I do not like living here
There are rats in the attic
And a big black crow is squaw-king
At my window, demanding entry,
Crow says it's a  hypothetical 
supersymmetric counterpart
to a quark, having a spin of zero.
I think not Mr Crow.
That be all ye need to know.
Mr Talking Crow. Talking bird or no.
I am haunted by these words you know.

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DEARLY BELOVED ONE

It’s time to ask the morning sun,

sweet treat of day, to be

gentle in its early rise and late demise

in this year’s June illuminations.

May you know the need for

one of us to rest our head so

all of night’s too short dominion

be tightly matched; for sleep will

leave long-time tired eyes to open

slowly, which otherwise might catch

a ride far ...

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Strange feeling, standing next to this felled tree,

A victim of a violent assault.

Not long ago, these leaves were vigorous

In the reflection of a sparkling sun.

Green dominated, but entertainments

Of all shapes and styles delighted this Earth.

Now brown and shrivelled, they slip existence,

As they accompany their own decline.

We know that feeling too. The lynched bodies,

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My missing piece returned to me

The little heart that had been taken 

Just this evening it came back 

Making me whole and complete at last 

I feel good having my piece back to me 

It anyways didn't belong to him

He had far more expensive ones to keep 

The cheapest was returned, it wasn't needed at all 

My,heart is completely satisfied 

Slowly retaining it's div...

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its awfully strange. 

i scrapbook pieces of my soul, and mind together. 

together on the pages of a lined notebook, 

the glue i used melts into the paper and the newspapers i borrowed evaporate. 

the news dies, or fades, it disappears. 

melted together with the newest form of creative escapism ive decided upon.

there are vibrations under my papercut hands, markered with...

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My attention has been drawn to a wonderfully apt and ascerbic version of Kipling's famous poem - framed to

describe what is going on in our lives at this time.  I strongly recommend any WOL reader to seek it out...with

the attributed writer's popularity on Twitter a good start.  I have had a copy sent to me and it really is a work of

satirical excellence that Kipling himself would probabl...

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My love for you will always stay.

Like a door not closed all the way.

I will love you in my own way.

Even if I must stay away.

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IMMIGRANT GIRL

Sofa-surfing at loose-end parties

after tired feet touch tarmac

and poverty is a canvas of hazard.

A cousin in some pot-luck suburb

where cork sags under adverts.

At last a pokey crumbling room:

cabinet doors hang open in defiance,

insect agendas behind furniture

glued tight by the gunge of years.

New curtains and light bulbs

from alien sho...

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t   here   comes a   t   ime 
when   t   he   onl  Y   ligh   t  Y   ou 
have is   t   he   one   Y   ou
li   gh   t Y
ourself

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Renewed Hope

My heart aches as tears freely fall

What is this conflict for?

Why should such a tragedy befall us?

My soul laments and I am downcast

Misery inhabits my inner being

as the young and innocent are

sacrificed on the altar of irrelevance

Why should this be?

How can we be led into this valley pf perpetual destruction?

Do we not recall the past?

Is hist...

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Discount codes and online deals
can drive me up the wall
When searching for a saving 
no matter how big or small 

Some offers are amazing 
and are difficult to beat
They can come in so handy 
when I want a little treat 

Sometimes I find an old one
 just passed it’s expiry date  
That’s when I curse myself 
for being a day too late

I can scroll for hours 
to only save a pound or ...

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I work for the bank

I work for the council

I work for all HM government departments

I work for the Doctor

I work for the Utility companies

I work for the Dentist

I work for airlines and public transport

I work for Theatres and Cinemas

The list is never ending

I only used to have one employer

Hey I’m retired (or so I thought)

My day is one long slog on electron...

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the male of the species 

exaggerates his claims

enlarging his body

by dancing on stage

employing techniques

mimicking other males

engaging in tool making

with limited success 

female of the species 

remains unimpressed 

performing daily rituals

with mystical content

looking on patiently

he struggles in her trap

waiting for him to tire 

be...

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A conversation with my father

He was old when we spoke

Ninety years and more

I asked him what it was like

When he served in the second

World war

You don’t need to know girl

What I know would make your toes curl

I don’t want to remember

Don’t ask difficult questions

My memory is blurred

But I’d really like to know, dad

Was it really, really bad?

It’s...

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 Granny Hi Tech

My mum’s been posting selfies… at the age of ninety two!

She’s becoming all tech savvy, whilst I haven’t got a clue.

They say a dog can get too old to teach itself new tricks,

But she’s on Twitter, Instagram, even downloads from Netflix.

It all started back in her 80s, when the tablets which she took

Were traded in one hi-tech day for a brand new i-mac book.

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blue tears

her blue tears

falling on the pink morning

created a lavender sky

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The worst decision of my life

How can I choose

So many options

Options which have only been limits

Only failures

What comes after

Where is the end

A light in the tunnel

A joke in the background

Surrender to nothingness

Dive into empty consciousness  

Swim among my dreams

Paddle with all my plans  

Everything which has been wasted

Among all my regrets

Al...

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1977

Queen popping round

Jubly  

"It's Jubilee, Son"

Jooobly!

6 years old

Street party

The like I'd never seen

Flags

Bunting

Dried up sandwiches 

with curled up edges

Homemade Cake!

Homemade Pies! 

Trifle!

Rhubarb with sugar dip

Penny chews & lollies 

& pear drops & sherdet 

"It's sher -Bet"

Sher-DET!

Where's Queen?

"Missed the bus"

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There are shadows all over
Shining darkly in reverse;
Pointy ears of impish horns,
Whose stalks ravaged worn;
Chant rondeaus of curses
On a sea of four-leaf clover. 

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A crazed gunman barricaded himseld forcing frightened children into a school classroom

time was running out - - -

The clock ticks

Rifle trigger clicks

Frenzied mind splutters

Traumatic overwhelming panic

Spontaneous children act

Frantic messages sent

Please Help Us

Please Help Us

Please Help Us

Police stand back

Desperate minutes lost

Door forced eventua...

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If God were to come down Himself,

and wipe away all the pain.

restore every scar to its previous state.

undo every lie ever told.

What would be left of us?

How many of our dreams and passions,

are rooted in someone else’s bullshit?

Do you champion women’s rights,

out of a genuine concern for the plight they

face on a daily basis?

Or do you like to end your t...

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Live free 

Declutter your mind 

So also your heart and soul 

Drop the negativities 

Live free 

Of all tensions and worries 

Let these be dropped 

Never to bring them back 

Live free 

Of unnecessary burdens 

That weighs us down 

Making difficult movement ahead 

Live free 

Of past, that's history 

Nothing can be done or undone 

Those were s...

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I wrote this yesterday, the day of Sunak's special measure and the day after the Sue Gray disclosures but didn't get chance to post it until today.

And when I see the news he points one way

“Don’t look over there to yesterday.

Just look away today

From all that stuff about Party Gate.

It’s cost me billions to brush over all my tracks

With Windfall Tax”.

For several m...

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Place To Be

The best place to be right now

Is not in Europe over Russia's issues

A pissed off nation with 7,500 nukes

Of different types and classes

As set ready to use on Putin's order

Ukraine started it after NATO grew

Right up to Russia's borders

Now they want to turn back the clock

1997 when Russia wasn't threatened

This isn't possible so they all

Sleepwalk to...

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With their shadowed brows and camouflaged stealth

soldiers are practising on the heath

as I awake, the put put of small arms fire

dotting the distance on the rutted scrubland

with sweeping views over Cove and Aldershot,

controlled aggression telling a staccato story

primeval dreams coming true

scattering the wildlife with their restless presence

likewise uniformed they...

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My heart lies on the roadside 

Cast aside by youth 

in the search for truth

Left to rot, openly beating

Crying for the body , waiting for the scoop of angels 

To place it in the breast of a lover

Gone it is now , in dust and smoke

Barely a stain left where it fell

No resurrection, no connection 

No hot blood running through 

But eaten by the crows.

Will i...

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Inspired by this article on Write Out Loud home page.

Link to video version on Youtube.

This government’s passing some new legislation

to distract from Johnson’s shoddy situation.

As the country’s not fooled by his hollow sorries,

to avoid the rap, they’ve deployed Ms Dorries

to bluff and to bluster with her dodgy rhymes

in the hope we’ll forget her boss’s crimes.

Mean...

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Where my phone ends and my hand begins

Is utterly impossible to discern,

They merge so seamlessly into each other!

I make more screen-time promises every day,

But it seems that I never learn.

“No!  Don’t take your eyes from the screen!

Focus! You pathetic knave, you useless slave!

 Your total attention is what I crave.”

My mind, or what is left of it,

Wanders o...

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The tears cannot put out

The burning question of the heart

What a bizarre fire you have

As no one can see your flame

Deep down in your heart

Maybe we should sing a song

To let us not  go wrong

Once again with unanswered questions

The lyrics are so stuck in violence

That they are drifting us apart

Deep down in our bleeding heart

The empty space is not big enough

...

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I'm travelling through space, looking for a home.
Some unwelcome Worlds, want to be left alone.
On other Worlds, I see loneliness in every soul.
And I see Worlds were fires rage out of control.

On others, I see vast lands of dusty, arid plains.
Barren, infertile, in need of the quench of rains.
I have travelled light years, in the blink of an eye.
And I've seen a million different colours...

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In seven decades on the throne She has never once wavered,

Her unshakeable commitment we have enjoyed and savoured.

After the worst pandemic in Her Majesty's reign,

The hideous Russian aggression in Ukraine.

A party gate madness incited by our political bunch

 And the consequences of a cost of living crunch.

Under the flags,bunting and cheers we will all have a ball,

A tr...

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If the light of soul and heart,
outshines like the flair of art.

I wish if intentions were heard,
unlike the blabbering meaningless words.

I so wish if there was some mirror,
to reflect the soul more clearer.

I wish and so wish,
how sweet things might be to cherish.

How serene everything could be,
unlike the beautiful heartless concrete.

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We love our school and learn a lot

after passing through the metal detector.

Most important, we're taught how to conceal ourselves.

No sport for us, but shooter drills instead.

Turn out the lights and lock the classroom door,

squat quivering, eminently visible, under our flimsy desks

as someone could crash in with murderous intent

having already killed the guards on the school...

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All this talk about genders is a bit confusing

All emotions have been torn

But then again, I was a man trapped in a woman's body

Until the day I was born

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The King of Lockdown raised a glass

A toast to ghosts of empires past

His gaze steadfast upon the cast

Of gathered acolytes, his class

And scenes they would deny

The grape and grain of government

Authors of instruction meant

For others, never their intent

Without consent of votes once lent

Ever to comply

The King of Lockdown, slovenly

Dismissive of discov...

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Gemstone Necklace

I dare to wander far inside this trove of a head

Without chains around my ankles bounding me to my bed

Though, it sure feels like it

I feel a weight inside my lungs and my chest doesn’t like it

In the expansion and decompression

The plasm I bleed

And the skin closes up, it’s all alike

It seems.

In solitude, a bed of thin clouds dissolves benea...

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I arrived early at the Copper Steampot,
the tea rooms with an authentic olde worlde ambience,
which I’d chosen as ideal for meeting women from that new dating site,
Easy Romance For Little Pence.

An old pal had encouraged me to move on, saying,
‘It’s time you got off the fence, you’ll get a sore ass.’

As I waited I reflected on this sage advice, repeatedly glancing at the clock.
You may...

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Lady Generosity
suddenly, standing before me
Says my voice sets her at ease
and she’ll do anything I please

The night was a vicious dark
so, I wished for more moon
and with a flick of her hair
we’re climbing the stair to her room

She’s a lonesome soul and she tells me so
Loves the silence of being home alone
To hear her laughing loudly with me
a sound I remember so fondly

Though,...

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This

is not

a ‘resting bitch face’.

This

is the face

of a woman who has done a full day’s work.

She’s tired, doesn’t need your little smirks

or daft asides so just be quiet.

After work, she fetched food, made tea,

washed up, watched TV, fell asleep.

Her electricity is steep. 

She’s back to Sunday baths,

one day a week to keep clean

with a strip ...

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Phaëthon pleads with Helios, 

his father and god of the Sun, 

to let him play his part

for just one day:

to be given the reins

of his horses to ride

round the globe, and

though the idea seems

rash to his progenitor, 

the boy's persistence 

does end up victorious. 

But the bloom of youth, 

too sure of itself, 

fails to entertain 

the doom witnessed 

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It’s nice to be able
to nakedly walk
To explore ideas
and openly talk

A chance to be honest
a chance to share
Opportunity for this
is so very rare

So often the case
this falls on deaf ears
It tends to provoke
and uncover one’s fears

People are scared
to expose their weakness
I wish for their sake
others would seek this

It is humiliating
It uncovers our flaws
But there’s h...

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Sky

Vast oceanic presence

You reign above us

Magnificent

An ever-changing canopy of colour

Humbling

Choreographer of clouds

Inspiring

Transmitter of rain

Awesome

Carrier of weather

And wearer of rainbows

You are the queen

Who governs our days

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Sinking deep

Makes skin soft

Once applied

He could not 

Get her off

She was his lotion

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Today I sit here in my car, trying to hold back tears, trying to stay strong

A teacher....

Teach your students colors,shapes, letters, numbers, teach them about life, and now keep them safe from guns

Today I sit here in my car, trying to hold back tears, trying to stay strong, remember you are a teacher

Teach your students to not be afraid, yet in your heart you know the world is again...

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They say time fills the void that grief brings 

That life becomes easier and we are supposed to feel comfort in knowing that the emptiness and the pain weaken their grips around our throats 

How happy we should be to allow these to pass 

But I would rather the emptiness fill me like a garden hose in an Olympic pool and the pain dull like an open break sealed with bandaids 

And when the...

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Thank you Dad.

Thank you for your deep deep love.

For always making me feel so special and loved.

For teaching me to pass on that love to my own children.

I could not have felt more loved.

Thank you Dad.

Thank you for sharing with me your love of music and poetry.

For reading to me at bedtime and encouraging my love of books.

For instilling in me the love of words and ...

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A warm morning after a night full of sleep full of hope, plans
I feel young

It’s strange how my mood is affected by how my body feels.
A mystery: what is pain a message from a part of me
battling with an unseen enemy Doctors always ask
where does it hurt describe your pain on a scale
of 1 to 10 I seldom think of numbers when I’m
in pain, but ratings in life are popular I give
that song a...

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Redeem the natural

See the reason for peeking into endless realness

Onto the big rusty red wagon with traction wheels

Fix on down the road

A mighty fine truck

Going so fast

Taking it in slow

Process

Apply 

Consume

Accentuate

Timely matters falling into spot

Coming to cast

Winding and unwinding sporadically

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We found this cradling valley
men of the world will never reach
unthinkingly.
There was no map,  no road to follow.
Without a plan, guileless as it must be, 
we brushed aside overhanging leaves
for our beginning.
Unrecognised, lain all around
machineries of the joyous spirit
curative, creative
were picked up again and again that day.
Perfectly fitting, like a smooth, cool pebble
i...

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