After A Night Spent In The Back Of The Car

AFTER A NIGHT SPENT IN THE BACK OF THE CAR

"wise men say only fools rush in
but I can't help falling in love with you"
- Popsong lyric by Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom

i was never so wise
as to avoid the rush of the crosswinds
on the motorway
the quiet of the service station
is disturbed by the early morning birds
singing in the dawn over the tarmac
so i breakfast shave wash cleanteeth
and wait
listening to pop music on the car radio
waiting
o I always was the precipitous fool
i know
last night i said i love you
when you answered how can you
that did it I knew then
that i could not help myself

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 1st June 1972

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1972 FOR HER VOLUME ONE (Pontefract, Poet's Press of Osgoldcross)

I Was A Teenage Werewolf

I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF

I was a teenage werewolf
and she was but the witch's cat
During the day she was a lithesome thing,
more than a slip of a girl
with jet black hair
and maidenly curves
At night she went home to the witch
became her cat
with fur so black
and claws so sharp
and I howled all night
for the loss of my love
for I was a teenage werewolf
and she was but the witch's cat
All night she meowed meowed meowed
as the witch rode high on her broom
seeking to revenge my daily theft
All night I howled howled howled
for want of the witch's cat
All day we made love made love made love
but she always returned as a cat
and I howled at the moon
seeking revenge for its nightly theft
for I was a teenage werewolf
and she was but the witch's cat

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 4th April 1972

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1993 The People's Poetry (UK)
1994 Plastic Tower (USA)

(42)

not so much nothing
to say but lack of need to
say it - silent love

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 20th March 1972

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1973 Mac (UK)

Love Power Crisis Poem

LOVE POWER CRISIS POEM

I read your letter
by the light of a candle
Now I have no more to do
than snuff out the candle too
plunging myself
once more
into darkness

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 3rd February 1972

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1994 PLEIADE (Trento, Edizioni Universum)

Saturday Night Out

SATURDAY NIGHT OUT

The turn didn't turn up
at the British Legion Club tonight
There was a bus party in from Doncaster
and a wedding party as well
A guy from the former
whose voice was reminiscent of a constipated frog
filled in with his interpretation of Tom Jones
and thought the shouts of "Encore"
meant exactly what they really didn't
Still he was good for a laugh
before bingo took over
The village barber got things going
singing "All around the world"
followed by "Let's twist again"
I borrowed another fellow's wife
to demonstrate to her how once
I was the village's champion twister
But we couldn't win at bingo
my dad and I
so we left early
went home to wife and mum's
fried tatties and bacon supper

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st December 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1994 Bold Print (USA)

Poem for a Poet

POEM FOR A POET

her silkhair flowed like her words
her laughter rang clear as the sound of her words
her eyes pierced the sorrow of her words
her poise was wordform
the poem was the poet
and the poet became the poem

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 20th October 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1973 Datr (UK)
1990 International Poetry Suplemento (USA)

Veronica

Composed: Sheffield, 10th October 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1972 Stillborn (UK)
1982 Global Tapestry Journal (UK)
1988 Agog (London, UK)
1991 Hybrid (UK)
1996 Boggers All (UK)

Note: Some publications using the title Miss V.

Cosy Cullercoats

COSY CULLERCOATS

I came to cosy Cullercoats
for a crab and a kiss from June
The cold wind blew
the sea battered up the beach
the soft sand sank into, filling up
our shoes
Colourful shells were gathered
for Aunt Fanny back home
to make plant-pot holders
The breeze blew sea-shower raindrops
into our faces
Down the road
Lord Collingwood
guarded the Middens
and Danish trawlers
set sail for the Faeroes -
cargoes of fish, cigars, fish, pullovers, fish -
I ate the crab
and left June with a kiss
in Cullercoats

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 6th June 1971

Publications

1972 Contac (UK)
1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1994 Boggers All (UK)
2005 Sons of Camus Writers International Journal (UK)

Girl

GIRL

Eyes blue
A lighter blue than her skirt
A darker blue than her tights
Her tea-time treat
Is a thin ham sandwich
A bottle of Coke
A packet of plain crisps
And a glass of milk
Nervously adjusting her skirt
Legs crossed
Sat well back in the easy chair
She chews the straw
Squashes it flat
Folds it up
Throws it on the plate
She waits vacantly
Her mascara is tending to run

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 5th May 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1991 Pennine Platform (UK)

(31) & (32)

a good beer-barrel
is not the same thing as a
barrel of good beer

© GERALD ENGLAND

*****

a bad beer-barrel
is almost as bad as a
barrel of bad beer

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 27th February 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
2005 Beer Haiku Daily (Internet)

(30)

embarrassment is
always flattering to a
young girl's vanity

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 5th February 1971

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1973 Contac (UK)

(28)

the truly ideal
young woman is a girl who
does not have girl-friends

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 2nd February 1971

Publication

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

A Glimpse

A GLIMPSE

A family
who lives in this town
A widow
and her three daughters
Two of the daughters
are learning to type
at the local Secretarial College
About half past five
on an afternoon in spring
the living-room door was ajar
There was no-one about
Just a girl at the piano
playing a popular melody
The words mocked her beauty
Her beauty mocked the words
The tones were quiet
melancholy
and sad

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 30th January 1971

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1990 International Poetry Suplemento (USA)

Love's Electricity

LOVE'S ELECTRICITY

The silkiness of your hair
the glinting of your eyes
the patience of your ears
the petiteness of your mouth
the softness of your neck
the roundness of your breasts
the flowing of your curves
the tenderness of your hands
the heat of your heart
the plumpness of your thighs
the firmness of your legs
the daintiness of your feet
create in you
a magnetism
to which I
like an opposite pole
am attracted

Until the power is shut off
the magnetic force
will hold us
inseparably
locked
together

GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 1st December 1970

Publication

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

Pointless Pubs

POINTLESS PUBS

All the hectic routine,
the toing
the froing
the flitting
the flying,
the eternal round
of pubs selling
watered-down beer.
Never getting anywhere -
not even back -
the route is different
but the journey's the same,
beer-flavoured water
is all we find to buy.

A million pubs,
a million roads,
motorways
and country lanes
and at the end
the pointlessness
of one more pub
to add to the list.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 26th September 1970

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1990 The Affiliate (Canada)

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)

Flight of Love

FLIGHT OF LOVE

The car which is parked
outside my door
is large enough for the whole world
since it is large enough for two.
Under its bonnet is a wild engine
impatient as my passion,
spirited as your thoughts.
Command it, my love,
and I will carry you away -
not from one place to another -
but out of this world
The engine starts,
the car revs up;
heavenward through the clouds
we ride,
the wind whistling about us.
Do we sit still
while the whole world moves
or is it our daring flight?
Are you dizzy, my love?
Then hold on tight to me!
I shall not become dizzy.
Spiritually
one does not become dizzy
when one thinks only of a single thought
- I think only of you!
Physically
one does not become dizzy
if one fastens the eye on a single object.
- I look only at you!
Hold fast, my love!
Should the world pass away,
our car vanish beneath us,
we still hold each other close,
floating
in the harmony of the spheres

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st March 1970

Publications>

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1993 International Poetry (USA)

As a Clashing Cymbal

AS A CLASHING CYMBAL

As a clashing cymbal in the discordant darkness of the night
I am become
since losing Love
As a river turning inward from the rolling sea of life
as a hole in a garment that has been worn too long
as the face of a clock that has lost its hands
as a dried-up lake in the desert of loneliness
I am become
since losing Love

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 11th January 1968

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1989 Explorer (USA)
1990 International Poetry (USA)

Sex and Sleep

SEX AND SLEEP

I feel my mortality
like Alexander of Macedon
in sex and in sleep

Sex is the perpetuation of mortality
the only continuum possible
when parents die, and
children so soon grow old
And the use of sleep
is for the regainment
of energy lost in the battle of life

Gods are immortal
and need not sons
to perpetuate their line
Neither need they sleep
for they grow not weary
toiling not

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 3rd September 1967

Publications

1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1991 La Carta de Oliver (Argentina)

******
SEXO Y SUENO

Yo siento mi mortalidad
como Alejandro de Macedonia
en el sexo y en el sueno

El sexo es la perpetuacion de la mortalidad
el unico continuum posible
cuando los padres mueren, y
los hijos crecen demasiado pronto
Y el uso del sueno
es para la recuperacion
de la energia perdida en la batalla de la vida

Los dioses son inmortales
y no necesitan hijos
para perpetuar su linaje
Tampoco necesitan dormir
ya que no se cansan
de no trabajar

© GERALD ENGLAND

translated by Santiago Espel.

Publication

1991 La Carta de Oliver (Argentina)

I Sense That

(click above to view text)

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 11th October 1966

Publications
1970 YORKSHIRE POETS '71 (Sheffield, Grove Publications)
1972 THE WINE THE WOMEN AND THE SONG (Pyle, Kenfig Press)
1990 Temm (USA)
1991 California State Poetry Quarterly (USA)
1997 The Bard's Library (Internet)