Category Archives: Poetry

Brexit Impasse

Just how crazy can it get?

This cruelly wasted chance

No clear way forward emerging yet

We’re being led a merry dance

 

‘Leaders’ push, pull, point, all in vain

They’re facing different ways

Concerned only, it seems, for political gain

Yet running out of days

 

Decision referred to a people’s vote

Then lurching to a general election

This circus must have seemed remote

All oblivious to sure EU rejection

 

Cometh the hour, cometh the man?

With courage to grasp the nettle?

A will-do attitude, not ‘no-can’

A LEADER who has some mettle

 

But no one out there seems up to the job

They’re letting the UK down

I’ve wasted two votes and want to sob

Was it me who was the clown?

Reflections by a Window

See, the world is still out there

Beyond the glass and frame

Lit by sun that breaks in here

Warming me the same

 

Sky shimmers in summer heat

Birds dash about for food

I rest on the window seat

In melancholy mood

 

I ponder on the happy scene

Of plants and living things

Wondering what it all means

And envy birds their wings

Sharing Caring

With those you love, for whom you care

Time dictates you have to share

You will not always have control

For others claim some of this role

 

Your precious child’s first day at school

Falls subject to new pastoral rule

Years later on, at summer camp

First night away, your insides cramp

 

Teenager off, on their first date

You set a time; pray they’re not late

The pilots of a loved one’s flight

You only hope they get it right

 

Let  interviews, of course be gentle

Wisdom to see his/her potential

Surgeon too, with razor knife

Governs fate of child or wife

 

A wedding ushers a new phase in

Your child has another next of kin

Every care you now can share

Someone else is always there

A Waste

Oh dear, look over there

It’s very clear, even from here

Plump young mum, another on the way

Buggy-shoving through a brand-new day

 

Can’t you tell, even at a glance

Little Errol stands littler chance

Tied securely in his prison pram

Tired, exhausted, silent as a lamb

 

His cream cake crumbles on Greggs shop floor

Mam chats and smokes outside the door

Sister Cheryl runs wildly about

Ignoring Mam’s frantic shout

 

Non-working class; must it be like this?

Mired in a morass; existence no bliss

Minx Cheryl and timorous young Errol Smith

One in Mam’s tummy will be the fifth

 

Social workers don’t know what to do

Politicians haven’t even a clue

Proudly espousing ‘each child counts’

We’re investing money, look at the amounts!

 

But cash alone is not the solution

What we need is a revolution

Where families learn of a better way

To break the cycle of social decay

 

Where then the collective conscience?

For lives lived, but of no consequence

A tragic, doomed, wasted group

Class-locked in an endless repeating  loop

The Struggle to Understand

To raise and flatten mountains

To fill and dry up seas

To choose when each leaf lifts

On a softly stirring breeze

 

To mark the fleeting eons

Yet dictate a cell’s decay

To hold the world in orbit

Spinning to pass the day

 

Power wrought by nature

No conscience or regrets

Entropy increases

Obeying laws it sets

 

Is this universal

Across worlds we cannot see?

Begs another question

How can all this be?

Night Watchman

Entrances all locked and fast

Bolts checked around the back

Windows secured to the last

Holding, at bay, attack

 

Family safely stowed abed

Enjoying well-earned sleep

Though heavy hangs the weary head

The watch still his to keep

 

Guttering lamp gives meagre light

Cold gnaws and gathers round

Corner shadows hold close the night

Time passing without a sound

 

A few more rounds; he might then rest

Wolf kept safely from the door

Dawn’s rays reveal its sad bequest

His burden he’ll carry no more

One Day

One day I will be gone.

That is not a day I fear,

nor one I want others to feel sorrow or regret.

If, on that day, you think of me, do not regard the how or why;

but note, if you will, the when

Remember, if you can, any smiles and laughter,

not frowns and sadness

Mark any things done passing well;

not the failures

Those were my burden, one I no longer bear

Do not pick up any part of that; let it die with me.

Knowing you, in some measure,

you will have been a part of my life, and I am grateful for that.

Loving you, know that you made my life all the better to live,

and I love you the more for it, for all eternity

Go forward, then, positively;

live your own life as well as you can

Be happy and try to share that with others.