A young woman

A virgin and a baby

A carpenter

A donkey

A stable and a star

No beds

Shepherds and their flocks

Three wise dudes on camels

Keep away from a king named Herod

Pull up a chair pay attention this is no ordinary day

Don’t shun skip or evade

This is the guy to follow

The saviour of mankind

This ain’t no juke box jive

Fairy tale legend or pantomime

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Am I nothing more than the accumulation of skin and bone?

The aging of blood pumping flesh

Is my only function to suck in and breathe out

Am I nothing more than the than this?

But I am me

The consecrated decree of an everlasting coming together

The union and preparation of the chemistry of love between two people

And the preconceived idea of my maker

Surely, I am more than ...

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I want to be jolly

Really, I do

I want to be kind

To be benevolent and welcoming

To all of my fellow creatures

Right here right now

Amongst the cheese plant wallpaper

And salsa saxophone jazz

The rustic sanded wood tables

On wrought iron stands

The cushioned benches and distressed chairs

The sound the smell of coffee in polite little cups

That on any other day w...

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Just breathe

Slowly

Deliberately

In

out

In

Out

Breathe as if it were your very first breath

Everyday

Just breathe not as if it were your last

Not as if you were running a race

Breathe

Feel your lungs fill with air

And then

Slowly

carefully

Release

Expel

Discharge

In

Out

In and

Out

Just breathe

Don’t let all that would pull you...

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Remember in the smallest hour

When there is just you

An endless number of counted sheep

The ticking of the clock

A distant dripping tap

And your partners gentle breathing

Whilst the tocks have all gone to sleep

Just remember…….remember……..

Remember…….zzzzzzzz

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If one spark ignites a flame

That starts a fire

That can rage and rage

Across half a continent

Then one smile can start a grin

And one grin can start a laugh

And one laugh can make a crowd come alive

To become

A clammer

A shimmer

A clap of acceptance

A roar across a nation

Across seas

Across oceans

To here

To there and back again

All with j...

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This rag of your bones is not my rag

This love is your love not mine

Your words are not my words

Your pictures

Your scenes

Your drawings and sketches

Of a world that shines dull

Full of lack lustre looks and scuffs

The moribund half shaven dream

Of what life might look like

These are all yours

Not mine

The rag of my bones is a silken cloth

Not a blood -s...

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She was never a dame or a broad

A cheap dime store marionette

Who dreamt of being Ava Gardener

Wooed by stage door Johnnies

She never wore tawdry tiredness and second hand furs

Never a lipstick smudge

Never a hair out of place

She was clever and complete

Saying never call me honey

You know I will stay with you

As long as you buy me those little treasures, I adore

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My fists are on fire

And my hearts pounding

My minds going round in circles

My belly is empty

Rumbling with the acid of my rage

From the remarks

I have had made

And I’m so proud

Of never standing down

There’s blood in my eyes and aching in my soul

Because love has never found me

I want it to stop

But I don’t seem able to say no

To the fingers that are po...

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Every story has a picture

And every picture has some words

Every word is dressed and spliced

Filed into lines of scraggly words

Strung and hung together one after another

To form sentences paragraphs

And sheaves of misbegotten tales

Drawn and picked out

Of the cold hard depths of the imagination

The aching hand of a straining chemist

Of beleaguered and brightly col...

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Bully the week

Do not bully the week

Push and prod the days

Or try to start the engine with a kick

Do not demand more than you can from the day

Hold on to the hours like precious flowers

Nurture water and caress

Do not cajole or demand

An exacting price of payment

Upon yourself

Because today is as heavy as lead

Just reward yourself for rising

Getting u...

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The lights are still on

But there is no one there to see them

The traffic lights wink at each other

In perfect sequence

Saying its your turn now

But not a single word is spoken

Because there is no one to speak them

And no one to answer back

No jugglers

No singers

No speakers of the words

No hawkers

Crocodiles of children or foreign tourists

Just the stand st...

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Do not seek the armpit of distress

Bury your head

Lock the door

Draw the curtains

And pull up the drawbridge of despair

Do not fear the uncertain breeze

Of cough and of sneeze

Be the people you are destined to be

Meet the challenge

Light the light

Of love and of hope

Don’t run like frightened hungry rats

You are not one of a pack

You are part of a fami...

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The morning was indifferent to itself

Indistinct, neither one or the other

I thought I was alone in my apartment

Shut off from the world

The sirens were vague

And there was nothing

Then I heard her

The voice of an angel

Singing in another apartment somewhere near

It was then I realised

I wasn’t alone

It was like an aria from heaven

I contacted a frien...

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He uses the palms of his hands

To smooth back his hair

Greased and slightly limp

A nervous smile and the hands shake

As he notices as if for the first time

The right forefinger and ring

Are yellowed with the fumbling tax

Of all the years served

with a habit that formed

As old as the years on his face

So many words that he can’t remember

And the tie that he wears

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It may not be the Thames or the seine

But let’s drag and pull out the cups and the bottles

The supermarket trolleys

The bikes

Last year’s thing

In last year’s colour

Along with the bodies

The rats and the occasional drowned cat

The bag of kittens

A scarf or a hat

A left-handed mitten

Let’s empty the canal

The rushing river

Let’s pick out the litter

O...

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She leans one hand on the bar

The other with fingers and palm

Pressed in to the small of her back

The heavy head she feels

Matches the unrelenting pain across her frame

Stooped and steeped in sudden racked guilt

For the screaming child she has left with her mother

As she tries to raise a smile for each and every customer

Counting off the hours until she can get off her feet

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Christmas is past and gone

And new years just a hang over

For this year’s shining silver angel

Who is tired and found

On her hands and knees

In a back-street patch

Of spotlight infused relief

Bruised and punctured knees

Her hair hangs low

Her breath smells of last night’s stew

And she rises to find a taxi

With little memory left

Of how she found the key

The...

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