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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