A Fragment
The metal black stove
Cooled by nights decay
Forever dads first task
This cottage day reanaiscance
He rakes away yesterday
Now dust as detritus
Quickens the new hearth
Momentum for the wheel
I remembered the room
With its sloping floor
The table the chairs
In place watching listening
By lifes narrative tide
Positioned scraped moved wove
The present silly child
Growing then naming chaos
Where is my mum
Not here in memory
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
A Fragment-2
Wrapped in settling snow from the warm pink
Flakes upon flakes upon patterns and soft geometry
My dad pulls me and sled snow silent
Him the single shape through flake and flake
On getting in home the breath is extinguished
Warmth of different vapours the seer of hot aches
The weight of wet clothes but a discomfort
Sitting and steaming hands in the fire glow
Stars through my window danced upon by rime
Somewhere the full moon shine eases the dark
Covered I lay furtive with an unknown fear
The cold of the space whispered to this hero
The last few nights when through another window
An autumn wind turns midnight into a sanctuary
This turning season places a summons upon chemistry
And accompany its solo even with my ageing
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Olney poems
1
So through the dark
A recalled reality touched
With the unsteady ease
Found in the debris
OF some lost self
Stood there and waiting
A look of accusation
That stroked our conscience
2
The space of slavery
Carried the forelocks acceptance
Dip the guilty finger
in times Holy stoop
Congratulate our present freedom
of these presented blessings
A forelock touched again
The game plays on
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Celadon
Musing on the remains
Some sweet yellow crumbs
A drunk cappuccino clinging
A stain of consumption
This random of entropy
Decorating the not noticed
Everyday mess everyday pottery
Another snack past deserted
The exhibits are serene
Shown in silent display
Encased in self perfection
Ignoring themselves and us
Peerless in the isolation
Their sole reflection themselves
A whispered Celadon presence
Perfect diction in being
Levitating from the shelves
The air is questioned
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Brighton Poem - Work In Progress
I live a prophecy
As homage to Mann
And Bogarde's smug smile
Same draped
The white shirt
The yellow tie
The sea blue
The white paper
Coloured pencil
Uncovered definition
Sea striped some light some dark
Sky stripes of cloud muddle perception
No Tadzio just man and sea
No Tadzio just sea and me
I lean on the green rail
My tailored jacket on my arm
Unsure of that water or land
The world stretched of free perplexity
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Work In Progress - Fragment 4
in the autumn sunshine
we found it empty
the answer we knew
was not then discovered
picking through the debris
the day confounded us
until footsteps of memory
reared an opinion
we all entrap pilgrimage
but Bunyan was out
the scenery of passing
caused illusions to falter
the moot hall erupted
the market green stretched
the journey became unsure
the shrine was lost
while groping for themes
a swollen oak bole
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Music Poem
We had finished lunch - the routine properly followed
a sunlit southern window
opposite the cool other
outside a summer afternoon
so lunch so finished
in some corner playing
the radio goes unheard
into the carpets infinity
I lay flat peering
flicking the occasional pile
nosing its dry dust
sprawling and wasting just
just passing and just
trying to be good
conjouring an instructed rest
but the sun falls
upon the carpet maze
but the sun falls
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Oliver
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!