mike booth

Biography

Having spent many years analysing other people's poems I have recently been enjoying producing a few of my own. I have never really performed any, but am thinking of dipping my toe into the poetry world and would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

Samples

Lawns Straight lines, lighter and black, Feeling the sunlight on my back. The grass of my lawn is neatly cut, Blade cutting blade, lopping and shear Ripping the head, casting aside, The tramlines ordered, perfectly wide. A tidy lawn is a tidy mind, And now each day it seems I find The time, the strength and most of all The will to shape my newness of life And up and down to steadily tread, My mind is calm, and still my head. It was not always quite this way, The grass was long just yesterday. Matted knots and moss and weeds Strangled and smothered all I had. I barely knew what I had got, Some might say I'd lost the plot. Funny how hard life can seem When you go wondering in a dream. A daze of shivers, trembling legs, Which sap all strength and leave you weak. The compost built up all around, Yet how I longed for fertile ground. Some seem to keep a tidy lawn. Beds are weeded, grass is shorn. Their lives progress at steady rate, Sleep and work, patios done, Progressing up some greasy pole, And never sliding towards the whole. But my grass has been much forgot, Its first neglect began the rot. Thistles took my troubled mind, No prophet, just such loss and moss, Fresh young shoots the dandy Lion Strangled as they reached their prime. So now each week I tend my garden, Dreams to goals, my tasks I harden. Bringing order makes me feel Some sense of shaping all the mess, And finding beauty for a while, Brings me warmth, a hope, a smile. So next time you see it all o'ergrown, Just be clear, no life's our own. Gardens neatly trimmed and kept Just might disguise a mind adrift, But when a mind can't let you see We cannot live or thrive, just be. MB 5/4/17

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.

Blog entries by mike booth

Carpe Diem (26/03/2023)

Crossing the Line (06/02/2023)

Doors (30/01/2023)

Wrong Spaces (28/11/2022)

To be young again (28/11/2022)

Weird Love too. (31/10/2022)

Words of Wisdom (25/10/2022)

posh (27/06/2022)

Liminal (15/06/2022)

Granny hi tech (new ending) (30/05/2022)

Read more entries by mike booth…

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/mikebooth