Shiver

me walking up the parade

flinch for tomorrow

for every next day

move without watching

he stares at the sun

rest may just follow

when all this is done

(14.09.97 While travelling in a bus home from work in Vancouver, Canada I passed a naked man with long hair and a full beard walking down the street with a pained expression on his face. I thought of him and wrote this poem)

The unguided hand

Walking with you

This evening

Morning

And still

Everyone is different

But

We are all afraid

Of being blamed

Most, all the time

Knowing we all love to take our parts

From the crowd

A private bureaucracy

Sold off in separate lots

Chipped away from a big ole block

Now running separately in function

They found one piece depended on the other

So we're trying to glue it all back again

(Written 14.10.96 while working for Signaling Control UK that was one of several privatised companies spun out from the British Railways)

Brains left the building

After reaching a critical mass

The intelligence was replaced by rhetoric

And somewhere along the line, equilibrium

Maintaining the status quo became sound

It was decided, there's nothing else to learn

(Written 14.10.96 while backpacking in York, England)

Small room

Small door

Old lamp

Large shade

Room, real I think and clean

Past lingers

Cool and warm

Another door leads in to the mirror

And our reflections before bed

It rains outside

And there is the smell of breakfast

Tenderness

Do you own your thoughts if required?

Can you purchase my suggestions?

I already sold that one you asked me about

Just the other day

Under foot, in bag

I hold the thoughts still tenderly,

Now they are in my hand

In this noisy world

All

I

Want

To

Hear

Is

The

Sound

Of

My

Voice

(15.05.1997)

You should not see me

1. You should not even try

2. It will change our relationship

3. You and I

4. Meaning should not reside from where

5. The words have been spoken

6. But simply as words that are there

7. As they are and remain

8. Long after the breath that wrote them

9. Here

10. For those born after

11. With a meeting

12. Things always change

13. Doubts and pretences

14. Get between you and your friends

(first written 05.05.1996 and reworked 18.08.2009)

Covenant partner

1. Healing service, a world outreach

2. For a dollar a day

3. Already seventy million subscribers

4. To online live streaming

5. Watch for our new bilingual affiliates

6. Do you have prayers needing answers?

7. Send them to us

8. Your first month's subscription is free

9. Tune in every Sunday

10. Place your hands on the monitor

11. Receive your blessing

12. Parishioners

13. You can be stronger

14. May your demons be gone

(first drafted 24.03.1996, revised 16.08.2009)

The only day

1. The decision to make, this time

2. Unknown consequences to be

3. The directions taken

4. Destinations located

5. This moment being

6. The only time a unique

7. Happening

8. Done in this way

9. As natural progression

10. No logic or explanation

11. Simply acceptance

12. No perfection required

13. Just listening and action

14. The kind voice spoken

(first written 25.03.1996, retranslated 16.08.2009)

Whopping great big

1. Fire to keep us warm this night

2. Surrounded by a conical canvas

3. Having time described above

4. The day brought some sunshine at last

5. The size of flame increased and still

6. We enjoy the glow

7. Even though time for sleeping we are

8. Aware

9. The rest will be described above

10. Three times over the same dimension of fun

11. Enveloped by the moment

12. Unshaking the past

13. Momentarily realising they are truly alive

14. In this whopping great big smoking pipe

(Loose recollections from a night in a Inuit tipi sleeping with an open fire, Easter Day on Salt Spring Island, British Columia, Canadia - 07.04.1996)

Sympathy cards: packet of ten

1. Wrapped and sold in bulk as

2. Economies of scale are due

3. One for now perhaps and others in store

4. Now sorrowed prepared

5. To offer condolences

6. On sale at local

7. Retirement homes this offer is sure not to

8. Last

9. The shelves do not choose their tenants

10. But bulk bought cards

11. Packaged and sold

12. One packet should last for a while

13. Who buys sympathy en mass?

14. One saving time would need none!

First written on 11th April 1996, stemmed from a conversation with Jean

Two seats free

1 Crowded bus and yet here are these two seats

2 Free near a blotched, gray haired old man

3 Exhibiting for the people this day

4 From his three seats in exile

5 Repeating

6 Words, smells and phrases too loudly

7 Drawing whispers and pouting disdain
8 Rearranging his hair that's not there

9 He continues to say the same words over again

10 Speaking in utter confusion

11 At how a woman can buy both stockings and shoes

12 And wear out the stockings leaving high heels looking new

13 "I just don't understand it!"

14 "Why are they different?"

(reworked from 23.03.96 poem written in Vancouver, Canada)