ON PARLIAMENT SQUARE

SEPTEMBER SIXTH; ONE THOUSAND

CANARIES MUST SING

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh,

Dé Sathairn, an tríochadú lá is fiche de mhí Lúnasa,

dhá mhíle agus cúig is fiche (30th August 2025)

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Tender are the eyes as seen in a lover’s gaze.

Enveloping, like an early morning haze.

Tender their hearts becoming one from two,

With quiet voices in unison as they say, ‘I do.’

Tender are the words a mother whispers soft

Wiping away emotional tears of joy, wept oft. 

Tender is the conveyed smile of a father, proudly.

Though an echoing pulse pounds through his ears, loudly.

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Pup in Heaven

A maiden stands beside her friend, as evening mist

begins to slip and spirit through the cheery lights

of days that seemed forever. Sleepy eyes resist

the pixie dust and kisses of celestial sprites.

The maiden calls -- a moment's fuss, her little friend

is in her arms; they gather for a rendezvous

with playmates in a castle garden. They ascend

beyond the ...

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To buy an e-scooter can be tempting,

But the consequences you could  be regreting.

You can buy one new or second hand,

But it can only be used on private land.

E-scooters are classed the same as cars ,

To be used on public roads they gain no stars.

They must be mot'd ,insured and comply with tax rates,

And illegal if they do not have proper number plates.

No signa...

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They are young

and they have alot going on.

Everyone is called bro (gender irrelevant; I love this!)

As in,

"I mean really bro I told her she needed to talk to him..."

They start alot of their sentences with "I feel that..."

As in,

"I feel that she doesn't really want to talk to him but is pretending...yeah, just to make her mad bro...."

They talk at fast clips and they tal...

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Small
Desolate human
Burning for something more
Once so young and foolish
Now bitter
I cannot let go the fleeting feelings of love even though they are ages old
I fail to remember them without a wave of fog over me
I am lost
And head over heels in what used to be
I often wonder what it would be like
I think I want it
Possibly I miss it
Silly me
I poisoned myself with such ideas
I alm...

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They are the crack in polished stone,
The note that trembles, not quite a tone,
They stumble where the road is clear,
Yet find new paths when none appear!

Their edges fray, their colours blur,
A patchwork soul of all they were,
Not flawless, yet in every scar,
A map of where their triumphs are!

Perfection’s mask is sharp and thin,
It hides the life that breathes within,
But they — un...

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Time flies backwards when we dream;

In each invasion of the past

We meet with those who are long gone

And seek to settle gripes and scores.

But dreams never pierce the future,

That misty land of things to come.

To dream the future, we search out

That crammed crevasse of oddities

Where forecasts, estimations, lurk,

And fight our battles to construct

The heaps of p...

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Everybody what you wanna know
I've gotta feeling but it just won't grow
Everybody I'm a ball of confusion 
My life is just an illusion
Everybody what you wanna know 
I've gotta feeling  but it just won't grow

I ain't here for the good of my health 
I'm solely focused on creating wealth
Hey buddy you ain't no friend of mine
I don't need no validation I'm doing fine
Some days I feel like...

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Dear Kafka, help me. I desperately and indefinitely need your ears because I lose my mind when I think too much. You wrote about how humanity's ruthless progress toward functionality shall be its downfall in Metamorphosis, didn’t you?

Dear Kafka, I feel so weak. I feel like a leech, mooching off of my family and having nothing to show for it. I feel like useless furniture that just exists....

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Electric whispers of 

Intelligence. 

Fires up my filament

Amber Embers,

Ambient,

Welcoming flames.

Teach me something.

Show me everything

Strip your ego of its mask;

Allow me to wear you for a while

Tandem or Random-

Let the thoughts fall where they may

Electric Whispers of

Vulnerability.

My heart considers yours.

Grace and gratitude

Twinkl...

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The warmth I used to remember,  
now you've become a stranger.  

Your memory stays in all I do,  
and my promise is to always return to you.  

When our journey takes us apart,  
you've become too quiet for words to tug.  

To the soul I once connected,  
let my story remain a secret,  
one that is deeply kept.  

And my promise to return to your rhyme,  
let me keep it without a de...

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PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN

Il faut que je m’en aille.

Sometimes you’ve just got to hit the road and.

Start learning the basics of a strange, unseen vernacular arrowed down from some lost, mad Godhead within. Pass the fallen road sign saying THINK! in the nettles and the mystery of the single shoe beside the road, in a fast Su...

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Matteo, our dog, circles and circles until he feels the spot he's chosen is just right for lying down. The Princess and the Pea have nothing on him.

When he finally settles, he licks his paws and gives us a look, as if to say, "You try to sort things out with four spindly legs."

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God, we humans are dysfunctional.

FeeL like I’m back at the casino.
Chips down, lights flashing, odds stacked, hope optional.

Yes—this is the last for now.
At L(e)ast.

10²⁴ planets
(That’s 1 septillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.)

And yet, I’m stuck on this one.
This STOOPEED ONE.
Stupid one indeed.
Planet Earth: ...

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Hello, my name is ‘Money’ and I live in 12a.

This is my new home, I moved in yesterday.

My new owners are called Michael and Fon.

They named me Money, cos they have none!

I’m a little kitten, I am about 2 months old.

I’m friendly and playful, I’m as good as gold!

Today I went downstairs to the shop below.

Were my neighbours smiled and said ‘hello’!

I love to play ...

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I've spent a pleasant few days re-reading Bill Bryson's “The Body: A Guide for Occupants”.

Absolutely riveting. Pages fly by. His skill is to make anything he writes unputdownable, despite you having no previous interest in his subject.

But on one aspect of his writings I find myself skipping over it – female genitalia.

I have caught sight in this section of stuff about pudenda, the cervi...

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Wild is the minute, storms seize the sky
a new world of smell and sight and sound,
wetness and wildness all around;
portals of discovery abound
in this new newfoundland:
the sheer vividness of colour, of shade, of shadow,
hear the all round risibility of bird song, 
flesh, blood, soul, air and all the half-created
epiphanies of cloud and sky and sun everywhere
enter the mind,  fly fleetin...

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Water laps at my feet

as I gaze upon the sunset.

The sky's warm tones seep into the ocean

golden light dancing across the waves.

   The world slows down in this moment of beauty

   the fading light leaves me in a contemplative silence.

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gate mist

in the hour

before names

footstep /

echo /

gone

puddle edge

holds the sky

too still

.

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The sleepy fog of travelling 

Is wrenched away so quick

Standing in the aisle behind

A young woman, pale and sick

She’s shouting at her phone

and at any unwitting glance

Her hard face glares in fury.

No one gets a second chance

Around her people try to ignore

the live circus on display.

And busy themselves with anything

to make it go away.

She st...

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Duels are the mastery art of solving the question. 

Who is the better competition? 

And after all, both competitors are fighting 

For the same thing. 

The trophy, the fame, the pride knowing that they are  

Inevitably better. 

But good must always come with bad.  

A loser must come with a winner.  

A villain with a hero. 

And with every duel comes viewers,  

Seeking t...

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I am my own country,

one of conflict and of peace...

my regions know no borders,

yet my borders seek to increase.

I am the source of my own sickness,

and the fountain of my health...

the treasury of my own accomplishment,

the beneficiary of my wealth.

My democracy is my conscience,

though my decisions wear the crown...

my constitution uni...

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DRIFTING

By the Urban Poet

As you flash through my thoughts

And I shake off the mist, and the dew

of the tears I look through

It’s the images I see;

that keep drawing me

And I’m drifting

I am drifting, drifting along 

Floating on to where I belong

Which is with you, wherever you are

I’m just drifting, drifting

You just stood up there with

a gu...

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The Tale of Sebastian, Falling Into the River

“When I fell off the roof of my house, or into a canal,

it was because gravity made itself master over me."

The words of artist Bas Jan Ader

falling

falling

falling

falling as gravity overwhelming his body,

as a conscious decision off the beaten track,

as test of the limits of the human body and of strength o...

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You’re writing in your notebook again

I lean over your shoulder, take a peek at what you’re scribbling

You’re painting a picture of salty tears running down her face

As you watch the waves settle back into place

A shiver runs down my leg,

Surprised at how you’ve captured the scene

The teacher begins her lecture, but we’re both miles from here

I imagine you writing in your...

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On my screen, the answer feels right

and I admire the elegance of it, a worthy use

of the publication that inspired it.

At the desk my father stands, extending

invisible tendrils that reach out to each shelf,

searching for books that will serve a need.

He knows each volume, the wisdom it holds,

unerringly guiding the borrower to his goal,

by section, shelf and Dew...

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—A Terza-Rima Nocturne of Swallowed Time

On moon-damp sheets, you slowly open my violet fig, passing halves tongue to tongue,

its seed-pearls, captive minutes embraced by our soft lips,

each velvet pulse a swallowed clock tick, unthreading the night’s camisole—unstrung

Our minutes take root inside our souls, night’s vines in green hour’s gentle grip,

soft pods burst open, ...

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(More on https://graynicholls.substack.com - free to subscribe) 

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Chasing Freedom 

I’m running away but constantly being caught 

I cover my ears but the screaming voices have already entered my mind 

Begging to be freed my plea falls silent like the last leaf on a tree bracing for the harsh winter that visits every year 

The more I make an attempt to escape I am brought in even closer to the toxic temptation to drink the poison I am so...

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Ladies and Jentlemen,

Autumn is coming,

It looks so charming.

Summer will throw off its colorful dress..

Autumn seems to be the best.

Autumn is coming,

It looks so charming,

And August is outside.

Summer has almost died.

You loved me as well as I loved you,

That feeling was something new,

I went to the door and felt the war.

The day see...

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I hated the words "comfortably numb"
I thought what a horrible way to be.
But somewhere in the back of my mind
I knew it could happen to me.
How can you feel comfortable
When part of you is dead?
But life twists and turns
In ways you can't foresee.
How can you go back
To the fullness of life instead
Of being smothered by mediocrity?
Quiet desperation.
Just out of reach of salvation.

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When I was a kid, my parents bought me a horse which they nicknamed Skedaddle, for every time I came near, reciting a poem, he’d run off, leaving me holding an empty saddle.
(That’s a reference to the sport of kings, the meaning of which I’ll soon divulge).

I would deliver my puerile verse to school pals, who only applauded because I was generous with my dad’s cigars.

He was something impor...

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Pacific Sunset

By Lorraine Settanni  8/14/2025

He set up his easel, pallet and paints on the west coast beach gazing out at the expanse of the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

He takes in a long breath, having waited so long for this opportunity. The awe builds in him as he waits for the event to start. Should he wait or jump right in? Will it continue to get ...

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Waiting,

What am I waiting

For?

Silence follows me.

Waiting,

What am I waiting 

For?

Heaviness crushes me.

Waiting,

What am I waiting 

For?

Sadness fills me.

Waiting,

What am I waiting 

For?

Unease inside me.

Waiting,

What am I waiting

For?

I'm waiting for food.

I'm too young to die

Hungry.

I'm being punished

For something.

No...

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Transference 

everyone’s a lesson 

everyone’s a slap in the face 

everyone jockeying position 

everyone demanding grace 

I see what you’re doing 

I read the creases 

I experience you through me 

the subjective is universal 

everyone creeping around 

everyone seen 

the compassion 

is selective 

that’s the hitch 

of this dr...

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Skylarks keep watch above the Roman road;

paragliders gather over Mam Tor.

My leg drags, boulders batter boots;

too many hours indoors. The choice I made.

Stumbling down treacherous rocks, stiff knee,

beneath Peveril’s dark ramparts. Tougher

companions debate the Romano-Britons,

and whether they fled the Anglo-Saxons.

If so, where they did go? Along this ridge,

trekking ...

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Why do these eyes go wondering?

What do they see and keep pondering?

Words come out so easily

Without a thought of what pleases me.

You see this journey is not for view

It's meant for hearts - not eyes like you.

So take the hint and disappear,

Judging me is not your sphere.

Your eyes may see, but still you're blind,

What keeps you near? What do you find?

I swear, Alla...

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Oh it is so safe 

In this den of detachment 

It is so calm

In this cave of carelessness 

Brick walls built mighty and fine

To protect your world 

From colliding with mine 

It’s so safe

That it is stark and dark

And only my dreams escape

To knock at your heart

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G.E.N.O.C.I.D.E.
Spells GENOCIDE

This ain’t Shock and Awe,
This is GENOCIDE

“The deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people,
Because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race”
GENOCIDE

Happening right now in front of our eyes
GENOCIDE

Yet those people still can’t decide
GENOCIDE

Ethnic cleansing with nowhere to hide
GENOCIDE

Destroying infrastructu...

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My mommy would absolutely know the right thing to say to me ..too us right now..as we continue to grieve for our brothers and forever mourn the loss of mother...we survived it ...barely and we hang on and we move on...but we never really get over it...we never really feel complete peace ..or just ..complete ..because a huge part of our heart is gone and it will never return...no matter how many ye...

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(a poem for the hills that remember)

There is a silence the world cannot name—

a silence not born of fear,

but of memory,

and men who have seen too much to speak.

Between the spears,

hung gently on bamboo walls,

something waits.

Not war.

Not peace.

Something older.

The boy in Mon sharpens wood not for battle,

but because his father did.

And his fath...

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I’m coming home to you,
wear something see-through
so I may glimpse your heart,
not your body...
but that trembling lantern
behind your ribs,
which still dares to burn
even when the world blows cold.

Love, you see, is not a stage for triumph,
but a rehearsal without end.
We repeat the lines,
miss the cues,
drop the props,
yet return again tomorrow...
because rehearsal is not for pe...

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Letter from the Southern Ocean

Dear Mr President you need a map,

your grasp of lands is clearly somewhat wonky.

But then your grasp of history is perhaps

indicative of being just a donkey.

We understand you tariffed us you prick!

You filthy orange fascist with a quiff.

We’re writing you from down near the Antarctic

cos we’ve got produce we can hit you with.

We’...

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I stare at my essay draft

For five minutes 

Before I decide

Minesweeper’s

More productive 

Than this shit

It’s the same decision 

That I made

In every hour 

Of this 12 hour day

And led me here

Another day gone

With my English essay 

Still not done

And I’ve only got 

One day left

How will minesweeper 

Fix this 

And how will writing a p...

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To the man I am yet to meet,
I can already feel my cheek heat!
I just know you are the most handsome,
And you should know that you are  my most awaited SOMEONE!
To holding your hands while walking,
And looking into you eyes while talking, 
It all feels like a desire,
Which has been giving light to my life like FIRE!
I prayed for you when i turned 21,
I hope together we forever have FUN!

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The longing for a lazy day

To drift and dream in summer's haze

With the warmth of the Sun

Free for all and everyone

In hope of floating

To dispell a myth I rithe in

For chance to walk free without restraint

A dream to recall once again

Tidying, sweating until midnight

Scrambling through thoughts all night

The candle melts at both ends

If only for sweet re...

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She is with us one on one

        she says you should find a lover who looks at you like you are magic

                          we have done that

                                         Thrilling to be looked at like that, dazzling, senses cajoling

But then you have looked away

I am enough now to accept you have looked & gone off elsewhere

But our master Northman sa...

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If you find the world's against you,  

And you come to a dead end,

Don't care about what others think, 

Just be your own best friend. 

If they should criticise you

Do not take it to heart.

And if they push you off your path of life

Just make a new fresh start.

If they undermine your confidence 

Or cause you to lament,  

Or try to make you feel inferior

Ju...

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Aligned down the tangent of your iris, I crumble,

Malleating my mind by your allure, I stumble.

Ostentatiously admiring your silhouette, I struggle,

Unveiling the secret chamber of my ventral tegmental, I'm troubled.

Navigating the fig branches of your figure, I yearn to cuddle,

In the letters of love, we find what we think are subtle.

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all our questions left unanswered
birds create in song before night settles
whereof dreamers sleep to dream
one infinite menagerie
and lovers lie entwined still
inclined to never part
then come artists godlike and paint
every blade of grass in the field
and every word the poet utters
reverberate through caves and chambers
light and dark and sparkling
inaccessible and wondrous

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Poem 40 of 230:  EFFICIENCY

On a flight from San Fran. to New York,

    One hour our plane did balk,

As on full taxiways we dallied

    While competing-planes were freed.

Yet, as I looked around the cabin,

    Sometime during all this stalling,

It was sadly evident to me

    That far too many seats were free.

Then, after a late takeaway tea,

    I turne...

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Words once written, are not permanent. 

And for you, in between the looking glass

Do you see nothing but your own pain and shame?

Once you've got your rose tinted glasses on, the only shadows you see are others, and no light gets through your blackout soul. 

I whisper to the wind;

Lo and behold, 

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Tears Of Stone.

(By Jason Bayliss)

I‘ll carve for you a statue of stone,

That you may stand in the shadow of your own image,

Shaded from the burning sun,

By the effigy of your success,

They’ll marvel at you and you alone,

Your beauty made infinite,

And when your living tears have gone,

Your eyes of stone will weep no less.

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Tikumtok

There is a huge clock at the centre of the universe.  It has no face, no numbers and no hands.  From afar it would appear to be a huge pendulum that swings slowly and accurately for ever.  

In actuality, it is not a pendulum at all but a swarm of golden flies all pushing together for a tick and pulling back for a tock.  These flies are no ordinary flies.  They are the timeflies; the...

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You’ve got an electrified face, It's all shocked, blotched and blackened,  but you still move with pride and grace all though your life has become permanently saddened.

You’ve got old broken-down muscles, suntanned with coconut lotion, and the caravan in which you live is perfect, it's close to the arcades, funfair and the ocean.

You're an absentee father from a dysfunctional family, your da...

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The story may seem

To shift with the sands,

Yet the Sigh of existence

Can readily be tracked

Back to the beginning

Of an ancestral Path,

Three steps forward,

Perhaps a couple back,

But all the while,

The sanctity of the throughline

Treasured on a rope 

With tension taut:

Awe at the marvel

And forbearance at 

Every hindrance, trusting

That Jacob carries

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The Forgotten

You, the forgotten,

Chindits, Gurkhas, Commonwealth

Fighting to the end

In the jungles of Burma.

Now you are the remembered.

[for Sergeant Major Kenneth Whiteley a Burma campaign veteran and my father]

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Cat One sat proud on the table.
Cat Two lay sprawled on the floor.
Cat Three looked round, sensing trouble, 
Before sprinting straight out the door. 

Cat Two yawned widely and rolled on his back.
Cat One shifted before jumping down.
He strolled to Two, raised up a paw -
Whacking off his crown.

Cat Two was having none of this
And bit One hard on the neck,
He hooked his paws and rolled...

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Over supermarket lager, pie-eyed

in badly-stained underwear

The sunflower is an explorer throwing

caution to the wind

chasing the raging fiery ball

THE TIMETABLE GLISTENS WITH CONDENSATION

Playing nude bingo at

the Police Station with Nigel

Where do all these words come from?

While watching the sunflowers grow

I got on the train with a ghost

de...

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He watched me with those eyes 

Full of love they were 

And I watched him 

With eyes full of fear 

Fear that the lamp will begin to shift 

And he'll look at me with eyes 

Full of agony and despair 

Like I was something he didnt 

Wouldn't and couldn't want .

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They talk of Britishness, a solid, golden thing,

a past of cricket whites and a queen who doesn't blink.

They fly their banner, the cross of every saint

and claim this is the one land without complaint.

But no one names the thing. They talk of something pure,

then walk a different street with a different kind of poor.

They dwell in sub-nations, tribes of lifestyle and ac...

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From Petrol and Diesel, to Hybrid, to Electric only, plug-in or self charging?

forget it!

I've switched over to good old Shanks's Pony!

A proud discoverer of the fact that, I can, even at my age,

and, in my present condition, can still walk between milestones,

quicker, than a slow moving motorway grid-locked, or roadworks halted car. 

Here I am, with all the time in the...

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Dear God

Forgive me for asking

Where are you when the killing in Gaza continues every day?

Where Israelites killing Palestinians

Living and dying in the name of the same God

Forgive me for asking

Where are you

as the world vicariously watches

when thousands of children are starving to death 

in a world where millions of tons of food are wasted?

Forgive me...

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He puts his weapon in

          The hall

           Squeezing his little one    

           So tightly that tears

            Begin to fall

He puts his weapon in the hall

                    Goes to his wife

                     Who is quivering with

                      Anticipation

He puts his weapon in the hall

 Smiles and tears

  rain down on hi...

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Liptitudal pronunciation 

Scribble doodles 

Of your imagination 

Under the rock of mystery 

The clock of destiny 

Off the hill he launched

Flew to the clouds

hung around awhile

had his lunch

Chilled to the bone

It's time to come down 

It's time to go home 

We are

All we can be

Living below the trees

Only there is not a feel

Like jumping off the hill

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[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Awesome God!
  ( In Haiku)

I went to market,
Thousands of vegetables,
I thank(ed) God Jesus.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Magnificent God!
       (A Haiku)

Plantain varieties 
Siblings of bananas,
Christ the Gardener.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Power of God!
    (A Haiku)

Nature has its place,
Species run on their own speed,
Christ the Sustainer.
[6/30, 04:32] MBJP: Great ...

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"Hearty singalongs interspersed with Steve’s sharp, witty performance poetry: an incredibly incisive, thoroughly enjoyable CD which sums up our battered country in 2025 to a T. Definitely my album of the year so far."

Attila The Stockbroker's review of Evidence-Based Punk Rock by Steve White & The Protest Family, out on 5 September 2025.
Full review here: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/ar...

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I pulled back the skin around my cuticles like a banana
I kept going until my shell had shed 

This has not been a cacoon
This has been hell
I've painted it on everyday 

No one can see my rotten core 
Bruised 
It was just sugar 
I had let myself decompose 

So if you were to devour me
I would leave a bad taste in your mouth

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Spotlight on skin/burn /not sun.

‘Still’ they say /Turn a key.

Line after line / A spider web.

Frayed memory / A escape.

Dismissing the past.

Echo/breath out.

Not summer anymore / new beginning.

Beating on the glass

Flow / Mask unveiled / Mood / Fragile.

From 'Echoes of August - The End of Summer II' 

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To My Brother

As we know, I've struggled on 

fighting demons of every size,  

But it was the action of my little brother  

that made me feel alive.  

What a blessing you are to all that you touch,  

your strength comes as such surprise,  

Because only we can see the fire  

that's burning deep within your eyes.  

Made from love, yet the start of your life  

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Gritting my teeth, I can begin to admit
I have been struggling
In the first half of this year
I got bruised by my own undoing
Whittled so brittle
On cold spring afternoons

And you have been a salve
The gentle warmth of a grounded voice
Through cheap headphones
Brimming with sweet greetings
Quick with earthy encouragements
Easing me down cracked pavements

Your presence, your message...

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If not my veins,
at least, then,
the throbbing of my blood.
I just want to stay connected,
and not pretend
that all is alright.
To sleep without worry,
that maybe this night
might be different.
To no longer watch
my hands wrinkle,
as I worry about tomorrow.
I don't want to think about
yesterday's sorrows.
I just want breath,
and feel the lungs take in life,
not the lie I live on.
...

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my call cries

it climbs to the top of the mountain 

the mountain of all hope

over this heap of grief and sorrows

over the history scrawled in its crags,

the guilt and condemnation

of all the generations of man

I am in the fire atop

and in the cooling light beyond

in this moment the call brings me home

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Was I too much?

Too close?

Too heavy?

I still remember last winter 

When your fingers clutched me

The dark mornings 

When you couldn't let me go

I cradled you 

In a cocoon of quiet warmth 

I was the guardian of your shivers

And Now?

You toss me into the abyss

I lie waiting here in silence 

Suffocating in mothballs 

While the sun mocks me

But I know seas...

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Sunday/Michael Kwack

Could’ve I met

  that woman? --

From somewhere distant,

With an ear of tiny hope

  in a sack of vacant heart,

To drop ennui,

To glean sympathy,

Or simply

  to hide in an afternoon chat,

Blinking those tender eyes,

Would’ve she sneaked away

  from her dim chamber,

That little woman

  of ...

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I mistook you for a perennial, I grew addicted to your smell.
How you forced a coin down the wishing well.
All is swell in all that is dead,
You disappeared in the Winter time, leaving a mark on the earth.
Your dizzying effect even reached the banks of the river.
Eroding its barriers between the river and me 
I thought I would fall, what with all your tyranny.
You made a stranger of the nat...

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It had gone from your eyes when you saw me

The light that used to adore me

It dimmed to a mist in the forest 

Where a canopy of leaves once fell for us

They fell like colourful snow

As we laughed & danced in its flow

 Wondering if we could stay there forever 

Thinking life was full of this splendour

But, time came & took you away

And the only thing that I could...

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Tyrannical, a voice was sound at distance
Resounding high above at marble spire
Where farthest, no one voice could but inquire
About the motives for the circumstance
Of wild laughter thunderous expression
That filling chamber hollow and of echoes
The purple garbed in silk so hast’ly chose
To make her lone alcove for recollection

About occurrence recent in experience
To witness public gr...

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There are things a poet shouldn’t do

like fly a plane or fix a shoe

Or hang a picture on the wall

it will either slant, or fall

Any vocation that makes you bored

Accountancy is best ignored

Adopting an extreme yoga position

is at odds with a poetic disposition

Woodwork, tapestry or macrame

Joining the Territorial Army

Playing golf or running a bar

No poet...

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Tainted willows tearfully bowing to the devil’s courtier

Held in a clench by the wicked winter

Nothing mattered during this dark and dreadful time

Horror was the emotion of those days

Treacherous men tirelessly murdering the innocent

Death lay silently all around

Life dared not even twitch for fear of meeting death head on.

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