Pigeons  

Friday, October 31, 2008

I like the idea of playing around with form as much as playing with meaning. This is taken from a song I am writing for a music project, and to fit as a sonnet, the chorus has been removed. There has been some discussion surrounding whether or not the poem reinforces the connotation of prostitutes being 'vermin' and so this one may have to be edited more carefully before submission. 


Sonnet + 1 verse: Pigeons

Open mouths – twenty pounds
Walk the road where sex is sold
And see the pigeons lining up
along the street.

It takes the night to brave the flight
Bloody nose and open toes
All the dirty birds are out here
on the street.

Silence drips from their lips
Splashed white clothes is what they chose
Oh you can see that pigeons hang out
on this street.

Tear stained face, fall from grace
No-one knows and it shows
as cars mount the pavement
on the street

Pidgin patter, what’s the matter?
There’s one less pigeon tonight upon the street.

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Little Isosceles  

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Little Isosceles

When I’m gone
they'll call you
my long
suffering partner
and wonder how

you ever could stand it.
But they won't know
about the symphony
of our mutual snores.
Or the nights

when you’re asleep
and I trace
little isosceles
on your skin.

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Frieda  

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Quarter sonnet: Frieda at noon

The watched kettle shrieks noisily.
Frieda has a lump in hers.
Silently, we debate:
What next?




This week we were set the task of responding poetically to the Ted hughes poem 'Full Moon and Little Frieda'. Only the title really responds to it, but it got me writing, which I can't complain about! The poem is shaped to resemble a sugar bowl to increase the ambiguity.

You might be interested to see the original Hughes poem, so I have put this below:



Full Moon and Little Frieda
 
 A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket -
And you listening.
A spider's web, tense for the dew's touch.
A pail lifted, still and brimming - mirror
To tempt a first star to a tremor.

Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm
wreaths of breath -
A dark river of blood, many boulders,
Balancing unspilled milk.
'Moon!' you cry suddenly, 'Moon! Moon!'

The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work
That points at him amazed. 

Ted Hughes
 

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Puppet Show  

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Puppet Show

Don't be late today.
See the stormy weather;
don't let it block your way.
You have things to do today.

Broken bird in the road
made us stop and stare today.
Broken bones and broken wings
starting their slow decay.

Cause their wings,
they are tied to our strings.
They are tied to our strings today.
Their wings are tied to our strings
and they'll never
get away.

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Oranges are not the only fruit  

Oranges are not the only fruit

I'll cover myself
in jaffa cakes
'cause I know a girl who
likes them.

Every time
she looks at me
a part of me
melts;
quicker than
the thin disc
inside.

Oranges
are not the only fruit.

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You Happened  

Monday, October 27, 2008

You Happened

Dressed in knowledge and suffering;
your face was one I'd known before.
Seen on the corners of winter streets;
impressed in the chalk face by the shore.

I'd been searching for a tourniquet;
someone to help stem my blood's flow.
You came along with that broken smile
eyes that told me nothing about all you know.

You said you'd always loved the way
two people's bodies could fit.
I sat there in silence – preoccupied
with mine and its deficit.

I ask that face that’s everywhere I see;
What would happen if you’d never happened to me?

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The silent sonnet  

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The silent sonnet














                                                aching chasm



When I introduced this poem to my seminar group, there was much discussion about whether it is meant to be read aloud or not. The word slient being used implies that it should. The idea of the blank space is for the reader to bring their own interpretation to the poem. Silence can say so much when it says nothing at all. I have used the 'ch' 'k' sound for aching and chasm to echo each other to signify how silence can be resounding.

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