Unfrozen

A poem from 2018

My heart was shrivelled, constrained

Bursting to display its splendour

But frozen stiff and afraid

Almost from nowhere, you appeared

Smiled and held my hand

A strange warmth within me

I didn’t understand

The ice began to melt

I started to expand

To awaken, to dream

Love that Hell could not withstand

My heart was shrivelled, cold

Crying icy tears in solitude

Your kiss revived my soul, my life

When I searched for you, you appeared

Smiled, revived my soul

My heart melted within me

A peace that made me whole

A stone replaced by pumping flesh

A story to extol

A happy ever after

A living cherry bowl

My heart was shrivelled, dying

Struggling for breath

You held me in your arms and gave me life

Dull

A poem from 2017

Is there never a point

At which you pause

And think to yourself

I shouldn’t do this?

Your Face

A poem from 2017

Have you seen your face lately?

So wary, and bitter, and grave

Muttering away at the small sins of others

While committing greater without batting an eyelid

Are you deluded? Have you lost the plot?

You know better than this, so I really don't get it

Unless you were a hypocrite all along

And you love the power

Good Night's Sleep

A poem from 1994

To be

or not to be?

That is the question!

Are we

to be

or not to be?

That is the question!

Whether ‘tis nobler to keep in the mind

locked-in desires

and to suffer the slings and arrows

of deceptive hope

and crippling uncertainty

or to take up courage

against a sea of worries

and by opposing

face emotional suicide

To die

to sleep?

Oh, to sleep!

I think about you

and rob me of sleep

if I could talk to you about this

and quell the torture

I impose upon myself

to make an end of the secret

coming out

but fearing that I would make an end

of my psychology

and crawl back in

closing the door

locking and bolting it

to keep out unwelcome visitors

God, put an end to this, please!

Won’t you please, please help me!

Niche

A poem from 2017

Now I don’t mind

A narrow mind

A narrow path

To some seems daft

But I am fine with that

Yet when you see

Conspiracy

A devil’s trick

A stumbling brick

In everything

You err

A breakaway

A distrust

A disgust

No niche too small

To diss the all

Artificially bring down

The edifice

The one king’s crown

His delight

Is your dark night

An evil brood

All bad but you

You shrink and shrivel

Sailing your own leaking ark

Conveyor Belt

A poem from 2017

You sit and watch helplessly

Your life passes by in front of you

Strapped to a chair you cannot break free

Good times and bad times

Love, hate, jealousy, laughter

You cannot undo anything

You cannot do something differently

Now the first prize, now the booby prize

A cuddly toy, a teasmade, a set of crockery

You force yourself to remember each event

You want to justify your decisions

You feel so cold, so very cold

It's all so vivid, ultraHD, virtually reality

You suppress a scream

Ghosts cannot scream

You admit defeat

You stop struggling

You close your eyes

Game over

First Love

A poem from 2018

When they were young her kisses sent him into a trance

His mind went blank, an hour passed

His thoughts he couldn't recall

Now they are old he feels nothing at all

His heart is cold, his mind is bored

He spends the time thinking of football