Literary Vegan

In my high-heeled twenties  I thought flowers had be earned. That I had to put myself in your way To captivate you and Prove how beautiful I was By your words. Now I am older, I like to be barefoot. I know that wildflowers bloom divine On a breath, dressed sky blue red  For the Sun - Whether seen by you, Or no-one.  LJ Ireton 2023

We are perfect stillness - My two circled cats and I. Outside, the wind is Crying, chaotic - A reedy sound slipping  In through the walls To haunt our contentment,  Only for the contrast to enhance it. I light another candle, A silent soldier Against the cold And I write  About both Needing each other For a poem.  LJ Ireton 2023

In the darkest time, Under the mid-season blue sky, I find each Robin by their song, Heralding me into this  Cobalt morning From three trees - An open-beaked tryptich.  Everything about me is reluctant. Everything about you  Beckons  The whole cold Earth To come and turn under your tiny feet. And I do - Walk under the Exhaling, Heat-coloured hearts Of Winter.  LJ Ireton 2023

You can hear the wings Of a restless heart - Beat, beat  Beating against  Its resistance. There are no fae-like fluttering dreams For those whose Imagination never sleeps, But a weighted emerald bird, With a sharp beak; Always waiting on something In this slow world - A heavy hope, creation Hovering In a ball of energy Beating until You can see Her. LJ Ireton 2023

A break in the rain Of November A family of moorhens Patter up a bank Under the yellow leaves Ghostly green in the middle Clinging on - Or maybe  A moment of Spring  For these brown younglings, For me; A kinder cold, Visible soft - Before half a moon  Sinks us back into the season  Of wishing it still Was. C. LJ Ireton 2023

Gentle is the ghost behind the command - Marching a memory Of heartbeats Lingering where earth would meet Percussive feet In polished shoes And masked face - Sharp instruction fills  The space Where pacing  Won't outpace the past - Gentle is the ghost behind the command  When the Last Post shouts into another realm Of night, quiet, silent thoughts Louder is the order, then Yet soft as the soil, Tapped in tandem When there was another, And control felt closer. Gentle is the ghost behind the command - The old clock chimes See-through secrets  Under the Sound.  C. LJ Ireton 2023

Out of the mud marshes of Middle England,  Rainbows rise wide and down. At their source, molten silver has pooled Around mounds of stubborn grass, Making the brown sludge beautiful  And white birds, not minding the shallow, Sit on the sheen,  Dotting the water under the distanced trees And tantrum-tired sky. The spectrum draws eyes over the sodden Landscape, the leaden background - But the gulls only look forward  Resting on the reflected light, Making fields the sea.  C. LJ Ireton 2023

I have worn mourning many times I carried her elegantly at least,  Lace-draped loss.  In grief I still knew glory - I held out my sombre skirts, I knew where to step. But this constant unknowing Grasps at my chest - With each cold breath A mocking kind of hope, The entertaining of a ghost Future lingers. Each day I dress a maybe With wordless fabric,  So heavily weighted - Elizabeth knows her indecision  Will cut to the bone Eventually.  Copyright LJ Ireton 2023

It has taken me decades To look how I wanted to At eleven - The rough elegance Of ivy, wound and dripping  Off bark Jagged perfect hearts, After years, a bouquet Of my own making And not listening to you Or my impatience - Just the girl Who didn't want to brush her hair, But catch her billowing skirts On jutting leaves.  I know how to be her now. May I forgive myself For never waiting long enough, For forgetting The desire of the young, The trailing lovely dirty forest, The gait of the willow -  In my impulsive attempts To shape a flower, Instead of letting her grow. Copyright LJ Ireton 2023 

The reflection of an egret Under the willow, Wings wide - The sight of white horses, Walking celestial Moonlight in the field - The sky guides us To the old earth, The new  Amongst the dust, the crumbling, Stars fly in the river, Faith chews on fading grass.  LJ Ireton 2023

I will never forget the first laughter - After the day I cried And kept crying; Into hours that were weeks And weeks that were hours, Wading through cloudlike reality - For a time, I can only remember the clouds... Until o ne evening, a suddenness, A stubbornness - My cat  l eapt up onto the lap  Of a lady  s aying  s he didn't like cats. F our legs cutting  feline, quick,   Wilful through all human feelings  And shoulds Landed through the fog Of what I could not feel - Here was  something I loved. And I laughed.  LJ Ireton 2023

The October wind Stroking the September Sun Whispers her potion LJ Ireton 2023

The season falls, I watch Without control The split and bounce of conkers Into the mist, The rain and covering of burnt orange Shed by the sun. The wind sweeps time up In front of me, Sailed on by a yellow wagtail - She still looks like Spring. But the squirrels are ready - Listening, claws sharp  And eager to dig. I'm not sure what I'm meant to let go of, Yet, Or what to search for  Under the wisps of this year, Settling. But maybe all things descending Will leave answers in my hands - Solid as shells, Green as the ivy always sure of herself - Maybe all things descending Will leave answers. LJ Ireton 2023

My cat swirls around the solid floor, Head first, like an slick otter in a stream - This is how she shows happiness. We have the words, so many words, But underneath, or before, The soul knows how to dance, How to purr.  LJ Ireton 2023

I thought wishing Was meant to be weightless - An entire silver world  Existing within a snowflake. But somehow, carrying Beautiful imaginations For a long time Only makes them Heavier.  LJ Ireton 2023

It was an equinox- A mourning  I stroked the shell of a horse chestnut seed With my thumb  And crows cawed under Grey clouds neon - Causing the Sun to tumble out  As if confused from sleep, Burning on instinct - Unsure who had summoned, But eager to answer. And even with my face to the fire, Remembering, A cold future snaked along my skin - Because all is in-between  Isn't it? Ever moving - We long for one star or another, With reverie or inertia, Lacking the steadiness of birdsong, Of singing whatever the sky.  LJ Ireton 2023  

The flower suns have fallen, Releasing small sleeping stars Encased in beetle shells Into my hands. I sit, pensive Looking at where the high petals were - Their gold pink now given to Gloaming September skies, The blood blush in the cold. Maybe nothing goes  But is in another place to find As the world turns.  Still, it is harder to see in the dark And I prefer to be barefoot With the transient flowers at twilight. LJ Ireton 2023 

Two birds broke free, sudden Into the blue From behind continental clouds. Tiny, tiny, away from  Clockface clutches And human musts They lift my lungs I've been failing to fill, As my muscles sink sighing Into the ground - I can watch them fly I can watch them fly And nothing else. LJ Ireton 2023

I don't know your name, But you came to me - Out of all the walking galaxies We are, Dust and stars - And asked me the question.   I saw the swirling dirt Somewhere in your spirit, And I knew it - We never forget Our sandstorms in the dark. But I could feel you distrusting Someone with light  Like fireflies visible through their skin - Just like I did, too. Believe me, when I said to you: 'Just hold on', It was from my own interstellar years - Adrift and waiting. My witness is made and made of dirt -  I speak with the echoing birth Of a star.  LJ Ireton 2023

He says:  'we can go for a walk in the forest at three thirty'. I say: 'we will go for a walk when the forest creatures call me'.  LJ Ireton 2023

This morning I saw seagulls, Far from the sea Circling the moon I can not tell the type of day I'm walking in to -  The Sun, on the other side, said it loved me But I have a stone in my shoe On the way to the station Change can be mysterious, it can be Frustration. I am far from the sea Circling the night - The only certain answer To a day of Question.  LJ Ireton 2023

I can't describe the mystery of healing - I only know the feeling Of crying into my cat's fur - Like my own solitary cloud. And hearing her rolling purr - Like all life is silent  Apart from her way of breathing. That a form of prayer Is listening to the rhythms of the other world - The angels with claws. LJ Ireton 2023

I open the window to  Rustic tiled turrets and, beyond, The blowing blue sea - Breathing over them, Over me.   Distant small boats with sails Are white water butterflies On the skyline From an older time - But older is current here, A constant exhale. And everywhere, birds. Unbrushed brown sparrows, Speckled, grey gulls on rooftops, Magpies claiming the chimneys, Black gulls the beach stones - Wings Have a belonging here, A belonging to the breath, A belonging to the sea. LJ Ireton, 2023

It's impossible to share everything with one  person - From flowers fly Many-seeded stories Belonging to one mind - The water is hers, To him the sky Other creatures sit in silence with me And you read my words.  LJ Ireton 2023

The swallows glide in a line, Clouds behind  And leap like a heartbeat on a screen Tiny Pulses of life.  LJ Ireton 2023

If I'm quiet now - On my own a lot, Ink under plants Tree trunk by water, Bare feet - It's because I'm done with chaos. My own mind tortured me  With tangled noise - Distress signals screaming, Siren doubts, singing louder Over each other For the sanity trophy In a soup bowl. Silence Once was to me  An unreachable precious prayer, The ghostlike glitter water The thirsting throat imagines In the desert. I dipped disbelieving, grateful hands  Into this stream And here I swim. Here I swim. LJ Ireton 2023

After the rain -  Stark white and lingering grey, A procession of black balloons  Ghosted across  An invisible street in the clouds. Seven solemn phantoms made by man - Light enough to be lifted away from the earth  And yet, I thought What weight must they be carrying? LJ Ireton 2023

At the deepest part of the stream, Young silver-green fish dart Into the dark parts Of piled-up rocks - A rubble edge of a new world.  Their white fins flap in the finding - Sunken stones are waiting shadows,  A shelter for tiny slippery souls. But their side eyes re-emerge Looking older. In the sleek space of black, A pause in the dip and rise - Safety has changed colour. They are cautious leaving these Stone shadows now.  Minute lights flicker on and off  Under the water - Decisions in small silk bodies. LJ Ireton 2023

The lake bites, pre-historic, Cold - When clouds come  Black ink spreads under my limbs. I swim into wet green sun - Less unknown, And towards a lone white beak. Here I hover, held by red eyes - Electric  on the wild  w ater Deciding  On the natural  In me. LJ Ireton 2023

Each day I run down The blossom-strewn bank To the shallow stream -  Brown stone under pink And watch the lone bird Visiting - Heron, egret, moorhen, crow. Today I brought you with me For the first time - Showed you how we must get low Under the trees, Took you to the brown stones And standing on the pink We saw not one, but two jewelled mandarins Together. I tried to memorize the russet colour, The white stripes  But I always think in symbols And couldn't deny The imagery here - Excited I repeated this to you, Over and over. I had wanted to show you the  Chance of it, The beauty of the birds But you got to see, instead How my mind worked On blossom-strewn banks Precious, In the water.  LJ Ireton 2023

I crouch lower Under the howling wind - The never tiring traveller carrying a constant cry From the unprotected ones. The Garden has been forgotten - At least from the ground I can watch the forget-me-nots lift into  Small  Blue  Butterflies. LJ Ireton 2023

Hammering in the forges Of sleep My mind makes And makes. How beautiful the glow, The means - Some nights the sheen. But by the same, Where heat meets disorder  A torment of shapes - Strange metals dropped Upon waking And still heavy.  LJ Ireton 2023

Paws skittering on pavements Soft ears, Black panic - A power barrier of men  Place themselves  Between a day And ebony worlds broken. Where is the chance for small hearts? Their charcoal outlines drawn  On ours. LJ Ireton Copyright 2023

I've tried a few times To write a poem about Felicity But it comes out full of cliché: Princess, Queen, pretty, pretty. She does snore sometimes, We converse in chirps And I call her polar bear When she shows me her Snow-white belly - But can I say that About royalty? LJ Ireton 

Otus has long feet, A small face, Sand and ginger shapes Across his fur - like a giraffe  With stripes the colour of burnt toffee. Directly in the Sun His eyes are prehistoric pure amber But he is dog, often He purrs with his tongue out And sniffs everyone. LJ Ireton 

I didn't know what I wanted to be Because  What I wanted Was not in the careers library At school - There was no section  On how to be a Disney Princess Or have success like Madonna So I said 'Journalist, I guess' And scrambled through The next few years And then more. It was friends - Speaking other futures Out loud, That changed 'Could' or 'could not' In my head. Reality is who you Listen to -  I made music about it. C. LJ Ireton 2023

A sprinkle of sand - Wafting whisper magic Lands  Earth to earth - Back where it was Gathered By Enchanted hands. Like salt from seaweed Spells sit on my tongue, Hang off my hair - I scatter nature's chaos Into the wind. I have heard of a darker kind - Far away From rising white waves So sharp it cuts minds, Souls, ink black Stains Into the beautiful blue. And I never thought  It would call to me - I would stay here dirty knees  In crushed flowers if I could.  But if it saves you I will strain my ears to hear the curse Turn away from what I know, Let go Of the earth.  (Inspired by Wren in Cursed Crowns) Copyright LJ Ireton 2023

Winter lingers too long. Snowflakes dissolved into poems Months ago, Yet the steel jaw of sky Won't give up the Sun. Spring is in a straightjacket Somewhere, Wanting to Reveal its skin - The memory of healing Simmering Under mine. C. LJ Ireton 

I always stepped off the bus  By the bombed-out church  When the sky was navy blue And falling into streetlight stars  On lamp-posts. Bold Street lit up The red brick outline, The blown-out windows, My hollowed-out heart. The trees inside were  Shadow black, But the friendliest ghosts - They marked the start  Of the unknown night Steps and cobblestones Towards something. For the first time in my life,  I felt free  Not to choose - I wandered off where there was music, The silent walls behind me. C. LJ Ireton 2023

It is all for Days like these - Typing while the tea Seeps and cools on the side,  Crows with anxiety   Raise cat eyes at the open window Triangle breeze - Enough of the world  For now. Everytime the clouds tease A divine moment, White fur rolls towards the  Square of Sun. There is no obligation To 'be' any type of person - Even yourself, Scattered on the floor Somewhere with your clothes - You can pick up the bits you choose Tomorrow, Use the same cup If you want.  C. LJ Ireton 2023

  I do not want to see a rainbow sometimes -  I want one, always, in my hands; To carry mystery-coloured flame through  The smokey street of tired people. Some will say: ‘I want that’. Others will find it ‘distracting’. Those who favour grey will complain that it’s not ‘Appropriate’. And while they argue, I will stroke the original ghosts Of colour, Untouched by fumes or opinion And keep walking. C. LJ 2023

I stretch out Winter under the water Muscles yawning into light blue - Blinking away black skies, Stillness  And who I was on land. C. LJ 2023 

I sink my skin into the soil Place a beginning Under a black, damp blanket. I am an instrument Of the making magic - The Sun says so. I touch more places, But some only see dirt - Ask me to clean it up. I can not understand resistance  To scattered bits of beauty. I have faced it all my life. What kind of soul  Would  not want  This earth Filled with flowers?  LJ Ireton  C. 2023 

 The gardener, sowing seeds all day Doesn't expect to see trees by nightfall. Yet I fold my arms daily In frustration, waiting. LJ Ireton 

There was noise And people speaking - So much thinking, Thinking Thinking. Now, with just my cats Quiet smiles And sleepy blinking. LJ Ireton 

To convalesce, I recommend a cat By your side - Curled into a crescent moon, Head upside down and smiling In her sleep. Let her show you The sanctity of stillness Made with soft shapes And circles.  LJ Ireton 

God seems silent, sometimes - The distance of white empty skies. I complain when I can't work in silence, No-one sees my crafting. Only the finished poem.  LJ Ireton 

Piano notes play Muted raindrops on windows Percussion to souls 

In solitude I let the kingdom out We carry everything we can’t reach Feelings tumble down my wild hair Held behind the window. My empire rises out of my skin Scratched on paper, the things taken Frustration,  Thoughts at war to win the image Of who I still am. It can not be contained - My spirit haunting the bone walls Shapes of defeat and determination Meet, merge and rise. Soldiers are steel or self-doubt In solitude I let the kingdom out Gold-leaf tear ducts Vision before eyes. LJ Ireton