The short stories we wrote 

With the best of intentions

Have restaged our ending

Intervened with the truth

We rehearsed our roles

And recounted with patience

Of my brief co-existence

Disappearing proof

Why would memory fail

Why would time have no meaning

When its healing has let me

Grow two lives into one

Our story is frail

Its last breath is beginning

Read and leave comments (0)

closeted struggle

in the war against stuff 

we’ve lost a lot of ground 

(the poetry anthology 

doesn’t count)

three boxes came yesterday 

with nowhere to go 

that was six square feet 

excluding the cardboard

your retail therapy 

has been put on hold 

after six consecutive trips 

to the large parcel window

the post office all...

Read and leave comments (3)

Money is a lie that the government owes you
Sit there and listen to all the bullshit that they tell you
It's a shame when the lies become the truth 
So what's use the youth to get them high
Just for rich can a diet them 
Into a prison that doesn't love them

We live in a government that citizens isn't loved
So blame it on the poor and the welfare checks
Then go brag about your bread but y...

Read and leave comments (0)

The ghosts of poets

roam the streets

in venues past

they used to meet

Up went the rent

it got too steep

all venues shuttered

closed for keeps

High rise apartments

crammed the streets

and poets shuddered

in defeat

All poets gone

hit alt delete

they don't belong

now closed for keeps.

Read and leave comments (2)

Never a Broken Spirit

This ageing frame enfolds a spirit undiminished

aching joints, the realisation of age do not vanquish my desire

My appetite, my zest for life has not lost its ardour

a creative spirit pervades my need to express

I am not resigned nor will conform to life´s limitations

my stature suffers no erosion from the elements

A glance in a mirror is a port...

Read and leave comments (5)

Sent off to school and warmly dressed,

They said they loved him but they lied.

He was first-born, but second-best;

A sister came, pushed him aside.

He tried his best, worked very hard,

They never noticed what he did;

Became reclusive, quiet, scarred,

They never sought him when he hid.

He was a sad and lonely boy,

While she had laughter in her life;

He watche...

Read and leave comments (2)

What if I'm not good enough?

What if one day they realizes they're better then me and go to somone else.

I know its early, and I shouldnt stress over it, but anxiety is real, and sometimes you listen.

Yet when this happens you must remember, everyhing happens for a reason. 

They like you. They care for you.

Focus on now, not if.

Read and leave comments (1)

the scars you wear 

emblazoned upon your heart 

push you forward, yet drag the weight

of trouble seen
 

in ladybug red

galloping to freedom

storm clouds crying

on the detour around the dead
 

we all are drowning

even when it's dry

raging scenery dancing in the mirror 

time is an illusion to no one 
 

fractions of love

never added to much of anything

Read and leave comments (2)

The brain has limits 
but the mind is a freeway. 
I need the three 
like I need the tree. 
There's a constant burn 
inside of me. 
Time is not my own 
and I'm losing my soul 
to this open black hole. 
I carry it inside 
the flame like a glow 
flickers constant to and fro. 
The core is black 
and I long for the blue. 

I don't want the mud. 
I just want to be good, 
to give the lov...

Read and leave comments (0)

They were the deciding factor

Of a good or bad day

Of whether I was okay

If we were okay

They could change my mood

Stop me in my tracks

Jumble my mind

Blind me from the truth

Like heroin

I was their addict

Ephemeral pleasure

Everlasting poison

By the end

I was weak

Lost

Stripped of all identity

And they appeared

In my dreams

Read and leave comments (2)

Embracing my solitude 

and the peace it brings

not a text 

not a phone rings

it’s not so bad

having a peace of mind 

a calmness overwhelms

how useful my time

i listen

God speaks 

it is solitude

i heal

it is solitude 

i begin to feel

not a heartache 

not pain

for once I feel

happiness

         Love

                Everything above

i am lif...

Read and leave comments (2)

The New York Dolls with their wicked innovation

Gender on a bender, so no more hesitation.

Galileo, Newton, the republic of the mind,

Seeing is believing, so tumble into  line.

One dusky-dusty-time-consuming evening long ago

The empirical method was revealed by the melting of the snow:   
.

Time’s fatal munificence, the old ebb and flow

There's a long gestation

In ...

Read and leave comments (2)

{Love} 

Love isn't easy to do 

Love can be a nightmare

that follows you

throughout your life 

Love can rip your heart

apart if you trust in

someone who says or

claims that they love you

when in fact they don't

or never did 

Love is a tangible

unmistakable hurtful

lie of your life 

Love can leave one down

in the dumps when

someone rips your

Read and leave comments (2)

Scorched skies and the ground littered with
The detritus of a careless society
Broken buildings and rivers poisoned with
The sickening pollution of a thoughtless culture
The wind screaming endlessly like banshees
Howling the fall of man
Empty lives staring hopelessly at pointless 
Tablets in their hands
Desperately seeking meaning to a forgotten plan
Isolationists implore from TV screens ...

Read and leave comments (1)

In the recent storms and typhoons, I heard advice from US police to people not evacuating to write theirnames on their arms as it might be the only way to identify them.  This somewhat brutal advice inspiredthe following rather apocalyptic poem - if you look closely I hope you can find a message of hope! 

Run for the Hills

Write your name upon your arm,

On your sleeve tattoo you...

Read and leave comments (1)

The clock strikes midnight, 

but I don’t see it.

I am too busy inside of my own world to care. 

The clock takes me all the way to around two in the morning. 

But i still do not care. 

The connections to the real world are 

just too hard to put down. 

I feel filled, 

Yet still empty. 

I feel joy, 

but hollow sadness at the same time. 

I am reflecting on the things I...

Read and leave comments (2)

Naughtiness Unnoticed

Preamble

I have been asked to write a poem on children.  Here is my contribution.

How can I write a poem

About a naughty boy ?

When I was good, so helpful

My mother's pride and joy

It seems I have inherited

My mother's be-nice genes

Transferred them to my daughters

No naughtiness have I seen
 

I coasted along quite nonchalantly

N...

Read and leave comments (5)

Preamble: In honour of this week's Rhymers' theme "children", here is a poem written in collaboration with my 7-year-old son.

Some people say they don’t like children

But they are wrong.

We aren’t the ones dropping the bombs.

We aren’t the ones firing the guns.

Children don’t kill other children.

The guy on the ground, he’s just doing as he’s told

The job that he’s paid f...

Read and leave comments (10)

Liebe … liebe ist ein Gefühl und Emotion, Sympathie und Begierde, es gibt sie sogar bei Tiere, ich find’s interessant zu sehen wie sich Menschen finden, die vermeintlich zusammengehören, ich habe schon viel erleben dürfen in der Liebe, es gibt kein schöneres Gefühl und dennoch verflucht man sie.

In der Neuzeit glaubt jeder alles zu wissen, insbesondere beim Online Dating und dem Posing. So Frag...

Read and leave comments (0)

I am the Destructive Force

the eruption that leaves you lost 

for words

I am the bursting forth

of the trauma you buried decades ago

that brings you to your knees

I am the seemingly endless pain

that makes you wish for death

that you may never again fear it

I am Maleficent on steroids

your worst fears realised

I am the knocking down, brutally, 

Read and leave comments (1)

Children can be a pleasure,

They can also be a pain;

Spare me the kids at leisure

In a train or on a plane!

They can be little angels,

Or the Devil's own sown brood;

Charming and disarming,

Or incorrigibly rude.

An old adage has just occurred

And refers to the typical brat -

Children should be seen...but not heard -

And I'll say amen to that!

I he...

Read and leave comments (5)

Economics are arithmetical facts:

and history an interpretative smear.

Some historians blend

(with aims to offend)

those texts through conjecture

the results are a spectre

of what should be made solid and clear.

Read and leave comments (2)

One is, bewildered, left upright under the sun
while the other, speechless, slipped faraway for shade.

Now those pretty bands making sense of this dumb rock
lead down, like steps, the one who will not leave.

One set in his ways in this age of the critic
reliving the days when poems built up in praise.

Pretty the bands of rock, pretty the rings of trees
pretty your crumbling steps, can...

Read and leave comments (1)

Still Here

Raise your glasses cunning foes!

Behold your triumph and cheer!

The folk are down, who will not flee

will bend the knee in fear.

My neck is broken, wounds are sore

You’ve almost won the war!

So drink a toast and raise your glasses,

brag and mock and sneer!

At dawn when the golden hour passes,

I will still be here.

(written on October the 15th, ...

Read and leave comments (3)

I, dreamlost,

wake

to golden leaves of beech

sunlit

from my bed

as airdew clouds over the hedge

rise and vanish

as the eastern horizon above the valley

is lost, sunk

beneath dawndrifts of mist

not yet warmed to fade

beneath the clear blue sky;

the uncut grass of the dew-wet lawn,

droplet bent:

cool promise as

I, barefooted,

explore

the cusp of the...

Read and leave comments (1)

I was visiting Mum for a week.

Always a delight for candid chat

Over a few quiet days

And the diverse 'drop-ins'

We both enjoyed so much.

.

One afternoon a favourite cousin called by

For coffee and cake.

In his fifties now – a fine looking chap

With the same twisted grin

I liked so well from childhood.

After some general conversation

He set down his cup

Read and leave comments (8)

New Mills Festival

uplifting poetic voices

creative energy displayed

inspiration powers rhyme

drifting at first

then they remain.

Read and leave comments (0)

I still loved you but I walked away.
I know you still love me, but I'm not comming back.
You still try to reach me, I know you do.
Every text you send I read, never ending your silent plead.

I know you're hurting I'm too,
but I know I can't be with you.
You were my everything I hope you know.
now I can't give you roses of red colour.

I was hurting, my heart was bleeding,
I didn't let ...

Read and leave comments (2)

The place where she can`t be happy enough

Racing like a rat to reach her destination is really tough..

This place gives her nothing but depression

Full of fake people roaming around..

Everybody is busy making an impression

And she feels like she is nowhere to be found..

She cried alone and wipe her tears in the middle of the night..

Thinking of where life has pushed her away i...

Read and leave comments (0)

i dont like me anymore,

i can see how much i hurt you but i wont put my guard down,

i know i should say sorry but its your fault and im stuborn, 

i know i should love you but i dont.

it used to be diffrent, i loved you when you put your phone down,

when you cared about my day,

when you told me"elise is another day tomorrow, dont cry my love",

now, you are so invested in your p...

Read and leave comments (2)

I never meant when I came here

for my feet to be set into concrete--

I hope that you will soon come to understand what that means.

I hope that you will be always aware that

when you come to what seems an end

the higher man within your heart demands you

muster whatever means of change you can

to move the world as it sits upon your shoulders

if only to find the relief of a sh...

Read and leave comments (10)

I stood and watched
As her hair did blow, 
Like branches dancing 
in the wind.

Her eyes left frozen
in an empty stare, 
Leaked fond memories of the
love that once lived there.

No place left for her love to grow. 
She stagnates, even in her dreams. 
Her life stiffened,
like the roots buried deep beneath the one family tree.

The season pass.
The colours change, her hair f...

Read and leave comments (7)

The Attack

You mentally crowd

my deepest thoughts at daylight

my wild imaginings when hours are unholy

until the daring fantasies of the night

You emotionally make

my heart throb

aching to an utmost degree

its every beat

longing for your warmth

to calm its pulsating heat

You are present

in evert corner of my mortality

You have conquered my...

Read and leave comments (0)

I had a dream that I could fly.

I soared up on wings made of paper

and feathers of ink,

and sky-wheeled with eagles and doves.

They saw me for a fraud

but embraced me all the same,

until I woke up,

and fell from the sky.

Read and leave comments (0)

I wasn't upset at the funeral today,

my cup already full of misery.

Death shouldn't be a matter of numbers,

but they were clocking up

in familiar places,

with unspoken duties of sadness.

The last one was different

which I couldn't attend

nursing my shocked and tender heart,

but families are full of expectation

and familiar strangers,

so this time it didn't cou...

Read and leave comments (5)

Would you choose a long life
  of perennial good health
  and perpetual leisure,
Or one breathtakingly short,
  punctuated by grief,
  but drawn in the lines
   and brushstrokes
  of an artist?

The choice was made already,
  long before you had a chance
  to contemplate the possibilities.

So surrender nothing,
  not even a moment
  of what can be forgiven.

Read and leave comments (2)

Cross -legged he stumbled ,the sight was not nice,

Heavily drugged up with the danger drug spice,

Stumbling through the city centre mumbling to himself.

His body slowly crumbling on a death shelf.

Thumps down on a bench ,his body bent,

Transmiting through the air a terrible scent.

A young girl sat there reading a book,

"Will you marry me tomorrow?"as he gave her a look.

The...

Read and leave comments (12)

Can you Imagine what it’s like to be raped at thirteen . No one to tell . No one to believe you . No one to care how you feel . No one around to support you . Things have not changed . Peoples minds have not changed . Authorities only care when Challanged . Ush Ush don’t rock the boat . Challanged to feel no pain . Money is the root of all evils . If you can’t pay you have no say . And no one care...

Read and leave comments (11)

How many dark places

have I been

Has there been too many

Did I die?

My heart feels so heavy

will I let you hold it

will I let you have it

I want to

The tears choke me

they stop my breath

Did I die?

God I hope not

I want to accept 

the new life

ahead of me

I want to embrace it

and 

You

...

Read and leave comments (4)

I'm so sorry,

I love you so so much,

I think about you all the time,

I miss your smile,

I miss your jokes,

I miss your hugs,

I miss so much more about you than I could possibly write,

I know I messed up so many times,

I know I'm to blame,

I ask myself why your face haunts me at night,

But I know why,

I replay our memories together a lot,

When I see something tha...

Read and leave comments (2)

(Inspired by a question my neice asked at a recent family barbecue, "What would be the hardest thing for you to give up if the doctor told you you had to?")

My dietary appointment’s making me a nervous wreck,

It follows consequentially a previous health check.

The nurse will give me diet sheets with foods she will proscribe,

The list will be exhaustive and with drinks I can’t imbi...

Read and leave comments (8)

I remember the sun;

the sun was important,

although all the art was inside

and in perfect pride of place,

skirting the walls

and planted in rows.

My feet young, but the air old,

and moss overgrown on

the war memorial outside.

True, you need light for shade,

a chiaroscuro, and

a half-full glass raised.

The place is almost silent

with must, damp, old coins...

Read and leave comments (0)

why is it that sometimes we

fall

and sometimes we fly.

we hit the cold earth or the stars in the sky.

the wind blows through our hair

or it knocks us flat.

we sink into our soft beds then we slide through the slats.

i often stop and wonder that and

if the middle ground were not locked and off limits

i would try and enter and dwell within it.

flowers grow then flo...

Read and leave comments (0)

Let's talk,
What we didn`t try for all these years
 for all these tears
Tell me what you like
Tell me why I can`t erase scars,
Daydreams comes and goes, nightmares howl,
shadows of us all over the places..
so many unknowns knock comes and goes ,
my body growled for the lingering touch, the scent.......
A knock, a loud one this time..
my fingers hovering in the keypad, 
m scared, 
my bo...

Read and leave comments (0)

I came across a picture of you today. 

With eyes as big as the stars, and as dark as the night sky. 

At one point in my life, you knew me better then everyone else. 

I have created a goal to carry your silver lining around my heart until I feel as though I made you smile at every one of my accomplishments. 

I am sure I have made you frown more times then I can imagine. 

Whether it b...

Read and leave comments (0)

The caw, crows no more    

held silent, in gape of hoary beak;

bleak eyes see eternal

through the mask of winters storm

But as the cold winds blow

through the bare limbed boughs 

the spirit of your freedom;

impales you high into the sky

your blackness to be immortal

so fly now high and mighty

to soar the winters storm

For you will be forever 

the voice of winter...

Read and leave comments (2)

Mark Judge knows the judge,
Maybe a bit too well,
The judge wants Judge to fudge,
But in time truth will tell.

Read and leave comments (0)

After Craiglockhart he returned to the front line.

In October the officer wrote home:

‘My senses are charred. I don’t take

the cigarette out of my mouth

when I write Deceased over their letters.’

After four years of war that transformed his verse

the Allies were making swift advances

but talk of peace was premature. He wrote

to Sassoon: ‘The new soldiers cheer

when ...

Read and leave comments (0)

The tree
Leafless bony
Branches

Read and leave comments (1)

Right me thus.

Write me this.

Write, to right a wrong.

Write me a poem.

Wrong the line of a song.

For I am forlorn (and want to be adorned).

Write it down.

Right me now.

Write me now.

Read and leave comments (1)