The Idle Owl

[theidleowl]

Anticipation, expectations,

Inspire this dictation,

I’m hanging by a thread,

It’s tight but it won’t snap,

I should find me some foundations,

Stretch a net across to the station,

Eat a spoonful of ambivalence,

It’ll catch me should I forget my cap

People look at it from all angles,

But decisions, options strangle,

All can see the carpenter’s dead,

But there’s no footprints to and fro,

The longer that he lays there,

The less the sense remains here,

He fell into the fetal position,

And yet retained his chapeau

The affair began by the streetlights,

Like snow she was dressed in all white,

They sauntered through the cobbled streets,

Excusing it as living in the now,

But now it changes to then,

And then fails us time and again,

The stars in this globe won’t hold,

When the clock turns it over like a plough

[theidleowl]

The sky electric blue behind wisps of ash,

Over the road by the hammock lies the whispering grass,

The traveller lays there imagining Charles Monet,

In the bay to the right above the sprinkled bouquet,

There’s a scatter of conversation by the wicker chairs,

Discarded pasts float on up through the air

In the city at night the road is painted in gradient,

There’s a smattering of lanterns in a crescent they radiate,

A hubbub of excitement hums on the rooftop bar,

To the eyes at the top life below is bizarre,

Lessons thrown around like invisible flares,

Discarded pasts float on up through the air

Trains to new destinations and thumbs up by the road,

From island to island old habits corrode,

Aircrafts pepper the sky restraining adventures for now,

From the temples of Peru to the Cathedral of Bilbao,

When you only know one thing how can you compare?

Discarded pasts float on up through the air

[theidleowl]

The coffee it helps

Quench this dull headache

I’ve had now for numerous days,

Too many late nights

Ales and tablets

I’ve burnt up my turn of phrase

You ruthlessly call me

And tell me quite firmly

That this time it really is it,

I press the red button

Dig my head in the pillow

As the message it slowly transmits

In this strange room

I don’t at all recognise

All this clutter surrounding the bed,

It makes no more sense

Than the apathy circling

In the nest at the front of my head

I’ll lay here all day

Until this numb goes away

And motivation returns to my bones,

The air here is stagnant

It’s so hard to drift off

When dragged back by one's slatternly clothes

[theidleowl]

Four instant coffees down,

My synapses are hazed,

I cut my way through the hedge,

A shortcut in this maze,

I hear a humming in the distance,

Probably the grate of tinnitus,

I don’t have enough enemies,

And too many people that I trust

Feel like I’m floating,

On feathers above the ground,

Life doesn’t feel real anymore,

The past has been rewound,

The crows are busy squawking,

And I hear nothing but songs,

I swear everywhere I walk,

There’s a clatter of applause

I must have escaped the cave,

And now my surroundings all seem light,

Everything moves out the way,

Nothing puts up a fight,

The trees lining the road wave,

To the souls that they’ve brushed,

I’m just living in the moment,

And struggling to adjust.

[theidleowl]

We walk to the car,

Your arm linked with mine,

We walk to the car,

Your arm linked with mine,

Our steps are synchronised with each other,

The wet tarmac shines

I can’t read your mind,

But I can study your eyes,

I can’t read your mind,

But I can study your eyes,

I think there’s something more here,

Than what your words comprise

I’ve always wondered where my soul was,

Thought it was in my head,

I’ve always wondered where my soul was,

Thought it was in my head,

But I know it’s above my heart now,

I feel it flutter as we tread

I wish you shared your feelings,

Laid them out more regularly,

I wish you shared your feelings,

Laid them out more regularly,

But then few things are more exciting,

Than unsolved mysteries

There’s a muttering drizzle,

From the silent sky,

There’s a muttering drizzle,

From the silent sky,

My feathers may be wet,

But I can’t help but fly

[theidleowl]

I can't remember the last time

I saw a white cloud

Used to lie in the grass and make designs

While their delicate lines I browsed

But now all that's left are these grey skies

The ashes float like leaves

I'm not sure what they disguise

Perhaps someone's memories

The gunshots I heard the other day

The only signs of life

I can't stop thinking of the dichotomy

They likely came as someone died

Wise white trees in the light breeze crack

Like staccato existential cries

The branches they fall to the dried tracks

As if leading me to a surprise

I walk the country I've not seen a soul

For thousands of hours now

All I have for company is the sound as I stroll

And these songs that have come to me somehow

The birdsong has long since gone

Now I just wake to the wind

It used to whistle its way through the corn

Now it just howls in sin

I stumble on and look for food

But it's harder and harder to find

To my death these houses now allude

Abandoned and for everything mined

There's a metal silo in the distance

It clangs and it creaks

The optimist hears offers of assistance

Though I know the outlook is bleak

I walk around, someone's already been

Piles of empty tins of beans

I kick them at a figurine,

What the hell do my actions mean?

I walk the country I've not seen a soul

For thousands of hours now

All I have for company is the sound as I stroll

And these songs that have come to me somehow

[theidleowl]

Meet me by the door grab my coat off the hook,

Let's walk through the city's crowds,

We can talk about things often overlooked,

Separate the sky from the clouds

[theidleowl]

We've walked the island late at night

Around diffuse liquids of light

My soul it's been buzzing a tune

From bar to bar we went and laughed

Our words they followed the downdraft

Kicked out into the shadow of the moon

The pebbles crunched beneath our feet

Our words accompanied the bleats

I leapt to show the power in my legs

The wind it shivered through my teeth

The sun it scattered on the heath

Playful touches separated by our threads

Sat on a rock by Stanage Edge

Rustic colours to the distance stretch

Something inside me sparks and then almost ignites

I kicked the lettuce to the crack

We held hands and turned back

Your eyes like glowing bracken in twilight

The lime green and the muted browns

Spark thoughts and visions and raised brows

You shuffle up and rest upon my dreams

You ask me as if it is tradition

What would I do with my three wishes

I'd throw up time and tear it at the seams

The first night that you came and stayed

I remember every word you said

The whispers joyfully bounced around my brain

We woke up in the morning light

Our eyes they met my mood was bright

You put on your coat and kissed me in the rain

[theidleowl]

You danced on the parquet floor,

In my head after dinner,

In reality you just sat,

And talked until the slowing of the spinner,

You were close enough for me to feel,

Your aura bouncing between our skin,

But not close enough to feel,

The feelings contained therein,

The stars, have their shine,

Overshadowed by the streetlights,

The lorries and forklift trucks,

Have stopped their engines in the twilight,

The reverse signal blares into the morning,

It's going the reverse of time and this is our forewarning,

And I think about how last night,

Didn’t end how I imagined when I read the invite,

Because sure I had a good time,

But it all ended so abruptly when the bell chimed

And I’ve tied, up my shoes,

And I’m walking to the bus stop,

Another day of work,

And my life is still a junk shop,

And I sit here writing words,

In between calls about trees,

As the answer to my questions,

Floats somewhere outside in the breeze

[theidleowl]

He strikes a lonely figure

As he trudges through the snow

But in his head is company

Beyond anything you’ll know

His black coat at his ankles

It waves round in the breeze

He walks with the tired stumble

Of someone with worn knees

His life may not look like much

But in this primitive place

He’s found peace in hard work

Shown by the smile lines on his face

He walks beneath a window

Someone glances from above

At the small strides taken below

By the silhouette wearing gloves

His stance is unassuming

He looks down at the ice

His dark-as-night sunglasses

Hide the calmness in his eyes

His life may not look like much

But in this primitive place

He’s found peace in hard work

Shown by the smile lines on his face

[theidleowl]

There’s something beautiful,

About the tawny dust marks,

On my black denim shorts.

I feel like I’ve lived,

I feel like a friend of the Earth,

A searcher of truth,

A spreader of joy,

An adventurer,

A lost soul,

An open book,

An ending yet to be written,

The sparkle of a million possibilities,

Exploding across the night sky.

[theidleowl]

I'm on the decks, 

They float up off the sand, 

Past the chuckling palms, 

Over the buildings pointing like fingers,

Into the contemplating clouds, And into the black, 

Then they throw me back, 

"Figure it out" they shout, 

As I catch up to the the tears, 

Falling like raindrops through the sky, 

Those I'd shed, As I rose.

[theidleowl]

Sure I liked the lanterns,  

Sure the river looked pretty, 

But what I'll remember most is the people 

That lit corners of my heart I'd forgotten existed.

[theidleowl]

I stare at the clock, 

The minutes move along, 

So does the road,

I think of the past,

I think of the future,

I should probably just enjoy now.

[theidleowl]

As I look out at the river in Hoi An,

As the mosquitoes eat me alive, 

I wonder why I gave up on my dream so easily,  

Does society suck it out of you? 

 Want you to conform to it's working patterns? 

Of course it does, 

Society does not care much for dreams, 

Except for material ones, 

Houses, cars, possessions, 

It likes those dreams, 

They keep it bloated, 

It does not much like creations, 

Or the creators that create them, 

Those that give birth to something out of nothing do not feed it, 

Sometimes they even harm it. 

Thus we must fight for our dreams, 

We will rarely feel fulfilled, 

We will rarely feel successful, 

For society does not want us to. 

We must help each other.

[theidleowl]

15 floors up on the terrace, 

Distance seems endless, 

Figures an oil painting, 

Buildings just dust, 

Noise a never-ending static, 

Fog a malfunction in the code, 

The sky nothing but a watercolour, 

And the sun just a fragment of time, 

Laughing at the dreamers. 

Only you and these tears now seem real, 

Will it forever be just the once?

[theidleowl]

Pitter, patter, pitter, patter, 

A girl runs into the corner shop, 

Chased by a boy, 

She's giggling, 

Bubbles fly everywhere, 

The innocence of youth.