So far

I am so far now from the place I started
So many miles and many years have passed
Those I once knew are now my dear departed
and of my line I know I am the last.

But do not make for me a gift of sorrow
I will not weep nor beat upon my breast
For while I live, there's no grief I will borrow
I'll live in hope and be forever blessed

By the Power of Google

I can Google like a demon
I mean really really Google
I can come up with the meaning
for a gleamon or a droogle
and before you've phrased the question
or your fingers start their typing
I'll be looking at the answers
and the pages they are citing

I can filter all the answers
and pick out the ones that matter
by avoiding all the chancers
and the ones that are just chatter
I can recognise 'like' farmers
and expunge them from my short list

'til I'm left with just the entries that are what I wanted in the first place
and not all that other old nonsense that's on the Internet.

It's time somewhere

I'll have bacon and eggs, black pudding and spam
hash browns and mushrooms and waffles with jam
coffee and OJ, all fine breakfast fare
'cause I'm sure that it's seven o'clock somewhere

Get me coffee and doughnuts, yoghurt and fruit
even some crystallized ginger root
banana and chocolate cake that I'll share
'cause I'm sure it's eleven o'clock somewhere

A chicken and bacon club sandwich comes next
or burger and fries in a take-out context
burritos and tacos, I'm quite laissez faire
when it comes to it being twelve o'clock somewhere

I'll have afternoon tea with crumpets and honey
a fish finger sandwich with butter all runny
a chateaubriand with a salad nicoise
good German beer from my favourite bars
The time doesn't matter, I'm ready to swear
there's no doubt it's surely (add time here) somewhere

Talk of tea

My dear I'm glad you're here
I haven't seen you since
that last man went away
though you saw him as your prince
until that awful day
when hurt came from his hand.
  But now you're here with me
  and we will talk of tea
  and I will understand

My dear I'm glad you came
It's really been an age
and though you have bad hips
and pain you can't assuage
complaints won't pass your lips
I don't know how you stand
  But now you're here with me
  and we will talk of tea
  and I will understand

My dear I'm glad we met
I've had a hectic week
just talking all around
the words we cannot speak
'til finally I found
my sympathy crash land
  So now you're here with me
  and we will talk of tea
  I'm sure you'll understand.

Walk faster

I drove you to school on that first day
and watched you as you walked away
and every day as you walked away
you walked faster.

A summer's day

A shady spot beneath the trees
A fragrant and refreshing breeze
The waves that come ashore in threes
A summer's day is made of these

A Buddleia a-buzz with bees
A whiff of pollen that makes me sneeze
An icecream making my brain freeze
A summer's day is made of these

The air gets warmer by degrees
The weather forecast guarantees
that skirts and shorts won't meet with knees
A summer's day is made of these

A hammock swinging at it's ease
An ice cold spritzer if you please
So every negative thought flees
A summer's day is made of these

You can't see my tears

I'm sitting in my car
I'm sitting in my car because it's raining
It's raining and I haven't turned on the wipers
I haven't turned on the wipers because I'm crying
I'm crying and you can't see my tears

you can't see my tears

You can't see my tears but I am crying
I am crying but I haven't turned on the wipers
I haven't turned the wipers on even though it's raining
It's raining and I'm sitting in my car
I'm sitting in my car

I could

I could sleep right through the night and wake up weary
I could eat two twelve inch sub's and still want more
I could leap with all my might
to a most amazing height
but my heart would still be down here on the floor

I could ride a thousand miles and never get there
I could win the greatest prize and stay bereft
For no matter what I do
I will still be feeling blue
Because nothing's any good now since you left.

The Hills

I've got a little cottage on the very edge of town
where the bricks and slates give way to fields of green
and every lovely morning I look up the street and down
to celebrate this cosy little scene
But this morning as I'm looking, something causes me to frown
The view is not what it has always been
Though I've never checked the distance from the country to the town
I think there's fewer houses in-between

If there are are a couple missing from the far end of the road
and the gap 'tween town and grass remains the same
then the hills have gotten closer to my own humble abode
and eaten up the houses as they came

Now I count the little houses every morning as I wake
No more have disappeared from view so far
But at the smallest tremble of a house eating earthquake...
My bag is packed and waiting in my car

Image In

So tell me what it is you see
on that discarded canvas sheet
Is there an image there of me
or of a Spanish sailing fleet
Is it an image of The Lord
or something from a fashion show
An angel with a fiery sword
A kitten with a little bow
Whatever image comes to mind
Whatever picture you descry
It's something only you will find
uniquely seen by your mind's eye

Not a Jerk

When it comes to the end of a sunny day
and my motorbike's waiting to take me away
and the sky gets all dark and riven with lightning
and the air is all filled with thunder and frightening
I wish I'd turned right and gone for a trip
before Thor got his hammer out and let it rip
But I was expected to turn up for work
so that's what I did cos I'm not a jerk

But I am a bit fed up though...

FO

I'll say this politely
I may even smile
with all the charm I can foster.
The meaning's the same
whatever the frame
In military terms, Foxtrot Oscar!

Change

I change you all
You can't resist.
I do not change
I'm a Catalyst.

Shattered

I saw you and felt that endless pain, that ache
That, though I could reach, I could not touch,  you'd break
I crept past on tiptoe and no sound did I make
But you felt the thunder of my heart's quake
and shattered, like a rose from a frozen lake.

Never worn

A pretty pastel painted room
set for the infant never born
and listed on the internet
are Baby shoes, never worn...

Ride on, ride on

For every man
a motorcycle's calling
To take a ride
along the king's highway
Through twists and turns
Down every wooded valley
Ride on, ride on
there's miles to do this day

And every mile
you ride on your great journey's
another mile
away from hearth and home
But every town
and village where you wander
will take you in
and treat you as their own

So when you leave
leave nothing bad behind you
Just memories
of days and things done well
That way you'll know
a welcome will await you
should ever you
return again to dwell

Then when at last
you've ridden every pathway
from north to south
and sea to shining sea
You happy man
will find that well known turning
that brings you home
to where you want to be

One perfect day

Wake up refreshed and early in a comfortable bed
A long relaxing shower to wash the sleep out of my head
Barefoot to the kitchen for black coffee and fresh bread
and look out of the window at the morning.

To see the cherry blossom blowing gently in the breeze
To smell the warm spring garden with not one hayfever sneeze
To hear the morning concert from the birds perched in the trees
and see the perfect day the world is forming.

Then later to the village to my favourite lunchtime spot
A muffin or a pastry and a latte with a shot
Then sit down for a gossip with the best friends that I've got
While the midday sun this perfect day is warming.

After we have set the world and all it's wrongs to right
We spend the afternoon in watching cricketers in white
play our side against their side till they run out of daylight
Then all back to the pub where pints are drawing

When all of this is over and I've gone back home to bed
Alone or with sweet company to fill the night ahead
It will have been one perfect day by which my soul was fed
I'm hoping for the same when next comes morning

One Rider

When all the separate lands unite
and man at last with man will dwell
Conquest will disappear from sight
become a story to retell

When swords are beaten into ploughs
and spears reforged as reaping hooks
When armour's hung on oaken boughs
War will retire to history books.

When working folk at day's end, will
all gather round a groaning board
and take their time to eat their fill
then Famine falls before this hoard

But

One rider still will hold the field
The last of four who once rode out
A ghastly scythe is his to wield
and in his eye you'll see no doubt
For every man that once drew breath
must meet him face to face one day
and more certain than taxes, Death
will with one stroke all debts defray

Tears in rain

I listened to the thunder
and how it changed the world
The old flag I walked under
that lies forever furled

I search for hope in vain

The safe place that I came from
New frontiers and pain
Memories of before the bomb
my mind struggles to retain
All these things are lost

lost like tears in rain




A poem out of it's time I know, but I wasn't writing in the sixties.

"Tears in rain" from the death soliloquy in Blade Runner

You gotta try

A man with a life
as empty as a pocket
As likely to succeed
as a stick without a rocket
Sets his heart on the stars
like a man that's really got it
and then he fails, fails, fails

But is he wrong to try
to light the blue touchpaper
To leave where he is
and be the great escaper
To change his world
and be a history shaper
Or should he stay, stay, stay

Well if we learn a single
thing from evolution
It's that playing safe
never brings the revolution
And a cunning plan
needs actual execution
So if you want to fly, fly, fly

You gotta try.

I Hope

I hope you find a place to stay
A shelter from the storms outside
Somewhere that's safe, your head to lay
with all the things home should provide

I hope you find a job to do
that keeps you busy through the day
That brings fulfilment, money too
Enough for you to pay your way

I hope you find an interest
Something to keep your mind alive
Something at which you can be best
your flagging spirit to revive

I hope you find yourself some friends
a little pot of social glue
To eat with as the sun descends
To stand by, as they'll stand by you

I hope you find that other soul
The one that fits you like a glove
The one that makes your two halves whole
The one that you were made to love

I hope you find these precious things
So far I've found them all bar one
But who knows what tomorrow brings
and look, a new day has begun

Table for One

I chose this solitary life
One plate one cup one fork one knife
With time and space to sit and think
and follow where my dreams have flown

My family all live apart
but they are closer in my heart
I'll visit them then ride away
to once more spend time on my own

One table and a single chair
with no-one opposite to share
or roll their eyes over the choice
of music playing on my phone

Only the sad people are sad
My single status make me glad
Most un-dependant have I grown
But never lonely, just alone.

The best you can

If you would prove yourself a man
then this should be your earthly lot
To always do the best you can
until the day that you cannot
Then when you pass this mortal span
your lessons will not be forgot
as others follow on your plan
and do their best with all they've got

Kneeling by the Camp Fire

It was late last night
and you were all sleeping
The camp site was silent
and alone I was keeping
a watch by the moon
and the stars that came creeping
past all my defences
and started me weeping

I wept for my children
and for all those I knew
I wept for the strangers
and the ones passing through
I wept for the living
and for the dead too
Then I wept for me
and I wept for you

I was very surprised
to find myself kneeling
A private obeisance
to this unknown feeling
And while overhead
the old stars were wheeling
down here by the camp fire
my spirit was healing

I'm not what you'd call a spiritual person
To religious practice I have an aversion
But Faith is a completely different thing
and I think you should go with what makes your heart sing.

(even if that is physics)

Sad

How sad when an old friend dies
How red are my tear filled eyes
How grey are the winter skies

A promise to my children

I promise I will hold you when you cry
Turn around and scold you when you lie
Be around to praise you when you fly
and love you
till all the seas run dry

Apologies to Adelle

Today
I saw
it's been a calendar year
Since the last time
when I said
while influenced by beer

That this year I would try harder
to keep away from the larder
and be generally
better
to all the ones that I love
To be a setter
of limits
I'll not go above

But

Two thousand and sixteen is here
a better me didn't appear

So I'm sorry for failing
every promise I made
For not achieving my target
or making the grade.

but that busted promise is gone now
time to make another vow

and for this year
I'll make
an easier wish
just to make the
most of
all I find in my dish

Hello,
it's me
It's the first of January in the year twenty sixteen