August Riots (2011)

AUGUST RIOTS

Saturday as London riots
Manchester boasts it is riot-free
though some fear to celebrate

Sunday in Salford
and Manchester City Centre
a mad mob mobilizes

Wanton destruction
Miss Selfridge's torched
lots of looting

Monday morning
an army of citizens gather
armed with brooms

Outside Starbucks
free coffee for volunteers
cleaning the streets

Wednesday afternoon sun
fountains play in Piccadilly Gardens
families having fun

The trams trundle
down Market Street
thronged with shoppers

Only a few boarded up windows
remain to remind us
of a sad Sunday.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Hyde, 28th August 2011

Publication

2011 Ol' Chanty - Chanticleer Online (Internet)

Lydia in Lesbos

LYDIA IN LESBOS

The white upturned wondering eyes in time to rot.
Hieroglyphics and arrows of sinners?
What's in heaven, but the air?
Her eye discourses - I've attempted to bed
and think I am floating slowly shoreward -
surely it is the media?
Thus it seemed like an entire realm of fire,
knowing if living is providing a passive reality.
Remove clothes from strange ladies in ancient Greece;
many were laid.
I hope you enjoyed them as some
more popular sport than fishing off Chios.
It is all but no more than birth to their movement.
I've tried persuasion.
She can be seen scurrying
in the company of one young woman who returns to live.
Joy was for another.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th July 1992

Publications

1994 Oasis (UK)
1998 The Bohemian Forest (Internet)
2003 Chanticleer Magazine (UK)

What of All Gebs

WHAT OF ALL GEBS

Loafs may a loo offaly ohm scion
a fee nominee am all five hiovim
ohm oil occumb all gebs whaled fleecy
opal am alert naflexy

opal hi barb fiche e nil
- noci emi whip ohm all fool by scomaxle ally
be yet whip face hex e pewhold
face whapben etch feet hex

e by fuchreumbaxle by fame nab ?
holi'old all ape yet whip ye fool scisiavi -
- a be me what fetch hex e whet -
hush e all gabs a face

-a'vi bull me whip ohm laph all aph
hold all logy nosy olwhoy by em in flab -
all gebs ally waxen me oxen meld filch
bull from all flimsy buckeye

opal fateful ohm alum all skiffle
all gebs ally louaxle ohm louaxle el leg ohm lab
all gebs ally louaxle ohm barb me filch
foe alum a barb owhockey

meow a meow ho all gebs hove loflexy
fetch neflexy umfaulobly all waxen hovi bier
all gebs ally waxen me oxen me filch
all gebs ally louaxle ohm babe me filch
fuch neflexy umfaulobly all waxen hovi bier
ah all gebs hob socially ell nil
- lie whip all apt scomlaxle -

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st August 1991

Publication

2004 Chanticleer Magazine (UK)

HOMER'S LOST ODYSSEY

Tempus cart sin lunar seen

einmorrow when

auld Willie fuck mule up et true

rex land umap

Et set la mare of pacmac een

we matter Pen

chick et pig peas sweden too

may sud it hap

Od sammed an arm oot hug aleen

tres bitter men

nine doll not farting fickle few

et nivver nap

Gaga mamda rumba fit latrine

gnash tee moren

daun blood bit achshit new

circumvent wrap

© Gerald England

Composed:  Gee Cross, 1st July 1990

Publications

1992 Inkshed (UK)

2004 Chanticleer Magazine (UK)

Sound Poem for Margaret

SOUND POEM FOR MARGARET

Une ivver knaws et ivver sal
say owsit pen, mais nut a mind,
seems so fair et nut a care
pour tahme shoo studusup,
pourtaen a kiss as sin
med matter loss ignificence
Thetinundred does pour minilass
et setdi upalossgill'll
shaw owmich shoo mens,
esudwefin at luv's a fennything
thersnut a owt'll ferme

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 1st March 1972

Publications

1981 The Old Police Station (UK)
2004 Chanticleer Magazine (UK)

At Objet-Lar

AT OBJET-LAR

At objet-lar dan summer wen
All for Omniall wud sen
pour fashioning his tarter well
dan icevig's green forcetell,
Gizur ta black et Keggsiman
mak far demise te wan

Far Christi's message langed sin
at Vellandkatla underbin
tair Gizur still astacum
dan in der battle sum

Whole objet-lar mun tak it doon
pour la pere et pretty soon
but non occurance cam
so Gizur all kiss yam

© Gerald England

Composed: Ackworth, 21st July 1968

Publications

1969 AN ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY (Pontefract, Whitwood and District Arts Association)
2004 Chanticleer (UK)

A Laster Can By Runoster

A LASTER CAN BY RUNOSTER

A laster can by runoster
the moon of Ulf Dar-coster
staphled at Gleanmar,
west of danmore santar.

Li naptered underday nick San
at Inver sin li nulli dan;
san kiptered for some nectar lime
et visited by laminers in ophirkime.
So by and by San mak demise
tey gan the war wen summer please!

San twa equine in lofter had,
jet sich up in the bad:
best twa equine in Inver lay,
none tete-a-tete severed li may;
et Oriental Runoster by San staphle,
li cupped by Sanson li baffle.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ackworth, 6th June 1967

Publications

1968 Bo Heem E Um (UK)
1970 MOUSINGS (Sheffield, Headland)
2004 Chanticleer (UK)

Musaphobia

MUSAPHOBIA

I heard a new word today.
It has two meanings
apparently;
- quite distinct - I am assured.
Musaphobia: dislike of mice
                   or poetry.

I've often been asked
whether I were man
         or mouse.

I can answer that now
for there is a likeness there -
the seeming insignificant
which none-the-less
can frighten the mighty ELEPHANT,
or make women
           stand
                 on chairs        
                           & lift
                                  their skirts.

Yes the poem does have affinity with
   the mouse.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 1st May 1967

Publications

1970 MOUSINGS (Sheffield, Headland)
1989 Eavesdropper (UK)
1990 Inkshed (UK)
1997 Tara's Poetry Page (Internet)
2010 Chanticleer (Internet)

Immortal Beings ... Pass On

IMMORTAL BEINGS....PASS ON

The cessation of a heartbeat,
a quiet passage perhaps in bed,
accident, suicide, murder foul -
Death is in the living inbred

The living are not slow to learn
the short lesson of Life's threadlike spin
woven into a fine mesh of cloth
only the scissors genuine

Mycologists hunt DNA
in fungi cells on plates of agar --
from children who tear their toys apart,
they’re not removed so very far

Medical men must needs define
that they see as part of nature's plan;
sophists argue the implications
of organ transplants man to man

Boredom’s the root of all evil
The Devil works on an idle mind
and moulds in demoniacal form
all empty heads that he can find

Death gets so knotted up with Life
that all becomes boredom in the main
and if not an intellectual
one simply has to use one's brain

Meaning’s sought in the meaningless
Frustration then the end of research
A jump, rope, knife, gun, poison, drugs
and Life again left in the lurch

Those who will neither yield nor join
must needs beat (out the living daylights?)
and murderers classically make plans
during the long, dark, wintry nights

The foul, bloody, unnatural
are not to Halloween's night confined
Though it is light outside, the darkness
is in the night-time of the mind

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Glasgow, 12th February 1967

Publications

1993 International Poetry (USA)
2000 Monas Hieroglyphica (UK)
2003 Chanticleer Magazine (UK)