adam 5

said the mountaineer,
condescending,
— It's easy —
provided you remember —
don't look down
— said I —
that's all very well
while ascending
but what about
when you are coming down?

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publications

1999 Psychopoetica (UK)
2000 EOTU (Internet)

In The Spirit

IN THE SPIRIT

all writers know that
to conform to the spirit
is appropriate

represented here
because they become confused
they are breaking them

it's stimulating
writers find themselves perplexed
when not wearing bras

know the impact of
his unwholesome giggle can
truly understand

the naive led to
nowhere and related forms
are condemned to sneer

if everything worked
the sea and poetic forms
are not monuments

in the painted steel
you ignored all my warnings
wanted Mona Lisa

I WON'T BE CALLED WORDS
poetic forms are given you
for broadcasting here

the vanishing point
writing that it is data
stimulating her

work which happens to
a position of the page
is like flattery

the discarding of
the picture on the north shore
pretends to writing

poetic message
in THE ART OF POETRY
is irrational

poetic margins
constantly loom to fly
however boiling

dearly beloved
submit poems but never a
position of bread

she said it should be
mutual recreation
of the marginal

all eager for such
writers in the form they can
easily be grand

Joyce's writing and
past glories of ignorance
form a bitter tear

creating impact
in critical decorum
it is not a rock

moving ignorance
in three lines don't establish
aesthetic appeal

with writers of strength
not one listens to used metre
to hell with the words

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 6th September 1992

Publications

1993 POETRY (Bluffton, International Writers and Artists Association)
1994 POEMS ABOUT POETRY (Hull, Psychopoetica)
1998 Snakeskin (Internet)

Not a Haiku

NOT A HAIKU

the simple writing

of seventeen syllables

doth not haiku make

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 2nd February 1990

Publications

1992 THE ART OF HAIKU (Hyde, New Hope International)

1994 POEMS ABOUT POETRY (Hull, Psychopoetica)

1997 The Haiku Archive (Internet)

2000 MIR (USA)

Baby's Smile

BABY'S SMILE

Lain content across my chest,
my eyes reflected in your blue,
an emptied bottle by our side,
you tell me all I need to know.

A baby does not smile -
those spinster midwives say -
it is merely wind that on expulsion
causes an involuntary upturn of the lips

and only by evoking a response
does the infant come to realise
the possible pleasures of repetition
and his world builds up by recognition.

Yet as we lie here, skin to skin,
you commence the conversation -
having the answer, I do not ask -
is love but the perpetuation of a burp ?

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 1st May 1981

Publications

1981 DADDYCATION
(Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
1988 Psychopoetica (UK)
1998 Brobdingnagian Times (Ireland)

The Poetic Thing

THE POETIC THING

I would like to do the poetic thing
I would like to run naked into the sea
A symbolic cleansing of my filthy body
An act of simple ritual and pious purity
But I am afraid
Not of the devils of the deep
I cannot do it
for if I do
the law will nick me, lock me up
charge me with indecent exposure
And if I escape the law
the cold will get me,
lay me down in hospital
with double pneumonia
So I merely wash my hands
buy a peace offering
of fish and chips
and go home

© Gerald England

Composed: Flamborough North Landing, 9th June 1978

Publications

1981 DADDYCATION (Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
1999 The Affiliate (Canada)
1990 YOUNG MINDS (Hull, Psychopoetica)
1990 2nd Rapture (UK)
1990 Lucidity (USA)
1993 Pomes (UK)

Haunted

HAUNTED

"The day that the rains came down"
This is the melody that has haunted me
since we first together to Bury went
I had hared over the Snake to see you
with just another weekend's courting on my mind
You asked me to take you to Bury via country lanes
It rained so hard I think I might have been drunk on the outside
The water fell flop flop from our coats
forming deep puddles in the thick pile carpet
of the jeweller's shop where a month's wage
disappeared in a diamond ring
We were engaged before I really knew
Everyone else was rushing round dodging between doorways
while we in a dream walked wet but not weary
Once we visited Bury in a warm October sun
buying clothes for our daughter
the day before she died
Our years of happy marriage don't rely on the sunshine
for it is the rain that has haunted the memory

© Gerald England

Composed: Bridlington, 6th June 1978

Publications

1981 DADDYCATION (Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
1986 White Rose (UK)
1995 REMEMBERING FORGETTING (Hull, Psychopoetica)

My Happiness

MY HAPPINESS

For the past few days
I've been feeling happy
but I'm unhappy
in my happiness
because
I don't know why I'm happy
and anyway
I know
from past experience
that my happiness
will not last,
that soon
something will happen
to make me unhappy
I would be waiting
all the time
for something to happen
to bring me out of my happiness
and make me unhappy
I wish that that something
whatever it is
would happen
and make me unhappy
for I'd know
from past experience
that my unhappiness
would not last

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st August 1966

Publications
1971 YORKSHIRE POETS '71 (Sheffield, Grove Publications)
1972 Numquam Mens (UK)
1986 Psychopoetica (UK)

Little Boy Not Lost

LITTLE BOY, NOT LOST

Little boy, on the seashore,
little boy, digging a hole in the sand,
do you know about more
than what is in your hand ?

Little boy, digging a hole,
little boy, running to the sea,
do you know your goal
is something that can never be ?

Little boy, filling your bucket,
little boy, running to and fro,
have you seen the big wide net
which will not let you go ?

Little boy, trying to entrap the sea
in one small hole in the ground,
what is it you can see ?
Where is it you are bound ?

Oh, little boy, my little boy,
how foolish, yet how wise,
to treat the ocean as your toy
and never listen to its cries.

Little boy, you cannot trap the ocean,
for it will leak away unseen,
and then, little boy, and then,
only you will ever know it's been.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st June 1966

Publications
1981 DADDYCATION (Ashton under Lyne, New Hope International)
1984 Britannic Magazine (UK)
1989 YOUNG MINDS (Hull, Psychopoetica)
1997 Tara's Poetry Page (Internet)