dark haiku (it's all better now)

my my liver is an eel

a silhouette of of blackbirds

& crows upon the roof

My short story collection

Kindle version:

I Am Grass

Paperback version (with poetry book of The Fragments on same page):

I Am Grass & The Fragments

A to Z of Archaeology

A is for Archaeology

Anubis the god of Copper Necropolis,

a woodland culture (better known by its ancient name AKEATHON), fossilised in pine resin (1459 BC), reached its peak in development, C1986-1458 BC. There then followed a brisk trundle between catastrophe and blunder that, some say, caused Atticus the Elder’s heart palpitations and eczema.

B is for Bes

Ugly demi-dwarf god of the Phoenicians, trampling Christ under his irregular baulk. Upon the bird, boat and sun disc floating across the death-field, Bes drinks; no one slips a him a Mickey Finn: he’s always slumbered at the helm, braced against the Bølling Oscillation. The elegant eustasy of his thoughts unaltered by ice-age or ecstasy.

C is for Cuneiform

Calendar Round > C A L E N D E R

(See below)

a) a cAvEMaN seeks.

b) cannibalism.

d) in Carthage.

The dread galleons of wretchedness promised by the Mayans never arrived. There were no modern equivalents of the fall of Ninevah, no trampling cities into dust; all the banks, monetary mirages, dissolved into thoughts. 

Cats > S A C R E D  A N I M A L S

D is for Domestication

Chihuahuas, the most useless of all canine breeds, were once holy animals, settled in the temples of mexico, turned into water bottles post-mortem. Now, heads peeping out of Californian handbags, their indignity is complete.

automatic
- like the hand
  reaching
in the dark
  for the glass
beside the bed

A rabbit eating strawberries from a yellow bowl.

Lola is dancing 
in her one-piece blue pyjamas.
The sun is swatting parts of the room -
the shade bites into the glare, leaving blades of light.

The song playing is her favourite. 

She stands legs astride 
& sings a good guess at the chorus,
mangling half the words,
but it does not matter.

She is the glory in this morning.

We have completed a jigsaw 
for the first ever time
& it now lies on the floor 
like a forgotten masterpiece.

It is of a rabbit eating strawberries from a yellow bowl.

She arches over until
her head touches the floor
spreading her arms outwards
she holds this pose - it is impressive.

I implore her to take a bow & she acquiesces.

I'm playing all her favourite songs.
It is an intentional manipulation
I am not ashamed to admit committing.
& anyway, it generates joy for us both.

& what could possible be wrong with that.

We have spread a snowdrift of paper across
the living room floor, practising writing letters
and primordial poetry. 

& what could possible be wrong with that.

"OCK ENT ATO" Poetry Reading Photographs

My first reading - when I could still read.

From the website: “We are working collectively to renovate and redevelop THE MINESWEEPER - LEDSHAM M.2706, DEPTFORD CREEK, LONDON into a space for artistic innovation. Floating laboratory of the MINESWEEPER COLLECTIVE.”

Joe Stohlman and I read three times and then some open mikes blew everyone away. My third reading was marred slightly by the amount of medicinal whiskey I had imbibed, but that was made redundant by the brilliance of the proceeding readings. Honest. Follow this link OCK ENT ATO to see the photos. The reading was at this venue. All photos by Valentina Gaddia.

(then up and into everything the squall and the rest of it)

there was a part

(fruit-sweet)

of me

uncovered by the suck

           of your filling lungs

(the sound / lifting / breaking

/././.::o_) ) )  )  )  ) _ver  

                     

the white-tiled, bloodied room

(then up & into everything & 

the squall & the rest of it)

a part I will never squander

Fat man through the window bagging up his packed lunch under strip lights

storks in the arteries

the rumbling
muscle underneath
the dip of fabric
that is my pocket


<...made me answer my phone, dumb...>


a parataxis 
of ligament & bone
a dislocation 
of sense from matter


<...it is unexplained, disconnected...>


an accident
an uncomfortable 
glide of cloth
& screen perhaps?


<...a dryness of hope, more likely...>


that way (east) 
there is Poland
& the pure blast 
of Russia beyond


<...extracting revenge, short-twitch on my thigh...>


a tremor in the leg
storks in the arteries
flightless birds, fish rotting 
in their blocked gullets


<...I am ringing, not the phone...>

the boy's bicycle chain shivered as his back wheel jumped the curb

La Granada

I forgot to say, I have a poem published in the first edition of new Norwegian poetry magazine, La Granada. It's great. You can read for free online or buy a hardcopy.



UPDATE: LOOKS LIKE THEY'VE STOPPED PUBLISHING.

I, a at least, have a copy to show it all happened.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

You can get copies here.

the players under the floodlights

from the train, I thought they were gravestones in a moving cemetery

The Scavengers of London out now in chapbook form.

The Scavengers of London out now in chapbook form. 

£3.50 from the excellent The Red Ceilings Press.

Have at it!

Fragments, scraps and off cuts of Scavengers

Plate VII. Male & female
cockroaches with egg-sac,
spiders’ webs, a cedar in
Highgate cemetery.

XII.

blue tit at coconut
unusual site of blackbird’s nest
this rookery too was deserted

Plate IV

XIII.

large horizontal branches
of the trees . ecclesiastical of birds
the jackdaw must rank

Plate V

XIII.

in the grounds
of the Zoo
- her normal clutch

Plate XI

XIII.

most ancient rookery sites
three cartloads of sticks
- hung on longer

Plate XII

XIV.

nothing zipped pass
the decaying notes of the moon
& its metres-wide
disintegration

of atoms.

The Scavengers of London eBook on The Red Ceilings Press

Read my new poetry ebook, The Scavengers Of London, for free, on the excellent The Red Ceilings Press.

Link straight to it here.

extract

flood of buildings. London’s
many little streams & flatlands
after the conquest of Waterloo

the metropolis sacrificed
engulfed by fruit & vegetables
the marshiness of much


woodcock & snipe
five fields till the middle
decaying stalks of the flowering rush


by the osier pond. A common
bird along a small hillock
instead of through a sewer

Fragment / offline | \ | /

And you said:
'we are just a flash
of consciousness
in the eternal
darkness.'

And I said:
'I can't remember who
won The XFactor
last year.'

Excerpt from Chalk Face

18.

before the assessed,

the millions

begin.

something   nothing

undone the ties,

the uniforms

dis-scratch.

poly   monosyllabic.

allowed the paragraphs,

the line breaks

unbroken.

type   upset

desperate the room,

the panicking

bird-like.

breath egg taking.

request timed out

ones & zeros

underneath the wifi
deadening soil

sucking the internet
into ditches

all communications old
breaking across

the moment
           |
       / / | \ \


into waves of
ones & zeros
ones & zeros
ones & zeros

above the wifi
a greedy infinity

electronics
die in

coughing at the
black

[]]]]] ] ]  ]   ]    ]     ]

fading into
zero))) ) )  )  )   )   )    )    ) s

CAvEMaN PoEM

K/|L OF T|/\ME

ThE WoLF D/ES - CRiE

/\|IE|M DEAtH

P||||||||||||||| | |  |   |    |     |     |          |E

s p  a   c    e

                   s p  a  c   e

 "/ / : \ \ , , \ | / . . / / : \ \ . . ] { " } [ , . " | | \ . , { ] " 

e m  p   t   y

s n  o   w

library

first thousand rivers
coloured with milk
win first prize

then wonder how
thunder smashed
the mantlepiece

enough with joy
there are sadnesses
to eat and drink

the spine of the books
are yellow and lean
until lent to the elderly

underneath shelves &
chain of space. on the desk
aggression of paper clips

coldness of numbers

and grasp of division

the kiss of punctuation

Fragment of a scientific journal

] ...there in 1967 a professor of economics unintentionally caused his body to spin at over one hundred miles an hour by lifting his feet off the floor as he used his mechanical pencil sharpener. It was with that simple suspension of the laws of physics that the Yale Uncertainty pocket was discovered. Then nothing happened. Then something happened. The Yale Uncertainty Pocket 'disappeared for two months reappearing in the kitchen of a bungalow in Rotherhithe.' (Keane, 1968, pg.1455) The hunt was on to 'find the final resting place of the YUP.' (Brogan, 1969, pg.67) All of Yale's resources were directed into the research. Over 3,000,000 pencils were 'sharpened to studs' in over 2,500,000 locations around the university grounds. (Paul, Greene and Spent, 1971, pg.678) It was chaos... [

boy with the low laugh of a pigeon

method
experimental outline

boy with the low laugh
of a pigeon

inference
objective

boy with 3 coloured watches
pink
yellow
green

antagonised each other
again
worked well away from

bad influences 

apparatus

"i had a brother"
"i don't have a real dad"

results
conclusion