The Ashes

Now that that time has gone
Of Aussie wickets and cricket throws,
Let us tie our shoes and walk school’s road
With Flintoff’s tread, who proudly goes.

Advice to my youth

Don’t hang around now; go quickly, go free.
I am ready, soldier-like, for the challenges ahead.
I am under no illusions. This poem is no illusion -
Each apple is golden, and every catcher caught.

Inspired by ‘Iron John’ by Robert Bly

Together

The old couple
They know each other so well
Undressing in amber
Like actors, rehearsing in their room.

By a lake

The light is everywhere.
It is in the water, in the green trees.
Silently presented to us
By nature itself: beauty, light on our long way.

Lion and lioness in bed

The Lion: look at me, the mighty I,
With this little lioness to protect.
She thinks: How powerful I am that a big lion
Will lie docile just for me.

Party

The Age of Shakespeare’s been and gone,
The Age of Reason followed it.
Now we’re at table in the dawn
Draining the age of plenty.

Saturday night

Rapturous erotic joy
Has much to recommend it.
Whether tonight with girl or boy,
Put the seal on your friendship.

The trick is

To run this life
Like a child downhill
Yelling and leap
To the arms of God.

Tick and tick

The watch by the bedside
Ticks slowly on.
I dream birds outside the window
Who dream not that time goes on.

Sergei, his exit

‘Lay me in the coffin – I’m through
With custard pies, water-ties and that.
I’ve clowned about down here long enough;
Lay me in the coffin, boys; I want to live.’