The Hill Runners

Hill running is something you admire.

It’s in your blood, North Yorkshire’s

Moreish love of loneliness

How the heather heavy tragedy

Makes mountains sides romantic,

Peaks magnetic as a pole star’s pull.

I know you dream of them, those grim,

Uncomplicated, headlong men.

You can see heroic silhouettes –

Black dot specks on blue hillsides

Do...

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My new collection of poetry, Hobby Horses Will Dance, is available from book shops £5. A collection based on folklore and nature.ISBN 978-0-9929685-1-9

Old Ninth

Blod monath arrived

shrouded in mist and

winter chill.

Soon the firewood

would be stacked

and the cattle

slaughtered.

And when All Saints

and All Souls had passed,

Mischief Night gone

and even befo...

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Deep inside my swollen body, she kicks

.A tiny survivor, a fighter, a warrior queen,

So small yet she's ready to take on the universe...

...yet I feel guilt at bringing her into a world so unclean.

She knows not yet that she faces a future

So shaky, so insecure and unknown.

I'll love and protect her with a tigress ferocity,

But I can only do so much, one day she'll be gro...

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Laying against the darkest wall,

Memories clogged in contorted shock,

Losing consiousness to everything in all,

Its brightest moments dashing up the clock.

The stars dissolve as the sky swiftly falls,

Balled unto the shredded grass,

A lightened match, then a blow to the flames jaw,

Water sunk in the jeans of my last.

Cladded grief material upon my wrist,

Marks ...

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Frozen sighs shadow thick,

Fire heaving through the giants teeth,

Her silk dress gliding gently, serene,

Eyes beating like drums on Winter Eve.

He quells her silent tears,

Caressing her sea of particles,

Eliminating the smudges wept across her jaw,

For her eyes spilled a thousand written articles.

"Beauty, beauty is within and without,"

He articulates, palm leveling her ...

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I never feel amiss, alone or as a stranger

On days when wandering amongst the trees,

When standing on the hilltop overlooking land of bountiful existence

Or looking at the life’s reflections in blue waters of the sea.

I never know rage, hate or urge of violence

At twilight times when rolling in the silky grass,

When sitting on the tree log by the brook watching appearance of...

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As the nineteenth autumn has come upon me,
It’s a whole new world I see.
Treacherous creatures, so often, hush and hide,
And it seemeth to me, a change in tide.

The poetry of soothing sensation has gone,
The glimmering golden glow of the sun is now none.
Some say,’ The Head is battling with the Heart’.
Well ! All Logic has been torn apart.

As I gaze into the vast emptiness
The dawning...

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The geese ventured

Peace signs against the sky

Flocked victorious

Towards southern realms

The sun their prize.

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The window wide open,
I look to the street
And listen to raindrops
Sporadically beat.
The splitter and splatter
Of dancing on slate,
The light slowly dimming,
The time getting late.
They shimmy down drainpipes
And glide down the pane,
Pirouette off the people
Protected from rain,
In waterproof raincoats
With hoods fastened tight,
Like rain is so vicious
With deadliest bite.
But her...

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Two trees bending,
Heads touching brows
Under starlight,
Sunrise,
Sunset,
Moonlight.

Beneath; a pool,
Swilling softly into peaks
Of undulating rhythms.

And save for swaying, nothing moves.
Nothing has to.
Sitting on its dewy banks,

Time dancing on tiptoes,
So as not to disturb the hush
Of sunsets watching silent souls sleeping.

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You are the tree that grew inside me
when I swallowed your stone whole.

When I spoon-fed you with silvern words
you rooted in my deep.

Each morning I’m reborn by you
polishing the dawn till it blossoms in pink.

Exchanging moss coated whispers
our rain softened glances trickle between us.

I am grafted to the notches on your spine.
Spiralling together, we reach for the light.

Cal...

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Everything that will happen has already happened.
This rain is making the grass greener and
these diseased birds are eating the garbage
from the ground.  God continues to text us
encouragement although standard messaging fees apply.

The streetlights will turn green even if
no one is there to drive away,
the bread will turn bad in the freezer
no matter how tightly you wrap it,
and I have...

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Welcome overcast sky

from incessant heat

Drizzle gently falling

on freshly wet street

Feel is overwhelming

for indolence to set

With drop in mercury

and in rain to get wet

Odd for time of year

coming event it tells

Rains not lot farther

quelling of arid spells

Sprung as a surprise

catching all unaware

Speeding all measure...

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Staring out of window

admiring nature’s awe

Picture full of perfection

sans single evident flaw

 Indolent tepid sunshine

 streaks daubed with gold

As if time has stood still

to treasure and behold

A lone cloud high above

seemingly gone astray

Wending its way towards

blurred horizon far away

The trees swaying gently

with gusts of ...

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the black watch in the earth’s high rafters provide

covering fire

offering new beginnings for old ends

dropping love stones

that I may cast them at your window

cheering me on from their

high tension purlins, filling the gaps
of naked iron halls to swaddle
the shivered, brittle, steel

as if peripatetic coal dust shawls

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bees have cheesy feet
that is  a fact I like to share out loud
so with this duly declared I must report,
a garden filled with smelly, flying, bears
working on their winter fat
though garden is more a “nom de guerre”

yet down the road

the doorman’s mantra

“one in one out” is the order of the day
through the cracked masonry of the witches cradle
where the poison failed
and...

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Wild Wolves,

I heard you howl

at the moon.

I believe it was

sometimes in June.

Wild Wolves,

You sounded lonely

You sounded sad.

Was I scared?

No I was mad.

Why?

Wild Wolves,

You are being

hunted, exterminated.

Wild Wolves,

why are you

so very hated?

This...

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Streaks of tepid sunshine

with magical golden spell

Provoke latent indolence

 for fresh fervor compel

Scatter of nomadic clouds

of varied  shape and form

Reflect strokes of artistry

  nature aiming to perform

Trees full with mangoes

heralding in joyous time

Cuckoo cooing in concord

 some singing choir sublime

Distant sight of g...

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