robertjamesberry - Tumblr blog

[robertjamesberry]

Girl

Long ago, when the river topped its banks when our houses swam with foul grey water

I found a girl perched high in the treetops to stay alive she trembled with the cold

she uttered no words I shook her awake took her home revived her with tea

I went to the hall cupboard to collect some towels when I came back laden she was gone.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Disgrace

How many sad creatures are victims of human thoughtlessness

a juvenile dolphin drowning in a discarded fisherman's net

a sea lion gashed by propeller blades while I speak this

someone is tossing plastic overboard dumping oil barrels

it is time to reevaluate our shameful inconsiderateness it is obscene.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Disguises

You never crumpled under pressure I always marvelled how unflappable you were

it was all a pretence according to your confessions in which you spoke loudly

about your pain. I never saw you wince or bat an eyelid

at grief. At your own mother's funeral you exuded poise and nobility I never knew the real you.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Disgrace

Should ill rumours circulate after my death so my name is muck

don't believe the awful allegations I led a blameless life

I never did those things I simply had a sweet-tooth for teenage girls

history will redress the wrongs done to my family name

my soul is squeaky clean I will be completely exonerated no smear of disgrace shall cling.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Rivers

Seen from the air I know of nothing more tranquilizing than a bend in the river

there is an easy majesty about swinging through farmland inscribing a big curve

across patchwork fields. I love the wildfowl who chatter in the reeds the gravelly banks brushed by slow-moving water

as our river wends with indescribable splendour on her way to the sea.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Beaches

I have dragged my suffering wife along more paradise beaches than I dare admit

I know she hates sunlight despises sand between her toes is terrified by salt water

this ritual persisted in our marriage for decades. I regret it and all the other harms

I've done, which have crushed your delicate soul accept my sincerest apologies

I shall never ever speak of the sea I shan't invoke the glorious salty-tang of the foreshore, you have my word.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Nation

I don't think my tiny country would fare well in a league of the most beautiful nations

we have no sterling white beaches no primordial forests to grace our interior

I suspect our principal city reeks of grease and cigarette butts there are no high-speed trains

or engineering marvels one would be fortunate to get a decent view

through the settled smog however it is home despite all its jarring pimples

I have loved here grown old, ached to leave and stayed forever.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Asteroids

If a stadium-sized asteroid obliterated us all who would scrape over our fossils or gather the broken masonry of our ruined civilization poking out from the ground. We could only hope some alien race

conducting a distant sortie might spot us. That they would be intrigued to discover we had ruled this planet that they might collect and collate some of our most cherished artifacts unravel the sad story of our lives for an otherworld exhibition.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Editors

There have been many shocking mistakes in publishing history

books now celebrated inexplicably rejected

as pointless and dull when they were blazing masterpieces.

I would hope my own work lands on the desk of a sympathetic editor

one who is sober and impressionable my poetry is nothing genius

but it has merit, a pleasing tautness I should like to get read.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Spacewalk

If I had billions I'd eschew bland dreams

of house ownership or possessing that red sports car

these are all too mundane I'd do a spacewalk

dangle from an umbilicus above my cloudy blue planet

and gawp in absolute wonder watch my homeland fly by.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Kiss

I adore that moment in the old movies when the chemistry explodes and they're about to kiss

the sappy music swells the eyes of the patrons in the front seats pop rubbish life is forgotten

they don't do it like that now it is all about groping and bodies the modern cinematic industry loves a cheap thrill.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Estranged

We have been estranged for over two decades

you never come in my dreams I suppose some distant relation

shall spill the news of your death I don't expect I shall be moved

I can barely recall your face you were absent in my childhood

you are just a name now swamped by other more pressing concerns

I can't imagine I shall mourn you even the bitterness has evaporated.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Snow

Significant snow is forecast I feel like a child again because nothing rivals the world wrapped in white

I have grown beyond snowmen and snowballing I still love the sight of the big flakes larger than bees

as they pirouette earthbound my nose is pressed to our big bay window snow-blind in love.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Birth

Many things crowd my mind this is not good for poetry which needs perfect equipoise to out-perform ordinary prose

I expect the fog bank will clear the big phrases will gather in a muscular way and I shall deliver

a beautiful new birth onto this page queasy with blood screaming most vocally.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Gothic

Call me a heretic but I love a satanic novel something that will stick in your craw at night

fill your fevered dreams with howling wolves and blood-lusting bats until you bay at the moon.

There is something so beautifully seductive about the undead they are real page-turners.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Noises

Background noise rarely troubles my work but of late

I have heard this scraping insect din like the world is alive

with cicadas. I have wondered if it's a hearing problem I have asked others to verify

the sound, but they look at me as if I'm insane. I have heard that the rocks hum

in my locale, but surely this is old wives' nonsense and I am losing my mind.

Robert James Berry

[robertjamesberry]

Histories

I’ve failed badly I’m good at it a questionable father whom nobody much loves

a shabby profession that’s never earned me a significant living wage and worst of all

a patchy literary career one loudly illustrated collection that went nowhere some other tatty embarrassments

too minor to tell. It is a sad tale to make one cringe, splashed with an episode of violent lunacy, a real corker.

Robert James Berry