Progress

It was long long ago, and far far away
and I'm sure that it's long been forgot
So don't let the mem'ry of that long lost day
make you wish, what you were, you were not

The times they have changed, it's all different now
and things don't work the way that they did
The things that society would not allow
now no longer have to be hid

You can say it out loud, that you're gay and you're proud
You can wheel down the street in your chair
You can wear a Hijab and be part of the crowd
In theory as free as the air

But there's always one hater who's just gonna hate
It's their right, that we cannot deny
But their foolish opinion's not part of your fate
You're not a dumb fish so don't rise to their bait
You've the right to be free and the right to be great
So just wave the haters goodbye
As the world moves and passes them by

Safekeeping

It's winter and the fields are white

with snow in which with sheer delight

we play and gambol while it's light

but after comes the reaping

We take ourselves back to our home

to chocolate cups with creamy foam

and fires that warm us to the bone

and never hear the weeping

For there are those of poor estate

of threadbare garb and empty grate

for whom snow brings a harder fate

as in the frost comes creeping

Then that which brings such winter joys

to warm and thoughtless girls and boys

the poorer folk it just destroys

and leaves them dead not sleeping

Now I'm not saying don't go play

when winter brings a snowy day

But a little help goes a long long way

Add them to your safe keeping 

Wasted

Youth is wasted on the young

They live in dreams of what's to come

and miss a passing world of fun

Youth is wasted on the young

Age is wasted on the old

Their lives are stories to be told

But all they do is fret and scold

Age is wasted on the old

Better

With every hill I climb or corner turn

another vista's there, my soul to burn

Another view of lakes and lofty crags

Another wind-blown sky, clouds torn to rags

Another torrent rushing down so fast

like youth spending each day till all are passed

'til all are gathered in the pool of age

for this poor fool to put down on the page

I wish I could a better poet be

to better render everything I see

Stories

My life is a book full of stories
The anecdotes tumble and fall
Wherever I go things just happen
I'm sure I've not told you them all
But where are the stories from others
The tales that I'm hungry to hear
I can't be the only one having
adventures from year to year
It may be a matter of seeing
It may be just being there when
the thing that is happening happens
and having a notepad and pen
Just make a note of the occurence
then later when you read what's there
If it feels a bit thin, be like Shakespear
"Exit stage left, chased by a bear"

iambs

 

The children sing their skipping rhymes
Which bring to mind my childhood streets
In what I'm sure were simpler times
the human heart in iambs beats

But streets and roads and cities grow
as trade advances and retreats
Now city's rhythms ebb and flow
just like a heart that iambs beats

And nations too enlarge and shrink
with victories and then defeats
But through this all without a blink
The human heart in iambs beats

Time's cliche

Time changes tomorrow's potential
overnight to the facts of today
Then without any doubts existential
as history, throws it away

So hope for the best
Prepare for the worst
Live each moment as if it's your last
At the end of the day
I hope you will say
I'm all done, but it sure was a blast

Balance

There's no resurrection, no life after death
When you fall off you cannot remount
So when the time comes and you draw your last breath
Be sure that you've squared your account

There'll be debts that you owe to the people you know
for kindness and help on the way
and some for the ones that are already gone
leaving you with no chance to repay

So I hope all the good that you do in your life
for loved ones and those past recall
will tip the worlds balance on the blade of that knife
and leave it a bit better, that's all

A thing of beauty

Do not cry because it's over,
that it will not come again
Rather, celebrate its being
and the memories that remain
For it was a thing of beauty
that soared in it's domain
And though we'll change about it
It will always be the the same

To the Bride and Groom

From now on
You must remember every little thing
For in your autumn when you look back to your spring
I'm sure that you will come to understand
That all the best things happen hand in hand

And still he lies there sleeping

The world is spinning round and round
My mind is broken and unsound
Gravity does my limbs confound
And still he lies there sleeping

He drank me under, and again
From dark brown ale to cheap champagne
He drank like an uncovered drain
And still he lies there sleeping

There's things to do that must be done
For morning brought in by the sun
will not allow an overrun
And still he lies there sleeping

I envy him his ease of mind
Responsibility declined
Lazy, if I should be unkind
And still he lies there sleeping

But love him also for his peace
His beauty shines without surcease
He is his maker's masterpiece
And still he lies there sleeping

Chance

Take every opportunity
to maximise the odds
When offered, always cut the cards
and don't put faith in Gods
Don't trust in mathematics or
the feeling in your gut
For every golden rule there is
a hidden get out.
But...

I'd never say you shouldn't take
the time to chance your arm
For as the old ones always say
'The third time is the charm'
And though it goes against all sense
there's something we all ken
That one chance in a million
comes through nine out of ten

So always throw the dice once more
to see fate misbehave
And bring good fortune surfing in
upon the seventh wave

Did you hear tha...

The click as the hammer falls on an empty chamber
The screech as the oncoming semi jack-knifes around
The hiss as the sodden grass puts out that ember
The crash as the lightning bolt impacts the ground

These things are things you should be glad to remember
The bullet with your name on won't be heard
The thing that marks you up "Return to Sender"
will do it's job in silence mark my ...

Backwards Bucket List

I'm fifty eight years old right now
Just two years short of sixty
I've done an awful lot of stuff
Some of it kinda nifty
And so I thought I'd have a try
to put it all on record
Like a sort of Bucket List
but coming at it backward

So

I ran right up Ben Nevis
and back down it in the rain
I ran thirty half marathons
and don't have to again
I reached the top one hundred
in a British martial art
I put a clock together
after first taking it apart (and it worked)

I wrote a load of poems
and published my own book
Still available from Amazon
Why don't you take a look
I once crossed the Atlantic
in a propeller driven plane
Then they invented jet aircraft
to bring me home again

In forty years of driving
I have done one million miles
There're few roads I've not been along
in these our British Isles
Last year I went to Istanbul
alone by motorbike
And earlier this year
I spun my car into a dyke

I have dodged a terror bomb
and avoided two train crashes
I've been on a sinking ferry
but avoided all the splashes
I've helped a baby being born
and seen an old man die
And learned that there are many things
that make this old man cry

All these things that I have done
I've few ambitions left
I've fired a machine gun
I've flown a fighter jet
I've got children and grandchildren
and a tattoo on my chest
But out of all the things I've done
the children are the best

Witty city Ditty

Today I went down
to the centre of town
to drink coffee, to see and be seen
and, as I can't draw
all the things that I saw
I will sit here and type on this screen

I saw big bulging tums
on the expectant mums
the poor darlings just can't see their feet
I saw pigeons, like bums
all alert for the crumbs
that we drop from the fast food we eat

I saw traders lick thumbs
to help counting the sums
that they make from flogging their gear
I saw kids from the slums
knicking peaches and plums
and them making themselves disappear

All the life in this city
some sweet and some gritty
you will miss if you don't take look
So I'll try to be witty
while writing this ditty
and then publish it in my next book.

Hull Docks

Standing at night on a dockside in Hull
Watching the ships that lie still in the port
Un-noticed, unseen as a solit'ry gull
Wondering what these grey ships could report

Voyages round the world twice every year
Thrice to Zeebrugge and back every week
Four ocean's crossed and the manifest's clear
Tales there are none though for these ships don't speak

Lie there and wait for the word from the shore
Let go all lines and push off from the side
What was once dormant is living once more
Silently slipping away down the tide

Carrying cargoes to everywhere
Bringing back things from the rest of the world
Enabling commerce  with terms that are fair
Sailing with flags of convenience furled

Then after decades of travelling far
Engines and drive shafts are starting to screech
No longer following its guiding star
Every ship runs up its terminal beach

Though winches and cutters will tear her to bits
That's not the ending for beings like these
The metals will go back to sea as new ships
The stories will linger in crew's memories

The long view

The world's emotions are in play
Just hold your nerve and use your brain
Four years from now Trump goes away
But America will remain

The one that walked away

A thousand miles from anywhere and lonely
Another pair of boots have worn right through
Still thinking about you, my one and only
and things I did I wish I could undo

I left one angry night and started walking
You'd think a thousand miles would be enough
But I still feel your touch and hear you talking
and wish that you had called to call my bluff

The thousand miles behind are soon forgotten
The thousand miles ahead are still unknown
A thousand miles of hopes and dreams gone rotten
A thousand miles to walk with heart of stone

Each thousand miles I ponder on this thesis
A thousand miles for me to think things through
That every step I take along this road is
the first step of my journey back to you

A journey with no end that I'll discover
The road will last much longer than this clay
And you'll move on to live life with another
and I'll remain the one that walked away

Quack!

The prettiest girls on the internet
The cleverest men in the world
All have their flaws
on which trolls sharpen claws
in comments maliciously hurled

So if someone is trolling you greatly
and wounding you right to the heart
Just don't answer back
for the un-echoed quack
is as lost in the storm as a fart

The last Polar Bear

The great ice floe
on which she would go
a-hunting for seals
for family meals
is melted and gone
from what Man has done

She doesn't know how
to feed her cubs now
Where once they would thrive
they can barely survive
And with more warmth pending...
There's no happy ending

Loss

You should not judge a book just by its cover
My contents are much deeper and you'll find
that as I change from 'just a friend' to 'lover'
my outsides matter much less than my mind
That as time passes and our lives are linking
I'll captivate you more and more each day
I'll think the thoughts that you're afraid of thinking
I'll say the words that you're afraid to say
'Til finally you find you're lost without me
Each hour apart is more than you can bear
You'll rush home like a desparate internee
to that small cell of privacy we share
But starts imply something inevitable
The terrible last phrase that is 'The End'
So as you turn the last page of this fable
you'll search for other works this author's penned

Softly she comes to me

Softly she comes to me
 Over the undefeated ramparts of my fortress heart
 Following the track set by Cupid's dart
 Past all my defences before they can start
And softly she comes to me
 Through all the confusion and the unplanned life
 of this un-lonely loner and avoider of strife
 and suddenly I'm asking her to be my wife
And softly she comes to me
 On her father's arm she walks in style
 down the consecrated and rose trimmed aisle
 all dressed in white with a beautiful smile
And softly she comes to me
 To hear me promise that I will
 keep only unto her through good or ill
 'til all is gone and the world is still
And softly she comes to me
 To make her promise that is the same
 to cleave to me through ice and flame
 to wear my ring and to take my name
And softly she comes to me
 So we can live out all our years
 'til softly, with no earthly fears
 we pass beyond this vale of tears

And softly, she comes with me...

Elysian fields

I cannot walk the way that I used to
My muscles and my joints have let me down
I sit here in this chair the whole day through
When people see my face they see a frown
My sight is dimmed so e'en had I the strength
to lift a book I'd not make out a word
My mem'ry is by mayfly beat in length
and loudest conversations' barely heard
But this is not a sad and lonely end
In happiness I doze my days away
A happy future I can apprehend
and I look forward to that joyfull day

When finally my constitution yields
and I am freed to walk elysian fields

Post Truth

The Truth is a conspiracy
to keep you in your place
The Facts are immaterial
and don't affect this case
Belief is all that is required
and I will say to you
Repeat a lie often enough
and it becomes what's true

Home

My home is where my heart is
it's where I hang my hat
It's where the ones that I love live
and that my dear is that

It doesn't need an open fire
It doesn't need a cat
Just all the folk that I hold dear
and that my dear is that

The Tide

For every ending there's a new beginning
Each written page is blank the other side
For every loser someone else is winning
but as the moon swings by it pulls the tide

A glass half full is also one half empty
This was the best or worst year, you decide
You've had enough! or what you've had is plenty
and still that moon swings by and pulls the tide

Tonight we say goodbye to twenty sixteen
And hope that seventeen will joy provide
But sure as little apples times are changing
and as that moon swings by it pulls the tide

Flock gone

When waking from what seems to be
a century of dreamless sleep
The first thought that occurs to me
is, What happened to all the sheep?