I know you love me but if you follow me I'll love you too!

Monday 12 February 2024

Haikuish

 

THE TREE

The brain of the tree

is in the grain of the bark

Spring green leaves fall brown

12022024

Sunday 24 December 2023

Christmas poem 2 and 3...

 

TO THE KING OF KINGS

Wise men from the East Astrologers at least come to feast their eyes upon the King bringing gold frankincense and myrrh to the City of David at the centre of the earth where a virgin blessed by God has given birth to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Saviour for all sinners who believe for He proclaimed that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his Son into this world to condemn the world but to save the world through him Wise men from the east Astrologers at least come to feast their eyes upon the King bringing gold frankincense and myrrh to the City of David at the centre of the Earth where a virgin blessed by God has given birth to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Saviour for all sinners who believe

24122023/1/150


CHRISTMAS EVE

Can you believe

it's Christmas Eve today


Mush mush and

Such and such

Slush slush


Slush slush and

Such and such

Mush mush


I don't know much about

Reindeers and snow

but I suppose that they're

out there somewhere


It's Christmas Eve today

can you believe?

24122023

Tuesday 19 December 2023

Christmas poem one 2023

 

ON THE CYCLICAL SCALE

Compliments of the season to one and all

Maid Marion, Robin Hood (and his merry men)


They tell me that Christmas is for Kings

donkeys wise men shepherds and sheep

others say that Christmas is for puddings

turkeys with or without all the trimmings


One man said it's for feeding the homeless

another said you're either ruthless or roofless

these days, and no one really cares that much

how cynical is that on the cyclical scale


We won't be giving many presents this year

there'll be one or two and they'll cost a packet

you'll know it's yours if the carrier bag rattles

if it doesn't it'll be leftovers for the microwave


Maid Marion, Robin Hood (and his merry men)

compliments of the season to one and all

19122023


Tuesday 5 December 2023

250 or Bust...

DREAM NINE

The ancient bus stutters to a halt, I get out and start to run up the hill. It’s raining hard and someone’s chasing me. I hate running and I hate rain, but most of all I hate hills. I can hear a man behind me, he’s shouting and he’s catching me fast. I reach the top of the hill and jump over an old stone wall, big mistake I realise, as I reach out and grab the overhead electric railway cable to break my fall. Just then I sense a train coming towards me, without thinking I let go of the cable and land on top of the speeding locomotive. I lie flat, clinging on for dear life, I’m soaking wet now and it’s still pouring with rain. After a few minutes the train pulls into a country station and I manage to clamber down onto the platform. I make my way outside, and board a waiting bus. The driver looks familiar, but I sit down near the back and hope the heater will help me get dry. The bus starts to move, but I have no idea where we are going. It creaks and groans as it begins to wind its way up a long wooded road. We overtake a cross country runner; I know I've seen him someplace before, but when and where? The bus is making a horrible gurgling noise now, and it all comes flooding back to me as the ancient bus stutters to a halt.
051214/250

Friday 13 October 2023

From 2018...

 

Something I wrote in 2018...

PURPLE HAZE

He beats and bangs her drums until she comes

And flaps his wings and flies around the room

His winkle-pickers tapping to the tune

He introduces her to rock 'n' roll

He strips and bares his soul and starts to sing


Some people do seem to have such strange ways

When she begins to weep his guitar plays

Some people say this world is just a maze

He tells her that there's nothing much to do

And we're all living in a purple haze


Friday like any other Friday but

It's Friday the thirteenth and that means that

Strange things happen even stranger things are

Forecast ask Hitchcock and Castro et al


Don't listen to the things that people say

And all the Different Ones born on that day

He beats and bangs her drums until she comes

Backflips and flaps his wings and flies away

130418

Thursday 7 September 2023

Recent trips to Paris and Dublin...

Dublin collection

BOTH BANKS OF THE LIFFEY

Dublin at first glance the same as last time

and the time before that that I was there

kicking myself now that we didn't go

to see the Molly Malone sculpture this trip

but made up for it by discovering

a new Oscar Wilde figure plonked on a bench

outside Kennedys pub at Trinity College


We walked along both banks of the Liffey

crossing bridges several times in the heat

oh yes it was September but it was warm

I perhaps almost nearly forgot

to mention that the weather was extra hot

In sight of the Phoenix Park Obelisk

the Wellington Monument we turned back


Christ Church Cathedral Dublin Castle and

Saint Patrick's where Jonathan Swift is buried

The GPO on O'Connell Street and James Joyce

looking tired standing in the shadow of the Spire

Full Irish Breakfast at The Boxty House

Guinness straight from the river Liffey

Oyster Stout at the Temple Bar Porterhouse


More churches than the Vatican

more distilleries than Cognac in France

More singers dancers thinkers and drinkers

more writers than a library full of books

More trinkets than Las Vegas Bonanza

more poets musicians and song writers

More pubs than Greene King

07092023/Dublin


Paris collection

THE TRAFFIC FLOWS

The Eiffel Tower mellows magnificently

lit up in red and golden yellows

Above the rooftops in every arrondissement

her searchlight sweeps the Parisian night


Clockwise and counter clockwise all day long
relentless the traffic flows on the Peripherique

likewise on Rive Gauche and Rive Droite

the cars go hell for leather hammer and tongs


The Sacre Coeur Basilica whiter than white

appears ivory when lit up at night

The Bateaux Mouches cruise up and down insane

from Pont de L'Alma on the river Seine


And Paris sleeps but doesn't sleep at all

Croissants Brioche Baguettes and Pain de 'Epi

all need to be made to feed the morning crowd

Yawning we head for the Metro - Airport bound

30082023/Paris collection

Saturday 6 May 2023

Secret Poetry

Here's something I first wrote in 2009, but this is a slightly different version...

MY SECRET
I go to my secret place in the poetry garden
not many people know about that
but you know all my secrets anyway so it’s okay
It's my poetry patch really where I grow poetic things
my favourite poems are the weeds
I cultivate them ad hoc in my mind
But they (other poets) grow theirs naturally
as nature does sometimes
I will cut an edge perhaps prune a word or three
mostly I just watch things grow
climb up the poet tree
and sit atop the branches
where the fairies swing is tied
to watch them mirror dancing
(they only tire at sunset)
When I come back down to earth
this is the poem that wrote itself
it told me to write it down like this:
Making monkey mayhem
funky madness
sitting up the poet tree
writing down every word that she whispers to me
the secret of the ages of the rings
the way the wordy wordy wordy sings
everything she brings from where she comes
where she goes nobody really knows
she recites her wordy words to my world
my world doesn’t hear a thing she says
(the wind blows her words whispering to me)
She sister she secret society she says silently – hoping I can hear
110409/06052023

Monday 1 May 2023

15/Conclusion

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/Conclusion


Amazingly we've reached yet another end to the napowrimo challenge of thirty poems in thirty days. As usual may I take this opportunity to congratulate each and everyone of you who completed it this time.


We had a little distraction mid way through the project as I had to go to Poland for a few days. Fortunately I was still able to write something each day and post it from there which reinforces not only the power of the internet, but the global appeal of napowrimo these days too.


The next setback for me was that after returning from Poland my wife came down with Covid and I followed her two days later. I'm still suffering with the dreaded lurgy as I write this, but somehow, all these possible disasters, only ever seem to give me more material to work from.


Finally, here's a little something to conclude this years challenge and to set myself up for what lies ahead.


STORMS

Streams of consciousness

Violent storms and sunny days

Bursting off the page

01052023


Thank you for reading this, and congratulations again for taking the challenge this year.

Sunday 30 April 2023

15/30

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 30 The last day.


THE LOVING KIND

The way that I feel about you

is still the same as yesterday true


Stay hands up down town

I'm coming up I'm coming up

I'm coming up down town


I want you to stay

with your hands in the air

and your mind on mine

cause you're the loving kind


There ain't no confusion

or two bit illusion 

the way that I feel about you

is still the same as yesterday true


Stay hands up down town

I'm coming up I'm coming up

I'm coming up down town


There ain't no confusion

or two bit illusion

30042023

Saturday 29 April 2023

15/29

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 29


THE LONGEST NIGHT

They said that it must have been the morphine talking

when I told different people what had happened that night

in the hospital after my operation

but you couldn't make these things up I know what I saw

and I'm sticking to it that seems like a long time ago now

but I remember it as being a very long night

forcing myself to keep awake convinced that they would kill me next

if I even fell asleep for a few minutes


In the distance I could hear a woman screaming in the corridor

and what sounded like steel trays being bashed about her bonce

it was impossible for me to move I had to lie flat on my back

with a drip in my arm

I also had two young nurses sitting at my bedside

studying a computer screen

that may or may not have been monitoring my brain


Of course the problem didn't start until the young nurses

were asked if they wanted to stay to watch the filming

or if they would like to take a break they chose to take a break

and I never saw them again the filming was absolutely mad

the rest of the staff on the ward having dressed up in outrageous costumes

in various states of dress or undress were now filming each other doing mad things

I'm sure they were taking credit card customers requests over the internet


Anyway that night was nothing compared to last night

which truly was the longest night I can remember

I had come down with the dreaded lurgy a few days previously

and had been shivering and coughing and overheating then shivering again

but last night I came down with the whole thing and I was delirious

and sweating like a pig I started to imagine that I was going completely mad

I kept on seeing a video of a disaster playing in my head


And try as I might I couldn't let it go I woke up sweating

went back to sleep wringing wet woke up again

and couldn't get the disaster movie out of my head

I was absolutely totally confused about my situation

I felt like I should call a doctor for help but that's impossible

these days as the phone rings out three or four times and then rings off

anyway I had the advantage of knowing that I had the virus


And that despite me being completely flummoxed by it

there would actually have been nothing much that a doctor could have done

so I had gone to bed at nine pm which is really really early for me

as I often don't retire until way past midnight

of course after I went to bed the bad dreams turned into chaotic nightmares

and I began sweating and shivering and tossing and turning

until I became a gibbering wreck I can't say too much more about this experience

apart from the fact that it was the longest night of my life

29042023

Friday 28 April 2023

15/28

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 28


THE DREADED VIRUS

Had the lurgy last year

but nothing as bad as this

sweating like a troglodytes uncle

overheating then shivering like a bin dog

lots of fluids no alcoholic drinks

until further notice

sneezing like an alley cat

nose blocked up to buglery

eyes watering continually

throat like a bag of nails

coughing up united all over the shop

feeling rotten

I'd forgotten what it was like

but this time it's much much worse

the dreaded virus chapter and verse

28042023

Thursday 27 April 2023

15/27

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 27


IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW

You can't get it twice can you I asked my specialist desperately

You can only get it twice if you've already had it previously

Came the swift reply from one of Britain's finest virologists


My online guru said lightening never strikes in the same place twice

Shivering and flu like symptoms don't mean you've got the virus

So the sore throat lurgy that you dread might only be in your head


What do they know about my feelings and the two and eight of things

Avian flu is doing the rounds and free range eggs are laid in barns

And there's no such thing as a free lunch the horror scope bunch tell me


We all try to beat the system or eggs sometimes for omelettes if we can

Like the Joker with an Ace up his sleeve or on his face book status

He'll love you until his house falls down flat like a stack of cards


If I know my audience you know you know that I'm talking to you

If the world is a stage like Shakespeare said then some are spectators too

Fanatics sometimes I don't know how you feel but we are all players

27042023

Wednesday 26 April 2023

15/26

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 26


LOVE BIKES

I love bicycles but I don't ride them much these days

I have a shed full of the two wheeled machines

eighteen or more in different states of disrepair

and a room full of tools and bits and bobs out there


Love like lovers comes and goes

you won't need a guru or a demi god to tell you that

And I've got an Indonesian rickshaw that I really like

which I was going to turn into a cargo trike


Don't you just love bikes I know that I do

but only pre nineteen eighties or there a bouts

the ones that have cotter pins to attach the pedal shanks

I really dislike those new fangled cranks


Of course I wouldn't say no to an electric assist

especially when I live on the edge of Dartmoor now

I had the privilege of testing one once at Coalville

they must've thought I was Action Man at Bardon Hill

26042023



Tuesday 25 April 2023

15/25

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 25


INTERNETINTENTIONALLY

Tables are like people sometimes

wooden or perhaps more like horses

sometimes pigs if they don't have wheels

I've not seen many three legged pigs


Who are you talking to I asked her

I'm not talking she replied I'm listening

Who are you listening to I asked

Myself she answered staring into her phone


If anybody needs a selfie stick that girl does

digital creator influencer call her what you will

she'll love you if you like her and follow her

not literally of course but internetintentionally

25042023

Monday 24 April 2023

15/24

 Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 24


THE SANDS OF TIME

I

Snookered but not necessarily on green baize

can't see wood for trees springs to mind

not unlike crocodiles and piranha fish

but don't bite my hand off for telling you

II

The secrets of the inner mind unwrapped

they say nobody knows how these things work

lost beneath the sands of time somewhere

no escape from the fictional brain

III

You wouldn't want to complain about things

all's fair in love and cricket said the silly mid on

as the bowler chucked a maiden over

before the wicket keeper caught the last man out

24042023

Sunday 23 April 2023

15/23

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 23


SANDS OF TIME AND TIMBUKTU

Another few dollars for another days work

when she wakes up it's all said and done


Sleeping for England in a four poster bed

she thinks about the weather

imagines that it's raining

turns over and goes back to sleep


Like false teeth chattering on a marble slab

the aeroplane hits the tarmac hard then

relief as it straightens up and comes to a halt

the chattering turns to clapping and cheers


Holidays and holiday makers

making for the sands of time and Timbuktu

business trips planned and unplanned

happy as Lazarus up from the grave


When she wakes up it's all said and done

another few dollars for another days work

23042023

Saturday 22 April 2023

15/22

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 22


THEIR TABLETS OF STONE

They think that hosing it down

won't make it wet but

they've been wet behind the ears

for a long time now


They're more naïve than an optimist

facing a firing squad

it's a dead certainty that something

is going to go terribly wrong


They take the subway train because

they think it's safer than walking

they hate buses don't like overcrowding

shopping in Oxford Street isn't their thing


They say the electricity won't go down

like it did in nineteen seventy four but it will

then all their computers and mobile things

and even their tablets of stone will be silent

22042023

Friday 21 April 2023

15/21

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 21


BREAKING NEWS

Right in the midst of the thick of things

stuck in a bubble

trouble like you wouldn't believe

she shouts at the other characters on the page

they too can only communicate

through speech bubbles

and she calls out to anyone

who will listen to her


Callouts shouts think bubbles

thought bubbles sometimes too

you'd have to be mad clever

to imagine them as being normal


Ordinary they are not and the faint hearted

fall by the wayside

the comic strip takes a particular skill set

the comic book another


Any publication is a compilation of minds

and mindsets can differ from day to day

from place to place

and from one funny to another

never mind the editor the owner the workers

and the sleeping partner


You can paint the page in pastel shades

but if the content doesn't stack up

the dollars will turn to cents and roll away

like money down the drain


Superman and Batman and Robin

icons of the front cover are back in the news

Spiderman too but Catwoman The Joker

and other also rans

are relegated to the inside back page


Like the day job it's here today and gone tomorrow

zero hours contract minimum wage

and no amount of rhetoric will change that

you like me are in the pocket

of the powers that be

breaking news smashing

21042023

Thursday 20 April 2023

15/20

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 20


THE DECORATION WAS DIFFERENT

Nothing much has changed but why would it

why indeed should it have

different people come and go

although if they come here they often stay

until they die


We had to take him out in a wooden overcoat

is the accepted response

when asking about an old friend


The decoration was different

but not noticeably apart from the fact that

the ceiling had been painted bright orange

although the manager reliably informed me that

it was actually a subtle shade of tangerine


The bar looked much the same as it always did

although I could tell that it had been refurbished

recently to accommodate several new fangled

beer pumps that were now sitting in pride of place


The decoration was different

but not noticeably

apart from the gigantic TV screens

hanging off each and every wall showing

different sports all night and day


I don't even know why that united pretender

is even playing for England

one of the screen watchers screamed

although no one else really noticed


He might have scored a cracking goal

against that Roy of the Rovers team

a couple of years ago in the mickey mouse cup

but he hasn't done a lot since

and certainly not at this level of football

the irate TV watcher continued

looking away from the big screen in disbelief


How many goals has he gifted the opposition with

over the years and why the Eccles cakes

does this manager stick with him

and pick him for the team every time

moan moan moan mister moaner moaned


The decoration was different

but not noticeably to the casual observer

the ash trays had gone off the tables and

had been replaced by an outdoor smoking hovel

choke yourself to death why don't you

I gave up seventeen years ago

the best move I ever made

as for the beer I can take it or leave it

each to his own poison though and may

whatever turns you on make you happy


The decoration was different

but not noticeably 

until I got talking to an octogenarian

he was sipping green tea

and self medicating with cannabis oil

good snuff I quipped trying to make a joke

try some of this united he said to me

it's got antioxidants in it

I think I'll stick to the beer I replied


The decoration was different

but not noticeably

apart from the cocktail bar

and the uniformed bar staff

they were all dressed in tartan waistcoats

white shirts and black Dickie Bow ties


I asked for a whisky and they gave me a menu

we have one hundred and sixty eight

different whiskies they told me

as I perused the stock list

do you not have Irish Whiskey I asked


Oh yes sir of course we do sir three bags full sir

they're on a different menu with the American

Japanese and Canadian Whiskeys sir


Phew this was hard work I only came in for

a quick pint of bitter and a whisky chaser

and here I was with my reading binoculars on

trying to decipher the small print on this daft list


I finally chose a single malt

and then made the mistake of asking for a double

sorry sir said the barman we don't do doubles

you can have a large one if you like

what's the difference I asked tentatively

about seventeen and a half pence he replied

what's that in old money I enquired

hoping to catch the youngster out

three and six sir he retorted without hesitation

okay I said give me two singles

and quickly added in the same glass please


The bottom line is

nothing was different apart from the decoration

20042023

Wednesday 19 April 2023

15/19

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 19


ALL THE RAGE

Even when the early bird wakes us up

we don't know what time it is until the clock strikes


Guilty of going somewhere

without really knowing where

why do people think that mistakes

only happen to someone else


The bigger the plan

the further the plot fails

rhythm and rhyme don't cut it

but if you don't know now you never will


From time to time someone will come along

you'll think that you can't resist her

however she's just the cash cow cutting in

she wants your dough all your bread and honey


money isn't everything it's less than half the truth

there's more to life than buying the next best thing

window shopping used to be fashionable

charity shops and bargain stores are all the rage now


We don't know what time it is until the clock strikes

even when the early bird wakes us up

19042023

Tuesday 18 April 2023

15/18

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 18


SHADES OF BLUE

Like it's the language of love

she talks about being Italian


She raves about vintage stores

and mid century furniture

paints her chipboard kitchen floor

in different shades of blue


Hangs all the utensils up

so the animals can't spoil them

dreads that the bread bin has

ever been used for anything else


Much like a vampire

she shies away from garlic

but loves a Greek style salad

soup is permanently off the menu


Loves anything Parisian

drives a Deux Chevaux

tells me she's a Francophile

but can't speak the lingo


She talks about being Italian

like it's the language of love

18042023

Monday 17 April 2023

15/17

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 17


IMAGINATION

Sinking further and further into the mire

deeper and deeper into the same old swamp

no one really wants to go there but a philosopher

I met told me that not only were we all born in sin

and therefore fall short of the glory of God but

that we have been sent to this earth as a punishment

for something bad that we did elsewhere


So it doesn't matter what you think if you think you

are what you think then you are what you think and

nothing is going to change that in the short or long term

but there is of course another realm that you can access

when you mix thought with imagination he told me


Laughter happiness and imagination are the three best

things in life but the greatest of these is imagination

wherever your imagination goes you can go too the

imagination in the mind of man knows no bounds it frees

us from the limitations that are otherwise pressing us down

17042023/DN

Sunday 16 April 2023

15/16

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 16


YOU CAN'T BEAT EGGS

Natural as a plastic doll she paints the barn

slaps on the lippy and heads for the hotel bar

nobody actually said she was a basket case

but they were certainly thinking it all right


She wasn't going to set the world alight

but if she stands too close to the fire in

that colourful cellulose dress she might well do

herself a nasty injury and shock the customers too


At the bar she orders vegan everything and sulks

when she's told that eggnog isn't even vegetarian

I thought eggs were vegan she tells the barman

only if they come from corn fed chickens he replies


There's a yoke in there somewhere but finding it

that's another conundrum you can't beat eggs can you

as my younger brother always used to say at Easter

a bit like having your cake and eating it I suppose

16042023

Saturday 15 April 2023

15/15

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 15


TOWERS OF ECSTASY

Headless chickens running around

chasing non existent tails

but the story doesn't end there

doesn't even start on the farmyard


How naïve it would be to believe

that chickens don't have heads and tails

and that perhaps ducks don't quack

and puppy dogs and kittens don't count


Bin dogs and alley cats we've spoke about

them before but they keep on hitting back

like the mess that graffiti makes everywhere

and all those sewer rats that bite down there


Manchester is building towers of ecstasy

there's more than four quarters in gay Paris

and many more green spaces in London

than people give that city credit for

15042023

Friday 14 April 2023

15/14

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 14


TOP DOG
The dog that usually comes to stay

belongs to the owner of the cat

top that top cat, top dog too


But the new dog that came yesterday

looks like a Cavapoo or a Shih Tzu

he's actually a King Charles Spaniel


Kris will be the one to look after him

feed and water him pamper him

walk him in the forest twice a day


Chodź tu mała, Kris beckons to the dog

WoW! Does he understand Polish? I ask

Yes replies Kris and Latvian too

14042023

Thursday 13 April 2023

15/13

 

Napowrimo 2023/my15th year/day 13


DREAMING ABOUT

What goes on

between the sheets


Whispering sweet nothings

in her ear

Somersaults and

press ups if you can


Dreaming about

the South coast of France

Eating biscuits

like there's no tomorrow

Sucking on sweets

till the cows come home


Watching movies

Korean or not

Dreaming about

that lottery win

As boring as

thinking of England


Somersaults and

press ups if you can

Whispering sweet nothings

in her ear


What goes on

between the sheets

stays between the sheets

13042023