A Garamond Port

within Auden’s harbours
safe from sudden storms that fall
at any moment drowning me
within the overwhelming squalls
of my soul’s indiffidence
sheltered as I am in phrase
the oil that pours upon the waves
and all their troubles to allay

Words

pages fall open
and the words I have oft’ read
are strangers to me

Food

he reads each word twice
savouring the taste and form
poetry sustains

Inspired reading 17th Century poetry

If things of Sight such Heavens be, What Heavens are those we cannot see? … Andrew Marvell

be bold with my open eyes
they long for visions grown
’til now only in reveries
in dreams such beauty known

inspire me to paradise
though here in mortal frame
for heaven cannot wait for these
thoughts too long restrained.

5-7-5 (take four-hundred-and-seventy-one : meaning)

what lies in these lines
I cannot venture to say
until they are read

X Libris (2016 version revisited)

allow my fingers
to run
along your spine
and open you
for the first time
and kiss
your preface
gentle with my
eager glances,
and let me
slowly soak up
every word
and phrase,
all passages
discovered
in each chapter
newly encountered,
entangle me
in your plot-twists
then forbid
my hands
to lay you
down again
until
your denouement
is revealed
on the final page

defiance, a short fiction as prose

they burned all the books
so in dark corners
and cellars
and hidden alleyways
people met in secret
to read fast food menus

Complete Nonsense

I found a book of Edward Lear’s
filled with dongs and dings
and in between it’s pages
we’re all kinds of silly things
like runcible spoons
and silly old men
who came from towns
which rhymed
I’ll have a go at reading it
as soon as I find the time

5-7-5 (take one-hundred-and-two : deduction)

the dog did not bark
which itself gives pause for thought
elementary

X Libris

allow my fingers
to run
along your spine
and open you
for the first time
and kiss
your preface
gentle with my
eager glances,
and let me
slowly soak up
every word
and phrase,
all passages
discovered
in each chapter
newly encountered,
then forbid
my hands
to lay you
down again
until
your denouement
is revealed
on the final page.