one million elephants couldn't begin to understand

THINGS MY MOTHER SAID (3)

Don't have sex
Half an hour before
Going to the theatre.

1.

Do not be thinking of a fall asleep when I tell you how this is interesting. I will later give you a circular explanation that some people's viewpoint is never was a better time to explore outside our usual scope.

2.

Don’t fall asleep while I tell you how interesting all this is. Later I will be giving you a leaflet explaining how in some people's opinion there has never been or will be a better time to explore beyond our usual range.

3.

It does not fall asleep when I say to it that this is interesting. I will later give a communication of some people's point of view of never is a better time to stay outside exploring our usual space.

You know what I want to say
But I can't say it. So I don't say it.
And anyway, even if I said it (unfinished sentence)

When came the time to leave the ship and step on to dry land it would have been good had someone been there to take my hand.

24 February 2009


CAUSES FOR CELEBRATION

Here's an idea: you write each day about what makes you happy.
Unless you are sad.

When one listens to the sound of one's own mind it can be reminding
Like the sea and what it means I have no idea what the mighty sea means
Lest it meaneth the unending quest man hath for meaning under the Sun

Dear Bluebird,

Thank you for the photographs. So many people in the world are strangers to me but it's always interesting to see some new ones. The one you call Waldo appears to be larger in the head than the rest; where is it from? Obsession is not a good thing. I must convince you of this; I will make it my life's work.

Yours,
The Slipper King

There is a blessing.
The blessing is there and waiting to be blessed.

Here comes the simple soul and here is the blessing waiting to be blessed.
Grace falls from the sky like leaves abscised from the trees.

20 February 2009


It's difficult to understand why you don’t feel happy even
                    when you are laughing
Going running with beer in your stomach is really bad
Don't trust any definitions they are all too vague I have
                    an attractive mother
Forgetfulness can sometimes be your life-saver
To eat or not to eat that's the most conflicting idea
Being moderate in eating and drinking makes you
                    die decently
Criticism is not bitter your coldness is
Going to bed with mosquitoes can be great pain
Indifference is better than affectation
Eager anticipation always ends up in vain

THINGS MY MOTHER SAID (2)

You shouldn't eat an orange
While you're speaking on the phone.

I'm constant and use a language that never seems to alter
The beasts prowling the wilderness exchange knowing glances
And probably know me better than I know myself in the past

How wonderfully this creature is working and how beautiful it is
And how graceful the leap over an obstacle fallen across the path
The elegance of the landing the effortless run on into the future

More fear than I know what to do with
Don't try explaining it to me
Just start building the wall

AT THE TEMPLE OF LITERATURE (2)

A fridge magnet and a hat
Belong in poems

But not all poems are good to use
As fridge magnets

Although this poem would make a rather good hat
If folded correctly

(Be thou not frivolous for frivolity's sake)

Never mind the elephants, not even I can begin to explain how
In dry winter air as fingers and noses freeze I feel stupidly warm
And unintelligible thoughts bigger than big thoughts are in my head while
The janitresses wait with their tissues and towels in the corridor            
                              for the day to begin
And they may have to linger a very long time because in this little world
Unfinished sleeps and unfinished sentences are the

I invent the umbrella only to find it already exists
I invent drink to allay sadness only to find
I invent the heart's barricade

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (6)

A car of blessings and travel with opening eyes this dinner with your family
Foretold in the cards sweet everything we are good and old enough for to slumber
And whereby in documents the first thought was placed next to the next
Yesterday when dreaming of my mother whose fortune was it she was telling

FORTHCOMING TITLES (1st XI)

SURE IT'S THE SHORE
ALMOST UNDERSTOOD
THAT LOOK DOES MY HEAD IN
A BOY IN WATER
TRANSCENDENTALISM: THE MOVIE
ALWAYS THE STARS
BEFORE THIS AND AFTER THIS
PUMPKIN PIE etc.
A THEORY OF CHANGE
MISLEADING INFORMATION
THE ENDING OF ABSENCE

UNFINISHED SENTENCES IN THE NORTHERN CAPITAL

You're thirsty you just drank a
It's really inconvenient to
Girls like bags, it's their
It's kind of a weird thing to have on
In this city my eyes are

10 February 2009

The rope is too thin
Listen to the clouds fall
Things happen that are not seen

Well, you can cut that out of the story if you want to
But it would be a mistake ---------

And (as the wet bird
Falls from the chimney stack)
I am the one you have been
Waiting for

The future for you is so fucking HUGE
And yesterday is fleeing from me so fucking FAST ----------

The bells are ringing in the cathedral
Because we are always finding new things to say

At sunset this evening the sun is
A curious colour but beautiful
It slides down behind the hills
As I stand on the balcony and watch
Within seconds it's vanished
So much disappears from the world
Where and who I used to live and play
The plastic idol we believed in
All afternoon I've been listening
But I'm not sure what I've been hearing
The songbird of history aches my head
Wanting to have a day unlike any other

IN POEMS THINGS STAND FOR OTHER THINGS (5)

The roof above the room but below the dream of the future
And falling into the abyss but rising into the skeleton's cupboard
Once the magnificent horse stepped out into the spotlight
But (and there is always a but) one more flower burst forth

AT THE TEMPLE OF LITERATURE (1)

My head is filled with big ideas but

Dear Bluebird,

Thank you for the invitation to come nestle under your wing. Should I accept, it will be only for a short while. Because of some disapprovals, I cannot stay long, and will be forced to fly.

Today I saw your name writ in the clouds, but it was destroyed by planes.

Yours,
The Slipper King

The entire project, he said, is somewhere between a meditation (albeit a less than serene one) and the simple pleasure of making something no-one else can make but Heaven knows where the one begins and the other ends.

We are still sleeping.
When we awake we will go in search of water.
We will call the lady and the boy will bring water.
The lady will call us to ask when we are leaving.
We will tell her we are still sleeping.
We have our own world and time for doing things.

2 February 2009

THINGS MY MOTHER SAID (1)

Always wait, even if it's for ever.

A shadow I think is my former self creeps up behind me.
It's wearing a hat.

In that case, it can’t be the shadow of the me that used to be.