Poetry Blogs

I stepped outside and the sound of my feet made me nervous as I slowly walked along a neverending thick white floor.

The snow clung to my boots as if to find some warmth or maybe a hug.

Within minutes my hands were stiffened by the icy air that felt strong enough to slice through my stone cold fingers.

I should have wore gloves, I said to myself as I made 2 fists and buried them deep insi...

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I have sight of them again, the

Christmas tinsel on the garage

shelves, boxed up and chillier

than a frosty morn. They say 

at earlier moments than this, in

far, far distant times, a child was

born to a lass who was unwed.

These many centuries on, I head

off into town and buy tinselly

trinkets for the youngsters in

my growing tribe, the toddlers

who still...

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I am dancing 'bout my mystic verse.

My  poetry mostly used to be

Contained within the heart of me

My passion was for fighting then

Kung Fu, Hap-Ki-Do, studying Zen

Meditation, Yoga, and T'ai chi ch'üan

Every moment that I can

The Buddhists philosophy taught me well

Mindfulness, how thoughts to quell.

With focused, calm and centred mind

Martial arts and ...

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A Gentler Age

I was smoking my pipe outside as usual

A young observant man said that I reminded

him of a gentler age

Not many smoke pipes these days for fear 

of criticism

I acknowledged his remark and nodded

A gentler age I thought, at a time when 

young men in the trenches smoked pipes

almost to a man

Gleaned from black and white documentaries

of the Somme a...

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I have spent enough knowing I does not really exist. But what does the I of all time mean. It means relentless experience that has no beginning or end. No luxury of death. That death is a friend and that continual existence requires a mind that doesn't see itself as finite. That the infinite nature of modern poets is just a glimmer of our heat. I am immortal even though my my body may die. Music p...

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You think you know me.

You think you have me pegged.

Pigeonholed and classified

within the limits of your shallow mind.

Just a glance is all it took.

Well I’ve seen you too,

and believe me, you’re not even close.

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One day a little girl turned 6

On her birthday she went to God and said:

Today is my birthday and for a present I want peace on Earth

God answered

I can't give you peace on Earth. Because the rest of humanity has decided that war is the answer

She replied

Can you give peace to my country then?

God replied

I can't give your country peace. F...

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Poem 224 of 230:  THE NATIVITY

Vis-à-vis S.C.,
    I prefer to see
Christian children’s glee
    When they play-out the
Coming of J.C. -
    The Nativity.

(C) David Franks 2003 - 
Walkaboutsverse.blogspot.com

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The shadow strewn floor

revealed nothing but

the caricature of her outer lie 

Inside was far, far darker

Shadows of shadow

The precipice to a great, voracious hollow 

into which I fell

Where bone-fused gondolas  

upon icey streams 

surged ripples to my slowly decaying heart

But while it still pulsed

There was hope

And all we really have, in a worl...

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This is where you will live; it's not quite finished.
Just can't help looking at the builder's crack.
Picture yourself slamming the door with disgust.
The question is: in, or out of, the shack?

These are the cards left to be turned over.
Tell me you still dream of finding an ace.
In this poor neighbourhood there's nothing left
to surprise us, but love for the old place.

And being ...

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Maybe light was once kind
To the baby moth.
Perhaps, it never fully learned
How it had changed
Into the enemy.
Is this why it must return again?
Flap its fragile wings, 
Once more, against the pain,
Saying, 
Even until the very last time,

                  “Be as you were”

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The city's Christmas Light Extravaganza has been cancelled

because the Center for Disease Control has determined that

sitting in your own car and looking at Christmas Lights

from a distance of 100 feet is prime Covid infection territory.

In fact, it has been found that the lights themselves, generate Covid.

All this time we thought Covid came from a secret Chinese lab

but ...

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Santa has asked for my wish,
For my very wish,
I was blessed and kind
Had you on my mind

I said, bring my sweet love,
My sweet love,
His scent is heaven 
And voice is pure

Santa has asked for my wish
For my very wish

This year little boy for sure,
Alltough he is gone, gone
Keep on just keep on

Santa has brought you devotion and many more
It's all un der the the christmas tree on the ...

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The riddle of covid

continues to confound.

Uncertainty reigns supreme.

Meanwhile nature

faithfully adheres

to its preordained cycle.

The first snow

of the year

heralds the

renewal of life.

Soon the snowdrops

will emerge

to gladden the eyes

and lift the spirits.

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round every corner's a food bank

but what about people like me?

my table creaks with provisions,

I'm never short of salmon for tea

its a love bank my heart needs

somewhere to nourish my soul,

fill my breast with fondant fancies

its been far too long on the dole

I dream of hot charitable staff

eager women dressed to kill,

piling my basket with promise

red ...

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under the lych-gate shall I pass

before the wait in holding hands

for the robed man of God to steer

me to my resting days

and shall I then be added to

the sanded brick of grotesque face

that stares across the standing stones

to look beyond the yew

and those who sidle in the rain

with shoulders loaded down with strife

will keep their head and eye to ground

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I should explain that the first weekend in December is Father Christmas Weekend in Kirkby Lonsdale. He goes through the town pointing his wand at the lights on the trees above all the shops switching them on as he goes along. Sadly not this year. 

It should happen today
To bring us much cheer
He comes for the day, sadly not this year
Santa isn't coming to town

Covid cancelled his trip
...

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Jane took her husband to the hospital  with a damaged wrist,

The nurse bandaged it and gave him an instruction list.

She reassured him," adhere to that  list and you won't do anything wrong,

And I can confidently say,you won't be with us for long."

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Those black and white I see

As I close my eyes every night to sleep

The grainy footage of what once was

And the voice too deep for me to breathe

These create a cacophony and turmoil

Not letting me rest for a while

What gray blue stories you bring tonight

Hold on the torch so I can read and write

Penning down emotions that have punctured my heart

Not realizing the da...

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Christianity being their greatest foe. In A. D. 634 they slaughtered thousands of Christians in Syria. Monasteries were ransacked and the monastics and the people were put to the sword. Beheadings were considered the preferred way for executions of those who resisted them.

rich metaphors drawn from the sky and sea
rich funereal language, baptism, burial and birth,
blossom and harvest, wi...

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eager crickets sing in chorus

at the top of their lungs 

gusts rustle leaflets

in the string section of dwarf palms

nervous gnat raises his falsetto 

as high as he can

dragonfly’s baritone buzz

upstages her wingspan 

pileated woodpecker plays his pine 

keeping on the beat

tufted titmouse takes her tenor solo

melodic and neat

wi...

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I've often had that feeling in the midst of a storm

Where happiness and fear are equally born

And where when the wind calms and the damage is not that bad

Relief is a mask for my disappointment

I want the chaos

I want the danger

I want the madness and violence and anger

I know that about myself

It is my deepest thought

That I would be happy

In a whirlwind I sought

...

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Just a year ago the media was all upset about bullying

Lots of finger pointing and blaming

But now, they're pushing hard the covid rules

They claim not bullying, it's shaming

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If I invite you in and offer friendship.

As your path through life has you passing by.

If I open my arms to embrace you.

And express a love you cannot deny.

If I offer you a strong and broad shoulder.

On which you can lay your weary head,

And let out a long, relieving, cry.

If I comfort your heart and soul.

And with your needs, and desires, I do comply.

If I offer you ad...

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Not the moth’s moonlight flit, 
nor the crane fly’s shadow either, 
not that giant alter ego; 
but tonight, midsummer, 
caught in a beam of light, 
a blizzard of ephemera, 
the brilliant lives we know 

only when light is shone 
into their dark. Here, among 
planetary dust blowing 
between the spheres for aeons, 
among bone and skin and ash, 
these sparks and kindling 
ignite in the ...

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A winter’s day, a darkening sky. Warned

by the ref midway through the first half

for over-enthusiastic touchline coaching:

I don’t know what you’re on, but I want some of it.

Those games meant more to us dads than the boys.

We poured our hearts and souls into them.

My lad didn’t score that day, but he put quite

a few away. That feeling when your boy heads

a last-m...

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I don’t see the point

Of writing stuff

That is not true.

But you do.

You work for that rag

That prints the junk.

You know it’s fake,

For God’s sake.

They just make it up;

It’s all a myth.

You only stay

For the pay.

The day the world ends,

You’ll be the last

To feel the pain.

Once again.

(From 2018).

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We've had such a long time with this Covid-19,
The greatest pandemic that there's ever been.
With huge numbers infected and some having died,
To stop this virus we have all certainly tried.

Now it seems that we may now have a solution,
As vaccines are prepared with mass distribution.
While we all had to live in this dreadful reality,
Can we at last now return to normality?

When all vac...

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Image courtesy of Marilylle Soveran and Flickr; Creative Commons.

Hard to believe that it's December and we're coming to the end of a year that has presented many challenges. In the Christian tradition, candles are lit for Advent, representing hope, love, joy, peace, and the light of the world. This year we're waiting for vaccines, an end to lockdowns and tiers and I've tried to ...

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Excessive and willfully so

You leave everyone with stupefaction

Hanged your picture on my wall

Never knew I needed distraction 

Belated, i’m in my compartment 

You are the only luminescence 

I giggle quietly with joy

You are a dazzle of a quintessence

You once had my curiosity 

Your temperament seemed splendid 

And now you have my attention 

You gave me felicity, m...

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Unplugged, it was my turn to sort it,

the room was cold, light,

curtains buttered with glorious sunshine

as I shuffled to the bathroom,

winced out a piss, she, knees to her chest,

poking her phone, I yanked at the lever,

tossed her some tissue, ‘Do we need anything?’

‘Do we need anything today?’

 She shook her head, I climbed back in,

‘Jesus’ she cried, ‘Your feet’

te...

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Standing next to the library a gallery of art

Nourishing the soul, culture they impart

Paintings, sound, all arts it embraces

Taking us to many far away places

Streets a mix of Victorian architectural hints

Mixing harmoniously with all the glitz and chintz

What should be a total clash somehow blends in its uniqueness

Becoming quite sublime to the senses in its completenes...

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Unbalanced on the waves at sea

Tossing and turning

I’ve lost all my bearings

For one moment I turned my head away

Just long enough for you

To push me over board

In these waters 

In these cold and suffocating waves

I will meet my final test

Will I go under

Will I go under

I will not

Survive this

I put the knife to my throat

Better a quick and pain...

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stands about the dying sun,
in the shadow of a creaking chair,
and the son behooves me.

The rolling wind,
and the sun-down windows,
puts a step in the frozen ocean mushy as gravel.

Each light that sparks,
Or the world born to me,
being locked and secluded.

Barking trees sway in the breeze,
yet rocks don't mind the rain,
Not as much as I do.

Green pasteurs that promise better da...

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These times will pass too
But the scars will remain
What humanity has gone through
Only our brave hearts will hold us sane
We need to bury our pain deep beneath
And fight back so the sacrifices are not in vain

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A Paean For Pensive People

“Apollo, god of my greatest amore,

Olympic mountaineer I truly adore,

Old protector of my ineffable truths,

I drink deep from the well of your lore.”

Which is to make plain (in the modern way)

That I love to write poems in splendid array;

You might imagine I'm merely addicted, well

Guilty as charged, I compose where I may.

'The m...

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Switch off your devices

And escape this crisis

Let your eyes close

As the imagination flows

In between a heavenly jungle

Where animals laugh and mumble

Joining them in their wildly dance

Observing the mountain from a glance

Swimming through the grimy mud

Similar to that of a crocodile’s blood

Smelling so natural and fresh

Watching fish caught in the mesh

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Love is a tricky thing 
Working hard to bring
Two people together
But time shows
Eventually
True colors sadly
Become normality 
Familiarity 
Some don't see
What they sacrifice 
Continuing to give up
Compromise
Their want's their needs
All to keep the peace
Not to displease
The one they say they love
Letting go of some
Isolating the ones
You miss
Dont dismiss
The feeling that dw...

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Heavy is the head that wears the crown, 

Mine carries the burden of anxiety which weighs it down. 

Often my thoughts flood irrepressibly as I try to remain sound, 

But my fears anchor deeply, and I start to feel myself drown.

The rivers of solicitude and unease conflux, 

Flowing downstream into the dam acting as my emotional crutch, 

It can no longer regulate this pressure a...

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(XII)

This was going to be a Christmas unlike any other she had experienced not that she had ever actually experienced this thing they called 'Christmas' before, because she had grown up on the Planet Mars with twenty-five million reindeers

But this year would be her first on earth, so she gathered all her essentials and headed for the spacecraft, she wondered, as she boarded the craft, whet...

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"Is it good then?" Mrs Nobel

     Asked when it had turned out right.

"Good?" replied her husband Alfred,

    "Good? It's bloody dynamite."

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You still didn’t have your license

- at eighteen! - I thought it was kind of funny

since I was driving at fifteen or so

We practiced in my five-hundred-dollar car

with your slightly bruised ego for company

The radio playing music we liked

keeping demons barely at bay

But I could really only think about

your peculiar smile competing with the sun

wrapped in a flo...

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Ghost Towns

Somewhere off the data highway

Quite close to router sixty-six

There lies a ghost town of splintered glass

A graveyard of useless stones and bricks

This is where the glitterati lived

They used to come in rumbling hoards

Stumbling through automatic doors

they walked the aisles of shiny floors

Nothing there now but skeletal racks

Dust settled ...

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Tomorrow i dont want to be different but only for a day
If I look like they do.. they'll have nothing mean to say
I could make my hair look just like their's and
practice how they walk
And maybe try not to speak or they will recognise my talk
If only I was magic I could make my self invisible
Or make my self blend in im tired of feeling miserable
I try to understand why they just don't like...

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Could I see the heart on your sleeve?

That raging red rose with no thorns in sight

I know they’re there somewhere but I’m not scared

Could you show me that heart on your sleeve?

And let me trace my fingers along the stem and leaves

Down deep to your roots?

I’d bleed the cost to find your nourishment

I wouldn’t mind the little punishments

If I could feel your lips form

Th...

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I hope you know 
I don't hate you 
I just feel sorry for you
All the mind games 
You're going to die alone
Wolf in sheep clothing that is what you are
Everyone you've hurt is starting to see the wolf
For every action has made there's a concert

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As a reminder
I look to the moon 
My substance of peace 
Bringing calm into the chaos
I set my concentration upon the soft glowing light 
And breathe
How Thoughtful of you to hang a nightlight in the open sky. 
It feels as if there's comfort beyond the clouds shining over me. 
Ruler of creation,
Thank you. 
Between the many branches of the trees I find a little serendipity. 
Layers of m...

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Time is nothing                  GLA                        26/10/20

When I find you alone in the morning, I'll spread roses for you in the rain. When the squall of the dew begins falling, as the dawn rises over the plains.

The time was nothing between us, It has seen us together in vain, the years that passed us so slowly, they have left without loss, without gain.

When I look at th...

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How many votes in the states does it take

To convince you Big Baby has lost?

How many times will he shaft you with lies

Before you see you’ve been double-crossed?

And how many times will he claim that he won,

The price of democracy the cost?

The answer my friends is he is so thick skinned

Your POTUS will piss into the wind.

How many staff will he fire till he gets

A...

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Despite it all, 

for the first time–

These arms don't feel foreign

and the doubt is gone.

I crave nothingness,

knowing it will lift me and hold me.

It will cradle my frame

as I sink.

The corner of my lips harbor sweet crumbs 

and my face is glowing pink

from the heat of the fire.

Sticky fingers. 

And as the blanket is lifted, 

My arms swing wildly, 

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