I have a new collection of poetry for sale in various media, see links below for details.
I am grateful to Tim Roux and Night Publishing.
Tag: poetry
‘Yggdrasil’ – a poem and a tribute to the ash tree.
Yggdrasil
When I see the ash I always pause
to admire its strong, primitive grace,
its carboniferous-like leaves,
those impressions I might find
in a piece of coal.
And when I stand underneath,
placing my palm on the grooved bark,
I think of Woden
who hung himself here in a tempest,
like a questioning proto-Christ,
intent on finding answers. The runes.
I rest my spine against the bole,
asking the energy to flow through
as I gaze up into the blue,
dappled through countless greens.
But I find no runes strewn hereabouts,
no answers at all,
merely a branch snapped off in a storm.
I will take it home to carve and to care,
before setting out once more
to taste this electric air.
© copyright David Francis Barker 2011
New Poem about travelling in Canada… aaah!
Long Train
I’m going to catch that train,
so I can watch panoramas roll by,
their gently unfolding stories,
and pinch myself into believing
I’m seeing the Canadian Shield.
I’ll drink endless cups of coffee
while chatting with fellow travellers.
Perhaps make a friend or two,
and we’ll exchange stories about homelands
and climate change and places never seen,
maybe raise a glass of schnapps or single malt
to toast Ontario, just to ease it all along.
We’ll swap addresses and emails;
I’ll start a blog on my laptop
where I’ll write some pithy lines
with quotes from my friends,
to capture the spirit of Saskatchewan
and Alberta, while the people back home
simply won’t believe my progress.
I’ll produce a battered guitar
from my back pack and we’ll
write songs together about places we see
and sing familiar tunes like Yellow Submarine
to help pass the darker hours.
And when I finally see the Vancouver skyline,
I’ll look forward to the Pacific,
my first sight of the sea.
Or maybe I’ll just sit here in the warm,
and stir more sugar into my tea.
© copyright David Francis Barker 2011
‘Scorpio’ – Sex and death… read more musings about life!
Scorpio
Sex and death, death and sex:
is this all there is?
Is everything else in between
mere lies and nonsense
like a mountain of trash
to fill our emptiness
and to ease the unbearable agony
of being alone?
We are sickened by the truth
of our parents copulating,
the thought of their bodies, lifeless,
unable to help us anymore.
Either one is unpalatable, extreme,
staring at us twenty four seven
with laser beam eyes in the dark
waiting for psycho-babble to fade
and our heart to wail at the sight
of the scorpion’s tail
copyright David Barker 2009
Today’s Poem – Who was this man?
Corpus Christi
(for Kit Marlowe)
A voice calls from across the cold centuries,
a harsh whisper in my ear.
There is merit in what he says,
enduring years of indoctrination,
speaking out against that which bore him.
The town of empty palaces, of inordinate wealth,
forcing him to re-position,
to consider the advocacy of freedom,
though mere anarchy in the eyes of the state.
But wait, before you all condemn,
just as a spy must provoke and take a stance,
so a playwright may also be a player.
Does he ask, ‘what kind of world could this be?
What pure lives might we lead?’
If only we could accept the sight before us –
the corruptible body of Christ.
© copyright David Francis Barker
Ciscography 