Hyde, 1st August 2003

Hyde, August 1st 2003

The town is tainted by murder.
From the War Memorial on Werneth Low
we look out over Hattersley,
once the home of Myra and Ian,
their house demolished but still
something remains in the air.
And the ghost of Shipman
can be seen driving down Joel Lane
or visiting homes in Newton
where the smell of tobacco from
"Senior Service"’s old factory
no longer lingers.

Between the sunshine
rain falls sharply.
Overshadowed now by neighbours --
Ashton-under-Lyne, the capital of Tameside,
where sit the council in their chamber;
Stockport, whose postcode
keeps the town in Cheshire;
Manchester, now the “Greater” county --
and yet the market traders
greet their customers with
"How’s your lad today?" or
"Is your missus any better?"
and talk at the bus-stop
is never only about the weather.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st August 2003

Publication

2006 SPIRIT AND EMOTION (York, Fighting Cock Press)

California Bound

CALIFORNIA BOUND

thinks he’ll get up
in about half an hour or so
— the alarm bell rings

turning the taxi around
to go back for her front teeth

sparking an alert
camera left in pocket
by first-time flyer

moved to an earlier flight
due to fog in Amsterdam

sun shines on snow-scape
we are flying
above the clouds

spreading wobbly marmalade
at 29,000 feet

Schiphol Airport
miles and miles of walkways
between the gates

frisked by a security man
for the second time today

hot hand towels
crossing over Scotland
heading towards Iceland

over the top of Greenland
filling in a green form

the whole way across
the Atlantic — still
only halfway there

high above Manitoba
his feet have fallen asleep

inflight movie?
videotape is corrupt
millennium bug?

homebound Emily age four
cheers us with her chattering

after the last meal
long queues
for the toilets

unaccustomed to the heat
we sweat in the Customs Hall

catching a "shuttle"
it encircles the airport
for twenty minutes

afternoon rush-hour freeway
back home it is past bedtime

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester - Los Angeles, 10th November 1999

Publications

2002 WEBBED SKYLIGHT OF TALL OAKS (York, Fighting Cock Press)
2004 The Same (USA)

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)

Amber Gambler

AMBER GAMBLER

I can't stop now
the whips are at my back
I can't stop now
the time's not there to rest and look
The dog is barking, the baby cries,
the postman is knocking at the door
I can't stop now
the milk is boiling over
Though butter clogs in my arteries
I'll keep on trying
to answer the phone
go seeking more
from those who want themselves to stop
If I don't stop soon
I'll spin through the hole
at the bottom of the whirlpool
or crash over the cliff
The wolves are chasing me
I can't stop now
Will I need a pension
or just a box?
How can I dream
if I never sleep?
The lights are on
perpetual amber
I am gonna stop
but not now

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Oldham, 22nd March 1991

Publications

1996 PENNINE TRACKS (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)
1997 Dream Forge Poetry Lounge (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2006 Other Voices (Internet)
2007 MIND AND BODY (York, Fighting Cock Press)

I Have Never Acted my Age

I HAVE NEVER ACTED MY AGE

I have never acted my age;

I was always the young one,

paid half-fare on the buses

nearly three years over the limit.

One summer I served

behind a Highland hotel bar

but back in Glasgow my age

was challenged in an off-licence.

For twenty years

I haven't appeared to age,

still seemed to be

in my late twenties.

A few stray greys

I've noted for some time

but today I saw my face

in a huge, enlarging mirror

that showed the grey hairs

even in my beard

almost out-numbering the dark.

Someone once said

I'd be bald before thirty.

I rightfully scorned them

yet I will be grey

before fifty.

I have never acted my age

but will wear my grey hairs

with dignity

scorning all caps

and hair-tints

Maybe I will no longer shout

at the children or mutter

at the dog,

nor tear my hair out

when clients cancel

else I'll be bald at eighty.

I cannot count the grey hairs

so will put away

the calculator,

live each day

four and twenty hours,

leave the acting to others.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 27th July 1990

Publications

1991 The Affiliate (Canada)

1991 PENNINE 25 (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)

Farmer Cornfield

FARMER CORNFIELD

Rounding Roseberry corner
driving his tractor like a TR7
making the landlord's Jaguar shudder
"It'll stop when we get to the top
of the Caradoc" he shouted
aiming over the steep fields
at the fifteen hundred foot hill
Over one of his pints in the "Plough"
he confessed to the fitting
of a super-charged gearbox
"You nearly gave the vicar
his fourth stroke" the landlord said
"Oh I've had more than that -
when I was at school -
but 'twas with a walking stick -
down here - " he says, "I reckon
that's what's made me what I am"

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Hope Bowdler, 3rd September 1982

Publications

1992 Songs (UK)
1994 Boggers All (UK)
1996 PENNINE TRACKS (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)

Croick Churchyard

Image © 1999, Richard Webb
CROICK CHURCHYARD

The dead-end of two roads,
north or south of the Carron -
the moors from Croick stretch
barren now into Strathoykell.

"Glencalvie people was in the churchyard
here, May 24, 1845".

This message, their names, in English,
scratched for ever on the diamond panes,
cries across the years;
the fingers that wrote
point at us.

They saw their own language dying
as surely as they saw their homes destroyed.
It would not be Gaelic sheep
grazing their old pastures,
denaturing the soil.

This one memorial remains
long after the stones
of their homes have merged
irrevocably into the heather
where not even the grouse
are safe past autumn.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 2nd February 1981

Publications

1982 Pennine Platform (UK)
1986 FUTURES (Ipswich, Magic Pen Press)
1989 Lactuca (USA)
1992 WORLD POETRY 1992 (Madras, World Poetry)
2007 MIND AND BODY (York, Fighting Cock Press)

Mother England

MOTHER ENGLAND

She is Mother England
suffering a modicum
of morning sickness in the evening
and feeling somewhat heavier
than in her slim-trim days
of pre-pregnancy dieting.

She is Mother England
busy knitting babygros
and searching all the ads
for secondhand cots,
trying to remember
her antenatal clinic dates.

She is Mother England.
The taut swelling of skin
from where comes kicks
hides the lap on which
a three-year-old would sit.

He says there's a baby there,
the result of "Daddycation".
She is Mother England.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 1st January 1981

Publications

1981 DADDYCATION (Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
1986 PENNINE POETS 1966-1986 (Heckmondwike, Fighting Cock Press)
1989 White Rose Literary Magazine (UK)

Destitute Woman

DESTITUTE WOMAN,
AFTER PABLO PICASSO

Art Gallery of Ontario

       The woman is seated
                  leaning
                          almost
       against the blankness of the wall
       She is covered entirely in her cloak
       Her eyes are closed in sleep
       her pale face tilted
       From the closeknitted brow
       runs her sharp bone nose
       to a tight mouth that is not smiling
       Her hands are closed beneath her cloak
       She remains here
                 nearly
                        sleeping
       Her tiredness
       is what binds her to the world
       which itself is closed in tiredness
                               to her

© Gerald England

Composed: Sheffield, 2nd February 1974

Publications

1980 Leeds & Harrogate Graphic (UK)
1980 PENNINE ANTHOLOGY 1980 (Huddersfield, Woodhead Publications)
1991 Apostrophe (UK)
1992 Quickenings (USA)
1994 Purple Pastiche (UK)
1998 Ygdrasil (Internet)