Sample work
Before you buy any of Dave's books why not read a few sample poems or read the reviews:
Sample poems from Sawing Fallen Logs For Ladybird Houses:
Pembroke
off the rocky coast,
sipping salty beer
the wind grabs my gaze
and hauls me off
across the sea
past Ireland and America
while towing in my
mackerel line
for supper safe
in dunes
by camp fire
sleep
Marrakech
Salmon-pink
city of the living
teeming, steaming, shimmering
mottled mint tea afternoons
shade seeking shade
arch beyond arch, ‘neath
a cobalt sky
shell-brown beauties
hidden behind black
creep closer, venture on
Past cropped jewels
pale olive
skin craving sunshine
until bats burst
and cobras are
bagged
the signal
for end of shift
and fires grow
and smoke fills the air
and passers-by
can only stand and stare
for a thousand thousand years
or more
Quite early one morning
‘Y’ Tumble
half past ten
a black and white
waitress
haiku’s the menu
‘black pudding, mushrooms or
tomato’
as shepherd alcoholics
warn of Swansea
storms
Samples from Urban Birdsong:
Forest
consider this forest closing her arms around you,
precise,
ejaculating dew-dawn soaked orchids, strangled by red and blue macaws
in their paradise plumage and kaolin soaked beaks, and squawks
rejoicing…
later,
in midnight glazed rainfall, spurting bat flocks to blue moon, citrus
stains
henna-hard rock high above as a river rage passion fruit film plays on
(call it water fall)
who longed for the forest to feel;
to reveal a brief clearing,
for jaguars and otters,
and a trillion lustrous insects,
canny kingfishers,
some snakes,
a lost golden king – perhaps?
maybe,
the forest could annually bloom; fresh monkeys, and lizards, and
spiders,
and tapirs, and rats the size of wheelbarrows?
and the trees stay muffled with soft moss
and perfume – never slate bare
of environmental concerns
and perhaps,
the forest will gestate with poison arrow frogs and haemorrhagic
diseases
and be safe from dieticians and drug dealers and soldiers and miners and
loggers and prospectors and rapists…
and will consider closing her arms around herself,
precise.
Castles in the Sand
Jet-black. Writhing. Alive. Coiling heavy. Poison poised hood.
The sight of the cobra drew me in. I had to move closer. Closer to pain.
Closer to death. As close as we could possibly be.
The ladder-thin Arab danced around us with a water snake dangling in his
hand.
“Will it hurt us daddy?”
The luminous yellow wristband shone in the February sun – a symbol of
captivity. A sign for the others. Belonging. His hair was matted to his
head, bubbly blisters burst out on his bald patch. Soaked with sweat, he
still craved more of the ebbing rays. And more whisky, local stuff,
rough as a sandstorm, cheap as chips. The waiter thought his wife was
fat.
There was a stench of sweaty drum skins and people passing by. We were
closer now. Drawn in. To the dry scales. Hard and heavy on the sandy
floor. Music filled the air – a claustrophobic sound, jingle jangles
everywhere. A buzzing white noise.
The piper sat silent, swaying slightly in cream linen, with red buttons
on his cotton hat. Time was running out for us. In a few days it would
be all over. All gone. Over.
The snow capped peaks, distant and magnificent, framed our final scene.
“The snake is coming closer daddy?”
Sample poems from Layer Cake:
Miners Dog
High home summer hill
Straining, sucking, sitting
Staring, stopped and stick-
A pit-prop tight and gripped.
The trees across the valley
Much higher than he can go now.
I pant to reassure him
In time with his withered eyes.
His tongue, tombed gritty green
He's faithful, though he's fading
Bones in death-grey jumper
Where will he lead me next?
Tenerife Club Singer
Alone at the bar
Two packs of cigarettes
Are stacked like long lost friends
The club singer sits alone
Constant in his loneliness
As transit tourists chat
For two weeks at a time
His world, their world, complete
Alone he sits and smokes
Smokes himself to death
Only home for the NHS
Bald ‘neath his cowboy hat
Afternoon Shift
The lino shiny dead
cramped crocodile
choked hand
bread and dripping
at the cupboard towers
arthritic apron
dogs at feet
her petal splits
cuts like crusts
she knows you know
sliced chestnut
men at work
the knock on wood
saltwater drips on fur
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