Regent Street

/in /by

I last walked down Regent Street
On a cool autumn’s night
Legging it with English friends
In muted lamplight

From Leicester Square
Past Piccadilly and Eros
The street deserted
The shop windows numinous

Their winter displays
Coats
Hats
Scarves
A frozen world
Wondrous by half

A flying visit
A surreal tableau
The charisma of London
In an opulent glow

How different it was today
Muggy
Grey
An unbroken wall of people
Marching
The drab reality of a
Resolute crowd
Shopping

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

The Godfather of the Gym

/in /by

A bull of a man
With a grizzled beard
Black
Barrel-chested
Brutal
His gold chain flashing bling
Crouched on the bench
Behind his younger
White
Bulked-up
Girlfriend

Lying forward sinuously
Curving into the curve of her spine
He barked her through her dumbbell routine
Double-weighting mine

‘Four more
Come on
You can do it
18—19
Come on
20’

The metal bench moaned
Under the weight of their
Entwined muscle
The crowded room
Blushed
At their orgasmic intensity

A gangster and his moll
The Godfather of the gym

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

On The Heath

/in /by

Out to escape
The pressure and pace
They sit on the grass
Or under the trees
Sometimes in pairs
But mainly alone
Stripped back
In the sun
To reflect
Or read
Their naked shoulders
Frail
In the heat

The odd jogger
iPod wired
Pants past

Out on the Heath
The lonely crowd
S  c  a  t  t  e  r  s

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

Reflective Counterpoint

/in /by

Slowly we circled the sculpture
The dark-haired stranger and me
Moving through the irregular rooms
Of the Tate Gallery

Pacing each other from different directions
We’d stop to consider the same points of tension

At first she was merely one face among many
But quickly she singled herself out
Fronting her friend with animated eyes
She’d point at the point I’d just scrutinized

We fell into a rhythm this stranger and me
Noticing (but not) what we each had just seen

Surreptitiously I’d factor her in
Sighting the sculpture with her in my frame
Not once did I catch her eyeing me
Yet we seemed to connect reflectively

In the last room we fell into an
Odd
Diagonal
Dance
Orbiting four Elmwoods
From opposite walls
We watched those golden giants
Fracture and change
Each angle
A re-arranged story
Each edge
Bewitched
By the charm of our shared awareness

Then
Reaching the exit
She skipped out
Dispelling the magic
Of her dark counterpoint

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

Speaking In Circles

/in /by

1

An angry man in John Lewis’
Berating the service manager
About the dearth of British goods

A ranting patriot
He spoke in circles
Smaller and angrier
Then
Accusing the manager of indifference
Stormed off
Before she could answer

He looked normal enough
Neatly dressed
Neat hair
But as I think of it
Too neat
Like an overgrown schoolboy
On day leave

2

A giant teddy bear of a guy
At the Royal Academy
In a gallery of abstracts
Pleading
Desperately
With two bewildered women

Distraught
He spoke in circles
Ensnaring them
As they tried to edge away

‘Are there any portraits?
I like pictures of faces.
Can you show me where they are?
I like looking at the faces’

Quietly
I turned
As from a difficult painting

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

Sight Unseen

/in /by

I love my new Ray Bans
The first I’ve ever owned
Not for the filter and look
Though they are classically cool
Their sepia serene
But for masking
My incessant eyes
Giving me the freedom
To scrutinise
Imperviously
The passing faces

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

Heathrow

/in /by

Fuck the terrorists
For disrupting Art’s edginess
Demanding we abandon
Our deeply-reflected themes
For theirs

 

© Ian Lilburne 2010

Poetry

/in /by

Poetry
Is suddenly
Of great importance to me

I can think of nothing worse
Than to set a curse
In verse

 

© Ian Lilburne 2008

Berlin

/in /by

Let there be Berlin
A moment where two friends
Met and touched
Affirming (at last)
An awkward affinity

How apt that this should happen
In such a grand city
Rising from the ruins
Of a too troubled past

 

© Ian Lilburne 2008

Three Prayers

/in /by

1

Cosmic spark
That animates everything
Numinous be thy realm
Thy glory shines
Thy spirit reigns on earth
And throughout the universe
Inspire in us this day
Humility and compassion
And excuse us our arrogance
As we endure those
Arrogant toward us
Lead us not into evil
But deliver us from temptation
For thy divine mystery
Is the spirit that binds us
Together
Forever
Amen

2

I am extremely lucky
I have a privileged life
I’ve not made the most of it
Not learnt to be happy
Yet still I am extremely lucky

3

I long to be
A drop of water in the sea
A grain of sand upon the shore
A fleck of dust upon the wind

My soul longs to be
Free of corporeal captivity
A drop of water
A grain of sand
A fleck of dust

© Ian Lilburne 2006