Quest?

(The question we will all ask in the unlikely event
that there is a hereafter).

We, all of us
carry one question
from birth to dust
our life’s account
is richer thus,

unasked, unsolved, unanswered
this question leads us on
to find the learned place
where thoughts, wonderment
and inquisition rest in peace,

to the guardians
be they angels, witches, demons, gods
we offer up our charge
the question passes
and the answer is….?



© Graham Sherwood 09/2015

Snapshot

(first peer at a dull morning).

My nose warily parts the curtains,
it's a stubborn,
can't be bothered day,
a timorous dishevelled morning
has been summarily elected,
poked in the back by the sharp stick
of the bullying afternoon
and left to wobble nervously
on the indecisive plank of dawn.



© Graham Sherwood 09/2015

Monologue

I hear the ends of sentences
before you have spoken,
the words echo and boomerang
backwards
an argument at odds with itself,
I am ever surprised,
devastated or elated
by these palindromic shuttlecocks,
hit hard, but landing softly
spiked backchat of barbed ire,
designed to stun not kill
this very one-sided conversation.



© Graham Sherwood 09/2015

For Mehmet Ciplak

was the salty water warm
that stroked his head?
was that tiny bundle lighter
than your leaden heart?
can you ever notice beauty
or watch the blue waves break
and hear that familiar
chisk and claw
ebb and flow
without his stranded flotsam
seared into your view?





© Graham Sherwood 09/2015

Koan on a Wish

An old man grants a young girl a wish
for she has done him a kindness
and it is also her birthday.
After her protestations
she agrees to make a wish
but the wish will not come true
if anyone is told its nature.

How does the old man know her wish
and will the wish come true?




© Graham Sherwood 09/2015

Silver Birch

cool on palms,
smooth
this pigskin mottled
paper bark
proudly worn,
wraps wary bulbous
ocular knots
a stand a sentinel
for these silver powdered ghosts,
whose brisking leaves
bugle the call
about! about!



© Graham Sherwood 09/2015