The Geranium Hotel Poems

This is the poem titled Japan Full of rage towards the city I will never know your streets The heartbreak of your command Naked men bathing with bamboo in the wind Cymbal on the wall Characters of gold and earth I want to find your ancient name Your coloured demand There is laughter with this meal No angry silence full of dreams unfulfilled The trout swim well The rocks do not suffer water And here in this Jungle of earth I look for time unspent Train whistles moving further away A moan in the sleep never mistaken for bliss I wish to bathe your sweet skin Smelling of promise and history I wish to walk further I don't know anything anymore I am colourless, bruised A storm cloud moving over the garden My hair gets longer, the children sing The days get shorter, the old people argue I have nothing to say about these new times Can I be your gun? Can I sit in your holster? Can I answer ask you questions As I lay fruit at your temple Sit below your alter I ...

I will follow you Where sorrow cannot fly Wishing the 1000 wishes Of the 33 year old man I believe it is possible I believe it will change With the explosions of fate Somewhere in December And Magic lives starving Amongst the forgotten birds Deep in the east, perhaps in the Himalayas I fix my skeleton With the kisses of locusts and wool I fix the weather With the armies of dead kings I will follow the froth of seas Heavily into the blue Until my feet are bleeding And the fish have red gills But enough of these spells Brought to you by St Valentine I could not believe it was your fault Until I saw the years leave my youth Until I saw the salt thrown For the luck of the town The luck of the church So we hope that the hair falls out With responsibility With the chill of winter Its not the shyness of politeness It's comfort and it's freedom But the radio is on and I want to be naked Drunk and naked Under a fugitive blanket Beneath a calm storm W...

The smoothness of an image Caught beneath so many Here, as the rain falls Beware these recollections Great sighs are proclaimed Loud and through the trees Where final leaves are falling Purple, serrated, full of sorrow And muscles are pulled Limbs they are arched Creases become catchments The skeleton becomes a wall Great Lakes are filled From the rain on the ground Great reflections are felt As they ripple away Water is everywhere Water it canters Like horses, wild and fast Useless we stand As the world throws us around We pretend we can rise Yet we simply spin from east to west We gain no foothold In the soil full of rotting leaves In the ground of this island So we look out beyond our ledge From the border to the sea And we think of an island Full of expression and song Full of each other

I'm not going to fall far By all means you are welcome to watch me land Hear my body break against the earth As though the planet itself is punishing me As though life has strung me along And today is the day in which I catch up with it I could discuss the death of a man Perhaps he is a banker? Perhaps he will shoot himself behind an inn? Perhaps I am just a child? This man lives and I am not Berryman I cannot talk of the anger of an other I cannot talk of escape or money or emotional bullying Only of lying in a small military room With a great man next to me One who is now married, successful, distant Although his smile is still sweet and uncomplicated Does he fear the future? Does he look at the past with a great reverence Is he and his memory my religion? Am I to be chasing this smile until we are on our death beds? Do I forever move into my future While smelling the perennial flowers of old lovers Do I count my blessings to have known such men? Do I th...

We swallowed the stars So we could spit tiny asteroids We burnt the geraniums So we could smell of history's fire We walked against the wind So we could hear the door of Olympus close We climbed the Kenyan hill So we could see what was abandoned with care We kicked at the pumice and ash So we could remember Pliny We swam naked in the ocean So to link the old and new countries We lit the candle of religion So we could see the hand to hold We packed bags and built a castle of clay So we could hide from the angels screaming We caught the birds and tied them to the mask So they pulled us to the shore We read the books on how to love So we could recognise the temperate changes We left Greece, for Spain and Spain for a dollar So we could walk to France We made love together, alone, in the dark So we could see if we would change We stole a small boat and could see new colours at night So the dark was all velvet, the water was green We hugged chest to chest for...