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Ian Love Poem
another typical day, with feet on the ground
ordering the hedge to meet my image of trim
many measured bits fall before the cutting edge
casual thoughts detach, is there anybody in ?
then some mental inner disturbance jangles
with corresponding jig, nerves rip in deeper
following the run of a stalk, the hang of a sprig
so prune the untidy and unwelcome creeper
a movement to the side of my eye is caught
something is scared, behind dense vegetation
the fast beating breast of a baby brown bird
a frantic flutter and then much aggravation
descends to the pavement in fear driven escape
panic ruptures in flood, under a half sliced-off wing
chest partly open, feathers flecked red with blood
cupped warm in my hand, young life does cling
grim realisation, fledgling with no hope
pressure leaking, ebbing from a dying heart
but then our eyes meet, answers it is seeking
'where's my mum, when can my flying lessons start?'
the deed is now done, the light that shone has gone out
just the salt of my tears at this horrible juncture
the killing of one hundred and fifty million years
and this clumsy ape's evolutionary puncture
undiluted guilt, too much concentration to bear
to forgive and assuage, soothing rational thought
replacement anger and even more depressing rage
bombs target children when careless wars are fought
imagine that child, in screaming terrified terror
in mortal trouble, reduced to core instinct base
an external world has turned your home into rubble
'where's my mum, why can't I see her familiar face?'
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2017
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Ian Love Poem
the wealth of norman England is poised to grow
towns enlarge, markets exchange, a fresh fertilising sprinkled culture
kingdoms extend with numbers reducing
old and new empires jostle, reshaping across continents and islands
what of England's exploited common people ?
thirty odd years, grinding lifespan under yoke of nature and powerful men
some twenty-eight thousand slaves, their chains recast
submerging in land of toil, one and a half million serfs, feudal tenure
serving hierarchical masters and lords
means to ends of ambitious persons, kingly and ecclesiastical
bodies supplied for food, battle and pleasure
social systems of necessity, fear and status, capital and labour
promises promises, marriage, ambition
martial opportunistic rulers from the Duchy of Normandy
Norsemen upon Norsemen, top-down history
veneer of eight thousand foreigners over Anglo-Saxon England
old nobility orders quelled and subsumed
a new imposing Franko-Viking and Gallo-Roman aristocracy
military prowess with a pious bent
royal administrative structures, replacement earls, abbots and bishops
cross-channel semi-absentee supplanted rule
building castles, installing garrisons, subduing rebellion, gaining land
more danegeld placation, writs, charters, records
Latin, elite Gallo-Romance... Anglo-Norman arising
divine and earthly rule by monarchs supreme
constrained by wily popes playing alternative papal legate games
competing families claim crown succession
the identity of England deepens, widening, diversifying
churches built with magnificent sturdy presence
protected forests, monastic revival, canon and common law
high birth, elevating spires, merchants and courts
spreading French as a second and intermediate, infiltrating language
determining social level through schools and trade
dynamics blending ancient Germanic tongue and Roman parlance
fluidity, precision, layers of meaning
short notes in the wind, longer softer melodies, the sounds of England
expanding country, alert and on its toes
conflict with royal Scotland, pushing into Wales, eventually Ireland
acquiring half of France, managing civil war
assertive, devious, treacherous, conniving, alliance and attack
seeking reward, endeavour beyond the shore
positive feedback seeping down, common people absorbing England
foundations of a becoming English state
will of higher authorities, church encouraging folk to bend the knee
earthly wages, compensation in heaven
commoner before the throne, the cross and military lordly commanders
the trumpet of victory and time passing
a mighty other-worldly purpose aligned with king, god and England
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
across the Doggerland dogged people trudge
Neanderthals, Heidelbergers...Sapiens, the last ones standing
hairy mammoths, heavy life bearing down
the mighty maw of an ice wall crunches, enforcing southward retreat
remoulding the land for the next migration
steady thawing reveals a white-cliffed island, gleaming in the distance
just visible beyond the sea channel flood
eyed by shifting continentals, dark haired folk from Iberia
warrior tribes, an evolving Celtic realm
chieftains exert loyalty, communal living in changing weather
mindsets underpinned by natural rhythms
seaways and rivers become highways, ships delivering destiny
cohorts occupy a Britannia rump
civilisation probing northward, agents of a Roman empire
military encampment, governance
settlements, forts, roads and villas, the written word, trade all ramping up
intermingling eastern cults of deity
Christian monotheism layered over polytheistic tendencies
defensive walls, Scotti raids from Hibernia
piercing Picts from Caledonia, continuing mainlander incursion
overstretched, imperial crisis impending
imperative to save the soon to be vandalised seat of power
leaving behind a weakened island flank
waves of Germanic tribes, ... Angles, Saxons and Jutes
a name takes root, Engla Land
a tribal ' aenglisc ' language coalescing short of Cymru and Dumnonia
unifying strength in the face of others
the usual raiders, now joined by Vikings, yet more continentals
Christian footholds confined to the west and north
written word disappearing, Anglo-Saxon dominion in Engla Land
seven kingdom heptarchy, ... Wessex, Sussex
Essex, Cantia, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria
heart of Engla Land, this sceptred island core
focus for missionary emissaries of Rome spreading influence
to the pagan locus or the long way round
through Hibernia, Dalriata, Scotti lands down to Lindesfarne
a Danish dominated North Sea empire
partitioning Engla Land, making war and peace, danegeld everywhere
danelagh holding sway east of Wattling Street
vassal kingdoms, viking strongholds from Scandinavia to Russia
the Irish coast, Isle of Man, Scotland, and Wales
inexorable drive of Norsemen through the Low Country to Normandy
much machination and devious interplay
kings, lords, bishops and monks, armies, coinage and marriage
priesthood, sainthood and kingship intertwining
eventual end of Danish rule, three main contenders to ascendency
an English earl defeats a Norwegian king
but a Norman duke wins all, succeeding to the throne of England
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
futures cavort below the horizon
an expectant dawn glows, duly announcing the first born arrival
tomorrow then forward smiles, feeling good
half planned momentous moment, ordering fate, shaping survival
surf wave crests on a rising tide of change
present of crinkled being in distant drumlin land of mountain beach
wall art celebration, welcoming warmth
wayward water falling just beyond the familiar fountain reach
special bundle of joy, laughter and tears
three generations wrapping briefly about the pivoting child
our trio of hope leaves a troubling land
babe in arms, love focusing purpose, semi-immigrants beguiled
vibrant cosmopolitan coloured city
horseback ride above Caribbean rhythm, ganga whiffs, deep base sound
rub-a-dub-dub, second child, dancing feet
love off-sprung onto a magazine cover front, duo on the ground
northwest trek to realm of changing light
over the hill of thankful rest, to the peninsular land descending
islands, seaways, mountains, canal and lochs
coastal woodland framing, encircling, communal homely friending
song dancing rhythmic rhyme, carefree children
a magical domain implanting time-spun forever memory
such sadness sowing hope, the leaving stage
goodbyes caught by the gusting wind, emerging turbulent energy
parental pride in gentle rebellion
way of life, no animals feeding more intelligent choice
moving beyond old living, dying ways
youthful meaningful action with empathetic indelible voice
off to urban knowing, creativity
the flatlands around the learning spires, the wild west of another land
dysfunctional capital beating heart
low summit haven where the rural idyll hides from the unplanned
seeds with wings not quite settled in the wind
touching young minds, talented teachers of craft and forward living
two divergent yet convergent creatures
love off-sprung, impressing the world with memorable thoughtful giving
then new birth upsets the peace and quiet
caring boy with talented limbs fast running, a demanding head
dazzling gymnasium sibling sister
children prance along the water's edge, their forest fledgling love is spread
the cosmic city one, motion pictures
her created infants dance in strange fantastic worlds where dreams befuddle
full circle now in our ancient sojourn
her new bright belated gift of staring, smiling love, arms raised up to cuddle
time of cusping, poised on the tipping edge
two have become seven, journeying to uncertain destinations
our name has feeling still gathering strength
the perilous thrill of tacking down the drift of life's determinations
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
kaisers, kings, emperors fight for territory
dispensable bodies left in the ground on foreign soil, unreturned
militarisation of memory and folly
an Irish nation half-wrenched from a bloodied and wearied empire
red royalist hands command the northeastern corner
southern civil war averting greater confrontation in the north
division time-frozen along clumsy county lines
uneasy breathing space for settling down and looking forward
a future disturbed, distorted, deranged
fascist and far-eastern empire building, convulsive harrowing holocaust
humiliation rearmed, racial onslaught
Ireland hunkers down in numbing neutrality, the past still hurting
the north parading cross-water loyalty
deepening links with a not yet fully trusted mainland neighbour
the common cause of war now more apparent
soldiers die in hundreds of thousands, citizens perish in millions
hemmed-in mindsets corralled by northern uplands
the Mournes, Slieve Donard, Carlingford, Gullion and Cuilcagh
the sprawling Sperrins, Trostan and the Slemish plug
Divis and Cave Hill at the back of Belfast, overlooking a city divided
gerry-meandering around in-built majorities
civil wrongs, community suppression, booming priests, long years of strife
walls are built, tit for tat, atrocities shared
para-military vested interest, ...no surrender!...rebel cries!
prevailing winds ameliorate and change direction
European and American knocking of Irish and English heads
to support a coming together of two peoples
on a partitioned island where thoughtful memory moves inexorably
like rivers of time through the Lough Neagh basin
eventually reaching the ocean where geology and giant steps are visible
Lough Foyle heading out beyond a two-named city
to seamless stunning beauty along the Donegal and Antrim coasts
where agreement can still be undermined
storms emanating from English belief in its belittled greatness
seeking to build its own island fortifications
straining Scottish union near point of breaking and self-determination
but the mists of Ireland lift and dissipate
exposing deeds, judgements and hypocrisy of church and narrow people
shafts of sunlight entering young Irish thought
the tectonic journey around the continental mass continues
traverse this island high above the fray below
Lugnaquilla to Galty, Knockmealdown to the Bens of Connemara
Slieve League to Craogh Patrick, Brandon to Binnion
Errigle and Muckish, magnificent sentinels to sad days in Derryveagh
but God, his angels and saints will move aside
as the two Irish minds fly up beyond to explore the heavens
to imagine impossible possibilities
mucky orange and green replaced by a worldly efflorescent blue
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
chieftains trade their loyalty behind the clouds
high mountain king Carrantouhil commanding his Macgillycuddy Reeks
men of begotten rank, scheming skulduggery
secrets hide out of sight, Comeragh mystery shrouds Coumshingaun
flighty earls flee from the Lough Swilly shore
priests conspire, a king, a queen, a lord-protectorate exact revenge
imported evil stalks the land and soul of Ireland
near-on half give way, massacre, starvation, transportation and slavery
annexation by stealth, abomination
exposed Shannon artery, remorseless draining through lakes of tears
solidified karst corpses dissolving
into central mireland, ringed by coastal ramparts and remnant towers
turloughs disappear where the ground is leaking
playboys drink from black frothy pools of humour where the craic is good
where sad refrain gives way to rhythmic distraction
where song, stories, poetry, plays and dance merge in murky island brews
native chiefs are stripped of their Ulster lands
to control, anglicise and civilise a rebellious region
the area most resistant to English rule
official and private plantation, top to bottom colonisation
Gaelic hands across the channel disrupted
Scottish and English incomers, presbyterian and church of England
town and country, protestant domination
Irishmen uniting for briefest moments on higher ground
descent into cold depths of history
the Cliffs of Moher plunging from The Burren's bald barren bleakness
disfigured fingers pointing blame, shame and guilt
like the peninsular lands, Beara to Iveragh, Mizen to Dingle
stretching out to a new land of migrating hope
escaping abuse and clutches of long-robed men and women
the stifling heavy hand of implanted culture
two main layers of tradition now overlaying an unfathomable past
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
born under the sea, an irresistible force
two bodies reluctantly embrace, shunting, shifting, tectonic drifting
alongside the southern Iapetus Ocean
equatorial deep-time child of Laurentia and Avalonia
journey northward, surfacing, submerging
surfing the waves again, a colder Hibernian dalliance
precariously perched on Eurasian plate
old bedrock confused, youthful erosion above the ancient order
darkness entombed around channelled winter light
early New Grange civilisation, the Boyne valley before the blood
river mouth vikings, raiding, assimilating
birth of the coming capital, eastern stronghold, Baile Atha Cliath
chain-mail Norman conquerors castle-building
appointing pious supplicants with sword, cloth, crook and cross
wholly unholy alliances unravel
rival hierarchies sharing ill-gotten earthly reward from overseas
saintliness, brutality, men and women
expanding Christendom, pagan kingdoms adjusting to defeat
Patrick, Brigid, Columba, Columbanus
Irish civilising roman catholic conduits, Dalriata to Lindisfarne
outreaching, a strand of Irish character
yet to encounter future revisionary metaphysical thought
protestant rebellion, mainland overspill
praying elites competing, preying on the island's god-fearing people
avian watchers on Skellig pinnacles
warm ocean currents well-up, catching the southwestern gale
enduring the ill-will of nature and man
supplanting, subjugating, saving souls, the power of might and fear
treachery within or well beyond the pale
fair and dark hair, ginger genetics existing on the edge of life
tossed thin people hanging on, many leaving
scraping blighted ground, returning to the sea, promise of the unknown
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2018
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Ian Love Poem
I live in middle land between fuzzy bottom
and the high hazy skies
I peer down quantum wishing-wells, waves entangle
observed as they collapse
I scan beyond forever where dark matter lurks
in unforeseen disguise
I think I am, I blink, ... something is shifting there
reality perhaps
I count the zeroes descending beneath my eyes
to out of sight below
I sum tens of noughts piling to the very brink
of distant space and time
I ask why half-way along this fourth dimension
our knowledge seems to grow
I ponder my vantage, asymmetric centre
position so sublime
I play with grateful gods gathering me in close
where when can be no more
I move by osmosis, membrane passing on through
the other side of hope
I absorb persona essence, no hereafter
no self was here before
I am continuous love, joy and pain caressed
I am the learning-scope
I seem potent but feel a much greater power
the birth of potential
I flow with constant change, buoyed up by warm current
rising through the ocean
I feel procession from the dizzy atomic
to cosmic sequential
I record the dancing rim of life, strange song soothed
holographic lotion
I stir prime numbers, multiple integer broth
then fractions of the whole
I greet the old ones, memories morph and cuddle
sprinkling their magic hue
I mingle many species, their varied voices
shape the galactic goal
I embrace fallen youngsters, stricken babies scream
all pleading to renew
I swing with orchestral relatives, out of time
off-beating ticking clock
I watch minds simplify, beguiled by certainty
discordant chords strumming
I am blown by the erratic winds of zeitgeist
zig-zagging round the block
I pause to query, am I this zany creature
half-way to becoming?
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2019
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Ian Love Poem
I can ride with galaxies out of sight
explore the far edge of everywhere
I can pause to walk at the speed of light
surf the wave that curves, collapse time that slows
I can do little things, descend from height
share those moments with more canny creatures
I am fluid crystal, chill breath of air
born expectant, soft re-imagined shapes
I am the drifter in my garden lair
blankets cover, abiding imminent
I am stretched-out molecules mingling there
potential plaything with pristine features
I await for movement, for some signs above
footprints crunch the silence, crescendo yell
I gather as warm fingers push and shove
heave my half-formed body, my tumbling roll
I mould together, coalescing love
still blind and deaf to these tiny screechers
I receive head on shoulders, scarf and hat
carrot nose, potato eyes, mouth of twigs
I hear with ears poked open, child-like chat
free-dancing nymphs around my bulbous frame
I am " The Snowman " they caress and pat
joyous, full of life my youthful teachers
I feel passing heat as they flit away
focused beams of sun have melted my heart
I dissolve smiling, daring dreams hold sway
wise looks of transient, naive wonder
I remember, ...... unbelievable day
innocence built by cosmic out-reachers
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2021
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Ian Love Poem
margins stimulate and juxtapose
edges greet with troubled, disturbing friction
faraway forces exert influence and combine relentlessly
how the Sun and Moon dance together about the planet Earth
their grasping hands pull the tidal movement around the ocean
caressing the shore beside the sea
near the coast expectation rises
enter first a magic land of machair and marram grass
where improbable miracles bloom with bright desert flowers
noise muffled in a quiet oasis clearing between tall tufted clumps
tucked below the dunes, cut with crumbling suggested sandy ways
hear a distant rhythmic w-a-s-h of sound
mating dragonflies pause and dart
ladybirds unfold their wings and count their spots
caterpillars crawl to their next destination, while skylarks swoop
excitement follows the wild sky, strange light reflecting
scramble on all-fours, hands and feet anticipate, something in the air
almost there, ... one final muscle burn!
stumbling up and over, breathe in
smell the shore, seaweed, salt spray, dimethyl-sulphide
chest and head positively bouncing, zest of negative hydrogen ions
senses merge sound and vision with slowly shifting interaction
eyes drawn over blowing sand and shallow sloping flotsam zones
carry on down to the edge of the world
flecks of vegetation catch the cheek
minute mineral grains sting, whip the pain of pleasure
playing out snaking shapes, moving as one across the beach
scurry before the wind, piling curvy shapes on half-hidden debris
kick off shoes, scrunch the toes, stretching over damper sand
walk in elation along the shoreline
rapid air snatches at the ocean
surface waves congregate and cumulate
frequency sequenced, forming, gathering, advancing
some monsters arise with their innards backlit, rolling, tumbling
collapsing, cascading, pounding, splurging, foaming, tossing, spraying
watch for hours, mesmerized
waves retreat along the shoreline
overwhelmed by the next inward rush
overlapping runs, ridges raised with eddies pooling
never exactly repeating the reach of the last pounce of the sea
gentle thump crashing, slap of a dying wave, sibilance splashing
feel alive, feet tingling wet
the constant tide moves in and out
gyrating current arriving from the dark cold depths
where sea birds dive and gannets plunge fast disappearing
feathered eyes observe, awaiting signs of flashing life and prey
perched on irregular craggy rocks below the jutting cliff defence
know that this is a dangerous place
once a refuge for hominid species
they were quartered in now-uplifted coastal caves
bones scattered across the floor, etchings on the wall
seaward bounty in times of climate change, encroaching drought
profound maritime influence resonating throughout prehistory
hear that eerie seashell sound
go further back in deep, deep-time
when cells were formed, enclosing and sealing fluid
when copying the chemistry of ancient seas into our salty blood
life evolving from smoking fumaroles, eventually flopping onto the land
gaze longingly at expansive water covering most of our oceanic world
learn to swim with the tides of our past
leap forward now to modern times
when armies escaped or invaded the beach-head
bombardment, landing craft, machine guns, tanks and men
floating bodies, barbed-wire entanglement and exploding mines
where shadows of valour and fear still roam between old fortifications
honour the dead and learn to avoid
for those countries on the margin
ripped apart by imperial and national ambition
people flounder on sinking boats, incredulous voices implore
acknowledge 'our' lives for 'your' future is caught up in 'our' existence,
in 'our' survival, 'our' acceptance, 'our' thriving, 'our' contribution
prevent 'our' children being washed ashore!
Copyright © Ian Love | Year Posted 2017
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