I'm reposting this poem with the audio I recorded of it (as a song) to commemorate my father and the other soldiers who fought during WW2 in Asia - The Forgotten Army of Burma - for the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day

The Bayonet In The Shed

He put it there in forty nine,

in a woodworm riddled drawer,

wrapped it in a greasy rag.

A remnant from the war.

On top of it he laid h...

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Marketplace

This space is like a ghost town

Trestle tables row on row

Echoing with the hustle bustle

Vendors cries of long ago

I held my mother’s hand

And listened to them shout

‘apples sixpence a pound

Come on get your money out!’

Comics stored in cardboard boxes

Toys stacked high on stands

Gleaming in the Friday sun

Just out of reach of sticky h...

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Needles & Thread

I remember her sat at an old Singer sewing machine

Turning the handle in the half-light of autumn

Making dresses and skirts for herself

So that precious pennies could be invested in children

She made me a Lone Ranger mask

From remnants of black cloth

She had left from one of her creations

I wore it with pride and a whoop and a holler

When ...

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The Small Things

A pinecone from a Bavarian forest

A small rock from a glacier in Alberta

A round pebble from a Jamaican beach

A strip of bark from a tree in Wakefield

These are the places touched

The places that have touched

A love letter from a pretty girl

A toy bat-mobile from a friend now lost

A medal given to you by your father

A charm bracelet wor...

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The Dancing Light Of Candles

Flickering shadows cast upon the night

Phantoms leaping on oak panelled walls

Where the final breath of evening gently falls

The white and orange glow of candlelight

Will soothe the nervous child and ease his fright

Or so your aged memory recalls

Flickering

There is no more a sweet magical sight

Than darkness where a defeated demon ...

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hide and seek

one thousand and one

one thousand and

my head pressed against the bark

on the tree by the pond side

where the ducks quack back

at the boy with the ball

whose dreams are

not yet fully formed

two one thousand and three

one thou

sat by the brown muddy water

with schoolbooks spilling from bags

a kiss on the cheek

and we carve ...

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Back To The Park

It’s mid July,

a summer’s day.

School is just

a memory away.

We lay on grass

and watch the sky

and count the clouds

as they pass by.

We talk of bands

we’d like to see -

Led Zeppelin, Quo,

Sabbath and Free.

Insects buzz,

a distant bark,

children playing

In the park.

You turn to me

and kiss my lips

and move in close,

h...

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Down In The Hole

I was sixteen, they threw me down the hole,

I stood in darkness, breathing in the dust

while learning who I could and couldn’t trust

in this black new empire of worm and mole.

My dad said it was this life or the dole -

if our family was to earn a crust

then I would have to work until I bust

and sacrifice ambition, heart and soul.

Years of hardship f...

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Cold Hearted

the calming time

cotton wool squeak

beneath my feet

the air

crisp with cold

crystal palaces

cut from ice

nose and mouth

streaming mist

vivid blue sky

the lake cupped

by mountain hands

in a caring gesture

frozen feet deep

covered with snow

the calming time

distant voices

carried on a

biting breeze

cheeks frost rouged

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Once Upon A Time

Pop wagons
rattling and clinking
with their gaudy shades
of potions slopping.

Coal lorries
groaning up the hill
breathing their dragons breath
of carbon dust.

The aged magik
of a ramshackle
cobblers hut
and the clanging of the last.

The shout of
“Rag and Bone”
echoing down
a Monday morning.

Tobacconist 
selling chocolate cigars
to little mimics
of the...

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