The Cockled Shore : A poem

A Study of Temporary hallucinatory Insanity

Sunk in the twisted roadway of my mind

Exists the flaw that points to crooked sign

Follow the cobbled-way to cockled shore

And wandering there, delight in coloured stones

Hear music, surfed by restless, pink-topped seas

Echo in countless ears of haven shells.

Vast shore of mine, I know you have a line

That lies unseen to normal, mortal eyes

There where the carcass-whaler's ribs gleam white

From fine-grained sand you trap the unaware

I'm lured across this line that can't be seen

Real life receding, fades, a distant dream;

And frightened soul peeps out at the unknown

I try, I fight, I strive, to miss this line

To no avail, limbs move, rotate, I fail

All homely comfort, that I need, has gone

The kindly face, the sound of vessels horn

Gnarled fishermen who sew the nets that's torn

Warm pulsing-life still throbs but out-of-reach

Beaten, confused, I feel depressed, alone.

I spy a youth reclined beneath a tree

Whose straggly, leaf-torn branches cry: REST HERE!

"Forget the cruel world 'neath my purple shade

And laugh with smoking boy who dreams of power".

"Weakling, seek solace in the burning weed.

Gain strength, draw visions, from rotting corpse." 

Relaxed and smiling addict calls me friend

And brother-like smooths worry from my brow 

"Take dope and soon, like me, you'll be a God

Who can with open eyes, out stare the sun."

In awe I ask : "you can  out-stare sun?"

" I probe its fiery core whence comes all things

And I can walk on water and fly high

With the wild geese who, arrow-shaped, dart sky."

I envy him and from a near-by glade

A breeze wafts melodies, girls' voices sing

Grouped midget-sirens dance in naked ring

One sighting me, shouts loud my Christian name

Strips off my clothes and pulls me into throng 

    Where unabashed, amidst bare loveliness
I drink mist liquid poured from lilly cup
This flowery potion has within a spell
Increasing libido for disguised witch
Seductive whore, whose  black-desire invites
My eager frame entwine with her to prance
Unlicensed, free, until the moon-time comes
Bright rhythms float, from fern and wild-gorse tree
Wind-fluting notes from inside plants
Until our lady moon gives grace to scene
When whirling, trance-like madness, comes to end
My body lusts craven in it's want
For succubus, breast-pressing me, to tempt
Pleads: "merge with me between the dusky shades
And I will bear the title of your choice  
And realise your whims the moment thought
Make love, caress my wiling, supple, form
Then satisfied, rest still, while whirling earth
In heavens countless times revolves our sun
On waking at Sabbat we'll cleave again
And you on my soft belly make drugged bliss
And through eternity I'll be your slave."
My ego, tantalised, sought to succumb
While consciousness waged battle in my brain
Storm-lightening forked and devils disappeared
And hidden sprites, that instant, had me clothed
From ether displeased female sighed: "disturbed!"
But I will always wait to keep our troth.

From out the mist emerges human maid
My virgin saviour from alluring Hell
Wet hair, rain-washed, a shroud for pretty face
Her slimness carried heavy weariness
No busty sorceress with sexual charm
Just perplexed maid, who'd strayed across the line
Innocence is the garland on her brow
And wickedness, as from a cross, withdrew
This grieving child touched pity in myself
In quiet tones requesting: please help me!
I'm lost and tired, so tired of wilderness
I lift the fragile creature in my arms
Close cradling her purity to breast
And carry lightness to the scented shore  
And there, in giving heather, make her rest
She stirs, in slumber,and I touch her cheek
My fingers stroking rose-hues in her pale
Aware, from trembling lashes, I am watched
Avoiding contact, I discourse and talk
Until she smothers ramblings with a kiss
"Why do you speak with words and not with heart?
False words are merely sounds pressed into air
   And never tell precisely what we mean.
I listen only to emotions prayer
And trust base instincts way with love."
I gaze into unsullied, honest stare
And waver, now uncertain what to do
My carnal lust has not yet passed away
And I am fearful that I might do crime
Schooled, my forbidden thoughts, to hide away
I conceal, rough emotion, with more words
This babble, once more, ceased from my  lips
Aroused and hungry, from awakened beast
That I excited, fumbling, take her gift
And know, at last, the bliss of Paradise.

Fulfilled, like young gazelle, she finds her feet
Makes straight her dress and laughing turns and runs
"Farewell!, farewell!," her last words taunt through dew
"Know only that I love you, trust your heart."

Companion bird no sooner captured flown
Taking the only seed from empty barn
Know only that I love you, useless vow
Without her flesh to consummate the pledge
Frantic, in frenzy, I chase fleeing wraith
Thwarted by stream and mocked by one brief glimpse
In panic, blindly plunge around in bog
Till crazy fortune leads me back to line
The line that normal people never see
Past spectre wreck, I stumble, slip on slime
  Until some squabbling sea birds shrieks arouse
A reborn man, his sanity restored.

Returned from depths of Hades into light
Plunging, I wash of drowse in cold-green wave
Inhale the ozone, salty-spiced  and fresh
I purge my lungs of Satan's putrid breath
Wading to bouldered dyke I squat and muse
On long-neglected tasks in croft and field
Sniff morning, throwing rocks at strewn wreck
Strangers, with padding footsteps, drawing near
A hound, on leash, leads aged muffled  gent
Stick-treading with a certain steady gait
No flicker of surprise creased ruddy face
No pause, no hesitation, in his pace
"Good morning to you sir!" was all he said
Quite unaware of joy his greeting made.

My spirits, soaring now, were  primed for toil
He'd nodded greetings from the mundane folk
The sailor, the farmer with hands on plough
Whose furrows etch weal's in the giving earth
Forgetting the horrors of sickly wastes
I set home for breakfast by peat-scented fire.

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