You
Paint yourself in corners
And you
Leave so little room
To breathe
To think
To be
You.

He will take you riding in his car
He won't ask questions
Just let you hang your hair out
Like you did when you were young
He will take you places where you want to go
But where you never wanted to be
Let night time hide your memories
You wanted one more chance
To make every bad thing good
To leave you in these rougher woods
It freezes sometimes at night.

It's over my head
A pool so deep
The ground has eaten
Up the sandy bottom
Splash
Watch the light die
Watch the fish fly
I wish I
Could swim.

Roll on
Grey Cadillac
Sleek suburban crocodile
Slide through tar-seal rivers
Purring tires
Friendly winds
Ruffling faces
The muffled grunt
Of a well-fed beast
And off round the bend

Why is emptiness so heavy?

Did you give up on you somewhere?
Decide it was the thing to do
Nobody seems to care
So it's only up to you
Just a tiny little night
Kill that tiny little light
The shadows are too small to see.

Hellos are the saddest goodbyes
When you use your heart for string
To tie him up so tight
Because you are letting go
You can't just let him go

Roll your eyes to sleep
It's not a lie between the sheets
Love is measured out
Why do you murder your doubts?
It's freedom that you seek
So you won't admit you're weak

A single little night burns
Hard against the curtains
Of your smoke-damaged heart
You say you won't look back
But you've only got eyes
On the back of your head

I'm sorry if you hate me
For not letting you just sleep

Life
Too heavy
To breathe

They say
You think with your brain
But I can't think anyway
Cause my heart's not in it.

Wow

As of this post. I have posted as many poems/posts in this year alone
As I did in every single other year to date.

I would like to thank my students for inspiring be back into poetry, it's been a huge pleasure and sometimes a huge pain. But I hope I'm a slightly better person for it.

I'm sorry I couldn't be there to collect my award in person, my agent will be dropping by to pick it up right after he runs the kids to school.

Thanks heaps.

And to celebrate: A silly (lame poem)


MORNING HAS BROKEN

Morning has broken
Somebody dropped it
Making the coffee
For waking them up
I am not paying
So they can replace it
Morning has broken
It wasn’t my fault

Sweep up the pieces
And maybe try glue it
When that fails, bin it
Or blow it all up
Because it’s so useless
In small pointy pieces
Morning has broken
Like a cheap china cup

Morning has broken
Why didn’t they listen?
I told them to put it
Well out the way
I reached for the kettle
Bumped it with my elbow
Morning has broken
What a horrible day.

He held his breath
Through all these years
And prayed
One day
She'd finally come true.

I... I... I...
The hardest lie
I never left unsaid

Confusion
Is exhaustion
With his hood
Pulled low

I seem to have lost
My bubbling laughter
Have you seen it?

One of life's real pleasures
Hugging a mug in chilly fingers
Letting the violent cold leech away
And watch the prayers for a good day
Rise with the gentleness of steam.

In dreams it seemed the perfect solution
But dreams always evaporate like the real thing
Leaving a half-glass of emptiness
And shadows in a sun-tired eye

It's a small thing
A thought that slides
Between each deep breath
Hanging on like
It's the most natural thing
All the brooms dusting cobwebs
Won't shake it down
My badge of sadness

Lessons

Seeing the joy
Of small blessings
It tastes of happiness
And salt.

We all lose our slippers sometimes
And the steps are slick with frost
Prince charming isn't always on his way
Before we realise what we've lost

Midnight arrives with grim precision
Cuts like a knife through butter dreams
But the dance was so enticing
Though the dress has tattered seams

A pumpkin's all you need of freedom
When magic trickles through the air
Don't let hope slip through your fingers
Just from waiting, scrubbing stairs.

Meh

An eternity
Crouching disguised
As a syllable.

Eternal sunshine burns
I blink and look away
I couldn't see for tears
Anyway.

Please don't hide
I'm no good at hide and seek

Even if you don't believe in me
I'll never stop believing in you.

I wonder if this
Is how sand feels
As the salty waves
Leech away
And leave it
High and dry.

You could rule the world
You could rule the world
Take nothing from everyone
And rise as certain as a mountain
But you don't want that do you?
You'll show them, I know you will
Bundling up nerves and singing heart
You'll show them, so weak-strong and incomplete
And me the gravel ground beneath your feet

They say a bird in the hand
Is safer than one over head
But an arrow through the heart
Leaves you safest and dead.

she's so sad
she never even saw the lights
it's not guilt
but the way she folds her papers
or leaves them on the ground
its like losing parts of her

How do you know you're all grown up?
Do they send you a certificate?
Is there wine and flowers and cutting cakes,
Cameras and firm handshakes?

How do you know you're all grown up?
Is there an exam that you can sit?
Maybe there's a licence with your mugshot on it?
Or maybe you feel all adult for just a little bit.

How do I know when I'm all grown up?
My problem is grave you see
Of all the grown up things that I could be
I've only ever been me.

Hope always dawns
Sadness only sets

Old Hellos

Through the slippery sliding dark
A glimpse of jacket, tuft of hair
Familiar walk, Eyes drift through memories
And pull over. Cross the sleepy street
It's time to refresh old hello's.

Awkward

Silence
Plays on silken strings
No one
Says anything

Thick Skull

Language bounces
Ping-pong words
Dull cow gaze
Me

Windows of Lost Hope

Surely life was more than
Lying naked to a stranger
Watching as the glass eye
Slowly drains your soul
Blink,
Dispell the mists of dream
Dig beneath the surface scars
Hope is so much more than light,
Than filling the black hole.

Patience

Just because you find the will to wait
Doesn't mean you no longer have to.

How do you know
If your eyes see true
When your heart keeps
Getting in the way?

A Strange Goodbye

Even these tears
That you cried
Will be dry
When you get home.

Your cheeks
Will carry
A remembering
When you get home.

A heavy heart
With words unsaid
Carry to bed
When you get home.

I will carve
Your sharp name
Just the same
When I get home.

Division

Tearing up the dream
Wild dogs and savage jaws
What is left?
Hanging limp from bloodied teeth
Death.

Goodbye

I cried last night
They lit a candle to your name
They took it up and out of sight
It died beneath the quiet dark
We gathered, held by frozen hands
And shared our tears and aching hearts.

Don't worry
Trust God
He won't let her
Get lost in the dark
He will wrap her up
In arms so sure and strong
She will sleep safe, secure
Though the night cold and long

God is patient
Maybe one day
I'll be patient too

Find the one silitary place
In the roaring river
Where you can set both feet
Firmly on happiness

How can you hear the calling
With your fingers in your ears?

Camera

I could pace this hall
A thousand years
Maybe if I retrace
My weary steps
Just one more time
I could recapture the moment.

Heart

Fade from the war
It's already cut in two, You're
Punch drunk in love with a dream
On thin ice and falling through.

Inconsequential madness
The series of inevitabilites
Steps leading inexoribly
Onwards, upwards
Off a cliff.

I am going to go now
And fold myself up
Into an oragami heart
So atleast the cuts
Won't lie.

Thoughts Out

Feel it, juices swirling inside
The blender's running, mudslide
Don't slip, don't trip don't take a fall
It's only down from here, dirt and all
It tastes like success
But evaporates like dreams

Scared in embalming silence
Sounds that do you violence
Singing like a soul unleashed, released
You're not invited to the feast

Walk it all off, you can't afford the puncture
Can't afford to go off, jail door sliding shut you're
Sitting treading water, Blowing like a leaf
In a spine-freezing gale, fragile wings freed
No guilty hands, no leaden feet
But God is in the wind now
And you are sifting like the wheat

Distance

The seperation
That lets your eyes
Focus

Wait
Weight

The sun set
Like an atom bomb
And I had front row seats

The past is the dreams of the future

Lack of Wisdom

I know nothing
But the inside
Of my own shoes.

Children laugh and play in the dusty street
Adults hide in the shade and count their aching feet.

Tears

Sometimes
Tears
Are the overflow
Of a heart
Full to bursting

Sometimes
Tears
Are liquid smiles
Leaking out
Of happy eyes.

Smiles

Painted on the face
Worn on the heart