Harmonium
You cut the harmonium strings
and I’ll tie them up each time,
pedals getting higher and higher
till almost vertical, unplayable.
And for what?
Does it spoil your peace?
Do my attempts at sounds,
at music, offend you so?
This family doesn’t do talent, I know.
There is only work.
But you needn’t have worried:
When I came down today
there was this space, gaping,
and through the kitchen window
I saw the fire in the yard,
the contented man, smoking
© copyright df barker 2012
Unforgotten
“All I see is fire — this room
and that wall of books.
The whole building, all on fire.”
I could see that she meant it,
there was a frightening certainty
in her eyes. A conviction
But there was more
She spoke in a way
that would make me remember
Fast forward three years
and a new location:
a radio was blaring.
The name on a news bulletin
made me flinch, go cold
with the dreadful details,
yet somehow half suspected,
in shocking anticipation.
I could see her, so clear,
the way she was looking.
And now, how could I forget?
poem © copyright df barker 2012
galactic crosshairs
fire in a frigid hole
no sure repentance
©copyright dfbarker 2011
*first of a few of these, I may stray from the ‘accepted’.
Windows
we admire the window’s
fine proportions
giving out
onto bare trees
a grey sky
those pervading
stillnesses of space
and the coffee
is good and strong
good enough to take black
to sit back with
and to savour
and listen
can you hear the
crows calling?
they’re telling of
eastern winds
bringing on the winter
which arrives tomorrow
but against
this crackling fire
our comfort is fixed
by your hand in mine
© copyright David Francis Barker 2011
Ciscography 