Baz McCarthy, Poet Bristol

The ghost of myself is haunting my life

Category: sea

The Poems of Baz McCarthy

These are a selection of some of Baz McCarthy’s poems. Most poems were written in and around Bristol.  He doesn’t like writing at home, he says he needs the flurry of people rushing or sitting around, doing or saying pointless things to fill in their lives…

He’s always been a massive people-watcher and eavesdropper, so if you see some bloke furiously scribbling into his Moleskine on the table next to you…

Completely irreverent and lacking any formal training or respect for anyone who has, he writes from the gut and the heart and performs his poetry in the same powerful, yet carefree manner!

This year, 2023, he’s performed aplenty, around Bristol, in places such as El Rincon, The Bristol Fringe, Coffee#1, Eldon House, Fat Goat @ Jafra and Grain Barge and the poems get honed by audience reactions (shout-out to the many lovely, enthusiastic, patient and welcoming people who suffer at my poetic hands!).

Also, some these poems may well have changed by now and even grown into bigger and better poems, although I’m not saying bigger is always better!

Swimming on Wednesday 11 to 12

By

On 16 April 2023

In architectural, god, sea, sky

So I quite alcohol back in December 2022.
Part of my recovery was lots of exercise, including swimming every Wednesday at the Uni pool, a cycle ride away, down the hill.
The quietest time was Wednesday between 11am and 12pm.
My cycle ride took me past many churches from multiple faiths.… Read the rest

Buoys

By

On 7 August 2022

In relationships, sea

Us
Buoys
Drifting
on the current
But tied
To the sea
bed
Stretch
To bump into
Another buoy
Bumpy language
Float code
For this and that
Just in range
To pass pleasantries
As tide
And time
Ping pongs
With the moon

Most of the lines are wavey
Mostly dark
But that’s not the point
The moon is white
Their edge is white

My solitary gull
Straight out to sea
Feather light, Fleck of paint
To a dark, blue, slow, clap

Fishers bob
Between red and green
Lobsters stare up
Through the weave
Aerials tickling doilies
On the ceiling

Trapped together
For life

Muted glows
Invade their distance
Shifting in
Sifting out

Their end chugs

Bright clothes
Sliding
Colliding
Wellington
Collecting
The splash
To season

Then
Together
The pull
Two wet worlds
Born apart
Clash

I’m with Victoria
Walking the shore
Looking for tiny, watery, life
And finding school children
Feet balancing
On green stones

A living, gem-studded, jewelled line
Between us and them
We’re dipping in again


A memory of my mother’s

By

On 26 December 2022

In childhood, dogs, Mum, sea

A memory of my mother’s
Tiny me
Disappearing along the beach
To reach
Other people
Despite my over sensitive reactions
To other people’s vocal actions

“Where’s he gone now?”

I always thought I was shy
But the thought that is mine
Is just mine

If you could still see my little footprints in the sand
There and back
Running away from my family
To other families
Testing them out
To see if they fit
Better for me

Running away but running back
Because
Family is important
To me?… Read the rest

Lighthouse

By

On 9 August 2022

In sea

Here’s looking at me kid
On its own
Standing tall
A loner
Always been a loner really
Maybe not through choice
But not born to it
Not like a lighthouse
Is
Maybe by position
Just my position

Looking out
Looking over us
Reaching out to us
Reaching out to me
With a beam
Of light
To light up my life
To light up me
Occasionally

And then again

And then again

And then again

The rhythm of my light
Of my life

A peak
A trough

Occasionally
Enough

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