The Dark Side

You looked me in the eye
And said “I don’t do sci-fi”
Why can’t you understand
It’s not about Lego or 3D or boxsets

But courage, understanding and love
And how being selfish
Can lead to evil, anger and pain
Shall I explain it again?

I don’t expect you to get it
But I want you to get me
By showing you the meaning
You will know my depth of feeling

You see an obsession
A man/child regression
But without it I’m lost in space
With no North Star to guide me.

(Written for the One Stop Poetry Sunday Darth Vader Challenge)

Poem for Julie

She asked nothing of me
But I owe the world to her
Now I’m left without my friend
I don’t know which way to turn
My right brain has flooded my left
I can feel it all through my skin
It’s a feeling of lightness and weight
It has really begun to dig in
My body shakes with a life of its own
I hold back the tears at the smallest thing
I don’t understand anything anymore
I just want to scream out
It’s not fair.

Poem by Libby written in 1995. Julie and I used to work together in London and she died of a rare form of cancer at the age of 37. Writing this poem somehow helped.

The girl in year 10

Eyes darting side to side
Sending laser beams
Foot always in mouth
She lashes out like
A wounded fox
Caught in a trap
Spitting blood

Tough exterior
Radiating out
From a curtain of hair
Behind thick lashes
Caked in mascara
She cannot face life
Any other way

Teachers judge her
Fear confrontation
Send her to isolation
Boys just see danger
An aggressive tone
They leave well alone
She’s a threat

She gives a shy smile
And a look that says
She’s really a scaredy cat
But if anyone gets close
She’ll run away
One step forward
Equals two steps back

Friday Morning

Venturing outside
Frosty reception awaits
A nip in the air

My feet feel their way
Crystal snowflakes tumble down
My eyes gaze skywards

The windscreen wipers
Make the shape of angel wings
On the frozen glass

With hope I peer out
Through a small hole in the ice
In perishing cold

Before the white snow
Is tarnished and turns to slush
I take a deep breath

The red orange glow
Of a tequila sunrise
Will show me the way

Lost

You put my postcode
Into your Sat Nav
So you can find me.

But how we get
From where we are now
To where we want to be
Is a mystery.

The Dream

Through closed doors and iron gates
Dead bolts, padlocks, rim locks
Between steel bars, no guards
I twist round stairs and tight corners
Into the blue light, the half light
No one around, I’m outside now.

Sun streaming through white clouds
Bumping along the skyline
Along pylons and hissing wires
The rhythm scares and frees me
Trees go by flashing like fire
Now orange light, street lights.

Racing along the night highway
Down straight yellow lines
Cats eyes staring up at me
The world flows by at a pace
Time swiftly moving on
But there’s something in the road.

A group of deer leap out in front
Their majestic faces
Proudly flaring nostrils
Dark eyes, ears pricked and alert
They sense me but pay no mind
I speed ahead on my silent journey.

I’m on a mission, floating above life
This is how freedom should feel.
A blink, a jolt and I’m back again
I feel you breathing on my shoulder
Imprisoning me once more
Haunting my reality.


(Inspired by the dream sequence from the film “Un Prophète” by Jacques Audiard)

Mischief Night

Growing up
We waited for tonight
Minor misdemeanours
Knock and run
Tying door handles
When asked why
We said it was a laugh
One night of the year
Licence to misbehave
To break every rule.

And this year it seems
The old me is back
Pushing back boundaries
Looking for trouble
For when I am told
Not to do something
I think of little else
I know you do too
You believe you can stop it
But I’d like to see you try.

(Traditionally Mischief Night is 4th November in Yorkshire)