Urban Arteries

Spice scented air, colours, sounds.

Urban markets are vibrant with life.

                          *

Droning birds carry deadly intent, 

fuelled by cataclysmic opinions.

A loved city, bombed and broken,

screams ricochet off shattered lives.

Refugees flee to the edge of insane,

shadows of home facing their backs.

                            *

Many lost, souls rise in dust laden air.

Urban arteries are running with blood.

Julian Clarke © 2017

Song for you

Before you go I’ll write a song,
A love song for you;
With endless skies infinity blue
And a summer breeze to weigh our love;
I’ll write of a loving sweet friend so true.

I’ll star you in beautiful lines
With melodies for smiling eyes,
White birds of truth flying high
We’ll sing of happy days gone by.

Before you go I’ll write a song,
A love song for you;
With starlit nights deep velvet blue
And a soft west wind to weigh our love;
I’ll write of a loving sweet friend so true.

© Julian Clarke 2017.

I shall link to Poets United for the Sunday pantry

The Soothsayer

I’m a gypsy roaming turquoise sunsets
Fixing pots and pans with artisan hands,
A troubadours quill with poems to scribe
Wandering psychedelic mystic lands:

I way laid a silver haired soothsayer
On the eve of an emerald green day
I bid her to fore-say of what may come . . .
For eight long days she’d not a word to say.

Ferrous wheels turned the hues in her eyes
Subtle indigo blues, violets and red:
As rainbow butterfly’s filled yellow skies
And on the ninth day of the week she said.

See in my globe set in gold filigree
Dark clouds coming from a kings white tower
Libra must set her scales of justice
Play her trump card and balance the power.

Then diamond shapes fell across her bronze face
Her filligree globe she covered in lace.

© Julian Clarke 2017

I shall link this poem to  Poets United for Sunday's panty. 

Old Rope

My following poem is just a bit of a light hearted nonsense. Hope you enjoy it.


What if we had a length of old rope
What if we each had hold of an end

We both have an end so where does it start
It’s not in the middle that is plain to see.

The length of old rope has no beginning
As you have an end and so do I,

If there’s only two ends and therefore no start
It goes without saying it starts at the end.

Julian Clarke © 2017

The Follower ( flash fiction)

The Follower (flash fiction)

    Sally’s heart raced as her quickening footsteps echoed off the graffiti covered walls of the pedestrian underpass. She almost fell as she changed direction to avoid discarded condoms and syringes lying on the ground.  Sally could hear the heavy sound of footsteps a little way behind and caught a glimpse of a blue jacket with a flash of red as she glanced over her shoulder. And then she was out . . . out of the underpass and into the grey afternoon; but it felt like sunshine after her ordeal. Sally slowed to her normal pace and after catching her breath she said “Thank God” as she entered the High Street. It was full of Saturday shoppers and groups of teenagers milling around. Flustered and still a little panicky Sally said “Excuse me” to an elderly couple on one of the many benches. “Ok if I sit here?”
“Hello dear” the old lady replied, “Of course you can.” She said, putting her bag on her lap and shuffling along the seat.
    And then Sally saw him again. There was no mistake. “Oh shite” she said, under her breath as she recognised the blue quilted puffer jacket and red scarf the man two benches down was wearing. She fumbled in her bag and found her mobile “Where’s my purse?” she said “No, where the hell is it.”  In quite a state Sally started to text her boyfriend and all the while she discreetly kept looking over at the man as he took the Guardian newspaper from a plastic carrier bag. “Oh my God” Sally muttered to herself when she saw the black patch over his left eye partially covering an angry scar. He adjusted his hat to sit at an angle; it reminded her of how hitmen wore them in prohibition movies. He opened his newspaper and Sally grimaced, argh that’s gross she thought as she saw the deformity where his left hand little finger should have been.  She glanced down at her mobile - I'm being followed - send. Sally pulled her coat tight about herself as she clutched her phone in one hand and folded her arms tightly across her chest as the man reached down into his plastic bag; he stood up and started to walk towards……

© Julian Clarke 2017

Three facts one fiction

Three facts one fiction

The Provencal sun was streaming through the dining room window when I came down to breakfast. I felt refreshed after a good night's sleep as I always felt at home in this part of France.  But I could not understand why a deathly hush hung over the busy dining room. I was certainly not prepared for what I saw next.

© Julian Clarke 2017

Riding the dragon

I may work this poem about coming off hard drugs into a song. It's not autobiographical, however I'm pretty sure allot of us have been affected in one way or another by addictition, all be it a friend or loved one.

Riding the dragon

You don’t need that to get by
Do you have to get so damn high?
You shut me out
I scream and shout
You ride the dragon flying high

Steel railings round your heart
Me one side keeping us apart
You slam the gate
I want to hate
Scratch your arm a muddy dart;

You don’t need that to get by
Do you have to get so damn high?
Gave your loved ones a bag of tears
Gave your loved ones a bag of despair

You’ve opened all the rotten the doors
Lain on all the piss stained floors
You run the line
Things ain’t fine
Love’s run raw, hard to stay yours

Crazy trips you’re up like a Kite
Take cold turkey it’s time to fight
You cry for help
I hear your cry
Your soul is safe wrapped up tight.

No more Lady Caine or smoking dope
Rehabs hotel a holiday from hell
No more Lady Caine or smoking dope
Anxiety and pain glimmers of hope.

©Julian Clarke 2017

Wishing Well and Last Hope

The following two pieces are for this months open mic evening which are loosely based on the non compulsory theme being, Hope.

Wishing Well.

Insanely balanced on the brink of blue

A parcel of jealousy tied with sisal

Ardour, so emerald green, wanting you,

To triumph your love without reprisal

Flick of a coin, heads or tails, your call;

Hoping for a wish, a dream to come true

Down into the darkness can’t see it fall

Oh wishing well, my last hope lies in you.

Slowly the emerald green fades, vivid red

Wishing well? But a mere hole in the ground

How loves foolish obsession ruled my head

Who was I kidding? And I’m ten pounds down.

© Julian Clarke 2017

**

Last Hope

The visions are clouded for the cynics of mankind for blindly believing it best not to believe; but Layla’s last hope for her sick one lay in the palms of a pagan priestess. And so the priestess cast her circle upon the ground and with eyes closed she rode the latitudes of time. From all points of the compass winds were weaving weighing mystic chants from the shaman of nations to dance in spiritual trance. Karma gathered and harnessed in heart and so the priestess returned to her own awareness; her rainbow gown laced in white flowed silently while hands circled the air as she sang incantations of spiritual care. With gratitude Layla wore tears on her cheek that fell to the earth as she wept with joy at the breath of her daughter’s soulful re-birth.

©Julian Clarke 2017

#taglabels

The interminable writers block has struck again, and so the following is something completely left wing for me that perhaps should be consigned to the waste paper basket.

Colour race creed diversity
introvert extrovert opposites
superior inferior, (that’s complex)
genders, male female
categorisation
straight
gay
bisexual
other (exclamation mark).
Do not delete cannot delete,
genetically encoded  D.N.A
programmed to label we’re
classified chromosome X or Y.
Cyber café, searching, found profiles # tag X
blind date (question mark) bio’ # tag Y... send . . .

© Julian Clarke 2017

The Good Ole Days?

Time creeps up on us the older we grow

Bent and wizened like an ancient oak tree,

Grasping the future all those years ago

The golden ole days seem the place to be.

           

A song on the radio from yesteryear

Long summer days drenched in the sun,

Wistful memories and lives without fear

A night out with friends having so much fun.

            Now

What if the past was turned upside down

What if the future was flipped all around?

Would we still yearn for the good ole days

And not look back in a rose tinted haze.

            So

How would we welcome the oncoming past?

            With

Imminent conflicts, other people’s wars

A time long before the smart mobile phone,

No Wi Fi or texting so how would we cope

No long haul travel holidaying at home.

            And

The 1970’s a decade of strikes

Fuelling an era of dissent,

Skyward inflation with many price hikes

Bitter was the winter of discontent.

            But

What if we enjoyed the here and now?

What if looked on with a little less haste,

What if we’re more forgiving to others?

Live for the moment in a calmer place. 

© Copyright Julian Clarke 2016