As Father Time now wipes an eye and takes a long look ahead

Past a moment  when half the world celebrates...with the other snug in bed,

Let us take stock and ponder whether we really did the best we could

In the days of the year that now fade away - like dusty bluebells in a wood.

Did we fail when called upon to act or say the things we ought?

Did we shrink from giving.when the most...

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With Christmas almost upon us again, here's a gospel-style blog to welcome it back.

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Lift up your voice - let all rejoice

And make a joyful sound

Cast off the care most folk must bear

When Christmas comes around

Look to...

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As we approach the Festive Season with its public communications beseeching us to part with our money, it's reported that this country has 168,000 registered charities -we're talking £77 billion here,- with £16 billion p.a. received from government out of taxed income.  I don't think Dickens would have got away with writing about

Ebenezer Scrooge like he did if his own age known such widespread...

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If Brexiteers are Britain's lions

Then Remainers are her sheep;

Hoping against hope they won't get fleeced

As back to the Brussels farm they creep.

Self-deluding wool covering supplicant eyes

Over-eager certainly - but hardly over-wise.

Convenience their self-serving rock - 

But one thing should be feared

In their desperate desire to run with the flock

They are certain t...

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"!SM" = the default position of the disappointed, the disgruntled, the disaffected, the disillusioned, the disadvantaged, the dissimilar and the disputatious.

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A recent study of electoral promises about the current NHS caused unwanted raised blood pressure.

I have been enduring some of the unwanted and unsought inadequacies possessed by those who are so

efficient being inefficient..

In early October i had a blood check for continued use of a medication - together with a flu jab.  The former

was analysed and I received a text to say the result...

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Are you happy now I'm dead?

And all the things you left unsaid

Are swirling around inside your head -

Shrapnel slicing through a brain

Leaving little chance to heal again,

And sees you in remorseless pain.

Are you happy now I'm dead?

But remember - I've just gone ahead

To where you''ll find the patient dead. 

Time takes its toll on all, you ejit,

Once met - soon vanis...

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Getting away from poetry per se for a moment, here are some fascinating reminders of the links between

the murders of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy as we approach the 56th anniversary of the latter's death.

Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846;  Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Lincoln was elected president in 1860; Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

Both wives lost chi...

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Goodbye to Marina and Pearl.....

Farewell to those late summer days

Made happy by the skill of the acting

That made real their make-believe plays.

They join Compo, Clegg, Foggy and Truly

And so many others that brought us sunshine;

Recorded for us to remember and smile -

"The Last of the Summer Wine"

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There's one glaring all-important difference between Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as the election

campaign gets under way..

The former is using his Party to protect and preserve Brexit whereas the latter is using Brexit to protect

and preserve his Party.

Those familair with the actions of a previous Tory prime minister who is often to be heard spouting pro-EU

stuff might call it a...

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Save us from those scientists and lawyers

Who take up more and more of our time

With make believe/once upon a time stories

That border on being a crime!

They make a very good living

By raising doubts foisted upon us

More geared to taking than giving -

Po-faced and plausible as they con us.

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(With a nod to a poem by Keith Jeffries as Armistice Day approaches)

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In silence I watched the falling leaf

Like a tear that summoned up the grief

For all the lads and mature men 

Who saw war but never saw home again.

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There are things in life that come and go

Like birds that stop and sing

Then rise up soon to take the air,

Leaving on the wing.

Take courage - now that's a sometime thing

That can come and just as quickly go,

Like the summer wind to warm the heart

Or chill it like the snow.

According to capricious circumstance

It makes its presence felt,

To shout defiance an...

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Humanity has three partners in "L"

Which it foolishly tries to boss,

When the trick is to treat each wisely and well:

Living - and Loving - and Loss.

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With a history both bloody and baronial

And foreign ventures condemned as colonial,

Excuse me if I seem somewhat dumb here

But WHY do so many want to come here?

(and do!)

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London's mayor tells the Labour leader

To tell "leave" supporters they're wrong;

I wonder how well his words went down

When an election could be coming along?

It might not seem right if you're left

Wondering why things aren't making your day

Perplexed, put out and bereft

That the future isn't going your way.

But if you're in a political bubble

Believing city people know ...

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Ironic perhaps that this world unravels

In line with humanity's extended travels.

Better perhaps to stay at home

And resist the urge to "up and roam".

The television - now twenty four hours global

Brings the world to us and it seems ignoble...

Ungrateful even to pack up and go

To places our TV screens will show;

Why add a carbon footprint to all the rest

For distant plac...

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That day you said you couldn't stay

You told me love would make me pay

Now I remember every day

With love slip-slidin' away

I did my best - the best I could

Without much rest - you knew I would

But nothing worked - nothing came good

And love went slip-slidin' away

Together I thought we had it made

But day turns to night and all things fade

Just like the sun ...

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Poor old London...sad old place

Condemned to suffer a soiled face

From environmental egos come to visit,

Hardly a cause for welcome, is  it?

Like infants squealing for attention,

Desperate for a media mention,

Never mind if it's hardly unknown news...

Any excuse to virtuously abuse

The hopes of those in dire need

Of getting to hospital to be freed

Of pain an...

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If you must call yourself a poet

Then hadn't you better show it

By avoiding the trap of pretentious pap -

Or get "sussed" before you know it!.

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I remember Blighty before the EU;

Whatever the hardships we always pulled through.

Now I have this question (long overdue!)...

What happened to the country that those like me knew?

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 An engineer named John Logie Baird

Had a vision and was duly prepared

Among Sassenachs and Jocks

To put pictures in a box,

And in time the whole world sat and stared.

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 Strewth, they've chosen "Truth" as the subject for a poem

A challenge then, forsooth, and the chance to gaily show 'em.

But truth itself is malleable...a frequent victim of attrition

And if you don't believe me - just look up "politician".

One person's fact is another's fiction, so frequently the case,

And so many people practise both - and manage a straight face.

Perhaps when t...

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I'm writing this on a cold dark day,

With the sound of thunder out to play,

Reverberating around the nearby roofs

Like the stampede of ten thousand hoofs;

While its weeping relative - the rain...

Streams across the window pane

Washing away the city grime

Cleansing in its own good time

But this much I feel inclined to say:

I wouldn't have it any other way.

...............

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In years to come they'll probably talk about when

Some MPs got together, led by someone called Benn,

To put into play a wheeze they had planned,

Designed to make the government go cap in hand =

To plead for more time from the supranational EU

So the latter could keep telling us what to do!  

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Thanks, Julia, for the vocal

IT'S A HEARTACHE THING (C)M.C. Newberry 2018/2019.

I thought that you'd come back to me when I saw you at the door

I thought that life was looking to be kind

But you told me you'd returned to take what I flung on the floor

You smiled your smile and hoped I didn't mind

It's a heartache thing to understand that you have gone for good

To realise ...

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Those who sought election into that famous place

Failed and still fail to see the positions that they embrace

In the rich repository of a nation's right and clear intent

To rule itself and not be deceived by what was never meant.

Temporary custodians of  Parliament - nothing more or less,

They take their power from the people, but you'd never guess

From the way they presume ...

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Have you ever seen an advert to bring you up short:

An invitation in plain English: " Old poets sought"?

If you have, I'll say bravo (and not be satirical)

To salute what is surely a literary miracle.

For no matter where you might be found

Scribbling at sea or with feet on the ground

Whether you be close by or maybe far-flung,

Poetry offers preference to those who are young.

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The occupants of Parliament now think it's a place they own,

Not understanding they're temporary custodians of what has slowly grown

Into the rich repository of a trusting nation's history,

That governs in the people's name (that's never been a mystery!).

Instead, without a mandate (that's  permission!) from the nation,

They signed away what wasn't theirs to foreign domination,

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Witnessing "we know best" in action

Brings the whiff of putrefaction,

Rotting in the rank rejection

Of the offer of a clean election;

With humble begging bowl in hand -

("We know best", you understand).

All of which (for me) enables

The need to cleanse those Augean stables.

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Jeepers Creepers - bless my peepers!

We're now a land of wimpy weepers...

Full of me-me and self-pity,

Everywhere you hear their ditty.

On song but often out of tune

It's painful when you hear them croon

Full of worry and concern:

Life's not fair, what about my turn?

I'm worth as much as anyone

So why do others have more fun

And cash to buy stuff I've not got...

Wh...

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Artistry and craft can take many forms,

But I can readily understand

The sheer skill and expertise required

To re-attach a man's severed hand.

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Is it really just chance that the description "needy"

Happens to chime with that other word "greedy"?

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If, armed with our forebears' fortitude, we steer

Our watchful way past Project Fear

Towards the light beyond the exit

Of the delayed departure point called Brexit,

With them in spirit, once more we'll fly

Across the welcoming world-wrapped sky.

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Come all you groaners - get in line...

To take your turn at the Shrine of Whine.

And take comfort that you're not alone

In your urgent need to have a moan.

Never before in the human story

(now a sort of Jackanory!)

Have people known the opportunity

To whinge and cuss with such impunity,

With the righteous feeling of self-pity

That assumes this life is sad and shitty,

...

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Is it really such a mysterious and incomprehensible credo

That we gravitate to those who look and think the same as we do?

And is it beyond rational thinking to pause and wonder whether

There's a reason for the old adage: birds of a feather flock together? 

Maybe it's steeped in history when the appearances of strangers

Could herald a threat that saw the onset of devastating dangers...

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Did you see that recent report from NASA?

My golly-gosh, it's certainly a gasser!

Plasma eruptions the size of Texas

Seem like a blow to the Earth's solar plexus!

Mind you, there are those who ignore the sun

And its massive effects on what's seen and done

On this planet of ours that relies on its presence,

Not least for its warmth and illuminescence.

For aeons it's existed ...

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There's one thing about poetry that's for sure,

Whatever the theme, it's been done before;

Except for stuff about modern inventions

(I''ll allow that these provide new mentions),

The stuff of love, hate and the rest

That poets like to get off their chest,

Have featured in poems of the past

Some of which will always last,

Because they skilfully touch the heart

In timeless...

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Be wary of the global media

It's run by power-seeking men

Who see themselves as king-makers

With a reach far beyond a mere pen.

The home of hysteria and hyperbole,

Banging drums of alarm and despair -

The source of maintaining confusion

In search of the very latest scare.

There''s a love of being game-changers...

Of keeping us all on our toes,

With alerts an...

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In my seventy sixth year I've seen a lot

And I've endured a lot for what I've got.

So did my parent's generation before,

And they taught me to grin when life was raw.

Loss and less were facts of life

For those who survived grievous strife;

But always hardy...always humble...

Captured in words like "musn't grumble".

No social security in existence...

They got by with graf...

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No place for any directive...

All poetry is subjective;

From varied sorts of pen and brain,

It changes form again and again,

And allows us to be selective.

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Personally, I find there's something strange

About the proponents of climate change -

Their outlook seems far from sunny;

Among their meteorological cares and scares

No 'hots' for sun spots or solar flares

And i think that's odd - stroke - funny!

In the winter of 1661, Samuel Pepys of diary fame

Wrote about weather conditions that came -

"Never was there such weather a...

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Civil servants exist in obscurity

Politicians are keen on security

And when embarrassment attends

To strain relations with friends

It tends to reveal immaturity!

(and for some an uncertain futurity!)

...............................................................

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Is it me just being perverse

But when I see or hear the word diverse

It brings on feelings of ennui

Where and when I happen to be

And the suspicion things'll get worse.

...................................................................

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An essay of the imagination.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdsom addresses the nation.

Good evening,

It is my decision, supported by my ministers and those of a similar mind within Parliament notwithstanding 

our oaths of allegiance to The Queen, her heirs and successors, to subordinate Her Majesty's role of Head of

State, together with Parliament itself to the unfluence and c...

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Farewell John McCririck - known to one and all as Big Mac,

A staple of TV's horse-racing until the moderns gave you the sack.

Your larger than life persona...the clown you pretended to be

Weren't thought to be what people wanted in this 21st PC century.

But your act gave racing a profile that it hadn't established before

And you were the punter's champion...giving  the bookies what-...

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Pausing high above the beach,

I watch the children out of reach,

Racing down the golden sand,

Leaping...laughing...hand in hand.

Children dancing in the sea

Remind me how I used to be,

Free from care and full of fun,

A happy boy beneath the sun.

Time goes by, yet time stands still,

And moment follows moment till

What is now once went before

And what is pa...

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Moving through life one thing features,

Simply that we're complex creatures.

What we are can be confusing

And subject to continual musing.

You'll hear it said again and again

That we are all things to all men.

Our lives are assorted books on their shelves..

If not true to each other, let's be true to ourselves.

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A refugee is a migrant

But a migrant is not necessarily a refugee;

Vigilance seems relevant

And correct use of words important to see.

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Is it goodbye to the Conservative Party?

Could it be that its day is done?

What used to be hale and hearty....

Going down like the late setting sun.

For too long it lost its direction

And lost trust it couldn't afford,

With no mandate and much genuflexion

It sent Parliament's power abroad.

Ever since it has paid for that action

And the trust is not yet regained...

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Life is a gratuity

An annual annuity

Not designed for perpetuity;

There's no incongruity

So avoid any vacuity...

Employ some acuity

And relish its fortuity! 

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Just read an online report of a teen sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for participating in street protests 

when he was a pre-teen.  Apparently Islamic Sharia Law allows that sort of thing there.  What price 

progress in the sandpits of the world?! 

If you want to get ahead

Don't go to to Saudi;

You'd probably lose it

If you were seen as rowdy

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When I read of all this travel

My patience soon starts to unravel;

People going here and there

(How do they come up with the fare?)

Taking with them their personal woe

That accompanies them wherever they go.

What is the cause of this endless procession

Of people transported by some obsession

To head to somewhere else beyond

The place they know and have a bond

Of famil...

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Seventy five years ago today, the Free World held its breath

While the forces of liberation headed into the jaws of death.

Many lost their lives that day, friends and strangers alike,

But what they achieved saw the fall of the "thousand year" Reich;

And written into history, what was done will always be told,

Never to fade in memory and never to grow old.

(6th June 2019)

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Phobia is just a fancy word for an often well-founded fear.

Arachnophobia comes to mind - self-protection very clear

But when phobia's applied to religion let's refer to its defenders

Mindful that it can be used to deflect from some agendas.

The latest demands we proscribe behaviour that questions a belief

That resents and resists in combative style and offers no relief

To the co...

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With another Day in mind

Those remaining said a tearful farewell to Doris;

And moving on along life's highway,

Remainers would bid a cheerful 'go to hell' to Boris!

(But Donald Trump has had his say

And would welcome BJ to the US of A)

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I blinked at the sight of her goodbye tears

As she turned her back on the watching eyes

And I readily recalled the dismissive sneers

Employed for another audience during her rise;

A great public service that questioned austerity

Fearful of the cost to what had to be done

Disdainfully dismissed with arrogant asperity;

No tears then...when she thought she had won;

But kept in...

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So - at last we've reached the day

When we know May is on her way;

She might complain of a poisoned chalice

But what chance of sympathy at the Palace -

Playing politics with the public fate

Of a much respected Head of State?

Repeatedly trotting to and fro

Doing her best to make a show

Of getting the EU to agree

To what they'd never intend to be...

The loss of UK membe...

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(Noting missing comments from blogs)

Well now, what is there to say

About observations that have gone away?

Comments on a blog to add to the content

Disappear from sight - whatever that act meant!

As if a magic wand has waved in rejection

Of what is remarked via some censored selection.

Abracadabra - vanished from view,

It wasn't by me...

So - was it by you?

............

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Lordy - how I resent religionists -

Brainwashed to believe

From kiddies with no understanding

To adults practising to deceive.;

They even murder for myth and stories!

From centuries past to present day,

With made-up stuff and imagined glories.

Their Once Upon A Time holds sway -

And religionists still kill - and pray!

...................................................

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Hour by hour my eyes become blearier

At all the hyperbole and hysteria;

Frantic forecasts of harm

Arousing endless alarm

Sees me wishing to kick some posterior!

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So now we all know the royal baby's name,

But looking ahead I can anticipate blame

From the recipient of the moniker that's been selected

When he's that bit older and cruelly affected

By inheriting the hair loss of his uncle and dad

And jibes from his chums (and enemies) make him mad.

What hapless young man would relish being called

What seems very likely:  Archie the Bald!

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Day by day I grow wearier

Of hyperbole and hysteria,

Promoted in a media

That seems needier and greedier.

Every aggravation and alarm

That promises us harm

Is promoted with force

For our conviction of course.

Tell something often enough

And it becomes very tough

To know what is fact

Upon which we can act.

Real or rumour?

Each requires humour

To avoid going...

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I grew as a boy in an England still in sight

Of days when it could readily boast of its might,

But brought low in a desperate fight to be free

Bankrupt and in debt to our friends across the sea.

Nonetheless, the baby-boomers, as they became known

Took up the gauntlet that post-war world had thrown,

Rationing and the rest were accepted and endured

And slowly the disease of...

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We live with sickness despite moving on

Beyond the ignorance our ancestors looked upon

And accepted as being a part of the life

They lived - praying that they might evade the knife.

But even today with human knowledge increasing

By the hour...by the day - via research unceasing,

It makes me wonder if illness is like a sin

Caused by our folly - from without and within.

...

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How I loathe the fake familiarity

That infests the modern media,

The habit of using diminutives....

Appalling applications of acedia.

Next time a senior police officer is seen

Being interviewed about whatever,.....

Check his first name on the TV screen

It's a fair bet that it's never

The name that he was given at birth

But a baby name excursion -

As if they ...

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I am today's protester

Complying with the latest plan;

I use a spray to make my day

Spreading graffiti with aerosol can

And when I can't do it in their halls

I console myself with stuff on walls.

I block the free passage of the road

So workers can't get by

And push the police to "overload"

So that they barely try

To enforce the laws that have been made

To keep...

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The Remainer said to the Leaver:

"Why do you deal in lies?"

The Leaver said to the Remainer:

"It may come as a surprise - 

But as long as we stay in the EU

We're bound to pay what they say is due."

The Remainer said to the Leaver

"Why would we dismantle what's been done...

Travelling easy - so much fun!"

The Leaver said to the Remainer:

"And what of trouble crossing b...

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I'm struggling with this conundrum

As Parliament flexes its muscles:

How MPs swear allegiance to The Queen

Then bend the knee to Brussels?

Just how do they see our Sovereign's role

With Her Majesty subjected to foreign control?  

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I guess we can all recall the anxiety

Of being young and the need to "depend",

When each day could be a misery -

Like being thrown in life's deep end.

When lesson breaks meant a playground

Where bullies glowered and lurked.....

School toilets where you didn't hang around

If your self-preservation worked.

It could seem as if threat was everywhere

(The teachers r...

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Is it goodbye to the Tories in Parliament...

Are we seeing the end of their day

When the behaviour being witnessed by voters

Seems to signal being wlling to betray?

Is the Conservative and Unionist Party over...

Has December come with May?

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Many who grew up with the "EU" seem unaware of how it has become established - hence this little essay

of enlightenment to remind them that convenience and ease of whatever sort has its price..

Advancing years bring the benefit of a long memory and the current parliamentary farce over Brexit brings 

memories of the Referendum Party and its determined opposition to the growing (and increas...

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Peeping from beneath the tree,

The lemon primrose spoke to me.

Winter's done, I heard it say,

Warmer days are on the way.

Mother Nature waits on me

(The "First Rose" is my name you see) 

While other flowers stay in bed

I welcome spring and show my head.

Then, with the golden daffodil,

I gild the countryside until

In turn, the other blooms appear,

Assured ...

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Why would the English consider playing the fool

and bend the knee to Brussels' "lords of misrule"  -

whose distant orders and decisions come from those

they can never elect - let alone ever depose?

Why would the English, with their freedom-framed history,

Vote for rule from abroad - THAT is the mystery!

But I take the position (and I'm not being skittish)

that the answer is in...

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Do you become desperate to find something to write about...

Over-anxious that your whisper becomes a shout

That's heeded by those of the passing age

And joins deep thoughts placed upon the page?

Do you take up the pen or press keyboard key

For producing stuff the world will see,

Never minding what you actually write about

As long as you can get it out?

Is the need within mo...

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There's a saying about trouble

That leaves me somewhat troubled:

'A trouble shared is a trouble halved';

Oh no, it's not - it's doubled!

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Adopting an agnostic avian attitude towards the flight of religion,

Islam appears like a hawk, Christianity - a tame pigeon.

It's for sure there'd be hands raised in something like hysteria

At any suggestion of building churches in distant Syria,

Whilst there's no doubt there also exists an excluding ban

On any subject similar in the ayatollahs' Iran;

And there's no sign whatever...

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Better to live in hope

And die with a chuckle

Than live in despair

And silently buckle.

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What is this this life,

So full of care,

If love we find -

And do not share?

Read and leave comments (0)

It's Tommy this, an' Tommy that..,.

An' Tommy in harm's way;

You may know the score

When sent into war

But politicians know how to betray.

..............................................................

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There are some who say it's more than rumour

That women have no sense of humour,

But consider just how often when

It emerges at the expense of men!

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Looking ahead to the approach of another flat racing season.  Roll on!

Sunrise creeping, daylight peeping,

All is silent, all are sleeping.

Alarm clocks whirring, staff start stirring,

Farm dogs scratching, farm cats purring.

Voices muffled, sneezes snuffled,

Stairways creaking, footsteps shuffled.

Harness jingling, senses tingling,

Eggs and bacon and co...

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A re-post on a theme that deserves open-minded considerations of the circumstances of bravery and its existence - or otherwise.

Hero and coward,

Two sides of a coin;

How close you may look

You won't see the join,

A flick of the fingers -

The hero's in place;

Another flick brings up

The opposite face.

Hero and coward,

What's in a name?

One deed gains the l...

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Spare us the pretentious pap

Close cousin to contentious crap;

They both abound when it's a free go,

Bilious bastards of the ego.

...............................................................

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Near Kingswear town there stands a tree

That stand alone and waits for me

To take the track back to the sea

The way down by The Mewstone

Past the beacon in the corn

Built for every seaman born

To the works of war forlorn

At bay down by The Mewstone

Above the rocks - beneath the pine

Look-outs lost in leaf and vine

Still staring out in dark design

Decay do...

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Capturing a memorable moment in time,

Or the act performed in premeditated crime;

Mapping our lives like immortal cartography -

This imaging miracle they call photography.

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One of the most famous photographs caught an enthusiastic young US sailor grabbing a bent-over kiss  

from a young girl in New York City as Victory Over Japan was celebrated in 1945 and WW2 ended.

His death has just been announced - not long after that of his partner in that memorable picture.

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So the young sailor in tha...

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If you try to be profound

Sods' law will see your words rebound;

It's folly to parade pretension -

Best instead to choose abstention.

So keep it simple,

Make it clear,

While grateful hearts and minds draw near

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If I suggested you jog down a motorway

A finger you would wag;

Yet you're ready to shorten life's own highway

Dying for a fag!

If I suggested you dip your hand

In a jar full of dangerous bugs

You'd get the needle - and I'd understand,

So why do it with dangerous drugs?

If I suggested daily you fill the sink

With the sort of booze that rots your guts

And drain it - wou...

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Blessed are those who are born of this land

Happy are those who can hold fast its hand

Who can pull up a chair

And bid goodbye to care

We won't ask what you're thinking

When we ask what you're drinking

Lucky are those who share this old bond

Eager are they who come from beyond

To this land full of history

Magic and mystery

We won't ask why you smile

Or why you...

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They sent me for an MRI scan,

A fact of life for the older man

Whose blood amounts of PSA (*)

Sees him doing what the medics say;

Obliged to wear a tied-behind gown

That makes him look (and feel) a clown,

Before being put in a wheel chair

And trundled in to where

The MRI scanner waits its turn

To probe the body and noisily learn

Its hidden secrets under the skin

Th...

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I've always been of the mind

That says "take as you as you find",

Believing in one-to-one reactions

That help in easing warring factions

And ask how can it make much sense

If folk are so ready to take offence

At every perceived remark or slight

To anyone they think aren't right.

People found most everywhere

Share the trait to point and stare.

At those they see as not ...

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With some justification it could be said

That the easily led are...easily led;

That birds of a feather flock together,

Especially in inclement weather.

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The following is part of a lyric in preparation.  The tune has been recorded already,

:

Blessed are those who are born of this land

Happy are they who can hold fast its hand -

Who can pull up a chair

And bid goodbye to care

We won't ask what you're thinking

When we ask what you're drinking!

Lucky are those who share this old bond

Eager are they who come from beyond

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It occurs with some desire to employ objectivity,

That when Einstein put forward his theory of relativity

He'd had the original come to mind some time before -

That a married man rarely pleases his mother-in-law,

But kept it quiet for the sake of domestic sensitivity..

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I saw him emerge from the door of the shop:

"Excuse me", he murmured, believing I'd stop;

But I knew what was coming and ignored what he said,

Hurrying on past him and ducking my head.

"Excuse me..." he called, vainly trying again

While I entered the shop...safe out of the rain.

 But stepping inside I felt I had sinned

As his final "excuse me" was lost on the wind.

......

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It intrigues me greatly - truth to tell...

Some attitudes to "Comments" on WOL.

Where opinions of blogs are allowed a forum -

Not just whether you dislike or adore 'em -

So observations of various sorts

Can earn some interesting retorts,

But if someone throws a spanner in your work

Resist the temptation to react like a jerk;

Let's bear in mind the word "comment"

Should n...

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In my lifetime I've seen self-possession

Become unhealthy self-obsession,

Where the awareness of what it is to be

Has become the mantra "me, me, me".

And this trait is getting worse...

A modern Narcissistic curse,

The needful are become needier

Encouraged by the social media,

Funded by big business ads

That serve to promote fatuous fads

That pander to the self-obsesse...

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It's very easy to get stressed - believing in a belief;

And be blessed when leaving it - what a relief!

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Whilst we watch and hear what they say

As our politicians lead the way,

Towards a not quite in or out

As if they don't know what it's about;

Let's recall the words of Jean Monnet(**)

Of what was kept from us back in the day!

Chief architect and founding father

Of what many here now would rather

Leave - from market to European Union

Achieved by unholy stealthy communion -...

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To all you UK readers under fifty five; come... take a trip with me

Back to Christmas 1962  - and the New Year of '63.

On Boxing Day the first flakes fell but few folk were concerned,

But wiser minds stocked grates with logs - not to be "twice burned".

There was a lull and smug smiles came - and just as quickly went,

As Mother Nature took a breath and then gave it full vent!

The ...

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I've just received an emailed Amazon Prime promotion headed "Amazon's hit car show" - promoting the return

of that TV motoring show staring Clarkson, May and the other fella.  It is a salutary lesson that in its hurry to

grab our attention, the colour-highlighted line immediately above the images of the three stars blazed out the

following -

#amazonshitcarshow.

Oops.  Did they reall...

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I once knew a guy you'd never call shy

From the way that he acted and dressed;

He'd say "It's no shock when the world wants to mock...

I've been called the worst things by the best".

Then there was this gal who was more than a pal,

By nature most generously blessed.

I'd buy her a drink and she'd say with a wink -

"I've been called the worst things by the best".

Ju...

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Life can be a treasure hunt

For when love comes along

With people grabbing what they can

Hoping they're not wrong.

Love can be an auction house

Where you pay the seller's fee

Bid high or low - it's best to know

That nothing's ever free.

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My heart leaps up when I behold

The Concorde in the sky:

So was it when my youth began;

So is it now I am a man;

So let it be when I grow old,

And let me fly!

This 'plane goes faster than a bullet can

And I would wish its days to be

Boundless - each graced by its high-flying "V"

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Can I be alone - impatient with this modern obsession for "holidays"?

Participants in a procession following some "fun and folly" craze!.

Personally, I see these vacations as parting "lolly from a wally" ways

In this age of food banks I marvel as the flash of "cash to dash" pays.

And just you wait - on their return from these various visitations

You can be sure they'll bring back so...

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In South Norfolk you'll find Diss

A place with a poeticial connection

How odd then to discover this

Brings new meaning to "Diss-affection"!

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