Oct 2016 UPDATE: I’d definitely include Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World! This isn’t a spoiler but the hero has his shadow taken from h…
Monthly Archives: October 2016
The Murder
This is a poem in memory of a girl whose life was sadly cut short. It happened near to where I live but is all too frequent a happening world-wide. (James Bowman is a counter tenor who sings Dowland (1600s) songs among others. They are very melancholic which was an acceptable and fashionable state of mind in Elizabethan times. )
Outside, the street’s festooned with police incident tape;
inside James Bowman sings “Can She Excuse My Wrongs.”
A knock at the door at midnight; routine questions
from a CID man in a suit. “Sorry for the late hour,
I’ll only keep you a minute.”A few doors away
a 22yr old girl lies unable to excuse any wrongs.
Police cars arrive (headlights dipped) and block
entry and exit to our street. They are still there
in the morning. Policemen appear shamefaced
neighbours stand at front doors unsmiling.
Each of us knows how far we’ve fallen short.
Inside, “Flow My Tears” is on repeat.
Turn Left at Orion
Another one for National Poetry Day. I used to do a fair bit of amateur astronomy so this is where this poem came from.
There was an astronomy book, titled, Turn Left at Orion!
Turn left at Orion – forty years ago
I tried my best to follow directions
but the vast empty spaces proved
difficult to navigate. The hero’s belt pointed somwhere:
go straight on at Gemini, turn right at Taurus; going by the book
I was at home splitting double stars and measuring
eclipsing binaries, but still wobbled
when I came down to earth. How I longed
to feel solid ground beneath my feet.
*
Today I wander into my back yard and greet
constant Orion again but know eventually
the pattern will change, that his belt will loosen,
that even a Greek hero will drift apart.
