That is no session for old men. The young

With lithe legs and arms stretch like sapling trees

We, flailing generation whose Latin songs

Fail inflamed and arthritic joints to ease

We began at eight, it’s now ten, how long

Before one amongst us succumbs, and dies?

Caught in that sensual music all wrecked

Monuments of years of bad neglect

An agèd man is but a tragic ...

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How Did It Get So Late So Soon?

The man who scared the ghosts away,

The woman who healed wounds with a kiss,

I think of them more nowadays

In sad and troubled times like this.

No longer there to hug the pain

From tired bones and broken hearts,

To shield you from the winter rain

That permeates where old age starts.

Another day of fleeting tasks

From rising su...

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I’ve got my eye on a bungalow

now I’m ageing fast and living slow

not much to do, nowhere to go

A remote-controlled garage door

An en-suite on the ground floor

These are the things I’m looking for

My rosy afterglow

I’ve got my eye on a bungalow

Where I can unwind, go with the flow

Touch the roof it’s only low

A resin drive that’s easy to clean

No moss, no weed...

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I kick away the leaves
uncover the carved stones
And reading your names again
I let those feelings flood in

The two of you rest together
laid deep beneath the earth
There’s a tree that grows above you
and here’s me, treading my own winter

Life was in wealth, awhile
but I’ve been chasing that warmth 
for three decades now
I’m tired and my body aches

There will be fireworks tonight
...

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My gouty foot

shouts doubt at night,

turns up the pain

if I don’t eat right. 

Warming comfort

isn’t enough, to amuse 

my grumbling

two-bit hoof.

My broken big toe

won’t let go.

Keeps telling me off

for its creaky woes. 

It’s my fault

for this sorry state,

should’ve skipped the tackle,

pulled out too late.

My gallbladder

was a c...

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Yes I did see the latest Indiana Jones...

  Indiana Jones and the never-ending franchise train,

  Indiana Jones and the nazis have come back again.

  Indiana Jones and the new de-ageing technologies, 

  Indiana Jones and the glowing commercial opportunities. 

  Indiana Jones and the implausible car chase scenes,

  Indiana Jones and the guns that never do anything. 

 ...

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I see it  in your eyes!
You have fallen into the trap of age
Your eyes are becoming deem
The sparkle I used to admire has faded
You've seen too much
That you have internalized it all
You let it play everytime you close your eyes
You've let the burden of vision
Fast-forward your days

Didn't we say we will stay the same?
You promised that we wouldn't get old
We would always turn misfort...

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dust on her heart

cob-webbed her soul

weak eyes a toll of the hearts she stole

is she happy

counting the scalps?

yet mostly she scaled molehills, not Alps

easy meat, she

saw me coming

smile so sweet that chic chatter numbing

beauty's cool but

not forever

her sheen soon broke free of its tether

snug in wrinkles

a crown of wigs

her neck's...

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aghast, I'd not seen her for ages

a ghost of love my mind engages

but fate had turned cruel pages

beauty once soared from these features

hottest among human creatures

Nefertiti of love's teachers

still young, my experience rare

she'd flown me gently to her lair

the first woman I witnessed bare

two hawks preen on a pyramid

pecking morsels of new killed k...

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I feel just like a chimney pot

that's been hit by lightning,

after overhearing her on the

phone, for it was frightening

having a fling with a woman

doesn't talk like that to me

why she's been off it lately

promised her she'd be free

things are now making sense

no more those tickling toes

saying I needed to be firmer

bedside drawer full of dildos

d...

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How Did It Get So Late So Soon?

The man who scared the ghosts away,

The woman who healed wounds with a kiss,

I think of them more nowadays

In sad and troubled times like this.

No longer there to hug the pain

From tired bones and broken hearts,

To shield you from the winter rain

That permeates where old age starts.

The back garden is over-grown,

The kitchen i...

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Wraith

We all reach that point in life

Where Halloween holds no magic

The ragged clothes and haggard looks

The pale of face and wrinkled mask

The wild unkempt hair of cobwebs

The brittle touch of ancient hand

The racing heartbeat

Pounding out its horror rhythm

The nervous look into dark corners

Death waiting across the grey veil

A cold sweat and night chi...

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Aching All Over

My back aches and my head aches

And my eyes ache in bright light

My arms ache and my hands ache

When I go to bed at night

But when anybody asks me

I just say that ‘I’m alright’

Aching All Over

My ears ache when I listen

To those heavy metal hits

My stomach aches after a curry

My arse aches after the shits

My toes and fingers ache

As ...

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The Last Breath Of Evening

The sky is bruised purple at the last breath of evening

The air stilled from violent storms before the last breath of evening

From the new sunrise and the slow burn of a waking day

Stretching ahead in unknown pleasures to the last breath of evening

A day of honest work and muscles that ache

With the strain of reaching the last breath of e...

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The Loop At The Edge Of Reason

Christmas eve seventy-seven

Snowflakes prickle on exposed skin

I pull the duffle coat tight around my neck

As I weave my weary way up Westgate

Glancing in the Black Horse windows

As the amber light spills out

Onto the crystal streets of Wakefield

Paving them in wuffle-dust

My mind wanders and gears click

As I think of all the H...

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The menopause arrives with out warning
Childbearing days over as day is dawning
Hot flushes, tears sheer unease
HRT patches work for me please
Irritable angry one moment, next so sad
Feel good as you wake up Go to bed sad
From teenage years nothing helps you prepare
For the menopause years its not bloody fare
No more pregnancies the body a barren room
The menopause came with no warning to...

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I last wrote about our five quite some time back,

a time when, for each of them, you and I (and mostly you)

still weighed in and sparred, day on day, in any cause,

on standby should they slip or fall – though close at hand is, perhaps,

the better way to say it, the gentle way to convey a sense of

our being technically unseen, absent, yet able to be found

by one or two, no more th...

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Fertility varies from place to place.
In my hometown, cilantro would take over
The yard if you weren’t careful. Some
People don’t like the smell, but I loved
The fragrant flood of mulch and pollen
Whenever I mowed. (It was the only joy
I found in mowing.) A cilantro haze
Always encircled by volunteer chilis
Standing as spicy sentinels guarding
The perimeter of the lawn with indifference.

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On her mother’s stone step, she sits and dreams

The same step she cleaned and crossed so often

Her dress, crisp and clean in the sunshine gleams

This backstreet beauty, rare rose in blossom

What whims flicker through her wandering mind

Perchance what prospect does life hold in store

Will her journey be gentle not unkind?

Shall her story be one of less not more?

In...

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Looking for venues or assistance with this to perform/tour my new show/performance coming in 2019.. Already have first venue booked for July in Manchester.

'70' A New Decade Of Fun. Is a new performance of spoken word/poetry with comedy which shows that ageing doesn't have to mean that you stop enjoying life and exploring new ideas. That ageing is not for wimps and lets put back humour in ...

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Still 23

I’m 46 next week, but I’m 23 inside,
It’s not just old age denied.
I know my body’s knackered
‘cos daily I’m reminded:
the mirror’s getting scary,
I’m sure my face is puffy.

I used to feel so fit and strong,
stand up in the pub and sing a song,
Give me a coffee, I don’t want a pint,
I’ve no time for fools or picking a fight.

I think I’m pretty cool,
my daughter’s face sa...

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Parking the car
out by the cooling towers
breathe the quiet in
lit by the moon
not going anywhere

Thinking on
all those sad miles behind me...

Remember when we were nineteen
kissing in the back seat
tucked into the kerb
lit by our lust
not going anywhere

Thinking on
all those mad miles behind me...

When we were nineteen
everything was a fire
everything was flame
but everyt...

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Though they are mine

I have no wisdom

Though they know me

They are deaf

                In their mind

I am a man apart

I am all that is left

I am the helix of their birth and death and being

                Knowing one, I know all

I am a voice

I seek nothing I seek peace

I hear all and I reflect

I see words and I grieve

I sense pain and I weep

I feel ...

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Asleep beneath a sodium tongue,
Damp synthetic fire-licked stone,
Fake stone,
Hand made stone,
Carpeting ugly and commodious city streets,

Voices of young men,
Smoke filled lungs and wide wild eyes,
Sanguine chatter-boxes,
Impatiently idea making,

Dreaming, cold-air-breathing, nights on end without closed eyes,
Hearts open,
Some happy numbness in the fingers and toes,
All may rest ...

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My eyesight’s going

My nasal hair is growing

And my hair now looks so grey

My knees are creaking

My elbow joints are squeaking

And my voice won’t work today

As I sit down on the tiles

It’s not good for my piles

And I start to really feel my age today

My back it sometimes aches

My favourite meal is now Corn Flakes

No one cares about what I might have ...

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I have outgrown both the years

and the clothes

which had my name sewn into them

this doesn’t mean I no longer need help

to figure out who I am

my gloves are no longer twinned

by umbilical wool

but I appreciate you holding my hand

while leading me through this cold weight

I am living in those times

between hats

though if god were bothered to look

h...

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A Step Towards Summer

I look into the mirror’s depthless space,

at what is standing in the shadows cast

by light dimming swift with each day amassed

and passing by me, at a startling pace.

I sprint to catch the future in a chase

that takes me on a journey to the past

and makes me wish each moment used will last

until the day they put me in my case.

...

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CONCRETE PIGLET

You don’t see me;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 you ignore me totally cos I mean nowt to you.                                                                          ...

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I Aim

I aim to be as true to all 

As I have learnt from being small

Tell it like I see it when I'm clear

Zip my mouth if I'm not my dear

Now as time rolls on I find I still

Have a very strong unbending will

None too shy to state my case

Toe to toe, face to face

Tempering the above with concern

For others views where I may learn

More about this world ...

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