yet another
collection
of these poems
that aren’t really
poems at
all, now, are they
***
#79: spite, obduracy
the whole point of
this is that
it annoys you
***
#80: a failure of words
there is not a
clear way to
say this at all
***
#81: on pens #1
i don’t like this
pen but its
all i have left
***
#82: on pens #2
ink doesn’t flow
correctly
across the page
***
#83: on pens #3
scratching away
the paper
each word a scar
***
#84: on pens #4
left the lid off
ink’s gone dry
pen thrown in bin
***
#85: sufficiently advanced self-awareness is indistinguishable from self-pity
i do not like
who i am
even slightly
***
#86: on waking #3
my brain has shrunk
like a voles
in midwinter
***
#87: lost in a dream (variation #1)
lost in a dream
of a life
hazy, drifting
***
#88: lost in a dream (variation #2)
lost in a dream
of my own
constant failings
***
#89: lost in a dream (variation #3)
lost in a dream
of a world
unrecognised
***
#90: bird poem #1
seven egrets
in a row
still as statues
***
#91: bird poem #2
a thousand ducks
braced against
the winter wind
***
#92: bird poem #3
crow flying off
holding an
egg in its beak
***
#93: bird poem #4
the cormorant
dives below
gulls hover above
***
#94: bird poem #5
a swan’s feather
floating past
caught in the wind
***
#95: the coming end of the bird poem cycle
cat sauntering
across road
over the fence
***
#96: happiness
road black with rain
heavy boots
joy of puddles
***
#97:
the puddle fits
perfectly
in its own hole
***
#98: despair #1
made the mistake
of reading
twitter today
***
#99: despair #2
some people seem
to really
want civil war
***
#100: waiting for the doors #1
phone-lit faces
punctuate
the snaking queue
***
#101: waiting for the doors #2
cigarette smoke
matching breath
bring your own fog
***
#102: the end of the process
this little box
is full now
of written words
***
#103: a lifetime of regrets
so many words
i shouldn’t
ever have said
***
#104:
a perfect world
as silent
and still as snow
___________
Notes:
1. Written in September and October 2019
2. The three previous collections of 4/3/4 poems can be found here, here and here
3. Bird poem #3 was actually based on a misidentification
4. And it was a walnut in the crow’s beak
5. rather than an egg
6. I disocvered this yesterday, when a crow dropped a walnut on the road in front of me
7. from it’s perch on the roof of the house
8. trying to crack it
9. but failing.
10. But then I noticed that the whole road was littered with walnut shell shrapnel
11. pleasing proof of their eventual success