Four Poems by Gary Bills

 

GRATITUDES

 

I.

 

Ah, bless you Mother Moss, for your kindness 

when I fall, in this, your sacred place,

forgive my silly drunken steps, my blindness;

softer you are than any balm of grace

softer you are than carpets of the Fay

when travellers stand bewildered in the eye;

you put to shame the foam and kissing spray

and clouds that bring their bluster to the sky.

You’re softer than the spring wind after sleet

and make a man forget his clumsy feet.

 

II.

Thank you for your moment's visitation 

Mother Butterfly, although you're only white

And merely tipped with sun - you bless creation,

Flower dancer – glides and jitters in your flight.

You lack the peacock robes that graced a Shah

And some might sneer you're just a poor man's sprite,

But I say, you're quite perfect as you are,

For all you have is offered free and bright -

You bring a world where summer breezes run,

Although your wings are merely tipped with sun.

 

III.

Thank you, Sister Fountain, for your song,

Which brings to mind the rocks where pools are caught;

The pause and brim and pour - now weak, now strong,

The tumbling of those sticks and leaves of thought,

Another place, another time, but one,

The water rhythms - varied but the same,

And flows and trips beneath the changing sun

Repeat eternal visions of your game,

Where water stirs and falls I hope to hear

The salving past - tomorrow without fear.

  

IV.

 

Bless you Brother Beetle as you fly -

I had forgotten wings, you scuttling thing

With carapace of iridescent dye,

Fixed on lacquered black - your armoured back;

Some catch the scrape of death in beetle flight,

That ill-tuned violin, which ends all song

And brings a sudden close to waning light;

But inquisition's pulse is seldom wrong –

You're out about your business through the night;

Such eldritch realms you seek, beyond our sight.

Gary Bills was born at Wordsley, near Stourbridge. He took his first degree at Durham University, where he studied English, and he has subsequently worked as a journalist. He is currently the fiction editor for Poetry on the Lake, and he has recently gained his MA in Creative Writing at BCU, with a distinction.

He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for his post-modernist epic poem, Bredbeddle's Well, which was published  in Lothlorien in 2022.

Gary's poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Magma, HQ and Acumen, and he has had three full collections published, – “The Echo and the Breath” (Peterloo Poets, 2001); “The Ridiculous Nests of the Heart” (bluechrome, 2003); and “Laws for Honey” (erbacce 2020). In 2005, he edited “The Review of Contemporary Poetry”, for bluechrome.

His work has been translated in to German, Romanian and Italian. A US-based indie publisher, The Little French, published his first novel, “A Letter for Alice” in 2019, and a collection of stories, “Bizarre Fables”, in 2021. These were illustrated by his wife, Heather E. Geddes. His second novel, "Sleep not my Wanton", came out in January 2022.

"Sleep Not..." is due out again shortly as an audio book, as possibly as a hardback.