Democracy
Democracy reveals the state
Of our disunity - Doug.E.Barr, poet
As I stood by the till
I heard a voice call out
It's over - the people's will:
A good result - a real rout
And ducked my head to pay
As the cashier agreed
And ducked my sad head to pray:
My silent view, an alien creed.
It's over - the people have had their say
That last faint hope is gone, done...
Wednesday 18th December 2019 12:29 pm
Winter Beach
Remember
The sea assaults
Of winter gales when
Towering spray sheets curl
Over the green-stripe tower
At the harbour mouth
And waves roll shoreward
Beside its jetty
Shingle crashing
Floating spume across the beach
With black stones cold shone by spray
That above the wave thrust
Hides the horizon behind its mist
As the sun shines low
On a December afternoon
...Wednesday 4th December 2019 2:40 pm
Berlin Irony
9th November 2019
1961
A wall of shame
cut through a city and a people
a bleak new division:
we and the world turned away
1989
A wall fell
remade a city, a people, a history
a bright new union:
we and the world rejoiced
2019
Now we fashion
our uniquely British wall
a tragedy of repeated history:
the world wonders, shrugs
2047
A...
Tuesday 19th November 2019 9:41 am
Vita hominum flos est
Inscribed on Emanuel Sweert's painting 'Florilegium': Man's life is a flower.
Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away;
like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Book of Job 14:2
While I watched, her blossom
faded from the field
left no shadow
Now all life expects in this eleventh hour
we should revere lost heroes with a flower
But I shall not ...
Tuesday 12th November 2019 12:17 pm
Augury
Waking to see autumn's lustre
lit on my beech
rust leaves gilt glowing
red gold bathed by
a rising sun's first grasp
of day.
Turning to see gold amber cirrus
low light the east -
beneath a darker grey purple
cloud bruise
that golden gleam of
dawning dawn.
So my sad grey purple dreams
dawn dim
their dark ghosts disconnect ...
Tuesday 22nd October 2019 11:54 am
Autumn Rain
And so it begins. Or ends
The seasons change and as
September dies lies forgotten
Like Summer, Autumn October
Rears. Not misty mellow fruitfullness
With rusty leaf colour bright splashing
Hedgerow and tree russet yellow brown,
Mists that turn to rain and wind and heavy
Rain splashing in the track ruts and puddles
Around the farm; every field soggy with all the
...Sunday 13th October 2019 3:08 pm
Dark Lullaby
As this first night knows me
as my soul becomes its dream
I understand my small being
is one with time's vast scream.
Even now I know between
my heart's first aspen flutter
and its last soft ashen beat
endless dark passions must clutter
my every empty lonely night
and bear down to hold my mind;
only this one moment knows a calm:
a velvet dark - a fusty smell - fi...
Thursday 10th October 2019 4:23 pm
The Sterling Castle, 1703
The sands move
brushed by moray tale
shivered in clouds
by a sole's shy shift
the currents stir
shaking silt
to mist the sea
to settle -
moving time
over an old log reel,
clearing the centuries
discovering old timbers:
dead ribs
reaching up to past waves
offering their history
to the naked shipworms.
As the crabs scuttle to explore
as stars cree...
Tuesday 8th October 2019 12:13 pm
The God in the Mountain
Flogita - 13 September 2019
It stands
a great sail fin of rock
high towering - dominant
cloud mazed
haze hidden seat of hidden gods
and we, yes,
we would rise to their heights,
stand in their pantheon
to observe the tiny world
beneath.
For from this seat
Prometheus set forth
and with Athena
set us in that tiny mortal world -
yet now we stand
proud o...
Saturday 28th September 2019 10:18 am
Sunday
The pomegranates
are ripe on the tree
across the road
and the swallows
are skimming beneath the power lines
and the soft blue sky
The washing on the balcony rail is dry
The village dogs bark
Church bells summon summer in
and the early morning peace
is broken as a tractor heads for the fields
The sun heats the soft grey
feathers on the pigeon’s back
and he leaves his chimney perch
abo...
Sunday 15th September 2019 7:13 am
Wondering
I wonder now what sin is worse
As we destroy this fragile earth
Who should we condemn the most? Who curse?
The careless or he who cares not for its worth?
When we misfile our plastic waste
Do we sin more than those who double wrap;
When we buy packaged goods in daily haste
Is it our fault we fall into the plastic trap?
And when we recycle those plastic trays
Wh...
Wednesday 28th August 2019 2:09 pm
Mnemosyne
There is always one sacred moment
when the night's ink black sky
allows some personal atonement
to my dull and once-blind eye:
a single white star's icy reign,
absent in the deepest dark,
until the second that my brain
is riven by its diamond spark.
That this sheer shining crystal blazed
while hidden from my careful scan
can only leave me dumb, amazed
that the min...
Saturday 10th August 2019 12:18 pm
Sin
"There is no sin except stupidity." Oscar Wilde -The Critic as Artist.
Mea culpa! Mea culpa!
Nostra maxima culpa!
Thus should we weep, we cry
As it all ends with a whimper, a sigh
It is the people's will, they say
Proroguing to get their glory day
Your vote was for an ideal state
For nation, borders, Keep Britain Great
Now, your vote means a total schism
As we se...
Friday 19th July 2019 10:40 am
The Land
Sitting to the east
Sloping down to the edge
Of that other world
In the summer sun
In the winter chill
The sentinel watched over
The little family in the cottage in the hollow
Lately it had felt her sorrow
It knew when she left Pant y Lleiniau
And walked slowly along the cart track
To reach the little bridge under the trees
Where she crossed Nant yr Efail ...
Wednesday 10th July 2019 5:20 pm
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
Falstaff: 'Henry IV, Part 1' act 5, sc. 4
There is a man
Who would be a king. This is such stuff
As past dreams would make his many morrows
That he, Princeling, may strut upon life's stage
As one with pride.
Yet this is a man
Who must know a past. That is the stage
As present nightmare on which he played so sad a part
That he, Pretender, needs now attend our co...
Thursday 27th June 2019 3:42 pm
The Estuary
I am
barefoot
on a far tide line
sand rippled
spread
with estuary shells
with oystercatchers
soft where rills run down
or the sea pools
behind a half-sunk stone
or a mooring chain
I am
watching
moored yachts
swinging to the tide turn
above their sunken reflections
angled lines of cirrostratus
echoed below the horizon
in the mirror gloss sea
...
Thursday 13th June 2019 4:12 pm
Uchtryd's Summer Place
In Mariamné's time
What trees would have grown so tall
What was there beyond the garden wall?
When she walked beyond the garden gate
Did she see the river's sudden spate
And did the rustle of a summer breeze
Mask the red kite's call above those trees
And did she hear the Spring birds' calls
Above the echo of Ystwyth's falls
Did she stroll her father's ways
And let the...
Tuesday 4th June 2019 2:39 pm
Eyrignac
As I walked
through the garden dew
'tween clipped box and shapely yew,
'tween hard hornbeam and
'tween friends
a perfect peace descends
As I walked
from the round green room
past dusky shade and roses' bloom,
past shapely hedge and
past huge urns
the garden quiet returns
As I walked
in the lakeside glory
to the enchanted terrace torri,
to the ...
Thursday 30th May 2019 12:33 pm
Sub Rosa
Where once her warm and sanguine heart
fell ashen grey to rest in cold base dirt
high over the familiar bush and shrub
proud crimson blooms pine for love
Where their sacred beauty sings to my heart
they call forth the lovely nightingale
high in their cloudless summer sky
to sweetly sing their longing song
There, I too confess a secret yearning
silent hidden d...
Friday 17th May 2019 1:39 pm
Ystrad Fflur: Dusk
Who will ever tell or know
the unheard silent echoes
from passing lives laid low:
those ghosts of chanted psalms
once melodious in their praise
lie buried beneath the turf
within walls they helped to raise;
and who can see the cowled monks
whose ghostly whispered prayers
whose canticle or hymn
whispers through the evening's airs -
through the great stone entrance a...
Thursday 18th April 2019 7:51 pm
Evening Light
An almost mystic silence
descends on the lambent, lamb bent,
lamb bobbing fields
as the West sinking sun
leaves an early evening light,
the day has almost passed:
the bright pale green of the new larch buds
the rusty pink brown of the budding almond
the gold of a burgeoning dog wood
are set against
the solid darkness of a solitary fir tree
the soft clouds in a...
Friday 12th April 2019 1:40 pm
Past's Prologue
The trees still sentinel stood
their green leaves whispering
rustling gently in the wood
in the same soft breeze
and I know some summer birds
sang in their canopy
a requiem without words
'neath the same blue sky
that through every passing year
quietly watched over me
safe within Ceredig's sphere
It has been too long a time
since our firs...
Tuesday 9th April 2019 2:20 pm
Fight! Fight!
The magpies
nesting in the beech
began shouting
angry
to see a squirrel
in their tree
Attracted
like bad boys in the playground
more magpies
joined in
hopping from branch to branch
a harsh chatter
of anger
The squirrel
preferring a quiet life
left
by way of my garden
wall
Today the tree is silent
Friday 5th April 2019 3:41 pm
Nadir
It was a strange
waking -
perhaps the wraith of a memory of a dream
lay with me,
offering some
hazed contentment
yet
a waking
knowing
the pillow
beside me
is
empty
Thursday 4th April 2019 3:17 pm
An Unknown Garden
Long!
Long I laboured
through the seasons
through the years
working
on the plot:
delighting
as digging blistered my palms
and the soil grew fertile
as digging pained my back
and plants grew strong -
grew verdant
beside the deep dug pond
with its little stream
where I placed fish
an unplanned golden feast for a heron
and an otter
And as e...
Sunday 31st March 2019 11:38 am
Broken
Broken
it is all bleak broken; half-hell-heard House, blight blasted, a
sound spoke maelstrom where we see no substance swirling over heads
and hearts unheard - untending - unending obstacles to speech where
he, bright-tied bright-eyed, oversees the game's communication farce fail
debate: debate dire-drowning in the noise.
Order!
Broken
it is all blame blighted; w...
Friday 22nd March 2019 4:13 pm
Cosmology 101
Chaos seems the wrong first word:
no light
no sound
no time
and nothing moving e'er occurred
Chaos speaks to me of chance:
a move
a crash
a force
that happen in time's dance
So before chaos, ah, but stop -
no before
(no time)
so just
stasis as creation's dark backdrop
Some cosmic joggle, as if perhaps
god sneezed:
atoms move
and ...
Monday 18th March 2019 10:57 am
Stranded High
Yet
My heart aches, and clouds hold fast my mind
Thought still I hear
The silence of the waves
The silence of their Siren pull
wash like hemlock through my senses
Their echoes crashing on my island shore
Returning to the sea
Unheard
Their hushed harmony
Foams surging up my beaches
A descant imprinted on my strand
Whispering back to the squalls
Unheeded.
Ne...
Thursday 14th March 2019 3:56 pm
Aubade
First, it is only that the tree
is more a presence
less a shadow
beyond my window
then other horizons
light their resting clouds
with a subtle pre-dawn glow
that slowly sets the first gold sun glint
on each high branch above
against a new pale blue sky -
will dawn chasten my succubus
end our companioned time?
that half-felt fragile warmth beside me
seems to s...
Tuesday 5th March 2019 9:34 am
Images of a High Tide
harbour entrance swell
river bridge
above the beach
the scraping rattle
millions of stones
sucked off the beach
returning to the sea
beside the harbour wall
crossing waves
rearing waves
joining
breaking in foam
crashing
onto the shingle
the vast pull
of the receding sea
the undertow of sound
the bay
grey brown sea
under a blue sky
...Monday 25th February 2019 1:55 pm
Summer Seascape
In the sun's mid-day heat
I see the tall field grasses flow, swell
and come towards me in waves
surging before the day's wind
the seed-head spume constantly bowing
seems to fall on the field strand where I stand.
The rhythmic onslaught of the waves
continues through the long afternoon -
a tide of wind-driven swells and rollers
always flowing to my feet, w...
Thursday 21st February 2019 12:34 pm
Y Lolfa
My rhymes form in clouds
over the arm chair
beside my note books
and the fire
My lines are captured
and preserved
in the remains of the forest
immortalised on its pulp
My words are held captive awhile
in the bright prison cells
where machines etch their pain
on smooth white sheets
My once quiet thoughts crash
noisily onto the leaves
again and ...
Monday 18th February 2019 9:53 am
When She Left
the pain of the vacant page stage
for the dance
of my pen
the fear of the frozen mind blind
to the hope
of a rhyme
the silence of an empty house spouse
to the song
of my word
the hush of unwanted time chime
t...
Friday 15th February 2019 12:08 pm
The Shed
Hanging in the shed
Are four dead pheasants and a woodcock
On a makeshift table
Some half-eaten sandwiches and a thermos
A drab green waterproof
Hangs on a nail above some boots and drips
The man sits talking to a friend
And rubbing his damp hair with an old towel
Outside dogs are sniffing around the cars
Ignoring the rain one man is hunched over his ...
Friday 8th February 2019 2:15 pm
The Old Field Gate
I rejoice to see that old wood five-bar gate
that still stands guard beneath the ancient beech
to a field sloping gently down the hill.
The gate from an old farm track - now lost to time -
has seen so many seasons, so many harvests pass
and must have known an age of scythes and stooks
of horse drawn harrows, ploughs and wooden carts.
What could it tell of the village...
Wednesday 6th February 2019 12:08 pm
Snow Fields
The soft blown snow that fell five days ago
Crisp frozen now by these five frosty nights
Still blankets all the fields and moors to show
Where pheasant clattered off on noisy flights
While footfall of the lesser birds is scribed
Less deep; and here a small bank vole has run;
There passed red fox and rabbit side by side
Though time kept them apart and saved the one
At the wo...
Tuesday 5th February 2019 9:53 am
Dyn Hysbys
There are no wise men any more
their old wisdom is lost
no old spells that cure
no potions endure
where once they saved the farmer's herd
the mystery is blurred
and spells that helped a marriage spurned
are no longer learned
the people who once were in their debt
turn to the internet
There are no wise men any more
their actions show their flaws
no old spell...
Monday 4th February 2019 10:19 am
One Last Frozen Tear
"Heavy Snow in Wales": 30th January 2019
A sheet of pure white covers her face: that land I thought I knew
frozen beneath its covering, buried ever deeper in its icy tomb
the contours I know so well:
every dip and valley; hill and gully
smoothed by this mantling shroud that descended
as time slipped slowly away, locking us in its white eternity
One last frozen tear d...
Thursday 31st January 2019 3:00 pm
Calon Cymru
I have always been
On the bleak bald mountain
I have dwelt through the ages
At the deep source of the fountain
Guardian of all knowledge:
Before they knew me
I was here
When this land was fashioned around my soul
Sole guardian uncrowned
Then I loved this mortal mound
Tenured on God's holy ground
I have always been
At the brow of the hill
I was th...
Friday 25th January 2019 3:18 pm
In the pale moonglow
In the pale moonglow when I awoke
somehow shadows seemed the darker
as mantling the land, that soft white cloak
of crystal shine leaves them starker
What cold mystic spell holds fast my hand
what eerie charm doth my fate seal
in darkling night whence daylight is banned
with what ice maid have I to kneel
As my eyes take in my ghost white bride
one last iced tear...
Wednesday 23rd January 2019 2:09 pm
Black Starlit Dream
In the frost sharp moonless night
the stars light the air
with a quiet and mystic brilliance
much closer than of yore
as a still quiet
blankets
the world below
Through the cold crystal dark night
a ghost drifts the grass
silent echo of a whispered flight
tree high above my eye
its soft locus
stalking
the land below
Through an ice star argent glea...
Tuesday 15th January 2019 3:47 pm
Juvenal 2 (: Europe 0)
I will! I will join Juvenal
at the North world’s end
on the frozen ocean ice
if one more lie is penned
another argument to slice
our country from its friend:
to make us pay the price.
Enough! We see the trend
let that one vote suffice
another will just offend
divide and not entice.
Let the peoples’ will transcend,
better not to ask them twice!
We’re doomed to...
Tuesday 15th January 2019 11:03 am
Harvest Memories
Glorious was that day:
Star rich the summer sky
Amongst the sun warm hay
We stole a sack on which to lie
Warm was that night:
Grass framed the starry gems
Below the hov'ring kite
We kissed amongst the tall grass stems
Heavenly was that tryst:
Grass rough the bed we made
Below a dusky mist
We took our love as grasses swayed
Fierce was that lust:
...Friday 11th January 2019 4:01 pm
Grandad's Christmas Reverie
He thought
All I want is here
the tree that reaches the ceiling:
with the decorations the boy had helped hang
and the lights he could reach
to pull off
He thought
I hope they like my gifts
the presents beneath the low branches:
with the labels that the girls had turned over
and peeped at to see
which was theirs
He thought
I am alone with Christmas
the many...
Tuesday 1st January 2019 11:52 pm
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