D J Lewis

This collection is from Pontypridd writer D J Lewis.
(Click on a title to see the poem)

Black Dog
Footprints on the Moon
An Ordinary Day
Looking Back
Lightfoot
Old Train
The Poppy Field
Portrait of Churchill
Lung Shadow
Dad, 22 July 2005
Helpless Chair
October Sighting
My Second Child
Six Bells
Sunday
Morning Sue
Africa
Papyrus Annex
Lion is 50 Bob
A Rainy Wednesday
Now and Then
Your Colour was Love
 

Black Dog

High home summer hill
Straining, sucking, sitting
Staring, stopped and stick-
A pit-prop tight and gripped.

The trees across the valley
Much higher than he can go now.
I pant to reassure him
In time with his withered eyes.

His tongue, tombed gritty green
He's faithful, though he's fading
Bones in death-grey jumper
Where will he lead me next?
 

Footprints on the Moon

Six months of bleak and blue – memories vivid, grained
You left footprints on the Moon – like melted snow.

Autumn leaves have fallen – like tears from your soul
But body’s soups’ forever cold - like ice water flowing.

Eyelids flicker fight – fight silently
Flowers rise amongst the ashes, Spring.

But how long will they grow – how long?
Until hope against hope, dashes golden everywhere.

Fingers of blood – they point, accuse
While fading hearts beat lifeless

And visions of immortality switch from man to child
Broken dreams like broken bones – splinter, shatter, siren.

And dancing snakes surround me
The future stopped back then.
 

An Ordinary Day

Cloaked in horror
January jangles jaded
I sang “Wallflowers” in the car.
I kissed love itself –
“I had noogles daddy.”
The Common was dark this morning
“Isn’t life unfair,”
A smile that filled a cardigan.
 

Looking Back

When I’m 84
The calm after the storm
Sunny and happy –
Wearing her hair as a hat.
“I’ve just had a baby,”
“Today, I sat in three chairs.”
“When am I going to win the lottery?”
… there’s pints of pop and orange and one lager.
 

Lightfoot

Fire, fresh
  Green eyes, gold hair
Tastes of basketball

Flushed bright,
  Fast, fight
Push, shove
  Grab
    Love

A sweat red smile
  All golden
Home, hot
  Start, stop
  Stop, start
Touching night with prayer

Feed ducks
  Again
A poem,
  Kept
    Kiss.
 

Old Train

Whistles stir the beast –
Steamy dawns the dinosaur
Metal monster warmed

…Winter breath
Cold dawn, steam smoke
Working, braking, stopped

Black light
Sleepy tracks
Shadows waking up.
 

The Poppy Field

A sunset
Swaying in summer –
Crowded green grass

Purple pink…
Poppies red
Fields of yellow light

Stretching flat and filtered
Away –
The distant trees are black.
 

Portrait of Churchill

Brooding pug faced tunic –
As heavy as a Lancaster.
Strong as a bull.
He sits thin lipped, silent and pale.
As drawn as a battle –
Heavy papers hem him in.
 

Lung Shadow

Oh glorious birth with spring defending
How wondrous life so young,
When days were warm and never-ending.
There were no shadows on your lung.

Careless smoke and summer wheezes
And all too soon you’d loved and lost.
Broken bones and caught diseases,
Saved all your pennies at all costs.

The vibrant world stands still
As strong men shed a stone a week
They fade and stare at autumn’s will.
Death coughs - plays hide and seek.

The helpless watchers make not a dent
I guess all our lives are waste.
When winter reeks of disappointment.
And all we ever knew is time encased.
 

Dad, 22 July 2005

What happens when your dreams dissolve?
When the future disappears.
What happens when the end’s in sight?
Is it the sum of all your fears?

How can life so bright and long?
Change overnight and cut you down.
How can hopes and future plans all seem
As dead as this old town?

Better to be gone in a flash,
Rather than be hanging on.
To useless time and suffering
‘till the organ plays your final song.
 

Helpless Chair

Your body still now and you’re peaceful.
Since yesterday we’re very breath aware.
With pale blue linen all around you,
We’re understanding what it is to care.

The night is silent, save for you.
Your lungs have travelled many roads.
While drugs are pumped and driven vein-wards,
Your pillows’ heavy with their load.

I guess now is not the end of time,
Although the leaves are turning brown.
We all think winters’ when it snows
But cold can come without a sound.
 

October Sighting

The sky was the colour of the road,
Your hair was like autumn scenes,
The sun crept through and made your smile
all golden,
He was peeping through curtains of clouds.

And your face becomes mine,
Your eyes shine bright,
The memories return like light after night,
Creeping, your longings excite you,
I'm smiling at mirrors -
All of our shape and form.
 

My Second Child

Met you my darling on a Thursday,
We were so at ease, we didn't drink.
So we made love so sweet, so righteous,
We were Christmas all wrapped up in pink.
And the tears flowed, and dropped like rainbows,
Your flowers all disguised as hair and skin.
We opened our eyes to the sound of water,
Rivers of raindrops fell like love.
I guess this is a song for our daughter,
Funny how things go, isn't it ...love?
 

Six Bells

One hundred years ago beneath a hilltop farm,
We lost our sheep to men who did us harm.

Were they English, these men of shit?
No compensation, just sucked down a black pit.

Now old men need colour to get rid of their grey
The blue blood bulging eyes shout at close of day.

But when the deep eyes roll…

    The hand skinny but strong, knows political wrong,
        And there's a city built on coal, with no reminder cut in stone
            That could know the steepness of the hill,
                As his boots hang in shadows still.

How the warmth still glows!

Look, look.
Green fields grass over pain and loss.
His dreams are all of wheels turning.

No more sweat and tears while the green and whites’ at half-mast.
Covered up lies and glory, with supermarkets and food they call fast.

Six Bells ring out a silent chime as they inhale diamonds
Sat alone in small chairs.

As fluid Saxons move to pastures golder,
The valleys they grow ever colder.

    But this dot to dot man, he still remains,
        For you to dip your dollared brushes and help your pilgrim grey.
            For without him you'd be colourless,
                And on your knees you'd stay.

With a voice as deep as horses and a face-etching of hell
He'll protect our little children with the stories he will tell.
 

Sunday

With your hands that once held mine you turn the tired pages.
You're wearing boots and jeans, but best your wearing flowers.
I've never been so unhappy in my life.

Searching smiles and seven thighs,
No luck, just more adventure,
  The wind still blows,
  The drink still flows,
  My eyes still roll
  Around the goldfish bowl.

Chocolate on a Thursday,
Cheese and tomato too,
Pictures on a Wednesday,
Ducks feeding me and you.

Sundays always fuck me up.
 

Morning Sue

Oh listen rain to the sound of her breathing,
Don't tap so loud you might wake her.
In the haze of this morning
She's a shape like heaven.

Don't shine so bright you might blind her,
Oh look at what you've done.
She stirs and turns her head,
Her hair is honey - sticky on my face.

I wonder what wonders she's making?
How much she is giving.
Who is she caring for?
Only the flowers know.

And as I slip back to the safety of my pillow,
She tells the rain to be quiet,
She scold's the sun for burning me,
She kisses my eyes to taste my dreams,
To see all my suffering.

And she wonders what wonders go to make a morning.
As the rain stops we hear the motorway.
Guess he was too kind,
It rained all night, to protect us ...
From the waiting day.
 

Africa

We were all cold
Now we're warm,
You taste of beer
And need to brush your hair -
Tell me something nice.

The kiss of morning dew
Pitter-patters on your eyes,
Night creatures go to sleep
As the daylight appears -
Tell me something nice.

How long can you hold out
In the country of our children?
The rains will come
And the rains will pass -
Tell me something nice.

One day in the distance
We'll be free and happy
The trees will grow, the sun will shine,
And you will smile and love me when -
I tell you something nice.
 

Papyrus Annex

I want to stay forever
Drinking bottled coca cola
On this balcony with view.

There's fishermen moving slowly,
Naked children in the lake.
Swimming close to crocodiles
Six feet away, for goodness sake!

We're sitting, watching Africa,
Lake Baringo, dogs with rabies.
Sheltered from pink, warm water
Women cleaning fruit and babies.

Our new found friends, they speak in dollars.
They're free and true and ready for corruption.
As mothers strip behind the tourist boat.
Fish eagles rest, glad of the interruption.

I know we cannot stay forever,
For time is running fast in paradise....

But at least the Pokot shot a holy man last week.
 

Lion is 50 Bob

The children here kill butterflies.
Their parents pay too much tax.
Watching cricket through their picnics
They put our beer up.

Their sweet-tooth's screw the country,
Dead hippo's poison waters.
They isolate, fail to communicate,
The elephants are rotten.

They've carved a niche in Africa
Amin has been forgotten.
 

A Rainy Wednesday

She comes in at nine thirty, a little late for milk,
'Cos she's twenty three, eyes all over you and me.
She's a princess in the playground,
She's a dream so soft and sweet,
Like a pillow she don't make a sound
Like a nurse she walks on grass bare feet.

And you want to try to reach her.
Help her see the night-life, take her for your wife.
She's so warm but now so cold,
I wonder if she'll remember me at all.
How we used to kick the leaves all gold,
I don't care that she can't play basketball.

What started out as fantasy, has been molded by the wind.
I look at you, you look at me!
The rain so warm and heavy on my skin,
To you a perfect stranger (the company of smiles),
I try to make you go away from within',
Oh! but how the heart can love for miles and miles.
 

Now and Then

Golden leaves in the bluebell field
So much more when you were young.
The horses and the running shoes,
A spaceship full of picnics.

Now you're in a land of fast cars
Grey replaces green and no one seems to care,
But now she's fully “Independent”,
Makes me tea and toast and happy.

Naked information, a mirror of our senses,
Standing up while others lie,
Feeling good and free of shame,
Your body smooth for me to touch.

Africa, or long queues on a Monday?
And washing day comes around so fast,
Strugglin' for our daily bread and jailed for our last trespass,
Seems the love song never really gets to print.

But if we go on believing,
Seeing good instead of bad,
I guess we'll one day look back and see,
That this has all been worthwhile.
 

Your colour was love

Sometimes on a winters day
When the sun has run away,
I take out your songs and photograph
That used to make me laugh.

Your smile so sweet
Your lips like fruit
Your eyes so bright
Alive.

Oh you know sometimes...
Oh sometimes I just love you,
I love you so much, I feel warm inside
And all my dreams, for just a minute they all disappear. 

The leaves are falling near the old church,
I think of you with me.
Kicking, kicking,
Gold before our eyes. 

Your skin so smooth
Your wardrobe full of flowers
Your love so pure and strong
Alive.

I wish you were with me,
I wish I could remember
The colour of your love,
'Cos your colour was all over me,
You coloured me.

Your colour was love.
 

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