When I came to South Africa

I packed little information

And what I saw and what I learned

Gave little cause for celebration

What I saw on arrival

Gave me cause for some surprise

The manmade heap rising in leaps

Echoed the miner’s cries

The people here, it seems to me

Are eager to transform

But given expectations

Change ...

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Emerald seas, with corrugated sands below and waters with changing degrees give pleasure to skin and mind as they blissfully eddy us along.

Peace perfect peace is the gift of Turkey. Breathe, see, hear and smell and take it all in, including the heat. Embrace it, you were meant for it.

We snorkel in rocky pools with different kinds of fish. Some long with sand coloured granular bodies, ...

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Ours is but one galaxy amongst one hundred billion in an old universe

It developed out of the elemental, primordial period in cosmic time

With low entropy our solar system drifts around the Milky Way,

 Two hundred and fifty million years to circumnavigate,

Endlessly floating with effortless movement.

Our planet travels miles and miles through deep cosmic time,

Alwa...

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The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Church – Torun Poland

I had marvelled at this church the day before, and today noticed the door slightly ajar
I hesitated for a moment, and then knew that if I was ever to see it’s inside, that it would have to be now.

Inside, a couple of people moving towards me, several people around the altar area and a small congregation of about 20 people to the right.
...

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The giggling girl

“Good morning, room 419” On hearing my English accent the girl greeting and seating breakfasters giggles self-consciously.

A large airy room, narrow – slatted wooden blinds to a wall of glass to the right and an array of food to the left.

I walk around and look at the breakfasters before deciding which food display to rifle first – no familiar face.

Fresh f...

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Dear colleagues. This poem took me 5 mins to write, but I have been thinking about it  since that fabulous summer of 1976, lying on the grass, just turned 16 and not a care in the world, but with all senses on fire :)

1976

The distant drone of the single engine propeller plane

Gently cuts through the powder-blue fluffy-white clouded sky

The long green fat blades of grass c...

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How lucky I am to have my voice

With all its possibilities

I give it charm I make it sing

I can denote hostilities

How lucky am I to have a choice

To take this voice most everywhere

To express meaning, give voice feelings

Show my leaning when I dare

How lucky indeed to sow a note

And reap a song, when nature inspires

And good things conspire

The feeling’s strong

...

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I saw a translucent moon

Grey, white and penny shaped

Set against a clear powder- blue sky

I saw illusive moon only at an angle,

And with concentration,

As I kept one eye on the Road

I saw stubby tall trees

With huge branches

Extending in all directions

I saw two hundred  years

Of growth tipped by singular

red and yellow ...

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Waiting

Time passes quite slowly

As everyone sits, trying to be patient

Most read, others fiddle with phones

One young one plays with a hand-held game

My son listens to his ipod, I write

Aged from five to 65

We sit on mismatched brown wooden chairs

Set against a very busy floral patterned carpet

“Flick, flick” reply the thumbed pages

As they waft barely audible music

There is a...

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You are so important

You are one in a million

You mean well and try hard

You love your family

You enjoy life so much

You appreciate many things

You can still be bright Eyed

You can be bushy tailed

You are excitible

You appreciate nature

And those who know

Of earth’s secrets that you don’t

You broaden your mind

You are facinated by others

You have humili...

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Our Summer’s Gone

Our summer is gone

But was she ever here?

Did she quietly arrive

Catching us unaware?

While there’s still sunny days

We are sure they will pass

Then leaves will blow yellow

And birds fly en masse

We had set our sights high

Weather failed to deliver

Hopes of being sun-bathed

Now reduced to a slither

Now with thoughts of revenge

Set to flavor the mind

As...

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Familiar Environment?

I hear the sound of my breath

Loud and heavy as I explore an alien,

Yet seemingly familiar environment.

I have to remember to keep breathing

As I crane my neck in all directions

Amazed at what I can see

My body is encapsulated in black

As I become more confident

And improve my glide

My guardian angel partly controls

My vest as I rise and fall

And feel ...

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When I came to South Africa

I packed little information

And what I saw and what I learned

Gave little cause for celebration

What I saw on arrival

Gave me cause for some surprise

The manmade heap rising in leaps

Echoed the miner’s cries

The people here, it seems to me

Are eager to transform

But given expectations

Change will only slowly come

...

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I am amazed

At the skill of the horseman

As he charges down the beach

On his white henna-maned, and tailed

Wind-swepped horse.

I am more impressed,

Than annoyed

At the many conversationalists

That I meet, fast talking, parallel walking

And as quick as they are slow.

I am transported

By the fishermen

As they work anciently with white nets,

Muscles and brightly fad...

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Hello folks, have not writen for a while, but have a new offering. It's just some observations from a recent trip abroad. Just proves what I say about travel and new experiences, they get the creative juices flowing.

Love Len

In My Mind

It’s the smell, the sounds, the sights,

The taste, and even the touch.

It’s in the body oil, the car horns, the beautiful colours,

The Paw paw a...

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The wet, westerly weather wantonly wreaks havoc on weary women, men and children in Wansbeck’s windy working streets and wrecks watery Newbiggin By-The-Sea as it wonders like a wrinkly wriggling worm bashing along shores, whipping up woodland willows and shunning shepherds.

In frenzy, the wayward warlock whooshes through Warwickshire then wonders to the south and east wagging Wilt...

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A Varna Night – Pt 2, for James

We stayed inside we did that night

The air was heavy the moon was bright

And all around the waves did bound

For us inside twas nay a sound

And what a day we all did have

The shouts the anger the search for love

With passions raised blood-rush a plenty

We noted not the flowers so scenty

But time is long with thoughts held darkly

We sit around bemus...

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From a bacony overlooking the Black Sea

We sat outside we did that night
The moon was high the sky was bright
The light did sparkle all around
Whilst all the time the waves did bound

And what a day we all did have
The sun the sand the peace the love
With smiles and laughter joy was plenty
Our newfound smells were light and scenty

We like it here it’s really grand
But time is short with much demand
As y...

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Thank you father
Love in a life (pt1)

Thank you father, father time
you lent expression to my rhyme
Thank you father for your crutch,
and your comfort and your touch
Thank you for enabling days
for calm deduction through the haze
Thank you for the self-reflection,
guiding hand and mind protection

And for the way I’ve been of late?
You’re thanked again with each new date
Your thanked for holding both my...

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Inside the mind of an experienced traveller

Torun torun, torun torun
The train draws ever closer to my destination
Torun torun, torun torun
It’s dark outside now, black night in a strange country
Torun torun, torun torun
Stopped again, now pulling off and gathering speed
Torun torun, torun torun
My final destination, in Poland, outside of my experience,
but inside the mind of an experienced traveller.

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This is a poem about my first trip to poland. I took a train from Warsaw to Torun (The birth place of Nicolaus Copernicus ) I was totally amased by the trains, they were like those in Agatha Christie stories. It just occured to me that the sound of the old fashioned steam train was like the word "Torun". So, say the name Torun like the chugging of a train. Insted of da.da.da.da....da.da.da.da....i...

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Hello folks.

Thought I would respond to the challeneg of writing a poem to mark the end of the 200 year commemoration since the abolition of the slave trade. Also thought it might be interesting to write it from the perspective of a freed slave living in 1806. The slave is addressing an audience of cotton workers and talking about his expeirnece. He's also talking about how he managed to su...

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