Poetry

CAKE BOX PHILOSOPHER

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

The wallpaper’s peeling off the walls

Paint is flaking from the ceiling 

My carpet is wearing thin

Turning grey in patches 

Brown spots upon my hands, my face

Old age is slowly revealing…

Yet my mind is sharp

Refined like that of an aged patrician

Understanding these times we live in 

Navigating shrewdly, wise, silently 

Seeing with my ears-Hearing with my eyes

Feel like an ancient magician…

A sturdy vessel, creaking deck

The wind has turned

Set sail for home

Hold full of treasure

Pirates of the Caribbean

Never lived this long

To enjoy a life of leisure…

Davy Jones locker calls us all

At times we don’t expect 

I have lived a life I love

Paying the price-Often shipwrecked 

Writing to patch my sails

The heart of an ordinary extraordinary man

A breathing contradiction…

Life not about places, spaces

But of conversations, chance meetings 

Fools wander-Wise men travel

For many it unravels

No skin in this game

The Pleiades is calling me home

Beckoning my soul… 

For those I truly love

I love deeply 

‘It’s over the hill’

Shouts the wag

The promised land! 

I gave up that search long ago

As the walls came tumbling down 

The village idiot the wisest man

Stumbling around town 

Wearing secondhand robes

Once donned by Judges 

A cake box worn as a crown….. 

Mark C Bolton

April 2024

Image by TC

The Four Feathers

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment
I am in the minority 
Yet no feelings of inferiority 
Staying silent in the crowd
No need to shout out loud
Seeing what I see
Still remaining free 
Always watching from the hill
Feeling calm-Being still
Never going toe to toe
With other people 
Who just don’t know
Sucked in sucker punched 
Selling their soul
For a free lunch…. 
 

Angry men-Tin men
No heart-No soul
No depth or understanding 
Straw men-Clay men
Runaway men…
I have been all of these
Like four feathers in the breeze
But life has brought me to my knees 
As I figure out who I should be 
Now just myself living by grace 
Showing love-Bringing peace
To every person every place 
No longer a coward 
Making a stand
Drawing my line in the sand
Encircled killed buried dead
Here lays a once solid man…
 
 
Mark C Bolton, March 2024
@urbandandyLDN
 
 

NOTHING CHANGES OR REMAINS THE SAME… 

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

It’s all unfolding at the same time 

Israel Palestine Sudan Ukraine 

Russia Yemen 

Climate change – Economic recession 

Feels like the world’s 

Heading for a dark depression 

Flag wavers, marches

masterpiece wreckers, 

statue smashers, 

road blockers

21st century wars of mods versus rockers… 

Yet no one is free

We gave that away 

A long time ago 

Created religion, politics, class, race

Instead of reaching inward

Upward outward

To our fellow traveller 

Now slowly being destroyed 

By our own futile false virtue

Chaos and violence reign

Modernity versus the medieval 

I just wish to jump into the sun

For l understand nothing 

Except loving my people

My self-created tribe

Of all faith colour creed

My dear child of the 21st century 

Indiana my friend my book end

Loved more than life…. 

I write poems for the world 

A world I both cherish and despise 

Oh! God hear my prayer 

For I have no one else to turn to

For the well is dry

My heart is heavy 

Am I insane claiming to know you… 

I am just a simple man 

Clinging to your grace 

Trying to be real

Hopefully clothed in humility 

Seeking truth, a reason 

Yet nothing changes 

Or remains the same 

An oxymoron of time

Like my life 

At times ugly 

But truly beautiful…. 

M C Bolton February 2024

Title by John Punton 

Floating While Sinking

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

My skull pressed hard against the wall

Looking for a door

Because the one that I used to use

Doesn’t seem to open any more

A prisoner of my madness

War inside my head

What is truth? It’s meaning

Surely what I dread…

Exposing every folly, deluded selfish dreams

Corruption of my lowly flesh

Secrets bursting at the seams

Who am I?

What am I?

A contradictory man

Searching for a worthy hill

Upon which to make a stand…

Simply made of mud and blood

With the sacred breath of life

Can justify my every fault

To the demons of the night

Crawling around on hands and knees

Surely there’s a key?

An opening to my torment

From the man I try to be…

Yet that is all just vanity

Hiding behind virtuous acts

Heart is willing but the flesh is weak

That is the only fact

God’s grace is just enough

No more or less I need

Just the perfect measure

To truly set me free…

Compelling me to show mercy, love

To my fellow man

I think I have found a hill

Upon which to make a stand

A hill outside a city wall

Where a true man hung and died

Not to start a religion

But exposing all the lies

To return us back to Eden-Eternal paradise

Taking away what is sin 

Opening up our eyes…

Yet my head still bangs against the wall

Still searching for that door

Knowing in my deepest soul

I have been here many times before

Wrestling with the love of God

Like waves against the shore

All my strength has left me

Feel I’m slowly drowning

In a sea of grace and peace

Floating while sinking

I’ve finally found release………..

M C Bolton January 2024

drawing by t.c.

21st Century Stranger

~ Urban Dandy London ~ 1 Comment

I was born a 20th century man

With more dreams than I could understand

Just floating ideas like the clouds

Keeping me lonesome in a crowd…

Yet still I ride against the wind

The rain washing my soul from within

A 20th century cowboy without a horse

No directions, plans or followed course…

Memories of better men

Than I see today

Hard-lived faces, hearts of Gold

Time to show a stranger the way…

Sure, I’ve had my share of mistakes

Things I have said and done

But now I’m old – maybe wise

Realise there’s no place to run

Running from my myself most of my life

From truths I refused to face

Time’s catching up – Hunting me down

God’s bounty hunter leads the chase

Ride I will through the storm

Into the moonless darkest night

A 20th century frontier man

That will never give up the fight

A 20th century frontier man

Slowly riding out of sight…

M.C. Bolton, Christmas 2023

POEM FOR MY PEOPLE

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

I wish to sit with the ancient fathers

Watching the floating embers

Disappear into the desert night sky

The flames keeping away the chill…

A bright moon shines upon the flocks

Sweet smelling incense smouldering

Fragrance so pure so divine…

We are at peace tonight

Enjoying the favour of God

The beautiful eyes of the veiled women

Glinting underneath the starlight

Their modesty so endearing…

Feeling free, free from myself

Accepted as a friend – Fellow nomad…

This is where I truly belong

Amongst the Patriarchs – The righteous ones

Made righteous by their faith

In the one true God, the only God

Sharing bread drinking fresh mint tea

Laughing hugging the men like brothers

Bowing to the women

Treating them all with honour, respect…

I am a stranger

Yet they saw my heart

For I came in humility with grace without judgement

Such pure eyes can see into my soul

I know I can never leave!

Tomorrow we pack move on

This is my tribe now

No ceremony or initiation

Everyone just knows……..

M C Bolton November 2023

LA VIE EST BELLE

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

My God whom created the universe, heavens, Earth

Finally creating man in his image

Knowing we would fall…

Consolidating evil in one place

Exposing the Prince of this World

The father of all lies

Who kills, destroys, enslaves, subjugates

In his wish to be God

Desiring worship adoration…

The creator of false hope, delusions

Political ideologies, legalistic religion

That confuses minds

Turning humankind hearts to stone

God knew this would happen

There can never be peace

For darkness is upon us

Brutality the norm

As the fallen ones roam without pity or mercy

Satisfying their darkest hearts

Just for a brief moment

Before they are forever chained in the deepest emptiness…

Yet still my own flesh rages

For it knows its own time is but short

One day it will be over for me

Gods grace made perfect in weakness

The meek will surely inherit a new Earth

Oh! To return to Eden

Creation’s perfect forever first day

There I will breathe easy

Sleeping peacefully for a thousand years………………………..

M C BOLTON OCTOBER  2023

Autumn Thoughts 2023

~ Urban Dandy London ~ 1 Comment

The heat has slowly withdrawn

Returning to the sun’s heart

Resting in tranquility

Autumn’s arrival graced with rain wind beauty

Brown red golden hues

Leaves cling tentatively to branches

Each awaiting their destined turn

To casually drift, float to the ground…

This season reflects-mirrors my age!

“Will you still love me?

Will you still need me?

When I’m 64 “

Beatles lyrics so real, so apt…

My autumn years-no need to fear

What others think of me

Hair slowly turning grey

Yet my heart, my mind full of colour

Still passionate-a would be lover

But only in my dreams…

Holding hands strolling through the park 

Just before dusk

Returning to the warmth of home

Drinking tea-Alcohol free these days!

Realising this is the time of true enlightenment

Observing the crazy re-writing of history

Civilization never really happened!

Oh! Well time to visit Soho

Where I always feel so comfortable

Listening to my inner antique clock ticking

I have never fitted in, more so these days…

The full harvest moon shines

I am a 20th century man

Observing the long march

Led by weak men who bang the drum

Proclaiming equality liberty freedom

But someone has to pay the ferryman…

What will autumn be 100 years hence?

Just charcoal drawings of trees, monochrome faces

Forbidden conversations-Forbidden places

A world devoid of critical thinking

Full of the virtuous, sinless, soulless, hopeless

Not a place for the poet or artist…

Inverted racism fascism returning with a vengeance

Autumn with its decaying majesty

Long nights await

Comfort found in each others arms

Stalingrad 2023

Slowly awaiting winter

That great leveller of invading armies…

Yet there is hope

Spring will eventually return 

With it new life

Ending the silence

Although wise men, smart women

Will remain quiet-such is their wisdom

Writing novels poems painting pictures in secret

That nobody will ever read or see………

M C Bolton Autumn 2023

TORPID

~ Urban Dandy London ~ Leave a comment

The eternal battle

Good versus evil

Light versus darkness

Truth versus falsehood

Love versus hate…

Universal entities at war

Beyond understanding or mental comprehension

Our limited imaginations

Cannot create or fathom the eternal consequences of the unseen…

Living like squatters in no mans land

Amongst mud, blood and steel

Completely devoid of any fear

Just the blind acceptance of fate…

Nothing matters anymore

Opinions, dreams, fashion, music

Fame, football or damned celebrity…

Shuffling along to the food hub

Collecting bread like a sparrow

It’s all gone!

We were promised food

Promised freedom!

‘What is that?’

Shouts out the wag

Now just perma-frosted ideals…

Incoming-As another meteor crashes into the river

Causing rainbow ripples

Mothers holding their babies

Rushing quickly home

Before the mist ushers in the darkness…

Demons preparing-howling salivating

Last orders please

The pieman shouts!

As rags with legs 

Scurry into their caves

Awaiting the night

Like a punch drunk mongoose

Facing an amphetamine fuelled cobra

Lilly is walking fast now

Clutching her precious lantern

She looks like a cartoon

Wolves howl half-human half-beast…

I feel nothing 

Yet somehow survival mode kicks in

As I steal a dead man’s watch

With ‘to Dad’ engraved on the back

But I switch off my own happy memories

Machine, machine, I must be a machine…

A blind man rings a bell

Calling all to the house of prayer

Knowing nobody ever enters

Not now, not in these times

For we have all been left behind……..

Mark C Bolton, September 2023

US Navy officers surveying Hiroshima after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city, 1945. Image from the National Museum of the United States Navy. Previous image: The US Army’s atomic bomb exploding in Nagasaki, 1945. Image from the Library of Congress via PICRYL

HEART STRINGS AND VIOLINS 

~ Urban Dandy London ~ 1 Comment

Gently stroke my hand

Once more in your dreams

Then say goodbye forever

As you walk into the night…

I feel like a stone

Dropped into a well

Never to see your face again

Behind your subconscious veil…

My crime simply to be free

Living without judgement

Too much for this world 

Piety sought above mercy, grace, forgiveness…

Virtue the rotten fruit

Of the new freedom proclaimers

Enslaved by their ideology

Foaming at the mouth at the dissident

The once bullied now bullying

Will I die a nameless number ?

Yet my love I miss you

Same old pain again

Just a poor simple poet

Who never played the game…

Feeling closer to the outsider

The outlaw, eccentric, insane!

Always a loner even in the crowd

Deep inside my silence 

Really shouts out loud…

I loved you so my darling

Perhaps the last I ever will

As I sit upon my pale horse

Observing from this hill

The battle that rages inside me

Reality versus what I feel…

Will my ripstop camouflaged heart

Ever find love again?

Returning to the desert

To give it time to mend

So touch my hand just one more time

Before you vanish out of sight

A memory , ghost, a fading scar

A shooting star that surely burned so bright……..

Mark Bolton, July 2023

@urbandandyldn