Mulchester Marton
As a child I dreamt of attending an elite public school, like Eton, but my parents sent me to Mulchester Marton, which was much cheaper.
There, the beautiful Delphine Duvall encouraged me to study drama, and become an actor.
I listened entranced as she reminisced about her birthplace in Carcassonne,
with its mediaeval streets echoing to the ghosts of armour-clad knights,
but instead of pla...
Thursday 15th May 2025 4:52 pm
Also by Kevin Vose:
The cowboy and the royal | Old spy swallows humble pie |The Demolition Of The Royal Liverpool University Hospital (14/5/25)
Like a towering Alien with metallic jaw.
It brings down The Royal, floor by floor.
With wiry neck, all muscle and power.
The old Royal disappears by the hour.
Munching away with each greedy thrust.
Releasing clouds of dormant, grey dust.
Tearing its way through stone and steel.
Chomping away like it’s devouring a meal.
It twists, it clamps with a ferocious bite.
...Thursday 15th May 2025 3:50 pm
Also by Mike Bartram:
The 'Perfect Son' |Cool Auntie
auntie’s coming
let’s go the store
we’re gonna make
that special roast
I need your help
put on your coat
she’s making
a visit just for us
in for the weekend
with strange presents
chatting to mom about
unheard adventures
bright lipstick
tight sweaters
leaving impressions
on the subconscious
decades later
in another life
tells me she can’t
stay the night...
Thursday 15th May 2025 1:29 pm
Also by Robert C Gaulke:
Julie London on Emergency! | For Patrick Bocarde |An Ensemble of Pain
Oh, I felt it then, a sudden surge of pain.
A familiar entity of constant ubiquity,
yet simultaneously not there.
I tried to feign indifference, but it soon became clear upon the springing of those dainty edges.
I was harrowed by despair.
How could I not care?
Their meek, limp, cunning stance made me sigh with frustration.
Their insistence to grow with an air of indignation to all th...
Thursday 15th May 2025 1:24 pm
Speyk Lanky Twang! [ Fascists Eawt! English not Spoken Here!]
In a desperate effort to outdo the racist bigots who, we are led to believe, currently threaten his ratings, PM Kier Starmer has carried out an egregious attack on the freedom of speech of UK citizens, and an overt incitement to racial abuse.
In doing so, he has displayed an astonishing ignorance of the diversity of languages currently spoken by natives of the British Isles: Cymraeg (Welsh); Ke...
Thursday 15th May 2025 1:17 pm
Also by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh:
Naofa Deatach! [Luimneach Thriarach] | Haiku don Bhliain 2025 [Uimhir a cúig déag 15 on Victory (over what?) Day] | Haiku for 2025 [No. 14 Up Yours Starmer!] | Propaganda | MO SHEACHT MBEANNACHT ORT, KNEECAP ! SAOIRSE CAINTE ! | Haiku don Bhliain 2025 [Uimhir a trí déag 13] |EDWARD VIII
There's not many of these around
So very few to the pound
This one was well hid
Located in Brid
That's that's where this one I found.
He reigned, my history book says
325 days
He chucked everything
For George to be king
Who agreed the pillar box stays.
So here it is as you see
A symbol of red history
Preserved in good faith
For Edward VIII
And ne...
Thursday 15th May 2025 11:53 am
Also by John Coopey:
SYCAMORE TREE | BLUE PLAQUE FOR YOUR MP |GooGolaria
an insidious dementia
a generation infected,
the brains of our beautiful
youth, once vibrant thirsty
sponges, now lame and
parched with inertia,
~G~
a voracious machine
feeds our children behind
our backs, suckling their
grateful inquisition with a
plug-in rechargeable
intellect, whilst milking their
desire to seek out learning for
themselves,
...Thursday 15th May 2025 11:38 am
Six ways to cut your cancer risk
1 Be smoke free
It's never too late to stop smoking,
It's harmful,cut the risk by stopping.
2 Keep a healthy weight
Keeping a healthy weight can reduce the risk of cancer,
Being aware of your portion size's is definitely the answer.
3 Stay safe in the sun
Stay safe wherever you are,protect yourself from the sun,
Cover up with a hat and sunglasses when out having ...
Thursday 15th May 2025 9:43 am
Also by hugh:
Alcohol |sleep on it
A soul refrains from distant quests,
Throne, temple, summit—all forsaken.
The answer dwells, soft-spoken, near,
Its whispers carried on dawn’s breath.
Kindness becomes as oil of lamps,
A quiet deed ignites warm glow.
Within the dark, love forms a hymn,
Illuminating hearts, unseen.
Do not journey far,
The warmth you seek
is folded close,
Residing de...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 11:21 pm
Also by Red Brick Keshner:
to be real | moonlight cradle | momentary deep | a reckoning of voices | stillness is not stability | they thread between us | scaling ivory veils | revelatory | for the Unbroken |Herman's Hermits
Just heard Herman's Hermits on the radio
'I'm Into Something Good'
Of course he wasn't really called Herman
and they weren't hermits
but that's not the point
the name was sort of catchy
they were popular and had a few hits
Wonder what they look like now?
A bunch of sad old gits
but at least they tasted success
before they called it quits
I wasn't too bothered
n...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 11:09 pm
Why I Loved America
From the blues came rock & roll
Music to fill an empty soul
Teens watched movies in their cars
Dean & Brando, immortal stars
They sent men up to the moon!
Whilst Disney conjured magical cartoons
Little ol’ Blighty, seemed so dull
In shadow of America's neon pull
A place to be who you wanted to be
A land of true democracy
Like a big brother standing tall
To pr...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 10:39 pm
Also by Stephen W Atkinson:
Just Smile! |Twists and Turns
Billy Collins wrote about how long a snowflake takes
to fall to the ground. Two hours, I think it was.
All we get here is rain racing to the surface, by comparison.
I wondered if either were jealous of the other's journey.
Did the rain miss anything in its rush, or was the snowflake,
meandering along as it will, guilty of same?
All I know for certain is the wind,
which I generally have ...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 7:41 pm
Also by Mike McPeek:
2 AM Talk | Graveyard Shift at Al's Truckadero |The Chill Factor
THE CHILL FACTOR
Chillax and stay in bed
Pull the duvet over your head
Its not worth all the stress
So the worlds in a mess
But what does it matter
Go out, have a natter
As long as theres a brew
a pint or a fag
no point in losing
your flaming rag
Who gives a toss about a win, draw or loss
Footballs a drain and Cricket’s a pain
And if it rains you go...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 5:19 pm
Also by Rick Varden:
The 24/7 365 Cell | Sat Navigation |2025: Trev does another National Poetry Month in Texas and NaPoWriMo: Part 2 The Journey Out
Image: Austin airport welcome sign and the way to passport control, collect suitcase and a short formality of checking my passport and once again it's "Welcome back".
09.04.25 – 15:9) An early night seemed right
And so, to bed to sleep like the dead
Then come alive when my alarm goes off at 1:45
Wash, dress, coffee and then seen taxi arriving at 2:15
Luggage stowed a...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 3:11 pm
Also by Trev the Road Poet:
2025: Trev does another National Poetry Month in Texas and NaPoWriMo: Part 1 The Run Up |Bitter Heights
They tell us all to climb the tree,
To reach what hangs for all to see.
But though we stretch and though we try,
The fruit remains too far, too high.
A fox will feast, a lion dine,
While sparrows peck at crumbs and pine.
The branches bend for weight and pride,
But never lean to those outside.
We’re told, “Grow strong, and you may rise—
The climb is fair, the prize the prize.”
Yet roo...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 2:19 pm
Also by Rolph David:
Beyond The Midas Touch | Elected by Smoke: 133 Men Decide for over a Billion | Eight Decades On | Uncharted Light | Vine* And Punishment | The Papal Masquerade | When Tyrants Fall |Live It Loud
Don’t wait for the stars to align,
Dance beneath your own design,
The clock won’t pause, the days won’t stall,
So, laugh out loud and risk it all!
Chase the sunrise, kiss the rain,
Find wild joy inside the pain,
Speak your truth with fearless grace,
And let your fire light up this place!
Climb the mountain, sail the sea,
Be everything you dream to be,
Life is not a script, it is a bl...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 11:30 am
Also by Aisha Suleman:
The Effort Is the Flame | Live Wide Awake |The Covenant
I am unconscious
Floating in a sea of darkness
Drifting towards a light
Nearing its ambiance
I see myself
absorbing the universe
Rolling my arms up and out
Giving birth to angel wings
I am returning
It fills me
I hold center
moving faster than the speed of light
I am exalted
The crime of war is not without punishment
The ob...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 7:22 am
Silent Voice
A part of them wants to stop talking
But from another side within,
a different voice, calling…
“Dad, I’m tired”
“Mom, I just want to cry”
To their parents,
they want their voice to be heard.
But they choose to swallow it,
afraid of being a burden.
That child...
hides behind the name.. “an adult.”
Wednesday 14th May 2025 6:47 am
Also by Yanma Hidayah:
Coming Home | Her Flower | When I Choose You |dilutings… or something else?
The dilution of poetry is an unavoidable consequence of shifting literary trends—where the distinct, evocative nature of verse increasingly bends toward prose, losing some of its rhythm, compression, and intensity. In a world saturated with unfiltered streams of consciousness and sprawling narratives, poetry often finds itself absorbed into prosaic expression, stripped of its defining cadence and ...
Wednesday 14th May 2025 3:24 am
Channel Crossing
What a marvellous day for a boat trip!
The English Channel flat calm
The British made us feel welcome
The French lacked a certain charm
Tuesday 13th May 2025 10:49 pm
Porky
This is the age of the porky;
This is the age of the lie.
Big men who wield power
No longer even try
To utter one word
Which might just be true.
They know they don’t need to;
They’re laughing at you.
They’re laughing at you
Because you lap it up,
As if you read tea leaves
In their plastic cup.
They make up the numbers,
They make up the quotes,
They’re...
Tuesday 13th May 2025 10:19 pm
Also by Stephen Gospage:
Johnny Exit | Old Men | Dogsbody |The divided nations (part 2)
Western imperialism knows no bounds,
They mute our pain and silence the sounds.
Stealing Congo's natural minerals as each country takes turns,
And veto power grants these same nations freedom from any terms.
Children are being forced into daily slave labour,
Yet, nothing is seen on the mainstream news.
I guess black suffering is only considered major,
When we...
Tuesday 13th May 2025 8:50 pm
LEMON LIGHT - unvanguished & afraid
No matter how we seek to reinvent ourselves
we can never fill the empty spaces left behind
by a dear friend’s suicide.
I do not know how, precisely, I feel,
I just know there is a wandering in my heart,
something hiding between the folds of my soul;
it is so much more than a deflecting mirror,
it is memory mumbling at me, incessantly,
“there’s his story to be told, be brave, be bold”
...
Tuesday 13th May 2025 8:31 pm
Also by John E Marks:
FORSAKEN | CHARLIE | Butterflies Alight |Netherlands (With All Due Respect For Truth)
Netherlands, don't disrespect yourselves.
You've lived long before your name.
What is buried along ancient waterways
Might move — and remain the same.
Can you imagine us moving?
A future that's filled with good,
Where joy isn’t mere hedonistic,
But rooted in what it should.
With all due respect for truth.
Netherlands, this isn't over.
Netherlands, we aren't done.
Your facts and yo...
Tuesday 13th May 2025 9:36 am
Also by Auracle:
Only Songs Can Touch That Place | Some Curryculum (Deserters?) |I scare
I scare.
Easily, I scare.
when you breathe. I scare
when you look at me and I am speechless.
I scare with each heartbeat.
I scare
Uneasily. I scare
from my vulnerability. I scare
with this family we created; this fragility; I scare
With this unconditional love.
Tuesday 13th May 2025 8:01 am
Also by ErasmusBlack:
Fart |Harm
Trying to write I lift a scab
to see my lifeforce flow,
for under the crust of all things dead
lie things we crave to know...
yet with such knowing are we fixed
or wounded all the more?
by careless angst we self-inflict
there is no reason for.
Monday 12th May 2025 11:18 pm
Also by David RL Moore:
Spectator |Hole In My Heart ❤️
There's a hole on my heart
Love has shot me down
There's a hole in my heart
I am a sad dying clown
There's a hole in my heart
I am a king without a crown
There's a hole in my heart
Life is a journey is what I'm told
Young you start and soon are old
The road you take determines your fate
With twists and turns that lie in wait
You cross many people's paths al...
Monday 12th May 2025 9:19 pm
Also by Tom Doolan:
Blue | Broken |Elephant's Walk
When I was a child
I remember thinking
that chain around
the elephant’s leg
wasn’t strong enough.
Elephants are tough!
If he wanted, he
could free himself just
by lifting that mighty foot
shaking the metal loose
and walking away…
Why does he stay?
No-one could stop him
If he chose to go, take
his own path. No more
performance on comm...
Monday 12th May 2025 5:40 pm
Also by Frances Macaulay Forde:
Year of The Dragon |Everyday someone is Killed on your street...
Everyday someone is Killed on your street. . .
No one says or does anything to help . . .
It’s not your street. . .
But everyday someone is killed on a Gaza Street
A human being just like you and me
Monday 12th May 2025 3:50 pm
Also by David R Mellor:
Boiled Cabbage and Me |Rejecting fate
At what point did the world beyond my fingertips stop breathing?
I don’t remember when I committed such a crime as killing. I only remember burning the pages to an ink filled book, crying into the flames.
I ended my lifelong passion and allowed the emptiness to consume me.
Since then it has been so dark.
Words are but a mystery to me, no longer do they bleed from
the flesh.
Instead they hide...
Monday 12th May 2025 2:52 pm
Also by Jordyn Elizabeth:
Solitude |Crystal Palace
The Palace made of Crystal
That time we met there,
15 years ago,
after a few dates,
I saw you in a completely different light,
beautiful smile, smoking
Head turned, hair blowing in the wind,
I thought, ‘I think there is something here’
The Palace made of Memories
I liked the name of that station,
Crystal Palace, because the word ‘palace’
almost rhymes ...
Monday 12th May 2025 1:10 pm
Also by Lee Campbell:
Wildfire (An Angel Is About To Be Shot) |The Greatest Day
Monday 12th May 2025 12:48 pm
Also by Larisa Rzhepishevska:
The Ballad About the Soldier |Semi Colon
Semi Colon
There are gaps between us...not chasms, oceans, continents
But gaps nevertheless… small and persistent spaces in togetherness.
Not between paragraphs, chapters, not a full blunt stop even…
But a pause between two inter-connected thoughts
Or a moment of silence, no response.
When first we met it was exclamation marks,
buzzes, thrills, trembling which fills
each ve...
Sunday 11th May 2025 8:53 pm
Tried
Tried stressed out weary of everyone
My house has bo order
So am stumbleing and falling
Trying to stay standing uo right but my eyes are level with the ground, that's right the wearerd me down again
I wish I could fall into an off licence order a bottle and say aman but I got to be a man even if that means feeling alone so with tears in my eyes , I try to keep go keep it in the day...
Sunday 11th May 2025 5:26 pm
One Prayer
One Prayer
I’ve only got one heart Lord, make it true. Give me the strength and the faith to trust in you.
Help me to see, help me to find a way to walk with you on this road I’m on.
I’ve only got one mind Lord to think things through ...
Sunday 11th May 2025 2:13 pm
Also by Grant Aspinall:
Imperfection |A Sonnet for Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, where rivers softly flow,
A land once rich, now bruised by times of strife.
Unrest and chaos seem to steal the glow,
Of hope that once embraced the nation's life.
Corruption spreads its roots, so deep, so wide,
The youth, in search of dreams, are left dismayed.
While voices rise in protest, none collide,
To heal the wounds, or drive the dark away.
Y...
Sunday 11th May 2025 1:48 pm
Old Dog
Heart racing as if a mile had been lost,
at odds with the stillness of a newly
emptied room, taking in the failure
of pencils on the floor and books left
on tables. He sees ghosts, hears the
echo of children’s voices, careless and
free now it has gone three, oblivious
of the anguish stalking this classroom;
a place conflicted all day, growing
through the week wi...
Sunday 11th May 2025 11:16 am
Also by Jonathan Humble:
A Goole Thing | Look |Bubble
There are so many bubbles,
big ones small ones and all sorts in between
But the only ones I care about
are dying in the leaves
They hit them and pop
but sometimes one gets through
And after that where do they go,
they have get popped too
they’ll hit something later down the line
and get disintegrated
From every other bubble
they’ll be separated
But ...
Sunday 11th May 2025 10:56 am
Scheming
She left everything that reminded her she was loved, and took everything that reminded her you were loved. Her life trap is herself.
I'm okay
You're not okay
I'm okay
You're okay
I'm not okay
You're okay
I'm not okay
You're not okay.
Is this an emotion? Or simply physical discomfort from an unmet need.
Feelings are not facts.
Metacognition.
Thoughts are n...
Sunday 11th May 2025 10:46 am
Also by Sarah-Kaye:
I only woke up from a dream |Seethe
So you’re bitter.
I hear it in the words that you whisper.
Told me to consider, got me in love with the liquor.
Now your words bring a shiver, plus outside we’re in winter.
Said if I stay with you that's a winner and anyone else would just hinder,
The progress we started to picture.
But I'm injured.
I can't love myself at the inner.
We differ.
Le...
Sunday 11th May 2025 4:56 am
Also by DG:
Second Chances |A Lifetime of Love. (A Blitz poem)
Time drunk down with ravenous thirst.
Time: Though we desire it, it’s cursed,
Cursed: Precious love, unused,
Cursed, precious love, refused.
Refused love shelved, love unrequited,
Refused love, once decisive, now flighted.
Flighted: unable in love to partake,
Flighted, everything before now, a mistake.
Mistake: I thought you and I were true,
Mistake: I thought the futu...
Saturday 10th May 2025 8:09 pm
Also by JD Russell:
Do you know where? |My Weekly WalkaboutsVerse, e.g., Poem 213 of 230: MORE AMOR PATRIAE
Poem 213 of 230: MORE AMOR PATRIAE
There is tai chi and there is tennis,
Line is fine but so is Morris,
There is curry and there is the roast,
And, when England is playing host,
It is the rest-of-the-world’s good wish
To sense culture that is English.
(C) David Franks 2003 - https://walkaboutsverse.blogspot.com
Saturday 10th May 2025 7:49 pm
May 2025 Collage Poem: Recent Encounters
In the toxic basement locked a querulous dog
tethered to a bench speaks out
Grumbling robots put washing up
liquid in Grandpa’s pipe as the
trains come & the trains go
The space between the stars
I failed my Latin exam in the high dusty hall
the guy next to me kept asking
How soon is now? and What difference does it make?
I watched the trains come, I wat...
Friday 9th May 2025 7:21 am
Intention
Seeing through the third eye,
it becomes clear that intention is the essence,
the driving force,
behind all these thoughts and prayers we send into the ether.
Picking up the rosary beads,
sitting at the altar and chanting,
twirling in a dance of bliss,
climbing to the mountaintop to reach the skies--
the intention of love--
this is what unifies,
amplifies,
creates...
Friday 9th May 2025 3:30 am
Also by Hélène:
I Am.... |bone witch
a house with good bones
is still a corpse
and
my mouth is
just a quiver
full of arrows
ready to conduct
a symphony
Thursday 8th May 2025 3:05 pm
Also by Sherri:
grow |Victory
Victory
Today
He had his head down
Holding his breath
So the snipers couldn’t hear him
Laying flat
In the Burmese dust
With the flies and mosquitos
From the green canopy
Hovering over him
Like Kamikaze
Today
He feasted on
Meagre rations
And drank a warm tepid water
Drawn from a dirty stream
Somewhere
Something exploded
And debris rain...
Thursday 8th May 2025 10:50 am
All Aboard The Animal Cruise
all aboard!
and the table was full
as it sailed out of the harbour
eight cows and a horse
were finishing their course
as the journey grew harder and harder
the table it tipped
and rocked on the waves
nine pigs and five dogs tried to row
the dinner was done
and so was the fun
and twelve sheep shouted “under we go!”
the table it sank
down into the sea
...Thursday 8th May 2025 8:13 am
Also by Clive Culverhouse:
The Cut-Out-And-Keep Guide To Trees |You Could Smile
Your troubles began long before you were born;
it's not your fault. You could boast, if you would,
of walking towards the light.
When young you think you can fly. You think
you can live forever. You thrill to think
you will escape a forest of razor-sharp thorns
and fall into the open arms of Love.
So suddenly old, you do reach the heights-
relentless mountaineering just a way of l...
Wednesday 7th May 2025 4:03 pm
Fragment From An Oddly Remembered Dream #10: At The Barricades
We held ourselves close in the stuttering cold
as, from somewhere away over the rooftops
two dogs debated which was the colder,
and a few streets to our right a flare went up,
its parabola of stark, saturated light
redundant in the snowblind, starched evening.
You laughed at nothing, baring
teeth like off-kilter tombstones
to the assembled throng, while
behind us somebody
hacked up a m...
Wednesday 7th May 2025 7:29 am
Also by Martin Peacock:
Reunion |Real.
She loved
She tried
She believed
But who was she?
Was she the victim
The survivor
The daydreamer
Or just an misunderstood
Queen?
She knew there was no shape
To grief
No weight in tears
No depth to the smile
From a stranger
She knew she left
An echo
In the hearts
That she touched
But there were no shadows
Only light
Not...
Tuesday 6th May 2025 10:50 pm
Also by Clare:
10,000 Hours. | Shimmer. |
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