FOUR DOZEN SHORT POEMS
Leo de Freyne
Fifteen of these poems first appeared in The Rialto (
The majority of the others first appeared in Atlantis (Dublin),
Extra Special (Halifax), The Frogmore Papers (London),
The Haiku Quarterly (Swindon), iota (Chesterfield),
New Hope International (Hyde), The North (Huddersfield),
Poetry Nottingham (Nottingham), Prop (Bolton),
Quest (Halifax), Staple (Matlock), Weyfarers (Woking),
The Wide Skirt (Huddersfield) and Working Titles (Bristol).
Four Dozen Short Poems is available in book form
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1. VISION
21. SAMUEL BECKETT'S KNOCK KNOCK JOKE
30. RELIGIOUS POEM
43. UNTITLED
2. SUNDAY AFTERNOON
3. GLIMPSE
Last night,
Or rather, this morning,
I dreamt of a wood-louse
The size of a rat:
There it was walking down a wall
In my damp mind.
Someone standing beside me
Remarked " 'The size of a rat',
Yes, that's a common phrase."
Although I had not spoken.
6. THE LETTER
I've checked, checked, rechecked the contents:
Now the envelope's sealed.
I want to check again.
Will no one dig up the coffin, make sure it's me?
Though our ageing centipede
Has only ninety-nine feet,
Better keep him on the lead
Till we get to Hampstead Heath.
lips nipple clitoris
smell
say I love your cock
I love my cock
now you've balls
see put your hand down
they rest against you
like they'd rest against me
To keep the dandelions
From showing their cheerful faces,
Let's go spraying poisons
On the spaces between our graves.
The trees have been cut down
And I am getting drunk
They cannot be put up
Not drinking fast enough
The trees have been cut down
You know the way the buds
And I am getting drunk
Although I crossed that out
You know the way the buds
Although I crossed that out
The buds are opening
The last line ends in 'stumps'
They cannot be put up
The buds are opening
Not drinking fast enough
The last line ends in 'stumps'
The Complete Poems
Of D. H. Lawrence
"To think I thought twice
When I saw the price!"
You could die,
Be buried next to someone you don't like:
Look at any bookshelf,
O myself.
13. BOOK
Scribblescribbl
This book belongs to LEO LE
Read to me
I want to sit up on your knee
Have missing pages read to me
Read to me
The cat sat on the lap
Of her owner who was old,
But when the lap grew strangely cold
The cat sat on the mat.
The bird you call your bird
Will die
And be discovered
Down at the bottom of the cage,
Long-shaped
With the two talons stiff
And the eyes slits.
You will rest it on your palm,
Worth none in the bush.
You will bury the bird
Close to the dog you called your dog,
You will look into the cage
And nothing
Will look at you.
16. MARRIAGE
How small
can an aircraft
in a blue sky
be?
If I blink,
I'll let you go.
17. MAD SONG
The moon sits on my mantelpiece,
I found it lying on the beach,
It lay beside a worn-out shoe,
I'd also like to mention you.
But now it seems she changed her mind
And then it seemed that I'll change mine,
We'd wonder if we ever met
And wondered will we ever yet.
The graveyard-keeper marks the place,
The diggers hope it will not rain,
The sea jumps up and licks my face,
The sea jumps up and licks my face.
18. PIANO
Like a kid
I drew with my finger
A feathered arrow through a heart
That now I have to dust away,
And each or every note,
Endure the music,
Close the lid.
19. CITIES OF
Cities of
Considerable millions
Of people, of poems that end
'Where she was turned into a desk.'
D.H.
Is dead
And I am alive,
No, that is not true.
D.H. Lawrence is alive,
I merely survive,
And you?
21. SAMUEL BECKETT'S KNOCK KNOCK JOKE
Silence.
Who's there?
Silence.
Silence who?
Silence.
Spider on the wall
Waiting until its shadow
Has left it alone.
There on the white wall,
Spider and spider's shadow
Where they were before.
23. I'D LOVE TO DRAW
I'd love to draw
The bird I saw
And show to me
The bird I see
And show to you
The bird I drew
Soon as I saw
The bird I see.
24. PURSUIT
Drawing the shadow
Of my hand drawing
The shadow of my hand
25. ANOTHER SPRING
All eyes on a butterfly
Bumping against the stained-glass
Light behind the preacher's back.
I don't believe in anything
Except miracles.
26. THE HOUSE
She's planting the trees
I can't look
His name-plate
Has left an impression on the gate
The trees have become adults
When I look
The windows have been boarded-up
She's down on her knees
27. LINES
A bird slips away
I shake hands with a leafless tree
The only other thing the moon
My father's feet on the peddles
Light-brown sugar between his toes
As we drove up the hill from the beach
28. VALENTINE LINES
A membrane, a skin
Over The Queen of England's mouth I have to slit.
"But she's The Queen of England," everybody cries,
"And must be taken to the hospital!"
"There's no time," is my reply
As I take hold of the knife,
And thus I save The Queen of England's life.
In your next dream you are running
From a man waving a big snake.
29. GALLOPING
Find I'm galloping about the graveyard
On a white horse with a small, friendly mouth,
Up we jump over the stones, galloping
Faster and faster, one of us master.
30. RELIGIOUS POEM
I would read a poem of mine
Published in a poetry-magazine,
And I would read the poems of others
On the same page, on the next page,
On the page before, so back and so forth:
I mean I would try to discover connections
(As I suppose one was expected to)
And I would often spend a deal of time
Musing on the nature of the editor's mind.
31. WAR POEM
The clarity of authentic gunfire,
The sharp crack, crack, I have to admit, I like that,
It's the difference between fact and fiction.
The camera not showing much,
A few puffs of smoke on a distant hill,
Someone running, clutching something.
Cut to careful pan across a bullet-harrowed gable,
Disappointing the viewer who knows
The action's now happening miles away.
Shots of hospital. A baby with only one foot,
Smiling. A man on a drip, beside a sand-bagged window.
When the face is covered it means the person's dead.
Okay, time to come to a conclusion,
Make some ironical comment, or say
I will not say, I will not presume and so on,
Enter the poem in a competition,
Then back to the television.
32. HOPE
I've all of today
To try to remember
What it was that gave me
A feeling of hope.
And tomorrow too.
33. THE GIFT OF LIFE
When my parents gave me the gift of life,
They left on the label, left on the price.
34. COUPLET
That child is not involved in war,
So close his eyes, bind up his jaw.
35. SNAKE
When I saw the snake snaking along,
Naturally I thought "A snake!
I've never seen a snake outside a zoo before,
What a privilege!"
I didn't jump up with a shout,
I didn't beat against the hole
With my rolled-up, Sunday paper,
I didn't make the same mistake
As D.H.
In his famous poem 'Snake':
I've no pettiness to expiate.
My darling, too, was very pleased
When I told her that I'd seen
A snake -- without leave or pardon -- snaking
Along the terrace and down the garden.
36. IN THE CONTROL-ROOM
Before I file it (away)
I glance over the report,
Diagnosis, as I thought,
Heroin-withdrawal.
Second page, second patient,
Child of the former, age 3,
Lobar pneumonia.
(That's an awful lot of sweat
Flowing in a rotten flat...et cetera.)
I enquire of Dr Jones
If he'll have tea or coffee.
As often in such poems,
It's 4 a.m., snowing.
37. YOU WERE OFFERING ME A JAM-TART
You were offering me a jam-tart
But couldn't get one to slide from the packet,
As you extracted the blank piece of cardboard
You joked "This is for you," which made us laugh, or smile.
Soon I was pulling one out with my fingers,
I was eating it, I was munching it and remarked "Ah. Apricot."
"Strawberry," you said. "Strawberry?" I said,
I went on "It tastes like apricot," and examined the packet,
My eye roved among the languages,
"Yes, you're right," I said at length,
Hoping you weren't offended.
38. ICE
People standing on ice
Wondering what will happen,
Stamping their feet
And calling to the would-be wise
"There's nothing to be frightened of!"
Sure enough,
The ice doesn't break,
No one plunges into cold water
Before our very eyes.
Look!
One man heaves and drops a rock
That merely chips the surface,
He does it again, and again
And then gives up.
39. FREEDOM
Write the word
FREEDOM
On a page,
Then hold it before a mirror.
Copy what you see
Onto a separate page.
Destroy the first page
By burning
And flushing the ashes
Down the toilet.
Whenever you feel the need,
Hold the second page
Before the mirror
And read.
Furthermore,
It might be better
Not to write in English,
Better to use
A little-known,
Preferably dead language.
Yes, that would be wiser.
40. NEXT
The concern in strangers' eyes
As they help you up
And hand you back your oranges,
That's the surprise.
41. GOODBYE
I raised my arm,
I waved my hand,
Your aircraft vanished into cloud.
Leaves are falling
To meet their shadows on the ground.
42. CEMETERY
Withered flowers on graves
Brightening as the day fades,
Wreath-ribbons' glitter.
The trees fit into the light
Fits into the trees,
Each shape of grey fits
Perfectly amid the black
Branches of the night.
Less and less able
To remember the names of stars
Clearer and clearer in darkness.
43. UNTITLED
A squirrel along the top of a wall
There's a magpie with a twig in its beak
People in prisons
Squirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirr
For organising unauthorised art exhibitions
The first butterfly
44. MAGIC!
Abracadabra!
You're a cadaver!
Vanish!
45. THE FLY
The fly is walking on the window,
The sun is shining
Or not shining.
The fly is walking on the window,
Walking on the window
In any direction.
I remember
My memory of the dream,
But I cannot remember the dream.
47. SUMMA
The past is a curse,
The present a purse,
The future a hearse
And no second verse.
Because the root of love
Cannot be pulled up,
Let's break it off.
Four Dozen Short Poems is available in book form
from www.lulu.com