Fog

A fog bank rolled in
Chased by a west wind,
Muffling breakers
Familiar roar.
Darker than midnight
Cold as a warning,
It crept from the ocean
And crawled on the shore.

Silently tumbling
Deep Into the city,
Cloaking the street lamps
Familiar glow.
Touching the people
With icy wet fingers,
Featureless shadows
With nowhere to go.

Grey is the pallet
In shades of distortion,
Revealing confusion
Nothing seems real.
A pale orb is rising
Sun in ascendance,
Strangely diffusing
A dawn that's surreal.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Four in a Row

Four in a row, four in a row

Creep where the toxins overflow,                 

From chemicals that ooze below    

Just gargoyles from the undertow       

No cattle, wheat or rye.  

Three in a row, three in a row

Sleep where the poison rivers flow,

Breath softly as the tumours grow

No scar so friends will never know  

Your fearful lullaby.     

Two in a row, two in a row

Still learning less and thinking slow,     

Don't ask again but watch the show  

Prime time your daily mind tableau  

Don't ever question why?   

   

One in a row, one in a row

Wrapped in your faith but even so  

No miracle will save you though    

The world is blinded to your woe    

And deafened to your cry. 

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2012.

Think of a Time

Think of a time you stumbled in your life

Feeling a way as sightless in the night,

Falling through empty spaces day to day

Begging some unknown spirit for the light.

Think of a day that dawned to find you lost

Wandering lonely in some crowded street,

Everything won was at too high a cost

Then given away, surrendered in defeat.

Think of the day the darkest one of all

Finding the fight no longer worth the prize,

Peeling your mind like paper from a wall

Abandoning hope to feel redemption rise.

Think of the moment, you alone may know

What lit the flame that kindled deep inside?

A letter, a call a thought from long ago

Or sudden love that turned that awful tide?

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2012.

Fields of Lavender

From a spring above the fens    

A chuckling rivulet descends,  

That squabbles with

The rocks and bends. 

Cascading, tumbling

Where it ends    

In fields of lavender.    

Freed from caverns underground  

Crystal waters leap and bound,     

Through Forests deep

Their laughing sound 

Replays and echoes

All around 

Bright fields of lavender      

Weary now, I close my eyes

Sleep cradles me as water sighs,

Far, far from slate grey winter skies

I dream of lavender.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Whisper

Amid the urban turmoil
Of a rush hour city street
A cacophony of diesels 
Joins a mass of stomping feet.
Mix the rattling departure
Of the elevated train,
As the local band convention
Starts out marching once again.
There's the rolling of the thunder
Country music from the stores,
Heavy hammers of the builders
Who are laying office floors.
Overhead the jets are flying
Leaving vapour in the sky
And a chapter of the Angels
Ride a hundred Harleys by
.
As you shelter in a doorway
From the racket and the rain,
I can hear across an ocean
You are whispering my name.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

I am a Knight

I am a knight valiente

An armoured cavalier 

Who’s Chivalrous in combat

Oblivious to fear.

I ride upon a warhorse

None mightier was seen,

Prepared to fight a thousand

For the honour of  my queen.

I am a lowly minstrel boy

No land  or title mine,

I play the melodies I write

For bread and watered wine.

But I will walk the darkest paths 

Dare swamp and shifting sand 

To entertain the courtiers

And win my ladies hand. 

I am a graceless gypsy lad 

Who’s far beyond the law  

I live by wits and thievery  

Am vilified  by all.

The ladies in the market town 

Who shun me every day 

Burn candles in the casement 

When their masters are away.   

 Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Bondage to her Smile

I'd heard of such a romance 

How it rocked me when it came, 

As the breeze became a whirlwind   

Fanning embers into flame.

In a moment of eruption

That I never could explain,

Falling all that way in moments

Praying not to rise again.    

Always something overwhelming   

When her love begins to pour,

And she rolls on me like thunder

Never leaves me wanting more.  

A convection of capriciousness 

Compels me to implore.     

To be in bondage to her smile,     

Seductive, lustful, yet demure,    

 Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.     

Alice in the Afternoon

Alice in the morning

Was a foil for the sunrise,

Her eyes were filled with splinters 

Of another sleepers dream. 

She looks down on a city  

And is tired of her future,

Knowing she is drowning  

In the overwhelming stream. 

Alice in the afternoon

Found wrinkles in a mirror,

She brushed her hair with tortoiseshell 

And felt the sun go down.

Sometime in the evening

She started into cleaning,

With dusters she kept tearing

From her virgin wedding gown.  

Alice in her rocking chair

Winnowing her memories,

She's finding pain and gemstones 

In grains that she has panned.

Somewhere in the long age

A moments playing over,

Then fading with the music 

Alice reached to take his hand. 

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Signed copies of books available.

Signed copies of "Love is a Dreamer" and "The Echo of Heartbeats" are available price £10 GBP (or equivalent) inc. p+p. using Paypal.   Please send requests to      alangilbert@ymail.com        giving full postal address. Thank you. 

Don't Upset the Birds

Mrs Wintridge wore a beret

waddling along the street,

tatty coat with missing buttons

ragged slippers on her feet.

In her garden was a fountain

where the birds would come to play,

Mrs Wintridge didn’t like it

screamed at them to go away.

Then she fell into the water

all the birdies gathered round,

saw her splash and cough and splutter

chirped while Mrs Wintridge drowned.

Fathered friends are bathing daily

drinking water as they will,

in that fountain in the garden

where a berets floating still.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

 Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Poets

We are the poets

The scribers in verse,
  

To some we're a blessing 
     

For others a curse.
      

Our life's a mosaic 
     

Of meter and rhyme,

We fall to depression

And rise to sublime. 

Once it was said  
  

We are slaves to a muse, 

Who love us or leave us 

We are here to abuse.

One minute earthbound

Then soar to the stars, 

We either have naught

Or the planet is ours. 

If I should be starving 

In some distant land,

A slum garret in Cairo

Or a squat in the strand
. 

Don't come to bail me

It's painful but then,

If I free fall to hell

It's all grist to my pen.  

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

They Did

And did they cry to that all knowing God

When gas and shrapnel filled the fêted air?

They trampled broken bodies in the sod

And all the world was sickened with despair.

And did they prey in shelters underground

While all around the shattered city fell?

They dug for hours for children never found

And wondered at their sin to earn such hell. 

And did they bow before mysterious ways

While suffocating in that poison shower?

They fell like weeds most innocent of days

But knew no chosen mercy in those hours. 

And did they sing in thanks that all was done

While dancing on the terror stricken earth?

Their promise was, the prize of peace was won,

Today our dead bear witness to its worth.  

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Honeysuckle Wild

Weaving softly through my dreams

As gentle as a murmured prayer,

While I the wide eyed sleeper feel 

Her essence in me everywhere.

There is no shallow in her eyes

No lineament to less extol, 

She moves enticing lips to mine 

And breathes her music to my soul. 

Too soon the jealous Eos spreads

Her fingers to reclaim her throne,

And with the scarlet blushing dawn

The dreams recede I cannot own. 

Though I inhale her autograph

Left ne by this natures child,     

The sweet perfume of ardent love 

Bouquet of honeysuckle wild.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert. 

Daggers and Sapphires

Daggers and sapphires

Range the world over,

Bright heart of crystal 

The beauty of blue.

Steely edged wishes

With painful reminders,

Of weapons concealed

In a lie that seemed true.  

The flash of the gemstone

Will dazzle the sunset,

Turn red tinted skies

To a pale cobalt hue.

But the glint of the blade

Like a flame in the moonlight,

Brings pain to the many

And joy to the few. 

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

Charm

You took my hands

Though they were cold,

Redeemed my body

Young for old.

Returned my silver

Hair to gold

And said it was a dream.

You stole the shadow

From my eyes,

Replaced the dark

With starry skies.

Then softly laughed

At my surprise

And said, “ Inhale the theme”.

You kissed a smile

From every frown,

Our bodies danced

In eider down.

We fell so deep

As if to drown

In passions racing stream.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.

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Falling

As months side into fall

Dull evenings gather in.

October’s bedroom chill

Creeps under summer spreads.

Downhearted flowers droop

And huddle from the wind,

Lawnmowers reminisce 

In ramshackle leaky sheds. 

Dew glistened fallow fields

Are strewn with natures lust, 

Drab rich fecund accretion 

Snags on hoes and rakes. 

On arboreous city streets

The force fed shoppers throng,

Dragging weary feet through
Wind flotsam golden flakes 

Night Feed

The city's heart beats through the night

The arteries still oozing blood,

That trickles through the urban streets

To meet the dawn and be a flood.

The hangers from the twilight clubs

Dance homeward in the dizzy street,

And sluggish dregs on subway trains

Rub bleary eyes and trampled feet.

The mewing of romancing toms

Gives voice to jealous backyard dogs,

While in a garret, bleary eyed

A bedsit hack is feeding blogs.

The night watch on the juggernauts

Are owl eyed and diesel fumed,

As thousands dream their way towards

Another day to be consumed.

 Copyright© Alan  Gilbert 2011.

How Wonderful the Night

How wonderful the night
When long felt passions meet,
The touch of silk on silk
Caressing hands and feet.

The thrill of clouded eyes
Anticipation of each touch,
Shared sensual ecstasy
Was never felt so much.

How will the pleasure fall?
From hands or lips or ice,
How pleasing to the heart
To practice such a vice.

Copyright© Alan Gilbert 2011.