We’re out to party all night long,

Now we are done with Christmas cheer;

We’ll see the old year out with song,

And dance into a bright new year.

So don’t sit there alone and mope;

Come raise a glass and join with me,

And drink to love and health and hope

For all our friends and family.

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Football once more that the pundits discuss;

Those that have once played the ‘beautiful game’,

Talk of ‘professional fouls’ without fuss,

Warily dodging a much darker name.

Knowingly fouling to preclude a score,

Just to avoid any chance of defeat,

Has a description that would fit it more;

Isn’t it rather the act of a cheat?

Consciously choosing to break the game’s...

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Snow falling gently

Balances on evergreens

A thick white carpet

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Christmas is nearly here,

A season of good cheer,

And goodwill to all men

Flows so well from the pen;

But not so from the heart,

Where amity should start,

And in these festive times,

We still pursue the crimes

Of hunger, war and greed,

Though people are in need.

We feather our own nest,

To hell with all the rest

Too much “I’m alright Jack’,

Never gonna look b...

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New Year resolutions,

Like politicians’ promises.

Look-you-in-the-eye sincere,

Spoken with disingenuous intent,

Not worth the paper they’re written on.

Same old paper tigers,

Same old top three;

Lose weight;

Lose booze;

Quit smoking.

Went great on 1st January,

Until I woke up!

After last night’s party, I just can’t start now.

Just one more day!

Just finish...

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Who is this person I see in the mirror?

Not me.

He looks healthy and content.

No hint of the aches and pains

Of continued existence,

The failing hearing and heart

That bring their own doubts and uncertainties.

I say the mirror lies,

But it reflects the exterior shell,

So other people don’t see

What I know to be true.

If there were a true mirror,

It would show th...

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I saw you on the bus today;

You smiled.

I basked in the radiance.

I know you, I thought.

Luxuriant, reddish auburn hair

And laughing eyes.

Searching my memory,

Desparately,

Fruitlessly.

You spoke;

Then I realised where you figured in my past.

It had been five years ago.

When we were two other people.

All we spoke of was the bus route,

Then you had to get o...

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There was once a young lad at the Ritz,

Who admired all the ladies’ outfits;

He gave a big grin

When a blonde walked in

With a dress that displayed ….. rather more of her personality than he expected!

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Cold misty morning

Footsteps clicking through car park

Rapidly muffled

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The ghosts of Christmas past

Are spectres at the feast;

The memories amassed,

But sadly now deceased.

Ghostly Christmas presence,

On whom we reminisce,

Opening the presents

As if nothing’s amiss.

Looking to the future,

And specially our kids,

It’s a daunting picture;

The world is on the skids.

With vicious little wars,

And it’s not hard to spot...

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Love can be cruel

My heart is an open wound

No transplant for me

My loveless soul will wither

Such sorrow can have no bounds

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Across moorland,

Between velvet mountains

On sheep dotted hillside;

Sun bathing heather,

And purple flowers glow

In softening light of evening.

Seated on grass,

Surveying silent valley

As clouds gambol towards sunset.

Memories form and reform in sky,

Pierced by warming rays

As they take shape in my mind,

Shuffling through long passed years.

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December arrives

Talk of Christmas is allowed

But not of Easter!

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The russet leaves are scattered all around,

As urban trees cast off their summer clothes,

And in the pool that fills them on the ground

Reflects the naked limbs that they expose.

They seem to claw up to the cold grey sky,

To drag down icy snow and freezing rain,

As happened during every year gone by,

And winter comes around this year again.

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In waking dream my musing turns,

And calls to times so long ago,

When my nostalgic longing yearns

For long lost youth that haunts me so.

For days and days, we’d stray through hills

Of sand, some distance from our home,

Untroubled by the cares and ills

That plague us now, where’er we roam.

We worked so hard, to say we’d play,

Constructing dens to suit our game;

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Words

Flood out

On my page;

Pentameter,

In flowing trochees;

Such expressive free verse,

Pouring forth profound meaning

In multiple, moving stanzas;

Each perfectly projected syllable

Showing imperious erudition.

As I perform my latest masterpiece

To assembled contemporaries

In a moment of reflection

I wonder quizically

When had I developed

Such delusion...

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Is it me?

Or is it just anarchy?

No Smoking sign at the hospital door,

That the smokers around it seem to ignore.

A ‘No U Turn’ sign at the traffic light;

All the cars make their U Turn, nice and tight.

Is it me?

Or is it just anarchy?

The sign at the roadside says ‘Clean Up Zone’;

We can’t see the ground for litter that’s thrown.

Twin yellow lines say you’d better no...

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I really do not want to see

Those reality shows on TV;

They just make me yawn,

I wish they were gone,

There’s movies I’d much rather see.

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as you pass
my already broken heart
breaks anew

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It will soon be bloody Christmas

It’s just two months away

We’ve only got through Halloween

But almost every day

We get the adverts on TV,

With Christmas goods in shops;

And daily now the bonhomie

Once started, never stops.

I wouldn’t mind if it was close,

But six weeks seems so far;

For Christmas trees and fairy lights,

Topped with a flaming star.

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Sun setting behind sparse, shadowy clouds as workers return home from daily toil. Breath mists chill air ahead of their progress. Birds gather in sweeping, roiling flocks, preparing for departure. Nearly naked trees alongside road claw starkly towards the darkening sky, leaves curling in shades of red and yellow at their feet. Pavement glistens with early evening frost, showing footprints of passi...

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Last night I set out to make curry

But was in a bit of a hurry

I know it sounds silly

To double the chilli

Now there’s somewhere else I must scurry!

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first snowflakes swarming

in eddies of icy wind

naked trees shiver

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(A humble response to Dylan Thomas)

I’ll go as I damn please into the night,

As I become more weary every day;

For raging’s how I’ll face the dying light.

There’s wise men who through life seek wisdom’s light,

But me, I will continue with the fray;

I’ll go as I damn please into the night.

When good men give their best, however trite,

My deeds would have me gu...

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If you really think about it

When you can take enough time

After everything’s said and done

When you      get      down to it

Nobody is ever perfect

I’m just a single man

Who      lives

All alone

Quietly

Mostly

But sometimes I just like to be able to get out of the house and enjoy myself.

And those      times, I often find I gravitate towards nights of             ...

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Just another morning;

The sun rises once again,

Greeting the day as it smoulders above the horizon,

Igniting the wakening day

And shimmering the feathery clouds

With roseate aspiration.

Just another morning;

The sun rises again,

Casually unremarked as we go about the daily routine.

No time to pause and look,

And consider wonders

Of the natural bounty

Arraye...

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Another crack,

But this time the light went out.

All your words, stilled for us,

As we realise we

Have no way to say goodbye;

And as you say hello to Marianne,

We must in turn bid you ‘So long’.

In time, the words will live again,

And we will remember.

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Late night, going home

After an evening of alcohol fuelled frivolity.

My friends wanted to move on,

But I’d had enough.

I’d stumbled to the bus stop

In time for the last bus of the evening.

That’s where I saw her first;

She arrived at the stop,

Just as the bus turned the corner.

Pretty, in a vulnerable sort of way;

Long, shining black hair,

With a complexion that l...

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Streaming from above

Into deep eddying pool

Vibrant cataract

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Spring;

Nature awakening;

Brightly blossoming flowers

Painted, wide rolling meadow;

Returned birds singing,

Lambs gambolling friskily;

Winter retreating.

Sky blue through drizzling rain,

Swelling river

-Flowing-

River swelling,

Rain drizzling through blue sky;

Retreating winter,

Friskily gambolling lambs;

Singing birds returned,

Meadow rolling wide, pai...

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Courting birds in song

New leaves bursting forth in trees

Waking forest floor

Ramble amongst grasping ferns

Soaked with early morning rain

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Icy blast spreads leaves

Stark branches clawing at sky

Warm fireside beckons

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Pale wraith emerges from the cloud,

Takes on her fearsome form,

She stands magnificent and proud,

Hair flails as in a storm.

As piercing eyes perceive my fear,

Her staff it flares and glows;

She stabs me with a steely sneer

That chills down to my toes.

A fell horned beast beside her howls,

Wings flared as though in flight;

With monstrous fangs in scabrous jo...

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In springtime when the forest greens,

And buds dot woodland bed,

I love to view these wondrous scenes

To clear my wintry head;

Where rivers flow among the trees,

And splashes echo on the breeze,

            Where rivers flow,

            Where rivers flow

To bumbling buzz of roving bees.

In springtime when the forest greens,

And life returns to earth,

Once hel...

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Long nights close in as harvest time is done,

When Samhain calls the sidhe to rule the night,

And careful ones the darkening forest shun.

The faerie folk may now come into sight,

And souls of forebears tread familiar trails,

As anxious kinfolk cower home in fright.

The Otherworld doorways this night will fail,

And off’rings to appease must now be made

To keep the ...

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Impulsively she embraces

Each new venture that she faces;

Can’t abide those empty spaces,

Giant paces, giant paces.

He goes through life his nature showing

You can trust him, always knowing

That his world is stable, flowing,

Easy going, easy going.

Got together, now they share

Relationship that is so rare;

Such biding joy to make you stare,

It’s love I sw...

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Misty rain mizzling on light breeze;

feeble yellow glow of sodium lights

struggle to ward off enveloping darkness.

Muffled traffic noise throbs,

forming a faint, rumbling bass

to the smothering symphony of night.

Footsteps clack on damp pavement,

resonating in natural echo chamber

of towering terraced houses.

Dark trenchcoat shrugged further round shoulders,

hunching,...

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A restaurant is what you want

When you go dining out in style;

Specially when you want to flaunt

Your prowess as a oenophile.

A diner’s where you want to go,

When to cook you’re just too lazy;

It’s standard fare but you will know

Prices will not be so crazy.

A café now is just the place

For a welcome cup of coffee;

Perhaps a scone you may embrace,

Maybe y...

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Starlings flock and swirl

Migration’s compulsive call

Fly on freedom’s wings

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He crouched, as if to spring into the air;

A thousand yards he stared across the waves,

While concentrating on the mental search

Across the world to scry the lost enclave.

To find again his broodmates was his dream,

Their disappearance heavy on his heart;

The long, long months he’d searched across the land,

Despairing at the time they’d been apart.

He stretched in...

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In dreams she came, my perfect girl,

To send my feelings all awhirl .

My dreaming eyes with joy would gleam

To see her beauty so supreme

I almost thought my toes would curl.

So when those dreams came to unfurl,

And tenderness my senses twirl,

In passion nightly it would seem

In dreams she came.

No matter were I king or earl,

Nor yet reduced to lowest churl,

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Solitary leaf

Adorns ominous dark tree

First frost approaches

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Lonely pallid streaks

Glimmer through low hazy cloud

Soon departing warmth

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I’ve come to believe that people are strange;

You never quite know what they’re going to do;

And there is one thing that’s not going to change;

The obvious way is not what they do.

They think and act, defying all logic;

You’d think they were stupid, or maybe just mad.

They seem to think things happen by magic.

Thinking about it, it’s really quite sad.

All this str...

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Tall trembling trees

Rustled by whispering wind

A curling leaf falls

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I toss and turn, and wake in fright

With heaving breast and fevered brow;

Recalling from my sleep somehow

My dreams of demons in the night.

For in those dreams doubts soon unroll,

When sanity begins to fail,

And trembling terrors then assail

The deepest reaches of my soul.

Then quaking in my sodden sheets,

And breathing deep to stay my fears,

My fervent pray...

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Wild eyed, crashing midst the spectral trees,

As mournful howl drifts on the breeze;

Gasping as she runs in fright,

Through dark and dread-filled night,

To escape the fear;

Becoming clear;

Stalking near;

Not dreams,

Screams.

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Sharp mouth and elbows

Jockeying for position

Endless race of life

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Fading memory

Frustrates thoughts of yesterday

From misty recall

Faraway days of childhood

Flood perfectly into view

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Leather on willow

Thwok echoes over outfield

Men in white running

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