Tranquility

I like a cup of coffee in the morning
black, one sugar, decaf if you please
A syrup waffle with the syrup melting
and with it my cares melting by degrees.

I'll take my coffee out onto the terrace
and sit there in the early morning breeze.
With all my plans as vague as wispy cirrus
I love my life on summer days like these.

But when at last the summer days are ended
and all the leaves have fallen from the trees.
My morning coffee still tastes just as splendid
when taken with a rug across my knees.

The antidote to all that troubles me
is coffee sprinkled with tranquility.

Just peace and quiet

I don't ask much of life, just peace and quiet
a quiet life to live the way I choose
a life that's free from stress or ruck and riot
a life that just goes by no win or lose

So joyfully I go to work each morning
and swap for pay the service that I give
and celebrate the realisation dawning
that I don't live to work, I work to live.

Grumpy

All days start off well 

 and then get shot to hell.

  I'm grumpy, can you tell?

Lost

Who am I

Where am I

Why am I

Lost am I

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The beauty behind the bar

The brown haired barista with butterscotch skin
smiles with her eyes and welcomes me in
to the temple of coffee and asks for my choice
of refreshment, made sweet by the sound of her voice.
The words Mocha and Latte fall light on my ear
as the sweetest poetry I'll ever hear
but I can't reply for my wits have gone far,
stolen by the beauty behind the bar.

Waving or Drowning

Bad luck and troubles fall from the skies
and everyone's misbehaving.
But I stand firm as the waters rise,
still O.K. not drowning but waving.

The whole world walks past my tired old eyes
and I don't see much that's worth saving.
Some tell the truth but most just tell lies,
still O.K. still not drowning but waving.

But when at the end even true love dies
with grief my heart engraving.
I'll know as I sever all earthly ties
that at last I'm drowning not waving.

American Election Blues

We havin' an election
an' poor boys gotta choose.
We havin' an election
an' we poor boys gotta choose.
Which rich motherf politician
gonna win and who gon' lose.

When I made my cross,
my heart was full of hope.
Well when I made my cross,
my heart was full of hope.
Put my paper in the box
an' it slid down that slip'ry slope.

I saw who got elected,
an' I sure din't vote for him.
I saw who got elected,
ain't no-one vote for him.
I ain't accusing anybody,
but damn sure that fix was in.

Don' matter how you vote,
the gov'ment's just the same.
Don' matter how you vote,
damn gov'ment's just the same.
More money for the rich
and the poor goin' down the drain.

Best Friends

My heart skips when you walk into the room
and un-asked smiles appear upon my face
and where you walk the summer flowers bloom
in nature's own reaction to your grace
and though you may not 'launch a thousand ships'
you launch all mine with just a casual glance
and every word that drops from your sweet lips
is music for this foolish lover's dance.

But I can't tell you how I really feel
for your dear heart is to another given
and it would hurt you were I to reveal
that though my smile is whole my heart is riven.

So if we're to be friends by fate's decree,
then I shall be the best friend I can be.

Chapters

The story of your life is writ in chapters
some cover many years, some just a scene.
With highs and lows and miseries and raptures
from birth to death and everywhere between.
And friends and family are all just actors
who have their time on stage to strut and preen
their interraction's one of many factors
that mean the future cannot be foreseen.

And anyway the audience wouldn't like it,
to know the end before the story's told.
It's paid the price so now you must delight it,
a daily dose of anguish must unfold.
And though it takes the hand of fate to write it
no matter how the wayward ball is bowled
each crisis has its arc and you can't fight it
from fumbled loose to arrow in the gold.

Beauty

I look at her, look at her face
and see her life is written there.
Experience has left its trace
in every line inscribed with care.
But age has brought a certain grace
to parchment skin and silver hair,
allowing my eyes to embrace
true beauty that's beyond compare.

Regrets

A life is short so live it while you have it.
Take chances when they come don't hesitate.
Say yes when opportunity comes knocking
and set your hunter at that five bar gate.

Then when you go to rest, no more to waken,
you've ticked the boxes on your bucket list.
I'm sure that you'll regret some actions taken
but no regrets remain for chances missed.

A new star shines

Fifty years of unfulfilled potential

no focus, just a cloud of getting by.

No hopes, no aims, no questions existential 

a life adrift betwixt the sea and sky.

Then comes a thought, a simple supposition

that I am what I make myself, so why

accept the mediocre life I'm living,

I'll spread my wings and teach myself to fly.

In an instant my whole life condenses

into a single brilliant point of light

A supernova lighting up my senses 

A new star shines upon this world tonight.