[ song]

I’m hearing smell
I’m tasting time
I’m chasing pathways

changing lives.

The full moon
bleeds across
the dawn

almond hides
the cyanide
disguised &
masked

locked
from sight.

I’m miles
from land
a crescent
beach

your hand
in mine
the lullaby

of China sea.

I’m hearing smell
I’m tasting time
I’m chasing pathways

never tried.

If I had known
how this would
be: if I had
felt this bitter

wind


I would have
walked a different
road,


a choice
a turn
a corner
far behind,

a corner
far behind.

Have I
become
a hungry
ghost?

A figment
of your
longing.

If I had known
how this would
be: if I had
felt this bitter

wind

I would have
walked a
warmer
road

I would have
kept you
by my side.

I’m miles
from land
a crescent
beach

your hand
in mine
the lullaby

of China sea
that one last
day

you walked
with me
before

this ever after.

[Song]

Blood from blood
& skin to skin

my body holds
the very breath

you need.

An incantation
to the Gods

a salutation
to the sun

a summer
solstice decked

with flowers,
& Dionysian 

wine to heat
your veins.

I call you
in the night

I sift you
from my dreams

the living &
the dead

meet as one:

blood from blood
‘n skin to skin

you’ve locked
me out

you’ve let me
drift

your body holds
the very air

I breathe.

We used to be
like leaf to branch,

branch to tree

flower to stem
bread to need.

I’ve had to learn
to let you be

to still my
beating

heart, to set
you free.

This incantation
to the Gods

a salutation
to the sun

a summer
solstice decked

with flowers
& Dionysian 

wine to heat
your veins

It’s blood
to blood

& skin to skin
‘n I can’t lose

the beating
heart of this

no I can’t lose
the beating

heart of this.

Deep beneath
the chaos of
our lives

far beyond
the realms
of possibility

two spinning
coins

the eagle’s
flight

high above
the numbness

of futility.

Misunderstood ‘n
misaligned

we’re calcinated
burnt to ash

dissolved
dissected

vilified
ego into

essence
then the ride

distil
the fool

to gold
‘conjunctio’.

A paradox
a paradigm

just
two birds
perching

on a wire.

We journey
south

we journey
north

you spiel
of probability,

a bitter
wind

the church
bells chime

coagulate
the perfect

rhyme
fire & earth

water’s life
the air we seek

to breathe
us inward.

 

[song]

There’s an empty space
in that hidden place
where
love used to be

a void in my heart
as if a part of me
is stolen

& I’m missing
something undefined
a recurring line

a song I’d long
forgotten.

A thousand times
we tried to solve
the riddle

but this bitter spring
has scoured a ring
of frost

around my heart

& I know somewhere
way out there you’re
missing me


et je sais
tu me manques

oui tu vas me
manquer

It cost you dear
to set me free
it broke your heart
to let me be;

in another life
we’d have had
the time
to heal this.

I’ve a wedding dress
in a silver bag
two golden rings
& the hope I kept

that love would win
that I’d let you in
that this might be

forever

There’s an empty space
in that sacred place
where
love used to be,

& time stands still
like I’ve lost a tune
like a waking dream
like we never were

together.

It cost you dear
to set me free
it broke your heart
to let me be


et je sais
tu me manques

oui tu vas me
manquer, chéri

[Song]

I’m a mirror
for your love
of who you think
I am

of how you think
I can

ease you through this
yes
ease you through this.

I’m a shelter
for your storm
a peg to hang
your heart on

a catalyst
to wake you up
an atom bomb
to clear the dust

& ease you through this
yes
tease you through this.

je suis la,
et
ailleurs

loin
de t’aimer comme il faut
de t’aimer comme je peut

if this rang true
if me & you
were ever really in this.

I’m a mirror
for your love
of who you think
I am

of how you think
I can

ease you through this:
yes,
ease you through this.

You’re a mirage
in the storm
an island far from hope

& you’re reaching
for a star.
an angel with a heart

to lead you through this,
yes to
lead you through this.

Je suis la,
et
ailleurs

loin
de t’aimer comme il faut
de t’aimer comme je peut

if this rang true
if me and you

were ever really in this.

There’s a glitter
on the river
sunlight on the sea
there’s a pulsing of
my heart beat


& then there’s
you & me.


There’s the moon
above the tree tops
a kestrel on the wing
the ocean keeps on
rolling


& then there’s love
& need.


You say there is
a strangeness
you say we must
believe
there’s a ripple
in the cosmos


a tear that all
can see.

There’s a spring
& then there’s summer
a beach, a stretch, a dream
but here we sit in winter


this moment’s
hard to live.


There’s a glitter
on the river
sunlight on the sea
& love’s a moving
chimera, an unknown
destination


& then there’s
you & me.


You say you have
the answer, a belief
a need to be, but love’s
an unknown journey

an arrival
we can’t see.

There’s a glitter
on the river
sunlight on the sea
there’s a pulsing of
my heart beat


& then there’s
you & me.

Diamond girl

I’m a diamond girl
have always been

I wear them everywhere
in my hair ‘n in my dreams

they sparkle in the sky
& I know you’re near me.

I didn’t want to
watch you go

I held your hand
close to me

no I didn’t want
to let you leave

for you took

the dearest part of me
yes you took

the clear sweet
heart of me.

I’m a diamond girl
they were yours before

& now I wear them
for you here

your love was like an oak
it held me up, the branches

wide & free, ‘n from up there
the world I viewed

was safe in your love.

I didn’t want to
watch you go

I held your hand so
close to me

no I didn’t want
to let you leave

so I lied and said
it was the right time,

my time to be alone

yes I lied
to make it easy

no I didn’t want
to let you leave

for you took

the dearest part of me,
I didn’t want to let you go

yes you took the clear sweet
heart of me.

I’m a diamond girl
have always been

& now I’ll wear them
on the beach

close to the ocean
where we’ve always been

yes we’ve always been
together,

I’m a diamond girl
a Queen with starlight

in my eyes,

I’m a diamond girl
‘cos that’s the way

you made me.

No I didn’t want
to let you leave

so I lied
to make it easy.

No I didn’t want
to let you leave

for you took

the dearest part of me
yes you took the clear sweet

heart of me.

1

Spring appears

wind squall
grass thigh high

virulent:

you stagger from
deep sleep

somnambulant,
shaky.

Fox slinks stone wall
interim time hovers

before & after
up & down,

you are fragile, fallen
a new kind of creature.

Trees whisper &
the land undulates

with yellow flowers.



2

In & out
round we spin

the storm breaks
batters bluebells

clematis confetti’s

we are here
we are there
we are nowhere

you take the tram
to love;

we are together
we are apart
we are voiceless

a flight we didn’t
take, a song
I never sung

endings &
beginnings
are the same

opaque,
unknown.

I plant flowers

the fox
prowls
perimeter

skulking,

night brings
oblivion.

This spring is dour
it coats the tongue
a Scottish taste

that lingers.

Mist in the morning
too much moisture
swells joints

bleeds into my dreams
leaves me drowning.

You deftly net confusion
it swirls around you:
dust bowl eddies

that stick: congregate
in corners of your mind
where spiders play

at madness.

I stutter in dialect
the words slip like silver

the silver of this full moon
cold, hard, sterile.

Sun speckles river
the cow parsley sways
like wedding lace

a song, a poem, a dream.
The oak tree whispers
to the wind

asks again.

Why this?
Why this?

Here we are again
back on the road to hell

& everything I thought
I knew, has vanished
in the morning mist.

I’m lost from you.

If I could take back
time, dust it off from
sharpened youth

if I could take back
time, I’d live a different
tune.

We’re travellers for
a moment, crossing rivers
long run dry

seeing lands we’ve
always wished for
rainbows washed

from drifting lives,

if I could take back time
meet you at the corner
of my dreams

if I could take back time
walk the path we never trod

if I could take back
time, I’d live a different
truth.

You found me dressed
in sparkles, you sprinkled
me with tears

if I could touch you
for a moment
whisper words

we both believed

if I could take back
time, hold your hand
& kiss your brow

if I could wrap us up
in yesterday capture
love we’ve never known

if I could wish
for just one moment
erase all that I’ve become

if I could take back
time, I’d live a different
truth.

Here we are again
back on the road to
hell

my demons mutter
nightly & the angels
have all left

if I could take back
time dust it off
from sharpened youth

if I could take back time
I’d chose another truth
if I could take back time

I’d stay with you.