Category Archives: Taking control

PLACES

Sun-dappled clearings below rising, noisy, moisture-dripping RAINFOREST

Bleached, slowly shifting, unforgivingly dry, arid desert SAND DUNES

Silky-lush, verdant green, daisy spotted, pasture grass MEADOWS

Wild, boggy-damp, jig-sawn, cold and mist covered MOORLAND

Panoramic, soaring, towering, snow-capped, MOUNTAIN RANGES

Quilted, orderly-fenced, multicoloured, arable-cropped FIELDS

Weather-beaten, crumbling, boundary-guarding, nest strewn CLIFFTOPS

Endless, restless, fathomless, blue/green/grey, untamed OCEANS

…..

High rise, noise-polluted, concrete-crowded CITY CENTRES

Fissured, rock-scarred, unkempt, abandoned, exhausted QUARRIES

Blotting, stinking-rotten, poison-filled, synthetic WASTE TIPS

Hidden, radiation-spewing, millennium-lasting NUCLEAR DUMPS

Blasted, shattered, depopulated, flattened, inhuman WAR ZONES

Sprawling, unwanted, shanty housed, hungry, REFUGEE ENCAMPMENTS

Silver tongued, lip-serviced, self-serving, sterile POLITICAL ARENAS

Climate-changed, overpopulated, resource-depleted, mismanaged EARTH.

The Other Way

Such is the fate of the timid

That chance will be denied

Scenes of what might have been

Are painted on eyelids, inside

….

Memories that have no past

Faces and places never seen

Hands wanting for the holding

The other side of time’s screen

…

Dreamers know such losses

On nights that last all day

Things that would be different

Had they taken the other way

IF

If the sky was green would the trees feel blue?

If all hearts were sincere, what we say would be true

….

If nature was kinder, there would be fewer storms

If politicians cared more, they would bring about reforms

….

If hate speech was outlawed, there’d be no demagogues

If humans were nicer, we wouldn’t need dogs

….

If the world was perfect, it would be prejudice free

If that is to happen, it’s down to you and me.

Organised Religion (Part 2)

Each of us makes our way every day

Spending heartbeats, uncounted confetti

None can be sure of the length of our stay

On paths more knotted than spaghetti

….

Yet many hold their fate to be known

Faith tells them the final destination

This is their choice, their solid keystone

Let’s hope they do find salvation

….

But as countless planets suns’ orbits steer

Through space and invisible matter

What lives such as ours exist elsewhere

Would they, such beliefs, bespatter?

…

Might they argue that lifeforms, capable of morality

Should endeavour to co-exist in peace

Tolerance and respect, not divisive insanity

For the time we hold earth’s lease

After Covid

We must get through this, pulling together

No cause to even consider whether

But what of the future, after the storm

What will be the post-covid ‘norm’?

….

When this virus has gone, before another arrives

People will pick up what is left of the lives

So much of what was usual before

Will not be so, for most any more

….

A vaccine would let contacts resume

There isn’t one yet, so let’s not assume

Jobs will have gone, shops and businesses lost

These will only be part of the cost

….

Public health weakened, treatments delayed

Diagnosis of new conditions simply not made

More children and adults with teeth decayed

Increased obesity for many not weighed

….

Councils struggling to make ends meet

Unemployed and homeless out on the street

Promised grants from an empty purse

Not enough to stop matters getting worse

….

Society itself will become more fractured

Less money about, fewer goods manufactured

A bigger gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’

Inequalities increased, demos and boycotts

….

Lost schooling reducing chances for many

A shrunken economy another enemy

We must stay united, support those in need

Act for the common good, then we’ll succeed

Personal Demons

It needs only half a mind

To have demons of some kind

And those which make one doubt

Are the hardest to cast out

….

Some trouble the happy state

With worries over fate

Others sneer at good intention

And distract your full attention

….

If you would push these demons back

Counter every cruel attack

It can calm your mind like stone

To remember you are not alone

Fellow Passengers

There was a young man from Hull

Whose train journeys were seldom dull

On his travels to the South, someone would open their mouth

And come out with nothing but bull

….

Work done he would homeward race

Trying to protect his very own space

He thought the carriage too small, for anyone else at all

So intruders were glared out of the place