(k50)

hearing a dog bark
i rush to let her in
then i remember

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th August 2002

Publication

2003 Bogg (USA)

(z24)

airport lounge
a thousand ways
of waiting

© Gerald England

Composed: Auckland, 30th March 2001

Publication

2007 Bogg (USA)

tanka 31

on the haiku walk
needing supermarket conveniences
falling down the bank
hands and arse now muddy
needing supermarket conveniences

© Gerald England

Composed: Thorpe Acre, 8th October 2000

Publications

2000 Haiku Mania (Internet)
2002 Bogg (USA)

tanka 12

sheep suckle their lambs,
traffic drones on the main road -
off the Pennine Way
a lone man limps wearily -
wind whistles up from Diggle

© Gerald England

Composed: Standedge, 17th June 1993

Publication

1995 Bogg (USA)

[9f]

Composed: Manchester, 16th June 1985

Publications

1989 Bogg (USA)

1992 Apostrophe (UK)

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

2000 Peace & Freedom (UK)

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)

Movement

MOVEMENT

poets must move with the times he said -
i folded up my newspaper and walked

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 31st January 1971

Publications

1971 Bogg (UK)
1987 Pennine Ink (UK)
1990 Truly Fine (USA)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)
1993 Prophetic Voices (USA)
2005 Haiku Scotland (UK)

This is Music - Two Decades On

THIS IS MUSIC - TWO DECADES ON

Back in the fifties
when Bill Haley rocked around the clock
and Marty Wilde jived on the 6.5 special
when Billy Fury and Adam Faith
were Britain's answer to Elvis
the "Third" was all Bach and Beethoven,
with jazz and pop just the youthful noise
of a beatnik generation -
even Stockhausen was hard to accept!

But tonight, in the seventies,
on Radio Three
I heard rock-an-roll and skiffle
played hard by Marty Wilde and Johnny Kidd
Harry Webb and Lonnie Donegan
And I heard Tchaikovsky on Radio One this afternoon

If we'd known this then
we'd have died of shock
and our parents would have too!

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 8th August 1970

Publications

1971 Bogg (UK)
1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)

Beauty Spot

BEAUTY SPOT

Bare midriffs above belt-like skirts
dangerously diverting drivers' eyes
Low gears on steep summer-sun-sweating hills
forsaking the motorways for country lanes
A Metro-van chasing an Audi Sports
obliquely overtaking an old VW
Sun-seeking families of all shapes and sizes
spilling out of Volvos, Vauxhalls and Fords
Ice-cream vans and mobile tea-shops
carrying on their business with acumen
Babies wailing, children playing,
radios blaring out news and noise
And somewhere behind the hoary, human hordes
lies the beauty of the scenery they've all come to see

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 1st June 1970

Publications

1971 Bogg (UK)
1973 Eulogy (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1990 Eavesdropper (UK)

Traces

TRACES

Returning home
at midnight,
lorries pass me
on the main road.

Years ago,
before I gained
my respectability,
I'd have thumbed
a lift
on one of those;
through the night
to morning
somewhere else,
new places, new faces, traces
of freedom.

I walk on home
to bed,
for tomorrow
I face
again
the workaday world.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 7th July 1968

Publications

1970 Bogg (UK)
1970 MOUSINGS (Sheffield, Headland)
1986 Peace & Freedom (UK)
1989 Short Fuse (USA)
1993 Processed World (USA)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)

To One Who Left -- Being Bitter

TO ONE WHO LEFT - BEING BITTER

thought it would break my heart
but you didn't care
you left allthesame

o i went
just like we'd planned
a friend went with me
but he had to be back early
then it rained
o yes how it rained
and how it rained
i had my umbrella
i didn't get wet
you'd have liked me to get wet
or perhaps you think i'm wet enough already
yes
i admit it
it wasn't the same without you...
but i wouldn't say it was worse

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 9th July 1967

Publication

1970 Bogg (UK)

Lament of a Lodger and a Dripping Tap

LAMENT OF A LODGER AND A DRIPPING TAP

The taps are dripping all over the city;
Ladybower is running dry
because its waters do supply
the taps that drip in Sheffield city.

It's no use asking the landlord to fix it;
the rent is all he calls for;
he's got his own house down in Dore;
he'd rather you move than come fix it.

He raises the rent with every new tenant.
We've no choice but live like pigs;
there's an acute shortage of digs -
on the landlord we are dependant.

In Broomhill and Walkley, Nether Edge, Darnall,
we're jammed in with rat and fly,
the taps drip, the floor's never dry,
Crookes, Heeley and down in Ecclesall.

O for a room and a tap with a washer,
a dry room and a clean floor
without draughts from under the door
- above all - a tap with a washer!

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 2nd January 1967

Publications

1972 Bogg (UK)
1992 STEALING KISSES (Hyde, New Hope International)

Footnote
Originally the poem was set in Glasgow but was still unpublished by the time I moved to Sheffield. Ladybower was substituted for Loch Katrine. I can't remember which suburbs of Glasgow were named in the original version.

Blind Love

BLIND LOVE

Other men
wonder about me
because my girlfriend
is fat and ugly
Indeed
she is the ugliest girl
I've ever seen
She's got a middle-aged spread
at only twenty-two
Her legs are fat
and crooked
Her arms
are the envy of local navvies
But she's my girl
and I love her so
I do not gaze into her eyes
for when we kiss
I close my eyes
her thick arms
know exactly
how to embrace me
When other men
in their foolish wisdom
ask me
what I see in her
I just tell them
- I
don't use my eyes
to make love
Another part of my body
is far better
equipped

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Lochinver, 1st July 1966

Publication
1970 Bogg (UK)