Poetry

The Running Girls,

taking my eye through Planet Zero. The shuttered hours, whispering like the lemon grass.

Brandy-soaked, these lost illusions, these twentysomething heartbreak years,

shamed my past life.

The light appears...

Sweet Smile Shine

Let you sweet smile shine, over me

Can't keep my promises

Can't keep my silence

Can't keep my emptiness

Spinning out of control.

In the rosary mornings

These uncontrolled streets bring me home

I'm recalling how we met

In North-East nightscenes

& tomorrows a far cry away

from this cold place

I don't believe I've more

disarray to face

'Sweet Smile Shine' was written in 2003 & was originally planned for the 'Dreams Like Fire' demo. I never finished it, though I still retain the hook - again, like most of my stuff around then, it was for my ex. Looking at this now, it's very final - I was feeling low when writing it. I missed my family etc. Without sounding depressing, I guess I was a bit down. This lyric haunts me, as simple as it is. I found it again whilst living in Sheffield - there's even a reference to 'rosary'! (as in rosary ep).

Jocelyn, How Deep Is the Road ?

So here I am

a liar on the mountain, surrounded by fools.

Well here she be, Jocelyn

the tranquil translucent creature from memory-

did I tell her in the mall?

My feelings were once fallen & tired, like the chair I ponder upon.

We could take a crazy beer ride

over to the city, &

reach for the neon,

Growl like the lions, they walk with a swagger baby...

Teach me all there is to know

& maybe time shall help us grow.

Jocelyn, deep is the road,

Just how deep am I?

7/11/07

The questions in my head, the lovers in my bed, the rockets in the sky - is this a Southern lullaby?

I walked amongst the flowers back in 2002,

the graveyard sung in sweeter tones- the dead

They lay like smoking pillars, industry eyes

on our world.

Maybe Snoopy Lou won't love me,

complex I may seem to be

When all I need is her to understand me.

Forgive me now- the sulking trees are miserable

without your cheeky smile- oh why oh why oh why

Does the night light cry for alcohol friends?

Why oh why oh why is silence

passed away, like a breeze across my face.

8/11/07

Alcohol Movements

Too tired to move around, to curse

the fall & retract into pain.

These movements aside of me have no

Refrain.

For reasons I ponder the sky I'd aflame

With the courteous bowing of incestuous angels.

Religion is wasted on streets with no name,

Whatever the reasons the fields are insane.

Tepid, & fallen like a corn sheaf in a silent manoeuvre.

I've risen once again-

A phoenix from her ashes,

A liar who won't blame.

So, it's a life I enjoy

as I talk with the birds

As I shuffle these words

And disregard fame.

Alcohol movements, o'

Beer & its grain.

Whispers & Talk

Sudden, train rolled & wine tasted, over to the sea

I crawl.

Centuries age

& history's repeating

over & over

the silence of neon rooms.

It's a chance I take,

to reverse my fate & hold onto the past again,

Your face hits me over

& over in a wasp curtained room.

I dreamt this years ago,

some real alienation, some broken reflection

of a guy on the street

But I guess that we're finished,

& all that we had

is now

Whispers & talk-

The gossip may stalk.

Take me back

to your field of transgression, it's

a blessing I found you again

Last year-

But mistakes, they will happen

The rivers are barren

The mountains between us are

green yet revered.

I'm writing this

on a tortured chair,

but there's no despair

in here

Anymore.

I can't tap into pain

Just to sing some refrain

About you

& the cause

& the loss from

Before.

Whispers & talk, like on still lighted avenues,

Whispers, I walk where the black crows see virtues

I'm here if you ever need

some secrecy...

I'm here if you ever need to

Be.*

6/4/06

My Heart Wasn't Right

I think back to my yesterdays

Coffee stained & wire tight

I look back to the light

My heart wasn't right

rivertones

All the water homes

& the rain she knows.

oh, don't wait for me again

5/4/05

Tortured Lights

Your name is my password

At the video store

You drive the very core

of me

& at the end of the evening

I awake

oh, these tortured lights- oh I can feel these...

Reminds me when a morning girl

lay next to me

In the summer rain I can hear you laughing

In these darkened halls I remember you crying

I lost you long ago

Didn't I

these lonely days don't get any better

I'm used to sleeping alone

The neon streets

they hold nothing for me

just a town filled with

BAR FRIENDS & broken infidels

Take me back to the golden fields

the calming waters of home.

you know

Birds & dreams don't fly around here...

Dreams & words, they die around here.

Were You the Girl I Wanted

In dreams, they come

the vampires go

The nightmare of a wounded love

are you still broken.

I walked the streets last night

searching for you honey

But it makes no sense to look

when you are gone.

If you one day decide to turn back

the minutes

& return,

I'll leave this late night burn.

I see a face I used to know

Across the crowded bar floor

But it's not you, honey

it makes no sense.

You're miles away.

Were you the girl I wanted

Were you the girl I wanted

I think so.

29/1/04

roseires dam

when your shadow falls over me

You'll treat me to a Private Show

Steel outlines of the country

Roll past

Its an everlasting curse

Summer & its glory

Moved over the hills

Snoopy Lou's giving up the translucent pills

& I'm making the changes.

Slide shows, these train line reflections

Stood still

My hands on my hips

the westernized sky

lost its flames for a while

The T.V. babies all drowned in the flood.

The Savageness of Mermaids

I'd dream of the sea. The

Wood balming smell, my father

used to wear Old Spice.

The savageness of mermaids, claw lined

to the ocean depths; anger of the calm.

I came here to find myself, to

beat the death wish & find the girl.

I'm content to wait in the

uneveness of summer.

I long to return home, free.

I'd dream of the sea.

I'm afraid of settling down.

The stars in my head won't disappear.

It's at this place I know who my friends

are. Playing my music always leads

me back to the road, constantly

suspect of homes near the sea.

It's fresh.

Memory serves me well, in her

nostalgic weeping. I've no regrets,

only pain. She looked at me as

a thief of love, I stole her beauty.

Feared her words.

10 months & celibacy

is no more a rarer thing.

I shall hang on. She must be

out there somewhere.

Dancing in the cavern.

28/5/03

(c) Mark Daynes