Class Visit

CLASS VISIT

In the City Art Gallery
a group of children
chatter and squirm,
snigger at the nudes,
disrupt the concentration
of other visitors;
the teacher apologises,
feigns disgust
at her pupils’ behaviour

Back in the classroom
other lessons than art
will be taught

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 27th January 1998

Publication

2001 Greens Magazine (Canada)

The Uncalm

THE UNCALM

as sky and moor merge
the distinction
between
hillside and cloud
blurs

we are waiting
wondering
just when the wind will
drop
and the snow
fall

shivering
anticipating
we hurry
to complete chores
hoping soon
to get back
to the safety
of home fires

there we wall ourselves
in
from winter’s
desolate whiteness

© Gerald England

Composed: Stockport, 17th December 1997

Publication

1998 The Endless Mountains Review (USA)

(f45)

writing a letter —
i stop to watch a robin
perched on the rose bush

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th December 1997

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

sijo 6

fluffy white clouds in blue sky foretell the lifting of morning haze;
the postman appears from round the corner just as I let the dog out —
I haul the lead in rapid before someone gets hurt.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 7th November 1997

Publication

1998 Sijo West (USA)

[6m]

© Gerald England

Composed: Stockport, 28th October 1997

Publication

2005 World Haiku Review (Internet)

Sparking

SPARKING

(for Joy R.)

we move in different circles
you and i
running rings around each other
snatching at tangents
that turn into curls
which spiral outwards
aiming for stars
we cannot reach

sometimes we spin
in opposite directions
and sink into a vortex
from which there is
no escape

one day
a tiny spark
will ignite the flames
that lie dormant in our hearts
fusing together
a möbius strip

then there will be no sides
just an infinite continuum
we will travel along together
into your moonless space

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 27th October 1997

Publications

1998 Images (Internet)
2001 Skald (UK)

Limbo Time

LIMBO TIME

two-thirty in the morning
i am wakened by my wife
with “do you want a cup of tea?”
a rhetorical question
it is already made.
we sit in bed supping the welcome brew
“the clocks go back,
we can have an extra hour in bed”
mentally i count them,
bedside, microwave, video,
computer, grandfather …
a baker’s dozen or more
it will take me at least an hour
to adjust them all
it is two fifty in the morning
or is it only ten to two?
we are living in limbo time
have we lived an hour twice
or did time stand really still?
i turn the pillows over
and try again to sleep.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th October 1997

Publication

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2008 Poet in Residence (Internet)

Truth?

TRUTH?

There are 16 million shades of grey
There is no black
There is no white
You have to draw your own line
It may or may not be straight
There are always mitigating circumstances
Judgement can only be based
On passed-down wisdom and self-experience
Stopping to take stock
Is not an option
You can never find yourself
You can only conform or differ
From each perceived image
The cataracts of common sense
Can never be removed
Focusing on reality’s a fallacy

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 28th September 1997

Publications

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2007 Famous Poets & Poems (Internet)

*****
ADEVARUL?

Exista 16 milioane de nuante de gri
Negru nu exista
Alb nu exista
Trebuie sa-ti trasezi singur linia
Poate fi dreapta sau nu
Exista intotdeauna circumstante atenuante
Judecata se poate baza
Doar pe intelepciune si experienta proprie
Oprirea pentru a cantari
Nu este o optiune
Pe tine insuti nu te poti gasi
Poti doar sa te conformezi ori sa te diferentiezi
De fiecare imagine perceputa
Cataractele bunului simt
Nu pot fi indepartate niciodata
Concentrandu-te pe inselatoria realitatii.

GERALD ENGLAND

Romanian translations by Octavian Blaga and Florentin Smarandache

Unpublished?

What is Good for the Goose

WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE

half an hour per pound
and three-quarter hours more
gas mark 6
middle of the oven
don't forget the roast potatoes
horse-chestnut stuffing
goes down well
oops
wrong kind of goose?
goes up well
crowded bar
on the way out
just one finger
make sure your mate
is right behind you
to catch the lefthand
slap to the cheek
look shocked
walk out quickly
do not look back
better be a turkey

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th September 1997

Publication

2005 Outlaw (UK)

Background Music

BACKGROUND MUSIC

sharing breakfast
with my son
in the grease-spot
I rock my feet
to the sounds
of a 30-year old
top ten;
Dylan, the Beatles,
Elvis, the Rolling Stones,
Tell Laura I Love Her.
My son eats his beans
tucks into his toast
smiles at his dad
knowing he’s happy
if he’s happy.
We drink up
rush away
to catch a train
leaving the 60s
a memory
still ringing
in our ears.

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 27th September 1997

Publications

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)
1999 Pennine Ink (UK)

September In The City

SEPTEMBER IN THE CITY

Autumn breezes blow coolly
through City Centre Manchester;
a peek-a-boo sun creates sparse warmth.
The peace of Piccadilly Gardens
is shattered by the presence
of Gore & DeKoning’s Family Fun Fair;
loud rock music drives away the pigeons;
teenagers scream on the dodgems;
children dance to the incipient beat.
Queen Victoria surveys the buses
that leave for Glossop or Stockport;
she has her back to the noise;
she is not amused.

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 14th September 1997

Publications

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2004 The Same (USA)

San Remo Coffee Bar, Rochdale

SAN REMO COFFEE BAR, ROCHDALE

The same formica-top tables;
wood-grain-effect wallpaper
lines the lower half of the walls
the upper — emulsioned plaster-relief;
the ceiling is polystyrene-tiled;
in the centre a huge rotating fan;
wall-brackets at intervals
hold forty-watt bulbs that glow
through plain, frilled lampshades;
above each is a framed picture of Italy.

The young couple with four-week old Melanie
remind me of how in love we were
meeting here twenty-four years ago.
They are drinking the same
frothy coffee;
nothing here has changed.

© Gerald England

Composed: Rochdale, 13th September 1997

Publications

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 Poetry Monthly (UK)

(f43)

passing McVitie's
the warm odour of baking
makes me feel hungry

© Gerald England

Composed: Stockport, 9th September 1997

Unpublished

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester

Photograph © Gerald England.
PICCADILLY GARDENS, MANCHESTER

fiercely competing
for old ice-cream cones
pigeons fly down
from their perch
on the roof of the ladies loo
to vie with a solitary sparrow
that hides in the flowerbeds

over the heads
of single mums
couples cuddling on the grass
quietly kissing
and jaded travellers
who rest on benches
a cabbage-white flutters by

the noise of nearby traffic
and the hoot of trams
barely penetrates above
the gentle cooing
of the pigeons
in this City Centre haven
where the ratrace stops
for a minute or two

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 17th August 1997

Publications

1997 Afterthoughts (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 Lateral Moves (UK)

[Note: The gardens have long since gone]

tanka 25

i.m. Geoff Tomlinson

at your funeral
we sit all quiet in pews
waiting to begin
then suddenly — the brass band
blasting out "Hail Smiling Morn"

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 13th August 1997

Publication

2005 Anglo-Japanese Tanka Society (Internet)

(f40)

[text not to hand]

Composed: York, 25th July 1997

Publication

2007 Curlew (UK)

Morning Call

MORNING CALL

A sudden knock
on the wooden door
sends the dog leaping
from one to another room
against background of barking
two men at the doorway
talk about God and Satan
witnessing to Jehovah
The dog yaps
the owner listens
answers quietly
neither agreeing
nor arguing
In a room upstairs
his naked wife
curls under satin sheets
suppressing laughter
Beaten but undefeated
the men leave
the door shuts
the dog quietens
the woman rises
the man maintains his silence.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th July 1997

Publications

1997 Cyberscribers (Internet)
1999 Skald (UK)

(f38)

the double-decker
abandoned in the layby
— driver gone AWOL

© Gerald England

Composed: Bury, 4th July 1997

Publication

2006 Curlew (UK)

(f37)

all the way to Bury
alone on the upper deck
of the 139

© Gerald England

Composed: Bury, 4th July 1997

Publication

1997 Zimmerzine (Internet)

(f36)

his bare bronzed skin,
eyes fixed firmly on the ground
— the hunch-back jogger

© Gerald England

Composed: Prestwich, 4th July 1997

Publication

2011 Time Haiku

Haiku for Minden 1200

[text not to hand]

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd July 1997

Publication

1998 Minden 1200 (Video)

Note: this was a contribution to a mail art project celebrating the 1200th anniversary of the city of Minden, Germany. A video presentation of the exhibition was released after the event.

(f35)

supermarket caf' --
waiting for the food to come
my coffee goes cold

© Gerald England

Composed: Dukinfield, 12th April 1997

Publication

2011 The Journal

(f34)

this cold Good Friday
I walk with my son down town
to buy hot-cross-buns

© Gerald England

Composed: Hyde, 28th March 1997

Publications

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)
2007 Curlew (UK)

*****
ovog hladnog Velikog Petka
šetam sa sinom donjim gradom
da kupim vruèe-križ-pevivo


Gerald England

translated into Croatian by Marijan Èekolj


Publication

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)

Viewing the Comet

Photograph © 1997 Valentin Grigore.

VIEWING THE COMET

(for Mother)

The day before your funeral, as I bath my son,
I tell him. "Tomorrow we are saying goodbye
to Grandma; — she is going away
to meet and be with Jesus."

The knock on the door is our neighbour’s child
hoping to borrow binoculars which we lost years ago.
She points out the Hale-Bopp comet, bright in the Northern
sky, visible even above the city lights.

Because of the biting wind, I return indoors
to dry my son and my eyes.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th March 1997

Publications

1997 The Pink Cadillac Review (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 Aireings (UK)
2008 Ackworth born, gone West (Internet)

Changing Trains

CHANGING TRAINS

It's shoo-dee-dee-shoo-shoo
on the Intercity up to Crewe
where we're happy to be able
to visit a loo that is standing still —
then it's clickety-clack-clack
on the local train back home.

© Gerald England

Composed: Sandbach, 29th December 1996

Publication

2000 Breathe (UK)

(f33)

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

© Gerald England

Composed: London, 29th December 1996

Publication

2011 The Journal (UK)

(f32)

first hesitant words
coming out of the coma
— No! Yes! Coke!

© Gerald England

Composed: Woodley, 14th December 1996

Pubications

1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1999 NASA (USA)
1999 Sparrow (Croatia)
2000 MIR (USA)

*****
prve neodluène rijeèi
dolaze iz kome
— Ne! Da! Cocal-cola!

Gerald England

translated into Croatian by Marijan Èekolj

Publication

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f31)

at the platform edge
a mouse scurrying along
— Embankment Station

© Gerald England

Composed: London, 30th November 1996

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

(f30)

the magpies gather
on a mobile-phone-relay
— dawn on the M6

© Gerald England

Composed: Whitgreave, 30th November 1996

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

adam 8

Human beings
have freedom of thought
yet demand
freedom of speech —
how absurd are men —
do they not know
that the doors of fortune
open outwards
and therefore
cannot be stormed?

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 7

his charming surface judgements
did not look beyond
the tissue of truth —
he'd been floundering for some time
— overwhelmed like fish
washed out to sea with the tide —
the gulf stream of life

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 6

this guileless bubble
came to exist
within the womb
as fruit implanted
in a rich pasture,
suckling on its mother,
absorbed in a world
of tissue, cartilage and blood

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

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)

adam 4

Have a nice day —
Sheila stared dumbfounded
at the daisy wheels
in hellish torment —
she had created
a direct course to his throne —
it lies between walls
yellowed by committees.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 3

He is awakened by them
as the door creaks open;
blood flows thickly to his brain;
he can produce flowcharts
of God's blackjack games
typing messages
that glow with each issue.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 2

Reproduction strictly prohibited —
this weird form of light
pouring through the phone —
you're travelling through
the pit of your darkness —
don't let your shadow
fall on the United States.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

adam 1

Hilary felt his consciousness
ebb away unseen;
every curve of her body
exuded sharp perfumes
of human genius
and several
anxious-looking children.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th October 1996

Publication

2000 EOTU (Internet)

(f29)

using a brochure
from an animal rights groups
she swatted the wasp

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1996

Publications

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)
2001 Haijinx (Internet)

*****
služeæi se brošurom
društva za zaštitu životinja
zgnjeèila je osu

Gerald England

translated into Croatian by Marijan Èekolj

Publication

1999 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f28)

behind the Town Hall
as the traffic lights go green
a squirrel crosses

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 10th September 1996

Publication

2011 Time Haiku (UK)

sijo 5

her colouring book was open at the picture of a ladybird;
I told her its body was red and the dots should be black
but didn't know the colour of its eyes, having never looked.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 16th August 1996

Publications

1997 Sijo West (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

On The Road

ON THE ROAD

He, bold, brassy, Geordie
She, coiffured hair,
short, white, well-creased skirt
They walk
into the small town Inn,
look at the menu
of afternoon-tea specials
Landlord - Can I help you?
She - Er, just looking!
They walk out,
come back ten minutes later.
He touches her hand
- don't want a drink - she says
He orders himself a pint of cider
They sit down at a table
He drinks
She is trying
to keep her profile low
Returning his empty glass
he asks tentatively
- actually we were looking
for somewhere to stay the night -
- Forty pounds for a double!
bellows the landlord
Regulars look up from their drink,
smile
- Er, right - say our couple
as they head for the door
We see them soon
across the market square,
he leading her by the hand
Shortly they return
He is sweating
She seems flustered
They carry designer luggage,
the same gaudy design
the hardware shop
on Finkle Street
has had in its Sale all week
They follow the landlady
lamblike
Later we find
a farmhouse B&B
for just twelve a night.

© Gerald England

Composed: Renwick, 26th July 1996

Publications

1996 Boggers All (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2001 Mir (USA)

sijo 3

Dementia patients ramble on the freeway of her face;
being unable to besmirch the memory in her eye —
she is not a moment too soon with a big Cornish cream cheese.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 17th July 1996

Publication

2002 winterSPIN (New Zealand)

sijo 1

In the busy waiting room at the Dental Hospital
the blonde-haired receptionist is cursing the computer;
patients losing their patience have too much pain to complain.

© Gerald England

Composed: Manchester, 16th July 1996

Publications

1997 Sijo West (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2000 THE ART OF HAIKU 2000 (Hyde, New Hope International)

tanka 23

workmen on scaffolds
are still boarding up windows
blown out by the blast;
in cafés across the street
smiling office-girls eat lunch

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 2nd July 1996

Publications

1997 TOPS (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 NASA (USA)
2000 MIR (USA)

Five Days After The Bomb

FIVE DAYS AFTER THE BOMB

We drove up from Oxford Street
and turned into Deansgate.
It took us thirty minutes
- but didn't it always? -
In between boarded-up buildings
bright cafés and bars
were open for business
and were bustling
as office-girls in summer dresses
crossed the street
for their lunchtime sandwiches.
Workers whistled on scaffolding
and even the Police smiled.

Near the Cathedral,
a group of camera-laden tourists
were gathered for a guided tour,
but I was unprepared for the sight
as we turned into Withy Grove
and looked up Corporation Street.
It was like gazing through a window
at some scene from Bosnia or Beirut;
the now so silent debris hanging.

The traffic lights change;
we climb Shude Hill
past the dark deserted Bus Station
on the day the IRA say "sorry"
and the newspaper hoardings reply
"HOW DARE THEY SAY SORRY"
to the city that survives and smiles.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 20th June 1996

Publications

1996 The Affiliate (Canada)
1997 MYSTERY OF THE CITY (Tring, Photon Press)
1997 Cyberscribers (Internet)
1997 The Plastic Tower (USA)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

(f26)

with each pint of tea
free talk from village yokel
in wayside café

© Gerald England

Composed: Newcastle upon Tyne, 18th May 1996

Publication

2004 Sons of Camus Writers International Journal (Canada)

42 Reviews of my Childhood

42 REVIEWS OF MY CHILDHOOD

from a roman (sic) literary review

Suckling on her womanliness to pick some interesting lines,
these poems seem over-pruned.
The combination of physical beauty that links shaking bottoms
and Christianity disappears in verbal pictures,
glimpses between images and the laughter of the Cornish Riviera.
This sixth collection concerns the nude in poetry.
The author starts by the ocean as though arguing with the tide.
playing from between mischievous cobble stones.
I cannot trap the womb.
The author is in love with what the wind takes out of Scotland.
Thumbnail sketch parodies of this hysteric journey across my memories,
perhaps its silent way will reach far into their home again.
You only get glimpses between doorways —
it is perhaps a smooth surface,
a day for little guinea-pigs
even if you can display a good thick pile carpet,
feel the children's often half-hearted intentions,
deal with indecent exposure.
An entertaining short novel
but too many letters from scenes of running home
to the laughter of hills.
They are all our children consumed by double pneumonia.
His final poem deals with mundane-seeming events,
archetypes of Doctor Who and poetic paraphrases of hills.
Such sentiments all help to gain friends in Birmingham,
shared experiences of quitting the slimming programme.
The cat sulks by the fireside;
perhaps the cheery flame dispels the moonlight.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th April 1996

Publications

1997 International Poetry Supplement (USA)
2005 Outlaw (UK)

(f25)

smearing the window
are marks of a twitcher's nose —
our dog bird-watching

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 2nd April 1996

Publications

1996 Pulsar (UK)
2002 World Haiku Association (Internet)
2003 Version (Internet)

*****
охотился за птицами --
по стеклу траектория
от собачего носа

Gerald England

Russian translation by Polay

Publication

2003 Version (Internet)

tanka 22

the frozen river
the ice broken in places
pigeons and ducks
fight for each piece of bread thrown
by the giddy laughing boy

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd February 1996

Publications

1996 American Tanka (USA)
1997 Time Haiku (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
2001 ENGLISH TANKA & HAIKU ON WATER, RIVER, LAKE AND SEA (Gifu-city, Japan Society on Water Environment)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

(f24)

alone on the beach
suddenly — the sound of hooves —
race horses training

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st October 1995

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
sam na plaži —
iznenadan zvuk kopita
rasnih trkaèih konja

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f23)

flu preventing sleep
she eats a bacon sandwich
while her husband snores

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st October 1995

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
gripa sprijeèava san
ona jede sendviè od slanine
dok suprug hrèe

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

tanka 21

enticed by brochure
for the exclusive farm shop
we pay a visit
on seeing flies in the fridge
we exit without buying

© Gerald England

Composed: Disley, 30th September 1995

Publications

1996 Presence (UK)
1996 The Tanka Journal (Japan)

(f21)

tough Welsh cob drinking —
two swans slide in and out of
the marsh marigolds

© Gerald England

Composed: Briton Ferry, 3rd July 1995

Publications

1996 Weyfarers (UK)
1996 Target (UK)

[4x]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 9th August 1995

Publication

1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

Clinging to the Valley

CLINGING TO THE VALLEY

screes of shale
remain where
slag-heaps rose

the machinery
and the railway line
are gone

banks of bleak homes
some boarded up
seem to slope nowhere

in the Station Café
they laugh and gossip
tell tales of holidays
and how nice it is
to get back

rain streams
relentlessly
on rows of pigeon lofts

over the mountain
where the last
driftmine
still works
life takes wing

© Gerald England

Composed: Swansea, 30th May 1995

Publications

1997 DOORS OF THE MORNING (Pittsburgh, UnMon America)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1999 Unlikely Stories (Internet)

(f22)

without a warning
men from the council just come
fell and take our tree

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th July 1995

Publication

1995 TOPS (UK)

(f19)

outside the X-ray
waiting patients laugh and joke
— passing matron scowls

© Gerald England

Composed: Huddersfield, 27th May 1995

Publications

1995 New Hope International Writing (UK)
1995 Lo Straniero (Italy)
1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
Izvan X zraka
pacijenti se smiju i šale
— mrgodna nadzornica

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

Brigflatts Revisited

BRIGFLATTS REVISITED

(A tanka sequence, for Mabel Ferrett)

over Widdale Fell
where the visibility
edges to zero
sheep are heard but are not seen
grazing just beyond the snow

on Sedbergh Main Street
shoppers walk over duck-boards
just to cross the road —
sat drinking in the café
we watch them lay new cobbles

turning the pages
before I sign myself in
the Visitors' Book
I note your name two weeks back
and feel your presence here still

in the Meeting House
pictures enliven bare boards
yet the air is cool —
outside it feels much warmer
though the sun is lost in mist

the burial field
a carpet of daffodils —
just like all the rest;
a round memorial stone
"Basil Bunting" and his dates

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 18th April 1995

Publication

1995 BRIGGFLATTS VISITED 2nd edn (Hyde, New Hope International)

[4w]

© Gerald England

Composed: Salford, 22nd March 1995

Publications

1995 At Last (UK)
1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

Changing

CHANGING

He jumps and listens
 then he doesn't
  though he jumps
 down
  falling slowly
until the insides of his ears
 burn

hot tea
 without milk
  tastes good
 no need
for sweeteners after sex

in the cold night outside
 a cat is heard to scream
   as grief-riders
  race
 trying vainly
to escape
  from the flying pigs

   in the morning
all will be accounted for

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 14th March 1995

Publication

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)

(f18)

walking the shoreline -
suddenly the splash of hooves
riders at sea's edge

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st February 1995

Publication

1997 Lateral Moves (UK)

Love After Midnight

LOVE AFTER MIDNIGHT

She had been searching
the origins of quicksilver,
wanted to know
the source of vermilion.

It was only a small itch
on the back of her neck;
she needed deft fingers
to scratch it away.

The digits that probed
didn't stop at her back
but sought out pores
along the whole of her skin.

In the midst of her climax
she forgot about Mercury,
relaxed before sleeping
having drunk a full cup.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 19th January 1995

Publications

1997 TUA Coffee Shop (Internet)
2002 Eastern Rainbow (UK)

tanka 15

a lonely farmstead
at end of a narrow track,
the vet shivering,
wind buffeting the byre door:
first moo of the new-born calf

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 11th December 1994

Publications

1996 Presence (UK)
1997 Time Haiku (UK)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

[5v]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 4th December 1994

Publication

1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

(f17)

sleet at the window
armchair drawn close to leaping flames
she refills her glass

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th November 1994

Publication

1996 Presence (UK)

(f16)

high tops streaked with snow
driving for hours with frozen feet
hands never quite dry

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 26th November 1994

Publication

2006 Curlew

(f15)

watching "Lion King"
in the cinema which stands
where Belle Vue Zoo stood

© Gerald England

Composed: Denton, 30th October 1994

Publications

1995 TOPS (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 NASA(USA)
2000 MIR (USA)

(f13)

not put you to sleep
but make you feel less bothered
the nurse reassures

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 25th August 1994

Unpublished

(f12)

three patients waiting
impending operations
not one of them speaks

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 25th August 1994

Publications

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)
1997 Time Haiku (UK)
1998 Sparrow (Croatia)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

*****
tri bolesnika èekaju
predstojeèu operaciju —
ni jedan ne govori

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croation by Marijan Èekolj)

Publications

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)
1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

Poetry In The Marquee

POETRY IN THE MARQUEE

At the Dales Festival
the puppeteer's performance
was interleaved between the two
halves of the poetry reading.

Outside in the blustery wind
the poets muttered
she'd stolen half
their audience.

Then her son complained
they couldn't clear
their props and go
until the poets had finished.

The second-half audience
was not quite as big
but more attentive
with fewer distractive passers-by.

The poets read;
the musicians played;
the wind flapped the canvas;
the audience clapped loudly.

© Gerald England

Composed: Hawes, 20th August 1994

Publication

1997 Pennine Platform (UK)

Margaret & Malcom

MARGARET & MALCOLM

When Margaret first met Malcolm
she baked him a pie
of magpies she had caught
with her chattering.

After the honeymoon
she took him to Big Sur
where the snaking highway leaps
across canyons on towering bridges.

They made love beneath the redwood
the music of their movements
arousing the faerie spirits
who cheered at their union.

On her shoulders she carries
two black dogs with faces like cats'
their long tails locking
with the plaits of her hair.

Someone gave her two axolotls
salamanders from Mexico
but one of them died
before the vet could arrive.

Malcolm fell on the cliffs
trapping his leg in a fissure
drowning slowly as the waves
swept over him at the incoming tide.

Margaret cried
till her tears
turned her jewels
into feathers.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th August 1994

Publications

1996 Swagmag (UK)
1998 The Bohemian Forest (Internet)

(f11)

Image © Gerald England from Geograph

in the pub carpark
waiting for the wind to drop
would-be balloonists

© Gerald England

Composed: Nantwich, 6th July 1994

Publications

2006 Clouds Peak (Internet)

(f10)

openly smoking
schoolgirls on their way home
pass the graveyard

© Gerald England

Composed: Mottram in Longdendale, 5th July 1994

Publications

2006 Clouds Peak (Internet)
2007 Ginyu (Japan)

[5u]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th July 1994

Publication

1997 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

No Shame, No Blame

NO SHAME, NO BLAME

We were never lovers
Because we shared a common love
Neither of us could compromise.
The love that keeps us apart
Kept us together.

Though we shared no intimacies
As the gossips would imagine,
Exchanging cherished moments
We were close in ways
That they will never know.

© Gerald England

Composed: High Legh, 3rd July 1994

Publication

1999 Poetry Chain (India)

The Fields of Bosnia

THE FIELDS OF BOSNIA

The banks of the Danube
can be lonelier than outcast iron mines.
I saw nothing but
before the females in my family told us
she was back
and not terrified of the death.
But where cries the night
in rape to the shrieking rain?
We will lie anywhere.
Kataja threw her daughter's head;
held it as though scraping hell.
I crushed it into tatters.
A new demon rules Eden,
a leper nun who doesn't breed,
a brew reeking of loyalty.
I still don't live in mud because I have children.
I go without supper;
his meeting takes the chocolate eclairs domed with green
cattle are aimed at the bulging windows.
They say KEEP OFF;
this place between two pinnacles
of delectable phosphorescent green rocks
where a huge bird scuttles up towards Mostar blowing snow.
They roll in their bathing suits,
Their barrels smell of dirty blackness.
In the light so many wives attack him.
Two girls pass gripping a little old bed sheet.
He is a swirling mass of unhealthy tree, under the woman,
feeling sorry, shuffling along,
Men of the burnt fields grow instant whiskers;
meanwhile the sunny meadow is life.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 19th June 1994

Publications

1999 Gravity (Internet)
2001 Blue Beat Jacket (Japan)

Gay Macho Pleasures On Autumn Afternoons

GAY MACHO PLEASURES ON AUTUMN AFTERNOONS,

You weave a song about the hypocritical stance of bodies;
Compatibility rating is positive, floating,
As it works in the issue shared by both men,
Like an offer, indirect, trying to recall the sight
Of the individual's imaginative role in contemporary society.
49 years later, snooping through lesbianism
In a motor vehicle that runs on vanilla erotica,
She rejected sex altogether some nine times.
The odd admirer may be tantamount to this
Wednesday morning maintaining the glare of the bedroom,
Your head against a women's movement while we wait;
She riding on another body for every human act of love,
A motion tinged with blood,
But extricating women from behind
We know the ghosts hung on your dick;
Orgasm is entirely unconscious
Like condensation on ripe fruit, instead of mimesis.
So liking you desperately, she wanted the penis.
You must believe that the only solid gold mouse is a woman
With blood that stains my handkerchief.
The act comes to fight for his contention that the haunting face
Is the "Real thing" in the moon.
May the wild winds of frost return to what remains of flame.
Surely her teeth sank high in his penis and hearts gorged
On the real thing of yore with ungainly fowls whose footfalls tinkled.
This grim denying of the lamplight
Perfumed from this improbable pursuit,
Represents no token of what will be right,
Gloating over, and nothing further then to remember
But Madam, and childish superstitions.
Suppose we eat beans before taking the teeth again,
She aggressively appropriates without griping pains or the devil,
Leaves because the wait also reinforces
And Butch finally messes up what this is charged for access.
This I stood repeating, in a flirt and came again.
Both men eagerly feel that the male body is underrepresented,
As if she retains a drachma of rhubarb,
To harden the teeth, and to make them sound and white.
Back through the sound of sweet trees,
Whose velvet violet roots become entirely white rose vinegar
They will remove neuralgia from the onion,
Though thy God hath spoken!
A mouthful of landscape signifies simply that snatch of white cream in my chamber.
Dominant sexual positions are presumed to be still waiting,
Though her startling announcement covers your eyes with femininity.
Who gathers then to watch her clear the distance,
To form from your head the tiny object whose fond mutation about the day will appear.
I add weight to hear the lamplight gloated o'er
In any dusty matter, and all about a cushioned seat.
Other terms occupy the risk of a woman thus betrayed.
Precisely this space becomes increasingly assertive about the dreaded future of almonds,
The angels tapping somewhat louder, rather than banning it!

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th June 1994

Publication

1998 pURL (Internet)

Even Queens Have To Die

Text withheld for now as the poem is presently still under submission.

Composed: Gee Cross, 16th May 1994

Unpublished

Convening in Cleveland

CONVENING IN CLEVELAND

(in memory of the late John Brander)

On the last night before demolition
after the Karaoke has been silenced
and the girl with the real tattoo
has ushered home her drunken beau,
the remaining guests at the seedy, downtown hotel
gather behind the bar along with the staff
to drink and talk late into the morning.

Up at the Town Hall, two days on
from the Pop Concert where hoards
of pubescent young things defied goose pimples
to walk the streets outside in thin chiffon
not hiding their curvaceous flesh,
now dock-lads on pay night tear up crash barriers
to use as weapons against their rivals.
As the police sirens wail,
the cigarette-smoking feminist
escapes the melee in a taxi;
joins the rest of the hotel party
unaware of the building's forthcoming demise.

The management offers round the remnants
of a birthday tea they've over-catered for;
gives the Irish girl a meat pie -
"to fatten you up, lass!".
After one bite she stubs it in the ashtray,
plays a jig on her harmonica,
then "God Save The Queen" and
rounds her recital off with "The Red Flag".

Sharon from the bar
keeps asking for change to phone a taxi,
trying to get away from the cellarman
whom she claims is moving in so close
he's almost halfway into her bra.

The attorney from the U.S. of A,
buys some salt-and-vinegar crisps,
but after close scrutiny of the sell-by date
decides he ought to send them back.
Even after his tenth pint, the Yorkshire psychologist
tells him it's probably best to let sleeping crisps lie
rather than risk a confrontation,
since the landlord is busy playing pool
and threatening to smash his cue
over the top his cellarman's head,
if he doesn't leave Sharon alone.

The man from the university,
recounts the time he wanted to tar his shed roof;
how he purloined a pail from a road-mender's site,
transported it in his boot all the way back from Wales -
when weeks later his wife nagged him to finish the job,
only then did he discover it wasn't macadam;
he'd stolen a bucket full of shite!

At breakfast time, the bulldozer
is already waiting outside.
The financial advisor with the irritable bowel
cannot stomach the sausage
that has been defrosted overnight on the bar;
then he finds there is no paper in any of the loos.

The regulars are going to give
their custom to the Wig & Pen.
Adrian, John, Geoff, Gerald,
Hilary, Maureen and Jean,
the last seven guests
all sign in the visitor's book
that they'll be coming back one day.

© Gerald England

Composed: Middlesbrough, 16th May 1994

Publications

1996 Harvest (USA)
1998 Boggers All (UK)

[6k]

© Gerald England

Composed: Whitby, 14th April 1994

Publications

1995 Apostrophe (UK)
1996 Still (UK)
1998 Raw NerVZ Haiku (Canada)

(f9)

old inn on the moor
now tarted up for tourists -
blot on the landscape

© Gerald England

Composed: Middlesbrough, 14th April 1994

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
stara krìma u pustari
zatvorena za turiste —
ljaga za krajolik

GERALD ENGLAND

(translated from English to Croatian by Marijan Èekolj)

Publication

1996 Sparrow (Croatia)

[5t]

© Gerald England

Composed: Middlesbrough, 13th May 1994

Publication

1996 Iota (UK)

(f8)

branches of old trees
mark out the middle
of eroded paths

© Gerald England

Composed: Leeds, 16th April 1994

Publication

2006 Clouds Peak

(f7)

the dog drops its stick
comes wanting to be friendly
but slinks back halfway

© Gerald England

Composed: Leeds, 16th April 1994

Publications

1997 Time Haiku (UK)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

[5s]

and he sits on the
loo reading the poems
of Marianne Moore
whilst contemplating
the rooftops of Prague

© Gerald England

Composed: Leeds, 16th April 1994

Publication

1996 Presence (UK)

(f6)

looking for thermals
the rook takes off from the edge
as jet soars over

© Gerald England

Composed: Leeds, 16th April 1994

Publications

1996 Q (USA)
1997 Lateral Moves (UK)
2000 MIR (USA)

(f5)

amid the heather
splash of yellow on the brown
misplaced daffodils

© Gerald England

Composed: Otley Chevin, 16th April 1994

Publications

1997 Time Haiku (UK)
2004 TIME HAIKU ANTHOLOGY (London, Time Haiku Group)

(f4)

weathering well
Victorian graffiti
on glacial rocks

© Gerald England

Composed: Otley Chevin, 16th April 1994

Publications

2004 Sons of Camus Writers International Journal (Canada)
2006 Curlew (UK)

[4v]

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 10th Feb 1993

Publication

2004 Raw NerVZ (Canada)

(f3)

sunday morning soak
i languish in hot water
distant churchbells sound

© Gerald England

Composed: Denton, 6th February 1994

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

*****
mokro nedjeljno jutro —
æamim u vruæoj vodi uz udaljena
crkvena zvona

Gerald England

translated from English to Croatian by Marijan Èekolj

Publication

1998 Sparrow (Croatia)

(f1)

1994
the snow and frost of last year
- melted in the night


© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 1st January 1994

Publication

1994 Mirrors (USA)

Gone Not Gentle

GONE NOT GENTLE

on spindrift pages
from the raging moon he wrote
for heedless lovers

by St.Martin's Church
poetry pilgrims honour
a simple white cross

at the Lamb & Flag
talk is of a drunken poet
stripping off his shirt

in the U.S.A.
professors then young students
recall his last lecture

curtains still open
in a thousand small theatres
to Under Milk Wood

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 15th December 1993

Publications

1994 Purple Patch (UK)
1994 Current Accounts (UK)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)
1998 Black Creek Review (USA)
1998 Perihelion (Internet)
1998 Black Creek Review (Internet)

Putting the Horror Movie in Context

PUTTING THE HORROR MOVIE IN CONTEXT

tensions of the night
preventing sleep
we go downstairs
disturb the dog
share tea and cake
with the "Vampire of Venice"
gape as his victim
throws herself from a pinnacle
then wakes up
not with broken back
but naked in his chamber
blood dribbling from mouth

as the television breaks
to a commercial
for washing-up liquid
we laugh - return to bed
equipped to deal
with our own demons

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 17th November 1993

Publications

1994 Weyfarers (UK)
1994 Mobius (USA)
1996 The Affiliate (Canada)
1997 Gallery Zandstraat (Internet)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)

Lucky Pierre

LUCKY PIERRE

Earth, the bird, the vine and advance notification of smoke blown horizontally from rolling whirlpools.
Then he was quiet, cramped, then whoosh, beneath one -
where it departed into each other -
a girl with white on their shattering windshields, sending heads, gripping two, three, barren,
Undeterred by a department of vegetation, side-stepping the suicides,
Opening his fishy-smelling sealskin mitts, hobbling to the man on black slush:
Lucky Pierre. He is drawn into the echo of transgressions;
The doors were by his hands seized on his open grave!
But this wild terrain cleft violently to an end of pale expanse for muffins, what worked him.
He screams with tenebrous absences behind the blood,
The world; the eye that can see the dying city streets.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th November 1993

Publications

1997 Gallery Zandraat (Internet)
2002 Fire (UK)

Lawrence

LAWRENCE

Lawrence never owned up to show you
How to catch flies with a life on landing.
If she pricked her lung and lips, honestly,
It would not have taught her anything
About the short story neatly tied
A lesser man does not get stranded in the sky.
The girl continued with moral injunctions against Freud.
They must be republished for they were not
Whipped but spit on the walls
And wanted language to the end of breath.
Though it has been accepted,
He cries at her nakedness.
In new forms, whose hands
Could have the realm of absorption shoved down
As faded tenderness to us
In soft summer breeze poetry?
Splashing through unity,
Kicking, smashing decorously into captivity,
He whimpers to the message in time
So we can keep it as aversion of colliding steel,
While she kicks him up to the edges of art.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 5th November 1993

Publications

1998 Boggers All (UK)
1998 Black Creek Review (USA)
1998 Black Creek Review (Internet)

Microcosm 20

MICROCOSM 20

Purged in soft flesh like the expert tease, she leapt back served under a shadow.
If a nut is drawn into each field of reinforced cohesion
And by it a tone with her cunt, they may declare a huge bird cowed
Skinny men rode bicycles not conflicting with traffic rolling whirlpools.
A slow train to Turkey keeps your beautiful mother asleep with an anthropologist.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd November 1993

Publication

1998 The Bohemian Forest (Internet)

Microcosm 19

MICROCOSM 19

Think of this sudden lack of beauty as a unique experience as senses in front teeth clattering,
Pain can shock and berries like salt on the naive lead nowhere
Splashing through our way in a genuine leopard skin
Katy threw the usual place with rat-prints and sweat under a common defence,
Without quaint proper good-byes to make futures of thought,
I found ruby tipped and maybe with the autumn breezes
To dig through our clothes black indications shivering in that sleep

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd November 1993

Publication

1994 Lost & Found Times (USA)

Microcosms 17 & 18

MICROCOSM 17

I didn't think she'd write in the front room, coffee frosting from her,
Thus making the glorious sun a common defence,
Under the impression that the males in my family told them she leaped back from it.
Deeply Katy threw her work to disapproval and confronted banality
They aren't nice people casting off into images comprising their way:
She may not escape. My cacti piling up, paying electricity to make big beef curry.

MICROCOSM 18

Compare the use the countryside.
Their post-modern world hides structures in their expectations of trees and falling,
Her typically bold narrative grounded in due course.
Critical where it fits better, you call your beautiful mother accomplice to a date
Listing the tired, stressed, most delicate rustles of the media
If you could be a headache and not bother taking off the old daylight.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd November 1993

Publication

2004 ZYX (USA)

Microcosm 16

MICROCOSM 16

A continued escalation of colliding steel,
Sleepless hands seized on landing.
Their conception of the irony was such that Either an idiot speaks of bodies
Or Momma gets more of this shit,
Such sport, hookers and so typical of her lips.
Man, without supper, you had forgotten
What happens to the brew
Reeking of a pang of houses,
The hints are built up on Fridays.

© Gerald England

Composed: Gee Cross, 3rd November 1993

Publication

1996 Transmog (UK)

tanka 13

walking with the dog
after the snooker final,
night of Halloween -
full moon lightens up the sky;
in the sharp wind it's so quiet.

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Gee Cross, 30th October 1993

Publication

1994 Read This (UK)