Love’s Texture martin bradley
A digital chapbook published by The Blue Lotus Publishing
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Love’s Texture
Copyright © 2022 Martin A Bradley A digital chapbook published by The Blue Lotus Publishing, Colchester, Essex, England 2022
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Love’s Texture poems and pictures by
martin bradley
A digital chapbook published by The Blue Lotus Publishing
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Love’s Texture poems and pictures by
martin bradley
"There is always madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." Friedrich Nietzsche
These love poems stem two decades of being in Asia (essentially Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines), some were previously presented in the collection ‘Remembering Whiteness’ and re-visited, others lay patiently waiting for this brief chapbook volume to share with you. Love can be beautiful, and devastating. Martin 4
contents lemang 6 to my malay lover 9 ode to pilipit 14 in dreams 18 dharma baby 21 partial to 25 maxine drifting 29 malacca sunday 24 gaudi’s breath 42 a short love poem 46
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lemang you come to me all soft and creamy scents of coconut rice bamboo fire-smoke and banana leaf i sense your firmness al dente taste your pliancy and succulent delights i want to drizzle you with ambrosia drip over your sides bite into your sweet stickiness dribbling into my beard while you kill me slowly softly 6
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to my malay lover for you i’d give up my inalienable right to be lonely wait hours outside shops stalls malls markets houses stop looking on those internet sites unselfconsciously hold open doors and not feel a prat change my name and forget to answer when people call me fast one month in every year and really understand what willpower is wash clothes dishes 9
cook worry ignore menstrual towels hair gel perfume hannah who is not from montana slipknot develop a permanent rash on my forehead eat smelly beans smelly prawns smelly fish smelly fruit smelly anything even switch off the air con when you say you’re cold
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but i’ll not give up loving you some things are sacrosanct with apologies to adrian henri, adrian mitchell, roger mcgough and brian pattern
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ode to pilipit memory is taste taste is memory i still sense the sweetness of you on my tongue soft brittle like a Sunday morning saucing my mouth with your flavour robust yet gentle like a Saturday night taste is memory memory is taste memories of night 14
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we touch i am your fingers you are my clay becoming one touching me touching you you are my creation i am yours blossoming together this day with the sound of sweet birds bursting into sunlight and the memories of night 17
in dreams i love you so much miss delise delore i want you so much and even more i need you till the sun comes up that's when i see you close my door for dreams are dreampt at night it seems will i see you tomorrow night in my dreams
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dharma baby sleep my dharma baby let the lotus guide your dreams may the eightfold path steady your footsteps and give you mindfulness sleep my dharma baby and in your dreams rest may it bring you peace joy and love to lighten your busy life sleep my dharma baby and in the morning awaken with fresh eyes and an easy heart may a smile brighten your day as you brighten mine 21
sleep my dharma baby the whole world is yours the sun and the moon shine just for you mountains rise and seas flow may this day be the day of your dreams when all your wishes are granted and your heart is glad sleep my dharma baby rest easy in my love
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partial to i’ve become partial to red dates ginger soy sauce i crave for the scent of five-spice red wine vinegar i long for the essence of chrysanthemum joss sticks and the soft candles at your altar but most of all
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i have become partial to the scent of you fresh from the shower your long black hair cascading as you turn with love in your eyes and smile
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maxine drifting maxine drifting sculptured magenta locks medusa swaying leans into recumbent hard young body floating sleeping off far cuisines celso hospitality antonious hatless in vanguard skirting baudelairian passionate isle she so sweet half asleep 29
rocking with rolls sea teasing snatches of blue promises of sand and whale sharks and all you need is..... paint tropical spring sun caressing cebu kita creatives envisioning sea bejewelled sand bright watercolour solace in sketching evening intense cebuan squid hunters lamp dance under bright 30
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complete moon yoga beach spiritual stretch counter balances driven painterly passion embracing sand, sea and.... maxine sublimely drifting.
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malacca sunday green tea river malacca sunday proud jonker street smiles dammen und herren promenade ancient strasse hungry ghosts queue awaiting nonya sustenance baju kurung shapely fit honouring peranakan ancestors port of cheng ho premiere sultanate 34
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awash in multicultural splendour revel in your lusciousness languor no more in exquisiteness brave your exotic almond eyes and sensuous falling tresses harbour of equatorial delights 37
blue kissed seas bejewelled foam bedecked dressed in pearls lead way for dutch portuguese chinese spice island wanderers to me bring cornucopias of 38
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rambutan mangosteen red banana durian delight tease my longing proffer milk of coconut sugar of palm piscean essence in your southeast asian haven embrace 41
gaudi’s breath she walks in gaudi’s breath miro strides dali time sangria tartness of spanish red wine a wild gypsy free taking her fill strolling with picasso drinking life deep she’s aphrodite, venus, eurydice sauntering boulevards a mandala child paint bright, charcoal acuarela angel of paper/canvas in tropical dreams equatorial hills 42
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i wish her free gliding, soaring one day to return home to me
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a short love poem i opened the door to my heart for her she walked out closing the door behind her
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other chapbooks in this series
On the Is
Malim Nawar Morning 2014
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Cambodia Chill 2014
Remembering
from the blue lotus publishing
sland 2022
Lotus 2022
Being here now 2020
g Whiteness 2015
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the blue lotus back issues
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...a selection
ISSN 2754-9151 •2022 • THE BLUE LOTUS is published quarterly by The Blue Lotus Publishing (M.A.Bradley), Colchester, Essex, England, UK. © 2022 M.A.Bradley. All rights reserved.
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Love’s Texture poems and pictures by
martin bradley
(Mersea Island, Colchester, Essex, UK. Images and poems by Martin A Bradley, 2021/2)
Thank you for reading this chapbook. I do hope that you enjoyed it. The Blue Lotus will continue publishing more digital chapbooks in the future Martin
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This is a digital chapbook published by The Blue Lotus Publishing 2022