A poem for children

We dearly love old Santa Claus

who works all year without a pause.

This year his reindeer went on strike

they thought he'd have to use his trike!

Santa said -

You ask your contract be renewed

but think of all the oats you've chewed!

Overtime for the long night's haul

'on snowy roofs we risk a fall'.

You demand Monclers and furry boots

I see you ...

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black lace tree branches

Nature's Secret lingerie

on a rosy sky?

we are love seeking

often loving-in-a mist

so soon dissolving

hot stlll breathless night

huge tangerine harvest moon

fireflies twinkling bright

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She was difficult, they said, but she loved flowers.

She planted white sweet scented narcissus

to dance before the loch

and yes, a host of golden daffodils.

Pink, purple and red rhododendrons

high enough to play under.

A windbreak for her Japanese scene.

Acrid smelling gold and coral azaleas

and a silvery wooden bench where

to sit and catch the weak northern sun.

Squi...

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(Reflections of an aging but impenitent womanizer)

When I depart to that last rest

unless required dread fires to stoke

or groom the wings of angels blest

I'll give the Magdalene a poke.

The harp or lyre I cannot sound

or sing in tune to any hymn.

The Elysian Fields to wander round

but finding saints so very prim.

It might be hard to socialize

if f...

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She was a beautiful gypsydark lady

with black eyes like mountain pools.

One of those fortunate rare people

in whom all is lovely, nothing amiss

her whole being, movement, even her voice.

Sadly, she seemed permanently coupled

to her absolute antithesis

an uncouth, bullish pyknic

arrogant and generally unappealing.

But, and a gigantic but

immensely, unquestionably,...

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On discovering her to be faithfully unfaithful

as well as truly false

he endured a living death, unable to stop

adoring her who seemed so fiendishly angelic

when in fact a diabolical madonna.

Immediately after this unearthly coming down to earth

he still felt some murderous affection

deep within his worldly soul.

However, with a last bittersweet act of will

in ways ...

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Standing on hot stones

watching the leviathens

stream proudly past

and reading Liberia, Panama and Lichenstein

sail by.

In the sun, licking an icecream,

a little man

with worried weathered face

and body bent by

delving in hot, ungrateful fields

all day under the sungrill

and stinging windsleet,

with hands so gnarled and twisted

like olive trunks,

turned to...

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The other day in the supermarket

a warm small hand unexpectedly found mine

and on looking down I saw

a pair of huge brimming dark eyes..

He'd lost his Mum, he said

and could we find her, please?

We found her fairly rapidly

but not anxious in the least, so

panic passed and his world revolved again.

B ut there was a dark cloud shadow over mine

as I remembered times when...

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When Adam delved and Eve span

he was not a perfect husbandman

and her homespun wasn't up to much

if fig-leaves did for clothes as such.

Their downfall due to rosy fruit

evicted from Paradise to boot!

If he had dug and planted out

peas, beans, potatoes and Brussel's sprout

the sarpint couldn't have climbed up

and tempted Eve the pomme to sup.

Did he not see the wi...

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Walking with a friend, she

pushing her overadored mite

we visited the wonderful icecream shop

where they had a falling out

over delicious dark double chocolate versus

banal bland boring vanilla.

'More suitable for you, Tommy darling'.

Needless to say the dull white cone

ended upside-down in the bin.

'Oh really! Tommy darling!'

Then in the cool shade of the park

und...

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'Oh Pisans, tell us is it true

that thieves are all too thick with you?'

'Oh Florentines, we won't deny

we can't get rid of them

despite we try.'

'They say that when you sow your fields

bandits instead of wheat

is what the earth in Pisa yields!'

'Alas, again the truth will show,

the problem is the seed, you know.

Although this slander is too true,

we've always boug...

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Hot curry scent of helichrysum

rosemary, myrtyle and lavender

flaunting scarlet bougainvillea

darkly shadowed by umbrella pines.

Colourful butterfly windsurf sails

zigzagging across the turquoise bay

watched through dark glasses.

Small orange and cobalt fishing boats

riding motionless on glittering

flawless transparent emerald glass.

Golden sunbaked body lying limp

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When I die

I'd hate to lie

in a cold deathgarden

bones to harden

in a stony tomb.

When I die

I'd like to lie

in that place

where ferns like lace

hide a jade snake's lair.

Where ancient pines

shelter the lines

of scarlet cherries.

Where pure magic flows

slaking the rows

of humble kitchen plants.

When I die I'd like to lie

in the warm windrace

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Shall I compare you to a human friend?

You are more loyal and affectionate.

Rough words do often need amend

And sometimes friendship comes too late

Or may for others you forsake.

Moreover some expect too much

Which when you fail can friendship break.

Your love I know is never such.

Friends often can betray your trust

Revealing them as indiscreet

But you and I stand tr...

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Hey Ho! Hey Ho!

It's off to war we go

with flags a flying

no thought of dying

our country's might

we have to show.

So go! So go!

Keeping the peace, we know

our soldiers willing

to reduce the killing

our aim not to fight

but restore the light.

How so? How so?

We've come to free them,no?

Why call us lying

and watch us frying

smiling when huma...

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Mortally wounded mountain

with tree clad skin

pinned back revealing

grey marble flesh within.

Scars of old surgery

visible along its flanks.

On winter nights the icy wind

whirls its moans down

the valleys and around the peaks

like the early morning mist

which veils the ugliness.

It can never recover.

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