Divertimento, seasonal if a bit naff

Wind Farm Horizon
Originally uploaded by Huw Lynes

I think of you when the snow covers
The windmill farms to the North of here
I think of you and with horror discover
My heart drew warmth just from having you near.

(Photo: Wind Farm Horizon, H. Lynes)

Landscape

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Before this was a road, there was a creek -
A channel water carved into the rock.
Now in its stead stands an office block:
A vale of glass, and wood, and yellow brick.

A house not built

Picture 033
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

This was never a house, though I had all the stones
and beams of oak were ready for the task.
All I was missing was a piece of land
Which was there to be mine if I'd bothered to ask
But sooner I would have broken a bone
or severed with an axe this, my right hand.

The beams I burnt - this didn't keep me warm;
The stones I left, piled up on golden sand.

Landing

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

The vessel's keel made contact with the sand:
We disembarked, with weapons at the ready.
Our first steps were short, and not steady:
taking the measure of undiscovered land.

I'll go and freeze...

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

I'll go and freeze my bollocks off
to watch my son play on the pitch
and hope a ball will help me teach
the value of our bonds of love


I'll go get drenched in icy rain
to watch his team concede defeat
and hope he learns there's one heartbeat
- and only one - between joy and pain


I will endure the seasons' worst
to stand a-tiptoe on the white line
shouting embarrasing encouragement


and hope that when my day is over
and I'm in terminal decline
some of this care and love I can recover

Palace of my dreams

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

I built for you a palace with my dreams
To equal those erected from stone
But I wake up, and zap! the palace's gone -
To be replaced by my children's screams.

Self-portrait

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Al montar bicicleta, o en la danza
Al treparme en mi cama camarote
Me doy cuenta de que tengo de Quijote
Menos que de pobre Sancho Panza.

Gnossiennes - No. 5

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Another wave
A tearless farewell
Another wave
Memories to be shared
Another wave
The heart cannot ever tell
Another wave
If everything has been said

Invocación

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

No dejes que el barco se hunda
o el caminante tropiece:
Angélica, sé fecunda
cuando otro poema empiece!

A night's stand

Like on a vast stage, the stars of the night
take on the part of chorus in orbital procession
Upstage, downstage and then from left to right
Their tiny spark is darkness' sole concession.

Then comes the moon, sharing its borrowed light
She's hovered in the wings, just waiting for her cue
The audience will applaud at the first hallowed sight
As she enters the stage, as she comes into view.

Memories of happier times slip like grains of sand
through my hands now gone old but once so full of life
In the end only the moonlit night can hold on to its meaning

As the moon makes her exit after tonight's stand
Dawn finds me still on my seat staring at the flowers
Pondering about this being just another beginning.

The Curator

Photo0049
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

I gather things to build a universe
a single entity from pieces so diverse
I give my eyes to those who will give theirs -
Poor executor to unsuspecting heirs

My heart is set on that elusive glory
that comes from working out a story -
From giving out what others want to borrow
and know it won't be coming back tomorrow

Tesco Extra, Whittington Moor

Tesco light trails
Originally uploaded by jononon

The megastore, on stilts of steel,
resembles a rainforest house.
Inside, I am a kitchen mouse
hunting for his evening meal.

Redondilla

Picture 078
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

No es cierto que solo la lujuria
Nos une cuando todo ha fracasado
Nos une el vuelo peregrino del pasado
El recuerdo de abundancias y penurias.

Perpetual Motion

Lighthouse in Sunderland, May 09 C2C
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

 

My dream is called 'perpetual motion'

To leave behind all earthly emotion

To breathe at the same rate
Until I meet my fate
And thus crown a lifetime of devotion

Shelter in my tent

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Come shelter in my tent, I have a fire
I'll keep it going all night so that you never
Feel cold or unreasonably subject to the elements

Come shelter in my tent, I'll bring you food
Things I have caught myself in hunting trips
Or have collected around, ensnared into my traps

Come shelter in my tent, a nearby river
can give us plenty of water if we'll fetch it
So you can quench your thirst and likewise I
Can kill the enormous need I have
To have you in my tent and share your burden.

Distant Star

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Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Each drop of rain tonight peels off a layer of my skin
Each gust of wind takes with it a portion of my soul
Each time the light of a distant star flickers in the sky
I fail to forget you - rather, the memories of you come flooding back:
Small gestures, words said in conversation, thoughts shared
Like the star yonder you will have by now forgotten
But to me these memories mean new light, a point
of reference in the dark of the night.

Otro poema de amor agricola

Dame de comer hierba
Dame de comer hierba y llevame a la orilla
Dame de comer hierba y llevame a la orilla del gran rio
A la orilla del gran rio que atraviesa la llanura
Dame de comer hierba y muestrame la ternura
Que tienen los verdes pastos
Despues de las fuertes lluvias

Arte Poetica, Too

The rigours of the rhyme I will abide
But only up to a point: I know it's best
To let the fledgeling bird fly off the nest
Than to let it be cast over the side

Bridgewater House tap

PICT0041
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Feel up my water bottle one last time
You faithful mixer tap
The last twelve years
You got rid of my thirst and rinsed my dirty tea cups


Now my number is up
and the heart fills with excitement and fear
before the final leap
before the first step
the long awaited day, at last, is here

Disturbia

Defeated I stare

at the smouldering ruins

The bricks once all red and neatly stacked up
Now blue of the smoke and languishing on a pile

Defeated I stare
At the rain-sodden ground:
It was once all roofed-over
Now it lies open to the pregnant skies
Where storm clouds grow darker as they menacingly hover

Defeated I stare
At others who look upon my works
Some laugh, some show pity
There's not a single face I recognise

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Don't ask me why I love you: you are
The chosen one, the Fattened Calf
- a figure of speech, you understand.

To me you richly deserve
The most bejewelled fingers of the land

So come, let us go hand in hand
Walk a sandy Saint Anne's mile into the sunset
Knee deep into the tide, the wind
blowing, moist of sea water
and salt on our faces

I guess it comes down to a simple choice...

Achievement without compassion
Deep thinking, but little Thought
All hub, but without spokes
All energy without passion

No 'thud!' and yet some concussion
All thunder but 'Where's the lighting?'
All blows, but without the fighting
Innovation? Just follow fashion

Invisible before mocked
Shepherds that have lost their pastures
All guitars, but 'Where's the Rock?'

No doors: security locks
No work but 'breakdown structures'
No buildings, just lego blocks

Arte Poetica

To break out of my shell
and break into my soul
that is the humble goal
of every verse I pen

To ring up all the bells
of my inner church tower
and with beauty and power
prove that I can spell

And celebrate in song your cherished name
and treasure-trove in verse our exchanges
to turn them into that which never changes
(and I do mean by it more than just Fame)
That is all I pursue, and in my travel
my pen is like a mast, my words the sail.

Flybe to Southampton

The flight attendant, with bored and nasal voice
Gleefully announces the soap and perfume sale
I spy below the mountain and the vale
Their morning song defeats the engine noise

Ars Poeticae

Tip of the fountain pen that swiftly glides
Over the smooth and creamy surface of the paper
Take from my heart your ink so I may later
Look back at my own words with love and pride

Kettle

When the Sun shines, first thing I do:
To sing a new song about you
Then go downstairs and boil the kettle
and let the new day test my mettle.

Guia de caminantes

Oh quien pudiera ser el que camina
Diez pasos por delante de tu coche
Y con linterna, en medio de la noche
la noble ruta marca e ilumina

My Only Land

I'm born to roam the open paths
of many a distant, foreign shore
But far from you I'll be no more
Your country's now my only land

Luz Reflejada

Como un barril de plata, tus encantos
la luz que del Sol llega la reflejan:
brillan tan bien que la impresion me dejan
y yo la uso para escribir mis cantos.

Una letra

oh dulce letra que mi cancion domina
oh letra combativa y consonante
letra de amor, sonido que ilumina
letra que lazarilla al caminante

Weeping Willow

O Spider of your Web, o Weeping Willow
The tear that rolls down onto my pillow
The thoughts, like rain on sodden grass
The pain that's come to pass
The centre of the earth, or of the heart
In six short verses gets ripped from part to part

Folleto turistico - Madrid

Como en todas las grandes capitales
La historia ban~a, como un rio, tu orilla.
Can~onazos decoraron tus estatuas
En las que hoy el sol de enero brilla.

Y la gente se vuelca a tus aceras
Al compas sosegado del crepusculo:
La vida tiene en ti muchas esferas
Que colisionan al caer la tarde.

Drop by drop the snow shall melt

Thus drop by drop the snow shall melt

But in my mind you'll always be
Pure, universal like the Sea
In which the snow did one time dwell

Thus, drop by drop, the snow does thaw

A river forms that flows down hill
But in my heart you lie still
While your pure love I hold in awe

The snow does trickle, drop by drop
by heat converted into water
Following an eternal cycle

But like the glaciar on the rock
You in my song always endure
Until the Sun your soul unlocks