Bill Wyatt: MEMORY LOZENGES

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Jack Kerouac
you’ve got a lot
of answering to do
now that you’re safe
in heaven dead

*

Evening twilight
fills the wine shop
with summer

*

Dharma Bums in my pocket
treading precariously
along the metal bridge
at Maresfield, dropping
my copy of Keble Martin’s
Wild Flowers of Great Britain
into the stream. All those flowers
landing up in Dick Dyke’s
saxophone on the village green
amidst bottles of wine
& cricket players
My glass never empty
heart full of sunshine

*

Dew on the grass
& in my head a bee
is singing

*

Cruising down to Hastings
for a meet with Barry & Eve
Chanting to harmonium, then off
to de la Warr Pavilion
in Bexhill for Buddhist talk
by Sangakshita
My glass never empty
heart full of sunshine

*

Night carving
the morning dew
on the caterpillar’s back

*

Jesus jumping
to Charlie Mingus
Wednesday Night
Prayer Meeting
Thelonious Monk
stepping between
the golden notes
of eternity—
Straight No Chaser
but mine’s
a glass never empty
heart full of sunshine

*

Leaning on a cloud
sun & moon
back in my pocket

*

Cruising to Nottingham
with Bhante’s mob
The Hole in the Wall
chanting in the garden
of long forgotten friends
My glass never empty
heart full of sunshine

*

Moon rises
thru blue sky
& falls
into my wine cup

*

Like Kerouac
always too shy
to read my poems
Sitting in the background
at Pub readings
urging the others on
Too painful to read
with flowers in my hat
My glass never empty
heart full of sunshine

*

Is it the silence—
mouth chants
mind remembers

*

Chang Yang-hao (1269–1329)

Once I was young
then old age caught up with me
Life has drifted by
like yesterday morning
Good times, bad times
like flowing water
Its better to get drunk
& then sleep it off
Let the sun & moon
rise & fall—
so I pretend to know nothing

*

Sonny Rollins on The Bridge
say, just “How are things
in Glocca Morra?”
Last of the tenor giants
going thru different peaks
different troughs
Always coming back on top
Eric Dolphy—Out to Lunch
since 1964
Gone to that other shore
like a Burning Spear
Out There A Far Cry
Serene & just as Softly
As In A Morning Sunrise

*

Three cups of wine
& I have yet to wet my lips—
summer leisure

*

A glass of rose
good as a poesy
as Kerouac’s old Tokay
but I don’t think
that’s wot he’d drink
Persimmon wine
that’s rather fine
So lets get back
to the hermit’s shack
With my glass never empty
& my heart full of sunshine

*

The evening cool—
back in the garden
cultivating simplicity


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Full moon—20/5/08

by Bill Wyatt
Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England