1039 - In Ireland - Mayo and Galway

Ireland, day one - a day of big mistakes!
First off, I forgot to pack my glasses!
Not good when I’m driving a hired car. Yikes!
And then, at Liverpool Airport, there is
No BMI Baby check-in, because
My flight’s from Manchester, NOT Liverpool!
My taxi zoomed there (Cost: 50 knickers!)
A late take-off to Knock saved this damn fool!
At Knock Airport the car hire cost a full
Hundred euro more to insure ’gainst breaks
Or pay 300 euro for scratches
No time, or eyesight, to go driving all
Round Mayo. Knock-Tuam-Galway in three shakes
Galway’s always busy; it always is
Thur 9 July 2009

1038 - Bags packed - tomorrow

It’s my last day at work before Ireland
Culminating in a Poetica show
In Central Library, and now that’s done
Tomorrow, pack my bags, and then I’ll go
On foot to Manchester, and wait below
The bus-stop, catch the coach to Liverpool
Airport, and fly to Knock, explore Mayo
Pass briefly through Galway. My schedule’s full
For the next five days over there. Meanwhile
I’m relaxing, now everything’s in hand
I’ve made a checklist I’ll check tomorrow
Morning; for now, I haven’t got the will
To pack my bags. My head is in the sand…
Mañana, mañana, mi amigo…

976 - Kids on a plane

I’m sitting on a crowded aeroplane
A warm evening at Paris Charles de Gaulle
The toddlers are all starting to complain
They don’t understand this waiting at all
Is it going home makes them wail and waul?
Red-faced, a tiny girl, despite cuddles
From Daddy, bellows; then suddenly, cool
Now the girl in the seat behind wriggles
But seconds later, she’s become all smiles
Is it their youth makes waiting such a pain?
The plane taxis, stomachs tighten, the small
Unaware of the sudden speeding wheels
Seconds ahead. The Mummies will explain
We’re flying faster than a cannonball
Thur 7 May 2009

947 - Life in a day

This little man has had a busy day
Was dreaming about cricket on the beach
And I chased the ball in a lazy way
By driving my car after it, but each
Time I need rest someone always must reach
My eardrums with a shout or song, and so
It proved at 3:15 am, some French
Drunkard woke me up! I drifted back slow
Into a doze, then up at six; you know
I had to catch a train and plane today
To Northern Ireland to see Martin; such
A long meeting, then home. I said I’d go
To Hebden Bridge music night; saw Deb play
Her flute, I sang, and spoke in rhyming speech
Wed 8 Apr 2009

945 - Tonight's not the night

Thinking of you and listening to The Who
And shortly now Neil Young will have sung
‘Tonight’s The Night,’ but he’s not right; no, you
And me were last night; tonight I’ll just hang
Around the flat, feeling shattered; I’ll bung
On ‘Gomorrah’ tonight, not tomorrow
When I’ll see ‘Space Odyssey.’ That’ll bring
Me down to earth, grounded before I go
To Belfast again on a plane; no snow
This time unlike that last time when I flew
Tonight there’ll be a flight, but not so strong
Or fast as Belfast or last night….Oh, no
Tonight it’s flights of fantasy, not you
Tomorrow, too, ‘Without You’ to be sung
Mon 6 Apr 2009

890 - Travels in Northern Ireland and northern England

Down by the misty Lagan I wandered
Before the meeting about tax began
People walked over bridges, I wondered
How death had undone so many again
Mist dispersed, snowy hills seen, now and then
Cave Hill supreme, Belfast’s Vesuvius
Up and down May Street where titanic men
Built ships now rotting like them and like us
Big yellow cranes seen from taxi and bus
Back to George Best airport, where I sundered
My brief connection with Northern Ireland
Airborne over the coast, Runcorn-Widnes
Then Bolton, Rochdale, Oldham, snow-covered
Eastern hillscape. South Manchester, touched land
Tue 10 Feb 2009

889 - After flying over the Irish Sea at sunset

I’m in the Crown Liquor Saloon, Belfast
And staying at the famous Europa
I flew over fluffy white clouds so fast
And saw the western horizon redder
And clearer than billions of ancestors
Who never flew, and couldn’t even think
This lofty view existed long before
Life had evolved from mere scum in the sink
Of oceans now gone; no, where is the link
Between view and viewer? The need is past!
Living viewer, superfluous once more
These red sunsets do not need me to bring
My blinking assent to a view that lasts
Beauty does not need life or mind. It’s there…
Mon 9 Feb 2009

794 - We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you

Public transport, like public school, can be
A slight misnomer, and for a roamer
Highly dramatic, traumatic maybe
Let the train cause the strain, make you phone the
Person waiting: “Sorry, I’m late home, a
Railwaymen’s strike. Looks like a taxi which
Will tax me.” Strikes me that you’re a goner
If public transport fails the poor man. Rich
And you’ll get there, no scare… but you’ll still twitch
In your first-class plane seat. The meeting’s three
And take-off’s delayed till two. Bemoan your
Fate to be late: this thick fog’s got you stitched
Uptight as night draws in, gate twenty-three
This airport scare’s taught me to stay home more
Thur 6 Nov 2008

791 - Paris on the cheap

I’m off to Paris with just one small bag
To see my daughter in her little flat
Sur la rue de Rivoli - oh, c’est mag-
nifique! John Lennon Airport, Easyjet
To Charles de Gaulle Airport, from where I’ll get
The RER Line B to Châtelet
My daughter will hopefully be all set
To meet me at the Métro entranceway
And then we’ll walk the lit-up streets as they
Lead us through French fantasy-land, agog
An evening café au lait, café nat-
ure (c’est café noir), ma fille? Ah, au lait?
D’accord. As-tu dix euros? The not large
Fund I brought is spent! Sorry about that!
Mon 3 Nov 2008

747 - Sitting in a tin can

Hop on my 747 and come
Fly with me, not to Bombay or Peru
But to some new and far out places. Some
Are in your mind and some tasted in stew
Bought in a can in Sainsburys. A few
Are hiding like the crumbs in your keyboard
Maybe no longer tasting good to you
Old songs sing of these places; so do sword
Marks from our ancient skirmishes. Each word
Will take you back and forth through time; the sum
Total of a life’s travels. When it’s through
(The poem or the life) it’s on record
At each cloud station grab that harp and strum
No angel’s choir, no Frank. Just me and you
Sat 20 Sep 2008

520 - Munich 50

It happened fifty years ago, five years
Before I came into this world. I learned
About it as a young boy, bringing tears
Into my eyes. To learn how fate had spurned
Those great young men whose lives were crashed and burned
In Munich, when the aircraft they were on
Could not take off successfully. Returned
In coffins from the snowy wastes, upon
Which wheels could not find grip, on which they spun
And slid. The plane broke up and cut like shears
Into their bodies. Footballers were turned
Into memories. Like soldiers, soon gone,
Though young and strong, hearts full of song and beers,
Into that black night that tonight is mourned.
Wed 6 Feb 2008

403 - Frequent flyer foresees his death

Should the wings of the aeroplanes be clipped?
Should flights be rationed to just two a year
Unless on business? Taxes haven't gripped
The airlines tightly yet, but they are sure
To do so in the future, more and more
When flights will be too costly for the proles
Who flew too high, splashed out on the sea's roar
And second homes in Spanish watering holes
Fairness suggests a system that just doles
Out one return plane journey, max - all tripped
And happy. But I see the flight path's clear -
Only the loaded will take sunny strolls
As ever, tax will squeeze us till we're pipped
While for flush frequent flyers? As you were...
Fri 12 Oct 07

267 - The free spirit of jazz is in my head

The free spirit of jazz is in my head:
Thoughts fly off on a tangent like a blown
Up balloon with no knot in it; they’re red
Hot, like Paris; like ET phoning home;
Like tongues of flame licking all over Joan;
Like sweetened air, that special sort of rush
I get from labyrinthine saxophone
Or guitar solos, or the mighty brush
Of Bach’s fast-flying fingers. No, don’t crush
These flighty, flowering, quietly inbred
High towers of Eiffel and Gaudi, grown
Out of an abstract ground, fertile and lush.
From earthly bonds to heaven I am led;
In zeppelin and space shuttle I’ve flown.
Tue 28 May 2007