Divertimentos
Incidental, short poems in English and Spanish
(lo lamento: mi teclado no tiene acentos!)
"Oh idle reader who with your time regales me
These humble pages will, I hope, amuse -
But should they not, then may at least my Muse
Bestow her grace upon her one-man army"
31 October 2021
26 April 2017
Back to the front
I carry a Mills grenade in my right hand
Life pulled the pin from it a while ago
Without my wavering grip, it will explode
My flesh and blood to scatter where I stand
=======================
12 April 2017
Lemon
23 March 2017
14 March 2017
The arrival of Spring
07 February 2017
Divertimento Working from Home
12 May 2016
No speech
Shame will set in, despondency follow.
No golden watch, no picture frame
No board display or sign of fame
Spreading through the whole Department
Like sweat down cotton undergarments.
07 May 2016
Palomita
Levanta triste tu vuelo
En estos dias de duelo
Y no en los dias felices
19 April 2016
The Surrender of Breda
where the pain may be sharp but will also be short
But the feeling that comes when a city surrenders
and it opens its gates to let enemies in
and to let all control and all power march out
Oh, it is hard to surrender your defences and walls
Throw yourself at the mercy of the conquering foe
Let the young try to escape with their meagre posessions
Leaving behind the old, with their pride and obsessions
Now the drums of the victors can be heard getting near
Like the beat of our hearts as they race, filled with fear.
A Train Journey
I sit in the carriage of a Liverpool train
It now canters along, past the wood and the flashes
In a clearing I see of bonfires the ashes
Then it gathers speed, being Liverpool-bound
Out of Wigan a train and my heart, rattled, pound
and my thoughts in my head swirling round and around
All the fear, the shame, the mistrust of the future
The regrets of the past, that invisible vulture
All the fear, the shame, the foresaken illusions
The expectations not met and the wrong contributions
With the pen I have borrowed I scribble some lines:
Will they help me in my journey and arrest my decline?
Oranges
20 March 2016
Tunnel
and my heart sank, for it was dim and distant.
My loss of heart lasted only a short instant -
I got back to my work and my wrench and spanner.
30 July 2015
Seismo
Desde la cumbre astral de tu montaña
Pierdes así toda apariencia humana
Te despojas de artilugios y mentiras
Y tu acólito, asombrado, sueña
Con beber de tus nieves derretidas
Por la energía de sus arremetidas
Y fricciones tectónicas: Oh dueña!
Qué avalancha de lo alto viene
Arrasando a su paso catedrales
Con su mezcla feróz de lodo y piedra!
Sólo al llegar al Valle se detiene
Sepulta gentes, plantas y animales -
No distingue las frutas de las hiedras
21 March 2015
Delegation skills
11 March 2015
Pan de centeno
con lonjas de queso de cabra
y largos tragos de agua
ya va el estomago lleno.
Ya va el estomago lleno
y como lluvia en diciembre
permite que el campo se siembre
salen de mi las palabras
nacidas de hambre y de suen~o.
Day in the office, another
the Sun shone from the East
But then you had to unleash the Beast
While trolls and imps hid in the mist
and as the day and our works unravelled
I swear I heard them laugh:
They sent me down a creek, but kept the paddle
01 March 2015
To you it may not amount to much
But it's my name, now duly engraved
In crisp black letters on acrylic
In Roman type, not in Cyrillic
So that you all can understand:
No more your head you'll have to scratch
When our paths cross in the office loo.
No more will I have to be "you" -
I will be me: I have a name
And now I also have a badge.
25 June 2014
To Do List
Or should that be 'prioritise'?
I need to check the kids for lice
I must get 'cats' to deal with 'mice'
"Please buy some prawns for my fried rice"
I'd like some coke served with my ice!
My life just flashed before my eyes
Stripped of all clever disguise
The day out there looks jolly nice:
The pastures green under blue skies
12 May 2014
The Dream
of a full moon in a cloudless night
when every star was there to witness
my certain death: oh, I was short of fitness! -
and of skill. Only my heart was greater,
but of that fact I would learn later.
Now I've slained my foe, an empty feeling
comes over me as daybreak finds me kneeling -
Neither in thanks nor to proclaim God's glory,
just to recall the fight and craft a story:
for when I see my foe I realise
the corpse is me - Victory my demise.
12 May 2014
10 October 2013
Catch mice
Instead catch mice
And bring them to your lair
They’re good to eat
And entertaining fayre
But do not look
Into their little eyes
Lord Turton (1851 – 1913)
13 August 2013
Bifocales
y aún más a mis amigos.
Pintaré de blanco las paredes
y de rojo los tejados.
Barreré los rincones de mi mundo,
incluso los más remotos y olvidados.
¿Cuándo sera? No lo sé -
Cuando el corazón alce vuelo
Como una linterna china
y mi sangre sepa dulce como infantil golosina
y mis ojos miren claro
con sus lentes bifocales.
Cuando lea los periódicos
- pero sólo los locales.
14 March 2013
Irimenage
and in the mind the boundaries of wisdom
The rest is flailing limbs, extended arms
Looking to absorb and blend and do no harm
The centre of the mind is in the world
I think as I am thoughtfully hurled
11 January 2013
Wings
and to blue heights fly and soar
while I, with a mighty roar
my offerings to you I bring
for you to take and transport
to your priestly feathered nest
where, with mouths opened like rings
await your hopeful offspring
for you to regurgitate
the food stored in your chest
Cat toy
23 October 2012
Witness
09 October 2012
Divertimento dietetico
03 October 2012
Divertimento dietetico
To have a snack,this late at night
I full well know it would be wrong
But I cave in: it tastes so right!
23 August 2012
Divertimento
voy con la espada en la mano:
Voy para hacer mucho daño
Sin propósito de enmienda
13 August 2012
The Delegation
Walks through the shopfloor with clipboards in their hands
Their hair is grey; their skin is lightly tanned
They leave the stage the very way they came
Chatting amiably and drawing up grand plans -
Comparing notes, cufflinks and fountain pens
Canapes await them in the Boardroom
Sparkling water will have been poured in their glasses
Out of green bottles like an army of enslaved genies
We expect so very little
21 July 2012
Arte Poetica
as hollow as an old drum's
but I couldn't give a damn
as it filled up the whole room
31 May 2012
Spring Love
I must remember no more to go out drinking
and read my book instead
until my face goes red
and blithely ignore the mobile phone that's ringing
01 March 2012
Dos gatos
Ya dos gatos se pasean por mi casa
Los estantes de libros se convierten
En gimnasio en el que se divierten
y mis muchos adornos amenazan
Ya dos gatos se persiguen por mi alfombra
Las cortinas escalan cual piratas
A la caza de imaginarias ratas
Que se asoman en las numerosas sombras
De mi sofá de cuero toman posesión
Con mis zapatos ensayan sus batallas
De una mochila escolar hacen guarida
Impredecibles y adorables canallas
Sólo me buscan si falta comida
Soy su sirviente - que no haya confusión
29 February 2012
Campo minado
y que en el momento clave
mi mente encuentre la llave
para deslumbrar un poco
Ojalá en mi hora de prueba
cuando esté frente a mis jueces
el ardúo esfuerzo de meses
me otorgue victoria nueva
Que no me tiemblen las manos
Que no se trabe mi lengua
Que no deserten mis ojos
Que busquen grietas en vano
Los que hoy buscan mi mengüa
Y sólo saben de abrojos
09 February 2012
Midwinter visit to Blenheim Palace Butterfly House
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
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