I lost my Brother, and my poetry went with him

Words replaced by a bottomless hollow

Knowing he has not one more tomorrow 

The words I needed drifted away

Hiding from the light of day

Wallowing in a sea of grey 

The sea, which drowns us all

When someone dear passes away

He liked a drink, and liked a fag

But was the best brother I could have had

'A good looki...

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There was such a tenderness 

In the beating of her heart

But, such a terrible wailing 

To go unheard 

Her hand lay open & empty 

Her eyes

Mostly closed

A smile could occasionally flicker

Like the flame of a candle 

Dancing before it becomes smoke.

On that last night 

When the rain poured

And the moon hid

Her hand slowly closed

Her cheeks dimpled with ...

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These words that I speak

These words I now write

These flat voweled phrases

These poems I indite 

This love of things dark

This love of things light

This fondness for nature 

This ease with the night 

These moments of joy

These moments of fear

These hands clenched in fists

These thoughts holding clear

This taste for fine wine

This taste for che...

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As snow came down

her wondrous eyes

flared as bright

as winter skies

She imagined they fell

from Santa's sleigh 

And that he might

pop down & say:

What a good girl

you've been this year 

You may get more

than an apple & pear!

And through a window

frosted lightly,

she saw a snowman

fat, but sprightly!

He danced & raised

his batt...

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Her wrinkled hand took hold of his

as she sang a grand old song

Her grandson  looked at it & said:

You've been in the bath too long!

She said, "Those creases are like  the circles 

within a wonderful tree!

It shows how long I've been around

How long that I've been me!"

There's a lot of creases there, Grandma

They've spread right up to your face!

I recko...

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I asked God, what is my purpose?

There was nothing, but the stillness of time

I asked Allah, what is my purpose? 

There was nothing, but the stillness of time

I asked the Buddha, what is my purpose?

There was nothing, but the stillness of time

I asked my daughter,  what is my purpose?

She said, with a wrinkled brow 

To be my Dad, of course 

To have met & married my Mam

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Ssssh

Listen…

Modern world blocking the transmission?

Too much traffic? 

A world too erratic

Does the whispering grass 

still play a tune

Or has brick and mortar 

brought it to ruin?

This world is so fast!

Take me back to the past!

It makes such a din

I don't know where to begin!

And cars, 

bloody cars everywhere!

If I had an...

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Mam,

What was it you said

As a I lay in my bed

One snowy Christmas Eve?

That if I believe

In what I receive

Comes from a magical place

Then, the world can be yours

There'll be open doors

Into realms 

beyond our time & space 

***

Merry Christmas & a better New Year to all on planet WOL! ❤️

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In the bed, she lay

So tired & so frail

Like the room itself

So colourless & pale

At least, through the window

She could see the snowflakes dance

Falling in a serenade

To a winter's night romance

Her bed sores burned like hell

In this purgatory of self

A forgotten thing called living

Lay dormant on its shelf

But the snow fell so dreamlike

...

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In the morning I held you so tightly

As the dawn light drizzled our bed

Wondering if your dreams fluttered lightly

From the kaleidoscope in your head

Did the rays of the sun come and catch them?

And filter a rainbow of dreams

Then gently release & dispatch them

Into shimmering rivers and streams

Did the water taste like sweet nectar?

To the ones who drank ...

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Before the demolition

Turned my old Street

Into rubble

I went to steal some memories

Of our laughter & our struggle

I went to hopscotch down

The chalk lines of the past

Play tag with the echoes

Of ones who didn't last

Time had aged the street

Like a persons face too old

It wore the strain of many toils

From the ending of 'black gold'

I wal...

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I watch her slowly

 fall from grace

Her body still

Her mind displaced

New memories 

no longer stay

they simply  

          just              

drift  a w    a         y

Like a mist around

a mountain old

that dissipates

as the dawn unfolds

She's there in body

but sparse of mind

Sometimes it's hard

to seek, and find

The vibrant woman

she...

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The man in the mirror

No longer looks like me

His best years are behind him

There's nothing more to see 

His daughter is a woman

With family of her own

The years now seem to fade away

Into the bleak unknown

Although I'll keep on dreamin'

Of better things to come

Sometimes I feel like runnin' free

Into the rising sun

A slither of a silhouette 

Against a s...

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He flung the rope 

over a branch of a tree

And fluttering down

came a few dead leaves

He watched them rest

upon the cold, crisp earth

And cursed his mother

For his wasted birth

This year of pandemic

Had him stripped to the bone

Made him jobless & useless

A bear in his home

Frustration begat anger

And anger begat fear

Unable to provide

For...

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Granda's slouched 

In his fave comfy chair

A Christmas cracker party hat

Hides his four strands of hair

His wife always said:

'Get the buggers cut!'

But he wasn't quite ready

To be a total baldy nut! 

He wishes she was here now

Nagging at full pelt:

'If ye eat or drink one more thing,

yer gonna burst your belt!'

And Sophie's eyes sparkle

L...

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