Year: 2018

A lone street in Gloucester

irlandesuk poetry

gloucester

A lone street in Gloucester

A lone street in Gloucester
           snow on the road
and piled high
           on the footpaths

To the right a row
           of large clapboard houses
tv aerials on two chimneys
           and in the distance a flag flying
above what might be
           the courthouse

To the left a tall tree
           with bare branches
and a telegraph pole
           from which several
phone lines radiate out
           to the various buildings

At the far end of the street
           two cars and to the left
a man walking
           and ahead of him
another figure
           braced against the cold
possibly a man also
           about to turn a corner

It’s winter in Gloucester
           and nothing’s happening

John Lyons

Rock of ages

irlandesuk poetry ,

Rock of ages

Flint flickers 
                   from the cave 
an infinity concocted
         from inert stone 
the dead history
             of dry leaves 
swept up and cast 
                     onto a futile fire
What outlasts fear
                               hope 
                               all
is the loving heart

Time is a fix
       fixed in time 
               butterfly beauty
and the truth
               hand-held

Time when the eyes
                   were opened
time when with warm lips
         a kiss was taken

Prehistoric juices 
                   drawn from soft berries
dark earth minerals
             ochres and umbers
smeared on the walls 
                               desire 
for the common good
                     all ache 
soothed by love
                   all talk an art
every creation
                a form of love

Words for effect
                       verbal markers 
set against time’s depredations 
               beauty undimmed 
across the ages
                     schooled in love
each thought word and deed
         beyond season 
                             beyond reason

The hunting hand that held
           wild berries
           sun-dried and pounded 
to a charcoal powder
                 earth ochres
and the pigment blown
       over a hand pressed
                         to the cave wall
a negative print
                   Polychromes 
in the Great Hall
                         swathes 
of abstract markings
                   but nothing casual 
                         nothing unpremeditated 
                         nothing unplanned
executed to perfection
                         a steppe bison
perfectly proportioned 
                       its thunderous heart 
still beating
                       its fiery eyes 
peering down at us 
                       across the millennia 
horses    deer    a wild boar

Across the centuries
                     that are 
                             as dried leaves
in the wind
               Time tethered
for all time
                 art that is life’s signature
the personality that defines
                       our humanity
our collective singularity
         the beauty of truth 
and love
             life ennobled

From my lips to your ear
                   what do we know 
of poetry
             other than it is words
for effect 
             or words
                     for special effect
sonnet-shaped
                       odes to time
the flight of a nightingale
             across the ages
undimmed

John Lyons

The Cave of Hands

irlandesuk art, poetry , ,
Cave of Hnads.jpg
Santa Cruz, Argentina

The Cave of Hands

Those hands on the wall
            of the cave in Santa Cruz
Argentina waving to us
            from 9000 years ago
The silhouettes created
            by blowing paint 
through bone-made pipes
            The warmth of these
gestures as if to say
            we were here and we
salute you those of you
            who are to come

John Lyons

Words for an occasion

irlandesuk poetry

Words for an occasion

This is not a world
      in which all things fade
most things don’t
      most things remain
or return from time to time
      feelings for example
love for example
      beauty for example

all that endures
      in time and space
the abiding coordinates
      which hold our existence
in place and bind us to our doing
      the free mind
that roams through
      fields of thought
that sails the seven seas
      of the imagination
rooted in the significances
      we create around us

fleeting flowers are there
      to remind us to keep our nerve
to trust in certain durabilities
      and rich pluralities
to be endlessly inventive
      within our time
and within our space
      and to love naturally 
for all we are worth
      regardless

John Lyons

Pièce de resistance

irlandesuk poetry

Pièce de resistance

How we bring beauty
     into our lives
these tulips
     yellow and purple
with their long green
     leaves and stems
a beauty grown
     out of the the earth
brought into the home
     to embellish the day
and as the days pass
     their beauty will
slowly fade
     and they will be
returned to the earth :
     the pursuit of beauty
may be forever but
     only love can resist
the passing of time
     only love

John Lyons

The hovering hawk

irlandesuk poetry

The hovering hawk

In your reading
           you come across a phrase
that captures
           your imagination
that pleases you
           how the body is light
how in its youth
           it dances and sways
to life’s rhythms
           and as you mature
you become aware
           that you are the fruit
of your own making
           you lift a finger
you get on with it
           you make your bed
and you lie in it
           a hawk hovering
above a field of barley
           has seen something
I would not have seen
           and so it hangs in the air
for a purpose
           and I hold the idea of it
in my head
            and in these words

John Lyons

On Crayford Marshes

irlandesuk Uncategorized

On Crayford Marshes

Amid the marshes tall pylons stand
           in fields where sheep graze :
adjacent to these pastures
           a field filled with giant bulrushes
more than you could hope to count
           The risk of flooding
has saved the land
           from development

Here is home
           to black-tailed godwit
to snipe and teal and dunlin
           to little grebe and redshanks
to lapwings and herons
           here too proud kingfishers
have established their domain
           and on the banks
of the channels and gulleys
           water voles abound

John Lyons

 

The bare bones

irlandesuk poetry

The bare bones

There is dark matter
           and there is the beauty
of flesh on the bare bones
           the one sustains the other
We call fish the flower
           of the sea and judge all else
by the rose standard
           Spring is upon us
and notice how the birds
           have changed their tune

There is nothing abstract
           about life or poetry
and all things point
           to an origin and to an end
the process is what lies
           in between : displacement
and the acquisition
           of a certain knowledge

And talk of timeless
           means for the time being
the bird in the hand
           the bare bones of love
dark matter
           for the time being

John Lyons

 

Subterfuge

irlandesuk poetry

Subterfuge

Perhaps to live abroad
           is to wear
a perpetual disguise
           to be a passenger
in an alien identity :
           but then there is the soul
that deep sense of self
           that brooks no deception
that stares out deeper
           than any mirror
that looks into the heart
           and knows why the rose
has been forsaken
           for the begonia
the acorn
           for the coconut palm

John Lyons

Make much of love

irlandesuk poetry

Make much of love

Failure is commonplace
           and most of us fail
mostly
           though we may enjoy
minor or temporary success
           from time to time

We know where it will all end
           under leaves and grass
under snow when the weather is inclement
           or when the wind and the rain
rattle the eaves
           where we once lived

Love is the cornerstone
           it is the common thread
more beautiful in its day
           than any rose :
it is the root
           of all life all human life

Defy the slings and arrows
           defy the thorns
and make much of it
           indeed make the most of it

John Lyons

There is an absolutely exquisite poem in the Collected Poems of Charles Olson ‘Only the Red Fox, Only the Crow’ that should be read by all who love poetry.