Big Society

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

27731

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

Empty Chair - an over-the-top verse

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

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

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

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

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

A change of heart

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

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

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

Transformers

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

Divertimento

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer haiku

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

Limerick of the senses

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

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

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

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

Brujula

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

Landscape

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

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

Doce cascabeles...

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

Atmospheric haiku

The gathering storm
Tap! The barometer
awoken from its dream

Vereda tropical

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What I must never do is blink

What I must never do is blink
when I am writing - it wastes ink
No more stopping twice to think
What I must do more oft is link
my brain and heart before they sink

What I must never do is yawn

when I am writing on the lawn

having been there since before dawn

wanting to be completetely alone

ending up tired and forlorn

What I must never do is grin

when I am writing - drink some gin!

Let all the ideas my head spin

that's the only way a boy can win

and, like a snake, shed his skin