Ibby Bluebell

Ibby Bluebell lives
In both light and shade
Beneath the dappling of the leaves
At the edge of the glade
Where the sun's intensity
Shines outright
At the constant burn
Of yellow and white
Alchemical flames
Of creative fire
Where writer and Muse
Meld to inspire
With sentences, gramar,
Peace and soul
From hearts and minds
Alert and whole.
Both muse and wordsmith
In one conflagration
Of earthbound and immortal
In divine integration
Through the woodlands
And the hedgerows,
Over marshes
And the meadows
To the tree of words.

(An extract from the Flower Quartet)

I Beware

There is a distancing
Now that what we both thought
And I still think
Is for you, no longer true
Although I feel I already know
For you and for others
It is only time who is allowed to tell
Time the Judge and Time the Saviour
Until in desperation for some proof of love
You heed the evidence of a misplaced truth
And by your own foolishness
While away the days and hours
Of Time the liar and Time the slayer.

The jewelled cover of night

The jewelled cover of night
Defeats oppression;
The mind in sleeps' arms
Lives the subconscious,
Where "Stars shine on revolutions"
And no prophecies freeze

Such prophecies freeze
When a frosted sun
Awakes reality's silence
Time to get up
and conform.

(October 1977)

HELLO!

HELLO!
Can they hear me?
No they can't
I'm too far away
Away inside myself
They see a person
Which is my body
They know a person
Which is my act
They don't know ME
Because they don't know I exist
Because they don't know THEY exist
And that's what matters

(Summer 1977)

Ibby On Her Travels

Prayer to Gaea

Reared in ignorance
I have walked many paths
To your ruin

Hewn in arrogance
I fear the piety
Of this prayer

Possess me.

(October 1989)

Love Life For Me

In love with you, I ran from you,
Cradling every detail of the missive you had bourne.
And now, high in flight
On the quill tips of my angel muse,
It is too many years too late to return,
Though in vision and in dream,
This I see, this I learn;

That your love of life has crumbled
Time and time to dust
Between the smug, dry palms
Of anothers distrust.
Colleagues and companions
Mindful of your courage,
Jealously obliged
With intent to disparage.
Pinnacles of falsity,
Narrowed, pointed, confined.
The spires were all cold
To the dreams you had in mind.
And sweet Jayne in black lace
Made from many a maids' tears,
Her morbidity arising
From the pit of her fears.
She informed the movie mogul
That you were a lost young man.
To abolish your goal
Was her fiendish plan.
But I spied your etheral guide,
I saw his name upon a stone
And above his name
Was carved your own.
Like the Mayflower you must sail
From the grey and passionless Isles,
From yellow mouthed promises,
From shallow-eyed wiles.
Find meaning in the misfortune
That has rendered you lame.
Carry the banner of calling
Into the battle of fame.
Go forward as an orphan,
Untutored, unchecked.
Lay bare your truths,
Embellish, dissect.
From the heights of glory
To the depths of strife,
Reinstate extremity,
Repossess your love of life.

I am now the messenger
As you were once a messenger to me.
My message is this;
'Love life for me'.

(July 1990)