Unstill Life

The Moment

Late April
Late evening
Powder blue sky
Cools and fades
To a neutral tone of grey
No hue
No reflections

Silhouettes
- skeletons of steel
Take shape
On the horizon
Iron takes the place of air
Each breath tasting bitter warm
Like blood

Night descending
In phosphorous little drops
Into my eyes
Sharper than the moment
My stomach tightens
As in acceleration cars
Or at the certainly of sex
And doesn't pass

This is where the day has led me
This is asa far as I have come

Sognsvann

The water is soothed now
smooth and quiet
as silk
creased cover of sunlight
folding late afternoon

The Spinning Taming Of The Summer Earth

The spinning
turning
of the Summer earth
has stretched and wound the air
into a tight blue band
around it's swollen girth

Dizzy and relentless
the suffocated streets wind on
and toil
and soils
gasp
their quick and tiny breaths

Parched dry tongues scrape
over reptile lips
and every word we speak
steams
and crackles in the heat

Lizard still
we perch upon the stones
merging carved and curled
this rough dry heat unfurls
pervades the flesh
marrow that once waxed
now wanes the bones

High upon the sky
the one unblinking eye
pours down
its slippery butter
yellow drops
melting oily fire on our backs

Fingers without touch
feel for relief
and every move we make
strains
as if about to break

Something has to give

White Silence

Outside
Taking tiny steps
Putting pressure on the ice
Watch the whiteness spread
Then disappear when I move on
Careful
Cautious steps in heavy boots

Walking on ahead
You pause to catch a moment
See winter wrap the world
In a veil of white silence

This place -
Where the earth gives the illusion
It has stopped turning

Inside
Warmth fires the colours
Cracked wood
Taming burning orange
Sparks off light
Shining in our eyes

Makes Me Feel At Ease

Makes me feel at ease
walking to a time
a place
that's pouring out its colours
that's flaunting all this brightness
to show all of its loss

Where trees cast a swirl
of golden shadows
all around them

Spindly hands
splaying sad fans
of ochre
cinnamon
and rust

Protectively
linking arms above
sheltered by this silence
to keep this secret hidden
warm
beneath a low sky

Unstill Life

A sore red
raw
red weal
blood red
spread across the sky
stain pouring sadness
into wide open eyes

Empty Me

Now that all is stilled and silenced
that the rushing roaring daylight has lost itself
its hysteria
in the all-amassing night
I too gently lose myself
beyond the open window
where a journey unfolds
into the city of rain

Music's never made such living sounds
absorbing the night's rhythm
the walls resonate with a thousand tiny drums
soft shards of liquid glass dance on metal pipes
mixing dust and dirt and grime
into a shining lubricating all-consuming oil
some drop away barely making contact
each bursting on impact
into a fountain in the air
dribbling off the lips of window ledges
splashing silver splinters in the blackness
scales of lifted paint turn to almost living flesh
smearing - it slides and streams into a opening
in the underworld below
revealing secret routes
where the trapped earth breathes
yellow streetlight breaks its beam across the water
electric currents hum, steaming in the dampness
cascades carry me away
wash away the tiredness
cool the fetid air

I turn to where you're sleeping
gently swimming through these hours
on to morning - unaware
and even though I know
all of this will rise and disappear
with the dawn into the sky
tonight everything glistens
like a jewel under the rain
tonight the city is silenced
lost under the storm

Nida

The world keeps watch where its jewels are sleeping
under desert sands, its black heart's beating
the pulsing liquid earth - ours for the taking

But beyond the marked borders, beyond strategic lines
the dust's turning red, the wind's carrying cries
and all around the world the world closes its eyes

A people without land fights for existence
as opposing winds disperse all calls for assistance
Will their annihilation be the price of our silence?

The only sounds heard are oil-hungry nations'
blood-thirsty threats of immediate action
should the hold on resources ever be threatened

There can be no excuses, no justification
no heads turned away from their situation
the price of our silence will be their annihilation

Beyond the marked borders, beyond strategic lines
the dust's turning red, the wind's carrying cries
and all around the world the world closes its eyes.

Counter Act

It's in your look
There's no doubt
I know exactly what it's all about
Its not what you say
l'rn listening to
Like the air around as
I can see straight through
To your real intention
What you really mean
Hidden in the silence
In the space between
You take advantage
I'm not taking that
I've made my move
It's a counter act

It's a cold limp hand
In an open palm
It's putting poison
In the healing balm
It's eyes that look
All around the room
When to whom you're talking's
Right in front of you
The words you use
Never break the ice
You take what's yours
Then another slice
You take advantage
I'm not taking that
I've made my move
It's a counter act

Let's make it clear
There's no tirne
For placing curves on a smooth straight line
Shades of grey
Only make a haze
Turn a simple path
Into a complex maze
Standing people up
Just to knock them down
Keep the vicious circle

Abuse

We shall come
with all our wealth
and our vulgarity
into your land
carving deep wounds
in our wake
planting the sharp-edged green seed
of money
deep into your hands
and as you grasp
gasping
you will thank us
as it takes root
growing and entangling itself
around your simple naive lives
it will placate you

We shall come
hard and fast
into your under-developed
un-exploited little world
tearing away the soil
beneath your feet where you stand
scattering the broken gifts it offers up
all around us
digging the foundations of our own image
into the raw core belly of the earth
send spiralling monuments
to our glorious achievements
into the heavy leaden sky

You will watch from the horizon
imprisoned by your own pleasures
bound by the material chains
we will supply
and when we have turned
one side of the world's face
from the sun into the blackness
the other will then burn
under the slap of our greed.

Silent Prayer

Hands
gesture
pleading
break
the undisturbed air
fingers
press
point
spire
a silent prayer

Closed Circuit

There is a still
like
steel
like
thread
that runs through
out
from toe to shoulder
head to heel
cold as hate
as thin as hope
hard as stone

and the world always fails to ignite
the flesh conceals it all
no sparks strike
and I realize
it is life
being lived
within
without