steep as hell

We tiptoe in the shadows of giants


Steel claws bite the snows crust

Skirting headwall after headwall

On ever steeper slopes

The sun beating down and reflecting, searing flesh on the bone

...Snow blinding fear seeping through

Our armour of experience feels pitifully thin up here

Standing tall on front points, pretending everything is alright

With the glacial wall standing taller

Right in our faces, close enough to kiss

If the giant should cough

Shrug his cape of snow off in response to the suns caresses

These fleas who are we would disappear

Like a waking dream

In this steep as hell world


We face our dreams

And make love to our fears

sitting in a motel room with the ghost of tom waits
sunset outside thru the window and deepening fall colours
remembering the flavours of montreal next to this erie canal
flavours and aromas and textures and long shivering kisses
trucks lit up like christmas rumble past as my fish and chip dinner settles
another layer of my self peels back
landing softly on cat like feet and slinking into the night
and i decide i like whats been exposed
its got a whiskey and smoke flavour
a real patina, the blues practically seep from this place

ride your heart out

rode my heart out today


morgan jean the bmx machine

spiderbike and heatbag

my pal bateman was there

in the wall wall two feet below coping

...where his pappy laid his ashes

i kissed it with tires

and my body once or twice

josh was there too

little bikers in the sky

i live to love

and love to ride

i lived today

a little biker in the sky

when the dying day comes
i hope i go where i hoped all those before me went
not heaven with its sheets and white perfection
nor hell as much as the hedonists hope
more a valhalla for all
the riders who rode before me will have built ramps
gallager will be sipping whiskey from a fruit jar
and smirking
the giants will be stirring a mad winter storm
out one end of the great hall of the gods
tearing the sky and coating the land
with ice and snow
while out the other men race and climb in summer sun
just to feel the sting and sweat
women dance to music made by the ones we lost
and all manner of feast is heavy on the vine
this is where i hope to go when i die
and i hope you go to
so i can see you
on the other side

chaos in my mind like the colours of alpine glades in the spring
read to some people this weekend, another fear beat down
i can sit on a knife edge with thousands of feet under me and roll it up, burn it down, no sweat
put me on the spot i stutter and my face gets red
the things i fear make no sense
yet i face them and even when they do hurt me its not so bad
every hurt is a lesson learnt
every fear faced
opens a door

climbers prayer

oh lord


deliver us this dayfrom the mudane

protect me from rockfall

and my partner from manky gear

annointeth my clothes with woodsmoke

and my food with pine needles

i'll bend my neck to pray

not down but up

to the summits where you play

summertime

shin cracks n road rash


headwounds and heat stroke

drink drank drunk as fuck

hungover and getting stuck

loving life and healing fast

time to go and go again