Divertimentos

Midwinter visit to Blenheim Palace Butterfly House

2012-02-09T15:12:00.002Z

How well you flutter your wings
     Magnificent butterfly!
  I see you and I want to cry
    Because I long for Spring

============================

   ¡Bate tus alas cual fiera,
      Magnífica mariposa!
   Al verte mi alma solloza
porque aún no es primavera

Sebo de Culebra

2012-02-09T11:51:00.002Z

Ya no me vendas sebo de culebra
No me cuentes historias de piratas
No pongas más veneno para ratas
Erradica mejor la mala hierba

Ya no me embrolles en pobres esquemas
No me llenes la tutuma con canciones
Déjame manejar mis emociones
No trates de venderme tu sistema

Tu sebo de culebra ya se quema
En la hoguera de las desilusiones -
Su luz me guía, triste, a mi destino

Tus historias también en la fogata
Alimentan las llamas que me guían
Por este valle gris en que camino

Preparing for Spring

2012-01-31T10:26:00.001Z

Xmas 2011 096, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

A tree solemnly left behind another year
Amidst the lines the plough has drawn on the hill side
A tree that seems to sail up the time tide
Never too far from me, never too near

I look upon the lonely tree and fill with fear
That I should find one day I must preside
Over a barren field on a hill side
Bereft and left by those I now hold dear

Shaking my head, I take a firm step
and let the ground beneath me set me free
and take me back to now, and to my loved ones

Seasons will come, farmers will sow and harvest
I will again walk by this solemn tree
But never more will I find it so poignant.

Your first Kindle

2012-01-14T08:17:00.000Z

Reading your holiday spend
Without having to be sorry
That your books will fill a lorry
Just for a single weekend

Journey 3

2011-12-09T10:07:00.001Z

The sight of home cheers me up
After the heartache of this week:
Another field I must now seek
To till, and plough, and harvest up

Journey 2

2011-12-09T10:02:00.001Z

Closing a chapter / is opening another
Raising a question for our earlier answer
How I got here? Why I did or didn't bother?
What's the way back? Is it all over?

The soothing sight of Manchester does calm
my troubled heart's a-rythmic beat:
Who would have thought I'd find my balm
in its well-known, rain-sodden streets?

Journey 1

2011-12-09T10:01:00.001Z

I've got a scar to heal
Skin to harden
Seeds of Spring to put into my garden
and a need to conceal
The ravages of winter on the landscape

2011-08-09T09:14:00.001Z

First they torched a police van
and I didn't speak out because, well, they had it coming, didn't they

Then they burnt the posh fashion store
and I didn't speak out because I never liked their prices anyway

Then they looted the local cornershop
and I didn't speak out - I do my shopping out of town, late evenings and weekends

Now they are burning my car - I'm sure you know the rest

Divertimento

2011-07-16T22:42:00.002Z

l 020, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

I found a bit of belief
and then a noble pursuit
for which I needed no suit
- and that was quite a relief

Cenotaph

2011-07-13T23:56:00.002Z

001, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

The power cables overhead
Under the blue sky and broken clouds of mid July
And people on the platform
Going to work - like me
Old men in suits, young things with fold-up bikes
From a place called "Long Buckby" - you couldn't make it up
The tiny-print timetable displayed on the far wall
Too far now, too small for my struggling eyes
'Stumbling in' - Suzie Quattro whispers in my ear
Too right - stumbling in, rolling along
going with the flow, hitting the ground running
For somebody's tomorrow
We gave our today.

Longing & belonging

2011-07-13T23:52:00.002Z

005 (2), a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

A dull ache, a niggling, lingering pain
The memory of you causes me to pause
To you my heart now goes
From a commuter train

Cosmetic

2011-06-28T22:27:00.006Z

115, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

In beauty bathed, and in Dove white silk bubbles
Her thoughts meander to a distant paradise
Of golden sands and blue sea water
For her and for her little daughter
As described in Ok! magazine
But all these dreams remain on hold
While the train takes her to her next appointment
To sell cosmetics to well known retailers
And pay for the latest Mastercard bill

Excuses

2011-06-28T22:12:00.004Z

035, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

They live in me like a cup of coffee
These particles of reason
Reading me the Articles of War
The King's Terms
The Riot Act
They don't know where I'm going
But know well where I've been
In my ear
The Whys, the Why-nots
And the what-would-have-beens

Haiku

2011-06-28T21:52:00.002Z

southport airshow 053, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

La nave se estremece
La linea de la costa
Turbulencia

Vals de amor

2011-06-07T09:09:00.002Z

Photo0545, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

Estoy loquito por ti
Por tu amor voy loco loco
Por ti mi razón perdí
Por ti mi cerebro es moco
Mas no es tan sólo de pan
Que el hombre vive: también
Se encuentra en el amor bien
Y razón en el afán

Divertimento & prayer

2011-05-09T11:40:00.002Z

Red Sunset, a photo by hyperboreal on Flickr.

Que no me olvide de ti
Y, al contemplar tu sen~al,
Aulle como animal
Bajo el cielo carmesi!

Amour Parisien

2011-05-05T10:04:00.003Z

paris 007, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

Como me gusta
Que seas robusta

Tus largas pestanas
Como negras persianas

Ocultan tu alma
Me roban la calma

Me llevan al cielo
Me tiran al suelo

The Letter

2011-05-05T10:01:00.002Z

027, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

How angry I felt
When I received the letter
Rejected by machine
Does not feel better

Divertimento Primaveral

2011-05-05T09:57:00.002Z

monica fairy 13 apr 11 001, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

Naci con la primavera
Una manana de mayo
Mi madre sufrio un desmayo
Cuando me vio salir fuera

Divertimento floral

2011-05-05T09:52:00.002Z

008, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

Angelica, tus amores
Son menuda pesadilla
Son un sembrar en buhardillas
Pensando cosechar flores

Ebbs out life's little day

2011-05-03T12:43:00.002Z

l 005, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

You are a remnant of a distant past
The shining sign of a forgotten time
The light you give is all the more sublime
Since we both know it isn't meant to last

Hunter Gatherer

2011-04-20T13:47:00.003Z

011, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

I am quite happy and content
To eat what I want to eat
But my joy is not complete
When you are not in my tent

So, listen to this lament
I pen while I grill my meat:
My heart struggles to beat
Too far away from your scent

Blossom shower

2011-04-01T10:51:00.002Z

Blossom shower, a photo by BinaryApe on Flickr.

Is there a sight in Spring more awesome
Than a tall tree covered in blossom?

Is there a sweeter sound in Spring
Than that of birds that cheerily sing?

But then the thick fat drops of rain
Tap loud against my weary brain

And blackened clouds cover the sky -
To another job I must apply...

The Holy Island

2011-03-31T09:49:00.002Z

076, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

How the wind blows, the clouds
How they all sail away, the world
How it carries on spinning, the oceans
How they return my driftwood to the shore.

El regreso de la Montaña

2011-03-30T13:28:00.002Z

paris 088, a photo by cocosolis on Flickr.

Oh Montaña Espaciana
Hacia el cielo me llevas
Y me das en tus pruebas
Las verdades Cristianas

Haiku

2011-02-15T12:01:00.001Z

PC070002
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

The municipal park
A dusting of snow
is winter's parting shot

Big Society

2011-01-26T10:58:00.004Z

DSC01556.jpg
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Ya no espero, con angustia, tu rechazo
Ya no temo como un niño tu condena:
Ahora soy un eslabon de esa cadena
que te mantiene erguido, huevonazo!

Gift

2011-01-13T17:41:00.002Z

028
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

Give me the gift of alcohol
and thus obscure my senses
That gift's worth more than the hollow gong
of a thousand present tenses.

Lullabye Da Da

2011-01-11T16:44:00.001Z

031
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

My darling went over the ocean
My darling went over the sea
My darling caused such a commotion
When she fell down from the tree

New year

2011-01-08T01:51:00.003Z

Picture 035
Originally uploaded by cocosolis

The tram that gently sways from side to side
The street, still and quiet in the snow
In this stranger's heart a city grows
and so I dream of Manchester with pride.

Divertimento, seasonal if a bit naff

2010-12-09T11:15:00.010Z

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

2010-10-20T12:42:00.001Z

007
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

2010-10-09T14:27:00.007Z

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

2010-10-09T14:05:00.004Z

126
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...

2010-09-07T09:44:00.005Z

DSCF3316 small
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

2010-08-18T11:27:00.004Z

069
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

2010-08-16T22:59:00.003Z

Mar08 001
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

2010-08-13T23:11:00.001Z

146
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

2010-08-09T09:49:00.001Z

045 (2)
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

2010-07-06T12:45:00.000Z

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

2010-06-28T14:12:00.001Z

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

2010-06-27T18:47:00.002Z

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

2010-06-15T10:27:00.002Z

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

2010-05-29T23:12:00.003Z

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

2010-05-28T23:47:00.004Z

may08B 019
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

2010-05-28T23:34:00.007Z

Aug06 024
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.

Haiku de pucusana

2010-05-20T21:21:00.003Z

Barcas; aire de mar

Una gaviota

Busca al pez escondido

Otro poema de amor agricola

2010-04-27T20:33:00.002Z

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

2010-04-02T21:46:00.005Z

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

2010-03-31T08:39:00.003Z

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

2010-03-31T08:03:00.003Z

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

27731

2010-03-25T11:19:00.007Z

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...

2010-03-19T15:55:00.004Z

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

2010-03-17T14:56:00.001Z

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

2010-03-17T12:22:00.003Z

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

2010-03-12T12:00:00.007Z

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

2010-03-10T08:02:00.000Z

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

2010-03-09T14:16:00.001Z

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

2010-03-09T12:19:00.005Z

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

2010-03-03T09:11:00.003Z

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

2010-03-03T08:34:00.003Z

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

2010-02-27T00:27:00.004Z

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

2010-02-03T12:54:00.004Z

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

2010-01-17T00:58:00.007Z

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

Empty Chair - an over-the-top verse

2009-12-18T11:29:00.004Z

The empty chair covers my day
with a cold blanket of snow
My day begins thus on a low
My mind distracted, far away

The emtpy chair: when I walk past
and see today you will not make
the journey in, all I forsake
except my longing, so work comes last

Never before an empty chair
lowered a man's spirits so
his soul became a darkened pit

Please do dispell this deep despair
and make all gloom and sadness go:
Come into work, and sit on it

Another Divertimento Naive

2009-12-16T08:28:00.005Z

I sing my song with the first light
Of frosty mornings in December
and in my song you I remember
O, Rose of England, fair, red and bright!

Divertimento Naive

2009-12-09T15:53:00.003Z

Star that shines in the blue sky
A frosty evening of December
Please tell my Love that for her I
Will always Christmas time remember

In Town / At Night

2009-12-09T00:13:00.004Z

Thus suddenly the door opened and I
Took the seven steps into your lair
How many nights of vigil and despair
In one sweet moment were turned into delight

Seven steps and one furious embrace
My lion heart of body and soul demanded
To shelter you my arms and chest expanded
To stay inside you - in our love's space

String Concerto

2009-11-27T14:26:00.003Z

Fresh
Finely strummed
Harmonious chord
Disguised the dagger
That pierces the heart
Then the orchestra joins in

A change of heart

2009-11-06T13:30:00.007Z

Now wherever I turn I hear your name
My eyelids up or down, your face I see
Nothing I taste but your imagined kiss

And yet I can but only tell you this
No matter how much my heart will ache:
In choosing you it made a grave mistake

So fare thee well, and take with you the sounds
and sights and taste that I now hold so dear

So take your leave, you who my heart has crowned

Never look back, nor ever shed a tear

Dives & Lazarus

2009-10-28T16:09:00.006Z

Coffee no longer does the trick
Nor exotic herbal teas
Nor red bush from the Cape

What this wretch wants amounts to more
Than food scraps from your table
More than a drop of water on my tongue
More than dogs to lick the sores of my heart

But I digress

Coffee no longer does the trick
My days are a continuous dream
My nights an enfeverished vigil
My journeys on this earth are all this side of pointless

VER Haiku

2009-10-28T09:42:00.001Z

Outside, the autumn rain
Inside, I press a button
and leap into the future

Transformers

2009-10-26T16:10:00.001Z

Un corazon anhelante
Angelica, tu transformas
Y asi mantienes constante
mi amor, en su escrita forma

Divertimento

2009-10-26T09:48:00.003Z

Duele mi mano de escribir canciones
Duelen mis ojos de mirar al cielo
Duelen mis pies por aferrarse al suelo
- Este pechito pide vacaciones!

At 5pm

2009-10-22T23:07:00.004Z

You take your leave - my heart stops

If only for a tick or two

You pack it in and travel home

and I am left

Thinking of you

Firefight

2009-10-20T10:54:00.005Z

"serán ceniza, mas tendrá sentido"

This cruel organ my blood pumps
barely contained inside my chest -
It gives my mind no break or rest:
Sensible Thoughts my blood does trump

This heart of mine, now set on fire
Set in its ways, obstinate furnace,
Its empty warmth little can earn us -
Its glow that's fuelled by desire

And yet I feel your eyes ignite
The blood that runs within my veins -
A swollen river in the night

My flesh will yet withstand the pain
That may my mind stand and fight
Against the might of my heart's reign

Piadosa diosa

2009-10-02T15:06:00.000Z

Angelica, ten piedad
y el corazon no me quemes
No permitas que blasfeme
Oh diosa de oscuridad

Angelica, se piadosa
del cielo dame los bienes
que tu en tus ojos los tienes
Oh nocturna y bella diosa

No me trates como extran~o
Criatura celestial

Ven a comer de mi mano
Aunque sea de mortal

Harvest time

2009-10-02T14:57:00.001Z

How much I long to hold your hand
while August clouds fly overhead
and skies ignite in gray and red
blurring the line of sea and land

How much I long to hold your hand
and be to fertile landscapes led
to go from earth to wheat to bread
under the warmth of summer's sun

Eclipse

2009-10-02T14:43:00.001Z

The shadow of your beauty obscures the Sun
but I, a mere mortal, would not know:
your beauty itself projects a clear glow
and fills with light the path on which I run

The garden

2009-09-24T08:25:00.004Z

The things I care about are not that hard

to find: they roam around

the garden on sunny days, scattering

my thoughts - these thoughts themselves, you understand

can be seen scattered on the pages

filled with my words. I care about

the words and thoughts and those who scatter them

among the grass and flower beds, that is

around the entire garden.

Llanganuco 1988

2009-09-10T10:16:00.007Z

The narrow road, the oppresive valley
The stream that cuts its course through it
Wedged between boulders

in almost constant shade
Dwarfed by snow-covered peaks that touch the sky
All light from Sun or Moon reflected in them

And then, like a gem of absolute beauty
An emerald lake of icy and quiet
Waters that kiss the shores adorned
By no more than a few twisted trees
Dust from the road and boulders
Close to the waters' edge

Vision

2009-09-04T09:24:00.000Z

Here comes the storm with soothing thunder
The drops of rain awake my senses
Alas, they also obscure my lenses

Summer haiku

2009-08-12T15:31:00.000Z

The long uneven grass
A gust of wind
Ruffles my world's own feathers

Limerick of the senses

2009-07-29T11:12:00.002Z

I know a lady from Crewe
who likes to smell her own poo:
she can tell by the smell
whether "everything's well"
when she's eaten a curry
or two.

Ode to my laptop

2009-07-27T09:22:00.006Z

O sweet laptop! O sweet and lovely laptop
That sits atop my table on kitchen cooling racks
To try to compensate for your shortcomings

The fact you overheat
because you are old and work will not replace you
until the beancounters say that you've reached ROI point
That you have peaked in your usefulness to us and a new model
can be contemplated. O laptop, my love
The new model will not be as understanding of my needs
No more putting the kettle on and making coffee
While you boot up or the browser opens
No more having a sandwich while SAP loads and purchase orders
can be released into the wild like snakes raised in captivity

But with lower productivity.

O sweet laptop! So sweet and lovely you freeze up
like the Artic and one needs a pickaxe
to make you once again responsive:
If you were trully mine I would'ave given you
a memory upgrade and a reconditioned battery
But you are - alas! - just leased processing power

So I can work from home and reach homeostasis

So I can watch my kids during the summer

- the so-called work-life balance.

Drought

2009-07-16T09:00:00.017Z

The grass had gone all yellow. There my mother
watering can in hand tended to her roses
while we all sat outside, that hottest of all summers
in July 1990. My grandfather
held in his hands a copy of the Telegraph.

"When ever will this drought end" whinged my mother
conversationally, and added "it will kill all my flowers"

"Drought? Drought?" said Grandad
"What do you know about droughts?"

We felt a story coming, the war and all that, Monty
and the Eight Army and his years of service.
"A drought is when you find dead livestock
on the side of the road; When you open a tap
and it coughs up some dust with hissing sound"

"A drought is when you have to cut a reed
and suck water out of a shithole
in the dry river bed"

He went back to his paper. Mother summoned me and sent me

inside with the can: "Go and fetch some more water,

be a darling" she said. We were sitting outside.

It was such a hot summer.

Cut through the gloom

2009-06-29T13:35:00.001Z

Light up a candle in an empty room
The darkness goes, but not the gloom

Brujula

2009-06-05T06:14:00.001Z

Ya la rosa geometrica señala
con sus ribones nauticos la ruta:
oh hieratica y magnetica batuta
que adorna, que dirige, que apuntala!

Landscape

2009-05-15T10:54:00.001Z

Now the strong winds are diying down
The leaves off trees have fallen
The rivers with the rain are swollen,
waters gone murky, and almost copper-brown

Dusk Haiku

2009-04-08T13:36:00.001Z

The first shining star
A gust of evening wind
The clouds, so high and far

Doce cascabeles...

2009-04-02T23:17:00.003Z

Con sus botas de vaquero
y sus esbeltas calancas
hace resonar el suelo
al contonear de sus ancas

Atmospheric haiku

2009-03-03T09:48:00.002Z

The gathering storm
Tap! The barometer
awoken from its dream

Vereda tropical

2009-02-09T11:05:00.003Z

Sway in the wind like a palm tree
Laden with coconuts or papayas
Tough, broad brown leaves
flying like flags of nature

when the storm blows
Salt in the air gives taste
to your sharp cheekbones
Drizzle from the waves gives shine
to those eyes of yours
And I whisper, like the wind,
sweet nothings in your ear.

Feb 1975

2009-02-09T11:04:00.001Z

En mi nin~ez, en largos veranos
Aspire el aire puro de mis calles
largas horas pateando la pelota
sobre el asfalto, o persiguiendonos
unos a otros en rojas
y verdes bicicletas
Tirandonos piedritas
y huyendo de perros guardianes
en barrios en construccion
y chacras aledan~as

Snowman

2009-02-04T00:33:00.003Z

Look, this is when we built

a little snowman:

two black buttons

for eyes, carrot, pipe

red plastic sheet for scarf

red silly felt hat

It was such a cold winter

the one of 2009

we couldn't but come and play

not knowing if it would happen

again, anytime soon

The snow melted

but not the memories

smuggled then as pieces of future

in four-megapixel pictures

EMPOWERMENT

2009-01-20T13:22:00.001Z

The sun shines mockingly outside my front door
Slippery ice covers the pavement
- the walk to school just got more interesting

Musn't forget to ring pest control services
Report that garden rat
I know it's only one but my neighbour too has seen it

At work the powers that be await to quiz me
None too happy with my results
But we don't call them that, we call them 'outcomes'
And I tread on the ice as if walking on egg shells
Telling my children 'be careful! Don't run off lest you should fall!'
That'll really make us late
and earn us a chat with the head teacher
and our name on the register,
please sign here and here

Then I think of the rat lurking deep in my garden

Job application

2009-01-16T14:24:00.003Z

In a matter of minutes a form is completed
Add a few characters, like in a soup of letters
So much I have learned or I mime from my betters
But all I have is this form that I fill in, embittered

To a toilet seat

2009-01-15T14:44:00.005Z

O toilet seat, I took no notice
while you strained under my weight
and my whole family's, day in, day out
Sunrise to sunset and later still

O toilet seat, now you have broken
and in your fancy design your little revenge
unfolds in a miriad of fruitless visits and phone calls
to high street retailers and trade establishments
who cannot help me find a replacement
to do your dirty work and bear the mass
of two adults and three children
day in, day out, sunrise to sunset and into the wee hour
up and down and up again
until your fancy cushioned hinges give up the ghost
and I get on the phone or the car to resolve
this agonising problem I hadn't seen coming
when I went to B&Q on another cold morning
and a fancy bathroom suite I scooped in the sales.

Paracas, the Cathedral

2008-11-29T00:32:00.002Z

Paracas, the Cathedral, a rock formation
Stood like a monument on the beach
One day the earthquake came
Nobody was expecting it

Paracas, the Cathedral, an arch of rock over the sea
Then nobody had much sleep to lose
Or any need for innefective icons.

Yellowing leaves

2008-09-26T10:12:00.000Z

Yellowing leaves
Post piled up and unopened
Someone has gone on holiday