poems:
assorted
by
Richard Stanley-Baker
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thrushes are bright this morn
how finely we sing to one another
barely missing a beat
of each other”¦s hearts
the sky so clear the palms so green
gum trees like white flames
against the jungle mountain forest
and giant flung rocks
I walk free as song
the quiet so resonant within
me and green growth too
a grand chorus of silence around me
a cavernous darkness within
silent as space
yet bright as thrush eyes
as river rocks
as sun and sky beat down
a symphony of songs unheard
a landscape Provencal
Bonnard plays it best
yet this is Coloane Macau at its sunhot
white heat best
this morn
who needs wine
who needs song
I walk happy
walk high as bird song
as the light lifting breeze
takes me beyond
time and what is where
just now
only this
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no quietness
like that of a quiet heart
sublime with
peace
waterfalls bright
with diamond strokes
sounds reverberating
like slow tympani
on a canvas
of quietness
a walk of peacefulness
Rosie and I are old at this
by now
and contemplate
bright mottled goblin rocks
and their little water fallings
and their echoings
in our mutual heart
it is a very special
shared joy
this one
that none can repeat
not ever
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This sunny morning I found a hare and his mate
just by the front door
I opened the door and he stared at me
with a quizzical look
academical almost
like a surprised professor
with long and awkward ears
while she nibbled some grass nervously
I thought this was my turf
said we both to one another
a question unanswerable by either of us
I then encouraged them to lollop off
wondering if these elegant creatures
were as damaging to my little plants
as the rabbits
I wished they would visit again
and that we might talk afresh
about such matters
and all else
I shot one of these in my youth
and soon regretted it bitterly
I suppose I somehow wished to make it up
to their tribe
for such rash and dreadful acts
dear Prof
let there nae be bad blood between us
come lollop some more
and propogate your fine kind
just mind you lay off the rhodies
or I might be looking for my horror stick again
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in the wet light and watery aether of heaven
I fly, dive, splash at her borders,
leaping and laughing in the waves
daring at the smash
of glint rock
and elven tree
in my dream I am the air
itself and no thing
the riven light I am and yet
I leap and twist against the line
and the rod has me
I the hero of the falls
the lurker in the shades
the old one
the dark one
shining below
who knows me
the line holds me
it knows me not
I am air fish tree
and gone !
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[Tony Blair”¦s foot-and-mouth]
with some but little apologies to
Harry Five
an”¦ not Potter
you laouts
[read in broad Devonshire] and abaout
if evvur thur wur a time to pull it aout bouys
it wur nouow
so go we not silent and nasty into that shapeless maw
ye ”„ave oapened uop with dr”¦ad disease
that sore we dare not tell
go not silent naow to that
be laoud and laouder
bugger the breach with fallen caouws
and a ”„eap of offal smelling sheep
undead they
yu Blairy bastards
yu done dreadnaut fukkered
floatwide side
the country with
motorways
and noisy blaihring of ”„orned machines
and monster trucking
yur greedliness
and smells
yur dungbegotten brouds
yur fell nastiness yur hells yur smells
no bells ”„ere mouy son
douwnside every lane
and aoutsize miserimakers
don”¦t y”¦ fail me nouw
”„ang them ”„igh bureau-bhastards
and foouid managerial shaitmakers
and offalspitmen
DNA Goebel ballurs
sheizfix restaurateurs
them that cooked us up this one
cook them naouw
please God
naououw
[Read with a loudhailer in the street in Hong Kong
to loud applause from some few poets
and persons from the British Council]
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