own to visit
so chose ours?
Whoever you are
whatever your reason
we thank you for your kindness
Share not our sorrow
but share our joy
knowing that our baby
is not in barren soil
but in a many-mansioned place
where we through grace may follow on

© Gerald England

Composed: Oldham, 17th July 1977

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1992 ANGELS OF THE HEART (Bath, Paula Cruttenden)

Monday Morning

MONDAY MORNING

Beneath the row of nettles
the dock leaves grew
and ivy up a tree
Out at sea the destroyer plied
its silent way while the raucous sounds
of toucans, macaws and cockatoos
filled the tropical aviary
One white-cheeked touraco, with shining
scarlet eyelashes hung firmly
to a twig for his long-lost nest
Two little guinea-pigs shared their home
with the cockatiels
A white peahen looked uninterestedly on
at two peacocks, tails afanned
and bottoms shaking a furious courtship
The Alexandrine parakeet took
the tomato and held it in its claw to eat
Neither we nor they cared for the rain
The mist destroyed any sight out at sea
and the trees dripped

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: St Lawrence, IOW, 5th May 1977

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1981 New Hope International (UK)
1993 The People's Poetry (UK)

Dinner at Elshieshields

DINNER AT ELSHIESHIELDS

The hitchhiker had brought a black tie
Jeans, sweater and a haversack he thought
might not be right for dinner with a Scottish laird
The gaunt aristocratic lowlander up his purple rhododendron drive
was a daunting smoking-jacketed prospect for the invited youth
We had no fears for him
seeing the sheared sheep at Kirkmichael
as white as whitsun goats and large as mules,
or the playful rabbits of Ae, darting into Nithsdale
with fat black wood-pigeons flying in front of us
Our breakfast came with the morning sun

© Gerald England

Composed: Closeburn, 24th June 1976

Publications

1977 Counterpoint (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1983 Green's Magazine (Canada)
1995 Northwords (UK)

Calvary

CALVARY

And who owned the nail ?
Who the hammer ?
Who the hand that hammered ?
Whose symbol is the hammer ?

Hammer, hammer nail the hand
Nailed hands cannot comfort
Nailed hands cannot heal
Nailed hands can't forgive

Was it my nail and your hammer ?
Or mine the hammer yours the nail ?
Who will take the hammer from us ?
Only the hand that we have nailed

Extract the nail with the claw of the hammer
And let the hand that was nailed
rise up and lift the hammer from us
Free us from the hammer's hold

© Gerald England

Composed: Oldham, 1st February 1976

Publications

1977 EYES (Huddersfield, Sight Saving Association)
1977 International Biographical Centre Magazine (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)

The Rainbow

THE RAINBOW

There hadn't always been a rainbow
only it was there when needed
impressing itself upon her
needful or not
She wanted the rainbow
even though she never saw
seven colours clear
Sometimes and it was usually winter
she could distinguish five
But mostly there were three
with a merging in between
Inside there was violet -
flowers and blossom when his kiss
gave bloom to her becoming
In the middle of it all the blue
of the clear sea on the sand-dunes
where they had loved when she
no longer liked him coming to her bed
The tide had rolled over them
as they heated the night
into the outer red of passion
and the violence of tearing apart
She had wanted the rainbow
It was real
She had analysed the spectrum
measured every wavelength
knew it as she could only know a man
But she wanted more than the rainbow
She wanted the pot of gold
that was not of the rainbow
but lay beyond its end
She did not find her pot of gold
She had by then destroyed the rainbow
She had lost reality for the wanting of a dream

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 11th January 1974

Publications

1977 Pennine Platform
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1997 Poetry Today OnLine (Internet)

The Way Ahead

THE WAY AHEAD

(for Vivienne)

For him the dance is done
despite continued clattering of guns
What matters now is not
the point nor mode of death -
only the life that went before

You have to feel your grief
And you have to live beyond
to keep the memory but loose
the sense of loss

Even in your solitary time
you are not alone, my love
He and I and we, we all are one

The mystery will remain unsolved
for we who have yet more to live

All endings are but a passing on

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 22nd October 1973

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1993 East & West Literary Qtly (USA)
1995 Current Accounts (UK)
1998 Ygdrasil (Internet)

The Ice Is Frozen In Upon Itself

THE ICE IS FROZEN IN UPON ITSELF

The ice is frozen in upon itself
No amount of hyacinths
or pricking roses can melt
There is a hole in it from which blood pours
From the other opening
come waves in cut air
One of the holes is useless
sterile
essence of nothing
The ice is frozen in upon itself
Fire frightens it
sends into panic
Two ducts exude salt water
Shed skin withers
The ingathering of ethanolic drugs
is accentuation of accumulation
But even steady pressure
creates no heat
The ice is frozen in upon itself

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 29th April 1973

Publications

1974 Littack (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1993 Dial 174 (UK)
1993 Apostrophe (UK)

Wind On The Road

WIND ON THE ROAD

The soft breeze gale
deposits a patchwork of leaves,
demolishes the trees in rows,
scatters seed

Coloured blooms light a flat field
Fat flowers gyrate in the wind
under a cloud-hidden disc
of questioning warmth

Bicycle tyres tread a gravelled path
There is a sideside wobble
as wheels turn according to gradient
Handlebars are tightly gripped

Scurries of rainfall wets faces
hurrying to many active places,
smears the glass, confuses vision
Claritylack hinders control

In the end a still, small voice
Movement is rapid but unnoticed
Progression's a going ahead from
not forward towards

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 24th April 1973

Publications

1974 Promontory (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1989 Short Fuse (USA)
1990 Left-Footed Wombat (USA)
1993 Lo Straniero (Italy)

The Way of the Brave

THE WAY OF THE BRAVE

I knew of your visit to the blacksmith
but did not guess the purpose of your purchase
He did a fine job,
mild steel tempered on an ancient anvil,
sharpened until the edge was no more than a micron thick
It was when you almost blinded me
with the sun's rays reflected in its shimmering blade
that I sensed the symbolism of the sword
There wasn't any need for you to speak
There wasn't any use for me to flee
I've left a bloody stain upon its blade
but you can smile
still in the condemned cell,
unafraid,
without the sword with which you murdered me

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 22nd January 1973

Publications

1973 Pennine Platform (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1990 International Poetry Suplemento (USA)

The Way of the Coward

THE WAY OF THE COWARD

It was your kiss
that killed me
It meant not love
but death,
a refusal to refuse,
cold, calculated, controlled,
not too much to excite
either passion or resistance
but enough only
to keep your victim
ready for the death
he was to die
in a slow agony
of bitter pain
It was by your kiss
that you murdered me

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 22nd January 1973

Publications

1973 Pennine Platform (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)

That Day

THAT DAY

Gillamoor looked great that day,
the done-heather brown over the hillside,
bare trees exposing the moor to view
Surprise View still surprises
by its continuing ability to do so
The low November sun sought out
the shades as numerous as the
lights of brown in your hair
That day I was not hurtling
down the motorway to meet you
I was cutting over the moors
to the North East's coast
It wasn't you I was meeting that day
but you'd have enjoyed the drive
and the subsequent lunch on the pier
by the sea

I did

© Gerald England

Composed: Sheffield, 11th November 1972

Publications

1974 Strath (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1988 Iota
1990 Verve (USA)
2007 MIND AND BODY (York, Fighting Cock Press)

The Findings

THE FINDINGS

The icy road told of a familiar foreboding
The driven snow was a warning
like another season's newmown hay
The wind's bite drew a dog's bark
Chains couldn't trap a canine cognisance
The abandoned cars had dealt up their occupants
to the Squinting Cat or the Hunter's Arms,
where fire, food and liquor locked out the freeze
But there were others
whom only the dogs could sense,
who had set off from the moor's far side
to seek their solace in the snow
Not even the sheep had stayed
to welcome them
The forecast broadcast,
they'd been penned
All night the dogs howled
All night the farmer cursed

The farmer found four corpses
huddled in two loving-pairs

The moor's far side found
its unwelcome hippie guests had gone

The coroner found death
by misadventure

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 10th January 1972

Publications

1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1990 The Affiliate (Canada)

Nursery Rhyme

NURSERY RHYME

The cow jumped over the moon
The dish ran away with the spoon
But it had to stop when they got caught
by an American and a Russian astronaut
who ate that beast
at the first lunar feast

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Harlow, 15th November 1971

Publications

1972 Bogg (UK)
1972 Ludds Mill (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1993 Daily Cow (USA)

The Worst of Loneliness

THE WORST OF LONELINESS

Loneliness is not something that is difficult to bear
alone It's only when there is someone else who's there
and you know it's something that you cannot share
It's worse when you feel it in a kiss
Loneliness is not something that is hit or miss
The impulse is going off at a tangent
There are two of them They touch but don't impact
That's the hardest fact
the potency of a force that's merely impinging
never cutting through ice
or cracking that nice
but transparent facade that always fails to impress
Once you have it there's no escape It's all duress
Facing the wall won't relieve the stress
Loneliness alone is not so hard to bear
but it's all the worse to share
with an intimate caress

© Gerald England

Composed: Sheffield, 11th November 1971

1974 New Headland (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1992 International Poetry (USA)
1993 Dial 174 (USA)

Cause and Effect: Reflections at Keat's House

CAUSE AND EFFECT: REFLECTIONS AT KEAT'S HOUSE

That a poet lived here
wrote here
was nursed in sickness here
is not to be denied

The house is
visited by
fanatics
admirers
and other interested parties
whose interest
may be aroused
by the saved
relics
of the past
that have outlived the writer
and tend
to take
to the casual lookerin
a greater import
than the poetry
without which
the decay of time
would have destroyed
leaving only the
poetry

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: London, 1st September 1971

Publications

1972 Hallamshire & Osgoldcross Poetry Express (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1990 EDITOR'S DILEMMA (Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
2000 Breathe (UK)