Sample poems by Simon Smith

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Im wearing odd socks nobody can tell, but I know.
When a glider tug struggles against the jet-stream to the high blue yonder
Its message clearly JUNGLE NIGHTS AT EDEN MON-THURS
Bold and glowing in Arial, the drone then recedes.
Mr Genius is comfortable enough leaning forwards against Infinity,
Or God only knows what, bursting through his Mr Genius tee-shirt.
The juggling Mr Ezra Pound cycles
The tow-path on his trike mistaken for Nike,
And Michelles eyes more distant than the distant stars,
The light notation of once present shadows
Now a single thin and slight radio wave. Isn’t Nature wonderful!
She being a phone-call away and sweet as a drop down menu!
She leans back on the veranda, sipping the sparkle from her mineral water
To kick off her flat shoes, as speed boats skip past like flat stones,
The synchronicity of it:
So Chance and Procedure are file sharing with Truth and Beauty,
To see how things go is one incredible finishing line, and all you need to know.

A 53 or a 172

Breathe in the shape of an ice cube,
as the inspector flashes a white-gold ring.

Dad wears a black singlet. One stop,
then home. Silver Niks for the kids.
Some sit, some prefer to stand, some shout:
indices &#fb02;apping arms up and down
the Old Kent Road where the action
is, performance in international and local

markets, split dividends, so the question
stands like a beggar, and the rude girls go:

do do-do do-do do do-do do do-do do-do
do do-do do do-do do-do do do-do do do-do

do-do do do-do do do-do do-do do do-do do
do-do do-do do do-doooooooooooooooooooo

Chaucer, he can make you say any think
That Chaucer can talk it up chatting shit.

Self-Portrait in a Bathroom Mirror

Im sitting here in 1970, Christopher Middleton
And John Ashbery are 44 (or 43), Frank OHara
Dead four years “ todays lesson:
How syllables work IM-PORT-
ANT, important for me (having wiped
Round the tidemark with an old sponge,
Like a good boy, whoops! My dads
Face flannel!), and the individual
Using the peach-coloured bath next,
(Daddy Muck Bath, well call him)
IMPORTANT: Do Not Use
Abrasives When Cleaning
The notice I read out to the world
Mouthing each sound, first
Of the fibreglass baths I sensed I was
Comfortable in and informed about,
A reassuring warmth about it impossible
But important to describe
Impossible but important: “
A meandering odyssey stopping off
To take in the sights and the poetry
And prose of Christopher
Middleton and John Ashbery,
Like Greek islands.
Love for Frank
OHaras I do this, I do that
A second stop
Echoed here and echoes here.

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