Poetry

Tuesday 16 August 2016

Bee

He travelled the seas
He travelled the land
To the hum of the bees
And the hum of his hands

And his Queen was protected
By many a Bee knight
Though she was highly respected
She never took flight

And the Queen was a prisoner
The Bee knight her jailor
They hummed loud in their honour
But she grew the paler

The Bee hive needed a Queen to believe in
A perfect model of divinity in Bee form
In this Virgin Mother
Such a deity they perceive in
So her role of Captive Ruler
She was made to perform

All power has its consequence
All power has corruption
But the bee Queen rules her bee subjects
Without Scandal or interruption
You think the Queen owns her Kingdom
That she rules from the hive
Her vast reign
But ask her of her Bee freedom
She’ll cry To Be or not To Be

To you again and again

Envy

A ship named envy
Sailed unsinkable
Striking fear into the heart of friend or enemy
That ship, that ship named Envy

And Envy is a Ghost ship
It works a skeleton crew
Whose eyeless sockets stare about
In vanity for their sight curfew

Who may face this enemy?
The king’s fleet flee before its mast
Islanders retreat behind cover of trees
The beaches lie deserted at the last

Some are prone to Anger
Some are prone to Lust
But who can contend with an envious Rancour?
Like a ship risen out of a horizon’s dust

Some will pitch in on the high Seas
Some will fight though always to their cost
But those whose plight are the Envies
Find in the end their battles are lost

So when you search the horizon
Let your search be tempered by shame
For to know all men fear the uprising

Of the ship with Envy as its name 

Somethings, sometimes

I came to the last place of darkness and light
And saw in the last face that look of delight
As if a crimson flower, opening
As a blood vein full of life
When I came to the last place of darkness and light

I ran in the last race
The race that ran through the night
The madness of a fickle grace
That lets some win, others lose outright
By the time of daylight
The loser had won, the winner lost his fight
When I ran in the last race
That ran through the night

I pulled out of the mouth a wisdom tooth
In truth, it was proof of lost wisdom forsooth
For the fools mouth is full
His words over spilling
His teeth like a bad day
Kept needing filling
But the mouth of the wise
Is often closed shut
Though his eyes are wide open
To make the Editor's cut
So I pulled out the wisdom tooth
And found myself wise
But was it a tooth for a tooth
Or my eyes for their eyes?

Hand to I

I’ve tried to search for something more
But found something less
What ‘s worst the thing I lost
Was the thing I loved the best

On distant shore in Foreign land
I plied my skill and trade
But in each article crafted by my hand
Was the mark my creator made

As if a face in a mirror
Its visage haunts me still
And in its passing words, the manufacture
Of His mighty skill

It’s what I hoped for yes
It’s what my heart desired
But in the breaking of the mould, I guess
A new form of life was fired

Can the time that’s gone be had,
Again, any more than yesterday?
For what we thought was Good or Bad
Seems to change by the New light of Day

What I once thought Golden
Was only a beach of yellow sand
Just a beauty that in my eye was beholden
Yet crafted by his hand

And as such is all more temporary
For the passing of the day
Will wash like the sea
All signs in the sand of the children who there did play

Can I think it right?
Neigh, might I think it pays
To weigh rainbows with colours bright
Which in the painter’s palette lays?

Will the hand that writes
Be the hand that stays
For what is it than to put black pen to white

And hasten the Judgement day

Monday 20 June 2016

Life’s too short to be Bittern



Once Bittern twice shy
They dance to the tune of the reeds
These wood wind musicians of the sky

They play like the reeds their throat song
They beat the bull frogs at their own game
In time they sing along

Like a jamboree
All the same
They do impressions of Bulrushes
Standing plant tall and straight
And what do they want of paint brushes

When streaked brown and white they wait

Birds

Chaffinch on the table
Blue Tits on the bench
Starlings on the cable
Little Black Bird on the fence

All about their picnic
All about their lunch
Some Wren’s a pick pocket
 Some woodpecker packs a punch

Out the garden grows the vine
Out beside the pond
Far beyond the picket fence line
Keeping true its bond

Where sat the warbler
Warbling his song
To the dawn in chorus

For all the New Spring Long

Reap What You Sow


That our days are numbered, we all know
No use fixing our eyes, only on the end of the rainbow
No use thinking, that all that glitters is Gold
You will reap what you shall sow

That Blue Sky thinking can shatter glass ceilings
That if you shoot for the stars, you might hit the moon
But, no use hiding scars, from the fallen glass, soon
You will reap what you shall sow

You’ve sought out the After-life, like it was an after thought
Believed all good things come out of strife
But from dust to dust, from nought comes nought
And, any time you fear the wrath, you just lie low
You’re going to reap just what you sow

The mermen rise from a watery grave
I’m ready Lord for you to save
Let me be cleansed of all I know
As vanity passes like a fool in a blizzard of snow
You’re going to reap just what you sow

The Temptation lies like an open door
But don’t step inside, you’ll only want more
The House of God is our only refuge
You must wash your feet in the river
Let the water purge you
But it’s no use, unless you know

You’re going to reap just what you sow