Bows

When sun shines on a rainy day
the sky brings forth a Rainbow.
When freezing weather brings the snow
why don't we get a Snowbow?

I send these words

My first thought as I wake, it is of you
My last thought too as I slide into sleep
And you are in my mind the whole day through
and in my dreams your company I keep.
Where e'er I go your lovely face I see
The music of your voice is in my ears
Your touch and taste and scent I take with me
Your beauty I'll retain through all the years.

I write these words to show you how I feel
but every word I choose marks me a fool
Though rhymes and verse are crafted as from steel
my poesy's a poor and blunted tool.

So though I can't compose my love for you
I'll send these words and hope that they will do.

A Lonely Beach

I stand upon a lonely beach
no other footprints mark the sand.
A thousand miles of ocean fails
to raise a wave to wash this strand.
No wind  to move the Marram grass
that anchors silent dunes in place.
Signs say no vehicle may pass
and so disturb this holy place.
No Seagull scream, no Fulmar cry
no other living creature's sound
disturbs the peace of sea and sky
and silence wraps the beach around.
The sun itself shines silently
and when its daily race is run
sinks softly down into the sea
as quietly its job is done.

I stand upon a lonely beach
I stand there through a lonely day
Then having learned all it could teach
I turn my back and walk away.

Seagulls and The Sea

I want to wake to sounds of sea and seagulls
To rise and splash cold water on my face
I want to breakfast on fresh bread and honey
to live a life at peace in peaceful place.
I want to walk the cliffs and coasts of Erin
see froth and spume crash home on ancient rocks
be miles and years from anything that's modern
and live free from the tyranny of clocks.

But clocks are what will wake me in the morning
Quick shower, shave, then breakfast on the run
To sit all day and work at my computer
then home again when working day is done.

To dream once more of seagulls and the sea.
To dream of living my life just for me.

Reality is

Is the world still there when I can't see it
when fog comes down and rooftops disappear.
When hidden by the rain
does anything remain
or is existence just a mad idea?

And if it goes away when I'm not looking
why when it all comes back is it the same.
Who moves it here and yon,
where is it when it's gone
and if it all goes wrong then who's to blame?

The answer to all this is just my theory
and most philosophers will disagree.
But I have an idea
that they all think is queer.
Reality is only what I see.

Philosophy - Failed

That tree that falls and makes no noise
In sylvan halls alone, enjoys
its brief fifteen minutes of fame
and then won't make 'no noise' again.
Philosophers and thinkers who
try to explain why two plus two
may not always add up to four
will say that once you pass a door
that door may not be passed again
for each link in a causal chain
when passed, at once will cease to be
collapsing into history.
So when we see that door once more
it's not the door we saw before
and any similarity
is purely consanguinity.
But back to trees that make no sound
when crashing lonely to the ground
the crux or pivot seems to be
the presence of someone like me.
For though they may disturb the air
there's no noise if no ear is there
to turn compression into sound
and so the answer I have found
is... Solitary falling trees
are only heard if someone sees!

Your Mind's Eye

You do your best, the best you can,
and put it down in rhyme and scan
and it's your child, child of your heart
and what the artist says is art,
IS art.

And would you put your child on view
to feel opinions fall on you
about her nose, her eyes her hair
the way she walks, and would you care?
You'd care.

So if you publish your own verse
be ready for critics, or worse
some idiot who is not you
and cannot feel the way you do
to tell you that you're doing it wrong
and that last line is three syllables too long
or rhythm sucks and rhyme is dead
and you are twisted in your head.
Just carry on, for what you do
is art, if 'artist' describes you.

Whatever the critics say
and at the end of any day
you only have to satisfy
who looks out of your mind's eye.

Growing Up

The clouds are white, the sky is blue.
The grass is green, the trees are too.
Big yellow sun and silver rain.
You'll not see things this way again.

You go to school, then bigger school
then on to college, you're no fool.
You want to rise above the mob.
You want to get that better job.

You live to work, not work to live
your job takes all you have to give.
You have a house, you have a wife.
You have some kids that share your life.

You slow it down, back off, relax
The more you earn, the more they'll tax
You have it all, your heart's desire
you take up golf and then retire.

But treasure friends for they will die.
Your wife will go and so will I.
Your kids will live lives of their own
connected only by a phone.

And you'll get older day by day.
Your eyes will dim and hair will grey.
Your mind will weaken by degree
'til finally at last you'll see

The clouds are white, the sky is blue.
The grass is green, the trees are too.
Big yellow sun and silver rain.
Your childhood days have come again.

Olives

They put olives on my pizza, I don't like them
now my whole lunch is ruined don't you see
for I never learned the knack
of sending products back
when they don't match with what they ought to be

So I'll eat around the ghastly green invaders
I'm somewhat picky I have to confess
and at the waitresses appeal
of  'did you enjoy your meal?'
being British I will smile and answer yes

But my plate will give the lie to that assertion
the evidence is plain for all to see
for it looks like a disaster
and the mess that remains after
an explosion in a pizza factory

A Day

Seven o'clock to London Waterloo
across the bridge and take the district line
Every morning this is what I do
Travelling to Whitechapel by nine

Then in the evening back the way I came
ride the tube then take the train back home
My kids don't know my face, just know my name
I read them stories through my mobile phone

This is the measure of a modern life
Four hours back and forth in every day
Nine hours in the office, full of strife
Fewer hours at home, too tired to play

Then finally it's over I've retired
More time to spend with family I say
My kids have grown and left, the dog's expired
My wife's a stranger,
what to fill each day?

Tiger Life

She stalks the street in tiger stripes
and fingernails like claws
With Cat's eye contact lenses in
she gives the ladies cause
to wonder what this creature is
that's slinking past them now
and just to make it wierder still
she give a loud miaow
Yet after going home to change
she lives a secret life
When rid of rings and claws and things
she is the vicar's wife

Critics All are Blind

A picture paints a thousand words
but what words do you see
Are they the same words that I saw
d'you see the same as me.
I paint impressions of this world
but feelings interfere
though my emotions paint the words
my truth may not be clear.
So the expert who sees my words
and translates for the crowd
sees through the filter of his mind
and reads his thoughts out loud.
And so what'ere the expert says
you make up your own mind,
it's only worth what someone pays,
I paint for pleasure not for praise,
a thousand words a poet says,
and critics all are blind.

The One for Me

You were the one for me but didn't know.
I couldn't tell you, couldn't take the chance.
For your heart rested elsewhere, and the glow
in your eyes did another soul entrance.
And so I suffered silent day by day
as your happiness cut me like a knife
'til I could stand no more and ran away
to live a safer solitary life.

I didn't see you for a year or two.
I changed my life, my job, I moved away.
My pain was much reduced, I felt less blue
until I bumped into you on that day.
A well remembered scent disturbed my calm
a little kiss of cheek to satin cheek
a gentle touch, your hand upon my arm
and finally I found the words to speak

You are my life, I said, my raison d'etre
without you all is tedious and grey.
You are my love, my heart and soul et cetera.
You are the sun that brings my summer's day
You are the moon that shines in velvet darkness
You are a shooting star across the sky
Your beauty makes the greatest art seem artless
and I will love you 'til the day I die.

So finally emotions dam had broken
my pent up feelings burst upon your ears
I looked to you for some small sign or token
but couldn't see through rising floods of tears
But not just my tears, your tears too were flowing
we stood there in the street in such a mess
awash with tears of happiness from knowing
the answer to all questions asked was "Yes"