Eroding time carries away our lives as we desperately cling to shifting sand. We grope for memories now beyond our grasp and unfulfilled dreams that have crumbled to dust. The years behind us are splattered emotions that flicker like a flame in their uneven clarity.  We try to touch the fleeting images. We caress and coax abandoned thoughts of who or what from memories we’ve tucked away in a bo...

Read and leave comments (0)

War's no place to be
Yeah, I were a soldier me,
constantly, for years,
still am now I’m on me arse,
listening to all these gobshites
with their feckin poppies.
I see watermelon smiles
 — to the ears, not the eyes --

me on me knees
unexploded ieds — 
women-with tanned, muscular arms
walking for miles
for water
men with children on their backs …
jumping into the sea to esc...

Read and leave comments (4)

May you feel the rush of warmth of my love wash over you .

May your heart be filled with the joy that I bring into your life.

May you see the way I see you when you look into my eyes.

May the smile upon my face show you the happiness you bring me.

May the words that flow from me touch your soul the way you touch mine.

May my personality show you who I am and complete you.

May my ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Bonfire blaze

Misty Moon

Wilting rose

Pink balloon

Children’s laughter

Parent’s glee

Cold hereafter

“What’s for tea?”

I’ve got pizza

And some wine

In the freezer...

Sounds sublime.

Or there’s fish

At suppertime?

So just one wish

Before you climb

The wooden hill

To paradise

Where you might fill

Your hearts’ delight

And langu...

Read and leave comments (0)

Just a short diversion from poetry itself but using the content of words to entertain, 

with some connecting identities in the letters.  For example -

DESPERATION = The rope ends it

THE MORSE CODE = Here come the dots

SNOOZE ALARMS = Alas no more z's

SLOT MACHINES = cash lost in me

A DECIMAL POINT = I'm a dot in place

ELEVEN PLUS TWO = Twelve plus one

DORMITORY = Dirty room

Read and leave comments (0)

https://youtu.be/vjZmX-JL1sY?si=aveVcdWGx17KzcwQ

Beware, beware, there's a killer out there

Beware, beware, there's a killer dog out there

And his name is Rufus 

The public are advised to stay well clear

of a dog wanted in connection with a murder last year

His name is Rufus and has gone on the run

He’s aged seven in dog years and height 2 ft.1

He wears a brown c...

Read and leave comments (0)

I sang a song 

upon that hill

wishing you would hear

but the trees and birds

were all that heard

for you were nowhere near

I raised a note

so full of hurt 

up to the heavens high

and without you,

I laid my pain

upon that midnight sky

I cursed the stars,

forevermore

my words so black with hate

but they cursed back

and left me ...

Read and leave comments (1)

Things take time and patience.

Life transitions take time and patience.

Self-love takes time, patience, and practice.

time, patience, practice.

Read and leave comments (0)

Yo 

What is the maximum potential of ones mind, body, and soul?

When the pressure is on and there is no room to dwell 

When there is something at stake if the heavens don't shine down and caste their forces upon the flesh to accomplish at an exorbitant rate 

When the mind must become sharper than the samari's sword

When the foods you eat  replenish the body and amplify the charge 

Read and leave comments (0)

I wait patiently for you

Because that's all

I ever learned to do.

But I also learned

To breathe in

And to breathe out.

Yet here I am in your presence,

Completely winded.

Read and leave comments (0)

There was anger within her, ages old, beyond the state of corruption.
Bitterness was rooted deep into her being, living as if it was comfortable there.
She began to grieve and grieve until it became impossible to feel anything else. She tore herself apart in the name of despair, feeling the agony as it fed off her bones.
She'd cry if only she knew how
"Would it always be this way?" She wondere...

Read and leave comments (0)

From stately Georgian houses 

The summer evening fills

With Georgian ladies’ laughter

As they meet to dance Quadrilles

Their laughter tinkles down the years

From Hope and Rodney Street

On wreaths of smoke it gently steers

Their tiny Georgian feet

So delicate the tracery 

Of plastered ceiling coves

Fanlights warmly candlelit

And Palladian porticoes

The city ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Read and leave comments (0)

I know I'm not weak

But I don't get to see my strength

As I have no reason to fight

So I look inside myself

And fight the inner battles

The ones for peace

For happiness.

Information is too unreliable

No sources can be trusted

So I avoid the outside world's struggles

Because how can you pick a side

Based on all the lies being told

To make the other side look bad.

Read and leave comments (1)

If I were a poet and could write in a fine hand
I'd write her a letter only she'd understand.

I'd write it down by the shore
where the water helps articulate so much.

I tell her of my desire to pen something beautiful for her,
but she says I needn't bother to write anything down.
She already knows the words I would place on the paper.

Read and leave comments (0)

Starlight

Shine bright

Roll the dice for me tonight

Lucky charm of the sky

Burning light-years high

Out of reach

Of my motorbike

Cruising under citylight

Read and leave comments (0)

Love is, 

replacing the soothing touch of water 

with the burn of swirling red. 

Love is, 

broken glass on the ground, 

not being able to differentiate red from red.

Love is, 

freely seeking comfort in another’s bed, 

knowing your own will be empty anyway. 

Love is, 

conceiving a child, 

in the hopes it will turn your lives around. 

Love is, 

heated argu...

Read and leave comments (0)

What use is poetry in time of war?

Insular England mourned

a much-loved tree felled

with chainsaw by barbarians

in dead of night. A local

politician compared it

to the death of Kennedy.

Meanwhile Russia continued

to bomb Ukraine, now

almost forgotten

amid daily massacres

in Israel and Palestine.

Evil resumed, three eyes

for one. Yet this feels different.

Read and leave comments (5)

Two vampires are on the roam,

They wander and stumble on a carehome.

They bang on the door and shout,"trick or treat,

It's Halloween and blood we need to eat."

A nurse answered the door and wouldn't let them in.

"It's not worth you coming here,all the residents are on warfarin ."

Read and leave comments (1)

I breathed

her name against

her neck

She turned and

mouthed inquisitively

"what"?

I asked

of her the

time,

she checked her

non existing

wristwatch

I smiled

and went to

put on

my still damp

coat.

Read and leave comments (0)

They weep in Israel;

They weep in Palestine.

They weep in Ukraine.

The whole world should weep.

Time drifts by, faster than we think;

Death queues for its daily spoils.

Someone always cleans up afterwards.

The stubbornly alive cling on to love.

Condolences rain down;

Groups huddle, trying to empathise

And multiply excuses,

While a few, buoyed up by the circus ...

Read and leave comments (5)

Silence once again broken

Spilling the secrets

Doing what's best

Always moving ahead

What's within reach 

Easily available and comfortable

Family agrees and everyone too

Best thing that can be pursued

Conditions all good

What's best should be pursued

Smiles, wishing best of luck

Read and leave comments (1)

girls are beautiful like trees. 

heads pointed at the sky, stretched wide into the clouds. 

eternal and shadowed, 

i like to sit beneath beautiful girls.

i like to bask in their shade, no sunlight illuminates my shape. 

some beautiful girls forget that they will live on through me. 

and i want to grasp these girls, 

fold into them, 

climb their trunks and sit atop their bow...

Read and leave comments (0)

As he threatened 

me with the knife 

I thought, 

“this isn’t the time” 

I had just come back 

from my shrink 

ready to do more work

on my things 

As he growled, 

“Give me your money!!!” 

I snarled, 

“I don’t have any...

...but if you want 

the debt on my cards, 

feel free for 25k!!!” 

I then assumed the pose 

part Shaggy-part Grou...

Read and leave comments (0)

warmth 
like a dipped oak 
an aegis of honey-words 
folded in layers 
carefully made gifts
(tho hastily wrapped)
best taken while still soft
still hot
like candied ginger pressed
 between lips parted in awe
in rapture 

the steam of kitchens and
the drawing of breath
tumbling bedshapes 
unmistakable 
and knowable 

warmth
like a waxen wood countertop 
dangling incandescence
in...

Read and leave comments (0)

In my heart

there is a little doorway,

a little table,

a little crystal ball

sitting on the table,

it glows and pulsates,

that little ball,

and reaches deep

into my veins and muscles

and all the paths

that pump my heart,

one beat at a time.

Deep within the heart,

my heart, your heart,

lies wisdom--

past, present, future--

all flowing and glowing,

...

Read and leave comments (2)

Through the air yet another missile flies.

And every 15 minutes another child dies.

That heart breaking stat, it sickens me so.

With every strike the death toll will grow.

Children forced to drink water from the sea.

This is not humane, so how can be this be.

A peaceful, free life is every child’s right.

No children should suffer in conflict or fight.

And those wh...

Read and leave comments (3)

Record

And they are spitting bars in the chapel.
I watch my back, my moods switched on.

It’s chilly. The prison dialled down until November. 
Price of the punishment, price of the economy?

A man who loves the gospel steps to the microphone.
Nervous and twitchy but immersed in his grace.

He raps in French, “Dieu est amour et j’en suis désolé.”
A chipped Mary weeps as the sun cracks ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Be Gone Thine Crystaline Indoctrination

     Tonight, I am in a shambles,

I am distraught and amputated,

   I am beyond a noose or afterlife,

beyond the crossroads where any

expresses the pale.

     Today, before the wind kept

insisting the asylum is still our keenest

   observation,

       I trusted a velo court

relationship with a stuttering wheeze,

Read and leave comments (0)

Love never leaves you

Remains dormant quietly sleeping

Smiles burst into life

Two hearts waking up

Stolen kisses naughty wishes

Simultaneously falling in love.

Read and leave comments (3)

Relish your dark woundings

prime your pellets

check your powders

for soon comes the hunter's moon

Polish your stock

let your barrel breathe oil

make slick your cloths

practise footfalls of stealth

for soon comes the hunter's moon

while fen and forest

sweat and furrow

while fur frets in the burrow

hold fast your dreams for now

for soon comes the hunt...

Read and leave comments (4)

There will come a time

When meadow blooms are mindfully mum,

When majestic woodland oaks succumb

When poetry surely loses rhyme.

There will come a day

When exploits are regaled less often,

When hope is nevermore an option,

When love and laughter have gone astray,

There'll be a minute

When atonement for our wrongs is done,

When the final song to sin...

Read and leave comments (2)

So,

I know this girl,

With Dark eyes,

So Deep, Burning with confidence,

Brimming with curiosity,

To learn, To know,

Anything and Everything,

All at once,

More than a pretty face,

And sweet smile,

Courageous enough, To fight, 

Against wrong,

A lamp, who brings joy,

Wherever she paves her way,

Mysterious though,

Is just how,

She never reveals her pain,

Read and leave comments (0)

The cellar to my mam and dad’s house served as both a pantry and a workshop.  It had electric lighting of course, but also benefitted from the daylight it got from the coal grate.  (For the more privileged among you, this was where the coal got tipped in).

It wasn’t a comfortable workspace, for me at least.  The ceiling was about 6 feet high and so am I; so I’d frequently bump or scrape my head...

Read and leave comments (0)

A vessel for the soul's voyage next
your life is a whisper of shadows
surrendering across floods of decades
heartbeats, ice rising up free, galaxies of years
silence, numbed by time
transcending forms incanting dust,
gates opening up like pslams
arms wide open in blindness
releasing ripples of memory over the soul,
whimpering, guiding onwards
stood against the tide
words crippled in fla...

Read and leave comments (0)

Laminar, turbulent, and all between.

The observer, the bystander and the experiment as one.

Alone, drifting, finding a distinct existence with each passing trial.

Never knowing, always wondering, subject to the conditions of an unpredictable stimulus.

Until I meet the gaze of a fractured soul in a divine form.

It invites me to join it. Into the drift, we consort.

Only after it he...

Read and leave comments (0)

I remember seeing a woman once 

A few years ago. 

She was riding the 8 am bus in Rome 

From the stealthy apartment complexes 

To the bustling city center.

Her skin folded over itself,

Caressing the bones underneath, 

Carefully protecting its careful protector.

I only saw her for a moment,

But when I did, I locked eyes with her.

The glare of the sun against the 

Ple...

Read and leave comments (0)

We the people,

live on the edge

of knowledge

built by human endeavour.

Expertise

to embrace,

enrich,

not scorn.

You claim wisdom 

ignore experts,

you born again

alternative

converts.

I can’t believe 

I’m reduced 

to refuting 

your nonsense.

Just thought

I’d let you know,

fuckwits.

Read and leave comments (3)

Jihad, jihad, toil and trouble!

In the cause of public safety

Honest Bobprick’s banned that word;

The Met Plod’s also banned a road,

The road in question being “The Struggle”,

Or, as it’s known in Palestine,

The “Jihad”, yes, wot broke my gearbox!

That ain’t no amble for this old crock,

Ban it now, that darned Jihad!

Jihad! Struggle! Jihad! Struggle!

Double, double to...

Read and leave comments (1)

I wrote this for a Guy Fawkes Night poetry event back in 2013 (yes, such a thing actually happened!)I wrote this for a Guy Fawkes Night poetry event back in 2013 (yes, such a thing actually happened!)

Remember, Remember…the what of November?
Was sure there was something…try to remember
Dates in a diary, reminders of significance
Sure there was something...just think perchance
Perchance to t...

Read and leave comments (0)

I wonder if you look for us

In the way the sun beams down on any given day.

or when you look in the mirror.

Do we ever linger in your mind

As the sound of laughter is heard from little kids playing?

When someone says your name, 

do you turn to look for us?

When our birthday comes around,

do you debate reaching out?

Do you keep track of how old we are as time go...

Read and leave comments (0)

Woken up Rudely by a wide awake kid 

Her iPad starts blaring , that one that you hid,

It’s 5 in the morning , but she wants to play,

But you’ve hardly slept, not ready for the day ,

You’ve been up all night , on the edge of her bed,

While she sleeps so soundly, sweet dreams in her head,

8 comes round it’s time to get up and go, 

But now she is ‘ tired ‘she’...

Read and leave comments (4)

Wise in worldly ways?

I'd rather be a fool

Who dies honest anyways

Read and leave comments (0)

Point of View

Nothing is beautiful

Not any sunrise

Not any dawn

I don’t believe in beauty

-I don’t believe at all

Like me be sceptical

Of everything you’ve been told

If anyone tells me it’s warm outside

-I tend to think it’s cold.

Don’t believe the TV news

Don’t believe the people when they tell you things they saw

And if the politicians say it’s ...

Read and leave comments (2)

I sat in a quaint pub, guzzling its real ales,
and wondering how I could reconnect with Gabriela, my lost love, who was somewhere in Hicklegate, that famous spa town of North Yorkshire.

Then, staggering past the war memorial,
I was halted in my tracks by a preacher, and stood transfixed as he told me that ‘Jesus saves’.

‘Really?’ I said to myself, thinking that this town attracts some righ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Kier

I bumped into a bloke in the Gents the other day'

Looked just like Kier Starmer,

If it's not him, I thought, I'll eat my cap.

I wanted him to hear

What life is like for us, the hoi polloi,

I said “Hey’up Kier,

Can I call you Kier?

It is you isn't it Kier?

I've seen you on the telly!”

But answer came there none. Silence.

I was pretty sure it...

Read and leave comments (6)

The Voice came tentatively to the stage

considered, loved.

It was needed but fragile.

The lights were bright.

A murmur from the audience

And at centerstage was the Voice.

Time ticked by slowly.

Tick, Tick

The murmur somewhat louder now

Tick Tick

anger palpable.

Many groups once divided, now together with burning Indignation

glaring at that stage.

Read and leave comments (1)

A Commandment

In these times of conflict 

people are killed by the day.

Bullets and explosions

claim the lives of many.

Revenge is high on the agenda

for the reason to kill.

Mercy takes a back seat

as terror reigns.

I was once a soldier

many years ago.

I am now mature in years

and am a pacifist.

One of the ten commandments

says

"Thou shalt not kill...

Read and leave comments (5)

Loosing creativity for common ways

Saving time & effort with proven ways

Enthusiasm dimming, I’ll keep the desire

I guess, real manhood surpasses pleasure

There aren’t right choices, it’s the reasons

I try right actions, correcting last wrongs

Is it really living if memories easily blown

I guess, there’s longevity in slowing down

Times never really change, it’s pe...

Read and leave comments (0)

Autumn

Autumn, cloaked in scarlet, russet and bronze,

Is a spendthrift who

Flings gold across the landscape

Steps proudly midst Harvest’s abundance.

Caresses velvety peaches

Plucks bushels of pears, plums and pomegranates

Bites crisp, caramel apples

Tastes tangy hot cider.

Greets goblins at her door

Hands out treats to pint-sized Jack-O-Lanterns

While wit...

Read and leave comments (2)