Really chuffed to have five of my poems published by brilliant editor Agron Shele on the outstanding Atunis Galaxy Poetry Magazine Blog.
Strider Marcus Jones (UK)Strider Marcus Jones (UK)
Published by Agron Shele on September 24, 2025

A Woman Does Not Have To Wait
under the old canal bridge you said
so i can hear the echoes
in your head
repeating mine
this time
when it throws
our voices from roof into water
where i caught her
reflection half in half out of sunshine.
that’s when i hear Gershwin
playing his piano in you
working out the notes
to rhapsody in blue
that makes me float
light and thin
deep within
through the air
when you put your comforts there.
Waits was drinking whisky from his bottle
while i sat through old days with Aristotle
knowing i must come up to date
because a woman does not have to wait-
until my speech and face is
naked like a grockle
in those other places
we are coming to
under the blue.
it isn’t much, but all i have for us-
me, behind this mask of mirrors.
This Theatre of Show
i want to go
where love songs grow,
on the radio
into someone’s heart.
i want to know
if i play too slow,
and fade before the glow
can flame and spark.
i mend a dream,
distil it, to mountains seen
through mind and eyes potcheen,
lotioned by loves mark;
with tongue dabbing gleam
in fast flowing stream
of sweet nectarine
from sun up through sun dark.
i want your glow
in the thoughts i know,
before they dim down low
and depart-
this theatre of show
above and below,
where we all act to know
our own part.
so many vines
in the times
i know,
grape, but fail to flower.
i taste their wine
in its summertime,
but show
i am just a shower.
The Mess of Thrown Off Clothes
i listen
to your love beads glisten
in the flotsam
of my room-
we make them
from samurai sword folds
at forge and loom
in the mess of thrown off clothes.
so many smoke me kisses
at portal doors,
and mithril wishes
on primitive floors-
take us back again
through heath and fen
to imitate
lost landscape-
cycle
and circle
sky and stone
outside and home-
in love in less
with your heavenliness,
and loneliness
durable under duress.
Pomegranate Flesh
ask those
who grow old-
some fruits are nicer
when they’re riper.
you don’t stop
the clock
on the one who chose
you to hold-
her pomegranate
is still your sonnet
of sepia feelings and flesh,
sensuously sweet and fresh.
although the mirror never lies,
it shows the beauty that lives
as it dies
and gives
its own reflection
of your perfection
to me
then and now,
each memory
taken
by the lenses
somehow,
preserved
by your words
and curves
in my senses.
our dance,
that thrilled
in its intricate
tango on the floor,
is still filled
with time intimate
romance
and more-
talking rubicon of reason,
in layer, upon layer of season
so sedimentary
since you entered me-
and i consumed
your silky mesh
of pink perfumed
pomegranate flesh.
When You Came In
the air
tore into shreds
around our heads
in the room
when you came in.
bare
words
flew out of your chair
like accusing,
hysterical birds
and pecked at my plume
of silence
spitting vile violence.
i wore the harness
of your darkness
and pulled its load
of false truth
behind my youth-
you told me i was old
and i lost a tooth.
in the scene, that cut the cable,
while we both sat at the table
in the garden-
love’s sour jasmine
drooped,
poisoned in its ruined roots,
then you wept to me
and went to him
tears
trailing,
years
jading,
fading
beauty
again.
that was there.
that was then.
a solar flare
of raven hair
around its star,
last light more magnificent than most,
close
but far.
Strider Marcus Jones (UK)
Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal: https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/.
He is member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry: https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
His poetry has been published in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Melbourne Culture Corner; Literary Yard Journal; The Honest Ulsterman; Poppy Road Review; The Galway Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine and Dissident Voice.
https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/
His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology:And Agamemnon Dead; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney.
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