(f33)

intercity train --
in the "No Smoking" toilet
an empty ashtray

© Gerald England

Composed: London, 29th December 1996

Publication

2011 The Journal (UK)

(f31)

at the platform edge
a mouse scurrying along
— Embankment Station

© Gerald England

Composed: London, 30th November 1996

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

Intercity

INTERCITY

Sharing its route with slow canals
meandering rivers, rolling lanes and rapid roads,
the breakfastless train sped hungrily
from a cold city of silent warmth
to a smoking hot metropolis
where compassion melted
and was lost among manipulative
manoeuvrings of committees

Walking the streets as a penance
revealed much more than all
the fruitless travelling underground
Though the high notes were out of tune
the melody of the flautist by the market
where Punch and Judy first were seen
accorded well with the day's mood
and left one memory that may alone remain
when all the rest is best forgot

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: London, 15th May 1979

Publications

1990 Eavesdropper (UK)
1995 TOPS (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1999 Black Creek Review (USA)
2001 Mir (USA)

[56da]

© Gerald England

Composed: London, 6th June 1973

Publications

1976 MEETINGS AT THE MOOR'S EDGE (West Kirkby, Headland)
1982 Interstate (USA)

The Sick Child

THE SICK CHILD

Woman weep
Weep for your child,
your child who is sick,
your child who is dying,
you child who will die
Weep
But she will not die yet
This sickness is not the end
She will recover from this
But weep woman
Weep
Comfort her too
She needs your comfort
She will not die yet
She was dying
the day she left your womb
She is dying now
Weep woman
Weep
Your child knows
that she will die
She is aware
of her real sickness
of which illness is but physical representation
She will die in other ways first
It is for this you must weep
Woman
Weep woman
The pain you felt in labour
is not to be compared with suffering,
that of she who is dying
but who will not die yet
Weep woman
The tears are for yourself,
you who bore this life
who is dying
Weep woman
Weep
The bed is warm
Your hand is warm
pressing upon hers
The fever is past now
There will be recovery soon
but not for the dying

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: London, 14th December 1972

Publication

1973 Overspill (UK)

(43)

no door can ever
be finally locked whilst there
are keys that will fit

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: London, 12th December 1972

Publication

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

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)