Poems Published on Websites
Poems in published books/eBooks—some viewable—can be seen below by following this link.
The catchment (published by riverbabble)
I struggle up through tangled trees to find
A narrow path and wall of rough-hewn stone
Guarding a watercourse that must yet wind
Between the hillside and a knoll alone….
Read more >>>
The deniers (published by Apparition Lit)
It’s just brute force, they said,
When Deep Blue performed trillions of calculations
To unseat Gary Kasparov;
It’s not intelligent, they said,
When AlphaGo Zero taught itself, in days….
Read more >>>
Blockchain world (published by Bewildering Stories)
Hoping for a better world with Blockchain,
With no bankers, banks or authority,
Where even government must cede its reign….
Read more >>>
What it will be like (published by Bewildering Stories)
Whether by inspired design,
Or a utility going rogue
Or, in a hard disk somewhere,
Strands of code enfolding others….
Read more >>>
With one bound (published by Spank the Carp, Pond 41)
Captain Rogers and First Mate Sue
Lead the count-down – Five, Four, Three, Two…
We’re off! – And never mind the Gs!
Inertia-less, we’re at our ease.
The solar system flashes by
(Don’t ask me how or even why)….
Read more >>>
Reflections on entering Oxford’s covered market (published by Imprimo)
I cross the narrow threshold in search of something,
Something half-remembered across half a lifetime –
The aroma of baking bread on an autumn morning,
Tinged by the reek of fish from the monger’s stall.
Imprimo is unavailable; read the poem here >>>
Prove you are not a robot (published by Eyedrum Periodically)
We all get asked to do this
When transacting online….
Read more >>>
We won’t see them (published by Eyedrum Periodically)
We’ve been searching the stars
For signs of alien civilisation,
And a few times now
We thought we’d found them….
Read more >>>
Reflections in a Lisbon street café (published by Riverbabble)
Two Africans approach my table, pause,
And, smiling, offer me trinkets….
Read more >>>
Berlin tram (published by Riverbabble)
Spurning the damp grasses of the Tiergarten –
Weak, divided, faltering in the west….
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Michelangelo and his David (published by Eyedrum Periodically)
Front foot poised, back hip braced, taut sinews strung,
Yet balanced he stands, and he stands alone;
Sling carelessly over one shoulder slung,
The fingers that dandle the deadly stone
Flaccid….
Read more >>>
The Statue (published by Eyedrum Periodically)
At first she joked about her errors,
Like the time she dialled a friend
With the remote, realised it, and laughed;
Then as self-awareness faded….
Read more >>>
A child in Oporto (published by Riverbabble)
“Ai!” The boy sees the tap is on again;
He calls; his friends come running up to play;
They cool themselves, pretend to spurt the spray
Over some nearby gently dozing men….
Read more >>>
Wanchai Post office (published by Riverbabble)
White-washed, renovated, restored and quaint,
It perches beside the modern colossus
That holds its successor….
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Creative (published by All the Sins)
These days,
With robots and AI
Taking over everything,
We are urged to be creative –
A sort of last refuge for humanity
In the dance studios and theatres….
Read more >>>
IoT (published by Spank the Carp)
The thing that strikes me
About the Internet of Things
Is that there’s going to be
An awful lot of computing power
In an awful lot of things
Doing awfully little….
Read more >>>
Leda and the swan, in a corporate context (published by The Wild Word)
A sudden chill: his blank corporate face
Confronts the trembling girl, her worth is weighed –
The attending minion himself afraid:
She has just an hour to vacate her place….
Read more >>>
Azar’s (published by Pankhearst)
‘There’s a nice café over there,
The lady said,
And because she was nice,
We thought we’d try it….
Pankhearst is unavailable; read the poem here >>>
Goal (published by Here Comes Everyone)
The cry that thrills the eager crowd
Brings anguish to the keeper’s heart;
The shot that makes their striker proud
Just means our keeper’s failed his part…
Read more >>>
Too tough (published by The Were Traveler)
I hear the daughter say,
“Try this piece, mother –
It’s tender, full of iron,
It will keep you young…”
Read more >>>
Hard-forked (published by The Were Traveler)
If things are looking a little blurry today –
Better hope that it’s your hangover…
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Nearing the end in an English winter (published by Ealain)
Towards the end of the year
The sky is moulded of steel and bronze,
Dull clouds hang heavy –an inverted bowl
That presses down on a world
Drained of colour…
Ealain is down — poem>>> (opens in a new tab)” link available here >>>
Poems in Published Books/eBooks
The things he carried (published in ‘Baggage and Old Things’ by Robocup)
He carries them, accumulated
over half a lifetime.
Some the inevitable hurts of childhood –
the cut hand (now a pale scar)
from grasping that barbed wire fence….
Read more >>>
A goalkeeper’s lament (published in ‘The Poeming Pigeon: Sports’ by The Poeming Pigeon)
You’re on the ground, turned despairingly back,
The ball’s in the net, no doubt about that,
There’s the defender who tripped and fell flat….
Read more >>>
Winter sun (‘published by Halcyon Days, Issue 8)
The rising sun tints rose the tower’s crest
Then like a brightly shining wave it sweeps
Over the hillside to the place I rest
And rouses thoughts of home that my heart keeps.
Published anthology, page 14 >>>
That’ll show them (‘Defy’ anthology published by Robocup)
Up theirs! Right up, I say!
Those faceless bureaucrats in Brussels,
The toffs in Whitehall,
The buggers in the City milking us dry,
The gay-rights-activisting, lesbian-loving Londoners….
Published anthology >>>
Tavistock Square Garden (Issue 8 magazine published by Halcyon Days)
Why do I weep as I enter this place?
Is it the autumn sun between the trees
Casting light and shadow across my face,
Making my eyes smart in the sudden breeze…?
Published anthology, page 29 >>>
Ageing in place (Volume 3, Home, published by Pocket Change)
It was quintessential Hong Kong
When I arrived thirty years ago –
The staff, young, smart, competent,
Chopping buns on the dresser.…
Published anthology, page 13 >>>
The yacht (published by Halcyon Days)
A port nearby secures a weathered yacht
That in its youth ranged freely overseas,
Now ringed by walls of stone it takes its ease
Knowing capsize at sea won’t be its lot….
Read more – eBook Halcyon Days Issue 6, page 7 >>>
Restless (published by Halcyon Days)
Is winter’s lifeless purity now past?
Does spring trail her green dress over the hills,
Stir the leaves to life with her scented breath,
Make the boughs sigh as they burst into bud?
Read more – eBook Halcyon Days Issue 5, page 17 >>>
Venice day (published by Halcyon Days)
The most serene republic greets the dawn
With domes and towers rising from the mist…
Read more – eBook Halcyon Days Issue 5, page 17 >>>
Sudoku (published by NOUS Magazine)
Sudoku’s really an addictive game,
Once it’s got hold of you it won’t let go;
You finish one round and it’s just the same,
You’ve started the second before you know…
Published anthology >>>
Something he said (published in Love and Marriage by Leannan)
It was something he said – or might have said,
She’s not sure which – that resounds in her head,
Something half-whispered, half-heard but quite clear,
Something unsaid, but unsaid with a leer…
Read more – eBook Leannan Issue 2, page 95 >>>
Kaitak in winter (published in Three Drops from the Cauldron Midwinter Special)
A dry plain, building-rimmed,
At the mountain’s foot:
Dust lies on the concrete,
On the rubbish and bleached grass…
Read more – eBook, page 25 >>>
Gone (published in Lovers Lost, Leannan Issue 3)
A loving smile, the captivating face
Of one long gone, one adored
With youth’s unsure faith – now returned
And beckoning with such inviting glance?
Read more – eBook Leannan 3, page 11 >>>
Patience of the earth (published in Mother Earth, by Whirlwind Magazine)
There was a time when a hill need no more
Than slip its rain-drenched cloak to send the shacks
Sliding in loose red mud along the tracks…
Read more – eBook, page 18 >>>
A goalkeeper’s lament (published by Tigershark Publishing, Issue 10)
However you try, one always gets through,
It slips through your fingers any old how
And the whole team ends up looking at you…
Read more – eBook, page 18 >>>
The dead and the living (published by Main Street Rag)
“What happens when you’re dead?”
She asked across the café table,
Looking at me reprovingly
As if I’d made a simple mistake…
Published anthology >>>
