Poetry

Saturday 30 March 2024

Northbound on the South west coastal path

 Dipped in the black lagoon

Mother nature gave a boon

We enjoyed the sun and sea

On our road to Calvary


In fact the path a tortoise shell

Cracked then wet, baked and fell

Onto the beach where the seals dwell

We detoured round timeless dell


And ponies scuffed and thorns they scratched at

Our scarves and stuffed swimming backpacks

As we trotted down soggy hill side

where celandine grows over the rides

And sun dappled horses with distended bellies graze

Beside the estuary on beautiful sunny days


Then each bend and twist and turn

Leaves you amazed at rocks that burn

In the setting sun that returns

Down to rest in the sea's urn


Trying to remember what songs to sing

We saw a ship come sailing in

And glimpses of the bays and coves of coast

Great beauty had they of to boast 

 

And casting off now the funeral habit, 

Our pace quickens to that of a rabbit

But our feet before were more tortoise lead

So we were late arriving at Portishead 


When finally reaching that promised land

We could no more find a bus than could we stand

Yet somehow we must make it back to Clevedon

And recover my car, because that's where we leaved 'em


Luckily a fairy godmother was at hand

And when she suggested hitch hiking I couldn't understand

But an Angel with a cherub turned up in time

And into her blue chariot we both climbed

And not quite flaming, but at least it sped

Us far away from Portishead


We must thank our lucky stars

For all the others never stopped their cars

But this sweet child of God was sent

On Easter Saturday after Lent

And like Jesus rising from the tomb

We were freed from doom and gloom


Not that Portishead is a bad place

But you don't wish to be stranded there in disgrace

I am sure Clevedon is not a poor place for many

but also Portishead must cost a pretty penny

And of everyone who pointed out a bus stop to us

Not a single one had ever ridden the Clevedon bus


Traffic update

 Heading from reading

Left wanting in wantage

Swanning about in Swanage

I don't know who you left me for

As I was driving down the M4

I wish to visit your love funnel

As I'm going through the Dartford tunnel


Had to have a peewee

When I met a kiwi

He held the key

But I couldn't pull him free

He was a stick-in-the-mud

With the blood and the flood



Wednesday 27 March 2024

Come back to see me

 Come back to see me when the wood is green

Come back to see me when what's past has been

Come back to see me when the ghosts have seen

All your hearts desires washed down the stream


Come back to see me in the college time

When we loved together under the sun's repine

Come back to see me and I'll see you

And we can live again because we were young too


Come back to see me and it will be alright

The day will turn to evening, and then into night

But we'll be together through the rain and storm

Oh come back to see me before we were born


All this together is like leather that's worn

Down to the tethers of the sheep in the morn

And I don't know whether you're tired or torn

But come back to see me and we'll both see the dawn

Sunday 24 March 2024

tree man

 My skin, it turned to bark

And my ears they turned to leaves

My arms they were the branch

And my legs the trunk and sleeve

I felt my eyes grow dark

But a light there to believe

Shone my inward lark

And Sung on in the eves


I became a tree

I planted myself down

In earth and in the park

A budding swirling crown

Blossoming 

Friday 22 March 2024

Dancing in heaven

 Funeral and a dance

Once you lie

to get your chance

The other pie in the sky

A funeral and a dance

One day


Helen of Acquiescence

Aquitaine Acquaintance

and quantified unqualified


Amid, the shore foot boot leg coffin

Foo mantou ted

Medicated adrenal dance

Of Pituitary gland

Sanded, broke down in castles I once visited as a child

The smell of mown grass and happy freedom of home

 She of the hammerheads

She said, he said, Shark!

And it was all Noah's Ark

And animals, all creatures great and small

And all hopefulness in orange blooms

And plum shower blossoms

And I kicked a football dream

And broke a windscreen

And car crash

Or faces slashed

In pubs far too extreme

This life

This knife

That cuts the marrow

The mustard

Pétard, Pétanque, Jean luc Picard

Cri du Canard Cul de Sac

And don't you look back

As they lower you down

Don't you know you're dancing now

In heaven

Thursday 7 March 2024

Lunchbox

Standing in the school yard throwing about our new frisbee

I don't know where we're going

I don't know who we'll be

Oh but you've got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't help but notice your lunchbox is mighty


At our graduation picking up our degrees

I don't know where we're going

I don't know who we'll be

Oh but you've got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't help but notice your lunchbox odyssey


In the estate agent's office picking up the new house key

I don't know where we're going

I don't know who we'll be

I can't but notice, and it's beginning to gnaw at me

How you've got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't help but notice your lunchbox hanging free


In the hospital waiting room can't wait to see the new baby

I don't know where we're going

I don't know who we'll be

I just happened to look and find out what I see

how you've still got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't but notice your lunchbox proximity


Sitting in the factory yard having a cup of tea

 I don't know where we're going

I don't know who we'll be

Oh but one thing that keeps on showing

Is that green eyed monster of envy

Yes you've got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't help but notice your lunchbox's magnanimity


Lying in the graveyard nothing to worry about now we're free

 Still I don't know where we're going

Still I don't know who we'll be

I know we all were born equal and I love equality

Just how come, it might sound profound your mound 

looks like a mountain while mine's more molehill ground

Yes it seems you've still got a bigger lunchbox than me


Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I bet you could fit a big sandwich

with cheese and pepperoni 

Bigger lunchbox, lunchbox than me

I can't help but notice your lunchbox's indomitability


Tuesday 5 March 2024

Woolly

 Time is a sheep

That I keep counting

One minute following the next

Like the rams are mounting

Falling on the hillside

Of a black and white despair

I know I should get going

But I keep going nowhere

Always back into the same old pen

I wish could remember way back when

This whole place was green fields

And times flock hadn't marched

But now the clock has reached us

Time flies by too fast

Put them back into their mother's

Pregnant in the moment

I am here but she's past on

In to eternal foment