Viewing the Comet

Photograph © 1997 Valentin Grigore.

VIEWING THE COMET

(for Mother)

The day before your funeral, as I bath my son,
I tell him. "Tomorrow we are saying goodbye
to Grandma; — she is going away
to meet and be with Jesus."

The knock on the door is our neighbour’s child
hoping to borrow binoculars which we lost years ago.
She points out the Hale-Bopp comet, bright in the Northern
sky, visible even above the city lights.

Because of the biting wind, I return indoors
to dry my son and my eyes.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th March 1997

Publications

1997 The Pink Cadillac Review (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 Aireings (UK)
2008 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

The Image-Maker

THE IMAGE-MAKER

"Hi there,
calling you from Southern California"
It is a business call
but i am seduced by her sultry drawl,
can think only of long beaches
with the surf breaking at dawn
and two lesbians
running after each other like children
laughing and rollicking and frolicking

This is how i see it
in late-night movies i video
for watching on lazy afternoons

She calls me transatlantic
to push her corporate image/ideas
Her voice draws me
to her "southern California"
and all i have are images
ideas created by film makers
and the media

I hear on the radio
a song that claims
"it never rains in southern
California"
while here it pours down

The TV has news
of beatings, riots, lawlessness
and i know
long after i've hung up the receiver
there is another side to the place

Yet all i can hear
is her warm wind-swept inviting voice
"calling from southern California"
and all i can do
is to fall for her charms

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st August 1992

Publications

1993 Unicorn (UK)
1994 Aireings (UK)
1995 A TASTE OF THE PENNINE POETS (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)
1998 Creative Ooze (Internet)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)
2006 SPIRIT & EMOTION (York, Fighting Cock Press)

St Ninian's Cave

ST. NINIAN'S CAVE

Past giant rhubarb and bluebell banks
the path stepstones the stream

Marsh marigolds grow
beneath tall, fungi-clad trees

Beyond the pebble-strewn beach
the cave penetrates the cliff

From ledges of sea-thrift
water drips over the entrance

Up the multi-creviced rock
a spider climbs

My son lifts a placed pebble
to find a shiny tiny five-pence piece

The dog sniffs seaweed entangled
in the flotsam of a consumer age

St. Ninian does not hide here now

Over in Whithorn they exhume his age
and parade it for the paying public.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Stranraer, 7th May 1991

Publications

1992 The People's Poetry (UK)
1992 Aireings (UK)
1998 Poetry Scotland (UK)
1999 WAITING FOR YOU TO SPEAK (Pittsburgh, UnMon America)

Bread

BREAD

              Nutty brown wholemeal,
              wheat germ, standard white,
              supermarket pre-wrapped cardboard,
              stale wedding reception left-overs;
              it's all the same
              to Bewick swans and Mallard ducks
              fighting for every thrown crumb,
              quacking and screeching
              at upstart gulls and starlings
              keen to encroach on banks.
              Only when the last bag of bread
              is emptied,
              the last child departed,
              will they retire
              fat to the island.

              © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 20th September 1987

Publications

1990 Aireings (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 The Morpo Review (Internet)

March Visit to Worth Valley

              MARCH VISIT TO WORTH VALLEY


              Past the sliced snow
              and the plough's U-turn
              the car slush-slides
              to Oxenhope

              Steam-smoke thaws
              the lineside trees;
              black tunnels emerge
              to the green and white

              Pussy willow at Oakworth
              pushes towards spring
              while early cameras click
              at Damens

              Unhooked the metal monster
              bellows,
              rail-runs to reverse the front,
              hauls back to Haworth.

              Over towards Hebden
              we ignore the sign
              "Road Ahead Closed"
              knowing it wasn't when we came.

             © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Worth Valley, 20th March 1987

Publication

1991 Aireings (UK)

Stretford

              STRETFORD

              Looking through the cafe window grill
              beyond the fence of heavy iron spikes
              the view is of the electric grid

              I stir an over-sweetened mug of tea
              while scanning the uncrossable road
              from Old Trafford to the motorway

              Green and grim is the ancient tree,
              seeded back in cartwheel days,
              that blocks now the cumulus cloudscape

              © GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th September 1986

Publications

1987 Aireings (UK)
1996 POET'S ENGLAND 18 - LANCASHIRE (West Kirby, Headland)

Beyond Glossop

BEYOND GLOSSOP

cats eyes?
beacons that light a roadside?

Snake Pass
midnight
winter

not cats'
but eyes of sheep
headlight-reflected pins

the dark shape
seen too late
squeal of brakes
crash of glass
a dying ewe bleats
silently

splinters of glass
from a broken headlamp
mix with mutton blood

the wind howls
the mountain streams cascade
there is no moon above the mist
there are no lights now

all is frozen

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 20th September 1980

Publications

1984 Aireings (UK)
1992 Hybrid (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)

Holland

HOLLAND

Here, where man has fought the sea and won,
an airport stands at the bottom of a lake,
a factory stands behind a lighthouse
with the wreck of a ship in a farmer's field
twenty kilometres from the present sea.
Called the Ijslemeer it was the Zuider Zee;
what was the sea is merely now a mere.
Dykes defend this vast expanse of polderland,
drained at vast expense, kept daily drained
against the sea that would reclaim its own.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: North Sea Ferries, 6th July 1980

Publications

1986 Aireings (UK)
1991 The Vincent Brothers Review (USA)
1999 Red Booth Review (Internet)

House Hunting

HOUSE-HUNTING

In the little Methodist chapel
edging on to the moor
the couple drank tea,
preparing themselves for a journey,
the rock-backed house only
yards away their hope
A staircase spiralled skyward
The pure melodic line
of the chattering chaffinch
was harmonised only by the ivy,
climbing like a solicitor's beard
enveloping hollow walls
There was nothing to fear in the reservoir
bursting its dam in the next valley
A choir sang in the crystal water
The couple drank deep

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Shaw, 24th April 1974

Publications

1974 Intak' (UK)
1976 MEETINGS AT THE MOOR'S EDGE (West Kirkby, Headland)
1988 Aireings (UK)

Leaving

LEAVING

There was nothing dramatic about your leaving.
As two strangers in a museum
we viewed more the objects of our own past
than those relics cased behind glass.
You poured the words from your soul
but kept back your heart -
I put my hand into yours,
offering the nothing I had to offer.
A child, staring at us,
found this live picture more interesting
than the works of art his parents persued.
Staring back into his puzzled, questioning eyes,
I tried to pass their warmth, but you
were unaware of any eyes except your own.
You will carry a part of me with you when you leave.
It will remain with you a long time.
The hardest part of leaving
is the waiting.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 1st December 1973

Publications

1990 Aireings (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)

And Every Star Shall Shine

AND EVERY STAR SHALL SHINE

Why are your poems so full of country images?
It was the confessed citylovingliving girl who asked
I hadn't noticed
It was he who knew the countryside who answered
he whose thoughts roamed about the wild moors
lapped about the shores of a lake
became thick as forests
rose high as the birds
Yet he lives in a city
Sheffield's not a city she said
Not like London New York San Francisco
What's a city?
He thought of the wilder parts of Hampstead Heath
The Serpentine that serves well as any lake
the forest around Walthamstow and Epping
The birds sing over London too
He thought of the journey along Attercliffe Road
or up Brightside to the motorway
of traffic lights huge shops and factories
She thought of The Tate The British Museum
of supermarkets open until midnight
Then they looked up at the sky
in London there was a red dust glow
New York was worse
the stars were seen in a haze over Sheffield
but on Brackenhill Common
every star shone clear and bright.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 8th August 1972

Publications

1972 FOR HER VOLUME ONE (Pontefract, Poet's Press of Osgoldcross)
1986 Aireings (UK)
1991 Owen Wister Review (USA)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)

Bourton on the Water: Model of Commercialism

BOURTON ON THE WATER: MODEL OF COMMERCIALISM

The village sits snugly
by the Windrush river
Double-yellow lines adorn the side
of the main road
The parking-lots are filled
The cafes, snackbars and restaurants
provide food for every pocket
from the expensive upwards
The prices are fixed for entry
to the model village,
the model railway,
the tropical birdland
The souvenir shops
price up their paraphernalia
in dollars as well as pounds
The wooden seat by the riverside
was presented to the village
by the Chamber of Commerce

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Bourton on the Water, 9th September 1971

Publications

1976 MEETINGS AT THE MOOR'S EDGE (West Kirkby, Headland)
1989 Aireings (UK)