(Part 1)

I remember you saying

Back when we were young

That sometimes you felt

Like a song left unsung

That reality was fake:

Our dreams held the key

And there lay the truth

Of how life should be

You were the princess

And I, the dashing knight

who saved you from the monsters 

And a pit of endless plight

Down to the woods I'd go:

A ...

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Some days I like to wander free

Let reality's harsh light dim

In hope I'll find new things to see 

New worlds to hide within 

I wander down forgotten paths

Now overgrown with thistle 

And find a draughty little nook

Where the fair wind likes to whistle 

I came upon a cottage somewhere 

Or, perhaps, I was at rest?

Outside, an old woman stood

In ragged...

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Where on earth (or space) did we come from?

What intrepid seed made us be?

I like the idea of God

But, my mind's eye won't let me see

They say we're all made of stardust 

So, perhaps, there lies a clue

Just molecules & atoms congealed 

From the old primordial stew 

Were we once nebulae or quasars?

Drifting upon solar winds

Dancing to songs of the universe 

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His desolate thoughts

Were taken by the wind

A husk, sat fiddling with thread

Picked from halcyon times

He looked out to the sea

It was raging

He wished himself that rage

But, instead, calmly sat fiddling with…

The thread had gone

He took a sip of tea turned cold

And itched

Always the same itch 

The wind was gathering a storm

His old jacket eagerly billowing

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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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She plucked a sunbeam

one fine day

And fashioned it 

in such a way

A lighthouse man

came to say

He thought it would 

keep ships away

He took it with him

in a jar 

And there it shone

bright as a star

And all the ships 

from near and far

Flashed masthead lights

just to say Ta!

And it shone so bright

through storms & rain

A shield a...

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I hope you'll love what's left of me

After life has had its fill

I hope you'll see in those old eyes

There's love & laughter still

I hope my skin of brittle parchment 

Can be traced by loving fingers 

I hope this weary sheet of braille 

Shows an epilogue still lingers 

I hope our hands still intertwine 

Like stars cling to the sky

I hope we waltz through amb...

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In the mirror I saw my own fragility 

Sagging contours weighed heavy by age

An arid landscape of fissures and brushland 

Time had eaten away its lustre 

Leaving a fallow space

The eyes, once sparkled crystal blue

Now faded pale & weary

I studied this ageing fossil 

This reflection of reality 

Scratching at the brushland

Wondering what time had done

with the young m...

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When I am too old for life

And life has taken all I have 

When my breath is but a shallow whisper 

And the whisper turns a winter's breeze 

When my heart quivers its last offering to time

And time graciously accepts

When my eyes forever slumber

And slumber takes my soul

I think that I shall linger still 

In the periphery of twilight's yawning

And in smiles, ...

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The barbs of your tongue

Cut me to shreds

Unpicking my mind's 

Most delicate threads 

So I weaved myself words

From the pit of my soul 

To replace all the light

And the joy you had stole

Then I ripped myself free

From your talons of spite

Spilling ink upon page

Under dawn's weary light

And I bled, intravenous 

Through roots of my mind 

Feedi...

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Love & grief 

Are but the same

Both distort

Your mental frame

With tears of joy

Or tears of pain

Life will never 

Be the same

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After you were gone

My heart fell apart

A jigsaw without structure 

A mess of lonely parts

I think you took me with you

My breath, my life, my soul 

For all that remained 

Was this deep & vacant hole

One day I fell into its depths 

Without thought of return

Crumbling to a waste of ash

In my own neglected urn

But, I awoke blinking 

At the sun's ...

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Beyond the rolling, molten sky

There dwells a place for when we die

To be reborn in starlight's eye

 A genesis of every you & I

We'll seek out worlds yet to be seen

Become creations brightest gleam

Sew the thread within the seam

To weave new worlds of  endless dreams

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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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As we stroll,

the dusky pink of a morning sunrise 

turns the fields to candy floss. 

We get sticky and wet 

from the sweetest dew.

I stifle a yawn, 

and the softness and scent 

of moisturised skin 

briefly brushes the redness

of my sun-flushed cheek.

She smiles,

all dimples & eyes of blue serenity.

And, for a moment,

there is no world but us.

Later, w...

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She languidly lounged in linen

While her husband was in the pub

Singin' 

She thought this was fine

As he'd be in by nine

And her takeaway

He would

Be bringin' !

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The toast was warm and buttery

The coffee, hot and strong

The radio played a reminisce

From sunny days long gone

I sipped away the aches & pains

And watched the morning light 

Brush honey upon the basking birds

That sang with all their might

The open door leaked warming breeze

And a hint of dewy blooms

But, time tick-tocked reality

To rejoin life's spinning lo...

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The blue sky yawned

And out they came

As the mortal hoard 

Looked for blame

It's us! It's them!

It's God's fair hand

His silence broken

To make a stand!

Some cowered. Some ran

Some stood in awe

As tears of seeds

Filled Earth's floor

For exactly 6 hours

The seeds were sown

For the 7th

Time stood alone

Leaves stopped in flutter

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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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Be still, and feel

This gentle breeze

That brushes by

With careful ease

And ruffles leaves

Upon their trees

And scatters far

Their fruitful seeds

Which vein the earth

To start anew

So you and I 

Can live here too!

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Beyond this realm

Beyond the sea

Beyond this frail reality

Beyond the blue

Beyond the air

Beyond the things no longer there

Beyond the dusk

Beyond the dawn

Beyond the Twilight's sleepy yawn

Beyond the dark

Beyond the light

Beyond the tapestry of life

Beyond the planets 

Beyond the stars

Beyond the galaxy's vibrant scars

The...

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Do we do nothing

But stare at the sky?

Do we do nothing

But avert our eyes?

Do we do nothing

But stifle our cries?

Do we do nothing

But conform to lies?

Or, could we become

All we can be?

And settle the wake 

Of this turbulent sea?

And rise above waves

And rise above fear

And shout at the sun:

"Look! we are here!"

A...

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I passed by a window

Where an old man smiled 

and misted up the dirty pane

Behind his eyes the sadness showed 

of every steep & rocky road

He'd had to climb

Next day I thought I'd call on him

And out he came

So pale and thin

-but with that smile

And graceful guile 

He said

Son, 

in my mind, 

I'm as free as a summer breeze

A...

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Who am I?

Who knows? not I !

Perhaps, I'll find out

when I die

When in the ground 

cross armed I lie

and become 

the congregation spy

Will friends & family

sincerely cry

Or, perhaps pretend

and also lie?

Will I hear truths

I now deny?

Or, will they say

'Oh! What a guy!'

Will happy thoughts

of times gone by

Just turn to thoughts

of ...

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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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On a cold winter's night

They sat, hand in hand

Ravaged by time

Old in design

Two dinosaurs

In a digital age

Still in analogue love

Upon a wireless hub

Sitting on a park bench

Beneath a full moon

At the end of their time

Bodies poised to resign 

In a gathering frost 

They glisten as one

Hands intertwined

Old parchment defined

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Sometimes

Life is like the smallest flower

Stretching for some sun

When all the bigger ones devour

All it could become

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From the windswept clifftop

She could see below

Far below into the cove

Where lay, a body upon the sand

And, dragged by tide,

A waving hand

It swayed like the branch

Of a wind-laden tree

Come to me

Oh come to me!

A breath of chill

Now, caressed her skin

Whilst staring down at the cove

And the figure within

And upon her grasped

Su...

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Dreams are such strange creatures

Presenting vivid or

amorphic features

They steep your mind

in make-believe

Where past & present

Interweave 

I'm in the woods

'neath a gnarly tree

Where friends of old 

run wild & free 

Friends who now rest

as soil or ash

Or who simply faded

into time's elapse

But, I'm standing there

Fully gro...

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Come look inside my cooking pot

It's full of children you forgot

Upon the streets, so cold & wet

I steal away their rancid breath

Then grind them down to fit my pot

And heat it up so very hot

Then feed them to the homeless ones

Who gobble them up with such aplomb!

My good deed done, I crawl back home

And slither upon my thorny throne

And there I wait wi...

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One day I looked 

inside my head

And there I found

words left unsaid:

Make haste
No time
Forbid
Hate love
Always shout
Never listen

So, I put haste in the waste
Told No to go!
Put a lid on bid
Locked hate in a crate 
Gave shout a clout (until it ran out)
And
Got rid of never, forever

I'd like to think
That what remained
In all of us 
Is preordained:

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(for the little girl who haunts my dreams still) 

Dear Daddy,

Not that you'd care, but

All that I wanted was to make you proud

But, I was too stupid

Too fat

Too loud

All you ever did was bring me down

I was your scar

Your permanent frown

I was your verbal punchbag

In your whiskey fuelled state

Never felt I was your child 

Just a vessel for...

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The fading embers of her mind

Drift away to a long-ago time
To shrouded visions of some young girl
A time of wonder, a world to unfurl

Through fields she would dance humming a tune
Losing herself amidst the sweet scent of bloom
A fragrant-filled-feast for her lungs to consume
Within the wonderful freedom of nature's playroom

And as the shimmering Sun went down
She would dance throug...

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