WHERE THE BATTLE RAGES

THAT SPECK OF TIME     To have again that speck of Time  To hold anew that briefest while   That heartbeat of a certain day When my whole world was washed away So much Time both now and past Time in reams and yards and tracts!  Sprawls unused and all around  Meanders by in fruitless hours When just the barest speck I crave Just one hour of that potent day  If just that speck I could wrest To stand again on Canaan's crest I'd take the road that Frost eschewed  And claim the tide that Roman used That merest moment could erase  An endless stream of Esau tears  Yet the Lord will not relent Grant to bring that chance again   Not for just a tick of Time   Will those stars again align  That heartbeat of a certain day When my whole world was washed away   

OF MUFFLED MALLS & SHUTTERED SHOPS    Muffled malls and eerie yards Shuttered shops with fake facades Empty plots fill silent streets  Marking out the long retreat  Of family firms from dawn of days Who just gave up and went away Leaving takeaways and choking vapes, Mini marts with minging paint     Where surly guards ward blinking lights, Bets and slots and corporate vice  And snuffling strangers snort for change In sleeping bags in smelly lanes  Discount stores and discount lives   Discount souls clutch sausage rolls  Echoing streets and scattered stalls Mark and mourn the tragic fall  Bereaved of bustle and trader's praise,  No tinkers, tailors, market days,   No butcher, cobbler, wafting bread  No heart, no soul, for all is dead. 

  ONCE   Again recall that once I was In a world of kindly voice An odd place where a sun yet rose And lingered still a remnant hope  I think of sight and fading sounds  Savour again the final frost Was I a son that mother knew?   Did I have friends not all alone?   I know I cried but now can not  Know I laughed but hence will not   Once I spoke now only feel  Once I lived now only am Sun and stars beyond recall Air and light now clean forgot    I once was there but now am not. 

SKERNY OLD RIVER Skerny old river  Must you keep skerning Skerning on to the Tees? A sluggish slew of sludge serene  Why it never clears  Born to bear that muddy name   Skerny old stream!  Skerny old river  Must you keep skerning Skerning on to the Tees?

BENEATH THE SUN   Just one chore I cannot shun 'Neath a brief and hidden sun Just that task  The barest ask  Soon be done  Yet not begun  So circles stead This sloughy head  Round and round The dreary ground With nothing wrong  When all is wrong And nothing done Beneath the sun Nags again the dismal voice   Says that I will rue this choice A time for this! A time for that!  A time to spin The pointless plates! And yet to treat my soul's dis-ease I'll do today just what I please  A time to view the winter haze! A time to mourn the Janus days! With nothing done Beneath the sun.