Status Quo

STATUS QUO

Re-listening to sixties' protest songs
recalling fledgling dreams.
We thought then if folk would only hear
the world's ways would change
in a revolution of peace and love.

Our mono records revolve on turntables
engineered for stereophonic sound.
Deafened by and deaf to heavy metal
we wonder how much our sons
will do to change their parents' world.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 12th December 1984

Publications


1986 Folio (UK)
1988 International Poetry (USA)
1989 A POEM FOR DADDY (Whitby, Canada, Plowman)
1991 Sacrifice The Common Sense (USA)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)
1997 Grape (Internet)
2008 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

Needs

NEEDS

The choked coughing
of winter's first flu
preventing sleep,
I watch the television appeal
for  "Children in Need"

Rain tap-dances on the roof
and the wind wails through trees

From next-door
rock music is punctured
by shouts I scarcely comprehend

A wife being raped perhaps ?
Or a child beaten ?

I watch the millions being pledged
I hear a husband walking out in anger

Outside the storm still rages

My dozing is disturbed
by sounds of sobbing


© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 13th November 1984

Publications

1990 The Affiliate (Canada)
1992 Outreach (UK)
1994 Tree Trunk (USA)

Grass Point

         GRASSPOINT

         In the tearoom we asked for coffee

         and home-baked scones with jam -

         were asked if we'd enjoyed our sail -

         unaware that we'd arrived by car!

The road from Grass Point: Photo © 2010 Sarah Charlesworth.

         Grass grows down the middle

         of the three-mile road to Grasspoint

         where the Old Ferry Inn watches

         MacBrayne's sailing past Lady Rock.

         Years past pilgrims paused here

         enroute for St.Columba's isle,

         and cattlemen drove their beasts

         across towards mainland markets.

         Now passengers on the launch from Oban

         stop off at Mull's nearest point

         for a quick taste of feeling insular

         and buy chocolate mints from the gallery

         where sculpture and collected bones,

         newspaper cuttings and books of poems

         coalesce into a single exhibition

         of history and restoration.

Stone seal at Grass Point: Photo © 1999 Dave Fergusson.

         Quiet again after the boat's return

         we watch the waves wash over the sculptured seal

         before driving off along the twisting way,

         the post-van squeezing between trees to let us pass.

         Days later, from the car-ferry lounge,

         ourselves heading for mainland motorways

         we remember our weeks on Mull

         and look across to a remote, white house.

         © GERALD ENGLAND.

Old Ferry House: Photo © 2010 Sarah Charlesworth.

Composed: Glamis, 8th August 1984

Unpublished

Craig

           CRAIG

           Craig is three now

           Last year he climbed
           the height of the
           Giant's Causeway

           Today he crossed
           in wave-sprayed boat
           to Staffa and probed
           the depths of Fingal's Cave

           Craig is handicapped

           In one year
           he has crossed
           the Giant's sea
           from Ulster to the Hebrides

           How many years
           will he take
           to climb other heights
           probe other depths
           cross that other sea
           others label "normallacy" ?

           © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Fionnphort, 3rd August 1984

Publications

1984 New Hope International (UK)
1984 International Biographical Centre Magazine (UK)
1984 Boyds Walk Newsletter (UK)
1986 FUTURES (Ipswich, Magic Pen Press)
1987 White Rose Magazine (UK)

*****

Portuguese translation by Teresinka Pereira

Text not to hand.

Publication

1985 International Poetry (USA)

Lights

Photograph © Gerald England

LIGHTS

As midnight approaches

I stand with the dog

watching the embers

of a fire

dying on the beach.

Behind me are the lights

of several caravans.

Three cottages on

once-uninhabited Erraid,

Robert Louis Stevenson's

unhappy childhood home,

throw their light

across the Sound.

Beyond the black shapes

of sundry, rocky islets

are the bright lights of Iona

shining across the water

Earlier from the beach

we had watched the sun

set over I.,

each ray illuming

a pigeon-toe sky.

Now as morrow

becomes day

dog and master

settle to sleep

having seen.

© Gerald England

Composed: Fionnphort, 1st August 1984

Publications

1985 Periaktos (UK)
1989 Eavesdropper (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)

The Bay At The Back Of The Ocean

               THE BAY AT THE BACK OF THE OCEAN

               At the Bay-at-the-back-of-the-ocean
               a boy wrote his name in white sand
               and drew a rude picture of mummy
               whilst his brother picked at the grains
               and bottom-shuffled towards the blue

               Hidden behind the cow-climbed Dun
               beyond the sheep-trodden tees and greens,
               at the Bay-at-the-back-of-the-ocean
               where the machair stretches smooth and clean
               a man and wife looked toward more distant isles

               At the Bay-at-the-back-of-the-ocean
               a boy cried out to the warming wind
               and waved at the royal Atlantic
               whilst his brother crawled towards daddy,
               sand penetrating nappy, caking face

               Whilst others ascended to the Abbey
               one walked, one buggied, with parents trekked
               to the Bay-at-the-back-of-the-ocean
               searching for colours in rocks hiding pools
               and crevices where pink flowers grew

              © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Fionnphort, 30th July 1984

Publications

1985 Period Piece & Paperback (UK)
1986 FUTURES (Ipswich, Magic Pen Press)
1998 Conspire (Internet)

[4o]

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 2nd July 1984

Publication

1993 FOUR SQUARE REPLAY (Leeds, Krax)

[3f]

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 1st July 1984

Publication

1985 Printed Matter (Japan)

Night in the Caravan

              CARAVAN: NIGHT

              Outside we may be surrounded
              by near-parked vans on a rainy
              car-park of hard macadam,
              or alone by a polecat haunted wood
              a field away from the line to Crewe -
              up to our corner-steadies in mud
              on a wind-lashed coastal strip,
              or locked in behind the railings
              of Knowlsey Safari Park -
              But wherever we are
              when the sun has sunk
              and the last cup of coffee's been drunk

              Curtained from the world
              Inside the inside
              All life -
                     wife
                     children
                     dog
                     self

              breaths speak
              quietly

              before the dawn babble breaks!

              © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Heckmondwike, 1st May 1984

Unpublished

Program Out The Window

PROGRAM OUT THE WINDOW

               Shadows of interest

               Lights reveal
               shiver-sending shape
               enticing the unwary
               to change of orientation

               The user-friendly
               would understand,
               request continuation,
               but basic desires
               are not computer commands

               There is no compatibility
               between soft longings
               and hard-worn peripherals

               Memory contents
               peek at forgotten designs

               Fulfilment is a forbidden run

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Oldham, 12th February 1984

Publications

1985 Bradford Poetry Quarterly (UK)
1986 ANWUC (UK)
1989 The Old Police Station (UK)

First Morning

FIRST MORNING

having woken, coffeed,
walked the dog -
overcoat over pyjamas -,
we draw curtains
to a girl riding by
where the bridle path
skirts our field;
the wind blows
from the motorway;
the rain comes
over the railway line;
here we wait
to hitch ourselves
onto the new year

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st January 1984

Publications

1988 QUADRA PROJECT: TEN POSTCARDS (Detroit Art Workshops)
1994 Green's Magazine (Canada)
1998 Black Creek Review (USA)
1998 Black Creek Review (Internet)